Hey Guys, [Cautiously approaches fans with a shield and a sieve on my head as a helmet], I know Ive been away from a long time but it really wasnt my fault. I mean, there is something really stupid called life which says that apparently i have to go to school and learn stuff and do these exam thingys so i can get this thing could a job which will apparently help me to live a bit longer...
Im sorry I havent updated in a while [licks lips nervously] but i have been working for ages to give you my longest chapter yet and hopefully my best one so i hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I Own Nothing! Sad Times :'(
The sound of pacing and furious mutterings greeted Reid on his resurface back to consciousness. Slowly he opened his eyes inch by inch and watched as his blurred vision came in and out of focus. He struggled to focus his attention on the figure before him.
Harvey was walking back and forth in an angry rhythm, arms crossed, and he appeared to be cursing to himself; he occasionally turned his head and glared at Reid out of his steely eyes, as if he were a caged animal who disobeyed. This wasn't too far off in Reid's eyes.
Finally, when his vision cleared back to normal and as Reid found his bearings he began to notice what position he was in. This time he was sat on a hard wooden chair with his arms tied down to the armrests and his feet tied to the legs of the chair.
Straightening up in the chair he shifted slightly, trying to remove the soreness in his backside caused by the hard surface. This movement had the man's attention on him in an instant and he watched cautiously as the man unfolded his arms and slowly approached his prison.
Harvey had an unreadable look on his face as he leant down and placed his hands over the young captive's bound arms. His eyes flitted around Reid's face before returning straight back to bore into his hazel eyes.
Unsurprisingly, Harvey found that those eyes glared back.
Silence reined over the two as they sized each other up, an unspoken challenge which both were determined to win. The challenge to see who had the more power; whether Harvey had the power of dominance or if Reid had more will power to resist.
After a couple of minutes, Harvey smirked and huffed before straightening up and turning his back on Reid.
"You really are one difficult bastard, aren't ya kid!"
Reid snorted at Harvey's back in response to the statement.
"You didn't really expect me to just roll over and behave did you? I thought you liked a challenge?"
Harvey barked a laugh and turned his head so he could see the young man out of the corner of his eye.
"So did I… apparently I underestimated you. You seemed so weak in the beginning", Reid frowned at the insult and Harvey grinned at the action, "but now I can see that you will be my most challenging model yet".
Reid couldn't help but feel pride at that and he found himself wearing a smug look towards the other man. To his surprise, he found that his captor didn't get angry at the arrogant expression; rather he looked curious.
The man began to walk round and round the chair, trailing his fingers along the back of it each time. Reid refused to follow him with his eyes, and stayed facing the front proudly with his smile now removed from his face and fierce awareness replacing it. He refused to flinch when he felt the 'demon' behind him stop and lean down to whisper in his ear.
"You know, I've been wondering… why you have so little fear. You couldn't possibly be thinking that your getting out of here…. Are you?"
Reid remained silent.
Harvey chuckled. "Is it because you're not afraid of death?"
Reid remained silent.
"No… that's not it. Everyone's afraid of death, even me and I control life and death. I'm like the grim reaper in that aspect". Harvey's eyes traced the Agents calm form; His mouth lifted in a one sided smile that stretched his gruesome scar to its limits. He was about to break this agents façade.
"I was quiet impressed with that little escapade of yours. Though it begs the question", Harvey had circled back round to bring himself eye to eye with his captive, "why did you not escape?"
Reid stared back defiantly and replied, "Because I knew it would be no use. You've shredded my back to the point I found it impossible to move so I gave myself a small goal, one that no doubt has caused you a great inconvenience."
"Indeed it did. It was clever though… calling your friends like that. Now we have no choice but to… vacate the premises as it were."
"It doesn't matter where we go, my team will find me. Garcia will track you down so fast you won't get to enjoy the scenery before you're behind bars" Reid spat. Harvey's eyes glinted in satisfaction at getting a rise out of the young genius and inwardly Reid cursed himself.
'So much for ignoring his taunts' he thought bitterly. Quickly, he schooled his features back under his mask of indifference. This did not go unnoticed.
"It appears I have gotten off topic…", Harvey made an act of lifting his eyes to the ceiling as if searching for his original point before snapping his fingers, "that's right, I was currently wondering why you show no fear."
Once again, he placed himself deliberately in Reid's vision. After his last outburst Reid was determined not to show any recognition of the man before him.
'If I don't acknowledge him then he can't draw the power or the confidence that fuels him'.
So caught up in his thoughts, he was internally startled when rough fingers curled around his jaw and jerked him up so his eyes stared into another pair of eyes. Outwardly he showed no appearance of being affected by the action.
"You know, I think I figured it out… why you seem so comfort… well, maybe comfortable would be an inappropriate term considering the situation".
'You think', Reid thought incredulously.
"Why it is that you seem so… prepared, I'd say was the right word… for the situation you are currently in".
Reid was back to his old routine of silence.
"You see I did some research on you", this, Harvey saw, ignited a flicker of response in the agents blank eyes, "and I found something interesting."
At this Reid started to tense.
'Does he know… could he have read about…? NO it's impossible, those files were sealed, no one should have access to them…', so distracted by his internal debate, Reid failed to notice Harvey had released his chin and moved behind him.
Harvey lowered his face till his mouth was level with Reid's ear.
In a low voice he continued, "And I realised why you have no fear. It's because you have been in a situation like this before!"
Reid began to react to this; his eyes began widened with panic sparking in them; his breathing sped up and he began to clench the muscles in his arms and strain them against the ropes in his panic.
Harvey saw all these signs and licked his lips in anticipation, his own breathing speeding up in his excitement. Calming himself down he prepared to push the agent over the proverbial cliff and into the gulf of pure fear.
Lowering his voice to a whisper he said,
"Does the name Tobias Hankel ring any bells?"
Reid's heart stopped.
"Alright my lovelies, gather round the goddess of all knowledge and lets see if we can't find this son of a bitch".
The team were gathered in Garcia's lair, all squashed in rather uncomfortably due to the little room there was. No one bothered to complain though; they were in a hell of a lot better kind of situation than Reid was. Compared to that, they were in paradise.
"Right so what was Creepy's name again" Garcia asked, pausing in her typing to look at her superior.
"Reid said his name was Liam Harvey, a white male whom he estimated to be in his 40s with grey eyes and a scar running up the side of his face" Morgan piped up from behind Garcia.
Garcia hummed in acknowledgment and began typing at startling speeds.
"Can we be sure that's even his real name?" JJ asked.
"From what we can tell, this man appears to be confident to the point of arrogance. He probably didn't consider the possibility of any of his victims escaping or finding a way to contact the police with his name" Hotch replied without taking his eyes off of the numerous monitors in front of him.
"Did Reid mention anything about his MO, his signature?" Rossi asked, turning to Morgan.
"Well, before Reid was cut off, he mentioned something about Harvey being an artist I think…" Morgan swallowed roughly before continuing, "… I think that maybe he paints his victims".
Garcia made a noise that sounded like a strangled sob, before sitting roughly upright in her chair and typing even more furiously. Prentiss and JJ both averted their eyes angrily to the floor while Rossi crossed his arms with a weary sigh. Hotch's expression barely changed, but again, anyone that knew him well could see the hardening of his eyes.
"Ive found him!" Garcia cried, startling everyone out of their sombre thoughts. Instantly, they all crowded forwards.
"Liam Harvey aged 42, born 23rd august 1970. Son of Melissa and James Harvey, he was orphaned and sent into care at the age of 12 when his parents died in a car crash. Reports had said that he was a victim of severe child abuse, the doctors having found evidence of severe malnourishment, bruises and wounds that they identified from a number of weapons such as knives and belts upon admittance to the hospital after the accident" Prentiss recited from the screen in front of them.
"Apparently, when questioned about the accident, Harvey admitted to being subjected to this abuse because his father was a drunk and didn't like the fact that instead of playing football or wrestling like all the other young boys in their neighbourhood, he wanted to paint instead" Garcia explained.
"Is there anything else about his family, or maybe about what his life was like in the care homes?" Hotch asked.
"Well…", Garcia continued to search before letting out a soft exclamation at having found something, "he went missing from his 11th care home in 6 years after his foster father beat him with a belt. The foster parents were arrested by police but social services never found Harvey".
"Well there's your stressor" Rossi stated from the back.
"Anything else?" Hotch inquired.
Garcia nodded. "Since Harvey was never found, the foster parents were released on lack of substantial evidence. 3 weeks later they were found dead in their house, bullet to the head. The house was ransacked and in such a state that the police put it down to a robbery gone wrong."
"Foster parents beat an 18yr old boy with a previous history of child abuse, get released on a technicality and then found a couple of week's later dead in their house. It seems too much to be a coincidence" Rossi stated.
"Here's a picture of him". Looking at the screen, they saw an image of a moody teenager glaring at the camera, with grey eyes and a large scar on his cheek.
"This is definitely our guy" JJ mumbled.
"I had a quick search for missing person's reports. On some of them, witnesses say they saw a middle aged man with aggressive grey eyes or a frightening scar hanging around the area where the victims went missing. Reports also say that on the night of the foster parent's death that a few of them saw a hooded figure hanging around the house and that a couple of them thought they saw a scar on the person's face".
"Why didn't the police look into it?" Hotch inquired.
"The witnesses who saw it admitted to being intoxicated at the time and that they couldn't be sure if what they saw was real, so the police passed the incident off with their robbery theory" Garcia replied.
"We can probably assume then that the foster parents were Harvey's first victims" Hotch said. "Garcia, Reid said something about paintings being sold of Harvey's victims."
"I'll get right on it".
"If we can track down the paintings and find a return address then maybe that's where the Unsub took Reid" Hotch explained to JJ and Prentiss while Rossi and Morgan nodded their heads in understanding.
"Ok I think I found one". Clicking on a link the team watched as the picture loaded bit by bit and they all had to resist the urge to throw up. The picture was of two people lying on the floor facing each other; it almost looked like a romantic portrait except for the unmistakable bullet wounds painted in their forehead and the red paint splayed out underneath their bodies, obviously symbolising the blood emptying the foster parent's bodies.
"Who the hell would buy something like this" Garcia whispered in horror, closing her eyes while she held a hand to her mouth to prevent herself from retching.
"There are a lot of sick puppies out there mama. Don't focus on the picture, just see if you can find a return address or maybe a billing address" Morgan replied quietly while laying a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Garcia nodded, took a shaky breath before slowly opening her eyes. She leaned forward and began searching again. After a tense silence filled with the sound of Garcia's fingers racing over the keyboard keys, she spoke.
"Ive found a return address. It appears to be the home where Harvey lived with his parents" she told the team shakily.
"Alright good work Garcia", quickly jotting down the address, Hotch turned to the rest of the team, "the house is a good 3 hours drive from here. I want everyone suited up in bullet-proof vests, the SWAT teams informed and ready to move out in 10 minutes" Hotch ordered. He left the room briskly with the team hurrying after him one by one.
Morgan being the last to follow paused at the sound of Garcia's tearful voice calling his name. Turning around he saw her standing before him with silent tears rolling down her cheeks and chin. Quickly he enfolded her in a gentle hug.
"Don't worry baby girl, we will bring pretty boy home ok" he whispered soothingly. Feeling Garcia nod against his breast, he placed a kiss against her forehead before exciting the room.
'Don't worry Reid, we're coming'.
'Breathe… you have to breathe…!' His breath, however, remained locked in his throat. His muscles remained clenched, so tightly that they caused a slight tremor to emit from his body.
Reid's gaze was subjected firmly on the wall in front of him but his eyes went unseeing. What he did see was the images of an all too familiar nightmare; of a wooden shack, the smell of burning fish meat intended to keep the devil away and the light glinting off of a needle as it headed in the direction of a bulging vein standing out against the pale skin of his inner arm.
He jumped as he was brought harshly out of his nightmare and back into his nightmare of reality by a sharp sting on his cheek. Crying out against the pain, he looked up to see the cause of his panic attack to be hunched over him with his hand raised no doubt from the powerful backhand he had just dealt.
"Welcome back to earth sunshine" he said cheekily, with a wink for an added creepy effect.
Reid felt his breath quicken again and he looked around the room wildly for an escape, tugging furiously against his bindings. Long gone was the confident agent who refused to be broken; in his place remained a scared, 27 year old genius just praying for an escape.
Reid barely survived through his ordeal with Tobias Hankel and he knew if he had to go through it again that his mind would be broken beyond repair this time around.
Harvey chuckled at the animalistic fear in the boy's eyes. Yes. This was it. Here was the feeling of elation that he had been struggling to ignite ever since he had laid eyes on the boy. The boy had held out for such a long time; an admirable amount of time. He held respect for the kid and he knew that he would probably never encounter such a challenge again.
But he was not yet ready to work his magic. Now that he knew the trigger, he had to pull it until it broke, until the boy broke and gave him the inspiration to make his most inspiring art yet.
"Do you know who my parents were, Agent Reid?"
Reid's bloodshot eyes, wild with untameable fear, suddenly focused in on Harvey in obvious confusion. Obviously wondering at the relevance of the unexpectedly random question.
"Melissa and James Harvey, respected and well-rounded figures of society. My father was a professor of English literature while my mother came from a respectfully wealthy family. They weren't celebrities but they were admired among the society of the neighbourhood. Everybody liked them ", Harvey's voice was light and soft, and like he was lost in a memory and his eyes stared at the wall ahead of him, his head tilted slightly as if watching a movie. But then his voice gained a dark, rough edge and it was like steel shutters had slammed shut over his eyes, "but no one knew of the abuse they gave to their only son, the shame of the family".
Harvey jumped up suddenly from where he had been perched on a table over in the corner of the room. The sudden movement sent a spike of fear through Reid's heart and he swore he could hear his heart beating in his head. He watched, trembling as the animal before him began to pace, movements getting more irregular the angrier he got as he ranted.
"They pitied my parents. The neighbours, the teachers, the elders… pitied them for having such a disappointment of a son. 'Such wonderful people, it's a shame their son turned out to be so… different' they used to whisper. Just because I was different. Because I didn't want to play football with the other boys or any other sport for that matter. Because I wanted to paint instead. MY FATHER SAW IT AS A FUCKING WEAKNESS" Harvey grabbed the arms of Reid's chair and leaned so their faces were inches away. Reid was sprayed with spittle as Harvey more or less roared the words in his face.
He closed his eyes in fear and whimpered, trying to draw his body in to make himself seem as small as possible. In the back of his mind a familiar scene was brought up, and instead he saw Morgan instead of Harvey in front of him, screaming in his face.
Harvey had straightened up; not noticing the inner turmoil whirling inside of his captive, he carried on working himself into frenzy.
"THAT DESPICABLE MAN… NOT A FIGURE OF SOCIETY BUT A COWARD. SO ASHAMED THAT I ENJOYED PAINTING INSTEAD OF MANLY ACTIVITIES, HE RESORTED TO TRYING TO BEAT THIS WEAKNESS OUT OF ME", suddenly he grinned sadistically and drew in a shaky breath and wetting his lips in his excitement, "BUT I GOT HIM BACK. WHEN WE WERE TAKING THAT DRIVE, HE TURNED AROUND AND STARTED YELLING AT ME. MY MOTHER DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO STOP HIM, JUST LOOKED AT ME WITH THOSE COLD HEARTLESS EYES. I COULD SEE SHE AGREED WITH HIM. MY OWN MOTHER. I HAD PLANNED THIS FOR A LONG TIME. WHEN HE TURNED AROUND AND LOOKED AT ME I JAMMED A KNIFE STRAIGHT INTO THE BASTARDS EYE".
He let loose a wild, manic laugh which echoed around the basement they were in. The look in his eyes… Reid was finally seeing the loss of sanity he had been searching for in his unsub. No controlled, sane man could take any kind of pleasure out of the torture this man inflicted on others.
But this… this was on a wider scale than he had ever seen. For the first time since he had been captured he felt the cold hand of fear squeeze his heart until he felt like it was gonna burst.
He began to rock his body even harder, trying to yank of the bindings to the point of dislocating his arms.
As Reid's panic had begun to set in, Harvey's emotional rollercoaster had come to an end. Smoothing a hand over his hair; he looked calmly over at his hyperventilating captive. Walking over to him he took his chin into a strong grip, ignoring his attempts to jerk his face away.
"Do you know why I told you this?" Reid didn't answer; too busy trying to back away.
"So you know how this all got started. After I killed my parents, I got sent into the system, with each foster home being worse than the last. In my last one I got given the mirror image of my father as a foster father. So I killed him and his wife… and seeing their blood spread out underneath them like that, with their bodies facing each other", he took a shuddering breath, his eyes glazing over, "I found the inspiration to paint. And so I did. And it was magnificent. A work of art. Better than anything else I had ever painted before.
Harvey gently swept back the brown chestnut hair from the agent's face which was drenched in sweat from his panic attack.
"For years I have been trying to attempt to recreate a masterpiece of that magnitude. Ive come close but never have I succeeded. Until you. And for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart."
Getting up, Harvey walked over to the table in the corner and fiddled with something. Reid not paying attention, too busy with trying to control his breathing, didn't notice what Harvey had until it was too late.
"Time to sleep Princess! When you wake up, I have a surprise that I'm sure we shall both enjoy" he whispered and Reid felt a cloth cover his mouth and nose, and a sickly sweet smell invaded his senses to lull him into the darkness.
The door opened with a bang and bounced off the wall from the force of the kick that opened it.
"REID" Morgan yelled as the team swarmed the place with the SWAT members close behind them. They went in all directions but Morgan followed his gut instinct and went to the basement. There, he felt his heart sank.
Evidence of Reid's presence remained but Reid didn't.
"We're too late" JJ whispered brokenly, lowering her gun at the sight of a wooden chair with specks of blood colouring it, with the restraints still wrapped around the arms of it.
Hotch and Rossi walked forward slowly, analysing the chair and yet feeling like they had suddenly aged 50 years from the sagging feeling of despair that ravaged their hearts.
Prentiss was busy trying to compartmentalise her thoughts and feelings but even she couldn't cut out the feeling of hopelessness that rested on her shoulder like an iron weight, causing her to stagger at the sight in front of her.
But it was Morgan that first caught a glimpse of Reid's hell as he turned around to bear witness to a sight so awful he felt like someone had torn his heart right out of his chest.
"Oh My God" he whispered in horror.
Reid slowly swam through the fogginess in his mind back to consciousness. He felt a slight dizziness and heaviness that made him sick to his stomach.
He kept his eyes closed, trying to keep down the urge to retch. A voice pierced through his foggy veil.
"Rise and shine sleeping beauty."
Opening his eyes, a sight so horrifying greeted him that his racing heart felt like it might give out at any second.
Wooden walls surrounded him. His arms chained in front of him to a chair. The smell of rotting fish poisoning the air. A video camera poised in front of him on a tripod with what seemed like a thousand monitors behind it. On those monitors he saw the faces of his team; standing in the exact room he was in only a couple of hours earlier staring out at him in horror. Then his gaze shifted as Harvey shifted deliberately into his view, grinning like a kid that had just given his parents the best gift for Christmas.
"Well? What do you think?"
His answer was a piercing scream that could be heard over acres of woods, that held all the pain, fear and desperation of a thousand souls.
... So what do you think? Does it make up for the wait? And don't worry, Reid might seem broken, but he's gonna make you proud!
Please review and remember that constructive criticism helps me write. If you have any problems with anything then please let me know!
Oh and your praise makes me blush happily X)
ChaPow Out!