The moment they arrived at the station, a tall woman rushed to them, her blonde hair pulled back in a tight bun. "Are you the FBI?" her somewhat husky voice asked and Hotch nodded.
"And you are?" Hotchner asked and the woman shivered a little.
"My little sister Elizabeth, she was the one taken… are… promise me you are going to find her… please…" she pleaded. Her eyes were swollen red from all the crying she had done, but the bruises around her neck clearly were done by someone else.
"What happened?" Derek asked and she touched her neck before she shook her head.
"Amelia," came the rough voice of a bulky looking man who appeared to be in his early 40s, the sheriff. "Amelia, go sit down, you shouldn't tax yourself right now," he said, sending the woman off before looking at the FBI team. "You will have to forgive her, ever since her sister was taken she has been in a fret, poor thing was almost beaten trying to come in here…" he said and the team stared.
"Where can we set up," J.J. asked and the team was led to an empty conference room. They began to set up in a hurry.
"Derek, Emily, you go talk to the first girl," Hotchner said. "Reid, Rossi, you two go look around where she was brought back," he also said and watched as everyone head out to do their job, J.J. going to talk to Amelia about her little sister.
"Please…" Ashley cried, her dirty hair sticking to the blood on her face. She had been brought in after Sarah had been let go and the moment she saw poor Elizabeth, she had screamed. The man had hit her and told her to shut up; the 'whore' was getting what she deserved.
"Now, I remember fondly a wish you made about her," he said, a smirk on his hidden face, the pure black mask hiding all but he bright green eyes.
Ashley began to cry more, looking at Elizabeth whose scalp with burns of very degrees on it. Small tufts of her once beautiful blonde hair now sticking out charred and black. Ashley's mouth just wouldn't move.
"How about this," the man said in her ear and she froze. "If you tell me what you wished for…"he smirked more. "I will let you go home…"he said and Ashley's eyes widened. She looked at Elizabeth then glared.
"Go to hell!" she shouted at him and was then slapped again.
"Ashley…"came the meek voice of Elizabeth and Ashley stopped to look at her. "Just…tell…tell him…or you…you wont be able…to go home…"she coughed out, hurting but she wouldn't let anyone suffer because of her. They couldn't. They deserved so much more than she did.
Ashley's eyes were wide as tears flowed down her cheeks before she sniffled and nodded. "I…I wished…"
"Yes?" he smirked.
"I wished she would fall down and break her legs…"she whispered and the man smirked.
He walked over with a sledgehammer and Ashley's eyes widened. "NO!" she screamed just as the hammer slammed into Elizabeth's leg, the sickening crack and snapping noise making Ashley want to throw up as Elizabeth screamed out in pain.
Reid was staring at the dusty back road where Sarah had been picked up; scanning everything for any specific detail the police might have missed.
"Reid, you are awfully silent today. No new facts to tell?" Rossi asked, looking around as well. Rossi had notice the odd change in Reid the moment the plan had landed.
"I just wonder how these people could be so…" he didn't know how to finish it. He really just didn't understand how one could be prejudice over a choice made by genetics, not God.
"It is just human nature Reid, it is harder to understand it then anything…." Rossi said, unable to find anything.
Derek and Emily sat on the chairs across Sarah, her arm bandaged from a nasty burn she had inflicted on herself that morning. She sat in the hospital, not staring at anything but her feet.
"Sarah…" her mother said and tried to touch her shoulder, but she jerked away and glared at the woman like she was the Devil herself.
"Sarah…can we ask you a few questions?" Emily asked.
"Make them go away…" Sarah said and Derek looked at the girl's parents.
"Can I talk to you in the hallway?" Derek asked, leading the two parents outside to ask them a few questions as well.
Emily looked at Sarah. "Can you tell me why you did that?" she asked and Sarah nodded.
"Because I deserve worse than this for what I did to Elizabeth…" she whispered and then looked at her feet.
"It wasn't your fault. You didn't know what he was going to do…" Emily said and blinked when she was glared at.
"If I hadn't told him, Elizabeth wouldn't have been burned! I was being selfish and now because of it all my friends are still there and I am here!" she cried before she covered her face and began to sob. "If I had only held my tongue…"she sobbed harder and Emily moved to the poor girl to hug her, looking out the glass window at Derek who was looking sadly at the two.
J.J. looked at the woman who was grasping her hands to the point her knuckles were white. "I know this is hard for you, but can I ask you about your sister?" J.J asked softly.
Amelia nodded, looking down at her hands before she reached to her neck, pulling out a necklace with a cross on it.
"When was the last time you spoke to your sister?" she asked Amelia, noticing the cross but saying nothing about it.
"Three nights ago after my plane landed. I had to drive all the way from Birmingham… I told her I would be home soon and we could have hot chocolate and skittle cake when I got back…"she cried.
"Skittle cake?" J.J. blinked.
"When we were younger, we backed a cake after throwing a whole bag of skittles in it. She loves skittles, so… we ate it… and… it is her favorite thing to make when I come home… my grandparents love to see us doing old things…it…" Amelia sniffled and closed her eyes. "Why would someone take her? She never did anything wrong!"
"It…it is hard to know why people do these things, it… we will find her," J.J. said and grasped her hand, Amelia closing her eyes and shaking with her now silent sobs.
When the team was back together, Emily sighed and rubbed her temples. "Whoever this person is, we have to find those girls before something else happened. Sarah burned herself for a penance for what happened to Elizabeth. She is blaming herself."
Derek sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Sarah's parents said it wasn't Sarah's fault Elizabeth was a whore… apparently their prejudice goes beyond seeing some kid getting hurt…" he said coldly.
J.J. was looking at the woman in the lobby before she sighed. "She's a Christian…" she said and all eyes went to her. "Miss Alighieri is a Christian…." she said again and Reid blinked.
"She's a Christian but she is also attracted to women?" he said and then looked around. "Why would she believe in a faith that curses what she is?" he asked them.
"Because she needs something to believe in," the sheriff said as he walked in. "Amelia's and Elizabeth's parents died when they were young and their grandparents took them in. They weren't strict on them like most families were about their faith, seeing as that is why their daughter ran away in the first place. They accepted their grand children for them."
"When Amelia was accepted in the police academy, everyone was happy for her. Not to long after Elizabeth received a scholarship to West Point. It wasn't but a week after that Amelia came home with her girlfriend to introduce her to her grandparents. Some people overheard it and everything went black from there… the teachers know it wasn't Elizabeth's choice to have Amelia be a lesbian, so they don't hurt her, but the students and their parents see differently."
Everyone stared at him and he sighed. "That family has had a lot of trouble since that day, and people blame their troubles on Amelia's choices so not to blame themselves…"
At 3:00 AM the next morning, Ashley walked limply from the truck station she had been dropped off at, clinging to a tape. She walked into the station, and her father who owned it ran to her. "ASHLEY!" he shouted, but the girl flinched from her father.
"Call…Call Amelia…"she whispered. "Please…just…just call Amelia…"she cried and collapsed to her knees, clinging still to the tape.
Sorry I haven't updated in a while, just been busy with school. Well, here is the next chapter, even though it is rather short. I've never been good at writing long chapter stories. But thanks to those who have stuck with it and the favorites.