Author: TemporaryUniverse
WC: 1862 (7034 Total)


Chapter 4: Nyctophobia

Day 2 ~ 12:42 am

REID

He was hungry and his mouth was dry, but he knew it would just get worse, so he ignored it. His wrists were hurting and he could feel the dried blood from his attempts to break loose. He hadn't seen the man since he left, but he occasionally had heard thuds and other noises from above him, so he assumed his captor was nearby. He had realized that a camera was watching him about an hour ago, and he kept glancing up at it. Reid sighed. The isolation and quiet were getting to him and he couldn't think straight or determine the time. For the first hour, he had yelled and screamed for help, hoping that someone would hear him. It was only when his voice had given out that he finally gave up and resigned himself to the fact that no one could hear him. Now, the young doctor was either looking around or staring at his knees, waiting apprehensively. He started to fall asleep, exhausted, when the metal door opened. He jolted back awake, staring at the Unsub as the man moved into the room and stood in front of his prisoner.

"Where am I?" Reid demanded, trying not to let the fear in his voice show. The man was silent. "What do you want?" Reid was desperate. The second question seemed to anger the man, and he backhanded Reid across the face. The genius let out a gasp of pain.

"Shut up, you stupid bitch. You don't get to ask any questions. I don't want to hear anything you have to say." The man was staring at him, and Reid could see the rage burning in his icy eyes. Fire and ice, Reid thought, a man of oxymorons. It would have been funny if it weren't for the situation.

"You will do whatever I want or you will experience a lot more pain, Dr. Reid." His voice was low with menace.

"No," Reid said rebelliously.

"What?" The man was incredulous.

"I won't do it. I will never do what you want." Reid felt courage sweep through him, and he glared at the man. He barely had time to register it before the fist hit him square in the jaw. Pain exploded in his head and his vision went white for a fraction of a second. He let out a cry. When he looked back up, his tormentor was still staring at him angrily.

"You need to learn some manners, Dr. Reid," the man warned. The change in his tone of voice scared the young agent. The man then strode over to the table against the wall. His back was turned towards Reid, and the brown-haired doctor couldn't tell what he was doing.

"What are you doing?" Reid couldn't keep the tremor out of his own voice, the brief moment of defiance fading as fear began to seep back into his mind. The man turned back around with two objects, a black cloth and a knife, in his hands.

"I thought I told you not to talk." He stalked back to the center of the room and held out the gag. Reid struggled and tried to turn his head away, but the man grabbed his jaw, making the genius wince.

"Let go of me!" He cried furiously. The man just stuffed the cloth in his mouth, making him choke, and tied it tightly around the back of his head. When that was done, he didn't hesitate to stab the knife into Reid's thigh. The same fire that he had seen in the man's eyes was now running through his leg. White-hot needles were shooting into his thigh. Reid's scream of pain was muffled, but he still fought against the restraints. The man roughly tilted his chin up and his blue eyes met Reid's hazel ones as he pulled out the knife. Reid screamed again and stopped struggling. He could feel a warm, thick liquid oozing from the wound. The fight left him and pain took its place.

"I'll be back soon." The older man turned and left, letting the door slammed shut behind him. The young genius was now bound, gagged, and fighting to control his breathing. Reid was shaking with shock and pain and had to force himself to take in the air at an even pace. He barely heard the ominous sound of a lock clicking, trapping him in the prison once again.


Day 2 ~ 1:14 pm

UNSUB

Sarah had been restrained, but he didn't want Dr. Reid to meet her yet, he needed to do something else first. He had already treated the doctor's knife wound; he wasn't going to let him die yet. He wouldn't make it that easy for the man who had ruined his life. Dr. Reid had been unconscious when he had returned. He hadn't expected this level of defiance from the young profiler. Now he needed insurance, something to make sure that Dr. Reid would do what he wanted him to. It was clear that physical pain wouldn't be enough.

The man had been watching Dr. Reid for months. When he had seen the doctor with his godson, he knew that their relationship could be used in his mission, so he went and bought a small TV. He already had the surveillance equipment and had killed the couple across the street so he could watch the family that Dr. Reid cared so much about. My plan is coming together, he thought as he drove.

When he arrived at the house, he glanced across the street at the blond-haired boy. The kid was kicking a soccer ball with his dad. He could hear the boy's laughter and the father's encouragement. The man was forcibly reminded of his own childhood.

"Daddy! Daddy! Look!" The small child was grinning from ear to ear, "Look what I can do, Daddy!"

"What is it, son?" A young man, no older than 25, was watching his son play in the yard with a content smile on his face.

"Look how far I can kick it, Daddy!" The child was exuberant as he punted the small ball across the lawn.

"Wow, that's really good! You can kick it so far! You'll be a star soccer player soon." The father was happy to indulge his son's joy.

"But I want to be like you, Daddy." The boy looked innocently up at his father with wide blue eyes. The man instantly froze, the smile melting off his face. Almost immediately, he forced it back on.

"No, you don't, son. When you grow up, you are going to be your own man. A better man than I am." The father was smiling still, but his eyes were sad.

"But, you're the best!" The child's naivety made the man chuckle slightly.

"How about we get some ice cream?" He tried to change the subject, relying on the boy's favorite treat.

"Yeah!"

The father picked up his son, holding the boy over his shoulder. The kid spread his arms out like they were wings and the father ran towards the house, laughing.

"Whoosh! Look, Daddy, I can fly!" The boy shouted. The sun was shining on his brown hair, making it glow.

"Yes, you can, my little angel." The man said quietly, "Yes, you can."

The memory ended, and the man was surprised to find a tear making its way down his cheek. He roughly wiped it away, cursing himself at his show of weakness. He went inside the house and checked on the equipment he had set up to watch the family across the street. After pressing the record button on the camera, he headed back out to go have a chat with Dr. Reid.


HOTCH

Prentiss, Dave, and JJ had all returned with varying degrees of information, but Hotch told them to wait until Morgan returned to share it. They didn't have to wait long, and Hotch asked his team to go with him to the conference room. Dave and JJ exchanged looks, but Morgan and Prentiss sighed resignedly. Hotch had spent most of the day putting the info up on the boards and mapping out a geographical profile as best he could. It was a lot harder than Reid made it look. Prentiss had been the first to return, and she had helped him.

When the team walked in, they stared at Hotch expectantly, but JJ glanced at one of the boards.

"Hotch," she said slowly, "Why is Spence's picture up there?"

Hotch bit his lip slightly, took a deep breath, and replied, "He was abducted last night."

"What?" Dave was incredulous. JJ just looked shocked and scared.

"At 11:23 pm, last night, Reid was walking to the subway. An unknown person attacked him and drove off in a dark-colored van," Hotch said, keeping his tone even.

Morgan frowned, "A dark van?"

"Yeah, we think it might be a dark blue or grey." Hotch was confused by Morgan's reaction.

"Hotch, I talked to the witness who found Jeff Brighton's body, and he reported seeing a dark blue van driving away from the crime scene." Morgan was staring at him, frightened. Hotch could see he was trying hard to stay calm.

"Do you think it could be our Unsub?" Prentiss asked.

"Reid matches our victimology," Dave said.

"Dave, did you find out how they died?" Hotch questioned him.

"The ME said exsanguination from the multiple stab wounds, most of which were antemortem. The odd thing is that the amount of blood at the crime scene didn't confirm this. There was much less blood than there should have been, like he took them somewhere else before he killed them. He was able to positively determine that none of the victims were raped before they died."

"So he abducts his victims, stabs them, then just dumps them back at the abduction site? Why not dump them elsewhere? Why even take them at all? Nothing this guy has done makes sense so far," Morgan spoke up.

"What does that mean for Reid?" Prentiss asked.

"All the victims died a couple hours after they were last seen, before people even knew they were missing. It's now been 14 since Reid was kidnapped. If the Unsub was going to kill him, he probably would have done it already, there's another reason for taking him," Dave replied with a conviction gained only from years of experience.

"What if the other men were surrogates for Reid? That would explain the change in M.O." Hotch hated to say it, but it was a possibility.

"Okay, so the Unsub is angry at Reid, so he kills men that remind him of Reid until he can get at the target of his rage," Prentiss summarized.

"But what is he doing with S-spence?" JJ's voice broke at the end of the sentence.

There was silence around the table. Nobody wanted to consider what the Unsub was going to do to Reid.

Morgan was the one to break the heavy silence. "We should start with anyone Reid put in jail, see if any of them have been released or escaped. Let's catch this bastard."