The Larder

Peta once said: - RAR !!!!I broke my damned computer ///cry – thankfully I have a lap top and so will try to keep going.

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

Floyd bent down and pulled the hair from where it had got tangled in the log. He put it to his nose and inhaled. His eyes twitched to look at Hotch who was standing holding the bloodied shirt to his chest. His eyes distant. Flanders ran his fingers over the blood and slowly put the tips of his fingers to his mouth and licked them clean.

He let out a slight groan.

"What is it?" Hotch was walking over.

"I needed to make sure it was him." He stood and wiped his fingers on his shirt front. "Come on – we are running out of time." He looked over at Hotch who was just standing looking pale with Reid's shirt in his hand. Floyd frowned and walked over to him. "Here, let me help." He took the shirt and walked behind Hotch stuffing it down inside the blanket he still had strapped over his back. "We need to go."

The two of them walked quickly down the pathway which had been forced through the forest. They tried not to look too closely at the blood smears and the grooves in the freshly turned earth. Something shiny caught Hotch's attention. Catching the light from a gap in the high tree canopy, half buried in the leaves. He didn't touch it. He just stood and looked. His heart thumping in fear of what it was. Floyd stopped and came back and stood looking at what Hotch was. He slowly bent down and picked it up – turning it over in his hands. Seeing the blood and seeing the bits of ripped flesh stuck to it. The glass was intact and the strap wasn't broken. Floyd slipped Spencer's watch over his hand and looked at it on his wrist.

"I will keep it for him."

Hotch just nodded. "You know this blood pattern – whatever it is – it's dragging him feet first."

Floyd nodded.

Aaron carried on. "Whatever has him is moving fast. Much faster than us."

Floyd nodded again.

"This is what happened last night. To those people you found – Reid – Spencer found back by the campsite."

Floyd was walking off down the pathway again. "Yes."

"I thought it was nocturnal. I though we would be safe. We just needed to cross the river."

"Some beasts never sleep – or at least need only a small amount of it."

Hotch was jogging behind Floyd who seemed to be able to run without loss of breath.

"What – do – you mean?"

"I mean never try to double guess a monster Hotch. They are unpredictable. You should know that. Some creatures hunt by day and night."

And the sky darkened and a rumble of thunder was heard in the distance.

………………..

Spencer didn't know how long he had been laying on the hard ground. Every part of his body screamed in pain. There didn't seem to be a part of him that wasn't battered and scratched. He opened his eyes a crack and saw nothing. Just darkness. He couldn't even see stars in the sky. Just a big empty nothing. He could feel leaves under his fingers and so slowly moved his hands around to see what else he could find. Maybe a stone – something he could use as a weapon. He touched something cold and recoiled from it. He knew that feeling. Something dead. Someone dead.

He tried to move and sit up and it was now that he realised he had something tied around his neck holding him down. His sore bruised and probably broken fingers moved slowly to his neck. They rested on the small scar and he took a deep juddering breath. He was beginning to panic. 'Stay calm – remember you are alive. You are alive for a reason. Just stay calm and it will be alright.' His fingers now moved to the cord around his neck and around to what was stopping him from moving – he was tied to a stake hammered into the hard-packed earth. Carefully, quietly, and painfully, he started to feel for where the cord was tied off and gently began to manipulate the cord and loosen it.

The first sign that something was wrong was the smell. It wafted over him and made him gag. The second sign was something smacking down on his hands – smashing them down into the earth with a crunching searing pain. The next sign that not all was going according to his master escape plan was something smacking into the back of his head. He let out a yelp of pain for his hands and a groan of despair as the second hit to his head sent him back into the darkness he had just awoken from.

…………………

Floyd suddenly stopped. So quickly that Hotch nearly smacked into his back.

"Wait. Something is wrong." A roll of thunder and a crack of lightening.

Hotch moved up next to him. "What is it? Do you hear something?"

Floyd was crouching down touching the ground and looking off to the sides of the path. "I can smell blood. A lot of blood." He stood up again. There was a slight bend in the trail. "Just beyond the curve; there is something there."

Aaron could feel his heart thumping with the fear of what they might see. Floyd took him by his arm. "We go together." A nod from Hotch and they rounded the bend.

On the path was Reid's other boot. It sat in a puddle of blood.

"Oh god." Hotch breathed. He felt Floyds hand tighten on arm.

A few steps forward and Floyd let go of his arm and looked down at the blood. "This is all wrong. This is all so wrong." He got up and walked around the next bend. Hotch heard Flanders say something. It sounded a bit like 'Oh please god no.' And it made Aaron's blood run cold. He took steps forwards on legs which didn't want to move. His eyes didn't want to see what Floyd was looking at.

It was a body.

It was hanging in the middle of the path by its feet. The head had been ripped off. In fact more than the head and not actually ripped. More like bitten. It was a torso and legs. Head, arms, and shoulders were missing. It had also been skinned. Roughly and quickly.

Floyd was standing in front of it running hands over the wet bloody flesh. Hotch moved to the side of the path and started to vomit as Floyd put blooded hands to his mouth and breathed it in. He tasted it and turned to look at Aaron.

"It's not Spence." He walked to Hotch and put a hand on his back "Hotchner, It's ok its not Spence."

"How – do you – know?" He carried on being sick.

"It tastes wrong. That's not what Spence tastes like."

"Flanders you are a complete animal. I need better convincing than that."

"It's a warning. It's telling us to keep away. Asking us to leave. Offering this. It's even partially prepared it for us."

Flanders moved back to the body and pulled a knife out of his pocket. He reached up and cut it down. Hotch was still gagging but turned to look. "You are sure about this?"

"I would suggest you taste for yourself. I don't know how clued up you are on how Spence tastes. Sweet – he is sweet."

Aaron stood and looked at the body. He had seen sights this bad before. This shouldn't be effecting him this badly. It wasn't Spencer. He took some deep breaths and listened to the sound of the rain on the leaves. Floyd had started to run again.

………………………….

Spencer felt very ill.

He was hurting so much before and now the pain had just gotten worse. He had been tied up by his hands and was hanging. It felt like his shoulders were going to come out of their sockets. He moved his toes a bit to see if he could feel the ground but he couldn't. He bent his knees up away from the never ending darkness below. He could hear rain somewhere but not where he was. It somehow didn't feel like he was outside. There was no air movement and looking up he couldn't see the sky still.

Reid could smell familiar not very friendly smells around him. Smells of things rotting. The smell of decomp. The smell of death, but not other sounds except for his breathing. He had no idea if Hotch of Flanders had heard his calls for help and if they had would they bother looking for him. Were they out there now glad that he had gone? Had they even missed him? He could feel tears of frustration prickling behind his eyes. His hair hung down in a bloody clumpy curtain and something grabbed hold of his feet and pulled.

…………………………..