Isabel watched as they boarded the plane around her, her redheaded friend joining her as the others sat down. Isabel knew they were three of the members of the BAU, and she knew they were coming for her. The redhead saw that her crush wasn't there, and through her pouting, she ignored Isabel's questions. Isabel got up from her seat and sat next to the one she liked. The nerdy one. He was nerdy. He was one of the few people who totally understood her books, and she wondered why that was. Why no one else seemed to understand as well as he did. Would he understand when he met her? Would he understand that she couldn't help being the way she was? He would never know too much about her past. None of them would. They would probably see her, see who she really was, and turn right around and leave her where they found her. After all, who wouldn't? She was psychotic.
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Dr. Spencer Reid looked over the small file they had made of Ciara Byrne. What concerned him was the spotty life that this girl had. First appearing when she was five, then graduating at thirteen, then being shipped off to a mental hospital until she was nineteen. What would she have been like if that hadn't happened? What would she have done with her life if six years of it weren't taken away from her? But at the same time, reading about how she was sent to a mental hospital reminded him of his mother. Hadn't he placed her in a sanitarium as soon as he possibly could? He got his mind off of that by rereading through each of the medical records they had on Ciara. He counted and found out that in between the ages of six and thirteen she had five broken fingers, four broken arms, three broken ribs, two broken legs, two first-degree burns, three third-degree burns, six serious infections, and four concussions. Yet, he had a feeling that there were more concussions and first-degree burns. They both stopped when she was eight. Possibly her parents had just started to understand what they were and how to treat them and stopped reporting them.
Why hadn't there been any investigations after the first? How else, besides abuse, did they think that one little girl got that many injuries? That was one thing Reid wanted to ask Ciara. Besides everything about her books, which he had refreshed his memory on by reading all three of them again.
"Reading that again? Reid, we've been through everything that's in that file." Reid jumped when Morgan appeared behind him, having read over his shoulder what was being read. They were waiting for Hotch and Gideon to decide who would be going to Omaha with them to find Ciara.
"It just doesn't make any sense. An investigation was started when she was eight. Why weren't there anymore when the injuries just kept piling up?" Reid asked.
"I don't know. It's a tiny town. Maybe her family had a reputation to uphold. What I can't figure out is how exactly she managed to fly under the radar until she was signed up for first grade. I'm starting to think that even Ciara Byrne isn't her real name. I'm starting to think that she has yet another identity," Morgan revealed.
"But if she does have another identity, then how are we going to find out what it is?" Reid questioned.
"Simply by asking her. That's the only way we can. Don't worry about Ciara too much. We'll have time for questions when we bring her back to Quantico," Morgan assured.
"Assuming she comes with us at all," Reid mentioned, and Morgan shrugged.
"We're the FBI. I don't think we'll have a problem." Morgan laughed and left Reid alone then, and he knew he needed a break from poring over Ciara's file. He looked around and saw that JJ was still reading Forever Mine. That would have to do. Reid got up and dragged his chair to JJ's desk, and she looked up briefly before going back to her book.
"Where are you?" Reid asked, and JJ looked up, looking a little confused about his question. "In the book. Where in the book are you?"
"Oh. Right. Um, Cameron just found out about Lukis Ogle's murder. God, if this Kenneth was a guy we were investigating, we'd have our work cut out for us. How do you think Isabel Ashe knows so much about how to get away with murder? That's one question I want to ask her," JJ said.
"Assuming that Ciara Byrne is really Isabel Ashe and we weren't wrong," Reid mentioned.
"Right. Have you looked at the file? It's so weird. How could so much happen to one little girl? It's no wonder she lost her sanity," JJ wonders.
"I've been thinking. What if she didn't lose her sanity? What if she never had it? What if her parents just got tired of it and finally sent her away as soon as she graduated?" Elle interrupted the conversation. Reid had to admit, he hadn't thought of that. But that's just something they'd have to ask her when they found her. Reid spent the rest of the time they were waiting talking to JJ about the book, making sure not to spoil anything. Reid hoped with a passion that he would get to go to Omaha. He had never been to Omaha, and he wondered if he'd get a little time to wander around the city. He didn't know exactly what there was to do in Omaha, and he wanted to ask Ciara. Eventually, Hotch and Gideon said that only Reid would go with them, and when they found Ciara, he would be the one to talk to her.
"W-why me?" Reid stammered, not really wanting to talk to anyone, let alone a girl.
"Because you are closest to her age and the most like her," Hotch answered.
"Besides, you've gotta talk to your soulmate at some point. Why not now?" Morgan joked.
"Would you shut up about her being my soulmate? I haven't even met her!" Reid hated that Morgan was constantly joking about how awkward Reid was with girls. It wasn't his fault. He didn't have really any chances when he was younger to gain any confidence with women. Any confidence with other people, to be honest. And now it was showing. The plane ride was uneventful, and it didn't take long to reach the apartment building near the campus of UNO. The apartment of Mindy Lee and Russell Taylor was on the third floor, but it didn't take them very long to get there. Just as they arrived at the door of the apartment, a muffled scream was heard inside.
"NO! GET OFF! GET OFF! GET OFF!" It wasn't known who was screaming, but whatever it was, it needed to be stopped. Reid knocked on the door, causing the scream to be abruptly cut off, and an Asian girl quickly answered the door, a girl Reid recognized as Mindy Lee.
"Yes? Who are you?" Mindy asked, her dark eyes filled with curiosity.
"Um, I-I'm Dr. S-Spencer Reid, and, uh, w-we were wondering if maybe, possibly, um, we were wondering if..."
"Reid?" Hotch finally stopped Reid's stammering.
"Yeah?"
"Your awkward is showing."
"Sorry."
"It's fine. Mindy Lee?" Hotch asked, and the girl nodded. "I'm Special Agent Aaron Hotchner from the FBI. Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?"
"Oh, terribly sorry, but we're busy right now. Russell and I are. Can you come back later?" Mindy asked, and when Hotch shook his head, Mindy's face fell. Suddenly, a crash was heard, and a few moments later, the sound of running water. "Oh, no, she's doing dishes."
"Excuse me?" Reid wasn't sure exactly what Mindy had said. Suddenly, she disappeared inside the apartment, closing the door, and the sound of running water stopped, before another scream that was so muffled it was barely audible. Suddenly, Mindy opened the door slightly, looking winded.
"Ma'am, can you tell us who was screaming?" Gideon asked. "Special Agent Jason Gideon."
"Oh, no, I thought we soundproofed better than that," Mindy said under her breath, but she quickly realized that it was still heard. "I, uh, I mean that was me. That was me screaming."
"And you were the one screaming 'get off me'?" Gideon asked, as unconvinced as the rest of them were.
"Yes. You see, I had a spider fall on me. That's what I was screaming about. I'm afraid of spiders. You understand. But it really would be better if you could please come back later," Mindy explained, before slightly shutting the door.
"Mindy, we need you to tell us about Ciara Byrne," Hotch pretty much demanded, and Reid could see by Mindy's second-long facial expression that she knew a lot more than she wanted to admit.
"Who? I don't know anybody of that name. It's just us two here," Mindy said much too quickly, before trying to shut the door. She didn't get very far, and Hotch pushed the door open, creating a loud banging. Another scream was heard, and Reid saw a man pushing someone into a room, before locking the room. Screams were heard from the other side of the door and pounding.
"Who is that? Who did Russell just push into that room?" Hotch asked, and Mindy said that Russell hadn't pushed anyone into a room. "Mindy, we can hear her screaming right now! I'm getting to the bottom of this." Hotch went to the room that Russell was standing guard over, but he decided to be smart and not fight with an FBI agent. He opened the door for them. Reid was the first in the room, and when he entered the room, he saw a chestnut-haired girl curled up on the floor, hands covering her ears, tears streaming down her face.
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"Are you Ciara Byrne?" Ciara looked up at the brown-haired man, recognizing him instantly. She made sure that she didn't make eye contact, but rather, just looked at the area around his head. She nodded slowly, barely able to form a full thought, let alone words. Her senses were screaming at her, all the excitement way too much for her to handle. "Ciara, I'm Dr. Spencer Reid from the FBI. Can we talk?" Ciara shook her head, in way too much pain to even think about talking. She wished she could tell him that, but she was rendered nonverbal by the sensory overload. She still attempted to talk, but nothing came out of her mouth that could be understood.
"Mindy Lee, why did you lie about knowing Ciara? What were you trying to hide?" a different man asked.
"Look at her! She's the psychotic Ciara Byrne! Who wouldn't want to hide her?" Russell answered for Mindy.
"Why was she screaming?" a voice that Ciara thought was familiar, but couldn't place, asked Mindy and Russell. Ciara had seen everyone in the room before. She had seen them in the dreams that she had the past two nights, but she hadn't known any of their names. The only one she knew was Dr. Spencer Reid because he had told her.
"We saw the police car come. We figured that you were coming for her, so I grabbed her and started to shove her into this room. That started the screaming. She yelled at me to get off of her. She meant my hands," Russell explained. That was right. She hated human contact. That combined with the beginning of a sensory overload had caused her to start screaming.
It's okay, Ciara, just let it out. You are in so much pain. Just let it out. You'll feel better after. Her friend was suddenly sitting beside her, her arms around her shoulder. Ciara knew that her friend was right. If she just cried loudly and let it out, she'd feel better afterward. She might even be able to talk. So she did. Everyone looked at her as she let out the first choked sob, and Mindy immediately knew what was happening.
"She's about to start crying. We need to leave her alone so as to not make it worse," Mindy told them, and she felt the others around her disappear. But not her friend. Her friend would never leave her. Her tears came in a sudden burst, the room filling with her sobs. Her face started to hurt, but she didn't stop it. She needed to let everything out. This was the only time she could cry. She couldn't cry any other time because she couldn't feel sadness. Her emotions had been taken from her a long time ago. Suddenly, she felt a new presence beside her, but it didn't make a motion to touch her. Good. It just sat beside her. Soon, her cries ceased, and she opened her tear-filled eyes to see Dr. Spencer Reid sitting beside her.
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"A-Are you, um, are you okay now?" Reid asked, and after Ciara wiped her eyes, she answered him, apparently able to speak again.
"Do not blame them. Do not blame them. I got overloaded. It happens sometimes. Is something going to happen to Min-dy and Russ-ell?" Ciara asked, and Reid noticed that she spoke with a slight Irish accent and that she accentuated the first syllable of names. He also decided that he would be the one to talk to her after all. He was able to talk to her earlier, but was that because it was spur of the moment? Now that he was choosing to talk to her, would he choke, just like he usually did?
"N-Not if they've, um, not if they've done something wrong. Well, anything else wrong. Locking you in a room wasn't right," Reid choked. Ciara looked in his general direction, and Reid noticed that he couldn't see what color her eyes were. She refused to let him see. Was she afraid of eye contact as well as human contact?
"Am... Am I the one being talked about?" Ciara asked, and Reid nodded.
"Do you, uh, feel up to joining the conversation? W-We really have some questions we'd like to ask you," Reid told her, and Ciara nodded, getting herself up rather gracefully. Reid was a little impressed, to be quite honest. As soon as Reid was standing up, they walked to the kitchen where the rest of the team was questioning Mindy Lee and Russell Taylor. Ciara got ahead of him, but instead of making her presence known, she stood away from the kitchen, still able to hear the conversation, but a safe enough distance to not be noticed. Reid stood beside her, and he noticed how nervous she got just by him standing near. Was she awkward like him, or was she scared? There was a difference. The issue for Reid would be finding out where on that line Ciara was.
"Why did you take Ciara out of her classes?" Hotch asked.
"Because her crazy was getting worse. People were starting to question us, so we took her out of classes and kept her here. There is always one of us here to watch her," Mindy answered.
"And so you thought the best thing for her was to take her out of her classes?" Hotch questioned.
"Do you, um, miss your classes?" Reid asked Ciara, and she shook her head, looking down at the floor.
"No. There were, um, too many people, and I-I already knew all of what they were teaching, any-anyway," Ciara stammered, and Reid decided that she was awkward, not scared. He actually was meeting someone like him. An awkward child prodigy. He couldn't help but wonder how fast she could read.
"We didn't know what else to do. This way, she's our secret. This way, only we have to deal with her different days," Mindy answered the question.
"Different days?" Gideon asked, and suddenly, Ciara's head shot up, looking at Gideon.
"Ja-son Gi-deon?" she softly asked, and Reid confirmed it for her. "I didn't think I'd ever see him again."
"S-So you really did... you really did solve a case when you were six?" Reid asked, and she nodded, before saying that she wanted to listen to the conversation.
"Yeah, see, she has three different types of days. Great days, good days-"
"And bad days?" Gideon attempted to finish Russell's sentence.
"No. Great days, good days, and normal days. Great days are when she's totally in reality. She knows who we are and interacts with us. She often does dishes on the good days. Those are days when she's only partially in reality. She recognizes us but doesn't often acknowledge us. She often talks to nothing and does things she knows she isn't supposed to do. That's why she does dishes. To make up for what she's done. Then there are normal days when she doesn't even acknowledge us. Those days, she's completely in her own world, and there is no telling what will happen on those days," Russell explains.
"They don't understand," Ciara whispered.
"Well, how can they? Psychotic delusions are often as varied as the person who has them. Even fellow psychotics don't understand each other," Reid told her.
"Thanks. That makes me feel better," Ciara responded with an eye roll, even though Reid had to listen to her voice to know it was there. He wasn't allowed to see her eyes. He doubted anyone was. "What do ye even want with me, anyway?"
"We want to ask you a few questions. But I won't ask you them. I'll wait until they are done questioning Mindy and Russell to ask," Reid told her, and she nodded, listening back into the conversation.
"Does Ciara hole up in her room a lot? Does she do things that no one else knows what she's doing?" Hotch asked, and Mindy nodded.
"What? What did ye say?" Ciara suddenly asked, and went off to her room. "Ye want to talk to me in my room? Why? O-Okay, I'll follow!" Ciara went to the back of the apartment, and Reid thought nothing of it. She'd come back. And if she didn't, they could just go back and question her in her room if need be. He didn't expect her to do anything. He should have. The questioning of Mindy and Russell was interrupted when another scream filled the apartment.
But what caused that scream? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z! So, the BAU has met Ciara Byrne, and we got a tiny little insight from Ciara herself. Quick note, for a while, the story will probably only be told from Reid's perspective with little insights from Ciara. That may change, but right now, I find it easier to write from Reid's perspective. Anyway, whatever could have caused the scream? And what do you think of Mindy and Russell? Well, that's about all I have for this chapter. I'll see you all next time. BYE!
"Insanity is a very lonely and empty existence - it's painfully true. They may laugh and smile, and skip and dance, but behind all the faces there is hollowness like a bottomless pit. The living dead, depression is a terrible illness, so is psychosis, the mentally inflicted beyond cure." -Stephen Richards