~ * * * ~

Shivering, Amy Vaughn continued walking down the deserted sidewalk, her hands in her pockets and her head hanging low. This couldn't keep happening… She knew it as sure as she knew she breathed clean air; she needed help. But where could she find it? The last place she tried, Danny had been there. Danny had been breathing down her shoulder, his hands roaming forcefully over her body, trying to yank her shirt away from her death grip while she stared in fear at him…

Shaking her head, Amy tried to get her mind off the failed trip to the last institution. But of course, memories were not to be kept down this night, and she found her head filled with attempts to visit doctors offices, psychiatric offices; she'd even tried therapy. Nothing seemed to work; everywhere she went, Phillip and Danny followed her, waiting to remind her of what she just wanted to keep in the back of her mind.

She could hear the sirens behind her.

Shaking, Amy continued to move as fast as she could without running down the sidewalk, knowing that if they caught her, something terrible would happen. Oh god, she would let Gideon down if she was caught… And Reid…

Sweet… gentle… Reid… how disappointed he would be at her…

Finally stopping on the sidewalk, Amy let her head hang lower as she closed her eyes, her thoughts then turning to Reid. What would he think when they caught her? IF they caught her… How many people had she already killed? Four…? Five…? Enough for the BAU to be called in, she was sure… Feeling tears well up in her eyes, Amy was startled when she heard a female voice from behind her, saying softly, timidly,

"Miss…? Are you okay…? What are you doing out this late at night…?"

Turning around and lifting her head, Amy was just about to give the nice woman a smile and tell her that she was fine, that she'd get going right now, but suddenly her vision clouded.

There was no woman standing in front of her.

It was Phillip, sneering at her; glaring at her. Mocking her. He opened his mouth, and even though his mouth formed the words, the voice was once again of the woman's, but Amy didn't listen to it. How dare Phillip follow her even here! Something had to be done about this…

Amy never realized how quickly her hands lashed out at the woman, nor did she notice how tightly her hands were wrapped around the woman's throat. All she saw were ice blue eyes, staring back at her; mocking her from within.

~ * * * ~

It couldn't be true… it just couldn't…

Reid was in a state of denial as he finally stood up, having shut Nick's eyes. Reid shoved his hands into his pockets and moved slowly over to the rest of the team, who were talking in hushed tones away from the rest of the cops.

"All of these kills- well, almost all of the kills- have been hands-on. That means the UnSub has to be at least slightly strong or athletic." Morgan was saying.

"We now know this UnSub shows remorse, which puts a psychotic break at the back of the list, seeing as how an UnSub in a state like that wouldn't even know what he was doing to those people." Gideon said softly, his eyes moving from the scene around them to every member of the team before resting worriedly on Reid.

Reid was afraid his face would be paler than usual, giving what he had just figured out away, but he kept silent, and quickly turned to face Hotch as he then said a bit louder, letting the cops overhear him,

"We're ready to give a profile."

"Well that's good, cause we just found another body." an unknown voice suddenly called from the other side of the alleyway, causing the heads of the BAU team to snap up toward it.

* * *

"We believe this UnSub to be in his mid-to-late-twenties, fit and probably athletic." Hotch said, addressing the room full of police officers.

They had ridden back to the Fredericksburg Station after taking a swift look at the newest body. It had been female, and she'd been -nobody could have guessed- strangled to death.

"These kills seem to be at random, so it's probably caused by a feeling of insecurity or instability in his life. If you'll look in his background, he'll probably have had either one or both of the parents die, or the parents were divorced while he was at a young age. He'll have shown several tendencies toward a violent nature when he was smaller, such as killing or cruelty to animals." Prentiss continued, sitting down on the desk Hotch and Gideon were standing in front of.

"The people in this town probably know him, but they won't be surprised to find that he's the one we're looking for. They won't have any trouble believing what we're accusing him of. He stands out; probably works a menial job where he doesn't have too much contact with people." Gideon spoke up, his eyes searching out and meeting those of the officers before him.

"He shows a severe anger toward people he believes think they're better than him, and takes that anger out in a violent rage. He's intelligent; so far we haven't found any DNA or prints to link a certain person to these crimes, but his rages are explosive, and triggered with as little as a simple look. He's also devolving and getting braver at the same time. He's devolving because he's killing so quickly; there's barely any cooling down after each kill now. He's getting braver because he killed his second victim just blocks away from where police cars were gathered, his first kill already discovered. " Morgan said, leaning against the table, next to Prentiss.

Then J.J. spoke up, having been sitting down in a chair behind the table the BAU team was gathered around, saying quickly and loudly so everyone would hear her,

"This particular UnSub won't stop killing any time soon, because he can't. It's in his nature, and the only way to stop him is to catch him. We suggest holding a press conference to let the people know to stay off the streets for the time being. We don't really want to raise a panic with either the town's folk or the UnSub, but it's the best way to keep people safe from harm and throw the UnSub out of his comfort zone. Without a quick kill, the UnSub will likely escalate quickly and make a mistake, and we'll be able to catch him that way."

"Also, keep in mind this UnSub could very well be someone who recently moved back to this town for one reason or another, the most probable cause being a discharge from a job or a lost love or remaining family member. Keep your eyes pealed and please… I stress this, proceed with caution." Hotch then said, nodding his head at Bordeau, then closing softly, "That'll be all."

J.J. watched as the cops stand up and gather their notes, then exit the room along with Gideon and Hotch, who were deep in conversation, no doubt about the UnSub. Turning to her side, she looked at Reid, who had been quiet through this whole debriefing, when normally he was trying to prove his knowledge by giving statistics and information about other serial killers that related to the case they were doing. But not this time, for some reason. In fact, J.J. decided, her brows furrowing, Reid looked a bit paler than he normally did.

"You alright…?" she finally said, and was met with his chocolate brown eyes suddenly staring into hers almost fearfully before he calmed down and gave her a shaky smile.

"Yeah, just thinking."

"If you say so…" J.J. said reluctantly, but Reid had a feeling she didn't really believe him.

Hell, Reid thought to himself, if he were in her shoes, Reid wasn't sure he'd even believe himself. He knew he had to look like shit, but he just couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that almost everything in the murders pointed to Amy. But then again, he'd still need to check with Garcia; make sure his speculation wasn't too far fetched. After all, he'd only checked the eyes of two victims; Nick and Bertha, the woman who had been murdered not five blocks away from where they'd all stood around talking. And while they had both had icy blue eyes, that didn't really add up to Amy, because for all he knew, the rest of the victims could have green or brown or even violet eyes. At least the rest of the team were about as far off of Amy's mark as they could be...

Reid was then patted on the back, and looked up again to meet the blue eyes of J.J. once more.

"I have to go hold that press conference. You'll be alright, won't you?"

Reid's brows furrowed slightly at J.J.'s worried tone, but gave her another smile, hoping to god it was warmer than he felt.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I promise."

With a nod, J.J. left, leaving Reid alone in the small room, which startled him because he hadn't noticed Morgan or Prentiss leaving. Taking a deep breath then, Reid waited a few moments before reaching into his brown bag and pulling out his cell, flipping it open and dialing Garcia's number.

"Oracle of Quantico, speak if you deign to hear truth." came her usually cheerful quip.

"Yeah, Garcia… I need you to do me a favor."

"Ooh, a favor. Sounds fun." Garcia chuckled.

"Garcia, focus." Reid said, sighing.

* * *

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know."

- Diane Arbus

* * *

A/N : Another chapter! Yay! Please review, so I know how I'm doing, alright? Thanks a million, my faithful fans!

- Lyon