After this, there should only be two chapters left. I don't think there will be an epilogue, because I've been very busy and I was hoping to have a new story out fairly soon. Thnx for reading everyone; all your support helps!

The Ghosts of Christmas' Past- Chapter 4
Don't Fear Me

Spencer Reid had been a victim in more than one case because of his job. Many UnSubs that his team had dealt with had never truly left his mind, but there were a few cases where even he hadn't realized the toll they had taken on him. In these cases, the UnSub had either no personal connection to the team or hadn't harmed anyone on the team. Although such cases were rare, they weren't unheard of, and those were the cases he most looked forward to.

Originally, when Spencer had been visited by the first ghost, he had thought they would all have had a personal connection to him, a very obvious connection. He quickly dismissed that theory, though, when he was visited by ghosts like Sarah Jean and Father Silvano.

Now, Spencer stared straight ahead at the Boston Reaper, neither a frown nor a smile on his face. He watched as George Foyet lowered his hood and smiled viciously back at him. He immediately understood why the Reaper had been chosen to be his Ghost of Christmas Future, but the thought still wasn't reassuring. He understood quite well what the Reaper had done, and he didn't want to imagine what he would be shown by Foyet before he was finally released from his dreams.

"We need to have a….serious…conversation," Foyet grinned. He snapped his fingers together and the scene changed again. They were in Hotch's apartment- and there was blood everywhere. Jack was lying on the floor crying and Haley's corpse lay on the couch. Hotch was nowhere to be found, but the signs and clues around him made it obvious that he wasn't alive. Spencer started to panic; something wasn't right. No, something was horribly wrong. "See this, Dr. Reid?" he smirked. "Do you see all of this? I created it, because it was mine to create. You see, I'm going off-script here, unlike good 'ol Sara and Amanda." Foyet started walking closer and closer to Spencer, but Spencer just kept backing away. Soon, though, he was pressed flat against the wall and Foyet was hovering over him. He reached into his pocket, and although Spencer was sure it would be a knife, it was an envelope.

"This letter crushed you, Spencer," he whispered in his ear. "This letter made your world come crashing down and tore you apart bit-by-bit. You won't get it for years, Spencer, years, but it'll haunt you forever." Foyet threw the letter on the floor, smiling widely. "But you can prevent it, obviously, by doing a quite obvious thing."

"Not quitting," Spencer sighed. "I know."

Foyet shook his head, his knife somehow in his hands now, and caressed his cheek with its blade. He let out a deep breath and clicked his teeth together. "You don't even know the half of it, Agent Reid. You don't have a clue what will happen, do you?" he hissed, his eyes glowing red with anger. Before Spencer could say anything, before the clock on the wall could even strike midnight, everything went black. It took Spencer a moment to realize that Foyet hadn't made it all black, but rather it was just him who was seeing black. He started to panic as he heard Foyet snicker, and his heart started pounding instantly.

"This is exactly two years after the day you told your boss that you'd quit. The team fell apart after that, and one by one, they all were either forced to quit or willing quit. It wasn't because you weren't there, no, it was because they felt so-entirely guilty for what would happen to you later on." Foyet explained. "Your new job was to teach at CalTech. One day, a student you were counseling snapped. You see, he was just like you- hell, he even wanted to be in the BAU. You were his idol, and you were the only thing keeping him down to earth. One day, that wasn't enough, though. His father was abusing him, and so were a group of kids at the school. He ended up bringing a bomb to school one day, and in your attempt to talk him down, the bomb blew up. The worst part, though, is that it worked. You did talk him down, but the bomb was faulty- it blew up nonetheless." Foyet paused, watching as Spencer's body fell to the ground against the wall that he was leaning heavily against. "You lost your sight and became crippled in your right leg and left hand….he lost his life."

Spencer was suddenly glad he was blind. He wasn't sure he could handle looking Foyet straight in the eye at the moment. He turned his head and tried to ignore the tears running down his eyes. He wasn't crying because of what he had been just told; he was crying because he knew there was worse yet to come. "What…what happened next?" he asked fretfully.

Foyet lowered himself down to Spencer's face, and as he sat down next to him, he stroked Spencer's face with the knife again. Spencer could sense that Foyet was also leaning against the wall, and he could feel his hand moving back over to his face. Spencer shuttered away, but Foyet shushed him. He placed his hand over Spencer's eye, and when he moved it, he could see again.

"You don't want to know," Foyet finally replied grimly.

"But…but you're going to show me?"

"No, Spencer, I could never do that to another human being," Foyet shook his head. "There are things, Spencer, that even 'UnSubs' like me refuse to do.

"I honestly do like you, Spencer, so let's leave this place. We don't need to dwell here anymore." Foyet stood up and motioned for Spencer to as well. He led the younger man out of Hotch's apartment, although instead of there being a hallway, there was another room. This new room was very familiar to Spencer, and as the room came into focus, he gasped. They were in the Bennington Sanitarium, and according to a calendar on the wall, it was Christmas day.

He could make out this father's form hovering over his mother, and on a chair close to them, he could see himself and a walking stick.

"My baby, my baby!" Diana kept sobbing. She was rocking back and forth as William tried to his best to comfort her, but nothing seemed to work. "My poor baby!"

"Mom, I'm fine!" Spencer choked out through his own tears. "I'm fine, honestly!"

"Diana, listen to Spencer; he's okay, really!" William begged.

"No….no….NO!"

Finally, three nurses entered the room, claiming that they had something to make her 'relax'. Within seconds, she was passed out on the floor.

"It all went downhill after that," Foyet said regretfully. "Your mother never recovered after you went blind. She felt it was her fault somehow, and when she passed on, you felt the same way about her death."

Spencer hovered in the corner of the room, closing his eyes as tried his best to forget what he had just seen. He couldn't let his mother slip like that- it was his fault she was in the sanitarium in the first place! He'd never forgive himself if his mother's death was his fault. "Can…can we leave, please?" Spencer pleaded.

Foyet nodded compassionately, as if relating and understanding Spencer's fears all-too well. When Spencer opened his eyes again, they were in a new location- a graveyard. He glanced around at what was surrounding them, and he indisposedly stood to his feet. He could make out the frowning faces of the members of his team and a few other friends and relatives. They were staring down at a marked grave, and immediately Spencer knew it was his.

"This is the most peaceful part of your life, Spencer. Death." Foyet circled around the graveyard, and it was obvious that he was studying Spencer as he did so. "You don't need to know how you got here, what you did with your life in the meantime. All you need to know is that you were unhappy with your life."

"What's the date right now?" Spencer asked, but Foyet only shook his head, smiling a bit to himself.

"That's not important, either." Foyet suddenly sat down on the graveyard floor, and it became evident to Spencer that this was their last visit. Foyet had nothing else to show him, and he was both relieved and troubled by that. 'So what now?' he thought miserably to himself.

"You were supposed to save more people, Spencer. I'm very disappointed in you," Foyet sighed. "You need to go back and fix that, because if I know you as well as I think I do- which, I obviously do-" he added with a smirk, "then you'd never forgive yourself for that."

"The victims," Spencer nodded, pressing his eyes closed. "They die, too." Finally- finally- Spencer understood. What he was doing was selfish, and he knew the Reaper was right. He would regret it; hell, he already did!

Suddenly, a clock started ringing its midnight lullaby, and instead of asking where the clock had came from, Spencer asked why it wasn't one am. The clock in Hotch's apartment had rang midnight, so why was it midnight now…?

"It's time for us to go," Foyet smiled. He stood up alongside Spencer and reached out into his pocket. He brought out his knife, and before Spencer could react, it was violently swung into Spencer's throat.

~* New Years Wishes *~

"How is he, Doctor?" Hotch asked as Spencer's doctor walked by. The doctor smiled at Hotch as Rossi too sat up from his seat. He wanted to hear what the doctor had to say, and from the smile on his face, he was hoping it was good news.

"Spencer just woke up."

~* NYW *~

Ta-Da! There it is folks! I hope you guys liked it…Happy New Years to all, and to all a good night!