Shadows of the Mind

Life is an unbroken succession of false situations.

Thornton Wilder

TWELVE

They sat against a rocky wall in the hallways of the dark passages of Reid's mind. As easy as it was to pledge to finish their quest, it was much harder to actually do so. Some of the demons fought were obvious; the people that had had a great impact on Reid's life. There were others that he wouldn't have even considered demons – people that he didn't even realize had affected him so much.

To purge them all was a daunting – and dangerous – task, one that Reid sensed they were reaching the end of. He had reached this conclusion when the strange being of light had graced them with its presence once again. It gave off a feeling of hope, of impending freedom.

Of course, that was providing that they didn't die horribly first. Reid was unsure if it were possible to die in this non-corporeal place, but if it were, he knew he was drawing close. He did not know how many more demons he could survive.

Emily too, was fading fast – faster than Reid. He suspected it had something to do with the fact that she was a foreign presence in his mind. Yes, the headaches had stopped, but that did not preclude continued unconscious efforts to remove that foreign presence. Her head rested against his shoulder, heavy sword lying on the ground beside them.

'Thank-you,' he said to her, in amongst the silence.

'I'm here to help,' she responded, her eyes closed.

'No, I mean…not just for helping fight my demons…' He paused, unsure of what to say. 'I don't…You know it's hard for me to express something that isn't in percentages. I don't usually share what's going on in my mind. I think I'm afraid – afraid of what people might think. My mind isn't the most comforting thing to be exposed to. I…thank-you for not being intimidated by the demons, is what I'm trying to say, I guess.' He was not happy with the words he had spoken; he knew that they didn't have the emotional impact he was trying to achieve. She understood nonetheless.

'I hope you'll grant me the same favor when we take the trip through my mind,' she said. He laughed softly. She lifted her head up, stretching her arms.

'Are you ready to keep moving?' he asked her.

'It's now or never,' she replied grimly.


They found themselves in an open cavern, flaming torches adorning every wall. Their eyes were not on the torches. Their eyes were on the demon standing at the opposite end of the room. They recognized him almost instantly. Though Emily would never admit it, Benjamin Cyrus was a personal demon for her as much as he was for Reid.

'"Savages they call us, because our manners differ from theirs."' Spencer Reid can remember every word spoken to him by Benjamin Cyrus, but for some reason, it is these words that the demon has chosen to repeat. Perhaps it is to do with his choosing of the word "demon" to describe the presences in his mind; as if they are all a negative influence. He knew that was not strictly true. While the demons were certainly a manifestation of negative experiences, he knew that he would not be the man he was today without their influence.

He looked across at Emily. She stood resolute, fire in her eyes. This would be as close as she would ever get to killing Cyrus, to avenging the loss of innocent life. Sometimes she still rued the fact that it was Morgan that got to take the killing shot.

It seemed strange to Reid that this demon was so much stronger than any of the others had been. He had considered his experiences in La Plata County to be important, but not important enough to warrant a twelve-foot tall monster with a giant sword. If he were to sit down and spend more than a microsecond thinking about the fact, he would have come to the conclusion that perhaps the recency of the event, combined with Emily's experiences with Cyrus culminated in this unstoppable killing machine.

The battle banter that they had once traded was gone; they now concentrated fully on destroying the beast before them. It was a difficult task. Reid found himself knocked back by a giant fist. It took him several seconds to recover.

Too late, Reid saw Emily pinned against the wall. Too late, he saw the beast thrust his sword into her chest. The look in her eyes was one of pain and anger. Pain at the long sliver of metal that had just been lodged in her torso, and anger at the fact that she was still unable to give herself Cyrus closure.

She closed her eyes as her body disintegrated around the sword, leaving Reid trapped alone in the vast depths of his own mind.


For Morgan, everything seemed to happen at once. The machine next to Emily started beeping loudly, as Emily herself arced backwards. Blood seeped from her chest, staining the sheets that had just been replaced.

One of the doctors had remained in the room, keeping watch for any more strange occurrences. In his book, this definitely seemed to count as a strange occurrence.

'She's going into cardiac arrest,' he told nobody in particular. Morgan found himself pushed hurriedly out of the room, replaced by a multitude of doctors and nurses. The rest of the team came running at the sound of the commotion. There would be "wet floor" signs going up the moment the cleaning staff noticed the coffee that had been spilt by the rushing FBI agents.

'What's happening?' asked Hotch.

'Emily's going into cardiac arrest.' Morgan did not even realize that he had started gripping Garcia's hand tightly as he stared back into the hospital room fearfully. 'There was blood everywhere.' Those words he spoke softly, as if he was hoping that they weren't true, that he had imagined the whole thing.

Five individuals straightened noticeably as a doctor exited the room. The look on his face was imperceptible, even for three of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's best profilers.

'She's stable,' he said finally, his words belying the amount of blood that seemed to cover him. 'And surprisingly,' he added. 'Conscious. But we need to stitch it up, otherwise she will bleed out.'

Five faces, stared at him incredulously, as if they needed the information to be repeated.

'She's going to be alright?' asked Hotch, the first to speak after the doctor's revelations.

'In my medical opinion, yes.' He raised an eyebrow. 'But after tonight, I don't think my medical opinion is worth squat.'