"Hotch! We've got report of another person missing," J.J. announced, dropping a file on the table, "Devin Green. Young male. Matches the others."
"Do we have a profile, yet?" Aaron inquired.
"I think so," J.J. nodded, "But you know how it is. It always seems like it's missing something, these days. Ever since..."
"Ever since Reid went missing," Aaron finished the sentence for her, "With good reason. I'm certain he would have noticed something already to tip us off, but he's not here and we can't keep looking for him until this case is solved, so let's just stay focus."
"Of course, Sir. I'll call the team together."
"The unsub we're looking for is a white female, most likely in her late to mid fourties," Emily explained, "She's likely got some form of scientific background. She's most likely going to look similar to the victims. We believe she usually has a calm and unassuming presence, but has been known to lash out at random intervals. There is a possibility that she suffers from some kind of mental illness."
"Because of the children, we believe she's recreating a loss of a child, likely that died either because of an accident or was harmed by another individual," Morgan added, rubbing his hands together, "We aren't quite sure how she's doing it, but it appears she's changing these young men back into children. We aren't quite sure how this process works, but we have to go with the evidence pointed out to us. When you find these victims, they will not look like their usual selves. We've collected a few photos from the victims families to help you identify them, if you do end up finding them."
"You can't actually believe someone is holding the power to turn full grown men into children!" one of the gathered officers rebuked.
"I know how strange this sounds, but the body identified as Richard Parker matches pictures supplied by the family at a younger age." J.J. explained, "This is a lead we cannot ignore. The reason we believe she hasn't dropped more bodies is because of the fantasy she must be living out with them. She's raising them as if they were her own children."
"This fantasy is probably very fragile, though," Aaron stepped in, "If the child doesn't play along, she may have marked them as ill fit for the roles she wanted them to play. This might cause her to lash out at the children, go as far as to physically abuse them. We believe she might have gone too far with Richard and killed him accidentally. This is why she has taken her newest victim – Devin Green. Whatever she has done to these other boys, she's doing to him, now. They will most likely be alive, but this depends solely on the behavior of the children, themselves."
Spencer pressed his back to the wall, a book held against his chest in a manner probably meant to comfort the small boy. The screams coming from the other side of the wall were clearly from the man that'd been dragged into the house earlier. As time had passed, just like with the others, the yelling had become increasing more childlike. He, himself, probably had even experienced much the same thing, though his own understanding of the time before he reached about four were sketchy at best.
His memory was terribly vivid for what he assumed had been the past few months, which ruled out the possibility that his own memory was to blame for the missing pieces, making him assume it was whatever was being done to them. The strange patches in his memory weren't the only inconsistent piece. The existence of any of this previous memories seemed to be uncommon, though, as none of the other victims experienced this. His growing rate also was strangely advanced for any normal person, but the others who'd come seemed to have been almost stopped at a particular age, as if their aging process was incredibly sped down.
Evidence would have pointed at him being a test run, but definitely not the first. And clearly not enough of a mess up to warrant disposing of him; Possibly added to by the fact that he was much easier to pull into the ruse than Richard had been. It was best not to dwell on the unfortunate end of that boy.
Part of him did wish he'd still had the other to share his finding with. While Richard hadn't always understood him, they'd kept each other sane in all of this. There was also something about the experience that had seemed familiar to Spencer – Almost as if he'd done it in another life or something.
He froze in fear when the door suddenly swung open, the elder woman turning to look directly at him with unforgiving eyes.
"What are you doing up?"
Spencer racked his brain for an excuse, heart pounding. She seemed tired and irritable, so now would not be a good time to fight her and her fantasy, "I… I had a bad dream, Mommy."
"I told you to go to bed."
"But-"
She took him by the arm and pulled him forward enough to place a painful swat against his backside, drawing a yelp out of the child. "Don't talk back to me. Now, off to bed."
Of all the ways that could have ended, he considered this a blessing, "Yes, Mam."