When You Lose Everything
a/n: Yes, unfotunately, these wonderful characters do NOT belong to me. I only own the girl, her family, the officer and anyone outside the BAU in this story.
Chapter 1- Survivor
The girl came in and out of consciousness. Her vision was blurry. She could feel a slight pain in her hand. She moved her stiff neck to see her two puppies nibbling her fingers, as they always did. She moved her hand and patted the puppies that licked her hand.
She moved her hand to her head, which was pounding. She closed her eyes and tried to remember where she was and why. As she opened her eyes after an unsuccessful attempt, her expression changed to shock as she saw blood smothered over her hands. Her eyes widened as she sat up and saw blood smeared over the walls everywhere.
Her puppies made their way over to a body on the floor near her feet. The girl puppy sniffed the unmoving person's hand and then turned to look at the girl; blood on the tip of her nose. The girl gagged.
She forced herself to her feet, realizing pain in several places in her body, but she couldn't remember what had happened to make it hurt. Her head hurt the most, apart from her leg which she limped on. She pulled her hand away from the back of her head. There was blood.
She fumbled in her bag, which was strung across her chest. She found her mobile and called the police.
"What is your emergency?"
"I need help… accident… blood… my family…"
"Miss, can you tell me what happened?"
"Don't know where…"
"Can you tell me your name?"
"Mmm…"
"Miss? Can you tell me where you are?"
"Where?... Here… I can't remember…"
"Are you hurt?"
"Ow… House… cars…Lots…"
"Miss, can you see anything that can tell me where you are?"
As she walked from her original place, a new pain arose. Not physical, but emotional and psychological. Everything was too much. Her vision went in and out of focus, but she still knew what she saw. People were lying face down in every room, pools of blood around where they lay and spatter on the walls and furniture.
She started to scream which sent the puppies out the front door. She had to get out of the house herself. She stumbled to the door and fell on the nature strip outside, just managing to catch the puppies leads as she fell. She leant forward on the grass and dry reached.
"Miss? Are you still there?!"
She held the phone to her ear.
"Hello?"
"Miss? Stay where you are. Help is coming okay? Just-"
She grimaced and closed her phone. She glanced up and down the street for anyone to help, but there was nobody. She didn't even recognise the cars parked out the front of the strange house. She must have known it though, because there were pictures of her and her now deceased family scattered over the walls.
She forced herself to her feet again, swaying slightly. She felt light headed and groggy, but it wasn't just from what she had just seen. She knew that. Had she been drugged? That wasn't important to her now. She needed to get someone to help.
She staggered forward, trying not to trip over the dogs which raced around her feet. She tried to tell them to stop, but it was hard to put words together.
She continued down the street, unaware of how ghastly she looked. Her blonde hair was matted with blood. She had blood dripping down her head and from a gash on her forehead. Her mascara was running down her face and made her eyes look dark and creepy. Her clothes were ripped and soaked with blood. She had bruises and gashes all over her legs. The leg that she was limping on had a large gash, nearly down to the bone, and her ankle was greatly swollen.
She struggled to walk. She glanced down at her stilettos; the straps struggling to stay attached. No wonder she was having trouble. She remembered that walking in them when she was unharmed was hard enough. She bent down and carried them with her, the bitumen cutting into her feet. There was broken glass on the road.
The sun burnt her eyes. She was dehydrated and nearly succumbed to her overwhelming weakness. Suddenly, she saw a couple walking along the sidewalk, with their dog.
"Help… Please… HELP ME!" the girl screamed, tears of relief streaming down her cheeks. The couple looked at each other in shock. They ran towards her, the woman screaming at the man to call an ambulance.
"Are you alright? Shh… it's alright. You're safe." The woman hugged the girl who had collapsed and clung to her shirt, crying. The girl went limp in her arms.
"Jared? How far away is that ambulance?" the woman asked the man. The man looked at her and told the paramedics to hurry.
- - - - - - - - -
BAU:
Morgan walked in and greeted J.J.
"Morning."
"Hi. Hotch wants us to meet him at the jet ASAP. Apparently it's a bad one." J.J grabbed some files and headed in the other direction.
"Oookk then…" Morgan murmured and went to gather his things. He bumped into Reid on his way.
"Hey Morgan. Where is everyone?" He smiled, a coffee in his hand.
"Hi kiddo. Um, did J.J tell you? We're being debriefed on the jet soon. It's bad, so be prepared."
"How bad?" Reid asked.
"I don't know. It's just what I've been told." Morgan shrugged. Spencer shrugged too and started to gather his things, greeting Emily on his way.
- - - - - - - - -
"Alright. We've got a case. Multiple victims. From what we can tell, they were all related." Emily explained on the jet, showing the crime scene photos.
"How many victims are we talking?" Morgan asked, observing the graphic photos.
"Twelve."
Shock crossed everyone's face. They all exchanged glances.
"At the same location? A family?" Reid asked. Rossi nodded, confirming. J.J sighed as she stood up to inform the team of what she knew.
"There was one survivor. Well… three actually." She said.
"Huh?" Morgan asked, confused. J.J and Emily exchanged glances.
"One girl and two that may not be of much help…"
"Come again?" Morgan leant forward still confused.
"Two puppies." Rossi said.
Morgan leant back in his chair again, making an 'oh' movement with his mouth.
"How did this happen?" Reid asked.
"Well, that's what we're hoping to find out." Hotch said, as the jet landed at their location.
- - - - - - - - -
An officer greeted the team at the crime scene, which was roped off with that familiar yellow tape. Neighbours were gathered around the edges and officers were trying to prevent them from seeing the horror that the agents were about to.
"I'm Officer Dane. Thank you so much for being as quick as you could. We've got 12 victims. One survivor. A pretty gruesome crime scene."
"Okay. I'm Agent Rossi. This is Agent Hotchner, Agent Prentiss, Dr Reid, Agent Morgan and Agent Jareau." Rossi and the other agents accompanied the officer to the door of the house, all of them, slipping on their gloves.
Nothing could have prepared them for what they were about to see. Even though the bodies had been removed, they could still see where the bodies had been. Blood was spattered all over the walls.
"No sign of broken entry." Reid confirmed observing the door. The other agents searched around the house, looking at photographs and broken objects which had numbers sitting next to them.
"Maybe they knew the offender." Morgan said, bending down to observe the patterns of blood and boot prints leading from one body to another.
"Or maybe they didn't lock the door. I mean, if I had all these people over, I would keep the door unlocked. I would expect that they were leaving at some stage and so there was no real reason to make it secure." Rossi walked into the kitchen with Emily as he explained his theory.
"They had eaten first. So it was after dinner." She said, noticing the pile of dirty dishes and half filled sink.
Hotch sighed, sickened by the sight of so much blood found in all of the rooms.
"We're obviously dealing with multiple un-subs…" he said, his hands on his hips. J. J nodded.
"Even though there is only one set of footprints…" Morgan murmured to himself.
"Can anyone else smell that?" Reid asked. He walked into the kitchen.
"No…" everyone answered.
"Oh… maybe it's just me…" Reid shrugged. He turned and walked out of the house.
The team re grouped outside the house with Officer Dane. Hotch sighed and wiped a hand over his face. If there were going to be anymore murders like this, he definately wanted to prevent them. He was glad that the police has decided to call in their help.
"Alright... Reid, you go with Emily to go and talk to the survivor. We don't want too many people... it might overwhelm her." Hotch decided.
"Morgan and J.J. Are you up to speaking with the coroner?" Rossi asked. They both exchanged glances and nodded.
"Alright then. Go with Officer Dane and call us if you find anything interesting. Otherwise, meet us at the station when you're done. I'll go with Hotch and speak with the couple who found the survivor." Rossi said.
The team split up and went their separate ways to try and get to the bottom of this.
Reid and Emily got into the car.
"Hey Emily... who is the survivor?" Reid asked.
"Um... all we know is that it's a teenage girl. She was too out of it to give emergency her name or location. She's pretty shaken up apparently." Emily explained.
"Well, wouldn't you be?"
Emily looked out the window, and sighed.
"Yeah... poor girl. We have to be prepared. She'll be in a very fragile emotional state." Emily said, turning back to face Spencer. He nodded.
"Right then... you can do most of the talking then."
"Right."
TBC...
a/n: Hey! This is my first Criminal Minds fanfic, so please be kind, and review! More to come soon! Garcia to come soon too! Lol. Bellbird xoxo PS: I love Spencer Reid FOREVER.