THE HAUNTING

"I know what you did." Her sultry voice rang through his ears. He shivered, silently cowering against the wall. He felt as if he would collapse at any second as he looked down at his feet, his legs shaking violently.

"Are you going to be a good boy for Mommy and take your punishment?" She asked with a pout as her hands disappeared into the pocket of her jacket only to pull out a cigarette and a lighter. She placed the cigarette in between her lips, gnawing on it while she fiddled with the lighter. The boy was beyond afraid now. He stood, petrified, gazing into the flame of the lighter as she slowly lit her cigarette.

Stepping closer to the boy, the older lady took a drag of her cigarette before blowing the smoke into the young boy's face. She watched him as he hacked and coughed before stepping even closer. Her nose brushed against his as she asked, "Are you a good boy?"

A piercing scream ran through the room.

Spencer Reid woke up sweating profusely, and shaking. Glancing over at the window on the far side of his room, he couldn't help but notice his heart pounding in his chest, like the raindrops against window. Averting his attention from the window to the digital clock on his nightstand, Spencer let his head loll back onto his pillow at the sight of the time.

01:36 am

Spencer knew it wasn't healthy to keep waking up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, and shaking as if he had seen a ghost. But, he knew that he hadn't seen a ghost because ghosts haven't been scientifically proven yet, so it had to be his dreams. The young doctor broke into a cold sweat just thinking about his dreams, his nightmares.

Spencer shook his head, this nightmare was different. He felt like he has seen it before, but only when he was younger. He's felt this way about nightmares before, fragmentary and desultory dreams that he had throughout the years. Because it isn't a nightmare nor is it a dream, it's a memory, he thought. But why am I suddenly remembering it now?

A ringing sound cut through the silence of Spencer's apartment. He cursed as he jumped, trying to get his heart to stop racing when he realized that it was just his phone. He reached over towards his nightstand and grabbed the device Garcia and J.J. made him buy. Cursing to himself again, Spencer squinted down at the bright, blurry mess that was his phone screen as he scrambled for his glasses. When he found his glasses and read the name of his boss on the screen, he answered the phone and put it towards his ear.

"Reid?"

"Hotch, it's one o'clock in the morning, why are you calling me?" Reid's voice was slow, raspy, and tired, but it also sounded shaky. He sounded annoyed, though who wouldn't. The older man still couldn't help but worry about him. Reid did sound quite shaken up.

"Did you forget that you are an FBI Agent? We have a case. Get here as fast as you can." Aaron Hotchner said, trying and succeeding at not letting his worry slip into the tone of his dry voice.

"Yes, sir." Reid grumbled into the phone, before the call ended. Hotch, who was utterly confused and surprised by his youngest agent's behavior, glanced down at his phone before pocketing it.

"Something wrong, Aaron?" David Rossi questioned as he looked at Hotch from the passenger seat of the younger man's SUV.

"Yeah, um, it's Reid." He started.

"What about him?" Rossi said as he got out of the SUV followed by Hotch.

"I think something happened to him. His voice was shaky, and it sounded like he was trying to catch his breath," Hotch furrowed his eyebrows, "And he had an attitude." He said as him and Rossi entered the building of the F.B.I., Behavioral Analysis Unit.

"You sure it was Reid you were talking to?" Rossi was stunned.

"Pretty sure, Dave."

"Okay, so, either something happened or the kid's having a late teenage rebellion." If it wasn't for his (more than usual) serious tone and expression, one might have thought Rossi was joking.

"Dammit! Gideon warned me about this." Aaron cursed before stepping into the elevator with David.

Trashy ending, jeez I know. Don't rub it in. How do you like it? By the way, I'm doing this on my phone because my laptop decided to crash while I was typing this up. This will be on AO3 soon, but it is already published on Wattpad - @betchyharry

~Aryanna