A/N: Nothing here is mine except for the disturbed mind that keeps haunting me with bunnies.. Beta read by the Gublerific editor frog - thanks doll!
! WARNING ! Character death! Do not read if you don't like that stuff!! You have been warned, do NOT flame me. You have been warned!!
The unsettling voice had stopped booming through the house, and the BAU stood in complete silence. No one had said a word in response to Hotch's question – which had no answer.
Everyone looked at one another, trying to determine if there was even the least bit of truth in the message that had just been delivered to them via some form of speaker system, not visible to the team.
Taking a few steps towards a kitchen counter, Hotch leaned on it trying to get his bearings straight. "There is no way what that man just said is real. None of us came here willingly."
"I know I didn't." Emily rubbed her temples, trying to get the horrible headache to subside.
"None of us did." Hotch emphasized the trust he had for his team. But right now, not many of them could do the same – and all eyes landed involuntarily on Gideon.
Gideon sighed, knowing that no matter what was going on in this house, he was going to have the biggest hell of them all.
"We need to make a profile before we search the house." Rossi set a course back to the living room, slowly followed by the rest of the team.
Reid walked next to his mentor, not knowing what to say to him. His mouth opened several times on the short way back to the room they woke up in, but not a single word could pass over his lips. There just wasn't enough time to ask Gideon all the questions the young agent had inside him. Reaching the living room, they stood beside each other in silence.
"All right." Hotch waited until his team had gathered in the middle of the room before beginning to speak. "We know that there is no truth in the statement made a moment ago. None of us has been paid money to kill the others. That's a fact here."
"This 'elimination game' is a disguised as a display of greed; playing on the illusion that anyone can be bought, even close bonded team members." Rossi crossed his arms over his chest.
"The UnSub wants us to lose our trust and thereby turn on each other. Fat chance of that happening." Emily couldn't help but snicker slightly at the preposterous idea of the BAU failing to trust one another to the point where they killed each other to stay alive themselves.
"The house is secluded and as far as we know, inescapable." Reid frowned, gesturing in front of his chest. "Whoever put this together has taken every precaution possible to prevent us from leaving this house. I'd highly doubt there is a phone line, and from the looks of it, even if we had our cell phones we'd be well out of any service area."
"He obviously has some major issue with us; all of us, since he locked us up here. Even you." As Morgan uttered the last words, he turned towards his former colleague, giving him an icy stare.
Gideon decided to push all old emotions out of the way, and focus on the situation; hoping that the BAU would do the same. "Which brings us to the big question; who did this? The voice in the speakers was familiar, but not one I can place without a doubt."
"Me neither." Morgan turned away from Gideon and back to Hotch. "Okay, since no one in this room is going to kill anyone during the night, we have to assume that there is someone else in the house who has this mission."
Garcia burst into silent tears as she stood hugging herself beside her friends and colleagues. Waking up to a living nightmare was not what she had expected when she went to bed after "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" the night before.
"Let's assess the situation." Hotch ran his fingers through his dark curls. "We're unarmed."
"We're recovering from some form of sedation, or other drug-induced unconsciousness." Reid tried to stick his hands in his pockets, but as they slipped along his hips, he remembered that some garments were missing, and crossed his arms over his chest.
"We're most likely the targets of some deranged lunatic's twisted view of revenge." Morgan looked around, trying to see something; anything, out of the ordinary in the well-furnished room.
"We're somewhere in the middle of nowhere without means of escaping or contacting the outer world, and we have to assume that no one knows where we are." Emily felt a sudden rush of nausea, and she swallowed hard to keep down whatever little stomach contents she had.
"We're not alone in the house." Gideon looked at the barred windows.
"We're screwed," was Garcia's conclusion.
Morgan wrapped his arm around his blond companion. "We're not screwed, baby. We're just in a bit of a tight spot."
"But, if we stay in here we should be able to monitor every entrance to the living room and keep possible UnSubs from entering." JJ placed her hands on her hips and sighed. "The door unlocks in eight hours, we should be able to hold the fort for that long, shouldn't we?"
The team agreed. Hotch and Morgan each took a poker from beside the fire place, holding them tightly as they guarded the entrances to the room; there were two of them. One led to the hallway where they came from, one led into an adjacent room.
A few minutes passed by. Then a few more. And a few more.
The house was dead silent. Everyone tried to keep as quiet as humanly possible to be able to detect any approaching menace. But there was nothing. The house was as empty of sounds as it had been when they first woke up.
Reid stood beside one of the large bookshelves, eying the literature. Most of the books he had already read, but there were a few he'd never heard of. He made sure to remember the titles so he could read them when he got out of this house. If he got out of this house.
Gideon looked at his young protégé and smiled slightly to himself, knowing exactly what the junior agent was doing.
Not even at a time like this can he bring himself to not improve his knowledge.
Morgan looked at Garcia, who sat snuggled up in the sofa next to JJ. The two women stayed close to each other, nearly sitting on each other's lap.
Poor baby girl. How did we get you involved in this damn mess? You should be home getting your beauty sleep by now. Not that you need it, though.
JJ would never admit to it, but she was terrified; utterly and completely terrified. She'd hated the woods ever since she was little girl. There was a reason, but there was no way she'd ever disclose it to anyone, anywhere. But being locked up in this house in the middle of an opaque forest made all the memories resurface, and she wanted to cry from sheer panic. Repressing the tears, she bit down on her lip until it bled; only then could she focus on something other than the fierce fear coursing through her system.
Sitting on the other side of the couch, Emily felt another wave of nausea rise inside her – and this time there was no stopping it. Slamming her hand over her mouth, she leaned over as she tried to get up from the sofa. Suddenly, a piercing pain shot through her stomach. Opening her mouth to cry out, the only thing emerging from her throat was the meatloaf she'd had for dinner the night before.
She fell to her knees on the floor, wincing in pain as she held her stomach with both arms.
JJ flew from her place on the couch to help her colleague. "Emily!"
The men standing around them rushed to the sofa, except Morgan and Hotch who had assigned themselves to guard the entrances. The watched in concern as the others helped Emily back onto the couch.
"Prentiss, are you okay?" Rossi had taken one of her arms as he and JJ lifted the nearly limp woman, placing her on the sofa.
Emily didn't speak. She held her stomach, wriggling in what appeared to be great pain. Only small noises escaped her as she tried to cry out or talk.
Help me! she screamed inside herself. For God's sake, help me!!
"Emily! Oh, God – Emily!" JJ held her colleague's arm as the brunette began shaking and foaming at the mouth.
Emily's eyes stared straight out into nothing. She could feel her face contort from the cramps spreading from her stomach to the rest of her extremities, reaching the face with awesome force. The woman clamped her cramping arms down onto her aching stomach, shaking uncontrollably.
Her breathing came in short, strained bursts until a powerful cough ripped through her throat, sending a massive spray of blood straight up into the air, hitting Reid square in the face as he was trying to hold her down while she was seizing.
The young agent fell backwards in pure surprise, blinking through the cascade of blood that had been splashed over his features. "Oh, my God..!"
"Prentiss! Jesus Christ! Hotch, help!" Rossi turned to his superior; panic in his eyes as he tried to keep Emily from shaking her way out of the couch.
Hotch threw the poker on the floor, rushing over to the group. Taking Reid's place behind Emily, he pushed her upper body back onto the headrest. "Emily! Can you hear me?! Emily?!"
But Emily heard nothing. She drew a long, strained and gurgling breath, before releasing it accompanied by a river of blood flowing from her mouth. The shaking seized, and she was still; her eyes still staring straight into nothingness, now glazed and lifeless.
The entire struggle was over in less than a minute.
"Good lord... Emily? Emily?" Rossi tried to make contact with the lifeless woman, shaking her shoulders. Putting two fingers to her carotis, his fear was justified.
There was no pulse to be found.
Shock was on his face as he lifted his head to meet the eyes of his superior. "She...she's dead."
Garcia burst into tears, pulling her legs up onto the couch; burying her face in her hands. Morgan was instantaneously at her side, putting sheltering arms around her shivering body.
JJ couldn't bring herself to let go of her friend's hand. What had just happened her? What happened? Her eyes were still wide in fear and shock, and filled with tears, as she felt a hand pull her away from her lifeless colleague. Rossi had taken her arm and led her from the couch. Just a few feet away, she collapsed in his arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
Gideon was on the floor beside his young protégé, trying to steady him. Reid had not yet moved after being doused with blood. He still sat blinking on the floor. The former agent wondered if the young man even had registered that Emily was gone.
He's in shock.
Pulling a quilt off the couch, he placed it over the young man's shoulders and began rubbing them. The expression on Reid's face had not changed a fraction of an inch. His mouth was gaping and eyes were wide with sheer terror; his entire face and hair covered in the crimson blood of his female colleague.
Hotch stood over his motionless female colleague, looking at the bloodied woman lying before him. There was nothing he could say and nothing he could do; nothing could help her now. She was gone.
He had never felt more powerless. Looking around at his shocked and devastated colleagues, he felt something inside him snap.
Who is doing this? Why? Why Why
No one spoke a word. No one, until Morgan released Garcia from his warm arms and stood up. There was rage written all over his face.
"What the hell is this?!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, aiming his voice at the ceiling. He flung his arms out to his sides. "I don't know who the hell you are, but if you think this is some kind of game, you sick fuck, you're wrong!"
"Morgan, calm down." Hotch tried to make his subordinate gather his emotions, but still understood his colleagues anguish. Hotch himself wouldn't mind getting his hands on the one responsible for this. But right now, they needed to keep their calm.
But Morgan continued. "I will find you, and I will kill you!"
"Morgan!" Garcia squeaked, tugging at her knight's arm.
Morgan regained his composure, closed his eyes and sat down on the coffee table in front of Garcia, resting his head in his hands.
Emily was dead. And none of them could really understand what had just happened. One of their colleagues had just been killed; probably been poisoned before even being put in the house. It was the work of an very disturbed, very calculating and very sinister person.
The woman was still on the couch, eyes staring emptily at the ceiling. None of the agents knew what to do. The only thing they knew for sure was that they were all in great danger.
Gideon sat by Reid, who had slowly begin to move again. Looking at his young friend, he sighed as the inevitable thought crossed his mind.
Anyone could be next...
Suddenly, from somewhere in the house, the team could hear a clear and melodic whisper; sending chills up their spines. It's message was no less disturbing than the one they had recieved some time earlier.
"Eight little agents, locked in a house
They will scare no one, not even a mouse
The trust they've earned will be no more
As they venture deeper and start to explore
One agent got sick and then went to heaven
Lo and behold; And then there were seven..."
A/N again: Well, who is going to be next..? Suggestions? I have ideas, but I do take requests if they are somple enough...!