Criminal Minds Series Rewrite: Season Three

3rd Life: Part One

"No man or woman who tries to pursue an ideal in his or her own way is without enemies." - Daisy Bates

Two girls went missing recently, and you were brought in on the case as early as possible to find them. Though, as soon as you landed, you got news of one of the girls being found dead. You got there as quickly as possible, but the girl was so badly mutilated that only the parents would be able to tell who the kid is. Of course, you're not going to let the parents see this kind of horror, so the local police are trying to keep them away until you get there.

"Have you ID'd the body?" Hotch asks Detective Payton.

"No, but we know it's a girl.

"Is it one of the missing girls?"

"All I can tell you right now is it's a girl."

"Did you draw up a list of those involved in the search?" Derek asks.

"You're gonna find the parents of the girls on that list. They're over there as well," the detective points to where the parents are.

"Please tell me they didn't discover the body," Emily sighs.

"No. As soon as our dogs caught her scent, we kept them away from the scene."

"Wasn't she missing for eighteen hours?"

"That's correct. We found the body five hours ago."

"The parents have been here all this time?" JJ asks, looking over at them. You can feel how distressed they are, and maybe it's best if you're one of the ones they talk to. "I'm going to go talk to them."

"I'll go with you," you volunteer.

"Thanks. I gotta be honest, guys. I'm glad you're all here, because I have never seen anything like that," Detective Payton says.

You and JJ break off from the group and head over to the parents who are in tears at the thought of one of their daughters lying dead less than a hundred yards away from them. The parents of Katie Owen (one of the girls who went missing) and the father of Lindsey Vaughn (the other girl who went missing) are gathered around each other. When they see you and JJ head over, Katie's parents are eager for some answers.

You can feel how worried and depressed Katie's parents are, but when you look at Jack who is Lindsey's father, you can't read anything off him. In fact, you're not getting anything off him. It's like he wants to hide who he is from everyone, like he has a secret that only he knows.

However, the last person you couldn't read anything off of, he turned out to be the most prolific serial killer you've ever seen.

Jack looks over at you and feels uncomfortable under your stare, but you hold your gaze a few moments longer. There are breaks in his energy that can make you see he is holding his emotions back, so you're not worried about him becoming a serial killer. After a few more moments, you look away from him and turn to the mother of Katie, Lori.

"Bruce and I were out for dinner. Jack dropped off the girls at the movie theater," Lori began explaining.

"I arranged to pick them up, but they never came out," Jack finished. "I went inside, but they weren't there. An usher told me he saw them leave the theater halfway through the movie."

"Where did they go?" you ask.

"He said they went outside for a cigarette."

"We didn't even know Katie smoked," Lori sighs.

"Did he say if they came back inside?"

"No. We've been here all day," Jack's friend, Pat Mannan, says. "Why won't they let us know who that is?"