𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 - 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐃

𝐊𝐫𝐮𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐫.

The two murders and the FBI showing up in Forklea hadn't been the end of the weirdest week Esther thinks she's ever had, if anything those three events acted as a catalyst to the third attack.

The news had been broken to most of the town at 11:38am and just like the others, it had happened in Floras. Jack Atkins had been the one to burst through the doors, the bell above it hadn't even had a chance to chime before his loud voice had interrupted all conversations taking place in the greasy diner.

"There's been another," He panted hard, as if he had sprinted across town as fast as he could. Esther wouldn't have been surprised if that's what had actually happened. "The sick bastards done it again."

The patrons at Floras had exploded after Jacks final words. Panic, anger, and fear seemed to suddenly permeate the air; making it thick and heavy and Esther thought she just might choke on it. Multiple voices loudly cried out questions at Jack, but they all seemed to melt into one – leaving Jacks panicked eyes to dart around the diner, almost desperately, trying to find someone who could control the mass of people.

A loud bang sounded from the direction of the kitchen, making the crowd fall into almost silence. Joey rounded the counter, his stained apron still tied around his front and an expression that Esther could only describe as furious settled on his face.

"Let the boy speak." The joking tone that Esther was so accustomed to hearing from the cook had been replaced with something cold.

"Who was it?" Nancy was now speaking, hand on her hip and coffee pot still in her hand.

"Carrie Riley. She's alive though, just hurt; I think she managed to run away or something."

A collective sigh of relief was let out by the ever-attentive patrons. This killer hadn't taken another one of their own just yet.

Esther couldn't help the shock that had settled into her system at the revelation of the latest victims' name. she had known Carrie Riley, just like she had known Michael and Laurie; they had all gone to high school together and had many of the same classes together. Esther couldn't say that she knew them well, she certainly wasn't best friends with any of them, but she had seen them almost everyday for four ears of her life. now she couldn't help but wonder if someone was targeting them on purpose, what were the chances that the people this sicko had targeted just so happened to all belong to the same graduating class?

"They catch the son of a bitch?" a rough unfamiliar voice had called from the back of the diner.

"No. No I don't think so." Jack said with a shake of his head.

"Do you think the FBI know anything?" Esther heard her own voice before she realised she had spoken, she felt the crowd's eyes on her for the briefest second before they turned back to Jack.

Jack gave her a small smile. He had been one of her classmates too, she could only imagine how he felt, he had been a lot closer to both Michael and Laurie than she had.

"I don't know." His voice had lost the volume it had when he had first burst into the diner.

A moment of silence fell over the diner as if every person in there needed a moment to process the news.

"I think we should head down to the police station." Said Scott Vela, one of the local elementary school teachers.

Murmurs of agreement filled the previously silent air before the sound of chairs scraping against the tiled floor and the heavy footfalls followed suit.

This third attack seemed to shift everything in Forklea, the small community had been rocked by the violent wave of murders, something that had never been documented in the town's history before now. Esther felt the shift, nit just in the town but within herself – she suddenly felt as though she may just become the prey. She watched over the brim of her mug as people filed out of the diner and seemed to march like soldiers down main street and in the general direction of the police station.

"They'll catch him." Nancy's soothing voice came from just behind Esther's shoulder, Nancy's familiar hand placing itself on her shoulder as the watched the mob get further and further away – fading away into the distance.

Esther hummed in response.

The sun had fallen soon after Esther had gotten home from the diner; she had been there longer today, probably drinking far more mediocre coffee than was healthy but she couldn't stand the thought of just being at home and waiting to see where the killer would strike next.

She had to leave eventually though, after a promise to both Nancy and Joey to lock all of her windows and doors and to triple check those locks before she went to sleep she had slipped out of the diner door and walked home. The last of the sunlight had warmed her back as she traced the paths that she had walked her entire life. Sometimes she thought it was sad, that she had desperately wanted to escape this town all throughout high school only to return to it after a few years of freedom – she supposed people always find their way home though and her grandmother had needed her.

When she had gotten home she had locked all her windows and doors, as she was instructed, and then as she watched the sun finally sink beneath the horizon line from her bedroom window, her stomach growl loudly and Esther decided diner sounded perfect right about then.

The oven had barely begun to warm itself when a knock sounded at the front door. Esther wasn't stupid, she knew that a serial killer was running around the small town and she knew that her house was far away enough from her neighbours that they wouldn't hear her scream if it was in fact a psychopath standing on the other side of the door.

Those two little facts are the reason that Esther opened her front door, with a knife in her hand, only to come face to face with Spencer Reid.