Hey guys! I've been writing a lot lately and have more than a few stories on the work and thought why not start sharing another one? So, here we go. Also, this story is nothing like my other, lighter one. Things will get dark here so if you're easily trigged by violence, gore, rape, torture… I'd advise you to stay away. Other than that, I hope you guys enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds or its characters ;)
1. Let the Game Begin
The first thing she became aware of when she woke up was that she could not remember falling asleep. The second was the sharp pain on her left temple and the dull ache on her entire body.
Slowly she tried to open her eyes, feature that proved to be not as simple as she thought. She blinked several times before her eyes remained open and struggled to adjust to the poorly lightened room around her. And that was when she realized she was laying on a hard, dirty floor.
She could hear sounds, far away, repetitive noises that sounded oddly familiar. It took her a moment to realize that the repetitive noise was actually her name and the voices who kept repeating it were the voice of two of her teammates and closest friends.
Pulling herself up with her elbows she was suddenly overwhelmed with pain, burning fire on her stomach and the terrifying realization that she was inside of an unfamiliar room, surrounded by thick metal bars. She was stuck inside a cage.
Panic and adrenalin shot through her veins and she was on her feet in less than a second, running towards the bars. She grabbed them and used all her strength to try and free herself. All it did was intensify the pain that she now recognized that was actually coming from her ribs. She cried out.
"JJ! JJ! JJ, stop it! Stop it right now!"
Hotch. Her wide blue eyes darted around the small room, searching for the familiar voice until they settled on the far right side of her cage. There, standing by the bars, locked in yet another cage was her boss and much to her distress, an unmoving body on the floor of who she immediately recognized as Spencer Reid.
Finally getting her bearings and regaining her focus, the blonde took another look around and that was when she found out two things; just like on the right side of her cage, on the left side was another that held an distressed Derek Morgan and a silent David Rossi and also, she was not alone in her own confinements.
"Oh, God! Emily!" She ran back to the very back of the cage, where was a wall instead of bars, and all but fell onto her knees besides her fallen friend. She urgently looked for a pulse and left out a loud sigh of relief when she found it.
"Jayje!" Morgan called and finally got her attention. Her scared eyes met his and he tried to look as calm as he possible could "Are you okay?"
"I… I think so… My head is throbbing a little and I think I have a bruised, possible broken rib, but other than that…" She took a breath and looked down at her best friend, tears burning in her eyes "Is she okay? What about Spence, is he okay?"
"We think so" Hotch was the one who answered instead "We believe they gave us something but it should wear off anytime now; the rest of us came around all at the same time, they should be waking up soon as well"
"The-they? Who's they? Where are we?" The blonde cried, gently brushing Emily's bangs from her forehead to take a look at a nasty looking cut on her brow "What the hell happened?"
"We were in a car accident, remember?"
"Hotch look out!" Spencer's scream was the last thing she heard before everything started to spin around.
"I… I think so? Why… Why…"
"Some jerk left a spike strip in the middle of the road" Morgan growled.
"What?"
"It wasn't an accident at all" Said Rossi's somber voice.
"Jen?" Her eyes burned as she tried to open them. She could hear a struggle happening around her, but couldn't wrap her brain around it. She felt a hand clinging to her long sleeve, tugging restlessly at it.
"What the… What the fuck? What… Dude, what are… What…" Morgan's voice began to fade away. She thought she could hear Hotch, and maybe Rossi from far away, but she wasn't sure. In front of her, she saw something – someone – being pulled from the middle seat of the car.
"Spen… Spence?" She stuttered, recognizing the stunned doctor looking around on the seat in front of her. She blinked, everything went dark for a moment.
A burning pain on her neck brought her back and the hand tugging her arm was even more frenetic. She could no longer hear the men, just the weak voice of her best friend still trying to be firm and threatening.
"Let her go! Don't… Don't touch her! Don't… Jen!" She barely felt rough hands pulling her out of the SUV, forcing the hand gripping on her sleeve to let go. The bright light outside blinded her. She tried to look back, listening to screaming and struggling. Her head was spinning and the world started to go dark.
She saw Morgan's unconscious body thrown in the back of a van next to what could have been either Hotch or Rossi. She thought she felt her hands being tied behind her back and the last thing she felt was the impact of her body as it was thrown next to her friends.
"… Do we have any idea of where we are? Or who took us?" Somewhere during the others' conversation, where they tried to put everything together using the memories each one had, nobody noticed their youngest member coming back to life. JJ thought she heard a collective sigh of relieve.
"Hey, Reid" Hotch, his cage or cellmate – whatever you want to call it – gave his agent a rare smile, reaching out and helping the genius to sit up "How are you feeling?"
"I suppose I could be worse" The doctor mentally checked his entire body, asserting his injuries "… A few cuts and bruises, a bit of a headache… I think that's about it"
"Thank god" JJ breathed.
"And to answer your question" Rossi started "So far only two of us got a good look on their faces and none can recognize any. As in where we are, I'm positive we're in an underground room, possible a residential basement"
"Nobody remained awake while they transported us here and we have no way to know how long we've been out for" Hotch ran a hand through his hair "So we also have no way to predict out location"
"I can't hear anything from above, though, which probably means we are not in the city" Morgan commented "We'd be able to hear something otherwise, at least cars passing by"
The group when silent for a long time after that, none of them knowing what to say, all of them too stuck in their own thoughts.
They were starting to get really concerned for their unconscious teammate when a small groan was followed by a loud gasp from the blonde. She leaned down, trying to block the light from her friend's eyes as she started to try blinking.
"Oh, god, Em! Thank God!" JJ cried out in joy and grabbed Emily's hand before she could touch the gash on her forehead. The brunette groaned again and finally managed to open her eyes.
"Hmm… Jen? What's…"
A loud slamming noise made the entire team flinch. Eyes flew forwards and three figures walked inside the room.
The first man was tall, strong, bald and dark while the second was even taller, equally strong and blonde with green eyes. Both men carried big guns and their face showed no emotion.
They stopped walking just as they reached the middle of the room, right in front of the cages and the third man stood in the middle of them.
He was shorter, average weight, pale skin, brown hair and dark eyes. Different from the other two, he carried no gun in his hands, only a simple handgun in his hip but his expression was what sent chills down JJ's body.
He was smiling. A big, excited, maniac smile.
He took the time to look at every one of his prisoners, studying them.
Hotch stood by the edge of his cage, holding onto the bars and sending his best glare towards the men. Reid stood slightly behind him to his right, his eyes drifting around, silently studying the men. JJ had also stood up and had placed herself directly in front of her still dazed friend, her hand on her shoulder trying to keep her from standing up and she looked ahead, no expression on her face. Emily had managed to sit herself up and was overwhelmed by a wave of dizziness and pain. She would have tried to fight through it and get to her feet if it wasn't the blonde's hand on her shoulder. She glared ahead none less. Morgan was also by the edge of his cage, holding onto the bars and looking infuriated, enough for terrorize anyone in any other circumstance and Rossi stood with his arms crossed, much like Reid trying to silently read their captors, his face giving nothing up.
The man seemed satisfied by his observations and he clapped once loudly. His smile widened.
"They are perfect!"
"Who the hell are you?" Morgan growled in rage. The man seemed unfazed.
"Well, Agent Morgan, my name doesn't matter right now. All you need to know is that you shall call me Judge. And those are two of my friends, Monster" He nodded towards the dark man and them to the other "and Beast"
"Fitting" Emily groaned under her breath. At this point she had used JJ's hand to pull herself up and was struggling not to sway on her feet, standing beside her friend.
"Well, not that the introductions are out of the way" Another clap "Let's let the game begin"
Gimme your thoughts! Want me to continue? Is someone interested in read this one? Let me know ;)