To the River

Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters: Goya

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

Aaron and Spencer both put on their tinted shades in an effort to do at least one of the things the doctors had advised them both.

Floyd was in an irritable mood. When Spencer had asked about food he got the sharp end of Floyds tongue.

"Food? And just when did you think I went hunting for your breakfast Spencer? Before or after that whatever killed those whatevers? At what point during your drugged junky night time existence did you think I was wondering how to find you some fucking cornflakes and chilled milk?"

Reid looked at him with a frown. "That's n n not that's not wh wh wh…."

"Shut up Spencer." Floyd turned and started to walk again. "Take a pill or something will you?"

"You y y you take the ch ch chill pill F f floyd!" Reid stammered back.

He answered back – He actually answered back. Floyd stopped and wondered if stomping him into the undergrowth was the thing to do or if he should ignore it and walk on. He decided to do something in between.

Floyd turned back again and looked at Reid. "Don't you ever talk to me like that. Do you know how lucky you are right now?" He looked over at Aaron "Butt out Hotch." Back to Reid. "You little shit. What is your game?" His face up close. "You are up to something you dirty little junky I just haven't worked out what it is yet."

"G g get out of m m my face." A hand on Floyd's chest pushed him back.

Floyd took a step back in shock not because Reid had forced him back. Aaron stepped between them. "Stop it both of you."

Hotch wasn't expecting the hand to grab him by his bedroll and pull him out of the way. Floyd wasn't expecting the closed fist to hit him in the mouth. He stepped back with a hand over where Reid had just hit him.

"Y y you want me t t to be a man." A deep breath. "Y you s say I am n n not a k kid. So screw you Flanders. You won't push me around."

Hotch tried to get between the two again. "Calm down Reid and Flanders back off a bit."

"I'm going. You such the man, find your own way home. Had it with you Spence. Have fun finding your way out of here." He turned to the side of the track and walked off through the trees.

"At last he goes! Don't you come back either – you're a pervert and a bully Flanders. You abused me for the last time."

Hotch watched the retreating back then looked at Reid. "Wonderful Reid. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"You too Aaron – I am a grown man, stop treating me like a child."

"You are going to let him walk off like that? We will never find our way out of here."

"Then go with him Hotch. Go on – leave me. I don't want to have to look at you anymore." Reid started to walk off in the direction they had been going.

Aaron looked between Spencer and Floyd disappearing into the forest. "Wait there Reid. I am going to get him back. Just wait there."

Hotch waited for Reid to stop walking and give a small nod, and turned to follow Floyd. Spencer watched for a minute and then walked into the forest in the opposite direction.

He snatched the stupid tinted glasses off his face, threw them onto the path way and let the bedroll fall from his back. He walked in a straight line, deviating only so he didn't walk into a tree. His hands stuffed in his pockets fiddling with the loose pills at the bottom.

……………………..

Floyd just walked. He could hear Aaron behind him but didn't slow his pace. When he felt Hotch put a hand on his shoulder he finally stopped and turned around.

"What? What do you want?"

"I want you to get us out of his place. I want you to come back and for everyone to calm down. I want to get to that river before it gets dark."

Floyd turned around again and carried on walking. "Well we can't all have what we want can we."

"Was this your plan all along?"

He stopped and turned back again. "My plan was to have fun and spend my evenings in Babylon."

"What was the reason you brought us here Floyd?"

"To show him how to trap and catch fish. To get fresh air and pick berries and mushrooms."

"Get us across the river. Then go do what you want, but if there is something out there Floyd we should stay together. Something is going on with Reid –the pills worry me, but his change in personality worries me more. So get us out of here and then disappear if that is what you need to do."

"Fine – to the river and that's it."

Together they walked back to the pathway to see Spencer gone and his bedroll on the ground. His glasses a bit further off and towards the forests edge.

………………………

He walked in a daze along the forest path. Muttering to himself hands deep his pocket. A twig snapped under his foot. He glanced down at his feet and then to the side when he heard another snapping sound. He looked up again in time to be hit across the face by something hard.

Spencer dropped like a stone to the forest pathway. He could feel his coat being ripped off him and he could smell the most god awful stench. Groaning he attempted to see what was going on but his vision had been blurred and now he had – it seemed – blood in his eyes from a cut probably – trying to work out the angles here – yes probably from the right side of his forehead. Crawling away now seemed like a good idea. Back the way he came – back towards where he knew there were people. His feet were being held and digging his fingers into the soft earth didn't really stop him from being dragged off the small path and into the deep dark forest proper.

It was now he screamed.

"No! Stop! No! Help me! oh no oh no oh no!" And then a long drawn out howl of pain.

It was now that Aaron and Floyd started to run.

Reid grabbed hold of passing plants and roots in an attempt not to be dragged off and devoured by some hideous monster. He felt his face hitting rocks and broken bits of log and tree branches. He could feel the movement getting faster and faster. His shirt rucked up and ripped and for a while it stayed on him as his skin was torn on the undergrowth he was being dragged through. His fingers bloodied and his nails ripped back in the effort to stop the momentum. He was sure he had broken some fingers. His hands were ripped and his arms gashed. He managed one last yelp of pain as his chin made contact with something and the world thankfully went dull and quiet and then it went black.

…………………..

Floyd reached where it happened first. He stood looking down at the shredded coat on the floor. Hotch came and stood next to it.

"Oh god no." Aaron said.

"Oh shit." Floyd said.

They could both see blood. They could both see drag marks. They could see where he had dug his fingers into the earth and they could see a blood trail leading off into the dark.

Aaron carefully picked up the coat. "This looks like claw marks."

Floyd crouched and sniffed the air. "It's the same smell as last night. I can smell death." He stood again and started to walk in the direction of the drag marks. "I don't like this silence Hotchner." And he was off running through the trees following the trail.

The first thing they found was one of his boots. Floyd's stomach turned as he checked it didn't still have a foot in it. Thankfully it was empty. The next was smears of blood in some grass. He was bleeding a lot.

Aaron found his shredded bloodied shirt further along the battered pathway. It was obvious at this point he was not able to do much to stop. There were blood splatters on the ground but the evidence that he was grabbing at plants and roots had stopped.

And the clump of hair stuck to the big old branch in the middle of the pathway didn't leave them with much hope.

……………………

A/N: Thank you my lovely reviewers. Reviews are love. :c) tinny xoxox