Spencer woke up. That in itself was miraculous. His head was ringing_not his ears but his whole head as if a thousand cymbals had been set to spin across his gray matter. He lay there with the shock against his skull feeling helpless as he was blinded by truck lights. His hands scratched the ground and found he was laying on something and not just the floor of the desert. It was not exactly fabric but not exactly plastic_oh! It was canvas.
As he blinked, suddenly Hotch came into view. He held out a hand and shushed him.
"Hey! Hey, it's alright. It's alright..."Hotch began. Spencer sat bolt upright, ready to flee like the Savannah on fire into wherever and the black away in any given direction. He wasn't sure why he was afraid. He had been afraid so long it had become his default state.
"Spence..."J-J coughed his name, and breathed into an oxygen mask again. He wheeled toward her name and felt Hotch's hands grip his shoulders.
"The Wolf...He...He..."Spencer found his voice even as the smoke cleared from his eyes and J-J crawled over the supply crates that held down the canvas he'd been lying on and placed her hand squarely on his chest. As if she was searching for his heart beat until she found it.
"We know." Hotch said simply. His tone hovered between whisper and word. Spencer looked his way, feeling as if his gray matter turned to cotton. Was he even here?
"If he was there, then why am I still?" Spencer looked at J-J now only just now actually feeling her hand at his chest as it knotted in his shirt to anchor herself in the world they somehow still occupied.
"Because it's like I said. We're not letting him take you anywhere, kid." Derek was partially hidden in the dark as he watched over the desert. They had gotten to a much further location.
Spencer nodded.
"But you should let him think he can...That...That's how we can trap him. We've drawn him out, blown his game and its rules to pieces. He's devolving..." Spencer swayed.
"As much as I hate to say it, Hotch..."Rossi crept closer and stood right above them all looking down intently at Spencer who suddenly felt incredibly small under his gaze.
"We're not gonna dangle Reid like a worm on the end of a hook in front of this guy!" Emily said from the tailgate of a truck. So they were far enough out they had to have driven.
"Actually, that's exactly what we should do. And I know just the spot..."said Grams approaching them with a torch made out of an old baseball bat wrapped in a couple of pieces of burning tire tread.
"What you mean like literally? Like the old mine buckets?" Pepper had been sitting a stone's throw from Spencer's feet, silent. She was visible now in the light.
Garcia hiccuped. "Oh, mines old mines. That sounds spooky and-and Western. Oh, and spooky, and see spooky is usually fine but in the case of evil homicidal coyote, it's not that good..." Garcia tripped over her own feet in her fear and nearly fell, being caught last minute by Derek.
"Well, yeah. It's spooky and horrible. But see, the mine was off limits in the game because of how dangerous the place is. It was dangerous when it was brand new and fully functional," Bones said from the cab of the truck, hopping out and walking around to sit next to Emily.
"This plan sounds less appealing by the second." Emily's eyes crossed.
"Okay, so, if it will end all this I say we do it. As long as I can go with him." J-J was so quick to say it, it startled everyone into silence. They thought she would argue the most.
"What?" Spencer shook his head.
"You...are not going to be the bait, unless I can be there giving you backup. That's the one contingency in this, okay? I can stay out of sight if that's part of the plan or whatever, but you're not playing anymore rounds of this game on this freak's terms. This time we set the terms! Or we don't do it..." J-J could be ferocious when she wanted to be, but she was actually scaring Spencer now. Mostly because he could see now exactly what sort of desperate lengths she would also take to save him, and he didn't know how to feel about it.
"Well, okay then, I suppose we have to act quickly before he chooses another victim from the street children, or whatever he does next. It's as close as we can get to following a legitimate plan seeing as the profile was totally blown out the window for this one, twice now already." Hotch shook his head, smiling wryly.
"I expected you to be the last person to go along with this idea?" Rossi's jaw dropped. The others were uncharacteristically silent.
"In any other case, I would. But I want this to be over. It's time for this to be over so we can take Reid home with us and so no one else has to lose a child to this psycho. Now, we may all die in the process of trying to reach that goal, but we have to act quickly and preemptively or we may never reach it at all." Hotch stood up and turned to Grams.
"Where is this place?" He frowned.
"You're not gonna like it," Grams shook her head, and looked at Spencer. Hotch looked at him too, anxiety growing at Grams' expression. Spencer sighed.
"It's beyond his Treasure Chest. It's his most guarded area. The mine, you see, as dangerous as it is, it's the perfect dump site. He always said he'd stashed some of the bodies there, forever out of reach..." Spencer felt his whole body was being pulled apart like the atoms in his bones were splitting. He didn't want to go there, but he, like Hotch, was certain this needed to end as soon as possible.
"Well, okay. If we gotta go we gotta. Hey, can I have one of those big six guns like in the movies for this?" Garcia stepped up and adjusted her glasses.
"Baby girl, what makes you think you're coming to some Western throw down?" Derek tilted his head.
"It's hoedown. And like hell are you guys leaving me." Garcia smiled.
Spencer stood up then.
"Grams may know the place, but I'm the only one who knows the path. I've been to his hell before. It's better that you don't ask." With that, swaying, he walked ahead of them, leading them into the dark without a flashlight or star to guide them. He had become so wolf-like by this time, they realized, that he didn't need the lights, the dark was his natural habitat.