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Anna sat up ramrod straight in the comfortable leather chair at the head of the large oval table in the conference room. The white board with all of the crime scene photos and the high school picture of Carrie Norton was right in front of her.
The teen was smiling out at them right next to a picture of her sister Christine. Christine's photo would make the average person sick to their stomach. The horrible things that had been done to her were there for all to see. There was no dignity in death for the brutally used and murdered child. She was only twelve years old! It wasn't right. Anna's stomach clenched and memories she'd held down in her gut for twelve years threatened to rise up and overwhelm her. The pain was as fresh as it had been all those years ago when she escaped a madman, only to be told that what he'd tortured her with, was true. Her parents and beloved sister were gone.
A hand touched her arm and she looked over to see Ben smiling at her. The rest of the team seemed to be holding their breath while she got her emotions under that iron control again. Hotch was studying her carefully, as though he were afraid she would bolt. Rossi wore undisguised curiosity on his face and an expression that ordered her to get on with it. She didn't dare look at Slim. Emily was looking at the table and JJ was sympathetic as usual.
"My real name is Karen Staley," She began suddenly and they all turned their attention to her. "My family lived in Stone Mountain when -" She broke off and swallowed hard.
"Do we have ta do this now…" Ben said.
"I ken handle it." She retorted and he fell silent.
"I was a sophomore at Rockefeller High School. He was watchin' me, the police figured for at least six months before he took me from a dance, just like Carrie. It was my first Homecoming Dance. I remember bein' so happy cause I was goin' with a guy I'd had a crush on fer months."
"I don't know how he grabbed me. The police said he killed Jimmy ta get ta me. They said that he drugged me. I remember wakin' up in some basement and he was just standin' there lookin' at me.
The hand that held onto Ben tightened over his fingers and she saw him look at her out of the corner of her eye. She was angry and dismayed to feel her entire body shook, and that she could hear the tremors in her voice.
Hello beautiful… I've been waiting for you for a long time!
His voice echoed in the recess of memory and it was one that she couldn't shut out. That voice, so deep and gravelly that it grated on the nerves like finger nails on a chalkboard. It burrowed into the brain like a worm in wet sand and just stayed there. It didn't matter how many doctors she saw or how many people she saved in her job. It was always going to be there.
You and I will be together always. There is no escape
She could feel the heat of his hands on her cheeks when he touched her. Those hands had been soft as though he hadn't spent one day working hard in his life. She could smell the peppermint that had been on his breath when he whispered in her face.
There's nowhere to go, even if you could escape. Your family is dead my beautiful little girl. I killed them for you and for me. They were getting in the way of our happiness together.
"Agent Sorenson…" Hotch's voice pervaded the cloud of her memories and she jumped like someone had goosed her.
"Yeah… I'm sorry. Um… I lost track of time pretty quickly. The room he kept me in didn't have no windows; an I couldn't see the sun. He said that we were goin' ta be together forever. He said that I had ta obey the rules, or there would be punishments. The rules were that I had ta eat the meals he provided, an ta not try ta escape.
Her hands were still shaking and the beginning of a migraine was starting to thump in her head. Her medication was in the cabinet at home. She'd been stupid enough to leave it at home. The idea that morning to leave it behind so that she wouldn't get fuzzy headed, seemed more and more ill conceived at every moment.
"He made sure that I had food an water, and that I could bathe regularly, but the door to the room was always locked. I remember thinkin' after a long time had gone by that he was druggin' me cause I decided not to eat my lunch. I would always get fuzzy headed and want ta sleep anytime I ate.
When he came back that afternoon, my head was actually clear. He was very angry that I hadn't eaten my lunch, an he beat me an raped me. At first, I didn't know what was happenin' ta me. I'd never had a boyfriend and I was a virgin. He tole me that it was my fault that he had ta hurt me, he said that I broke the rules."
Her head was hurting bad now and the light in the room was making her dizzy and sick. It was like the room was spinning around her and elongating at the same time. There were voices around her that she couldn't recognize, or make out the words they said. Everything got fuzzier, and then for the first time in her life, she fainted and slid out of her chair to the floor of the conference room.
--
Carrie woke to bright pain in her head. Then fear seemed to take over every other feeling as the ceiling she looked at didn't look like one she'd ever seen before. But wait, it was familiar and so were the walls around her when she tipped her head from side to side.
Tears ran down her cheeks and the dizziness made her head pound and spin. She was in this room and she didn't know how long she'd been here. Then her heart began to pound in time with the pain in her head. The man who had taken her away from her family would come back soon. He was going to tell her that she must follow the rules. He was going to tell her that she was going to stay with him forever.
More tears fell onto the white blanket that covered her legs. He told her that her family was dead. He said that there was nothing left for her to go back to. He said that he was her family now. Was it true? Was her family and Chester dead? If they were, was anyone going to come look for her?
The door opened with a soft creak and the tall man stood in the doorway with a tray. He put it down on the bed next to her and smiled encouragingly.
"I brought ya your favorite today my sweet. I know ya like grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate milk."
He smiled again, and she wiped at the tears on her face that he didn't seem to notice were falling like rain drops in a summer storm.
"D-did ya kill my f-family?" She asked in a thin voice.
"I told ya it was necessary for us ta be together. No one is going to come lookin' for ya."
"I hate ya!" She shouted.
He flinched and she picked up the tray of food and threw it across the room where it smashed into the wall and left bits of sandwich and milk smeared across the wall.
"Take me home," she yelled again through her tears! "I wanna go home!"
The tall man's face was red with rage. He took two long steps forward and grabbed her by the shoulders. His grip was strong and his fingers cut into her shoulders like a vice. He shook her hard like a dog might shake a kitten trapped in its mouth.
"Ya will obey the rules. Ya will eat ya lunch when I bring it to ya." He yelled in her face.
His breath smelled like peppermint in her face and his dark eyes were blazing in their sockets. He pushed her down on the bed and whispered in her ear.
"Bad little girls get punished when they don't follow the rules," He said and he was suddenly very calm. "I'm goin' ta show ya what happens ta bad little girls."
Carrie screamed when his hands pulled off her shirt. She kicked as far the chain would allow her legs to move, but he was too strong for her. She tried to claw at his eyes, but he held her down easily. She spit in his face and he slapped her so hard everything went black.
