Maggots and Bone

They stand holding hands inside the circle of salt. John just stares at a spot on the wall. Hotchner grasps Spencer's hand and John's. Emily stands holding John's hand and looking at Hotchner. Spencer grips Hotch's hand tightly and looks at Emily.

'We need to hold hands.' Reid

'And you really think standing in a circle of salt holding hands is going to do anything?' Emily. 'I'm not going to hold your hand. I don't know where it's been.'

'Swap places with John.' Hotchner.

'I'm not going to do that either. I know where your hands have been.' Emily.

'Can you just wash your hands afterwards?' Reid.

'This is stupid! Cant you see how stupid this is? This cant help us against anything.' Emily.

'Floyd told us to stand here and hold hands.' Reid.

'Floyd. The murdering rapist who kills children and eats them? That Floyd?'

'Just hold his hand for god's sake Emily.' Hotchner.

'GAH!' Emily reaches out and takes Reid's hand between one finger and a thumb. 'What does salt protect us from anyway?'

'I don't really know Emily.' Reid. 'He's cast no protection spells or words, so I really have no idea.'

'Spells?' She lets go of Reid's hand. 'What sort of spell.'

'Keep holding hands Emily.' Hotchner.

'So the monsters wont get us?!' Emily uses a sarcastic tone.

'Exactly.' Reid missing the sarcasm in Emily's voice.

Emily takes Reid's hand again cautiously.

'But I'm assuming he will come back and do something else. Just a circle of salt wont do anything.'

'Fantastic.' Emily.

'Shut the fuck up you lot!' Floyd shouting from downstairs. 'You want me to get you out of this or not? Just keep your yaps shut.'

The room falls into a strange silence.

-o-o-o-

So here I am with a fist full of hair and half a bag of salt and I have to somehow make this look convincing. What I do is draw a line of salt in front of the main door here. Then I carefully place clumps of hair down and pour a bit of salt onto the top of each pile to keep it from blowing away as much as anything. I can hear them out there scrabbling around in the undergrowth and I look down at that line of salt and hair and I'm not even slightly convinced that it's going to do fuck all. I know it's not.

'You guys going to lend a hand here?' I say; not to that nattering moaning bunch upstairs but to that vindictive bunch far away. Half of me is hoping for a wonderful battle here but the other half, the half which doesn't really want his head ripped off is hoping this will all stop before it really starts. I'm holding out small hope for my Sam. He's slipped back, but I don't think it's going to help. I really don't think he's going to last long back there. Not that he had a choice. Fuck it all.

There are lights out there over the water. Small star like things but I know it's not the reflection of the sky. The sky here has no stars to reflect. It's them.

'Floyd!'

Reid is shouting for me again. What the hell do they expect me to do here? I can't send them back home to their warm beds, they'd not make it ten foot outside the door before they got them.

'I'm on my way.' I call back. I'd rather stay here and watch and wait, but I'm going to have to do something more than a circle of salt to keep them all happy and ensure that they stay where I want them to. I have a little time. Not much. I hammer up the stairs again and walk past the circle of idiots to the window. It is closed but I swing the shutters over too and latch them into place. When I turn around again they are all watching me.

'In case the glass breaks.' I tell them. Which is true. Mostly. Almost. 'Why are you not holding hands? I told you to do that didn't I? Why can't you follow just a couple of simple instructions? Hold his damned hand Emily sweetheart.'

'Not unless you tell me why.' She is a snappy bitch today.

'It will help keep them away.'

'How?' Her arms are crossed now.

I sigh and scratch the back of my neck thinking. 'OK.' I waste a bit more time by lighting up. 'You need your collective energies. It will pass from person to person as needed. If one of you is stronger than the next it will…err…'

'What the hell are you talking about?' If this was any other time, if Emily and I were alone, I would slap her for talking to me like that. Slap her hard. I take a deep drag on my smoke. 'You need to stand in the circle.'

'You told us that.'

'You have to hold hands to conduct the, the….' Now Spencer has his hands in his pockets and is staring at me. I need to make this convincing. 'Just hold hands and listen to me will you. You will use capacitance; you all know what that is I hope.' Three nods and a slow shake from John. 'Look it up on wiki John, if and when you get home. I've no time to explain.' I see Spencer's mouth open and his tongue move quickly over his lips. 'Spencer not now, no time now, just listen. You will use your internal energies and you will hold hands and you will close your eyes and mouths and imagine a bright white light surrounding you.'

'Oh for the love of god.' Emily again.

'Emily, do you want to risk your life out there with the monsters or are you going to play along and at least give John there some hope of survival?'

'This is just….'

'Just a good time for you to come over here by the window alone Emily so we can have a quick chat just the two of us.'

I notice that she is actually careful not to destroy the circle Aaron Hotchner made and this slightly, but only very slightly amuses me. I grab her arm and pull her into a corner. 'Listen to me you stupid bitch, you might not agree with what is going on here, but John and Spencer's lives depend upon it. Probably Hotchner's too. I don't want them wandering off. I don't want them coming down stairs to see what the screaming is all about. I need them to stay here and I want them to stay safe. You will play along Emily because I am actually asking you nicely. Or if you'd rather, you may come down unarmed and clueless and help me kill some demons. What would you rather do sweetheart? Hurry up and make your decision because I really don't have time. I know, I know full well that you believe in this sort of thing, and maybe the way I am going about it is not how you would think someone would, but darling I'm not going to use holy water now am I?' I pause and look at her snarky face. 'Right, I'm doing this the only way I know how. I wasn't expecting you lot to be here, I'm not really too prepared. So get back and join in and help me out here by at least pretending to believe that a circle of salt and an imaginary white light will protect you.' I let go of her arm and she turns slowly to me.

'You are a shallow bastard, you know that don't you? You have the ability to get us out of here. Why don't you?'

'Because darling you are wrong and I can't get you out now. Here's the thing though, I'm hoping that they just want me. If you lot stay up here then there really shouldn't be too much of a problem.'

'You think you're so important; that this world revolves around you and your filthy mind, but it doesn't Flanders, really it doesn't. You're going to get us all killed and for what reason. Tell me what the hell is going on here. What's out there that's scaring you so much?'

I dig my fingers hard into the soft flesh of her arm. 'I'm not scared. I'm concerned.'

'Oh give me a break! You concerned? About what? You don't give a damn about us. It's always you first.' She is almost spitting she's so pissed off with me.

'I'm concerned that they are going to rip me apart down there because my concentration is going to be fucked up by worrying about Spencer there. You're right love, I don't care about John there or Hotchner or you really that much, but I do care about my Spence. Of course it is always me first. What the fuck is the point in protecting someone and keeping them alive if I end up dead? Now get back there with them and imagine the white light because that is going to give some comfort to John if nothing else.'

'You bastard.' And now she pulls away from me.

'My parentage has never been under dispute Emily. I never invited you here so stop moaning and play the game.' I give her a not so gentle push in the direction of the circle. Once they are holding hands again I take a deep breath, drop my finished smoke on the floor and light another. 'OK hold hands boys and girls and imagine a bright white light surrounding you.'

'Floyd?' Now Spencer has questions. This is fine. I expected them. I walk quickly to him and duck under the arms and stand in front of him. Fuck he looks bloody good when he's scared and I've not had to lay a hand on him to get that smell of fear rushing out of him. I step in close; very close and lean forward very slightly so that our bodies are pressed together and I can talk in his ear.

'It's going to be OK Spence. Please just don't come down stairs. If you get too close to them they will smell me on you and they'll want a bit of that fine arse too.' While I talk I run my hands down his side. 'You will hear things and smell things and feel things Spence. Ignore them. Just keep your butt up here safe.'

'I'd rather face whatever this is with you.' He whispers back at me and I can feel that hot scared breath on my neck. I move so slightly so that I'm facing him and give him a deep groin tingling kiss.

'Oh please!' Emily again. 'Can you not keep your hands to yourself? We really don't want to see this.' I ignore her. She's going to be trouble is Emily.

'OK…stay in the salt. Stay up here. Hold hands and imagine that light. Don't under any circumstances come down stairs until I say so.'

'And if you don't?' Hotchner is talking now.

'I will. Have some faith in me will you?'

And I leave the circle and without looking back go back down again.

-o-o-o-

I'm here now.

And they know I am. I can feel the rush of air as they move in towards me. Somewhere a long way off I can still hear the hospital machinery as it keeps me alive over there.

The things inside me have gone, or fallen asleep. They won't hurt me here.

I stand in the dim light and look around me waiting for them. I'm a bit of an interloper. They're going to have a lot of questions for me and most of them I'm not going to be able to answer. What I want is for them to send me to dad. I can use my legs here which is good. I am naked which is OK with me too. It's too hot here. Like the air conditioning has been turned off. The sweat is pouring off me and as I take a couple of steps towards whatever is coming for me my feet slide slightly on the rubbery floor.

'What do you want you little shit?' Probably a hundred or so tiny voices all speaking together from every direction. I stop and nearly slide onto my arse and have to windmill my arms to keep my balance. I don't want to fall back now I've finally made it here and actually have their attention. Though I'm unsure yet if this attention is going to be good or bad.

'I want to help.' And my voice comes out sounding like a scared little school boy, which probably is exactly what I look like.

'You can't help. Go back.' Still all those tiny voices speaking at once…like insects.

'I can't go back yet. These things….' I run my hand over my stomach and chest. 'You have to get them out or let me help.'

Out of the deep sticky darkness something steps forward. It's not quite human, not really a dog either, or a bird, but something in between. It stinks. I can smell it from where I am and as it gets closer the smell makes me gag. It's like the stench of hamburger meat left in the sun for a week. Or the smell of a dead dog lying in the gutter with maggots wriggling over it. Maybe the smell of the sewers and rotting animals and maggots and shit and every other bad smell you can think of, multiplied by a few thousand and then some. My eyes start to water as it gets even closer. Large eyes set in a head too big for its body. A mouth with too many teeth. Ears on the top of its head, large and black like the rest of it. It moves forward on its back legs, but the forearms drag on the floor next to it. Huge talons scrape across the rubbery floor breaking the surface and letting the think dark liquid under the floor escape in dribbles and bubbles.

'Sam.' It says to me. And that blast of stink from deep down inside makes me blink and forces me to swallow back the vomit collecting in the back of my throat. 'Whose side are you on Sam? Who are you rooting for? Whose flag are you waving Sam?'

Well that's confused me. I have no damned idea how to answer this. I also think that if I open my mouth to talk now that I will certainly be very sick. I shrug and blink again as my reply and the thing turns slightly from me.

'I think Sam here is going to be a problem. Kill him.' And it turns completely from me and begins to move away.

'No!' I manage to shout, but goo and ick dribbles from my mouth and down my chin and splats on the floor. 'I'm just not a politician. I'm on your side of course.' I gag and vomit and spew all over my feet. It stinks. It smells like the creature which is slowly turning back towards me.

'You can't help. You can't choose sides. You don't want to go back. What do you want?'

Shit I think I'm going to cry. I'm so bloody confused I can't think. 'I want, I need, to go help dad.'

Those little voices again…the ones which talk as one are now laughing as one and the creature is standing so close to me suddenly that I can feel the things inside me trying to get away. I can feel them crawling and slithering towards my nose and eyes and ears and other exits. 'Help your dad?!'

And I scream and now I am falling back onto my arse as the creatures breath burns and starts to melt at my skin and things start popping inside me and crawling away out of me. My hands fly to my eyes as the pressure builds up behind them and I feel the splatter of muck on my hands as the wriggling things chew their way out of my face.

It's a pretty long and exhausting scream. I open my mouth and with the noise I am making comes the noise of the things inside of me screaming and they are bursting and crawling their way out of my mouth and exploding and sliding back down again.

I can scream…but I can't breathe. I can't see. I can only scream.

Clawed hands grab me by the top of my head, digging into the bone of my skull and I'm dragged along the floor…and I still scream and they still laugh and as I start to fall downwards…

My thoughts suddenly stop.

-o-o-o-

They are telling me that Sam has no brain activity. He is dead. There is no point in keeping his heart going and his lungs breathing for him. There is no point. The boy is dead. There is no coming back from this.

'I don't have the authority to end this.' I stand looking at that face and I'd swear that I saw tears trying to escape. I'm sure his hand twitched. I'm certain that I saw movement of his lips. 'His legal guardian isn't available. He's in England. Just wait until he returns.' I bend forward and give this child a kiss on the forehead. 'Just wait a short while. You are being paid. If you want extra I can arrange that.' Then to Sam. 'Good night. Hold in there kiddo.'

'That's not the point Mr Rossi. The equipment can be used for someone else. This child…'

'Will wake up.' I tell them. 'Or you will wait for Mr Hotchner to arrive. Until then you will assume this boy can hear you and you will show him some respect.' Has Sam managed to drag me in the way he did Aaron, or is there something else going on here? 'I need to go home and sleep. Call me if there is any change.'

'There will be no change.' The doctor looks at me with his dark eyes.

'Then I will get a full 4 hours sleep. Good.' I give Sam one last look for tonight and leave the hospital. I need air in my lungs which isn't half full of disinfectant and death and pain and suffering. I need a drink. I need my dogs and a good movie and a pizza.

-o-o-o-

He is a nothing.

But he is a problem.

Thinks we can't stop him?

His pathetic little tricks wont prevent us from tearing him apart and eating him as his heart still thumpity thumps in that chest of his.

The sweet flesh makes our mouths water with anticipation.

We know his little friends are there.

The smell of them seeps out of that place and drifts over the water.

After we have chewed on his bones and sucked on his heart and liver we will do the same to that beast he is trying to protect.

I heard that they both taste as sweet as honey.

We snippity snip away at these little problems and then we can get to the bigger one with nothing getting in the way.

Thinks he's important, but it's like clearing the shit out of the way so we don't get the stink on our claws.

The spawn is gone. Gone down deep and maybe forever, but he'll not have him to help. Not now. Not for a long long time.

We're on our way Flanders.

Hold onto your head sweet creature. I'm going to rip it off and shit down your neck.

Then do the same to the boy you fuck.

Get ready.

One.

Two.

Three.

-o-o-o-

I hear the noise and I turn my head slightly to look at Reid and hold his hand tighter. I don't want him suddenly running off thinking he can help.

'Oh god.' Emily mutters. John has remained silent throughout but now I hear a long deep sigh coming from him. As though he's just awoken from a bad dream.

The words coming from downstairs are in a language I don't understand. A very harsh guttural sound which makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

'I'm going to be sick.' Emily again. I watch as she leans forward slightly and throws up on the floor. It's not the matter that she's been sick that alarms me. It's what is coming out of her mouth. It's what is wriggling on the floor amongst the vomit. Small creatures. Maggots maybe. Emily is falling to her knees and howling as though her mind has slipped and she's entered the bad dream John just woke from. My own stomach is heaving and twisting and I'm wondering if I have muck like that inside me trying to get out.

'Oh god no!' And she's bringing up more things. Bigger bits wriggle and try to escape the wetness that they've been spewed onto the floor with. I need to help her but I know if I let go of Reid's hand he will be running down the stairs to help someone who is screaming in that odd language. Emily is slapping at the floor trying to kill the things crawling around there. She doesn't seem aware of the ones climbing out of her nose and slithering around the corners of her mouth. 'Ah no!' She's shouting over and over coughing up things which should never have been in her to start with. I want to say something to her, but what do you say? Tell her everything will be alright? Tell her to calm down? I need to go and help her.

'Reid stay here. I have to help Emily.'

He is staring at her with his mouth slightly open. I can see the sweat on his brow and when I release his hands they just slide damply away from me. I don't wait for a reply from him and I should have done. I should have dragged him over to Emily. I should never have let go of his hand.

-o-o-o-

A fight they want.

A fight they get.

More like a one sided slaughter actually. The first couple of things, I can only call them things because I have no word for them in this language, I tear apart easily. I rip into their chest and pull out their insides before they know I'm even there. They are shouting at me, telling me what they are going to do to me and it's making me grin that they can still shout and moan at me even when I'm stamping their brains over the floor.

The next one in the door is big: one huge motherfucker of a thing with a couple of smaller companions. I'm good at killing the scum on the streets here. This though is a different matter all together. These bastards are strong and they don't really have much of a life except to do what they are doing now. Live or die they don't really care. However, I do care. I'm going to live and they are surely going to die.

'Fuck!'

He's got me by the shoulder and is pushing me back. I can feel the claws digging in and the blood welling up around them. These things don't have genitals. They don't breed, so there's nothing there for me to kick. I head butt it.

'Ah shit!'

I don't think I hurt it, but I think I just cracked my skull on it.

Teeth. I utilise my next weapon and bite its fucking face. I feel flesh rip from the side of its face and I suck it in. I shouldn't have done that really. Not tasty at all. Its other hand is trying to grab at me but I'm managing to block for now as I bite into its neck. It squirts liquid over my face. Not blood. I don't think you can class this as blood; it's thick and black and tastes like your imagine tar would taste like. I feel my mouth burn and blister and I think my brains are seeping out of the split in my skull. Surely it's not going to get me this quickly is it?

I kick I bite some more. I push my fingers into its chest and my blood is flowing nicely from my shoulder now. I hear the bones snap and crack and my left arm suddenly doesn't want to block those attacks. My right hand is digging in though and something is biting at my legs. I stamp down on it and that at least stops and as my hand wraps it's little white fingers around the creatures heart and pulls it from the chest it lets go of me and falls back. I chuck the heart to the side and move back towards the wall.

A deep breath. The fucker hurt me and that was just one of the warm up guys. One of the ones to wear me down a bit before the others arrive. The remaining companion creature moves quickly out of the building.

The pain in my chest is phenomenal. Something has certainly happened to Sam. Something bad. It feels like a part of me is being ripped out over and over again. I glance at my shoulder and can see white smashed bone glinting there having a party with my blood and muscle. That's OK I can fix that. It might take me a year or so, but it's only a shoulder. My head though. Hades that hurts. I put my hand to my forehead and can feel a dent there where I seem to have crushed the skull. 'Fuck.' I say again. 'I'm not going to survive this.'

I see a shadow at the doorway. Something is coming in. I will stop it. I have to stop it. I just have to convince myself fully of that matter now. As the shadow moves forward and I get to see the outlines and I curse to myself under my breath something happens to change everything. Something I was really hoping wouldn't happen.

'Floyd?'

Spencer is at the foot of the stairs and it is to him and not me that the creature with its lust for blood rushes towards.