Chapter Two: Knock, Knock, Is Anyone There?

"I am going insane. Yes. That is what's happening. Good. Insane." -Suzanne Finnamore

Hour 1

Reid awoke to find himself in a very unfamiliar place. Cold, steely ground. Bland walls. A couple water bottles lined the sides, along with a bucket and a backpack. The gangly young man got to his feet, before crumpling back to the floor when the truck hit something in the road. His head smacked against the wall of it and he slid back to the ground.

A familiar aching sensation sprung up in his head, and he pressed the back of his hand to his head. Doing a check for any wounds, he found that both his leg and head had bandaging carefully wrapped around… wounds?

Briefly, Reid wasn't sure what had happened, but it came flooding back to him a second later. The woman's screams, the unsub's voice, the bullet wound. And the unsub hitting him over the head with the gun. Morgan yelling his name after he shouted. But the door had already been shut and the truck had peeled away. He winced at the memory before fumbling for his phone in the darkness.

He couldn't find it. Even his bag had been stripped from him. He was only left in clothes. Well, mostly. The unsub had taken his shoes. Probably making sure he wouldn't be able to run very far if he did manage to escape, which he would.

He was in a van, and light trickled inside the dark cage through little slivers of air along the bottom of the door. The gap wasn't even large enough to stick his fingers through. Resting his head on the floor, he narrowed his eyes and tried to look out. He couldn't see anything.

"Dammit!" he swore loudly. Pounding at the door, he let out a desperate yell. "Help me! Help!"

Nothing but the van lurching at something even reacted. Backing into a corner and gripping the walls with his hands, he tried to ignore what was happening. The team would find him. It wouldn't be long. The team would find him.

"They'll find me!" Reid screamed at the driver, though he knew it was unlikely that he was even heard. "They'll find me…" he whispered to himself.

Hour 27

Reid didn't know how much time passed, but he knew that it had at least been a full day. He'd watched as the gap grew darker with night before brightening up again. So far, he had drifted in out of sleep. While he usually would've tried to stay awake, he'd already been running on adrenaline and paranoia before he was caught.

The young man also didn't know what was worse. Constantly worrying about when the unsub would strike or waiting for his kidnapper to make a move. It had been at least a day and the unsub hadn't even spoken a word to him. Reid kept replaying the incident in his head, trying to find out something useful for when the team found him.

"Deeper voice, male, a little shorter than me, hat," Spencer repeated under his breath. That's all he could remember at that moment. The sun had been in his eyes, and then the gun smacked against the side of his head. At least his head wound was healing.

Reid still hadn't touched the granola bar, which was in the bag. Or the water. He didn't trust anything about this man.

Hour 123

Crunching the empty bottle in his hands, Reid stared at the ceiling of the truck. After the third day, he couldn't bother watching the lights to figure out how long it had been. "Long enough," he mumbled to himself bitterly. Where was his team? When would they find him?

"Today?" he asked nobody in particular. When there was no reply, he unscrewed the lid to the water bottle and let the final few droplets drip onto his tongue. He'd given up on being cautious with water on the second day in captivity. Reid needed to stay hydrated, even if it risked his life.

When the water bottle had emptied, the young doctor threw the plastic drink at the wall. "Let me out!" he screamed. "Let me out, let me out, let me out!" He quickly jumped to his feet and pounded at the walls. His fists were already bruising at the daily beating off the truck walls. Maybe someday the door would break.

No. His team would find him before that.

His mind was already beginning to confuse itself. He could swear it had been at least a month, but logic argued that was very unlikely. There was no way Spencer drank only one water bottle in a month. But he was also sure at times that he'd slept through the entire day. He didn't drink then.

"Let me out…" he whispered to himself. He was going crazy in this cage.

Hour 368

One week in? Two weeks in? Three? Four? Had he ever really left this place?

It was growing clearer and clearer to Reid that his team couldn't find him. But maybe they were close. It was also growing more difficult to believe that.

"My plans? Sweet of you to ask. I'm planning to recount the seconds of the day until it gets dark. Again. What about you?" Spencer knew he wasn't talking to anybody. Nobody was listening to him. That had been made obvious. Still, it felt nice to imagine somebody cared about what his plans were. It was also nice to imagine he had plans.

At first, Reid's strategy was to escape when his supplies were replenished, and he stayed up for as long as he could in wait for that moment. Eventually, he had passed out, and when he woke up, the water had been replaced. He had missed his chance to break out.

"I hate sleep," Reid growled to himself. Banging on the truck door, he ignored the pain that accompanied each hit. He also tried to ignore the crimson splatters that appeared whenever his fists made contact with the hard metal. "I hate this. I hate you!"

When the pain became too unbearable, Spencer fell back, smacking his head on the floor but not caring. Actually, it helped him think. He sat up and smacked his head on the ground again. If it weren't for the creeping sensation of a headache and the aching feeling that sprung up, Reid would've continued. But he didn't want to hurt himself.

Curling up in a ball the young doctor started to repeat one of his college classes under his breath.

College memories helped.

So did an eidetic memory.

Hour 731

It had been too long. Sometime during the weeks he'd been captured, Reid had stopped talking. Nobody had been responding. Okay, that wasn't the real reason. The real reason was because somebody did respond. At first, he'd been overjoyed. Before he realized he was hallucinating someone talking to him.

That scared him.

Reid didn't want to go crazy, he didn't want to end up like his mom. So he kept his mouth and tried to block out the voices. The laughter he knew didn't exist, the crying he knew was his, the screams that didn't belong to anyone.

His life had fallen into a routine. He slept, woke up because of the nightmares, drank some water, listed facts about his life, and then repeated. Every once in awhile he'd eat, but the unsub seemed to fill up his water more than his food. Spencer tried to ignore the fact that he felt like a dog. His fists clenched and he thudded against the wall.

That was all he could do, one punch before his hands felt so raw he was scared he'd never be able to use them again.

Let me out. Let me out. Can only think, can only hear. Stop talking to me. Stop talking to me.

Spencer rocked back and forth, legs pulled up to his chest. Those weren't his thoughts.

Hour 1532

Get out of my head! Get out! Leave me alone! Get out, get out, get out!

Get out.

Let me out.

Hour 2000

Picking himself off the floor, Reid moved away from light. Falling into a sitting position farthest away from the hot rays of light, he brushed the sweat from his forehead.

It had gotten hotter lately. Was it summer now?

How long had he been missing?

Years. Somebody whispered in his ear. Spencer flinched away from the sound and clenched his eyes shut so he didn't see the hallucination. The people created from his memories had been appearing more and more. Just a few days ago he'd heard Morgan.

Spencer chuckled at the bitter memory. He remembered hearing Morgan call out for him outside the truck. He had said 'I'm coming for you kid!' and Reid had run to the door. He still had bloody hands to prove how hard he had hit the closed door of the truck. Reid had realized that nobody was there when Morgan didn't make another sound after what felt like an hour.

Reaching out gingerly for a water bottle nearby, Reid unscrewed the cap and poured on himself. By now, he had figured out that the unsub was intent on keeping him alive, and whenever his water was gone, the next time he woke up, there were more bottles filled. Because of this, every once in awhile, he'd dump water on himself to give himself a sort of bath. Any puddles ended up drying in the heat anyway.

The moment the water hit Reid's skin, he winced at the heat. The weather had turned the liquid incredibly hot. Still, he pushed through the pain and emptied the container on his scalp.

He got more water whenever it was empty, but the unsub only replaced his food a few days after it was gone. Reid's build was even more scrawny now, but he wasn't starving. Spencer almost wished he could. Maybe dying would stop the voices.

No, it won't. They replied.

Reid let out a scream to block out his thoughts. He still hadn't spoken words in… actually, he wasn't sure how long. But screaming helped. Until his voice eventually died and the voices came back.

Save your voice, agent. The whispered when he had finished. Spencer let out a growl and tried to think of something other than the unsub's voice. Nothing came to mind.

Hour 2202

The truck engine roaring to life was the first thing Spencer remembered. Then two bumps in the ground. Reid scrambled to his knees and crawled toward the gap. This was the first time the truck had moved since he had been taken. Was this when it all ended? Or was the unsub just moving locations?

There was a stretch of bumpy road. Reid had counted eight minutes of it. After about eight minutes, the road cleared up. The driving became smooth.

Laying down, Spencer stared at the door. He was on the road. Not just a dirt road. But an actual road. Part of him wanted to bang at the door, but he had figured out that it was useless. There was no point in hurting himself more.

After about twenty minutes of driving, the truck stopped.

Reid's eyes were growing heavy, and as he waited for the truck to begin moving again, he closed his eyes. He assumed they were at a stoplight. His theory was proven true when the vehicle began moving again.

As another ten minutes dragged on, Reid let himself fall asleep. No point in staying awake.

Hour 2203

"What's this?"

Reid's eyes flickered open at the familiar voice. Covering his ears, he hummed to himself to get rid of the voices in his head. The truck had stopped, and he just guessed this was where the unsub was going to park it. But the voices didn't stop.

"I don't know, it was just parked out front when I got in. Nobody was in the driver's seat."

"Ridiculous. There's a parking lot right there. Whatever, I'm going inside."

Reid didn't know what made him do it. But he moved over to the door and slammed his fists against it. An echo rang through his cage but the voices let out shouts of surprise.

"Something's in there!"

"Open it, dammit!" A gun clicked.

The truck made a creaking sound before the door was lifted up.

When sunlight poured into the truck, Spencer could feel his eyes burn. After what felt like forever in the dark, the sunlight was too much. Two people were standing at the opening, shock plastered across their faces. One of them said something to Reid, but he covered his ears and was clenching his eyes shut.

He didn't know where he was, but suddenly the outside world seemed so much less welcoming.

"Reid?" one of them asked. He heard this. Suddenly he felt like screaming. Morgan. "Call an ambulance!" the familiar voice snapped at the other person. "Reid, talk to me!" the voice was sort of pleading?

Spencer wanted to reply but didn't even know how anymore. Was this all a hallucination? After being trapped in his mind for months, most of those months in silence, he wasn't sure what he could do. He nodded quickly. Reid was his name, yes. But was this figure really Morgan?

"Let me out." Spencer cried, eyes still shut as he repeated the only thing that seemed right.

"You might want to decide fast. We live in a dangerous world. If you see a chance to be happy, you have to fight for it, so later you have no regrets." -Ilona Andrews

A/N: Thanks so much for reading and all your reviews! It really does mean a ton to me! Hope you enjoy this chapter.