[And another chap! Yay, criminal minds and Reid!^^ and thank you for the reviews skye3197, harrietamidala1691 and LeedsUK for the comments and everyone adding my story to their favs or alerts. Those three reviews gave me the bit of inspiration to get the next chap done, thank you much!!!^^ if I have misspelled or have any errors in anything, please tell me. I DO NOT OWN CRIMINAL MINDS OR IT'S CHARACTERS, JUST MINE!!! Enjoy!^^]

I woke up again in a place that wasn't home, still hurting. I guess I either had struggled again when he had took me out, or I was unconscious and limp and he just slung me around.

I was lying on the ground, trying to get a feel for my surroundings. I could tell that I was laying on straw or something, because it made me itch and it crunched when I rolled a bit. It was cold and quiet, except for the sound of an animal, like a rat, running around and the wind blowing and the creaking off walls. It smelled pretty bad in here. And the only light was coming from a small, square window high up on a wall and the moonlight was coming through it and some cracks in the walls.

I felt like I knew what this place might be, but I felt too tired from pain (still) to think perfectly. I guess I just had to wait for better light. Because the only thing the moon had lit up was the pale yellow hay (the moon making it paler) and…a machete…with blood on it.

I shut my eyes and rolled over, not sure I wanted to see anything else the moon would illuminate.

"Reid, we haven't had any sleep since you called us. And that was at two twenty-one a.m." Morgan told Reid, who was walking all around the house of his old friend. "It's five thirty now. We've been up, looking around this house, for three hours. It'll be best if we get some sleep and come back, that we'll be able to process things better."

"I'm processing things just fine, Morgan." Reid said as he walked back into the living room.

"Reid, Morgan's right." Rossi announced, Reid didn't stop. "I know it doesn't feel right to wait when you know there's a new victim and they could be getting hurt, but what use are we if we're half asleep."

J.J. was out in one of the SUV's, resting with Prentiss with her. Hotch was in the other room, talking to Garcia who had went straight back to her tech cave once she had the chance, ready to search for what they needed and Hotch was telling her what was going on now.

"Fine, you guys go home and I'll stay here." Reid hurriedly said as he was checking the counters, taking his time, analyzing everything.

"Reid, you're crazy." Morgan told him, getting up from leaning on one of the couches. "What if this unsub came back? We're not sure if he visits the scenes of his crimes yet."

"I'm not going home yet."

"Reid, you need to rest. We all do. I know your worried for this victim, but we can't save her-" Rossi was about to say, "right now" but was interrupted.

"We have to save her." Spencer was getting really worried. Nothing in the house was any different than the other women's houses. Trashed, half destroyed, and the word 'Bitch' scratched into the of woman's bedroom, Alice's bedroom.

"Tell me immediately if they find anything." Hotch said into the phone and then hung up. "That trace of blood we found on that branch outside is being analyzed now. It'll be a while before we find out who's it is."

"You think the unsub or the girl used it as a weapon?" Morgan asked, turning to Hotch.

"Alice." Reid said.

"What?"

"Her names Alice." He said and his mind was reeling through many memories at the mention of her name.

"did she tell you that before? I thought you said she didn't have the time or the space to be able to tell you much of anything." Rossi said. "She said the unsub was on the other side of her door, right?"

"Well, she did…and I would have found out anyway once I got here."

"Reid…" something started to set in for Morgan. "Is there something up with this girl? Do you know her?"

He was quiet for a moment, but then said, "We met when we were fifteen. We were friends…but, when she moved away, she never was able to contact me and I never could find her number or anything and over the years, I….I never thought to contact her…" he was quiet again. And then he began to feel overwhelming guilt. "…Do you think I could have saved her? If anything was different?"

"Reid, there's no way you could have known he was coming for her, could you? You're not psychic." Morgan tried to reassure him.

"Yes, I could have." Reid persisted. "If I'd known she had bleached her hair, I could have warned her. If I'd known where she lived, I could have told her to be careful, maybe stay somewhere else for a while." He was looking at a picture she had of herself, her hair back in an untidy ponytail and a few brown/bleached blond streaks falling in her face as she just smiled. "I could have done something…"

Everyone was quiet for a little while, not sure what to say to the young profiler.

"We should call Prentiss and J.J. in her and go over the profile again." Hotch said and Rossi nodded and headed out the door to the car.

Reid couldn't take his eyes off the picture. There were only few times he'd ever seen her smile like that, with true happiness. He couldn't shake the guilt he felt, thinking it was his fault she was kidnapped. Thinking there's something he could have done, he just didn't do it. And there was an ironic guilt; he hated the fact that, in all the years that have gone by since they met, the one time they come in contact again is because Alice is being kidnapped by a killer.

He shook his head, now hearing her voice in his head, moaning in pain for the man to stop hurting her, "N…n-no…no, d-don't…" and then her pleading his name, "Spencer…". His heart sank, hearing the sound again. The sound of his friend, in pain and scared.

"Reid?" Morgan said, now behind him.

Spencer looked to him and waited.

"Come on, we going over the profile in the living room."

"I'm coming…" he said and Morgan headed to the living room ahead of him. He then took the picture of Alice out of the frame, pocketing it. He needed this picture, so he could look at it and not think of what had been done to all the other victims.

"Ok, this unsub has been killing for half a year and hasn't been caught yet. He isn't a psycho, or we would have caught him by now because of something accidently left in the mess he leaves behind. But he's defiantly not clean and calm." Hotch said and everyone glanced around the house.

Almost everything was messed up or destroyed in some way, especially the doors and they seemed to have been broke inward, and that confused and irritated them because they couldn't tell if they'd broken in or not. Windows had been smashed too.

"We know that he targets women who are alone. They have no family, friends or lovers staying with them or living with them. That's why it took a while for the families to report them dead, because they didn't know. He may even end up finding one victim who knows no one, that way it could be possible that no one finds that victim." Morgan said. "And they don't know many people other than people at their jobs and neighbors and –regrettably- handy-men or their companies, for when they need that kind of help."

"We know the victims he targets usually have some unusual hair style, like bleached or dyed hair." Prentiss began. "And they're mostly white, the only exception being Gorgia Temple, who was a young, black female with completely blue hair. And, by how he beats the women, it's seems the reason for targeting these kind of women are not because of attraction, it's because of hate. They aren't many signs of rape, just being beating…for days." Prentiss was looking through the pictures, shaking her head at the sights, though still having to look. Every little thing matters when you're a profiler.

"We know this guy has plenty of hate but not much self esteem. He waits until the victims are asleep before he kidnaps them." Rossi said. "He can't be that social than. Maybe not the best handy-man, because of the minimal talking, but he gets the job done."

"And he must move around after every few victims, since he hasn't been caught. He waits out, watching for a new victim and when he finds one, he begins to stalk them, figuring everything out they can about these people." J.J. said. "And then, when he's ready, he strikes."

Everyone was quiet, thinking now.

"Is there any other connections between the victims?" Rossi asked.

"Not that we can see." Morgan said.

"Well, what's this mans stressor? Was he shunned by women like his victims? Did he have a sister who died and had some resemblance to these women? This man is striking out at these women with completely rage. So what's the reason?" He finished, looking at everyone.

They all looked around, hoping an answer would lie in the walls of this house maybe.

Just then, Hotch looked to Reid. "Reid, you said you knew this girl? You were friends?"

Everyone looked at Reid.

"Y-yes."

"Then we need to know anything and everything you can tell us about her. We need to find the deeper connection between this unsubs victims. We'll meet at the conference room at the BAU tomorrow and you'll tell us what we need to know. After that, we need to find out everything we can about the other victims, see if their anything like this victim."

"Alice." Reid corrected.

"Everyone clear?"

"Yes." They all said.

"Ok then, let's head home for the night and get some rest."

"What?" Reid asked in surprise, having been gazing around the room again.

"Reid, you need rest and so do we." Hotch said, making it sound like that was the end of it. "If you need to, you and Morgan can come back tomorrow after you brief us and check for anything we may have missed while me, Prentiss, J.J. and Rossi go and talk with the victims' families. Alright?"

Reid was quiet for a minute, but then nodded and headed outside to one of the SUV's, everyone following after him.

Reid was quiet the whole way back. He wasn't even sure he'd be able to sleep tonight. How could he, believing it was his fault his friend was kidnapped and may be killed?

He just wished he could have done something-something more then give weak orders on the phone. He wished he had still had contact with her.

But he knew that it was too late now and all he could do was try his hardest to find his friend, no matter what. He couldn't have her die, he couldn't let it end that way.

"Spencer, who's this?" a woman called into her house. She resemble Spencer a lot, other than her hair. She was skinny and frail looking too, though she had just a tad bit more meat on her bones than her son. An she had blond hair. She watched me and I got the feeling she had X-ray vision and was scanning me or something. "What's your name?"

"Uh, it's-"

"It's Alice, mom. She lives right beside us?" he said, pointing toward the house that was on the left. He seemed surprised to see me.

"Oh, you're Alice. Spencer's told me a bit about you. And, you know, you really shouldn't worry about your parents. They must be crazy or something to treat as they do. From what Reid tells me, you can be a very bright girl, you just hide it because they treat you like it doesn't matter. But I know you must be a great young girl, to have my son talk so highly of you."

"Mom, do you have tea in the other room?" Reid asked, blushing a bit.

"Ok, I can take a hit, Spencer." She said and walked away.

"She seems nice." Alice laugh, though she did mean it. "So, you talk highly of me, huh?"

He blushed more and Alice laughed. "No…I mean, yes, I talk about you, but, not as much as she said."

I watched him, trying my best to hold back a smile.

"Ok, maybe I do talk about you as much as she said, but, you're my only friend. You're the only person I have to talk to her about." He said with that shy/awkward/funny-cute smile he has that made me think he was a kid.

"Yeah, well, I'd talk about you more, probably, if I had anyone to talk to. Well, I do, but you don't really want to hear about yourself, do you?" I laughed and he laughed too.

"So, what brings you here?"

"Oh." I pulled the movie case from my back pocket and put it in front of him. "I finally got this back from my parents, who thought there was some stupid, hidden stuff on there that we could have been watching for 'fun'. To tell you the truth, I think they wished there waqs something, so they could watch it…." I cleared my throat and shook my head, trying to shake off the usual, sudden, bad mood the thought of my parents puts me in. "So, yeah, here you go."

"You can keep it." He told me with a smile.

"But its yours." I said, surprised. "Wouldn't you want to watch it again?"

"I have a photographic memory, Alice, I'll be fine."

"Aaah." I said and laughed and so did he, that quick but happy laugh.

"Well…would like to watch it again? No interuptions from sucky parents?"

"Do you mean here?" he said, seeming to get worried.

"Yeah, I've never been in your house. I think it'll be cool. Well, unless you don't want me to, then I totally get it."

"no, it's not that, it's just-well, I just-"

"Reid, if anything happens, I don't care. You have nothing to worry about, I seen people sometimes…act that way and I'll be fine. If you're uncomfortable, then I wont come in, but if you're worried about me being uncomfortable, than I'll be fine."

"Oh. Ok."

"So, you wanna just wait until another time?"

"No, we can watch now, if you want. Though, alice?"

"Yeah?"

"Do really want to start becoming a star trek geek? You'll never be able to turn back after this." He warned me while holding back a smile.

"I think I'll be alright." I told him and we headed inside.

And you know whats cool/sweet/ whatever you wanna call it, but sad? The time I spent here, well, it felt like much more of a home than my actual home had ever felt. How's that for ya?

And than my mom came banging on the door of their house.

"Alice, you get your ass home now and do your chores!" she ordered immediately. "And what are you doing her with that woman?! Are you crazy?! You're still hanging out with this crazy woman's son?! You just wait, he'll be just the same, you just-"

I shut the door than and pushed my mom away from the door, surprising and angering her.

"How dare yo-"

"NO, how dare you?!!" I said over her hiss.

"Excuse me?" she said, not understanding at all.

"How dare you come here and insult my friend and his mother?!"

"I don't want you hanging out with people like them."

"You know what, mother," I said mother like it was acid. "I don't really think you should have a say in the friends I make and the families I spend my time with. You lost that right when you began to treat me like bad help!" my voice was growing higher.

My mother turned her head to the sky and walked off, not wanting to deal with this. Too bad. I ran after her and grabbed her arm.

"Don't!" I said. "You are not going to walk away until you go and say sorry to my friends!"

"I don't have to do anything!"

"Yes, you do! Because I am tired of this! I'm tired of how you treat everyone, especially me! Actually, no! I don't care how you treat me! But you are not-I repeat, are not- going to insult the family of the only person who gives me the care and kindness you feel too lazy to give to anyone other than yourself and your husband! You are going to apologize, now!"

"I will not and you will lower you voice when talking to me, young lady!" she yelled at me.

I could now hear the doors opening and the murmurs of people watching. I just glared at my mother.

"God, I am so tired of you!"

"How can you be!!?!!" I yelled as load as I could, so angry. "I'm barely ever around you, you stupid woman!!! You have no reason to be tired of me, unless the years of me being a baby and you having to change, feed and care for me have really caught up to you all of a sudden!!!"

"Shut your mouth!"

"NO! I'm not going to sit by and let you treat me like this, mom, I'm tired of it!!!"

"All I've ever done is love you, young lady."

"Oh, really? If you love me so much, why don't you call me by my name?!"

"You are such a selfish, spoiled, whinny brat!" she spat at me.

"And your narcicistic, spoiled, whinny, jealous, weak bitch!!" I spat right back.

Then, my mother did the worst thing she's done in a long time. Once or twice, she may have said she hated me, because I interrupted her and dad while they were spending time together, or I broke something. But, just then….

She slapped me across the face.

"Hey!" both Spencer and Ms. Reid said at the same time.

I watched the space in which my face had snapped to look at. And this I looked back at her, my eyes tired and angry, my jaw set and clenched, my nostrils flared. And then I punched her square in the nose and there was a satisfying crunch as her nose broke.

She cried out in pain, cursed at me and then hurried inside. I watched her run off and then just stared into space, my mind feeling dead with hurt and pain and annoyance.

"Alice?" I heard Spencer right beside me.

My eyes didn't waver, but I said, "Sorry, Spock, but…I gotta go." Then I started to head to the sidewalk as I thought of where I was going. I had some money in my pockets, so let's see what I can go get with it.

"Alice, wait!" he said and grabbed my arm, trying to keep me there. "Where are you going?!"

"To town." I said and yanked my arm free, which wasn't that hard to do. I started walking faster, feeling the stares and hearing his footsteps.

"Alice, don't!" he said and I ignored him. I couldn't hear his voice right now.

"Spock, leave me alone." I warned and sped up a bit. He was hurrying, getting close to being right beside me.

"No, Alice. Look, I know-Would you stop and listen to me please?" he grabbed my arm again, tighter, and turned me to look at him. I couldn't. I knew if I did, I wouldn't be able to do what I needed to do. His face alone made me feel ashamed of what I do. I just kept my head down as he talked. "I know that it's like an escape to you, that it makes you feel a little better. But, is it really worth it?! In the end, is it all owrth?! Are you parents worth it?" that hit a nerve. "Are they worth your pain and suffering?! Or do you just let them be?!"

"I said leave me alone!" I yelled at him, the tears streaming now. Once my arm was free, I broke into a run, headed straight to the place I knew I could get what I needed. I wasn't buying this time, I was stealing. I broke in from a back to of the building selling the drinks and smokes. Then I headed to the alley and began my escape as fast as I could, the tears streaming like crazy. I didn't want to feel anything. I didn't want to feel mad, or happy, or sad or calm or anything! I just wanted to escpae. I wanted to escape it all!!!

I woke up then, tears having had streamed down my cheeks as I slept. I looked around and saw the sun was rising. I could tell, because I was a nice, warm, soft glow that filter through the cracks and illuminated the blue sky that I could see through the window.

I tried to sit up, but was I couldn't. I just rolled over, looking at everything….and then wishing I hadn't.

You know, I've seen gory movies, but….this was too much. There was blood everywhere and even…even body…..

I rolled on my side and threw up, now realizing I was right about it being a barn, but the bad smell wasn't this farm….it was the mess my eyes had strayed upon.

"Where are you at, you bastard!" I called out then. "What are you waiting for?! Aren't you gonna kill me?!"

No answer. My heart was racing, sweat forming on my brow and a headache pounding my had.

I wasn't sure how I felt right now. I…I wasn't sure I wanted to die just yet. I wasn't really ready for that yet. And, I hated to say it but, I was just a bit scared of what was going to happen. I wondered how long it'd take them to find me…but then Reid's voice echoed in my had. "Alice, don't worry… I'm coming to get you. Everything's going to be ok, I promise. I'm coming, no matter what." But the last part is what kept echoeing in my head. He said he was coming, no matter what.

What if he gets hurt? The killer could kill him if he comes! God, why did I have to call him!?! damn it! I've put him in danger! God, no, I cant think of him coming, I just cant!!!

I had to do something. I couldn't just sit here. But what could I do? Let him kill me? No, I wasn't going to do that. I wasn't going to give up….and who knew what it'd do to Reid to see me dead. Damn it, this sucks real bad!

I tried again to sit up and finally did. Moved my tapped hands from behind my back, under my legs and then in front of me. I need to find something to cut this on. I looked around and then spotted the bloody machete….

Repressing a gag, I began to crawl over to it, planning to knock it down and then use it, rubbing to tape on it repeatively until it cuts. I just hope that bastard didn't come back as I was doing so…who knows what he'd do…