I am Sam


'He doesn't have the infants.' I can tell what remains of the team this. I am sure of it.

Morgan looks over at me. 'Hotch? You can't honestly say you believe what he is saying.'

I shake my head at him. 'I believe his twisted reasons for taking that last girl and his reasons for what happened to JJ. That little girl means a lot to him. She is somewhere safe, but not in his care. If they were alone somewhere he would have told us by now. If that girl means to him what he says she does, if he went to all that trouble to make sure he had the correct child then there he is not going to have left her alone somewhere. We don't have to worry about that. Obviously we still need to find both children, but as for their personal safety? They are somewhere being cared for. We need to be cautious. We need to stay on our guard. I don't want anyone talking to him unless there is someone with them. He has a way of pulling information or supposed information from us. Profiling us quicker than we can him. Do not underestimate him. Remember that the majority of the things he is saying are lies. Don't be put off by what he is saying. Let him, let him think he is getting to us. The longer he we talk to him the more he says the more we get.'

But I know that it's too late really. He's already got to some of us. I don't know how he knows so much, but he didn't know about Jack because he is a stunningly good profiler. There is something more. I can see by the look on Emily's face that he said something to her. He knows something he shouldn't know and something she's not prepared to share with us. I know that Morgan is on guard with him because of the attitude the guy gave him. Normally it wouldn't bother him. I know that, but it has and I don't like it. I look over at Dave who is sitting with a frown on his face. He can see these things too. He knows, but he doesn't know what it is. We have to get Flanders moved. We cannot possibly keep him here. We need to move him to somewhere more secure for questioning. Then we can lock him up and throw away the key.

'Reid told him things.' Morgan is pacing the room now. 'I know he did. Then ran off like a scared kid when it came back and smacked him in the damned face. Where the hell is he? Why is he not here? What's this Flanders connection with him?'

I can see the anger in his face. I can see the deep rage he is feeling for Reid and it's not right. It's not Morgan.

'We don't know that Reid even knows him. Flanders genuinely seems as confused about Reid as we are.' I try to calm him and make him see beyond what the guy in the cell has been saying.

'He knows things he couldn't possibly know.' Emily blurts out. I look at her and she averts her eyes from me. 'Not even Reid would have been able to tell him what he said to me. Personal things, things I haven't shared because they've not mattered. Reid couldn't have told him. Spencer didn't know.'

I keep my eyes on Emily. Something is very wrong. 'You have something you need to tell us?' I ask her.

She shakes her head at me…at the room. 'It's nothing important. Just personal.'

Prentiss is lying. I can see the sweat on her brow and the way she's not looking at me when she talks. I need to talk to Flanders again, but firstly we need to arrange to get him moved. I am very sure that the children are safe. I am just hoping that it's not a false sense of security I am feeling about this.

-o-o-o-

He doesn't know. Obviously he doesn't know. He's a fucking moron. I need to get out of here. I have to get back to my princess and sort this shit out. I cannot afford to hang around here much longer. Get me moved Agent Aaron Hotchner was all it took. Just put that there in his little brain and he'll not even realise I've done it. Didn't even have to say the words…just a little thought. He will move me and he will arrange for me to be taken somewhere bigger and more secure, but it won't help. They won't get what they want. Not from me.

That is why when a short while later they arrive to put shackles on my ankles I don't resist too much. Of course I do a bit, but my hands are still behind my back remember and I've not chosen yet to get out of them and this is why. I'll let you see why. I'll let you see how bloody stupid these people are. The best brains in the country? No wonder it's a fucked up world we live in. My contribution excluded. HA! I'll take the responsibility of my actions myself, in my head…not to them. You'll see. These fine minds arrange for me to be placed in the back of a big black and very secure van. I did wonder for a moment if I should give Hotchner the idea to come be part of the escort, but I decided not to. It would mean having to kill him and I'd much rather put him through misery than kill him right off. So much more fun to be had if you drag things out a bit don't you think?

I attempt to discourage them from needing the armed escort vehicles too but too many brains are all demanding the same thing and I need to concentrate on the task at hand. I'll deal with them later. If all goes according to my little plan and I'm sure it will. I am going to have company for this little adventure; for a little while. Two big guys with guns join me in the back of the van. Stupid really stupid…I know they have orders not to kill me and they should have noticed that the other bullets they gave me earlier, whenever that was, have had little or no lasting effect. So they really are going to have to try to take my brains out to slow me down for any length of time. The bench I sit on is metal but that's fine. That's not a problem. They secure my hands; which are still behind my back to a ring behind me and my feet to a bar on the floor. A lot of fuss for someone who hasn't really done much. OK I killed some cops and a FED and took some kids, but if you look at it from my point of view it was all very necessary. My main concern now is to get back to my princess. I can't leave her for too long alone. She is high maintenance so I do have to get back to her. Then I will sort out the rest of this mess in my own sweet time.

These guards don't talk to me. They sit a distance away from me too. Not that I can reach them or do much secured the way I am…for now. One of them places himself near to the rear exit of this van and one to the other side of me. I have been placed around about the centre on the left as you look in from the back. I've decided to avoid conflict and I keep my head down and my mouth shut for this portion of the trip. The doors are closed and the engine is running and I place my thumbs over those cuffs on my wrists. Soon…it will be time soon. I just have to wait for the exact right moment.

-o-o-o-

An introduction to me:

I am not all I seem to be. I might look like I'm just some scrawny dirty kid, but I'm more than that. They do as I tell them. They know better than not to, cos I know how to keep the unwanted Flanders away from here and I know how to keep him away from our guest. There's a whole damned pack of us; men, women and children and we travel in our motor homes and vans and live off the land and generally keep out of the cities and towns. We don't leave a mess behind. We always clear up after ourselves. We are poachers and hunters and we are really rather special, but that's not about me as such is it. More about me:

I'm average height for a sixteen year old, if there is an average. I don't like being told what to do, not by anyone and I have a temper which sometimes is a tiny bit over the top in comparison to the thing which made me mad. I've lived with this lot for as long as I can remember but I didn't start off here. None of us did. We all come from somewhere else and ended up here. I came straight from a place right next door to Hades and I've been sent here to clear up a mess and that's what I'm going to do.

You know how they say that if you turn back time the universe will explode? Well that's not exactly how it works. What happens though is everything gets completely fucked up. Well it does usually anyway and this is what's happened here. Some people will walk through the change and not notice it, but others will react occasionally to it and that's what's happened to Spencer and we strongly suspect that's what's happened to Flanders. I'm calling him that because that's what those Feds are calling him, but I'm Flanders too, cos we are kinda related, but I'll expand on that later.

The problem with Spencer is that he has one of those special little brains that holds information forever. Wiping that out isn't an easy task. It was going well until Flanders cropped up again after many years of everything going swimmingly well; but things jogged Spencer's memory and he started to remember things which had been almost wiped away. He's going to be helluva confused about it all though. I'm going to try to stop that happening. We will drug him and keep his mind dull. Well as dull as we can keep it anyway. Something that sharp needs constant attention. The other Flanders had a job to do. He completed his job and then messed up. That's about it really. He always messes up. He won't follow the rules. He won't keep to the matter at hand. He has to control and try to twist things for his own sick pleasure. I know, cos I'm much the same; maybe a genetic fault? I dunno…anyway…I'm here now, and my new orders are to keep Flanders and Spencer apart, cos if they meet up then well, that might be when the universe explodes and we really don't want that to happen. Fixing an exploded universe takes a lot of man power to get right again.

And so that's who I am. Sam.

We dragged him out of the van once we'd parked up for the night somewhere nice and safe. We like to find somewhere where we're not going to be noticed too much by anyone passing through. Forests are out favourite places to stop in. If we can get all the vans and stuff down the poxy little lanes we have to find to get to the right place. The lead driver knows all the best places though and cos we never leave a big mess behind us very few return visits have been blocked by the fucking forest rangers and stuff. Sometimes they'll see us and ask us to move on and we never do in the end. We have lots of ways to persuade these people to let us stay.

Anyway, we dragged him out of the van just as he was recovering from the stuff we pumped into him to keep him quiet and he wriggled a bit which is why we had to kick him around. Not too hard you understand cos the object of this isn't to kill him, it's just to keep him safe. So breaking his limbs isn't necessary right now. It might be later. All we did was kick him in the head and ribs until he stopped struggling with us and listened. Well not listen exactly cos I think I got over zealous with my boots and his head and he didn't seem like he was in the position to listen to too much of what I had to say. We chained him up again though. A metal collar around his neck is chained to a handy nearby tree and he's going nowhere.

I'm sitting here next to him now with a bottle of water for him and some scraps of meat of some description in a small metal dish, but he's just curled up into a little ball and is refusing to talk to me.

'Come on Spencer, you have to eat something.'

But he's ignoring me. I leave the things there for him and walk away wondering if we hurt him a bit hard considering we only just got him here.

-o-o-o-

I have no idea what is going on. My head is full of grey fog and my body is full of pain. I remember them pulling me from the van and I remember I struggled with them and then I remember the agony of the attack. I can feel blood encrusted on my face and I carefully put my hands there to see what damage has been done. My nose feels OK. I don't think it's broken, but my mouth and jaw don't feel right. I can taste the tangy blood in my mouth and as I draw in deep breaths my chest complains. I'm curled up on the floor in the forest and there is something around my neck. Carefully I let my fingers investigate this. A collar which is locked at the back is all I can tell right now. I let out a sigh and just keep still. If I keep quiet and motionless maybe they will leave me alone. I know that the boy is there. I opened one of my eyes just a crack to see who it was talking to me, though I already suspected it was him. I can't hear the words properly. My brain is confused and not permitting me the pleasure of understanding the words. I do try to listen to him. I have to try to understand what exactly is going on. I can smell food and my stomach growls at me in response but I won't eat it. I don't think I can even if I wanted to. It feels as though my jaw is broken. Chewing anything is out of the question right now. I hear him get up and leave and I open my eyes a bit further. One of them seems to be glued shut. Maybe with blood, I'm really not sure. There is water too I can see, and though my body is screaming at me for this liquid my mind is telling me not to touch it. I don't know how long they will leave me here for. I don't know if when they move on again they will take me with them. I don't even know if they intend keeping me alive. I suspect they do, or there wouldn't be food and water.

I lick my lips and can feel the scabs forming there and slowly reach out for the water. I do need to survive this. I do need to be able to communicate with them and so I need to drink. The food can wait. I'm not able to eat it yet. I twist the cap off the water and then put the bottle opening to my mouth. The first few mouthfuls taste wonderful, but now I'm feeling oddly dizzy and I can feel my mind closing down again. I sigh and drop the bottle into the leaves I am lying on and close my eyes again wondering if I am dying or if I will wake up in the morning and suddenly I don't really care.