Chapter 5

The Pit Falls

I wake up in pain and wonder why. Then realise it's not mine. It's Spencer's.

I'm still restrained.

And having a look around it looks like a cross between a prison cell and a hospital of some sort.

"Hey" I shout….I have to get the hell out of here. I have to get out. I can't let him down….even is he is a cheating little fuck…I like him when he's dirty. Just wish he'd been dirty with someone else.

…………but for a while no one comes so I take the time to try and rip my way out of the crappy plastic crap they have used to hold me down.

"You can't keep me here! You have to charge me with something! What the fuck did I do to deserve this?" I am so sodding pissed off now. Really I am….

…………..fit to kill…………I feel the rage…….that red, heart pounding rage which comes along every now and then…sometimes for no reason….sometimes because I am so fucking pissed off I don't know what else to do.

Shit…arse and bollocks…I've got a nose bleed.

"Oy!! Hey!! I'm bleeding in here you worthless sonsofbitches! You going to let me choke on my own blood?" Nice as it is….dripping down the back of my throat. I swallow it and close my eyes and imagine ripping into Spencer and tasting that sweetness – but they don't have to know I'm enjoying it.

Crap…enjoying it a bit too much….

By the time the door opens I suspect I don't look too well. I'm spitting blood up the wall next to the bed I'm strapped to and my wrists and ankles are bleeding from where I am pulling at the restraints. My nose has done a good job today….black clots of shit have been sliding out of it and crawling their way down the sides of my face. I think I probably look a bit insane…and fuck am I angry…. I can still feel the pain Spencer is in…and it's getting worse.

They are just in time to experience Flanders Grand Projectile Vomit Display. It hits the wall too and mixes with the blood…and keeps them at bay for a while.

I can hear them muttering….but I can hear Spencer screaming and I don't like it. Someone is hurting….some bastard is hurting my Spence and I'm not there to watch – I mean join in….no no…help….

Turning my head to look at the new arrivals I can see them staring at me.

"What?" I ask….maybe a bit snappy. Maybe the polite Floyd isn't around right now.

"I am a state appointed lawyer. I'm just going to sit here and make sure they don't ask the wrong questions….but I really do need to know your name."

"Screw you! Fuck off….get me out of here or fuck the hell out of here."

That's not what I should have said really, but it doesn't stop him from dragging in a chair and sitting a bit away from me. "Name?" he asks….he has a pad in front of him…and I think about this….

"Franks."

"Mr Franks do you know why you are here?"

"No…good damned question that…why the fuck am I here?" and I'm pulling at the restraints and HAHA! One of them pops off…but I just do a small inward smirk….I don't let them know…not yet.

"Do you remember what happened with the two police officers?"

"The ones who stopped me? The ones who have prevented me from getting to Spencer? The ones I ripped apart with my bare hands? Nope don't remember a thing….but if something happened they sodding well deserved it. I'm gonna be sick."

I can feel the pain again…the fear….

I have the fear.

-o-o-o-

I cant move.

I can fell the glass embedded into my back and the back of my legs. I can feel how it ripped across my skin as I fell and slid across it.

I don't know what to do. I need to try to sit up, but then what? I can't tell how far this glass goes. If I crawl away I will get cut…If I stand…well I took my trainers off...but I don't think they would protect me too much. For now I think about my breathing and about this thing stuck in my arm and chest. Should I try to pull whatever it is out? I don't think I should. I need to leave it and try to think…

……………….I can hear my blood pounding in my head and I feel vulnerable just laying here. My back is wet…and I think I have glass in the back of my head too.

Slowly I reach out with my hand until I find a place I can rest it and not impale it with glass…and I use the leverage to push myself up to sit.

…………Maybe that was me shouting out again. I'm not sure….I think it was. I could hear it rip and tear my clothing and my skin. I can feel blood running down my back and soaking into the back of my already wet pants. I move my hand and wipe the sweat away from my eyes.

"It's ok…It's ok…just stand. Stand and walk carefully." I whisper it to myself. There is no one here to hear me. He is outside with the others…doing god only knows what….and when I find that pistol…

………..then what? Am I locked in? Are there other way's out of here? I pull my feet up close to my body and try to find a bit floor I can stand on. It's not easy…but I do it…I can put both of my feet down and one hand…and so slowly I push up to my feet….

And I wish I hadn't. I wish I was still laying on the floor.

I wish I was outside with the others.

I wish I had got so drunk last night that I was laying in a side street covered in my own vomit….but no….I am here….and I bend forward and bring up food from goodness knows where…and I can still smell the alcohol….or is that just my imagination….I'm still under the influence.

………….That is stupid Spencer…you are just feeling sick because someone is killing your friends and you are standing in the middle of the room too scared to moved because it's dark and you are covered in blood.

And I am sick again…well I try to be….There is nothing left to bring up now, but my stomach is twisting and cramping and I have tears on my face and yes…I am just standing here…doing nothing because I have no idea what the UnSub wants me to do.

I sort of slide my foot forwards in an attempt to find somewhere new to stand. With no light and only one arm I can use and the pain everywhere I don't know if I will be able to keep my balance. My foot has found somewhere…so I move the other and try to move a step forwards.

………I am so light headed………….

Maybe it's better I cant see. At least this way I can't see the room spinning and tipping and leaning to the side…because I am sure that is what it is doing.

I was cold earlier, but now I am much too hot, and sweat is joining the river water and blood running down the back of my head. I put a gentle hand on the back of my head and can feel things stuck firmly in my skull…and so I move it away again and close my eyes as I let my feet take my weight in my new position.

………..How long is this taking me?! What is going on with Hotch and Prentiss and Rossi?….and my mind drifts again to last night and Ardal and Floyd and then this morning and seeing them together hurt so much…and now this? Why?

I am still trying to work out who this could be. I really don't know. I can't think straight…I want to go through each case which involved Hotch and I particularly but I can't get an answer to anything…

"Ahhhh!" I wasn't thinking….I've stepped on something and now I am having to pull my foot off it again and it makes a squelching sucking sound as it is pulled from my foot. I bend forward and wonder what would happen if I allowed my self to passout right now. I place my fingers on the floor between the shards and doing this pulls my arm which is pinned to my chest and again a sound of pain escapes from my mouth.

I can't just stay here but I know that moving is going to be almost too much. I get my balance and brush my fingers across the top of my foot to see if what I thought had happened did….and I can feel blood oozing out of the hole on the top of my foot. It's ok….it has to be. The rest of me is in so much pain that this won't even notice.

………………but the thing that drips onto the back of my hand is a tear.

I have to move. I have to get out…and the way I have been standing with my head forwards means that the blood from the back of my head is trickling around my neck to the front and again everything sways and moves and I think I am going to fall…..but it passes.

This time I stay down. I stay in a crouch and carefully with my fingertips I find a place safe for my uninjured foot to stand and as I move I reach out for the next place…but this is taking too long…far too long…

And I know …I might have a high IQ but for some reason today….and probably yesterday….my genius is over riding my common sense. I should have got out when I could. I should have followed orders…but then what? He would have killed them anyway? Followed me and taken pot shots at me as I tried to swim across the river…Face it….no way you could have made it across…not with this bullet hole – but at least I would have died quicker and thinking I was doing something to help.

-o-o-o-

One by one he makes me take the team into the building Emily had been running for. I am bleeding from my side again but there is not much I can do about that right now. My leg hurts and is slowing me down, but it's not damage I cant deal with. Emily is awake. She has two wounds both to her upper leg. One on each. She can't walk, but she can cry out in pain as I am – with the cold of a gun pressed to the small of my back I do as I am asked. Getting them all out of the sun will at least give Spencer more time.

If he is still alive.

And it is then that I hear another cry of pain from him and my stomach twists because I don't know what's going on.

"What are you doing to him? What do you want from us?"

I get jabbed harder in the back for that but I don't get an answer.

"Hotch." Emily's voice is low and husky. "Hotch? What's going on?"

………………I sit on the floor next to her and glance over at the guy with the gun. He has moved back away from me and has the gun pressed to the side of Morgan's head. "I just want to tend to her wounds." I tell him….and he does a quick nod.

I rip off bits from the bottom of my shirt and make emergency bandages for her legs. I think she will be alright…as long as she takes no more damage. "Just stay calm and try to do what he asks."

I can see she is looking around and her eyes fix on Rossi and Derek. "Where is Reid?"

……………….and so I shake my head at her. "Don't worry about him." And I see her eye's go huge. "Emily." I put a hand on her shoulder. "He has him somewhere else. He's not with us. Stay calm…I'll get us out of this."

"Somewhere else? Why?"

And I don't know why! I don't know why this is happening. "He hasn't explained." And I glance over at the UnSub who is watching and digging the barrel of the gun into the back of Morgan's neck.

"Stop the idle chatter and get over here." He snarls at me and so I slowly stand up and walk over to him. He hands me plasticuff and gives me instructions to cuff my team members hands behind their backs. This gives me a better chance to check up on Morgan and Rossi.

Neither of them look good. Morgan still feels warm which a big plus and the bleeding to his upper chest has stopped. He also seems to have a nasty wound on the side of this head which is – I think what is keeping him under for now. He must have hit his head when he fell. I am as gentle as possible with him…Rolling him onto his stomach and making sure I don't start the bleeding again, but apart from that there isn't a lot I can do to help him.

Rossi's breaths are ragged and sound painful. I touch the side of his face and he opens his eyes. "Dave, I need to lay your on your front. I think you might find it easier to………………"

I don't get to finish. Something hard hits me in the side of the face. A boot I think…I think it's a boot. It sends me back onto the dirty floor with a grunt. I feel my teeth dig into the skin on my inner cheek and as he comes in again I try to reach out and grab at him…

He stands back quickly and looks down at me. "You Agent Hotchner are forgetting something. Your little kid agent is fighting for his life right now because he thinks he's your only chance…don't make him go through the hell I am putting him through just to find you messed up and got the others killed. Think how he will feel knowing he took too long….poor boy…It would screw him up for life don't you think?"

I roll over and push up so I am sitting but I avoid looking at him. "I am sure he will cope. He is trained for this sort of thing. You picked on the wrong…………" and again I am laying back in the dirt.

"You Hotchner need to keep your mouth shut."

-o-o-o-

He drags and pulls and pushes them all over to the side of the room and attaches them to a pipe going around the edge…I am worried that he hasn't done this to me yet.

I am watching Hotch who is still quite with it…the other two are totally out…I've heard the howls and shouts from outside and can only assume it's Reid. I have no idea what this creep is putting him through though I heard the hammering on the door and the explosion…good god…he is our only chance? We are doomed.

My feelings of dread are over shadowed now though as this stinking murdering whatever he is comes over and starts touching me. I want to fight him off but I can't move properly. As he starts to pull at the waistband of my combat pants I scream abuse at him and try to bite him. A punch to the side of my head puts stars in my vision and I just lay not able to do anything as he turns me over and restrains my hands behind my back.

-o-o-o-

I can feel ground with nothing on it….no glass and with a huge sigh of relief I step onto the cool concrete floor. I close my eyes and try to get my head back in some kind of order. I can see a dim glow of embers from where the explosion happened…and I can see the outline of the door still…and that is all so I attempt to get my bearings.

Slowly I turn on the stop but it is so painful that tears are falling again…and I am so cross….I don't want to cry! I don't want to give him that satisfaction. I carefully – trying to avoid putting pressure on the hole in my foot walk forwards. This must be where I need to go…so I walk forwards slowly…for now…

Then…………Then I hear the screams….the screams of Emily…and I move faster….I have to help her….I have to do something….

………..and I have no idea what I can do. Get out of here…find something…I am convinced there is no pistol here…It is all just a nasty game and by the sounds of it he is winning….

It catches me around my ankles…and suddenly my top half is moving forwards and my legs are still…..

I put a hand out to stop my fall…but there is nothing there…

And I am falling….fallling until I reach the bottom of a mud and slime filled hole in the ground………..and the spike has made it's way further into my chest and I scream in pain as my other arm makes a very nasty sound as my wrist bends back the wrong way….and I lay in a slime filled pit with the fresh taste of blood in my mouth and Emily's screams echoing around in my brain.

…………or are they my screams…….? I don't know.