Chapter 7
Footsteps.
He's coming.
Olivia took a deep breath, trying to level her anxiety. Her head pounded… She vividly remembered what had happened to land her where she was now.
She had been awake, lying in bed – thinking about her brother. Then she had this feeling, call it a sixth sense, that she wasn't alone. She couldn't quite explain it, but those chills that ran up her spine – she learned to trust them. Her gut instinct was almost never wrong. Olivia had thought she heard something, but it was pitch black in the room so her eyes couldn't confirm what her ears were telling her.
Just as she went to make a move to turn on the light, someone slammed her back down on her bed. He was strong – very strong. Olivia may be a "typical female", thin and small, but she was deceivingly strong. But even she didn't stand a chance against her attacker.
She didn't even have a chance to fight back as the man in her bedroom put all his weight on top of her, holding her arms down with his knees. Olivia violently kicked her legs to no avail, and fought to get her arms out from underneath.
She tried to scream – she's not sure why, because nobody would hear her even if she did. She was quickly silenced by a swift and powerful slap to her face. Her cheek stung and her eyes started to water as a cloth was forcefully shoved into her mouth. This man had complete control over her, and she was quickly coming to see that she would not be able to get herself out of this.
He pushed her head down onto the bed, and she was forced to look at the empty space on her bed where her husband should have been – always was except for this past week. This couldn't have been a coincidence, she thought absentmindedly.
Just then, she felt a sharp and sudden pain in her upper arm. Her world started to get hazy, and she knew what must have happened. She could only imagine what it was that was just injected into her, because it was strong. Within seconds, she was unconscious, but before she was completely out, she vaguely remembered him leaning toward her, whispering in her ear.
"You belong to me."
Olivia had awoken on a dirty and damp mattress, in almost complete darkness. Her hands were tightly tied behind her back and she still felt the cloth in her mouth, held there by a gag. She tried to sit up, and she felt a wave of nausea hit her – evidently a side effect of whatever drug she was on. Initially, she panicked. She fought at the binding around her hands. Olivia couldn't move very much, as the binding was also wrapped around what must have been a pipe in the wall. When she finally exhausted herself, Olivia finally had a chance to stop and think.
She couldn't lose her cool – she knew it wouldn't take very long for people to realize she had gone missing. Olivia thought about Spence – what would happen when he found out. She felt a wave of guilt, but then realized that he would be the only one that would be able to find her. Olivia kept that hope in her mind – she knew she couldn't lose hope. She had no idea what this guy had in mind for her, but she knew it couldn't be good. Olivia tried to remember everything her brother had ever told her about one-on-ones with serial killers and hostage takers. She knew there were effective ways of dealing with psychopaths, and maybe if she got the chance, she could talk him into letting her go. Maybe she could give him what she wanted and fight him off if he untied her.
He came down the stairs, and she refused to look up. Olivia focused her eyes on the cement ground. She tried not to shiver but it was cold down here and his very presence chilled her to the bone. He kneeled down so he was face to face with her, every move he made was slow and calculated. He made the move to pull the cloth out of her mouth, and Olivia realized she had been holding her breath.
"Look at me," he said. Olivia took a deep breath and tried to raise her eyes to meet those of her captor. It was still dark in the room, and she could only make out the contours of his face. Not to mention, she was still a bit dazed from the drugs.
"Tell me you love me," he whispered.
Olivia froze. Great... This guy is delusional. If this situation weren't so serious, she would have rolled her eyes right then and there. There would be no reasoning with him. She knew what she had to do, what it would take to hold out as long as possible. Olivia was determined to hold on to the hope that her brother would find her – and she would do her best to buy him as much time to do it.
"I-I love you," she said shakily. "I love you," she reiterated, with more assertion.
It took him a second, and Olivia worried she wasn't convincing enough. Then, slowly but surely, the man's mouth curled into a smile. As more time passed, her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. Something was bothering Olivia – something about this man looked familiar.
She knew who this man was, she'd met him before. But where?
"I love you too," he said, smiling. And he leaned forward, cupping her chin with his hand, and kissed Olivia on the forehead.
"You belong to me and only to me, you know that," he said, holding her head level with his with his hand still holding her chin up.
He looked at her, as if expecting an answer. Unsure of exactly what to say, Olivia figured it was best to just agree. This guy was strong and judging by how hard he had hit her across the face before, she could guess that he might have anger issues. If she wanted to survive, the last thing she wanted to do was say the wrong thing and piss him off.
Looking into his eyes, Olivia repeated, "I belong to you and only to you... I love you."
"Well let's reiterate what we already know," Morgan said, standing up. "Look at these five women – all beautiful, all brunette, green eyes, athletic – very similar features. They most likely represent a female figure who wronged him in some way, either a mother or a spouse or even a crush who rejected him. He's probably been stalking them. It's highly unlikely that the women knew him at all – he's most likely an average looking guy that nobody remembers when they see or talk to him. That's how he's able to get around without suspicion."
"But these women live completely different lives. How is he finding them?" Hotch questioned.
"They've probably all intersected somewhere along the way," Reid spoke up. "You'd have to track their spending, the places that they frequent, which Garcia is already working on now. He might work there or frequent those places too. He has to kidnap these women in the middle of the night, which means he's not socially adequate or confident enough to woo these women in public and get them to come with him willingly. He has to blitz attack them."
"All of the victims were found with deep bruises across their bodies – he's angry. He feels wronged by them somehow. He may be dissociating from reality and actually believe that these women are the same one that wronged him in the past," JJ thinks aloud. "They're surrogates for the one who hurt him. He's building up the confidence to pursue his end game. It seems as though the rejection is fresh – that's probably what triggered the killings."
"The last woman was found with bruises on her postmortem," Rossi points out. "He may be devolving. He'll make a mistake soon enough. He's getting too emotionally involved in his kills."
"He'll make a mistake?" Reid questions, "We won't know that until he dumps the next body, and I'm not waiting around that long to find him because that body would be my sister's."
"Reid, I didn't mean it like that," Rossi defended.
"I know… Sorry," Reid shies away and then tries to change the subject. He rubbed his forehead, his head pounding. "We don't know how he's finding them, but it's clear that none of the victims knew him personally, or if they did, they didn't even realize it – he might be the janitor for some place that the women frequent. He probably has a job that doesn't give him the power or the respect that he desires."
"Wait, how do we know that these women are just surrogates? What if they rejected him in some way and now he's seeking revenge?" JJ asked.
"No that's not it," Hotch thought about it. "He would have other victims too – blonde, older, younger. I don't think these victims ever even talked to him. Like Reid said, he doesn't have the charm or the confidence to approach these women in a public setting. Most likely, they remind him of someone, he stalks them and then he abducts them in the middle of the night."
"I think we're ready to deliver the profile," Rossi says, standing up from the conference table.
He was sitting watching television after a long day of work.
He just happened to switch on the news – he didn't enjoy the news at all, but something had caught his eye before he flipped the channel.
A stern-looking man who was looking straight into the camera. His eyes so intense that it felt as though someone were staring directly into his soul.
The caption underneath identified this man as SSA Aaron Hotchner, the Unit Chief of something called the BAU. Agent Hotchner was educating the public on the newest development of some serial case. He stopped, holding the remote in his hands.
They're talking about me.
Socially inadequate? A loner? Rejected?
Rage fueled inside of him – how could they speak about him like this? After all, he had done nothing wrong. She did. This was all her fault. He stormed downstairs.
Olivia had no idea how much time had passed. This constant darkness made her wonder whether it had been one day or five. He made frequent visits to see her, mostly the same thing happened. She had a bad feeling that this wasn't all he was after – it was like the eerie calm before the storm.
Sure enough, as if in response to her silent wonderings, he came downstairs – his footsteps at a much faster pace than usual.
"How could you do this to me?" he growled, getting even with her eye to eye. Suddenly, he turned and backhanded Olivia across the face. He grabbed her by the hair and threw her down on the mattress. When he pulled her back up into a sitting position, Olivia could feel his rage emanating from him.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Olivia said frantically. Her mind panicked despite her best efforts.
"Him. You picked him. It makes me sick," he said angrily, hitting her again.
"You know you belong to me," he said, pushing her violently down onto the mattress...