Chapter 7: Love Conquers All
"I can hear you" Reid spoke and life returned to me fully.
"Try to get up pretty boy" I asked another favour and he tried his best to fulfill it. It took him some time before he stood on his knees and placed his hands on my hand bound to the chair. His hands still so cold, it hurt.
"Please do" I nodded and he untied my hands and stared at the deep marks left by their existence. His eye became even sad as he completely freed me. The moment I was free I tightly hugged him, something I wanted to do for such long time. His wet clothes made me wet too but he was with me, in my arms, all alive and breathing. The hug lasted for few minutes filled with my desperation and his agony.
"I am here too" Emily mocked still placed on the floor.
"I am not done yet" I smiled and happily continued the hugs until I felt he was out of breathe. I let his damp slim body stabilize itself. He smiled before I moved toward Emily and hugged her back to life too. I knew the consequences when William will discover me this way but I had no fear.
"Melting was worse than freezing" Reid exclaimed as we sat on the floor facing each other again. I grabbed Emily hand, the fingers so discoloured with the frostbite.
"Hands down" Emily agreed to him. I was happy they were back to me, to the world, to their lives. But not for too long.
"Guys I was literally dying out here watching the hell break down" I told them my side of the story.
"He made you watch it too?" Reid asked in amazement, his voice still too weak. I returned a nod.
"So what now?" Emily asked us boys.
"Either we wait for the team to arrive soon while getting tormented by William" I suggested
"Or we can plan an escape out" Reid finished for me.
"I rather choose the second option. Let see William wants to punish Natalie. He sees her in all female victims, transference so he makes sure they suffer max pain" Emily added.
"He also tortures the male victims along with them so they can feel the pain he felt with Natalie" I reasoned out.
"So only way he will stop is either Natalie dies or Male partner wins over the female" Emily threw out some words of thoughts.
"That's it!" Reid excitedly snapped his fingers. Both of us hopefully looked into Genius' eyes which flickered with eagerness.
"If the male partner betrays the female before she does it, this could serve as victory for him, meaning all we have to do is make him believe that Emily is betrayed rather than me and that might provide some loop hole out" Reid went on.
"Good thought but difficult to peruse as William got some really crazy plans" I said.
"He makes the male partner stab the females that is why those marks were so immature every time. It was not just his signature" Reid exclaimed.
"And presents the male with poison but they drink it on their will too. As they choose to die with their partner" Emily concluded.
"But then he's not the killer of either" I wondered.
"Smart way of indirect murder" Emily added.
"He's too weak to do such an act himself. That's why he blames himself for every ruin he suffered. We can help stimulate a victory for him" Reid suggested. This kid got some hope jogging back into us but how long we had before William returned. Something was totally wrong, the way he suddenly went out, like he remembered something or maybe to make sure of something his mind just warned him of. Whatever it was, it gave us some time to think straight.
Emily closed her eyes for a while to deceive a plan in her head. I stole a moment to stare at her ruined fingers and toes. Anger started to build inside me. My sweet friend lost such precious part of her body for some psycho's delusion. The limit of tolerance in me started to over flow as I continued staring at the frostbite, haunting me, scaring me. I noticed Reid was also looking at me. Our eyes met and I saw the guilt swimming in his eyes, the most innocent eyes I ever laid my eyes on. Aggression inside me reached another height almost blinding me with revenge. I was free, I could tackle William if he enters now, and I could take him down in an instance. I stood up and walked over to the closed door and waited for any sounds from the other side. I could hear footsteps, more than one. Were more people there than William? Was my team here?
"There may be more people here" I informed my friends. Emily flicked her eyes open.
"Should we make some noise to let them know" Emily asked. I loudly bounced the door and kicked it few times filling the whole room with sudden noises.
"HELP!" I screamed as I continued to lash at the door.
In few moments, the door fling opened with such power that I fell back down on the floor. I landed right on my head blackening the world around me. I lost all stimuli from my world.
REID POV…..
William Stood at the door holding the large knife in his hand. His eyes were furiously focused on Morgan. He was tensed and afraid. He shifted his gaze on me and the silver blade shined right in my eye. William kept staring at me like he was deciding something in his head. I wish I could decode his every nerve impulse to my advantage. I waited for William to initiate talking.
"Your bastard team is here …not to save you but to gather your dead bodies" William finally lashed out and without any further notice stabbed Morgan right into the leg with the knife. Morgan, unconscious made no response to sudden intrusion in his blood vessels as blood sprout right onto William's face and clothes. Emily couldn't gulp her scream down like me and resulting in antagonizing the Unsub further on. I could hear my team's footstep near us now. They were here. I knew William had no chance left but to kill us before he is ultimately defeated. He wasn't going down easy.
He took the large knife out from Morgan's body and with such fast pace shifted his stance toward Emily. His eyes full of hatred as he eyed his Natalie and my Emily. He was deadly with his strike. She held no chance against him. Every muscle in my body ached to take William down before he takes her away. I had enough suffering. I was stronger than he imagined and I stood and grabbed the chair Morgan was placed in. I could still feel some part of my body frozen weakening me further.
Before William could stab her more I smashed the chair right on his head throwing him aside. His knife threw off in the opposite direction while the chair on the other side breaking in many pieces. I ran after the knife but he grabbed my ankle just before I could get my hands on the weapon. I fell forward and he quickly crushed me with his weight shifting over me. He tried to grab my arms but I my frozen blood was now boiling with adrenaline and I punched his nose on the right place to knock him out of conscious for a while.
"REID!" I heard Emily scream my name. I threw him off my body and grabbed the knife before I knew William was back bleeding, he pulled on my leg sliding me toward him. He was completely unaware that now I was equipped with the knife. As I came closer, I launched my first stab right on his chest. He screamed in agony and let go my leg. With furious anger, he clutched the broken leg of the chair and smashed my head with bruising force throwing me off my stance for a while.
"You cannot save Natalie!" William yelled like an animal before hitting my head again, this time blood made its way out wetting my forehead. My vision blurred but I attacked William again this time throwing all my body weight down on him and we both landed on the floor with a loud bang. He wrapped his arms around me restraining my movement completely. He tightly squeezed the life out of my and I had no option left but to stab his face which was inches away from mine. The knife pierced threw his face and the furious side of me even startled me as I continued to injure his face more.
"Love conquers all" I whispered in his ear before I completely lost every single drop of energy in me and collapsed on top of now still body.
EMILY POV….
The horror broke right in of my eyes. I had no life to aid the fight as now both lied together in bloody bath.
"FBI" Hotch's voiced brought tears to my already soaked eyes. He finally entered the room witnessing the scene with gun pointing directly at the Unsub shielded with Reid's body. Rossi quickly followed with JJ and many Swat members quickly taking over the room. JJ rushed toward me. Her face disgusted with the scene around. Without any spoken words, she lifted me off and I shifted all my weight over her shoulder. I walked past the mess of bloody bodies. My foot was just inches away from Reid's bloody hand still holding the knife. The hand seemed so lifeless. I stopped and kneeled down.
"Emily, please we need to get you out of here" JJ placed her hand over my shoulder to comfort me. Nothing could ever comfort me now. Tears sprout out of my eyes like a fountain. I couldn't take my eyes off that hand, such powerful yet so weak now. JJ this time pulled me up and I continued my crying over her shoulder. There was William at one side of this world killing ladies to destroy love and then there was Spencer Reid fighting for a lady to give love another life in this world. I couldn't take the pain I gave Reid any longer and quickly ran out of the room into the paramedics eagerly waiting for us. The paramedics quickly took over me and I laid flat on the stretcher as they moved toward the ambulance. After many days, I was seeing the sky over me, blue and clam. It drastically had the calming effect all over me. So much had occurred that I felt finally saved under the arms of creamy sky watching me crying.
The sky was soon replaced by ceiling of the ambulance. I stayed still ignoring all the medical procedures being done now. I closed my eyes and was shocked to see a smiling face of Reid right in front of my eyes. His smile so warm so intoxicating, I felt even calmer knowing he was fine. I took another breathe deeply this time reminding every cell of my body that Reid was the one granted us another chance to breathe to survive to live. From the cold hell to bloody well, he saved me. I had all my answers right in front of me. He proved all my points wrong. I was even guiltier now. I shifted my mind toward searching for the same smile again but it was getting dark, really dark. I needed to see that smile again, now! The blackness inside my mind slowly engulfed the soothing smile.
…
