"Ginger!" Mallory called for her friend. There was no answer. "Ginger!" She called again frantically, but the red head did not reply. Oh God, where was she? Spinning in circles, Mallory looked every direction for the missing person, but could not see her. Hastening her footsteps, her feet carried her away from the alley and out onto the street seeing if she could catch a quick glimpse of her friend's fiery red hair. Running up the street a ways, Mallory continued to call Ginger's name. The strangers walking along the sidewalk who had a bed to sleep on every night probably thought that she was calling a beloved, lost pet and not a human being. Still unable to spot her friend amongst the crowd, Mallory ran back the way she came. Still Ginger was not revealed. Desperate for her friend's company, Mallory burst into tears, stumbling back into the dark alley. Something had happened to the 19 year old, she could feel it. Tears blurring her vision, Mallory sunk to her knees but did not wipe the tears away. Instead, she kept crying, laying on the damp pavement amongst several full garbage bags that had fallen from the overstuffed dumpster she hid behind.

Ginger was really her only friend out here and if she was gone, there was nothing to live for and no one to care if she disappeared forever.

The knife blade was calling her name...

xXx

Emily listened intently to JJ as the media liaison explained to the team about a series of murders happening in Bluffdale, Utah. Glancing around the table at her colleagues, Emily watched Reid's nose scrunch in thought as he studied the report. Beside her, Derek raised his eyebrows and let out a deep breath. He was frustrated. Rossi shook his head and Hotch looked straight ahead waiting for JJ to continue with the briefing.

There were six victims that they knew about. Half of those victims were successful, wealthy individuals all shot execution style. Normally when a victim was shot it told them that the killing was impersonal. The unsub didn't know the victim and didn't want to interact with them, suggesting that he wasn't confident or was ashamed of something that forced to shy away from interacting with others. What had the profilers stumped was that these victims had all been found in or around alleyways and abandoned buildings-classic sites for the homeless population to roam. What was even weirder was that forensics suggested that the victims had been killed in the exact same spot they had been found-miles away from their homes. Another thing that seemed to stump the profilers was that the other half of the victims was all unidentified as classified as either John or Jane Doe. Since there was no information on them, it was possible these victims were of the homeless population. What was known about them though was that they were found killed in high end neighborhoods-miles from where the homeless would roam.

"Most serial killers have a victim's preference," Derek stated the facts, taking his eyes off the case file laying in front of him. Glancing in Emily's direction, he said, "But not this guy," he commented. "He doesn't care if they're white, black, male, female, rich or poor."

Looking at her husband, Emily shrugged her shoulders. "Is it possible we're dealing with two different offenders?" She asked before turning her gaze onto Hotch to gather his thoughts on the case.

However, it was Reid who spoke up instead of the unit chief and Emily quickly glanced in his direction to let him know that she was indeed listening to what he had to say. "Two different offenders operating in the same city with the same MO is highly unlikely."

Oh," Emily replied quietly as she nodded her head, understanding what Reid had said. Staring down at the case file in front of her, she flipped the pages to try to gather more information about the case.

"It's the same offender," Hotch confirmed in his stern, stoic voice.

"And he's sending us a message," Rossi told the team.

Leaning closer to Derek, Emily whispered to him. "What's that?" she muttered sarcastically, "that he's a sick son of a bitch?"

Amused at her comment, Derek smiled, shaking his head.

As much as it was true, it wasn't his message.

"His message is about equality," Rossi elaborated to the younger profilers. "By getting rid of the upper and lower classes, all that is left is the working middle class."

"So this creep is obsessed with fairness in the society?" Morgan asked with a raise of his brow as he looked to Rossi. "Wouldn't he better get his message across in someplace like DC? Why Bluffdale?"

"I don't think he cares about equality about the entire U.S. population," Rossi confirmed. "Bluffdale isn't all that big of a city in the middle of Utah. For him, this is personal."

"And we know something else," Hotch jumped in in conclusion. All eyes wandered to him as he spoke. Glancing briefly at each member of his team, he added, "He won't stop until he's caught." He paused for a minute, letting the words sink in. Each team member knew what was happening even without him having to say the last part. "Wheels up in thirty."

xXx

The knife blade penetrated the skin, spreading the edges of the cut farther apart the deeper she inserted the blade. More and more blood oozed and spurted from the wound and it refused to stop. Her jeans now had a dark crimson stain from all the blood splattering onto them, but she did not care. Salty tears cleaned the deep cuts on her wrists as she cried. Mallory didn't cry from the pain though. She'd suffered so much physical pain in her life; her body barely registered the pain anymore. No, she cried because of the hurt she felt deep inside her as she remembered years of physical and mental abuse and the strong, sad, feeling of being all alone in the world.

If this was life, then it wasn't worth living and Mallory didn't want to know how worse it could get. As much as she prayed, she knew it would never get better. No matter how much she prayed for it to get better when she was just a child, her prayers were never answered. If this was all life had in store for her, then it would be better if she cut it short.