Isabel walked through the trees yet again, this time with a brown-haired girl beside her. She knew the girl from the moment she saw her appear in the trees, and Isabel wondered if this was the reason that the taxi cab disappeared before she could make a decision about whether to get in or not. She walked with her, the two of them wondering where they were, and why. She told Isabel all about her niece and nephew, and Isabel told her that she didn't have a family. Not anymore, anyway. The girl didn't push the issue. They were walking and talking together, and that was all either of them really wanted at the moment.
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Ciara looked down at the hospital bed of Maliya Aldaine, the girl breathing only with the aid of a ventilator. She had somehow pulled through, but now she was reduced to lying in a coma, only really living with the help of machines. How long would her family leave her like this? Would they give up on her quickly, or would they keep her on life support for as long as they could, hoping that one day she would wake up? Akilah was talking with Maliya's parents, while Arthur and Naomi sat in the corner of the room, ready to talk to Ciara whenever she would think of the best way to ask the questions needing to be asked.
She already knew that the Aldaine's were very well off, except for Arthur and Naomi, but she didn't know why. She looked down at Maliya, looked down at the broken girl who shouldn't have lived. Her head was wrapped in bandages and had a helmet-like object on it, designed to keep it in place. Essentially, the doctors had boxed her head in, trying to keep any further damage from occurring. From the little of her face that Ciara could see, the Unsub had giving it plenty of attention, her nose clearly broken and her bruises were large and a deep purple. The girl looked dead just lying there, but there was something off about her. Ciara didn't know exactly what it was, but Maliya felt strangely... alive.
"Why do you just keep staring at her like that? What are you seeing that we aren't?" Naomi asked, and Ciara shook her head.
"I'm not seeing anything, I'm feeling. She feels strangely alive for how dead she looks. Can't ye feel it, too?" Ciara asked, and both Arthur and Naomi admitted that they couldn't feel it, even though Arthur and Maliya were extremely close siblings. "Well, my mam always told me I was extremely receptive. Can ye think of anyone that would want to take Kort-ni and Tehl and hurt Ma-liya?"
"N-no. We assume that whoever did this only hurt Maliya because they wanted Kortni and Tehl, and Maliya would never give those two up without a fight. She would give her life for them... oh, and she nearly did, didn't she?" Naomi cried, and Arthur put his arm around her, consoling her.
"We aren't as well off as my parents and Maliya. They... they didn't exactly approve of my life choices, so they cut us off, but we've built our own life. One that we want to live. But... if it was ransom, wouldn't they take Maliya instead?" Arthur asked, and Ciara said that would indeed probably be the case. If it was a ransom kidnap, they would have to know that they would get more from the Aldaine's from Maliya than from the children of the son they cut off. If not, well... They weren't very smart, were they? But so far, no ransom request had come. And it definitely wasn't opportunistic, as the Unsub had taken the time to break into the house, nearly kill Maliya, and then lock the door behind him.
"Are ye certain there is no one? No jealous friends, no work enemies, anyone at all that might harbor a grudge against ye or yer children?" Ciara asked again, but Arthur and Naomi insisted that there was no one.
"So, why aren't you asking if anyone harbored a grudge against Maliya?"
"If they did, they would have gone after Ma-liya directly. There wouldn't have been a reason to take Kort-ni and Tehl. Whoever did this either wanted to hurt ye or just saw something in yer children. Ma-liya, unfortunately, was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Ciara explained.
YOU ARE READING
Psychosis
Fanfiction(A Criminal Minds Fanfic {Dr. Spencer Reid}) Isabel Ashe: writer, supposed prodigy, all-around mystery. No one knows anything about Isabel, but that's because she wants to keep it that way. The FBI, however, doesn't want to keep it that way. Through...
