Authors Note: Sorry for the extremely long wait. I sorta lost interest in the story and real life got in the way, so I wont make any promises on when the next part will be up, but I know it wont be as long a wait as it was for this chapter. Thanks for reading - I really, truly appreciate the reviews I have gotten so far!

Oh and I mention a 'reading week' in the chapter… it's basically a week long break sorta like a spring break or something… I have them here at my university (in Canada) but I don't know if that's what they are called in the U.S. so please forgive me if it's wrong. And an RA is a residence assistant (dunno if its only a Canadian thing again, forgive my ignorance)

SmallWorld

"A cop?"

"Are you sure?" Were Olivia and Elliot's simultaneous responses. Gracie nodded a little looking extremely uncomfortable under their incredulous stares.

"It could have been someone dressed as a cop," Olivia said quietly to Elliot. Gracie heard her and spoke up,

"No it really was a cop, I'd recognize that voice anywhere."

"What? From where?"

"Some cops came to talk to my forensics class about crime scenes and he was one of them"

"Do you think he was stalking you?" Olivia asked. They were finally getting somewhere with Gracie, and would continue to ask questions until the girl closed up again.

"Whenever he would…." She trailed off shakily, before continuing almost inaudibly. "He would say how they had been watching me for a while"

"Did you ever see any badge number or anything to identify him?" Olivia said making a mental note to find out who had spoken to her class.

"No"

"Is there anything else at all that you remember about where you were kept?" Olivia asked after jotting down a couple things on her ever-present pad of paper.  Gracie shook her head wringing her hands together absentmindedly.

"Okay, then we'll get going. Here's my card. Call if you think of something else or need anything" Elliot said wanting to be long gone from there when Maureen got back. He didn't want her to get involved in this. As the two detectives went for the door, Gracie spoke up.

"Detective Stabler…" Elliot turned around along with Olivia.

"Yes?"

"Um, is there any way you could get Maureen to go home for a while?" Elliot was confused.

"Why?"

"My wallet was taken by, um, the cop, and I had this address on one of my ID's." Gracie didn't have to say why she wanted her roommate gone for the time being. They understood. If her attackers were going to be paying a visit in the near future Gracie didn't want Maureen to get hurt too.

"If they know where you live, you shouldn't stay here either you know," Elliot said frowning. Just the thought of his daughter being hurt, like the girl before him, made his skin crawl. If anything happened to Maureen, or any of his kids for that matter, he didn't know if he could stop himself from killing who ever did it.

"I'll be fine"

"You could go home for a while, I know that you guys have a reading week next week, you could go visit your family." Gracie visibly stiffened. She was obviously not keen on the idea of explaining what happened to her parents.

"You should tell them," Olivia said in a soft voice.

"Yeah and be locked in the house for the rest of my life. My parents are too protective as it is, if they knew that…" her eyes welled up with tears but she refused to let them fall. "If they knew about what happened, they would freak."

"You should really find somewhere else to stay for a while and you need to tell someone Gracie" Olivia said. "You can't keep this all to yourself"

"Yes I can, now if you'll excuse me I have a lot of studying to catch up on" she said moving to sit at her desk, her back to the detectives. They both knew they had been lucky to get as much information out of the girl as they did before she clammed up. With heavy hearts the detectives left the room and headed to the stairs to outside, not noticing the tall figure dressed casually, peering around the corner of the hallway at them.

Dark eyes narrowed malevolently, and the man slipped around the corner and stood at the door recently exited by the police. He reached into his jacket grasping the cool metal of his 9mm gun, holding it within the shadows of his coat. He glanced around making sure no one saw him as he pulled the weapon out and turned the doorknob gently, making no sound at all. He opened the door a crack and could see Gracie sitting at her desk, the radio playing beside her. He entered the room and every so stealthily shut the door. He pointed the gun at her and cleared his throat.

"Nice room" his gruff voice commented. Gracie shot out her seat and spun around her eyes huge as saucers. She opened her mouth to scream but the man stepped forward in the small space and held the gun less than a foot from her head.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Gracie" she felt sick at the tone in his voice as he spoke her name. Tears trickled down her face as the man grabbed her by the arm and threw her on to her bed. She scrambled to get away but he grabbed her straddling her waist so she was trapped on her back. Holding the gun to her temple he leaned down and kissed her lips roughly. Seizing the opportunity Gracie bit his lip as hard as she could making it bleed. Instead of getting off her like she'd hoped, her attacker brought the butt of the gun down, violently connecting, with a sickening crack to her skull. Hearing the jingling of a belt buckle, Gracie welcomed the sweet unconsciousness that threatened to overcome her as the last of her tears combined with blood and dripped onto the bed.

Maureen called goodbye to her friends she had worked with, as she entered her residence building. She took a detour to the mailroom, and wasn't surprised that there was no mail for her. There never was. She also walked down the hall to the laundry room to see if there were any washing machines free for her to use. Her clean clothes supply was getting critically low, and it was at least another four days until she could go home and beg her mom to do it for her. Pleased to see the laundry room empty, she hurried to the stairs, in hopes that she could get her laundry together quickly. As she reached her room, she raised her eyebrows at the loud rock music blasting from behind the door. Gracie was never one to play music loudly, and if she did it was never thatloud. She turned the doorknob only to find the door locked. She tried knocking but received no answer. She's probably gone deaf from the music, Maureen mused as she fished around her purse for her key. Finally finding it, she unlocked the door and pushed it open with her hip as she concentrated on finding a piece of gum in her bag. She kicked the door shut and walked to her desk by her bed still not looking up, only stopping when an unusual smell greeted her nostrils. She looked up from her bag and turned around.

If there was one thing in her whole life that she would never forget, it was the sight before her. Maureen tried to scream but her voice wouldn't work. Her legs, like jello, collapsed under her and she sank to the floor by her bed.

"Oh my god" she whispered. She could feel her heart thudding in her chest and the bile rising in her throat. She pushed it down and forced herself, to get up. She took a step forward.

"Gracie?" her voice cracked as her tears trailed wet lines down her cheeks. "Gracie?" she tried a little bit louder. A sob escaped her and Maureen was out the door running to her RA's door, pounding on it hysterically. A tired looking third year student answered it after a few seconds.

"What?" he asked, puckering his brow at the sight before him. "Hey are you okay?"

"My roommate" Maureen pointed to her room "please, I-I- found her, oh god, please!" Maureen got out before grabbing his hand pulling him with her. Pushing the door open, the RA stepped into the room, and just about threw up, he looked away and grabbed the phone on the dresser, before coming back into the hall and closing the door. Maureen began pacing, her hands in her hair, trying to control her breathing, She vaguely heard the guy on the phone for an ambulance. Suddenly feeling very nauseous, she leaned against the wall and sunk to the floor pulling her knees to her chest. What the hell had happened in the few hours she had been gone?

No more than fifteen minutes later police and paramedics arrived in front of the residence. Elliot and Olivia having heard the situation over their police radios in the car turned around from leaving their hotel and raced to the university. Both had awful feelings, of what had happened, deep in the pits of their stomachs. They followed the paramedics up to Maureen and Gracie's floor and Elliot, spying his daughter still sitting along the wall a bit down the hall from her own room, hurried to her. Olivia followed him closely and the two kneeled down to her level.

"Maureen sweetie, what happened?" Elliot said worriedly. Upon hearing her father's voice, Maureen looked up and started crying all over again. Her face was red and tearstained

"What happened?" He said again, rubbing her shoulder soothingly and wiping some of her tears away. This only made her cry harder.

"Gracie" was all she managed to get out. Elliot and Olivia looked at each other and then towards the room.

"Sweetheart, stay here okay? I'll be back in a couple minutes," Elliot said placing a kiss on her head before getting up and going to see what had happened.

Elliot and Olivia entered the room holding up their badges. The paramedics hadn't covered the body yet, and what the two detectives saw was worse than anything they had ever seen in their careers as detectives.

"My god" Elliot choked out. Olivia averted her eyes, not sure if she could stay in the room much longer.

What they saw was the petit body that had talked to them just a few hours before, lying on the bed, her throat slit, and torso gutted for lack of a better word. Blood was splattered on the walls near the bed and the once yellow comforter on the bed was solid red. What was supposed to inside, was all over the bed. But the saddest thing about the sight was the blank green eyes staring up at the ceiling begging, pleading for help, for someone to save her from her hell.

But it was obvious no one had come.




- The next part will come soon, I have finally got how the story will go all set out in my head 

Please review. ;)