Title: Summer Winds
Author: Missa
Rating: Meh, I'll have it as T, just because I'm prone to changing my mind and added stuff in, in later chapters.
Pairing: gen
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Warning: WiP
Summary: The BAU is called to Lexington, Nebraska to profile a power-seeking killer. Casefile.
Spoilers: Umm, nothing that sticks out in my mind. Just general ones I guess.
A/N: This is my first attempt at a Fic for this particular show. I usually write CSI stuffs. But I absolutely love Criminal Minds, and have planned on writing a fic for it for the longest time. Anyways, I tried to research as much as I could for stuff that I've put into this chapter, but it's mostly just developing what happened before the murders and stuff. Yeah, I won't give too much away. But if you see anything I have wrong in here, please let me know:) Anyways, that's about all. If you would like to review, feel free to, I absolutely love hearing what people who read this have to say about it.

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Prologue

19 year old, Elizabeth Bent quickly slipped into her car and put the key into the ignition. She knew that in a mere hour she had to pick her younger sister-Maria- up from soccer practice, but she also had to pick up a few things for the party that she was heading to as soon as her sister was driven home.

The car pulled out of the driveway and onto the road, and Elizabeth couldn't help but feel as if something was wrong. Had she forgotten something? Or perhaps she'd heard her mother wrong over the phone. Had she said to pick up Maria at six? Maybe it was really supposed to be at five.

Elizabeth cringed at the idea of being late to pick up her sister. It happened a lot because her mind was usually elsewhere. Each time it happened, she always got a lecture from her parents and was usually grounded for some time. She really hoped that her mother had said six.

She looked at the clock in her car and she sped along down the highway- 5:13. Maybe she would stop by the soccer field and make sure that practice hadn't ended yet. She couldn't risk not getting to go to the party because she was only half listening when her mother told her the time to pick up Maria.

The soccer field was only about 10 minutes away, and she knew that she would be able to quickly take a peek over there, and then head over to pick up the supplies she needed for the party.

Her thoughts were interrupted suddenly when she felt cool metal touch the back of her neck and hear a deep voice order her to start driving in the opposite direction.

A cold chill ran down her spine as the unusually cold, evening summer wind blew. She brushed her hands together as she paced back and forth in front of the small store in front of the soccer field.

She'd been waiting for almost twenty minutes now. Her older sister was supposed to pick her up after soccer practice because their parents were going to be late coming home from work-as usual- most likely stuck in some employee meeting.

A 13 year old girl, standing out in the cold, with her angry adolescent mind fixated on the idea that the only reason her sister was late, was because she forgot about her... once again. That's how things always seemed to be to her. Her parents were never home, always at some meeting or whatnot at work. Something obviously more important than picking up their own daughter from soccer practice. And her older sister... she was always too busy partying with her friends to even bother with anything else. She had probably been out drinking again and forgotten that her mother had asked her to pick up her younger sister.

"Maria, is that you out there?" a voice called from behind her.

It was Mr. Smith, the owner of the small convenience store. He was a friend of the family's, and often would come over to watch Maria play at her soccer games. He knew that both of her parents worked a lot, so he would go and watch her play, so she would have someone in the crowd cheering for her. He hated the thought of the poor girl looking out into the crowd and not seeing anyone there for her. It wasn't her parents fault that they couldn't be there.

He was a man in his late fifties, slightly balding hair and almost never had a frown on his face... but today was an exception. Today his usual quirky smile was missing, and replaced with an expression of unimaginable woe. Something had to have happened, something horrible.

She turned her head to look at him, "Yeah, it's me. Just waiting for my sister. I think she forgot about me again."

Mr. Smith's face fell. He'd just gotten off the phone with Maria's parents. Her older sister hadn't forgotten about her...

"Another late night, Reid, my man?" Agent Derek Morgan laughed.

The two members of the Behavioral Analysis Unit stood in the break room as Dr. Spencer Reid shoveled spoonful after spoonful of sugar into his cup of black coffee.

While Morgan liked to joke around, deep inside he couldn't help but feel a tad concerned. The last time they had this conversation, it had brought up the topic of Reid's nightmares.

"Yeah. New neighbors. They just moved in a few days ago. They were awake all night making a whole lot of noise. I couldn't get any sleep," Reid explained.

Morgan felt relieved and it seemed as if he was about to say something, however, never got the chance. Agent Aaron Hotchner entered the room and made it clear that he needed to see the BAU team, right that moment.

"Lexington, Nebraska. Six identical murders in the last 48 hours," Hotchner began.

"Six?" Morgan questioned.

Hotchner nodded and continued speaking, "All of the six victims were females between the ages of 18 and 23. They all display very similar physical characteristics," he placed the crime scene photographs onto the table, "And they were all killed using the same type of weapon," he added, making a reference to the pieces of rope around the victims' necks. "He also left this note at each scene," he added as he placed another photograph onto the table.

"I've done this before, and I'll do it again. Let's see if you can catch me."

"Sounds like a power seeker to me," Agent Jason Gideon pointed out, "They seem to want the attention for what they've done."

***

Chapter 1

Eugene Ionesco Decouvertes once said, "It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question."

Spencer Reid stared at his reflection in the black coffee in his mug before taking another sip. The others were discussing matters and going over research pertaining to the case, but the young man's mind was most definitely elsewhere.

"So, what do we know about power seekers?" Jason Gideon questioned.

Everyone turned to look in the direction of Spencer Reid. He was the one with all of the statistics and facts that were always very helpful towards the cases. However trivial or slightly annoying they may seem to be.

"Reid?" Derek Morgan looked in the direction of the young man and noticed that he was staring blankly into his coffee cup again.

"Huh? Oh, sorry," Reid look up again from his cup and turned to face the rest of the group.

"Man, you shouldn't drink that stuff on a plane. The second we hit turbulence, BAM, that's going to go all over you," Morgan half laughed - half warned.

"I was thirsty, and there were no more paper cups."

Gideon then decided it was time to change the subject back to the case that they were discussing before, and repeated the question. Reid then enlightened the group with information he pulled from inside his head. The others didn't know how he managed to memorize all of these facts, but they were always helpful.

"These type of killers are usually males, andmost likelynarcissistic - they have an inflated sense of self worth," he explained.

"He's looking for attention. He wants the media involved. He's full of himself, he doesn't think he'll get caught. And he won't stop until he does get caught," Gideon added.

Aaron Hotchner ruffled through some papers he had placed on his lap as he spoke, "It also says here that the victims were all raped, and most likely tortured before they were killed. There are cigarette burns and lacerations on their arms and legs." His eyes didn't look up from the papers as he spoke.

"That could suggest sadism. Feeling the need for dominance- power over the victims. It could be why he's targeting women so young," Elle Greenaway pointed out.

"Or he could be trying to live out some sort of fantasy. All of the victims had very similar physical appearances," Morgan added onto Elle's statement, "Somewhat tall, long hair, brunette, brown eyes..."

Everyone in the room turned their attention to Elle.

"What, do I look 18 to you?" she questioned, with a slightly sarcastic tone to her voice before she changed the subject.

20 year old, college student, Candice Parker tried to balance her grocery bags as she carried them into the parking lot in the direction of her car. She'd put off grocery shopping for quite some time, so the items she needed to buy added up quickly, and she was beginning to feel like she had bought half the store.

Carrying the many bags to her car was a chore. She was beginning to wish that she'd taken the shopping cart when the lady at the counter had offered. Oh well, it was too late now, she's almost reached her destination.

Once she'd finally reached it, she placed the bags on the roof and reached into her purse trying to find her keys. Her hand felt around inside, but still, she couldn't seem to find them.

"Damn," she muttered to herself, "Did I leave them in the store?"

Wondering if maybe she'd put them in her pocket, she stuck her hand inside. Success. The keys were in her pocket.

She stuck the key in the hole and went to turn it, when she realized that the door was already unlocked. Slightly surprised, she opened it and popped open the trunk to put the grocery bags inside. She could have sworn she'd locked that door when she had gone into the store.

Nevertheless, she brushed a strand of her long brunette hair out of her face, shrugged off the weird feeling and closed the trunk before getting inside of her car and pulling out of the parking lot.

Not long after, she felt the same cool feeling of something metal touch the back of her neck, just as Elizabeth Bent had felt, and heard the same deep voice giving her strict directions on where to drive. Tinted windows didn't seem like much of a nifty idea after all...

"Take a left here," the voice commanded, not taking the gun away from the back of her neck. Candice did as she was told, and after an hour or longer of driving around, the voice ordered her to drive down a long dirt road, and stop at the small cottage like house at the end of it.

"Get out of the car," the man behind her shoved the gun slightly into her neck, as if to remind her it was still there, and that he would kill her on the spot if she tried to scream or run away.

Once Candice was out of the car, she looked around in hopes that someone might be seeing what was going on. That someone might be able to help her. But the house was surrounded by trees, and there were no other houses in sight. No body was there to save her from this.

The man lead her inside of the house and bound her hands and feet with rope, and then proceeded to place duct tape around her mouth so she couldn't scream.

She thought that she would get a good look at her attacker, but unfortunately, he was wearing some sort of a ski-mask. His hands were covered with gloves... and Candice knew he was going to kill her. He needed the gloves to make sure he didn't leave any fingerprints to help the police catch him.

Candice knew she wasn't going to give up without a fight. There was no way she was letting him get her this easy. She looked directly into his eyes- the only part of him that she could actually get a good look at. He knew. She could tell that he knew. He knew she was going to be a fighter.

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