Chapter 21

There

Then

"I don't know what's up with her." Jack said.

As soon as Spencer had recovered from being very sick and was starting to bandage up wrists battered and torn from fighting handcuffs a man had come in to the bathroom, pushed Alice out of the way, and took over his care. Jack was on the older side of the Unsub's preferred range, all of twenty-five, had been missing for nearly a month with his lover Michael, and so far seemed to be untouched. "I've been playing along." Jack said. "The fabulous flaming faggot. It's been entertaining them enough that they haven't done anything permanent. So far."

Unfortunately not all of the men trapped in there with them were so lucky. One was tucked into the corner, rocking back and forth, his arms around his knees. "Scotty came here the week after I did with his boyfriend." Jack said. "When Connor didn't come back one day Scotty lost it. He cries every time they drag him out there. They don't care."

"They don't call them nervous breakdowns anymore." Spencer said.

"Yeah, well, there it is. And Lou here..." The second young man looked up. His body was covered with overlapping tattoos, some raw enough to scar. "..he's going to have a hell of a time removing all those tats."

Spencer looked closer. Four letter words, the kinds of drawings you'd find on a bathroom wall, all of it crude and ugly. "They're using plain black ink." He said. "That's the easiest to remove with a laser." But Lou was going to need so much work to get the Unsubs off his skin it might be impossible.

Jack took a deep breath. "And then there's what they're doing to Mikey." He said. He knelt by his lover who was asleep on a mattress, and pulled back the blanket...

BAU Headquarters
Quantico, VA

Spencer

"They were injecting him with what?" Kate asked.

"Synthol " Spencer said. "It's a site enhancement oil, commonly used by body builders to balance out form by filling in over an underdeveloped muscle. Synthol is made up of 85% of a medium-chain oil, like coconut oil, 7.55 lidocane to numb the injection site and 7.5 alchohol to sterilize the mixture. The theory is that it stretches and irritates the tissue, forcing the body to grow more tissue to compensate."

"Does it work?" Okay, even Kate was a little disturbed by this.

"It can, but it also reduces oxygen flow to the area. He ended up with gangrene that turned septic." Spencer sighed. "Garroting likely spared him a longer, more painful death."

"God. Poor kid." Kate shook her head. "Okay, you met the guys. What happened next?"

"I don't know what's up with her." Jack said. "She was here when I got here. She claims she's been here since March."

The room they were in also housed the main utilities for the building, a large furnace, a water heater, various other large chunks of machinery. They had been given what looked like futon mattresses on the floor for beds, enough bedding to stay reasonably warm, and clothing in the form of sweatpants and t-shirts, likely bought in bulk. Meals looked to be MRE's, and there was water from a sink in the corner as well as from the small bathroom. They even had a small washer and dryer. Granted all of this were nothing more than shaped blurs to Spencer, the lack of glasses was not helping his headache. "What are they doing to her?" He asked.

"That's just it, nothing." Jack replied. "They drag her out, they bring her back, she's never hurt, she's never in the dungeons with the rest of us. It's weird man."

Spencer watched the female-shaped blur taking things out of the dryer and folding them. The space was big enough that there were separate nooks here and there. It was clear she was sleeping away from the others. "Have you tried asking her about it?"

"Nah. I don't trust her."

"One thing I've learned is that the odd man out can tell you a lot about a situation." With that Spencer eased around the furnace, came up next to Alice, and started folding...ah, towels with her.

"Thanks." She said after a long moment. "You're not afraid of me?"

"Should I be?"

"No. I'm not colluding with Blackburn anyway. I think Jack suspects that I am."

"I think you're right. So why are you here?"

"Because I took something away from Blackburn. This is how he's punishing me."

"What did you take from him?"

"That was when I first heard the story about Joey Bauer." Spencer said.

"Got it." Kate nodded. "So Blackburn was punishing her by keeping her prisoner and making her look after the other victims?"

"Not exactly. But I didn't find out what he was doing until later."

"You're an FBI agent?" Alice asked.

"Yeah. They drugged me to get me here."

"So they'll come looking for you?"

"They will. My team won't give up until they find me."

"I hope they find you quickly." She said. He thought she was looking over in the direction of the others. "I don't want to watch them kill another one."

"They made her watch the murders?" Kate asked.

"They made her watch everything."