A/N: You will all be glad to know that, besides the very last scene or so, I have a rough idea now of how this story will end. Now, I just need to write it out, which, thanks to a pre-calculus class that I can basically sleep through, is getting done a bit faster than I thought it would. Not that you should expect it to be finished within a month or so, but I will most likely have it done and posted before the fall, provided I don't hit too many snags.
Now, that being said, please enjoy this new chapter! And I'm sorry in advance for the ending…. -.-'
WARNING: chapter contains rather extreme torture.
Playlist for this chapter: Atreyu's "The Theft," Flyleaf's "I'm So Sick," and Breaking Benjamin's "Lights Out" and "Dear Agony." 'Cause that and the warning don't totally give away what happens in this chapter….
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"Dammit, Hotch," Morgan was nearly yelling, "he's gone! We've completely lost our only witness while the unsub's still on the loose!"
"Morgan," Hotch warned.
Prentiss called up Garcia, massaging her temples to relieve her growing headache. "Please tell me you've got something!"
"Oh, I've got something, alright, but you're not gonna like it."
"What is it, Garcia?" JJ asked.
"Vladdy dearest has been following our little boy. Plane tickets, rental car receipts, the guy made no effort to hide his tracks. Last word was he's in D.C."
"That's approximately thirty-four miles from here," Reid stated.
Morgan raised an eyebrow. "Approximately?"
"Well, depending on exactly where in D.C., it could be more or less, but—"
"What else, Garcia?" Rossi said, effectively cutting Reid off mid-lecture.
"He just booked a plane ticket back to California."
"For when?"
"Next week. Monday."
"Alright." Hotch stood, glancing around at his subordinates. "We have five days to find Masters and Danny, or we'll never see either of them again. Reid, you and Prentiss work on a geographical profile, see if you can find where Danny would go. Garcia and JJ, work together to find the connection between Danny and Phantom. Morgan, Rossi, and I will start searching for them. Reid, which was would Danny have gone?"
"East," Reid replied immediately.
"Alright. Morgan, Rossi, let's go."
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Danny let out a low groan as he was thrown against the wall of the alley. His head hit hard, and he felt himself black out for a moment. Suddenly, he was floating above it all, thankful and terrified at the same time that he was beginning to dissociate from what was going on. His body below him was limp, and he winced in sympathy when it was shaken against the wall, its head hitting again.
Vlad looked angry, livid that Danny refused to react. So he pulled out a cloth and pressed it against Danny's mouth and nose. The smell shocked Danny back into his body, and he weakly struggled before the chloroform took hold of him.
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"Morgan, Rossi, did either of you find anything yet?" Hotch's voice demanded through the three-way call.
"Nothing," Rossi replied.
"Actually, Hotch, I've got somethin'," Morgan stated, bending down for a better look at the alley wall. "It's not much, though. Some blood, smells like chloroform, a few hairs in the blood. I'm bagging the blood and hair as we speak."
"Where are you?" Hotch asked. When Morgan rattled off the street names, Hotch said, "I'm on my way over."
Sure enough, just a few minutes later Hotch was in the entrance to the alley. He covered his nose with a handkerchief. "They definitely were liberal with the chloroform."
Morgan nodded, holding up the bags of blood and hair. "We've gotta get these to the lab."
Hotch took a bag of hair and looked closely at it. "Black hair, longish. It probably was Danny."
"That much chloroform, he'll be out for a day at least. Who knows what could happen in that time?"
Hotch shook his head. "Our unsub wouldn't want to do anything unless he's conscious enough to feel it. We've got a day before Danny will be hurt."
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Prentiss nodded, thanked them, hung up. She turned to Reid. "Morgan found blood and hair, most likely Danny's. We need to get to work on that profile."
Reid nodded. "Where did he find the blood and hair?"
As Prentiss recited the address, Reid marked it on the map. "He was heading east, but Masters got to him. Hey, JJ?"
The blonde glanced up at him. "Yeah, Spence?"
"Has Garcia found where Masters was staying?"
"Fancy hotel in D.C."
"Au contraire," Garcia called out from the phone. "He's checked into a dingy motel with a young guest."
"Where Garcia?" Reid demanded.
There was some typing, then, "Now he starts covering his tracks…. I can't get a real address, just look for a rundown motel about ten miles east from here."
"Ten miles east…." Reid began marking the map again, drawing a sweeping arc ten scale miles from Quantico. The spot he'd marked earlier was about halfway between their office and the arc. Reid's brow furrowed as he frowned in thought. "Where were the last two bodies found?"
When he was given the two addresses and had marked them, he found the line connecting the three scenes. He traced it with a finger, then marked it. "…I need a bigger map…."
The others frowned, confused. "Why?" Prentiss asked.
"I need to know where all the other bodies were found."
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By the time Morgan, Hotch, and Rossi got back to the bureau, there were maps lined up everywhere. Reid was about halfway between Virginia and California, marking speedily where each body was found before connecting them to the line he had started in Virginia. There were also a collection of zigzagging dots around the line.
"What's going on?" Hotch asked, confused.
JJ and Prentiss glanced at him. "Reid's on some hunch about how the scenes line up or something," JJ said.
"What are all those dots for?" Rossi wondered.
"Things went missing before and slightly after the bodies were found," Reid stated.
"How're you supposed to know what's relevant?" Morgan asked. "Things go missin' all the time."
"Each of these found a note reading 'Sorry' after things went missing. They started just east of Amity Park about twenty months ago."
"That's Danny's trail," Hotch realized.
Reid nodded. "And the body is always found directly in the middle of each collection of dots. Masters always left the body in Danny's probable home at the time, like with the first body here."
"The line of bodies is completely straight," Rossi noted.
There was another quick nod from Reid. "More likely than not, Masters will stay directly on that line." Reid moved back to the Virginia section of the map, taking a ruler and drawing a straight line from where the bodies were found to the arc he drew earlier. "Masters should be in a motel around… here." He drew a circle around the intersection.
"Alright, we have about twelve hours to find him before the chloroform wears off and Masters does as he pleases. I want him found in five."
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Chloroform goes through ghosts much quicker than it does humans. Thus, it takes about three or four times as much to keep a halfa out of it, leading to Vlad's seeming over-use of the drug.
Danny had been awake for two hours already. In that time, he had attempted sitting up. When that failed, he rolled over on his side, just barely keeping the nausea at bay.
He was in a small motel room, alone. Vlad was toying with him. There was a plate of food on the table, and the door was open just a crack. The mere sight of the food made him nauseous, and the door just made him realize Vlad knew exactly how off-balance he would be. Plus, any attempt he made towards the exit would be heard immediately.
Vlad wasn't being careless, he was shoving his control in Danny's face.
The mattress groaned as Danny rolled onto his other side, causing him to wince and freeze for a few minutes. When no one came running in, he sighed in relief.
"Now, is that any way to treat your parents' old college buddy?"
Danny jumped and would've screamed if Vlad wasn't holding a hand (devoid of chloroform this time) over his mouth. Vlad flicked open his penknife, pushed Danny onto his stomach, slit open his shirt, and dug the knife into Danny's back.
His teeth came down hard on his tongue, keeping himself from giving Vlad the pleasure of hearing him scream. Instead, Danny lay there as Vlad carved his bloody message into his flesh rather than an alley wall.
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"Guys, we have a problem," Garcia's voice stated over the phone. They all noticed when it shook.
"What is it, Garcia?" Rossi asked calmly.
"I did some more digging to try to find the motel, and Masters didn't just book the one. He's got them all over Virginia, all stating he's there with a companion."
"Can you find out which one he's really in?" Hotch demanded.
"As a smart guy once told me, finding a needle in a haystack would be easy. You're asking for a needle in a needlestack."
"So we have nothing to go on. Again." Prentiss sighed.
"Not exactly. I've narrowed it down. There's four motels on Reid's line. I'm sending them to you now."
"Okay, Prentiss and JJ will go to the first, Rossi and Reid to the second, Morgan take the third, and I'll get the fourth. Let's go."
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Danny had passed out long before, as Vlad was beating him after carving the words. When Vlad realized this, he dragged Danny by the hair to the dingy bathroom, pushed him into the tub, and turned the cold water on full blast. Danny woke, gasping, seconds later, and Vlad rewarded him by shoving his face into the water collecting in the bottom. He would wait until Danny's flailing slowed, then pull him back up so he could catch his breath before pushing him under again. Each time, the flailing was weaker, slower, until he stopped resisting entirely, hoping to die.
Then Vlad shut off the water. He grabbed Danny's hair again and pulled so the teen's face was forced up. His eyes, while half-closed, were still defiant, though they showed the beginnings of glazing over. The knife was once more in Vlad's hand, and he traced a small design into the side of the boy's neck. It showed a P inside a D.
Phantom's symbol.
Vlad lifted him, saying, "I think it's about time to find a place to drop you off." He grabbed Danny's arms, twisting them up painfully behind his back, and flew up through the ceiling, just as a knock came on the door.
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"FBI! Open up!"
Reid was honestly shocked that they received the warrants so fast, but he wasn't going to question it. He and Rossi decided to work their way out from the middle room, each taking one end of the hallway. All the rooms so far were empty, and Reid was worried this wasn't the right motel.
He unlocked the door he'd been knocking on with one of the two master keys the manager had given them.
The smell hit him as soon as the door opened. He subconsciously lifted his gun a bit higher as he entered, glancing about. The sight was worse, but one thing was for sure.
"Rossi! I found it!"
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A CSU was quickly on the scene, along with the rest of the team. Blood was splattered against one wall and a cot, and there was more blood in the bathroom and tub. All the blood was fresh, and they knew they had just missed their unsub.
Morgan traced a mark on the floor. "The kid was dragged from the cot to the bathroom." He moved into the other room and looked around. "There's water in the bottom of the tub, and more blood on the sides. He was dunked, several times, if the water around the tub is any indicator."
Hotch squatted by the cot and called over a CSI to photograph some hair so he could bag it. "He was dragged by his hair. He must have been stabbed, multiple times, then pulled across the floor and dunked in the tub."
"There's a possibility he was beaten, too," Prentiss added. She pointed to some blood patterns on the cot. "He was, at the very least, pushed deeper into the cot, over and over, very quickly."
Rossi frowned. "Why is this kid so important to Masters? We've got to be missing something."
JJ's cell rang, and, with a glance at the caller ID, she put it on speaker. "Go, Garcia."
"They found him," the tech-analyst said succinctly.
"Where?" Reid demanded.
"A—An alley about three miles from the motel you're at." She gave them the address, and Reid was out the door.
Morgan cursed loudly and followed him. Garcia, who had heard this, freaked out.
"What happened? What's going on?"
"Morgan and Reid are going to get Danny," Hotch said simply. "Tell us everything you can, Garcia."
"There's not much. There was a 911 call made five minutes ago, and the hospital was close, so they got there quick. H—He was left there, bleeding. The—The EMT's can't move him. They're afraid because of any internal bleeding he might have. He's—He's in really bad shape."
"Thanks, Garcia. Let us know if anything changes."
"Yes, sir."
JJ hung up, glancing at Hotch. "Now what?"
"We need to see that alley."
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Vlad dropped Danny almost immediately after finding an abandoned alley. Danny in turn bemoaned the agony of landing on his—likely broken—arm. Vlad didn't let him stay there long.
His shirt tore further as he was dragged up by the collar. Vlad pulled out the knife again and jabbed it into Danny's stomach.
He tried to scream, but his throat would only allow a choking cough. The knife was slowly pulled out and reinserted five inches higher. Another cough and whimper escaped Danny's lips.
Vlad sneered at him. "You're pathetic!" he snarled. "No better than a dog! In fact, you're less than a dog. Dogs are welcomed creatures, pets. Who in their right mind would want you? You're weak, hated. Your own friends ran to me to stay away from you!"
"Y—You k—kidn—napped—"
Vlad harshly shook the teen. "They came to me. You feed yourself those lies to avoid the truth! Your friends didn't want you! Your family was the same."
"N—No."
"Your mother knew what you were, and she couldn't stand it. She asked me, begged me to stage their deaths so they wouldn't have to deal with you!"
"No…." Each breath was getting weaker.
"They all left you, Daniel. They left you for me." Vlad dragged the knife out, holding it up before Danny's eyes. "You know, wanted dogs get neutered. Maybe…." He lowered the knife and positioned it at Danny's hip. "Maybe they'd want you if you were neutered, too."
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A/N: I still have no idea where that last paragraph came from. I think Vlad just totally lost it and dragged the story along with him. Also, let me know if there were any typos. My e and i keys have been uber-touchy, and my l key is the opposite. I need a new keyboard…. T.T
Anyway, I'm off to write up the penultimate chapter (hopefully). Please review!