Paralyzing Fear

Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." ~Ambrose Redmoon

Emily Prentiss took a deep breath and let it out into the dark, cold night, as a frosted cloud billowed from her mouth. Fear overtook her mind and she didn't know how to deal with her situation. She was all alone. There was no one to help her. If she screamed, no one would hear her and she would just get caught. This wasn't her; she wasn't supposed to be afraid of anything. With her job, she thought she should be used to the evil in the world. Her heart hammered in her head as she snuck around the large red barn. Her mouth was dry and all she wanted was to feel safe again. If she could just get to her team, then she would be alright. Emily had been kidnapped. As she thought about it, she couldn't really believe that this was happening to her. This had never crossed her mind as a possibility even though she saw these things every day. Her eyes filled with tears and she shook it off, knowing that she had to keep herself together if she was going to escape and survive this. All of the cases she'd worked, she hadn't really thought about what she would have done in their situation. Now she was in the center of her work and she had no idea what to do. Fear jumped in her throat and she held back a scream. She wondered if her team had even noticed that she was missing. Her eyes burned from lack of sleep and she shook those thoughts from her head, trying to energize herself. She had to escape. Suddenly, a giant of a man stepped in front of her, grabbing a handful of her hair, dragging her back around the barn. He was going at such a stride that now, Emily's feet couldn't keep up. He drug her solely by her hair as her feet drug the ground. He had a gruff dace with a full, red beard and dirty overalls. He had receding hairline and he was at least six foot six. He was huge. With his free hand, he grabbed Emily's arm, nearly crushing her bone. Emily screamed out in pain, which only earned her a knee to the face and she was out cold.

***

Meanwhile, back at BAU headquarters, JJ's forehead creased in growing concern. She hadn't seen Emily all day and it wasn't like her to not show up and not call anyone about it; especially after a big case had been solved. JJ stood up and caught Hotch by the arm as he walked by her.

"Hey, have you seen Emily?" JJ's voice projected concern and hope. Hotch's brows drew together and he shook his head.

"No, why?" Hotch's eyes were curious.

"I'm worried. It isn't like her to not show up or call to say she's sick or something." JJ was truly troubled by this.

"Hm. You're right. I'll ask around, you call her." They had no case yet, so Hotch was fully focused on finding Emily. It wasn't an urgent cause at the moment, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Hotch walked to Garcia's office and knocked quietly on the door as he opened it.

"Garcia, have you seen Emily today?" He hid his concern well as he questioned.

"Um...no. Actually I was just wondering where she was. Is there something wrong?" Garcia had rolled her chair around to face Hotch as she wondered why Emily wouldn't be at work. She was always at work.

"No. Go back to whatever you were doing. Thanks, Garcia." He walked out, not letting Garcia question his vague inquiry. Garcia's brows drew together and she pressed her lips into a straight line, silently wondering where Emily was.

"Morgan. Have you seen Prentiss?" Hotch's voice was hard and void of all emotion. Morgan looked up from his paper work and cocked his head to the side. He shook his head as he thought about it for a moment.

"No. Why? Is she not here today? I just figured she was off doing some paperwork or in JJ's office." Morgan could tell that something was wrong. Emily was always there and if Hotch was forcing his tone to be emotionless, then something wasn't right.

"No. JJ asked me earlier and I haven't been able to get anything on her. No one's seen her all day." Hotch glanced around Morgan's work space and shook his head, hoping that Emily was just sick.

"Well...have you called her?" Morgan's eyes were fixed on Hotch's as he sat on his desk.

"Um...no. JJ was doing that, but I guess I can do the same." He picked up his phone and pressed a number on his speed dial, waiting for it to start ringing.

"Hello, Hotch." A woman's voice came on the other end and Hotch was surprised.

"Prentiss?" He waited as he relaxed. Emily was alright.

"No. It's JJ. Emily left her phone in her office." Hotch melted. Emily would never leave her phone. Morgan's brows drew together and he thought back to the night before, wondering if there was anything off about her before he left for home. He didn't recall anything but now regretted leaving before her.

***

Tears spilled from Emily's sluggish eyes. It felt like every muscle in her body had been ripped apart. She blinked and a flood of memories came back to her: the screaming, blood, and pain. She gritted her teeth, trying to force the tears back into her eyes. She would not be weak like this. That was just not her. She repelled the tears and forced herself to be calm. Panicking would not help her situation. Once again, her thoughts found their way back to her team. She had to believe that they noticed she was gone and was looking for her. She needed to have faith in that. It was the only thing keeping her strong. Then, the man who took her stepped into the dark room where she was being held. He walked close to the center of the room, turning on a blinding light. Emily's eyes burned and she could see nothing but the shadow of the man. She assumed that that was the point of the light. 'Quick', she thought. 'I need a profile.' That was the only way she knew to deal with this. Emily found it difficult to concentrate hard enough to get any of the words right in her head. She threw those thoughts aside for a moment, focusing on her captor; that was the only way she would get a profile anyway. Though Emily had been with this man for at least 10 hours, she had not seen his face.

"Hello, Agent Prentiss." His voice was gruff and full of patronizing hatred. Emily wondered what she had done to deserve all of this. Her eyes were adjusting to the blinding light and she noticed that it illuminated some of the prison-room she was being held in.

"Who are you?" Emily's voice was scratchy from her screaming and it hurt to speak.

"I don't think that you need that information." He stood still, not even moving a muscle. Emily looked around and saw very little. It was a simple room with four walls and a door. The only furniture in the room was what she was sitting on; the cold, steel chair and the bright beam directed at her face.

"What do you want?" Emily found her words were slurred and tremulous, she felt like she was drugged. Her thoughts were foggy and things were starting to move around her. Then, a brief thought of Reid when Tobias had kidnapped him crossed her mind and she immediately focused on something else, hoping that she would make it out before any permanent damage was done. She peered through the fog and tried to pay attention.

"Good. You're catching on. I'm going to call your boss and see if he misses you enough to play the game." He sounded excited. By now, Emily could see her captor's face and she really wished she hadn't. Besides being enormous, his appearance was by far the worst part. Emily gasped when she saw his face. There were five, unbelievably long scars stretching across his entire face and one of them went over his left eye. He didn't appear to have a left eye. The eye that he did have was settled deep into his face and half of his nose on that side was gone. This man had been mauled. He had this chilling smile that looked more like a grimace and he chuckled darkly after he saw Emily's reaction to his deformed face.

Emily's head spun and she heard the words: "play the game" over and over, echoing in her mind. It was like she was spinning and floating through the air. She tried to focus but in a matter of seconds, her vision faded and she only saw black.

***

JJ and Morgan walked into Emily's apartment building with a sense of fear in the air. They knew that something was definitely wrong. As they approached the door, Morgan reached forward to knock. A few seconds passed and there was no answer. JJ glanced at Morgan and tried the doorknob. It was unlocked. They shared another fearful glance and went inside. Emily would definitely not have left her door unlocked with all that she saw every day. That would be asking for something bad to happen. They unholstered their weapons and walked in, tense.

JJ gasped as she saw the whole place was chaos. They definitely knew that Emily wasn't a slob; the whole apartment was a mess. The chairs and tables were overturned and every glass item in the room was broken. There was a blood stain on the carpet that looked recent and JJ couldn't take her eyes from it. Morgan got JJ's attention and gave her a look that meant for her to keep going through the house. They had to clear it before they did anything else. All JJ could think about was that blood stain; it was too much blood.

They cleared the apartment and stood, staring at the stain on the carpet.

"Maybe we should call Hotch." Morgan's voice was far-off. His eyes were livid and he was trying not to imagine every horrible scenario that could have happened to Emily. JJ tried to snap herself out of the trance and call their boss. She pulled the dialing phone to her ear, her eyes still trailing on the horrid, dark, red blotch on the floor.

"Hotch, her apartment is clear…it's a mess. There's a blood stain and lots of broken glass everywhere." Her voice was dead and Hotch could hear the sadness.

"Okay. I'll call in a team to process the scene and you two get back here." With that, he hung up and JJ closed her phone slowly.

"He said for us to head back." JJ swallowed and squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't want to think about Emily being in pain. She was the strongest person JJ knew and their team had had its fair share of tragedy; they didn't need any more.

Once they were back with the rest of the team, they decided to meet in the conference room to discuss what they had on Emily's situation. This was now their only focus. Silence filled the tight air as the team stared at each other. Ring, Ring, Ring…the conference phone sliced through the silence and shook everyone from their daze. That was weird. Hotch stared at it for a second and blinked a few times before he pushed the speaker button, answering it.

"Agent Hotchner." Hotch glanced to Rossi for a second and then back to the speaker in the middle of the table.

"Hello, Aaron Hotchner." A deep, raspy voice answered and a chill went over the whole room.

"Who is this?" Hotch got Garcia's attention and made a gesture that meant for her to track the caller. She typed astonishingly fast, her fingers flying across the keys. Everyone in the room sat up straighter, listening intently to every word coming from this guy's mouth.

"Oh, I think you know enough about me to know what this call is about. So, Aaron…can I call you Aaron?" There was a silence when Hotch refused to play his game.

"What do you want?" Hotch kept his anger under control.

"You don't want to know how our dear Emily is doing?" His words were mocking. JJ gritted her teeth and squeezed the arm of her chair. Garcia grabbed JJ's hand and swallowed.

"She's right here, you know. Do you want to talk with her?" Again there was a silence.

"Well I was just calling to give you the rules of the game. But if you don't want to know the rules…well…I'll still be playing. Sweet Emily will be the one to pay for it." JJ's eyes filled with moisture and she gave Hotch a pained look. This was her best friend they were talking about. Of course they had to play the game.

"Rules?" Hotch said this through a tout jaw. There was no way around this, and if there was, he couldn't see it.

"Oh where to begin. So we have established that I kidnapped Emily and there are rules for you to obey. Rule number 1: you must not bring in anyone else on this case; no higher authority or otherwise a person not sitting in the conference room right not. I know that the whole team….not counting my darling Emily…is in there. Rule number 2: you do something wrong, Emily pays for it. Rule number 3: You may do whatever it takes to find your dear friend, only working in the given parameters. Rule number 4: You have to watch….." There was a silence throughout the room as everyone waited.

"Let the game begin."

This is my first Criminal Minds fanfiction story. Please Read and Review!!! :D –soccergirlmich--