Go to Hell, Spencer.
"Come with us," Stanley said.
He and Desiree led Reid through wispy clouds that seemed to part around them as if they were living things. As they walked, Stanley talked.
"The most important thing to remember is that you will be tempted to give into despair when you see the suffering of the damned. The souls that inhabit Hell are there because that's where they belong. You must remember there's nothing you can do to help them, no matter how much you want to. Do you understand?"
Reid nodded mutely as the clouds around them began to thin just a bit as they traveled.
"Your greatest gift isn't your intellect," Desiree said. "It's your compassion and empathy. Lucifer will try to take advantage of that gift and distract you."
Reid nodded and swallowed hard. "I'm afraid," he said honestly.
"If you weren't frightened, I'd say you were a fool and I know you're not a fool."
"I feel like one."
Desiree clasped his hand and warmth like a fire in the deepest part of winter filled him from head to toe. "You can do this."
Suddenly, the white clouds were gone and he stood at the precipice of a great chasm that seemed to go on forever. He flinched back and began to shake. Lightning split the red sky that roiled with black clouds. He clapped his hands over his ears to drown out screaming voices that rose from the pit. The air stank with sulfur and the odor of decay he knew nearly as well as the perfume of a beautiful spring day.
"What's happening?"
He had to shout over the howls and wails of millions of voices that wafted up from the chasm.
"This is the way into Hell."
A hand, black as the soot from a stove fire, rose up out of mists the color of blood and scrabbled over the edge of the pit. A voice rose in a scream so full of despair that Reid bent to grab the hand.
"No!" Stanley pulled him back. "Remember what I said. You can't help them."
Reid looked over the edge and saw something his eyes couldn't comprehend crouched at the rim of the cliff. It hissed up at him and cackled out insane laughter. "Fresh meat," it crooned. "Come down and join us."
He watched in horror as the creature, no longer recognizable as human snagged the hand of another poor creature, which crouched near, and bit it off with savage glee in its eyes. It stuffed the hand into its mouth and chewed with such enthusiasm that Reid wished he could be sick. The second creature wailed in agony until its hand reappeared and the first creature bit it off again.
"So tasty," the little creature said and beckoned to Reid. "Come, Spencer Reid, join us in sweet agony."
"Stop it!"
Stanley dragged him back from the edge of the pit. "You can't help them," he repeated but there were tears running down his face.
"Why is it that you can cry and I can't," Reid demanded.
"Because we are Angels; you're simply a disembodied soul. Now, we have to hurry."
"I don't understand."
"You must go willingly. You must take a leap of faith."
"You want me to jump."
"It's the only way. If you try to climb down, the souls that inhabit this place will destroy you. Trust your heart and it will take you to Maeve.
Reid nodded and thought of the last time he heard Maeve's voice. He remembered the trust in her eyes the first and last time he saw her and he thought of how he failed her.
"Don't think about that," Desiree said. "Think about the first time she told you she loved you. How did you feel?"
"I felt like I could fly," he said.
"Then you can."
He nodded and stepped off the edge of the chasm.
CMCMCMCM
Maeve yanked on the chain around her wrists as she had pulled on them for what seemed to be an eternity. They rattled around her and the demons that circled her howled with laughter. "Why don't you give up in despair," one taunted her and its scarlet eyes glowed like fire in a face so twisted and ugly she wondered that she hadn't gone mad.
"Yes," cooed another demon. "You can't escape, so there is no other choice but to join us. Accept the offer of the master and become our Queen."
"Never," she screamed. "Spencer, help me please."
"Spencer," one of the demons aped. "Help me," it mocked her.
"Enough," a voice commanded from outside the circle.
She knew the voice. It was Spencer's voice, but it wasn't, there was something wrong with it. It was his voice, the Father of Lies, the King of Hell, the one that wanted her for his Queen. He was Satan, Lucifer, the devil, the face of despair and agony. He thought he fooled her at first, but she knew Spencer's voice and though he looked like her beloved, he couldn't quite get Spencer's voice right. There was coldness in it that called to mind the solitude of the grave. It wasn't warm and kind, like Spencer. There was no love, only greedy lust.
She flinched when he stepped through the circle of demons and strode up to face her. Spencer stood in front of her, but he wasn't Spencer.
"Have you made up your mind, my beauty?"
"No!"
She shouted it and the demons laughed and rustled their ragged wings so that they stirred up a noxious wind that blew back her hair from her shoulders.
"I grow weary of your resistance."
He stepped forward and touched her face. His hand was icy cold and the skin felt like acid. She screamed and he smiled. His eyes suddenly went black as ebony and his voice changed and deepened. She tried to move back, but her legs were frozen.
"No one will come to rescue you. Join me of your own free will and we shall rule together."
"Never," she shouted with all of her strength.
"You will change your mind, I promise you."
Suddenly a white light appeared over her head and something materialized out of it. The demons howled and cowered back as three beings in blinding white walked out of the column of light. One of them was Spencer. It was another trick. It had to be. "No," she said.
"Maeve," he called and rushed forward.
One of the demons reached out for him and held him fast with one taloned hand. It laughed gleefully. "Master," it said, "A new soul for your torment."
"No," said the Spencer doppelganger. "He has the stench of Life around him," he observed.
He came close and sniffed like a dog with a new toy. He drew back and his eyes changed to fiery red. "You have the sweet odor of Death on you, as well. It is very strong. Very interesting," he said with a smile that froze Maeve's heart.
"It would seem you are at a tipping point, Spencer Reid."
"That's not for you to decide." Stanley pointed out as the demons circled around them.
Lucifer whirled around on the Beings with Spencer that Maeve didn't recognize.
"How dare you interfere here?"
"You robbed Heaven of a soul meant for Paradise and you ask us how we dare," Desiree spoke up.
"Ah, yes, guardian angels. It appears that you have failed."
"You're demons took a soul not meant for this place."
Lucifer threw back his head and roared out laughter. "Where is the fun in tormenting eager sinners that earned their eternal punishment? That's so boring, so I steal souls of the good and corrupt them to evil. That is so much more satisfying."
"And yet, you've failed with me," Maeve said. "Even though this is another of your tricks, I won't give in to you."
"It's not a trick," Spencer in white said. "Listen to my voice. You know I'm really here."
She felt her head nodding before she could stop it. It was his voice without the flavor of hate that was in the Devil before her.
"He is right," said the Spencer twin. "He is the true Spencer Reid and now we're going to have some real fun."
"You call this fun," Desiree shouted, infuriated.
"No," Stanley said, when she moved forward. "You can't hurt him."
"He's right. You're nothing to me. No one, but God himself can thwart me. I exist because there must be a balance between good and evil."
"That you try to tip in your favor," said Stanley.
The Spencer look-a-like turned ruby eyes on the Angel and growled like a wolf. "As do you," he spat.
"We don't rob souls."
To Maeve's surprise Lucifer laughed. "Are we going to argue for eternity or get down to the business at hand? I assume you mean to do something heroic and selfless," he directed at Spencer, "I imagine something like; you'll stay here and take Maeve's place."
To his surprise, Reid found that his head nodded in agreement with Lucifer before he could control the reaction.
"Yes, I have had that offer in the past. I'm not interested. You see, I know many things about you. You have thwarted me more than once. You hunt down willing souls that do my work and you've stopped them before they could do all I asked of them."
"I'm very happy about that," Reid said as though someone else was directing his speech. "Why don't we stop playing games and you tell me what it will take for Maeve to leave this place and go to Heaven.
The Spencer twin grinned at him. "I have a game in mind. If you win, you and Maeve may leave this place. If you lose, you both stay and Maeve becomes my Queen."
"What kind of game?"
The demons circling them howled and laughed as their wings ruffled impatiently.
"First, do I have your agreement to the terms?"
"No," Desiree and Stanley said in unison. "It's a trick."
"Don't do it," Maeve cried. "They're right; he's trying to deceive you."
"I assure you that I will play fair."
Reid stared into his own face and tried to read it, but for some reason all of his skills were wasted on a Being, he couldn't conceive of in his life let alone in this place. He knew what the Bible said about Lucifer, but then he looked at Maeve and saw the misery in her eyes. Hadn't she suffered enough? He'd failed her once. He refused to do it again.
"Agreed," he said.
