Five Days:
Grace:
I have stopped noticing the stink of the room itself, but today the stink on me is almost unbearable. Five days may not seem like an unbearable amount of stench but I have also missed several times while trying to use the “bathroom”, have not changed my clothes, and gotten my period.
“What happens if you get your period?” I ask Luna. I have not spoken to Luna since I overheard her talking to the Lord and she has barley talked since then at all. I have given up on trying to fnd out what they were talking about.
“You got your period?” Sasha asks in surprise. “Usually no one gets it because of malnutrition.”
“You probably won’t have it long.” Luna tells me.
“So I should just bleed until then?” I ask angrily. This was starting to get ridiculous.
“At least you won’t get raped for a few days!” Sasha snaps back.
“Oh joy!” I hiss at her.
“Shut up guys.” Luna yells at us. “Fighting won’t solve anything.” Claire starts to cry and Luna glances over at her in alarm. Claire has gone white as a ghost and she kneels over on the newspaper. Luna puts her hand on her back while she promptly throws up.
“Oh Jesus.” Luna mutters and Sasha looks alarmed as well. “Claire?”
“Luna.” Claire cries. It suddenly dawns on me why Luna and Sasha are so concerned; malnutirion.
“It’s okay Claire.” Sasha assures her, but Claire still grabs onto Luna in fear. “Luna, do we have any food saved? Any at all?”
To my surprise, Luna reaches under a pile of newspapers and pulls up a trap door. Inside the trap door, she pulls out a beat up looking shoebox.
“Luna!” I screech. “You’ve had food?!”
“Emergency food.” Luna says solemly as she feels around the box. “You’d be surprised how many girls I’ve watched starve to death.” Luna pulls out a container of Boost, which is kind of like baby formula.
“Where do you get all of it?” I ask, but Luna ignores me and turns back to Claire.
“Okay, it’s okay, stop crying. You need energy.” Luna orders. “Shut your eyes, and open your mouth.”
In any other situation I would say “that’s what she said” but I have a feeling this is not the best situation for that.
“No food.” Claire murmurs as her stomach gives again, this time all over Luna. She barley notices.
“I know it hurts but you need to eat. You don’t have any food in your stomach.” Luna insists and Claire slowly opens her mouth. Luna pours the milk, which Claire swallows then promptly throws up.
“Please Claire.” Luna begs and Claire opens her mouth again. “Swallow then hold it in. You can do it. Mind over matter.” Luna pours the Boost in and Sasha and I hold our breath, praying it will stay put. Claire coughs a it and a little bit of milk is spit up, but she succeds in holding it down.
“Give her the rest of it.” Sasha urges and Luna gets a pained expression on her face.
“We don’t….have….a lot left.” Luna murmurs to herself, but she glances at Claire’s skinny face, and pours the rest into her mouth. Claire shurts her eyes once she swallows it and Luna puts her in the corner, slowly wiping the vomit off both of them. There’s a chilling silence as the realization that Claire almost died falls over us.
“Who’s going to be next?” Sasha breaths.
“Audrey’s gone. I don’t think he will need to kill for a while.” Luna says calmly, but I know she is thinking what the rest of us are; Claire’s next.


I wake up in the middle of the night to see Claire crying and holding onto Luna.
“Again?” I groan without thinking. Luna hears and shoots daggers at me.
“What the h*ll were you doing when you were twelve? Living in a closet and being raped daily? I bet you would be having nightmares too! Do you think this is hard for us? Well we are almost adults! Claire’s in the sixth grade.” Luna snaps at me and brushes back Claire’s hair. Claire’s sobs fall into whimpers. I don’t think she is even awake. Luna sighs. “I think it’s harder the younger you are. She’s had to experience terrors that people twice her age have never even dreamed of.”
I instantly sigh in shame. When I was twelve I would never have been able to handle anything like this, even hearing about it. I’m sixteen which is young, yes, but I should know better than to think badly of a little girl who is going through h*ll.
“I didn’t think of it like that.” I apologize to Luna and she nods.
“It’s fine. We need to stick together here anyway. We are all we have.”
“Yeah, I know.” I pause for a moment and then work up my nerve to ask what I have been dying to know for days. “Luna?”
“Yes?”
“What were you talking about with the Lord yesterday?” Luna looks down, as though hiding something.
“Grace…. I cannot explain what happened yesterday without going into a whole memory of pain that I do not wish to enter. It’s painful enough here. It’s….evil enough here.”
“The world is full of evil.” I tell her and she laughs.
“You know…. I used to think that I was a very strong person. That I could handle anything that came my way. Anything that would happen to me I would be able to walk out of it clean and alive. But you know Grace, we are not going to get out of here alive. The only way out of here is death. I’ve been here a long time, sure, but the Lord is not going to let me go. Not after seeing all of this. The only way out his death.” Luna shuts her eyes and rubs Claire’s hair back. “Sometimes I think of misbehaving on purpose….so then he can kill me. So then this nightmare could end.”
“We’d be lost without you Luna!” I tell her fiercely. “I don’t know what I would do without your company and you’re….friendship.”
“Thank you.” Luna grins at me.
“And what would Claire do without you?” I ask her and she nods.
“It’s nice to feel wanted….” Luna looks down at Claire and then back at me. “I don’t feel wanted very often.”
“What about your parents?”
“Dead.” Luna tells me without feeling, like she has said it so many times before it no longer had an effect on her.
“Both of them?”
“No….my father is alive. But he barley wants me and I don’t consider him my father.” Luna spit on the newspaper. “He’s just a man who knocked up my mother and took me in out of guilt. I wish he had sent me away.”
What do you say to something like that? Honestly. I never know what to say when people tell me there problems. “That sucks.” Always sounds really insensitive but what else are you supposed to say? “I’m sorry Luna.” I settle on. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”
Luna shakes her head. “If I ever get out of here…..” Luna starts, but she is unable to finish the sentence. Somehow, I understand what she is trying to say though.


Gage:
Stupid new girl sucks. And now I find out she has her period? Screw that. I need more. So much more.
I go to my favorite place. The park. Call me cliché, but the park is a wonderful place to pick up lonely girls. It’s cold, they don’t have a car, offer them a ride home. If they are small, just grab them. I like the small ones. The hunt is nice, but I don’t like to work as much as I used to. It’s much better for the kill.
Soon I will be good enough to take on the one I really need. I can see the pain in these girls’ eyes and I know that is how she would look. Snap snap, bam bam, stab stab. No more breath for anyone anymore. Maybe if they starve to death, that’s nice. But then it’s more like forgetting to feed your pet fish. There’s no kill there. Just a few starving little b**** goldfish. No one likes goldfish anyway. No, these girls must suffer. Girls must bleed. Girls with the golden hair that disguises the hidden evil must be taken away from the happiness.
A hint of movement from outside makes me jump up. A girl? No…..brown hair, and holding hands with a boy. The boy may stop me. Stupid immature boys wouldn’t even understand I’d be doing them a favor.
A girl? Yes. Long, wavy blonde hair, so white I can even see it in the darkness. I cannot see from here what color are eyes are, but the blonde hair is enough to make me stab. Make me kill. Stab, stab, stab, stab KILL!
Hello young girl…..hello fresh meat…..
See this mother? This will be you and worse. YOU AND WORSE!


Grace:
Six Days:
Luna jumps in fear at the sound of the Lord screaming. “Luna! Get your fat a** out here!” Luna stands up and stands in front of the door.
“Yes, Lord?” Luna quivers. The door opens and the Lord hands Luna something big and heavy.
“Introduce her to the rest of the little children.” The Lord smiles. He glances over to me. “You. You will do for now. But if you stain my couch with your blood, I kill you.” I stand up, shutting my eyes as I do so. Luckily, the other girls were right and my blood flow has almost stopped. The Lord grabs onto me and pulls me out.
He pushes me onto the ratty old couch and….
Three blondes are in an elevator when the elevator suddenly stops and the lights go out. They try using their cell phone to get help, but have no luck. Even the phones are out. After a few hours…
Stop it. Stop it. D*mmit, stop! Ow.
Mommy
Mommy
….of being stuck with no help in sight, one blonde says to the others, “I think the best way to call for help is by yelling together.” The others
Stop it! No, no, so heavy
No.
Mommy.
Save me Mommy save me save me save me!
….agree with the first so they all inhale deeply and begin to yell loudly “Together, together, together!”
Stop it…please….
“B****!” The Lord screams and slaps me in the face. “Blood on the couch.”
“I’m sorry Lord, I’m on my-‘’
“You are obviously eating too much.” The Lord states. “And for that, you need to pay. Now.” The Lord stands up. “Hold out your hand.”
“W-w-why?” I tremble slightly, but then quickly breathe. I know that unless I show a brave front, he will only be fed with my fear. “Why? Tell me.”
“Hold out your hand!” The Lord screams at me, slapping me across the face as he yells. I have no choice. I hold my hand out to him. He draws a knife out of his pocket.
“Wait, what-‘’ I start, but before I can protest, he grabs onto my right hand, and slices my right pinkie off.
“Ow, Jesus Christ!” I screech, followed with profanity that I will need to go to Confession for at least three times for saying. The Lord laughs.
“I’m sure your parents will love this.” The evil man cackles at my expensive as blood starts to pour down my hand. I rub my face, to wipe off the tears and blood streaks across my face. The Lord pays my hand no mind as he shoves me back into the dark closet.
“Clean up her cut Luna!” The Lord shrieks as he slams the door shut. Luna races over to my side and sits me on the down. “And have her lay off the food; I like my women skinny. This one is obviously too healthy.”
“Oh god.” Luna murmurs quietly. “Sick little son of a b****….” Luna glances around frantically. “No towel….” Luna sighs and strips her shirt off. As my eyes begin to readjust to the darkness, I can see Luna’s rib bones sticking far out from her skin. It is a wonder she is still alive at all. She wraps the shirt around where my finger once was.
“Luna….” I start. It’s cold in the basement. Luna shakes her head. “It’s fine. I’ve been here a while. He gives me a new shirt once a month or so. He says he gets sick of my stink. You’re….losing a lot of blood.” I glance down at my hand. She’s right.
“Oh god Luna.” I gag a little but I refuse to throw up. “Has he done this before?” Luna glances at her hands for a moment. “Luna!” She walks over to Sasha and shakes her awake.
“Sasha?”
“What Luna?” Sasha murmurs, half asleep.
“I’m sorry.” Luna apologizes. “But could I take off your socks for a moment?”
“Oh don’t make me dance again Luna. I already won the pie flushing contest.” Sasha murmurs quietly.
“You don’t have to dance I just need your sock.” Luna says impatiently.
“Okay. As long as you remember to give Spiderman his vitamins.” Luna bends over and takes off Sasha’s socks. On her left foot there her big toe and pinkie toe are missing.
“Why does he do that?” I gasp. “What is the matter with him?!”
“I don’t know.” Luna confesses and shakes her head. “I don’t know. I’m sorry. If I knew….”
“Do you have anything missing?” I ask Luna. Luna apparently doesn’t hear me though because she quickly walks over towards a girl who was lying in the corner.
“Who’s that?”
“I don’t know.” Luna tells me and shakes the girl. “Hey. Wake up.”
“Is that a new girl?” Luna gives me a disgusted look. “Sorry, stupid question.”
“Hey.” Luna shakes her again. “New girl.”
“Mom get off me.” The new girl tells Luna sternly and I grin.
“That’s what she said.” I murmur and Luna slaps at me. Before Luna can say anything, however, the new girl bolts up.
“What. The. H*ll.” The new girl states. “Who are you?”
“My….my names Grace.” I tell her, trying to sound casual, as though we were at a party or work, meeting for the first time.
“I’m Luna.” Luna echoes my tone.
“Why have you taken me here? What do you want? LET ME GO!” The new girl shrieks and starts kicking at me and Luna. Luna instantly pins her down and I grab onto her legs. At this point, Sasha and Claire have woken up and help hold her down.
“Claire, cover her mouth.” I instruct, praying that the Lord has gotten drunk and fallen asleep. If he hears the girl screaming, Luna might get in trouble again. He did instruct her to take care of the new girl….
“Breathe….breathe.” Luna instructs the new girl quietly. “We aren’t going to hurt you. We are your friends. He also took us. We are on your side. Your side. Your side.” The girl continues to scream, but her cries are thankfully muffled. After a few moments she starts to calm down. Tears stream freely down her face and Luna encourages her to stop crying.
“It’s okay…it’s okay…you’ll be okay. Just calm down or he will get mad.” The new girl shut her eyes, tears itching their way down her face. Luna nods to us and we let her go.
“Tell…me…where…I…am.” She can barely speak through her sobs but she makes an attempt to.
“What’s your name?” Luna asks her softly.
“Dakota.” The new girl answers. She has long, wavy blonde hair and blue eyes. The pattern continues.
“Do you think you can handle it?” Luna asks her. Dakota’s eyes widen but she nods.
“We don’t know for sure. We are in some man’s basement.”
“How long have you been here?” Dakota asks.
“I’ve been here for several months.” Luna tells her and nods towards me. “Grace has been here-‘’
“Six days.” I interrupt.
“December.” Sasha says, shaking.
“What about you?” Dakota nods towards Claire who is in the corner, biting her fingernails.
“She’s been here since November.” Luna speaks for Claire. She knows Claire doesn’t like to talk about when she got here.
“How old are you?” Luna asks Dakota. Dakota glares at her, suspiciously. “We’re just asking because we want to get to know you. For now….we are the only things each other has. We will pretty much become closer then sisters for as long as we are here.”
“When do we leave?” Dakota asks.
“First tell me how old you are.”
“Fifteen. Now your turn.” Luna rolls her eyes and points around the circle.
“Sixteen, seventeen, twelve, seventeen.” She tells Dakota patiently.
“Now would you tell me when we leave already!” Dakota demands and Luna sighs, exasperated.
“We don’t leave! We die here!” There’s a horribly uncomfortable silence as Dakota gaps at Luna and Luna glares at Dakota. Then Dakota calmly stands up.
“GET ME OUT OF HERE! GET ME OUT OF HERE YOU SORRY SON OF A B**** OR I WILL PERSONALLY COME UP THERE AND BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU SO HARD YOUR GRANDCHILDREN WILL BE IN A COMA! GET ME OUT!” Dakota hurls herself across the wall as she screams.
“Luna.” The Lord’s cold voice comes over through the vent. “Our guest is being rude.”
Luna stands up. “I’m sorry, my Lord.” She slowly walks towards the door.
“No, I don’t want you this time. Send the small one.”
Luna takes one look at Claire’s deer-in-headlights expression and begs, “Lord! Please. Claire has had enough today! Take me this time. Please.”
“Send. The. Small One.” Claire stands up slowly and walks towards the door.

Rita Fox:
“Something has been bugging me about the body.” Lacy comments to me as we walk down the hall to get breakfast.
“Yes?”
“Well she was strangled, wasn’t she?” Lacy asks timidly, fear of being wrong obviously creeping in her voice.
“Yes.”
“By the marks of it, it took a very strong man to do that. But….there was also mud and marks all over her, as though she had been dragged. If he was so strong, why did he drag her?”
My head snaps up. I haven’t even thought of that. It is a slim chance, sure, but…
“David!” I cry as we near the breakfast room. “Lacy has just come up with the greatest idea!”
David glances up from his notebook. I come closer and can see the words “possible suspects” written across. The rest is blank. Talk about depressing. “Yes?”
Lacy explains what she came up with to David and David slowly nods. “He has a helper.”
“Like a wife?” I ask and David shakes his head.
“No. There was a twig shoved up the first victim’s rectum and on the victim they just found, who we suspect is also a victim of the same man, both breasts were cut off and there was a sex toy in her vagina. This kind of sexual frustration is not the work of a married man.”
“Who else could it be?” Lacy asks and David pauses for a minute.
“He could be having one of the girls he has trapped to do it. Or….” David pulls his cell phone out of his pocket. “Gabriella! I need you to get a list of the people from Lebanon with children. Single fathers, just move, child between the ages of six and sixteen.” Gabriella, another profiler who mostly works on the computer, says something back and David sighs. “Maybe with prison records?” David pauses. “None? Okay, send us the original list. We can probably narrow it down I think we should talk to more people. Thanks.” David clicks the phone shut. “Eat up. We got a lot of people to talk to today.”


One Hour Later:
“John Grayson.” Julia says out loud as we reach the Grayson’s house. “From what I hear from Mrs. Bacon, after she got her husband under control, he is a smart boy, honors student. He’s a senior, basketball star, Mr. Popular.” Julia sighs. “Perfect.”
“That’s the message we’ve gotten about Grace.” David interjects. His eyes suddenly light up. “Simon, Lacy, change of plans. I need you to go interview the other girl’s parents. Not about the crimes, about the girls themselves. What are they like, what are they interested in, get a feel for who they are. They’re may be more similarities then just there looks.”
“Are you sure you don’t need us?” Simon asks shyly. He’s new to the FBI. If he does go, I think this will be his first, or at least one of his first interviews with just one other person.
“We are on a time crunch!” Julia tells Simon sharply. “We don’t have a lot more time!”
“Guys, quiet, quiet.” David tells us as he picks up his cell phone. “David Samuels.” David pauses. “Aw man.” He murmurs into the phone then pauses again. “Okay. We will get right on that.” David slams the cell phone shut. “S***. Julia, Rita. You’re gonna have to take on the boyfriend alone. I need to talk with Dakota Warner’s parents.”
“Another girl?”
“It just keeps getting worse.” Simon pulls us up to the boyfriend’s house. Julia and I step out. “Just look over the notes, stick to the questions, and be gentle.”
Julia pulls her notepad out of her bag, avoiding eye contact with me. Even though Julia and I have been working together for years, we have never had a conversation outside of work. A “deep conversation” between us usually plays out like this:
Julia: Coffee?
Me: Just a small one please.
Julia: Would you like sugar?
Me: Yes please. And vanilla. I love vanilla.
Julia: Kay.
Co-workers.
Julia knocks on the door of the house and a beautiful woman with sandy brown hair steps out.
“Hello Mrs. Grayson. We’re with the FBI and we’d like to ask your son a few questions. Is he home?”
Mrs. Grayson nods and yells for John. “Please, come on in. Make yourself at home. I’ll have to warn you, John has not been in the best mood. He’s taking this….very hard.” Mrs. Grayson walks us inside and leads us towards a room that appears to be the study. It is a very modern study and they appear to be very high class from the looks of it.
“Yeah, Mom?” John yells back as he runs down the stairs. He stops short when he sees us. “I already talked to the cops.”
“We are…a different kind of cop. We’re with the FBI.” Julia tells him. John glances at his mom.
“I’ll be right outside. If you need anything, please come out.” John nods and steps into the study.
“Hi John.” I greet John, doing my best to appear friendly. “I understand that you are going through a difficult time right now, but we’re hoping that if we learn more about Grace we will be able to find her attacker.”
“I know.” John nods. “My dad says you guys are just trying to help. I wanna do whatever I can.”
“This won’t take very long.” I reassure him and nod towards Julia. She pulls out her notepad and clears her throat.
“John, what kind of activities wa-is Grace involved in?”
“Um…” John pauses. “Mostly academic stuff. She used to say that….” He grins a little bit. “I’m the Gryffindor and she’s Ravenclaw. She was really into debate club, she wants to work with law. Otherwise she doesn’t do much extracurricular. Her social life is enough to keep her busy.”
“So she’s very social?”
“Crazy social. Tons of friends and she always has these douches flirting with her. They stop once they know I’m dating her though.” He smiles a little bit. I can understand why those boys are afraid of him. John Grayson has the stereotypical look of an athlete with dirty blonde hair, bright green eyes, and Abercrombie clothes. You’d have to be pretty stupid to mess with him since he’s at least six feet tall with bulging muscles, and a tight washboard stomach which can be shown through his tight black shirt.
“Did any of these boys seem…particularly interested in her?”
“No, most of them just kinda drooled over her, you know.” John pauses. “She’s beautiful, you know.”
“Yes.” Julia agrees awkwardly.
“I miss her.” John shuts his eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath.
“Do you need a minute?”
“No.” John insists and shakes his head. “Keep going.”
“Did you ever notice anyone that seemed a little too close for comfort? Perhaps an older man hitting on her perhaps?”
John shook his head. “No.”
“Did she have any enemies?”
“Not at all. Everyone….loves her.” John sniffed a little bit but his voice remained steady.
“Thank you.” Julia shuts her notepad. I nod at Julia. That was all we needed to hear. Grace was perfect…..and some man couldn’t stand that.
“Hello?” Julia answers her cell phone. “Uh huh. Okay. We will be right there. We just finished up.” Julia turns to me, her eyes avoiding my gaze. “We may have a good lead. The Bacon’s say that the unsub sent them something.”

Gage:
And it has turned to my favorite part; torture of the makers. The ones who deserve the pain are the ones who make the pain. I am not the monster I am today. It was the help of my father. My father….the disgusting little b****rd who hurt me until I got taller. Until I took things INTO MY OWN HANDS! The only way to get by in this world is to live by a dog eat dog world. “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” And that b**** sat by with a sick smile on her face and took her way out as soon as she felt like it. The watcher is worse than the one who commits.
I purchase a box. A small box that does not appear to stand out. I wait for the cover who darkness. Darkness being a blanket that can shield me. Before work is best. Wonderful alibi right there. Just enough time.
Take the beautiful finger out of the cold water. Water will keep the flesh alive and make it look fresh. Too long withers away and eats at it. I take the finger and stick it in the box. I can’t feel the finger through the gloves but I know it must be cold. Cold as death. As that little wh*re must be soon. Death is pretty. Death is a beautiful thing.
Strap the box shut. The address is written on neatly by another. Handwriting can be detected. Printers can be detected too. No one really realizes that though. I am smart. I am smarter than this planet will ever allow. The Target label is taped neatly on the return address. D*mn idiot neighbors didn’t even think twice about throwing this away. I can picture the family inside receiving the package.
“Oh honey, did you order anything from Target?”
“Why no dear, did you?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Do you think Grace did?” The lady holds back horribly weak tears. Cry b****! Cry! Your daughter is not coming back alive. CRY! They open the package, hoping to find something inside that the daughter may like. Oh, it’s a season of Criminal Minds! You know how much she loves Criminal Minds. Oh Jesus, it’s another Hanson CD! You know how much she loved those nineties boy bands. It’s not going to be anything bad because our daughter is PERFECT! What a perfect, perfect, perfect daughter we have! Oh, and they will say HAVE and not HAD because they will have hope until the moment the girls dead corpse shows up on the back steps. Which I will be happy to oblige to.
But no. The scary man has a little trick up his sleeve. The scary and heartless man will be sending a little piece of their baby. Consider it an early birthday gift, Linda!
Drop the package on the step. Run to car. Drive to job.
All in a day’s work for a genius.