Shadows of the Mind
When you make a mistake, don't look back at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.
Hugh White
A/N: So I made a mistake – there are actually three demons left. I completely forgot about the one for this chapter, which is stupid of me, because it's one of the most important ones. I'll admit the final chapters may be a little lackluster, as I seem to have lost my motivation for this one. I will complete it nonetheless. Without further ado here's Henkel.
ELEVEN
Morgan was sitting with his head in his hands when he first saw the blood. It seemed to spring from dozens of cuts in Reid's limbs. It soaked the sheets. Morgan stared, horrified. Then he noticed that Emily too was bleeding – three distinct slashes across her lower chest.
'Someone get a Doctor in here!' he yelled. He didn't know what it meant. Didn't know about the struggle his friends were going through. Didn't know how the lines between reality and Reid's consciousness were blurring.
That soon, his friends would be back, albeit in this injured state.
In his human form, Tobias Henkel had been a formidable opponent. He was a three for the price of one deal – you got Charles Henkel and Raphael whether you wanted them or not. As such, Reid's emotions were conflicted. For Tobias, he felt pity, guilt. And yet Tobias was also the person who had gotten him hooked on Dilaudid – could he really be blamed?
Apparently that was the focus of the exercise, though blaming was a very strong word. Could he really blame the man that had been corrupted by his father so? Should he blame the father instead? It didn't seem to matter, because here, in his mind, they were one and the same.
'It's Cerberus,' he told Emily. 'The three-headed dog.'
'Gee, you think?' Her manner, perhaps, would have been kinder had she not been trapped beneath a colossal paw.
'Tobias,' he called out. 'Tobias, you're stronger than them. You are your own man.' The tactic wasn't working as well as he expected; while the three heads were fighting amongst themselves, it didn't prevent them from attacking Reid either. Constant battle had weakened the young genius, but he wasn't backing down.
He was going to finish this fight.
Two doctors, followed by Hotch, JJ, Rossi and Garcia came running at Morgan's calls. They were at first surprised, then troubled by the sight of the blood.
'What's going on?' Hotch demanded of the nearest doctor.
The doctor checked the machines, and then joined his counterpart in stemming the blood flow of both patients.
'I don't know.' His voice was laced with incredulousness, as if this situation was one he had never encountered before. 'Patients don't spontaneously get wounds like this,' he told them, drawing attention to a cut on Reid's arm. It wasn't the kind of thing that just appeared.
'Are they going to be okay?' Morgan asked, his voice fearful.
'I have no idea,' admitted the doctor. 'We can stitch up the wounds easily enough, but if we don't know the source, then there's no way of determining if that will solve the problem.' Once he had gotten over the initial shock, the doctor had taken to treating the occurrence as one of an everyday variety. It helped.
'And that's not to mention the comas,' the other doctor piped up. Morgan threw him a dirty look – he wasn't helping in the slightest.
'Call a nurse,' the first doctor ordered. 'Let's get these wounds stitched up.'
The demons that were Charles Henkel and Raphael had been slain, but not without help from Tobias. Now Reid stood before the now dejected looking creature, a strange look on his face. Emily stood behind him, watching. She knew she wasn't needed here.
'I'm sorry, Tobias,' he said. 'I'm sorry that I had to kill you. I'm sorry your life turned out the way it did. But you know you need to leave now.' The dog looked at him with mournful eyes, as if it didn't understand the concept. 'I'm sorry,' Reid repeated. 'But I need to be free of you.'
The demon gave a heart-wrenching moan as he thrust the sword through the beast's chest. They watched as glittering pieces snowed to the ground.
Emily put a hand to his shoulder. 'It's almost over,' she assured him.
She hoped fervently that she was right, because she didn't know if either of them could survive it much longer.