Lost Member

Sitting downstairs with the TV playing, Rose sat there on the couch. She was watching Criminal Minds that was left on from last night. Derek was watching it last night but he went to bed early with Sophia. She kept watching Season 6, Episode 18, "Lauren". She had no clue what was happening until Sohpia came downstairs.

“Rose, what are you doing?” She grabbed a cup, pouring herself some coffee she turned to see what Rose was watching. “You shouldn’t be watching that.”

“But why?” Rose complained, as Sophia turned the channel to something more appropriate for her age.

“Because you don’t need to watch that. That show is for grownups.” Taking a drink of her coffee she sat down on the couch next to Rose. While they sat there for a little while, Rose picked up a yellow file. Sophia looked to see what she had and noticed it was an old case that went cold. “May I see that?”

“Sure.” Rose handed the file over to her and got up to get a snack. As Sophia looked at the file she looked at the photos and noticed something she didn’t before. In one picture, there was a picture of the inside of the car. On the floor of the car there was a little toy car tucked under the passenger seat. There’s no way it was Rose’s since she never mentioned anything about having toy cars when she was younger. Getting a closer look at the car she saw that there was small amounts of blood on the floor behind the passenger's seat. Rose sat behind the driver seat so how did the blood got on the other side of the car? Looking through some of the file some more she found that the crash wasn’t what it seemed.

“Rose, sweetheart. Can you go get your father?” Sophia asked, as Rose nodded her head and ran upstairs.With in a couple of seconds Derek came down the stairs with Rose behind him.

“You sent Rose to get me?” He asked, as he looked at the file Sophia had in her lap.

“Yes, I did. I wanna talk to you about a case that we had four years ago.” Sophia used her eyes to signal Rose. She wanted her to leave the room so she could bring up the case that traumatized her when she was young.

“Rose, how about you go play in your room while me and your mother talk.” Derek looked at Rose and she nodded before going to her room. Once she was gone Derek picked up the file and re-read the information.

“Derek, Rose had the file so I read it since it’s been years since I looked at it. When I looked I noticed that there are things that make no sense. I looked at the picture and information again when I noticed that there were things I never noticed. Under the passenger’s seat there is a toy car and blood on the floor as well. When I re-read the medical certificate as well. It said the cause of death was blood forced trauma to the head.”

“Blood forced trauma? They probably hit their heads on the dashboard or the wheel.”

“They did but they also had a gunshot wound to the heads as well. Meaning this could have been a set up or someone else was there and possibly shot them.”

“If someone did shoot them they could have done this for something.”

“Or someone.”

“Yeah, so we need to keep Rose out of this. She got over the accident and we don’t wanna trigger her. Therefore, we need to talk to the chief and we need to know if her parents had other children or just her.”

“Alright, Rose! Come down here please!” Sophia called up to Rose and waited for her to come down the stairs. Once she did, Sophia gave Rose her shoes. “We’re going out.”

Sophia and Derek took Rose for a drive down the road where the accident happened. Rose seemed fine until she kicked the driver's seat.

“Derek, be careful. A car may hit us if you're not careful.” She kicked the seat again to get his attention. He pulled the car over and looked at her from the mirror in the car.

“What?”

“If you’re not careful a car will hit your side. Be careful, please.” She looked out her window and watched a small red car turn off that road.Looking at the seat next to her, she frowned.”He once sat there. Next to me.”

“I’ll drive carefully but you got to tell me who sat next to you in the car?” Derek looked at Sophia before looking back in the mirror. Rose played with her hands and would stop looking at every car that went by them. She was getting nervous and it really showed. Playing with her hands, biting her lip, looking every which way, and not paying attention to what is said to her. She just looked like she didn’t want to sit there.

“Derek, wait here.” Sophia opened her door and went to Rose’s door. When she opened it Rose reached out to close it. “Come here, Rose.”

Rose got out of the car, looking into Sophia’s eyes before running away. She didn’t get far since Derek leaped out of his car, grabbed by her arm so she couldn’t go anywhere. She pulled away, kicking, cursing, and even tried to punch Derek.

“He’s here! I know it!” She screamed, kicking Derek’s lower leg with her foot.

“Who’s here? Who is it?” He held her as still as he could even though she wouldn’t hold still. “Who…is…here?!”

“The boy is here!” She managed to push herself away and pointed towards a small trail that was a little hidden by weeds and bushes. “I saw him hiding there. He ran down the small trail!”

Derek went to the trail very cautiously and slowly just in case that the boy was armed. Pushing some bushes out of the way there was a small footprint in the dirt. It was small so it must have been the boy Rose had seen watching them. Turning around, Rose was holding onto Sophia as they watched him turn back toward the trail. He walked down and found more footprints in the dirt. Following the footprints he came to a house.

The house was small and it looked like it had a basement. He heard a crashing sound and ran to the front door. When he kicked down the door, he saw a little boy who suddenly jolted up.

“Please…don’t hurt me…” The boy covered his eyes and sat on the floor with his head almost touching the floor. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“What are you doing, kid?” Derek removed the boy’s hands from his eyes and noticed that he had marks on his face. The boy’s left eye was black-n-blue, tons of little scratches on his cheeks, and he even had a bloody lip which must have happened when he was running from him.

“I’m very sorry, sir, I wasn’t running off or anything. I swear on it.” The boy looked at Derek, his eyes said he was scared and looked like he was going to cry.

“Come with me, little one. I won’t hurt you.” Holding his hand out from the boy to take. The boy just looked at his hand and pushed himself away.

“No, I-I can’t…if I do he’ll come for me!” The boy screamed, ran to a door and opened it. Inside there were stairs that went down into the basement. The boy ran down the stairs and refused to go with Derek. He chased the boy  down the stairs and around the corner. He took him by the arm, pulling the boy to him.

“Listen, you were watching us and now you're scared of me?” Derek held the boy in front of him and tried not to yell at the poor boy.

“I-I…s-she saw me not the other way around. I-I just wanted to go home. I-I want my mother and father!” The boy pushed some more but Derek’s grip was too strong.

“Where is your mother and father?” Still holding the boy in front of him, the boy had a tear running down his cheek. “Where are they?”

“T-they’re…gone.” The boy replied. “They died in a crash and I lost my older sister as well. I-I saw that girl looking at me and to be honest she reminded me of my older sister.”

After he explained where his parents were there was a voice coming from upstairs. It was a man’s voice, possibly an adult around Derek’s age.

“Dillen? Come here now!” The man shouted, while footsteps could be heard coming from above the two of them.

“Please…don’t make me go up there…please…” Dillen cried to Derek as the man called again from upstairs.

“I won’t do that.”Derek looked up the stairs and quietly went up them while the boy stayed in the basement. He kept going up the stairs until he peeked around the corner. There was an adult man standing there in all black and he seemed pretty angry at the fact that Dillen didn’t come out. The man had a handgun out and pointed it around the room.

“Dillen! Come out right now!” The man kept his gun out and wandered around the room. As he kept walking around the room he was standing in. “Dillen!”

Derek felt someone’s hand touch his shoulder and Dillen had snuck past. He walked right up to the man with the gun and stood there. He just looked down at his feet and he bit his lip.

“Why didn’t you come sooner? You can walk. You can speak. Why didn’t you come soon!” The man held the gun nuzzle under Dillen’s chin.

“I-I’m sorry, sir. I was sleeping in the basement, sir.” Dillen stuttered, picking up his head with the gun raised. They stood still for a couple minutes, before the man used the gun and smacked Dillen across the face. Dillen covered his face with his hands. Derek could watch the man hurting DIllen he took his gun out of his pocket and pointed it at the man. Blowing his cover, Derek got two feet from the man and DIllen ran out of the house.

“Who the heck are you? What are you doing in my house?” The man asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“I have a better question. What are you doing to that boy?” Derek still had his gun pointing at the man when something had hit Derek in the back of the head. Falling to the floor, the man took the boy’s arm and whispered something into his ear. Dillen nodded and the man ran off. He just stood there and watched Derek to make sure he didn't try anything stupid. As he was still there a woman came running in with a young girl next to her.

"Derek?! Are you alright? Derek! " Sophia Hollered, getting down on her knees to check to see if he was okay. As she was helping Derek Rose just looked at Dillen. As she looked at him, Dillen just gave her a faceless expression.

“What happened to him?” She asked, walking closer to him. She was inches away from Dillen when he spoke.

“The man that was here knocked him out. He’ll be fine.” Looking down to Derek, Dillen picked up a brick that was on the ground. Passing it from hand to hand, his hands got covered in blood from Derek’s head. Sophia picked her head up and noticed the boy’s hands.

“Kid, did you see if that brick was thrown? I need to know.” Sophia stood up and approached the boy, who just backed up. “I need to know what happened to him so we can help him.”

Dillen kept walking backwards and ran into the wall, while Sophia kept walking closer to him. Still holding the brick he dropped it on the floor as the medic and police officers showed up.

“Is everything okay?” The officer asked, looking at everyone.

“He needs medical help, he was knocked out by maybe a brick. This boy has some marks but I don't know much about him.” Sophia pointed to Derek on the floor and then to Dillen.

Two EMTs got down on their knees to check Derek over while another EMT walked over to DIllen. He was scared so he ran down to the basement again and hid in the closet. Inside the closet were knives and all kinds of things the man kept in the house. He stayed there until Rose opened it to reveal him.

“Hey, it’s okay ya know. We just wanna help ya.” She held her hand for him to take but he just looked at her. “I promise not to hurt ya.”

“I don’t trust you or anyone…everyone who comes in here is bad.” He spoke ever so softly, curling himself up in a ball in the closet. “He was bad and so is the man on the floor.”

“The man on the floor is very nice. He wouldn’t hurt you if he were awake.” Taking his hand she smiled very warmly to him while he just cracked a smile for a second. “Let’s go upstairs.”

Leading him from the closet, they went back upstairs to where Sophia and an officer were talking. Derek was taken to the hospital and the EMT that tried to check DIllen was waiting outside for him. Dillen stopped and Rose turned to face him.

“It’s okay.” She led him to the officer and Sophia who were still talking. “Sir?”

The officer turned to Rose and smiled at her. “Hello, Rose.”

“Hello, I have him with me and he has some things to say. Don’t ya.” She looked to DIllen and brought him closer to the officer. He swallowed hard and looked at the officer before speaking.

“Sir, I-I just wanted t-to say…t-that Derek had a brick thrown at his head and that the man ran away. Derek was trying to keep me safe when he was struck. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright kid. Derek will be alright. May I ask you a question?” Sophia bent down to his height and smiled at him.

“Sure, what is your question?”

“Where are you parents and who is the man?” She asked, while the officer left with Rose to give the two of them some privacy.

“My parents died in a crash when I was six but my sister lived. I saw her get out of the car and wandered around the road before I left her. The man just took me from my seat and made me leave them. I feel bad for my sister who doesn’t know who I am and my parents for losing their lives. He told me that he sees my sister all the time and he keeps telling me she’ll never come back for me. Every time I try to run away to find her I got locked in the basement and left there for days.” He cried as he explained everything to Sophia and he even allowed her to hold him in her arms.

“It’s alright and thank you for telling me. I’ll make sure you don’t have to go throw that ever again. I’ll protect you and make sure the man never comes near you.” She walked him out of the house and put him in her car where Rose sat and played with Sophia’s phone.

“Wait, what about my sister?” He asked, before Sophia could close the door.

“She’s right here my dear boy. She’s right next to you.” Sophia said, before closing the door and getting in the driver’s seat. “Rose, can I have my phone back?”

“Yes, mother.” Handing her phone back to Sophia, she sat back down and smiled at Dillen.

“Let’s go home guys. I’ll get a call when Derek is awake and  then we can all see him.”

“Alright!” Rose said with excitement as they went back home with the long lost member of Rose’s family.