A/N: hello I normally don't do authors notes at the beginning of a chapter but I am for this one I'm telling you now this chapter is mainly flashbacks, but it's also a very important chapter so happy reading

Also please read the notes at the end as well because I have questions I need answers for

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"With your name on it" Luke's words echoed through JJs head as her heart sunk. That meant the entire town has thought she was dead, and for then that someone had faked her death, whether it was her parents or the downstairs she didn't know. "Are you sure?" she asked even though she knew Luke would never tell her if he wasn't sure. Luke just nodded sadly he reached out hoping to provide comfort but JJ just pulled away and stood up off the bed. "I need to talk to hotch," JJ said and left the room leaving Luke alone.

JJ walked down from Luke's room into the front room, there was a faint light where a lady was sitting at the front desk reading. JJ stopped to take a deep breath determined to get through this without having another breakdown like she did with Emily. She finally made her way towards Hotch's room, she stopped hand raised to knock on his door, was she really going to do this. She didn't even have to knock 3 times before the door opened reviling hotch wearing flannel pants and a black t-shirt, JJ had never seen him in anything but work clothes, she was half convinced he slept in his suit.

"JJ? Is something wrong'

"Can I come in please I need to talk to you"

"of course," he opened the door wider and let her in. Hotch had honestly expected for this to happen- for her to finally tell him and the team about whatever the strange thing with South Rock was.

"Look this is going to be a lot but please let me finish before you say anything," JJ said sitting down on the desk chair. She took a deep breath.

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Flashback

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"Excuse me miss Jareau, come with me, bring your things" Mr. Lewis the guidance counselor said popping his head into JJs 5th grade math class. "Mr. hart you too," he said to Luke. JJ and Luke looked at each other confused they hadn't done anything wrong- well nothing the school would know about. Nonetheless, they got up and followed Mr. Lewis to his office. In the office waiting on them was, JJs parents, Luke's parents, the principal, 4 deacons from the church, and Bro. Jesse, their pastor.

Neither JJ nor Luke had any idea what was going on, all they knew was they were pulled out of class in the middle of the day and their parents did not look happy. I mean they never really looked happy, but they looked almost accomplished.

Before they knew it the 2 of the deacons stepped forward grabbing JJ and Luke's arms and pinning them behind their backs much stronger than was needed to hold back a 10-year-old, only loosening their grip to allow them to yank off the children's backpacks throwing them onto the floor. The kids struggled against the men but it was no use, they didn't scream like they were supposed to if a stranger grabbed them, only stopped struggling and looked at their parents with pleading eyes.

"what's going on!" Luke demanded. There was no response other than Bro. Jesse letting out a chuckle that sent a chill down JJs spine. Suddenly the 2 deacons holding them started moving towards the door out of the office forcing JJ and Luke to walk with them, the children planted their feet into the ground in a desperate attempt to stop walking. The men just pushed harder, leaving them no choice except to move forward. Just before they were fully out of the room JJ shouted to her parents. "I love you" JJ had no idea why she said that, she didn't love her parents, and they didn't love her.

JJ and Luke were marched down the hallway of the school towards the exit, closely followed by the other 2 deacons and Bro. Jesse. They still had no idea what was happening, but they knew it wasn't good, and JJ was scared out of her mind.

As they walked outside JJ felt the freezing air on her skin, she had left her coat in her backpack during class and was now regretting that decision. She was practically set in the backseat of a navy-blue SUV, next to Luke who was pushed in after her. Neither Luke nor JJ said a word as they rode. They looked at each other taking comfort in the other's presence.

They didn't even realize the SUV had stopped until her door opened, and she was pulled out and the same deacon pinned her arms behind her back, then she saw where she was, the church. She was led through the church behind the stage, where there was a trapdoor a deacon who was not holding one of the kids opened it. "Get in!" he shouted at the kids making them flinch. It was the first thing anyone had to said to them since they were pulled out of class.

JJs arms were released and she did as she was told and climbed down a ladder in the trapdoor closely followed by JJ, but no one else, not even the 2 deacons that were holding them. They reached the bottom of the ladder they were greeted by another two men this time in work pants and navy-blue golf shirts with a logo reading "the downstairs" above the pocket.

"Come with us," one of the men said in a surprisingly welcoming tone, but JJ wasn't fooled. She trembled as she walked, too afraid to do anything else. They were led into a room that looked like a home theater, and were instructed to sit down in the large chairs with Luke sitting next to her. The men pulled JJs arms and placed them on the armrests strapping them in with leather straps she hadn't noticed before, doing the same to Luke, they also strapped their ankles down to the seat.

"Remember you are always being watched" the welcoming tone was now replaced with pure evil. The two men left the room and the lights dimmed it really did feel like a movie theater. The screen lit up and a video of a woman sitting in front of the camera.

"Hello and welcome to 'The Downstairs' my name is Pam walker the founder. We have been helping kids struggling with homosexual thoughts and habits, we also help children who think they are of a different gender. During your time here with us, we will use various techniques to stop this pattern of thinking. You will live here until you are fixed, you will do your school here, tier 1-3 kids will only be allowed to leave for Sunday morning worship where you will be placed in a separate room as to not spread your thoughts. You can find more information in your follower's handbook in your room as well as a folder with even more information. Remember here at 'The Downstairs' we value God more than anything,"

The video ended and the lights came back on, and JJ realized what was happening, she had been taught from a young age that being gay was wrong, and her parents wanted to make sure that she wasn't "like that" and apparently Luke's parents had the same idea. 2 new people walked into the room, one man and one woman and they came and unstrapped JJ and Luke. They led them through the halls and down a flight of stairs all the way down 5 floors, and into their rooms.

Each room had nothing more than a bed, desk, a wardrobe built into the wall, and a small trunk at the end of the bed, it looked more like a prison cell than anything, there was a door opening into a bathroom and JJ spotted a security camera in the corner facing the bed. The woman who had brought her down to her room slammed the concreate door, and locking it, effectively trapping JJ in the room alone.

JJ collapsed onto her bed; she still hadn't said a word since she had told her parents she loved them. The bed wasn't uncomfortable but defiantly wasn't cozy, there were no sheets only a pillow. JJ thought of Luke, they had been separated as soon as they got down to the fifth floor, she craved the comfort of his presence. She thought of Roslyn and what she was thinking, had she noticed she didn't come home, would her father get mad at her, that's what scared her most, the beatings were never as bad if the other was home.

Was the day even over, and when would she be let out of this room, how long would she spend there. There were so many questions going through her brain so she distracted herself by exploring her room. She opened the bottom drawer of the nightstand, there were pairs of socks, bras, and underwear, and tank tops like you would wear under a t-shirt, all colored black or white. In the top drawer, there was a binder that said 'followers handbook (female)' as well as the folder the woman had talked about in the video, JJ decided she would look through those later.

She walked over to the closet and opened both doors, at the bottom, there were six drawers and there was a rod going across the whole length of the closet, hanging on it was various articles of clothing all colored navy-blue, and on top of the drawers were several pairs of shoes, 3 drawers were empty while the others were filled with more clothes, except the top one which had sheets and blankets.

The small trunk at the end bed was empty, so JJ pulled out the binder and folder out of her nightstand, and sat down at the desk to read them, she started with the handbook. Here is what she learned.

Tiers- there are 5 tiers of followers (that's what all the kids were called) and you got a higher tier from good behavior or improvement.

Tier 1- brown:

No visitation

Normal lunch

Lights out 9 pm

Tier 2- Green

No visitation

1 Hour free time per dead

Lights out 9:30 pm

Tier 3- yellow

Supervised visitation once a month

Choice for lunch

Lights out 10 pm

Tier 4- Red

Permission to leave campus once a month

Better room

Lights out 10:30 pm

Tier 5- Blue

Permission to leave campus twice a month

Access to library

Lights out 11 pm

Uniforms- check the bulletin board for season

Winter:

Weekdays: black jeans, long sleeve shirt, boots. Jackets and hoodies are permitted if needed.

Sunday: females must wear their long sleeve dress with a belt to Sunday worship as well as their black ankle boots.

Summer:

Weekdays; black jeans or shorts, navy-blur t-shirt, tennis shoes or boots.

Sunday: you may wear any dress to Sunday worship, as long as it's belted with black ankle boots.

There was so much information in the handbook ranging from how to make your bed, to various jobs you could get around campus to earn points to spend in the shop to buy things like books and art supplies. JJ read it all before looking in the folder, in it was printouts of schedules and events that would happen as well as options for breakfast.

JJ's door opened making her jump out of her skin, the same lady who had shown her to her room was holding a tray of food and let it down of JJ before leaving this time she didn't lock the door behind herself. On the tray was what looked like 2 pork chops, some rice, some green beans, and a glass of water. she hadn't realized how hungry she was and started eating. After she finished, she followed the instructions in the handbook and set her tray right outside her door in the hallway, and saw several other kids doing the same.

This was the day JJs life changed for the worse, every day from when she was pulled from school to after she was 16 years old was spent living in that hellhole, the only day she was home was when she turned 11 and her parents wanted to bring her home for a day to see how she was doing. The day she found Roslyn dead in the bathroom.

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End flashback

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JJ finished explaining everything to Hotch holding back tears. She never wanted to tell anyone what happened and now she had just told her boss about it, and not willingly. Hotch took a deep breath he normally knew what to do in these situations, but when you had an entire town working against you, and an agent about to have a nervous breakdown, there wasn't much you could do,

"I'm going to wake up the rest of the team, we will work the case in here until morning"

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A/N: I have a lot of notes so bear with me here all start with stuff actually about the chapter. I hope y'all liked this chapter and please let me know what I can improve. And just so you know the flashback was not what JJ told hotch I simply put it there so we didn't hear the conversation between hotch and JJ.

ok now I have a question, this fic is eventually going to be a series but I want to know what y'all want to see I have a few options so here they are (I'm already planning a sequel)

1. A full version of the handbook

2. A prequel about everything that happened in the downstairs (instead of a bunch of flashbacks)

3. Aunt Mae and beccas full story

You can also suggest anything you want.

Now this is a little different but I want to show my appreciation for someone, there is a person who reads this fic on ao3 and comments on every chapter I post (I don't remember the user name) every time i post I look forward to their comment so if your reading this thank you for being all my motivation for all of this fic so far

I'll try to post the next chapter soon

Stay hydrated and unclench your jaw. And as always

Reviews are appreciated but not required