Chapter 4

Alison: hey everyone! so here's another part, hope you like it because we sure loved writing it! thanks to everyone who reviewed and read and/or subscribed. I'm posting this from my newly pulverized couch ([lease don't ask how it got that way). And with that picture in your mind, good day to you all =P

disclaimer: we may be supermegafoxyawesomehot (major points to anyone who gets that reference) but we'll never be great enough to own criminal minds, only our own boundless imaginations! (okay ya a little corny)

Life is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters:some die, some get hurt, some goon. You just don't let yourself believe it will happen to you.-MuhammadAli

Hotch's fist hitting him repeatedly...Hotch's hand clamped over his mouth muffling his screams... watching Morgan being restrained...Hotch's foot connecting with his face and the soothing darkness engulfing him.

Flashes of previous events rushed across his mind before his mind began to drag itself back to the realm of consciousness. He knew he had been tied onto a bed as he felt his movements being restricted.

Reid groaned as he slowly opened eyes, he breathing hitched when he saw someone he had come to fear in his recent nightmare. Sheriff Anderson was sat on the bed leaning over him with a euphoric look on his face. Reid looked slowly to his left and then to his right to see that he each of his wrists were tied to a bedpost. He looked back to the Sheriff and found his heart racing with fear. He briefly glanced at the room and noticed that he was in a fairly normal bedroom.

"Hello" the Sheriff whispered to him.

"Please, let me go" Reid pleaded. His entire body felt bruise and battered, he knew that he had at least one cracked rib or worse. His entire body felt bruised to hell.

Reid flinched as the sheriff raised his hand to his face before realising he was only pushing a stray piece of hair of his face. The Sheriff's face suddenly turned angry causing him to clamp his bulky hand over Reid's mouth.

Teach this demon to be obedient... Sheriff Anderson thought.

He pinched Reid's nose close causing Reid to open his eyes wide in panic as he felt himself unable to breath.

Reid bucked in the bed as he found he was unable to breath, the dark spots surrounding his vision started to engulf him. The sheriff released his hand causing Reid to gasp and almost the drink the air around him as his lungs filled again with precious oxygen.

"You don't control us here demon. We control you! You will speak when you are told to or you will suffer further for your evil acts" the sheriff yelled causing Reid to sink away from the sheriff. Reid simply nodded before closing his eyes hoping that everything would suddenly be back to normal. He wanted to laugh at how irrational the thought was.

"God told showed me the sign for our salvation, the moment I saw you with your black magic I knew that it was God's will for me to cleanse you. Don't worry we will make sure you are purged of your sins and magic before the ceremony. Today I'm going to open up your soul to the light Spencer Reid" the sheriff said in a eerily calm voice.

Reid opened his mouth to speak but stopped when his brain reminded him off the consequence.

'He is going to hurt you, don't speak unless you have to' he thought.

"Aaron, Morgan, please come here" the sheriff called to the door.

Reid saw Hotch and Morgan enter the room, he trembled slightly. He tried to shake off the feeling of fear but he couldn't help it. He had always thought of Hotch as a strong leader and someone he look up to. All he could think now was when and if Hotch was going to hit him again. He looked at Morgan and realised any chance of being saved by him was now impossible. Morgan had the same dead and obedient look that Hotch had. Reid wanted to scream at Morgan to snap out of it and save him but he realised he was now alone. The two people he had always looked to for protection were now the ones about to hurt him.

'What did that bastard do to them?'Reid thought.

"Now Spencer. In order to the let the evil in you be cleansed we must first open up your soul. It cannot escape from you sinner's tongue so I'm going to create other ways for it to be released" the sheriff smiled before lifting himself off the bed and walking over to a tray on the dressing table covered with a blue cloth.

He walked back over and placed the tray on the bedside table next to Reid, he pulled of the sheet to reveal numerous glints of silver.

Reid began to struggle and thrash against his bonds, he didn't care about the rope ripping into his skin, he didn't want the sheriff to use what was on the tray. He glared at the thin metal rods and notice how sharp the bottom was. They were no bigger than pencils yet Reid knew if the sheriff used them in the right positions on his body, he was as good as gone.

"Hold down his legs" the sheriff ordered Morgan. Morgan walked to Reid's knees and pushed them down. Reid tried to move his legs but Morgan had pinned them with ease.

The sheriff grabbed one of the small rods and positioned it over Reid's thigh. He grabbed a small hammer and brought it over the rod.

"Don't!" Reid pleaded. Hotch clamped his hand over Reid's mouth again causing Reid to whimper, he felt warm tears spill from his eyes. His plea's were muffled and strained.

"May your tainted soul find release" the sheriff prayed with his head down. Reid looked at the sheriff. In one quick motion the sheriff raised the hammer and smashed the sharp rod into Reid's thigh. Reid screamed into Hotch's hand as he felt pain run across his thigh, he felt a warm sensation on his thigh. He didn't need to see it to know it was blood. He breathed quickly through his nose trying not to think of the pain in his leg.

Reid barely noticed when the sheriff travelled over to his other thigh and placed another rod above it. Reid tensed as he waited for the pain hoping that it wouldn't hurt as much as the first. He let out another muffled scream as the rod ripped through his flesh causing blood to soak into his trousers.

"Three more and the soul will be opened" the sheriff almost sang.

"Now hold his hands open."

Morgan walked next to Reid and pried open Reid's clenched fist and held it open against the bed. The sheriff placed the rod over his hand causing Reid to shake his head in denial, Hotch put his other hand on his forehead and held his head so that it faced the ceiling. Reid sobbed and screamed as he felt the rod pin his hand into the mattress. He whined into Hotch's hand knowing that he still had to endure two more excruciating pains. The fourth rod pinned his hand to the bed. Reid couldn't help his screams of pain.

Reid began to feel the effects of blood loss from his wounds, he started to feel slightly weak. He barely noticed the sheriff as he climbed on top of him and placed the rod just above his stomach. Reid eye's bulged open as he felt the rod run through him. Reid saw his vision cloud but heard the sheriff whisper a few last words in his ear before the darkness engulfed him.

"Your soul has been released Spencer Reid. Enjoy it before the sacrifice."

When Reid woke the pain coursing through his body and the total darkness presses in around him converged into a whimper he was obliged to let escape his lips.

An orange haze flooded his eyelids.

"Hello?" He kept his eyes closed, fighting the weakness making his whole body heavy and hating how weak his voice sounded. He had to stay awake, that's what his instincts were telling him, but it was so hard to do. Sleep beckoned, so appealing and fuzzy and warm, a buffer between him and intensely unappealing reality.

He could hear footsteps coming closer and forced his eyes open wincing at the surge of nausea and dizziness that nearly overwhelmed him. Reid was sure that if his stomach wasn't already empty it would have been after that. When his vision finally stopped swimming he found himself wishing it was dark again.

Dark so that he didn't have to see the man who stood before him.

" Sheriff." Reid kept his eyes focused downward and pushed through his pain taking in as much of his surroundings as possible through his peripheral vision. He noticed that he had moved to a much dirtier room. He was relieved when he felt his hand were no longer bound but he couldn't help the pain surging through his hands and legs.

"Hello doctor Reid. I trust you find your accommodations comfortable."

Yeah, if being chained by the ankle to a lumpy, hard single bed a toilet and sink in the corner, and a door with no handle on the inside was comfortable then this place was the Ritz. He wanted to throw back a mouthy response but before he could his head throbbed, pulsating, and a second waive of dizziness washed over him. Pain blossomed in his cheek as the sheriff slapped him, sending his neck snapping to the side.

"Speak when spoken to." The sheriff smiled then, which instantly made Reid weary. "I brought you a friend." Reid's eyes travelled around the sheriff to the slightly ajar door and his heart began to hammer.

"Hotch?" Reid turned his eyes to the sheriff ignoring the knots that twisted and warped the inside of his stomach.

"Please don't." He had to screw his eyes together against the pain. God, it even hurt to breathe. "I'll be good, I promise! There's no need to bring him in here." The sheriff smirked.

"Oh there's no need to worry. I brought him because if you don't get your wounds bandaged properly things might not end well. We can't have our sacrifice die on us now can we–" He motioned towards the door. "–at least, not yet."

Hotch stepped forward into the room and Reid's heart started to beat faster. He watched as the sheriff walked to the door.

"You have 10 minutes, agent Hotchner, to do as much as you can for him, first aid supplies are next to the bed."

The door slammed shut, leaving Reid and his boss alone. Hotch rushed forward kneeling beside the bed near the first aid supplies and opening the kit.

"Reid are you alright? Where does it hurt?" Hotch paled as he saw the holes through Reid's hands and reached for the one closest to him.

Reid jerked away. "Don't touch me!" He watched Hotch's brow crease and steeled himself for the punishment that was sure to come.

But it didn't happen, and after a moment Reid let his eyes open again and met his bosses look with a confused one of his own.

"I'm not going to hurt you Reid."

Reid realised that Hotch no longer had the dead stare on his face, he saw flickers of emotion in Hotch's eyes. Reid knew he should have felt relieved but he couldn't. Hotch had seemed normal just before he had beat him into unconsciousness.

"Reid I only have ten minutes to help you. Give me your hand" Hotch ordered before taking Reid's hand and inspecting the damage. Hotch set about cleaning the wound, he heard Reid whimper with pain as washed the wound to avoid it getting infected. Reid avoided eye contact the entire time.

"Reid I am so sorry. I couldn't control myself, I wanted to stop but the sheriff has done something. I think he's drugged us with something. I woke up earlier and came out of it. Morgan is still under the influence though" Hotch explained as he finished bandaging Reid's left hand and moved on to the right. He repeated the cleaning process and continued to Reid's thighs. Hotch felt like gagging as he saw the wound but knew he had to stay strong for Reid.

"Reid, I didn't mean to hurt you" Hotch said sadly as he started to wrap Reid's thigh in a large bandage.

"You did though Hotch. You beat me, you've silenced me and you helped them hurt me! You should have fought against the drug. You have always said that you would protect me but you didn't!" Reid sobbed angrily as he tried to bat away Hotch's hand from his other thigh.

"I'm sorry! I didn't want to" Hotch said before he finished Reid's last wound. The door creaked open causing both men to look up.

"Such a good soldier Agent Hotchner, step away from it now" the Sheriff ordered.

"No!" Hotch snapped back, he stood up and stepped in front of Reid.

"I'm trying to save your soul Agent. You've been under this demon's lies and influences for too long, I'm trying to give you salvation" the Sheriff said calmly as he walked towards Hotch.

"You are delusional, this entire town is delusional. You are not touching him again" Hotch said. Hotch lunged and tackled the Sheriff, the two men fell to the ground and struggled while Reid looked on helplessly. Hotch yelped when he felt a sharp sting in his neck.

"I promised salvation and I'm going to give it to you" Sheriff Anderson said. He smiled as he saw the drug take effect and the dead stare return to the Agent's eyes. Hotch stepped to his feet and helped the sheriff up causing Reid to begin breathing heavily. He stared at Hotch and saw the Hotch that scared him.

"Come along Hotchner, I have more work for you."

Hotch walked out of the room leaving Reid alone with the sadistic Sheriff.

"Why would you do that? Why did you let him have his free will again if you were just going to drug him?" Reid asked confused. The sheriff marched over to Reid and grabbed Reid's jaw so that they were face to face.

"To show you that I have more control over him then you do. I'll be back soon Spencer Reid and I will seal the evil within you with the mighty fire of God."

Reid grunted as the Sheriff threw his head beck against the bed.

He was going to die. He knew he was going to die. Worst of all he knew that it was going to be because of those he had trusted.

Trust is like a vase..once it's broken, though you can fix it the vase will never be the same again. –unknown