𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ⇝ 𝑪. 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒔

𝐎𝐍𝐄. 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈

I never thought I would have a happy life.

My life has been filled with trauma and terrible situations, one after the other. But my life got even worse as of right now as I sit in this dirty, cold, dark room with Reggie being held at gunpoint by some lunatic threatening to kill us. But before I get to that, I need to tell you everything that leads up to where we are now.

It all started when I was five years old. I was sitting in my car seat with my parents and me singing along to the radio while driving home from having lunch. Everything was great. I was happy to be with my parents, sing to the radio, and laugh with my mother at my father's terrible attempt to sing.

Everything was great until it wasn't.

We had the right of way. My father had the green light. When suddenly a car ran the red light and crashed into our car. We flipped and landed upside down.

I was crying for my parents, but they couldn't hear me. I remember seeing their eyes closed and blood dripping from their heads. I couldn't understand what was happening. Why my parents couldn't open their eyes?

It seemed like forever until the police and the paramedics came to the scene, and I was strapped to my car seat.

At the hospital, a child services agent told me that my parents were gone and that I would never see them again. I was only five years old and could understand why I couldn't see my mom and dad again. I screamed and cried for my mom and dad to come to get me. To walk into my room and tell me they were okay and that we would go home.

But that never happened.

After a few days in the hospital, I was put into my first foster family. I had no other family outside my parents, so this is where I ended up. The family seemed nice, but that was only in front of my child services agent; behind closed doors, they made me their little maid. Saying if I didn't do everything they told me, I would be taken away. But, again, I was only five years old and didn't know any better at the time. So I did everything they told me to do so I could stay and not lose anyone else in my life.

It wasn't until my agent visited one day after being with them for a whole year and saw how physically exhausted I looked from doing chores all day that I was taken away from them. I was then placed with another family who, although they didn't make me do their chores, did forget about me all the time to the point that I would be left home alone. This family lasted only a few months after my agent came on a surprise visit and saw that a six-year-old was alone to fend for herself.

This continued on and on, with me being placed with families that weren't up to standards to take care of me. Since I was five, I had been with so many families around the country that I had lost count after 20. Don't get me wrong, there were some nice families, but once they had their own kids or couldn't afford me, I always moved on from them.

This took a toll on me. Every time I left a family, I felt like I wasn't good enough for them or that I was never worthy of finding a loving family. It hurt. I was only a kid who had something terrible happen to them. I didn't ask for my parents to be taken from me. Because I believed I wasn't worthy of having a family, I started to lash out. Whenever I was placed with a foster family that seemed even remotely lovely and loving, I ran away any chance I got. I started hanging out with the wrong people. They introduced me to cigarettes and drinking. Because of them, I was arrested for the first time. Of course, I was let go being a minor, and it is my first offense.

That was the start of my downfall. Being with those so-called friends got me where I was today in this disgusting room with one of the only true friends I've had. I was hanging out with them when they told me they were going to this abandoned place they found to drink in peace and cause some trouble. A voice in the back of my head told me not to follow them as something terrible was going to happen. Looking back, I guess I should have listened, but I didn't, and that was the start of a long journey of me hiding.

We were there for maybe ten minutes before some random guy showed up. My friends were freaked out at first, but the guy said he was chill and wouldn't tell anyone about us being there. He even gave us beers that he had brought. I was the only skeptic of this guy, but my friends encouraged me that everything was fine, so I stayed with them but kept my eye on the dude.

Again not leaving at that moment was another mistake because that's when things took a turn for the worst. We were all sitting on the ground drinking beer when the guy suddenly took out a gun from the back of his pants and shot the two guys in our group first. I was frozen to my spot on the ground as the two other girls got up, screaming at what the guy just did. He then turned and shot them both as well.

I was still stunned and waiting for this guy to turn and shoot me, but he didn't; instead, he walked up to me, crouching down on my level. First, he looked at me as if I had ruined his life. Then, with his left hand, he started to cores my face as if looking over my features. At that moment, I was confused. Why hasn't he shot me yet? Why am I still alive, unlike my friends?

"I've been waiting for this moment for a long time." He said.

This sentence would come to haunt me every night. I had no idea what he meant by this statement. He was about to say more, but we heard sirens and footsteps heading toward us. He was angry, I could tell. He had the plan to do something to me, but he was interrupted by the cops.

Before the cops reached the room, the man looked at me with angered eyes and said something else that would haunt me and keep me from sleeping at night.

"I will find you again, and when I do, I will kill you."

With that, he ran from the room away from the cops that barged in just seconds later—finding me frozen to the ground with tears in my eyes and surrounded by carnage.

A/N:
my first criminal minds fanfic.
i spent a long time thinking about how this situation would work and of course not everything is something that would actually happen within the legal system but that's okay. so just go with it.
i hope you guys enjoy this book. i actually am really proud of it and how everything in the story came together.
bye!!!!!!!