a/n: These are obviously much easier to write when it comes to Reid, since he's my favorite character and the one that I can see having most of these phobias, but my goal was to represent at least one for each member of the team. I need some more suggestions though, because I only have about 5 or 6 more phobias that I picked out off a list that I could apply to one of the characters. So think of a new one and help me out!
Merinthophobia- Fear of being bound or tied up.
Her mother was never much of a parent, even when she was too young to tend to herself. Overseas, she experienced some of the most interesting things. Mainly, she was blessed for everything that she'd learned over there, because she knew that the experiences that she had and the sights that she saw weren't things normal people got to do. Rome was beautiful, really. It was so much different then America, and sometimes she even missed her old life.
Often, she'd reflect on her life growing up. Matthew was her one and only true friend, he'd stuck by her side through the hardest times in her life. Here she was, so many years later, standing in the cemetery while they lowered her only real friend into the ground. When she'd managed to get pregnant, Matthew had taken care of everything. Without him, she was pretty sure she wouldn't be here right now. Of course, there were other times that Matthew had come through for her. When she was thirteen, her mother had to go undercover on a mission she wasn't aloud to know anything about. Against her will, she was sent to live with close friends of her mother that she'd met once before.
They were nice people, really. They had four children of there own, one girl and three boys. All four of them were older then her; the girl was sixteen, while two of the boys were twins and they were nineteen, and the oldest was twenty-one. None of them had welcomed her at first, and she spent most of her time on the phone with Matthew who called her every day. She missed him, and she would've killed to be home kicking the ball around in his yard. He promised he'd come see her soon, and every night she fell asleep hoping that 'soon' meant tomorrow.
One night after they had eaten dinner, she retired to her room early. The kids that lived there didn't include her in the things she did, and after a month she gave up trying. When someone knocked at her door, she was surprised. Usually, the only people who ever came in were the parents; and they never knocked. She opened the door a cracked and peeked out, her eyebrows pulling together in confusion when she saw the oldest son standing on the other side.
"Emily," he said quietly, and it was the first words she could remember him speaking to her. "Can I come in?" She let him in, eager to talk to him. She wanted nothing more then to fit in with them, to become apart of a family that she never had. He shut the door before taking a seat on her bed, staring at her intensely. She sat next to him, waiting for him to speak again. He didn't speak again, though, but his hand did find it's way to her upper thigh. Confused, she pushed his hand off, standing to move towards the door.
"What are you doing?" She asked, hating how her voice shook. The man that she'd thought was a gentle person grabbed her then, pushing her back down on the bed. Still without speaking, he collected two of her scarves and belts, using them as a gag and restraints. She remembered being to stunned to scream, even when he took advantage of her.
"What am I doing?" He mocked when he was done. "I'm trying to assure that you leave my family alone. You don't belong here, you're putting us in danger." She stayed still, stunned. How could someone so young be a danger to this family. More tears stung her eyes, and he loosened one of the hand restraints, leaving her to do the rest. "So consider this your warning, leave now and keep your mouth shut about this."
She'd done just that. She called Matthew hysterical, and he'd dropped whatever he was doing to go get her. She escaped through her window, begging him to drive as soon as she had her door closed. He took her hand and drove while she cried, sobbing out what had happened. She remembered the look on his face, anger that intense was so rare for Matthew that it almost scared her. He took her back to his house that night, and hid her in his room. He let her sleep in his bed while he took the floor, and she was almost able to forget what had happened to her. She never did forget though, because it haunted her dreams every night. She'd always wake up and remember that she had her own personal protector, and she almost wasn't afraid anymore. She'd she the mutilated bodies in the photos, most of which had been tied up; and it would send shivers down her spine. Matthew was the one person that kept her sane when she saw all the horrors, because knowing people like him were in the world may just save another innocent person from ending up in one of the pictures. Now that he was gone, who could she think of to remind herself that there was still some good in the world.
She never did tell her mother, or anyone for that matter. She just returned home when her mother finally came back. She never really asked either, because it wasn't surprising that she'd ended up at Matthew's house. She never saw her mother's friends again, or their oldest son. After the casket made it's slow trip into the ground, she glanced around her at the by standers. She knew a few of them, and she saw Matthew's parents huddled together near a tree. They made eye contact for a moment, and she wasn't sure if she hated them or wanted to tell them how sorry she was for their loss like the others were. She couldn't shake the feeling that they weren't sorry about their loss though, and she turned away in disgust.
The world had lost one of the most beautiful people in it, but no one knew better then she did that evil always beat the good.