24 hours earlier.

"Hotch are you sure we should be doing this without backup?" JJ said her voice full of fear and doubt.

She'd never known her boss do anything against protocol in her life. She clung onto the handle on the roof of the car above the window as Hotch spun the car around a corner sharply. All she could see out of her peripheral vision was the blur of the red and blue lights, flashing frantically. Her gun dug into her right hip as she was flattened against the inside of the SUV. She looked over quickly at Hotch who had his eyes dead bolted on the road ahead of him. The night was pitch black, a heavy lead of darkness. The headlights only just lighting a few feet in front of them.

"JJ with all due respect we do not have time right now, this girl is in danger, and we're the only ones with a chance of helping her." He said firmly, his face tightly frowning in determination. JJ knew better than to argue with him, she didn't even care about the legal consequences right now. She knew she had to help save this little girl that the Unsub had taken.

She and Hotch together had figured out where he'd be keeping her. The rest of the team had gone to their original location, when Hotch realised that he wouldn't be there, it meant nothing to the Unsub. And this monster was meticulous, organised, did everything for a reason, he was a pure psychopath. He'd done everything according to plan, and that meant this secondary location that should hold meaning to him. He could feel the experience more, get off on it more. JJ shuddered. They were in a rural area of Pennsylvania, JJ's home-state. She knew the cell phone signal all too well; they had no way of contacting the team.

"JJ keep trying!" Hotch shouted over the sirens as he put his foot down, her back jerked against the seat as the force of the acceleration jolted her backwards. Her stomach lurched. She flipped open her cell again, jamming her finger on the redial and holding it up to her ear. She could barely hear a thing anyway, but could make out the faint beeping that meant no reception.

"Nothing Hotch." She responded, closing her phone and putting it back in her pocket.

"We're here!" Hotch yelled slamming on the brakes. They'd arrived at the woods. He leapt out of the car, JJ running behind him, not even stopping to shut the doors. They had no time.

JJ's heart was pounding, forcing more adrenaline through her system to keep her going faster and faster. She could barely make out her boss in front of her as he ran through the blanket of black. Branches of trees close to her reached out and snatched at her hair but she was running so fast she barely acknowledged them. She could make out the 'FBI' written on Hotch's vest occasionally as the moon glinted off it. It hung high and full in the sky, their only form of light in this vastness, their only guide. Did he even know which direction he was going in? JJ thought to herself, but didn't slow down. He always has a plan. The dry floor crunched beneath her and twigs underfoot dug into her boots as she sped over them. The air around them was spookily still, the only sound was Hotch in front of her; he'd started to slow down. She matched his pace, when he stopped abruptly . He held out his hand to signal her to do the same. She caught up with him."Where are we?" She asked gasping for air, her hair coming loose out of its ponytail, hanging in front of her face. She instinctively grabbed for her gun. The night was chilly but she felt blazing hot from running. The cold air touched her face and stung slightly.

"We said it'd be deep in the woods, remote, room and space to do what he needed to do." Hotch whispered between pants as he slightly creased over, trying to take in oxygen.

"Hotch, it's gotta be close by. This guy still needs access from the road. We profiled he'd be-" she stopped for a moment and gulped in rapid breaths. "Physically weak, he wouldn't be able to carry the girls even unconscious, any further, and he was too good with forensic counter measures to bring a car into the woods and leave a trail of tyre marks". She rushed the words desperate to do something, anything rather than just standing there blind in the dark.

She kept looking over her shoulder and around her even though she couldn't see anything. Luckily Hotch understood her words, "We're definitely close." He stopped a minute and sniffed the air around him. JJ got the waft of the scent at exactly the same time.

"Fire." She whispered sharply. She pulled out her gun and held it with both hands, aimed at the ground, ready to move.

"This way!" Hotch ordered and started running more slowly this time. JJ copied, as her self-preservation instincts were overtaken by the overwhelming urge to save this child's life. Hotch already had his gun pulled out and was aiming it around him though he could see nothing. They slowed to a walk; it felt like they'd been running for hours. How far into the woods were they? Was this sadist's latest victim here, what if they were wrong? She aimed her weapon into the night, swinging around. Underneath her feet she felt the floor become easier to walk on. She pointed her gun to the ground so she could see from the torch light attached to it. She was right; the path had become easier to walk on. Someone had walked on it before and worn it down. She knew she was in the right place.

"Hotch?" She urgently whispered spinning round, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Her blood froze. She stopped on the spot, hyper vigilant, all her senses on overdrive. She began to panic.

"Hotch?" She called out again, her voice slightly wavering this time. He couldn't be that far away, she'd literally just seen him. Or had she? How long had they been out here...?

There was a sudden sound to the side of her. She whirled round and aimed her gun, shining the light.

"Is that you Hotch?" she said in hushed but urgent tones.

Her fingers were numb as the frost in the air paralyzed them. Her lungs felt like they would give in from the running, and her heart thudded so loud, she felt that it was audible to anyone close by. There was no reply. There was another sound, the rustling of the trees, like they were whispering to each other. She turned around again to where the sound came from this time, holding up her gun. She peered out into the darkness of the woods, the sound coming closer.

"Who's there?" She demanded this time, no longer whispering. "FBI!" she stated trying to sound forceful but terror coated her tones dragging them down and making her sound like a little girl. She looked round just in time to see something coming full speed into her face. She screamed.

Then it all went dark.