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A/n hey all, here is the next chapter. Only an epilogue to follow this chapter and then it's over. Thanks for all your kind reviews and personal messages

Reid opened his eyes to blinding, golden -white light. It was like the after image of a flash from a camera, only it didn't dissipate. He blinked his eyes, feeling them water as he tried to look around. He was on his feet instead of lying on the floor, which he assumed was a good thing.

"Katie…"

She screamed and he looked wildly around. His eyes were beginning to adjust a little to the bright cold light. She screamed again and there the sound - oh god he knew that sound - of a fist slamming into flesh.

"Fucking little bitch…"

"Please…"

Her voice was hoarse and weak. She was crying when he finally saw her in the corner of this unfamiliar room. There was a poster on the wall right next to her for a rock group called Queens Reich and to her left was a fire place in the middle of the room. The room was built of red brick with cream colored mortar. Worst of all was the large man he recognized from the insane asylum. He punched Katie in the stomach and she doubled over, gasping and crying.

"Stop it…" Reid shouted, trying to move, but something held his feet to the ground.

They didn't seem to hear him. He watched the man hit her again, this time a fist to her face. Her nose bled red blood that was nauseating in this intense golden light.

"Leave her alone Zacharias, please." He shouted and a terrible sense of foreboding swept over him.

Chose which one will die!

Oh God, not Raphael. Not now, go away. I won't listen to you.

His heart had begun to bang in his chest so hard; he thought it might burst out of the confines of his ribs. Katie screamed again and again he tried to move, but his feet wouldn't cooperate.

Zacharias was hitting her again. There was blood everywhere and her eyes were blackening. She was crying steadily. The man was like some wild animal. He was shouting at her calling her terrible names and accusing her of faithlessness.

"You fucking bitch. I saw you talking to him. I told you not to leave this apartment. You know what happens to little girls that don't do what they're told."

"I'm sorry Johnny. I didn't mean to -"

The man slammed his fist into her abdomen and she fell to the floor coughing and gagging. "Johnny…" She cried.

"Show you whose boss here!"

Reid realized that tears were falling down his face as the terrible paralysis continued to force him to stand there and watch. The feeling that he knew what was going to happen next intensified one hundred times and his hand were shaking with rage.

"Johnny…"

"Shut up bitch… I told you to stay here and now I'll show you why you'll never defy me again."

"Stop…" Reid shouted at the man. "Please stop this." He searched frantically for his gun, but it wasn't at his hip. His cell and badge were gone too. Oh God… what was happening? The harsh and cold golden light picked up the red blood on the floor and on her delicate white skin.

It was no use; there was nothing he could do. The memory of absolute terror and hopelessness when Tobias had killed that couple over the internet connection that he'd chosen was nothing too compared to this. It was horrific beyond anything he ever seen.

Zacharias pulled her to the floor and raped her while Reid screamed at him to stop. Katie was screaming and trying to fight him off, but there were so many wounds and she was weak.

Reid screamed at fate, or God, or destiny, why was this happening to him when he couldn't stop it? Zacharias was like someone possessed. He stood, zipped his pants and walked away from Katie. Reid saw that she was staring at the ceiling with her large dark eyes that were completely blank. She didn't try to get up and run when Zacharias left the room.

"Katie…" Reid choked out "Katie, can you hear me. It's Spencer. You have to get up now. I can't help you. I can't move. You have to get up and…"

Zacharias was back. He didn't look in Spencer's direction. Reid was beginning to realize through the haze of panic that was making his blood run cold that neither of them could hear, nor see him. It was some kind of crazy dream. He must be asleep and his nightmares were back. It was just a nightmare.

Zacharias knelt down next to Katie and Reid screamed when the man swung the hammer in his hand. It fell and Reid couldn't flinch away like it was a horror movie. Blood hit the wall and Zacharias and it was crimson in the bright light. The hammer rose and fell, and rose and fell so many times he lost count. Blood was everywhere and Reid wanted to vomit. The bile burned his throat and stomach, his legs wanted to dump him to the floor but somehow he stayed upright. She was dead, he knew that now. She'd always been dead. It wasn't a dream. She was showing him how it happened. He was sobbing wildly at her loss and for the loss of love that wasn't meant to be.

He watched Zacharias leave again and then come back with several tools, including a sledge hammer. Reid watched him knock a whole in the wall large enough for Katie's body. He wrestled her inside and he threw in the blood stained hammer.

God… He wanted to wake up, for this to be over, but he didn't wake up. He was still crying softly as the man bricked up the girl inside the wall. The job was neat and professional and no one would suspect the truth. How had the police missed this? How was it that they hadn't searched for blood or other body fluids there? How had no one heard him taking down the wall?

He opened his eyes and he was lying on the floor of his living room. The harsh golden light was gone and in its place was the soft glow of his lamp. The scream died in his throat as he looked around. He was alone. Tears were still damp on his face as though he'd been crying in his sleep.

"Katie…"

Where was she? She didn't answer his calls as he lay there trying to make his dazed and confused brain work. He was on the floor in front of his couch and apparently alone.

"Katie…" He called again but there was only the slight ticking of the clock on the wall in the silent room. He got slowly to his feet, expecting the foot Charles had broken to ache, but it didn't, he was fine. Except his heart felt ripped out of his chest. He drew in a deep breath and wiped away the smeared tears on his cheeks.

He went methodically through all of his rooms. Katie wasn't there. She was gone. She'd never been there. Was the whole thing an elaborate hallucination? Had the last few weeks been the beginning of psychotic break?

"Spencer…"

Her voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. He didn't want to listen to it. If he ignored it, she would fade like his nightmares and he could go on with his life. Then she just materialized in front of him with a golden glow all around her. He stepped back tripped and landed on the edge of the sofa.

"Katie…"

"You're not going crazy Spencer. I'm sorry that I scared you and that I couldn't tell you when we first met. You probably wouldn't have believed me anyway."

"I don't know what you mean." He said, but he believed that he did know what she meant.

"I'm dead… I didn't know it till I met you. I guess I needed someone to find my killer for me. I've been stuck here, not knowing I was dead and should move on. I thought everything was the same as it was when I died."

He couldn't believe that she wasn't a figment of his imagination, but somehow he knew what she said was true.

"I don't understand…" Reid's head was reeling.

"I know… I'm not very sure of what happened. I just know that there was something about you that drew me to you in the library that day. I don't know how it's different now, but I see something that I didn't see the first time we met."

She looked puzzled and he wanted to laugh. Were ghosts supposed to be confused? He guessed they must be if she didn't know that she was dead all these years. He felt like he'd landed in a horror movie or something. His head was reeling, but there was a part of him that believed everything. It was outside the realm of intelligence that had driven him his whole life. He used that intelligence to try to explain the world around him. Maybe there was more to it then what science could explain.

"I don't know what the difference could be." He said slowly.

She seemed to study him as she stood in front of him and he noticed that her feet weren't quite touching the ground. Something else slipped inside him and suddenly he believed in all of it.

"You've seen the other side." The apparition said with absolute conviction. "You were dead once, weren't you?"

"Y-yes…" He said hesitantly, but the expected pain of memories didn't come. "Yes, but only for a couple of minutes. I was brought back with CPR."

"Then that must be the connection."

"Yeah…" Oddly, he felt disappointed by this revelation.

"Thank you Spencer…" She said and her musical voice pulled her eyes back to her face.

"For what," He was very confused.

"For helping me… You're a very sweet and kind man. I'm glad the connection, what ever it was, brought us together."

"Me too," He whispered.

She looked so sad he thought, and then she said. "I wish…"

"Me too," He repeated.

"Good-bye Spencer Reid."

And she was gone, vanished like mist before the sun. He sat on the couch for a long time staring at the place where she's stood in the warm golden glow. If he didn't move, then maybe she would come back.

The clock on his wall suddenly struck twelve times. He jumped in surprise to realize that it was midnight and officially Halloween. Well, he was never going to look at the holiday in quite the same way again.

He reached into his pocket for his phone. He had to call Hotch, but would his boss believe his story.

The dawn was cold and grey. Reid could see his breath while he and Hotch walked to the front door of the home on the corner of Elm and Cedar. Jonathon Zacharias and Katherine Duncan had rented the house from a man that lived and worked in DC. He was there waiting for them to arrive.

They explained what they wanted to do and the man readily agreed. "I'm glad you're here." He said happily.

He was rather fat and several inches shorter then Hotch and Reid. He was balding and what was left of his hair was light grey shot through with gray. He wore old jeans and a dark blue sweat shirt under a light brown over coat.

He followed them into the house, talking enthusiastically about the ghost or whatever it was that kept scaring away his tenants.

"It got so bad, I decided to sell the property and cut my losses."

Hotch thanked the man and had an office that accompanied them steer the man back outside so they could do their work. The CSIs and Detective Markowitz, who'd just arrived, got to work.

"You don't have to do this." Hotch said very quietly to Reid.

"Yes I do Hotch… Someone has to stand up for her."

Reid could feel his boss watching him, looking for signs of weakness. He supposed he didn't blame the older agent. So much had happened in two weeks to him that anyone might think he was losing it.

He watched the whole process, how the CSIs found blood on the walls and the floors despite the passage of five years. The glow of the Luminal in the darkened room made his stomach do flip-flops, and he had to swallow hard against the bile that wanted to leave his stomach. It was worse then the vision or dream he'd had. It was worse then he could imagine, even after everything he's seen the last five years.

The techs took apart the wall and when they found the skeletal arm poking through the tattered remains of a stained sweater with pink flowers, he turned and fled the room. Then he did something he hadn't done since the first case he worked at the BAU, he vomited in the dead bushes next to the house.

The rain had begun again when the CSIs brought out the black body bag on the stretcher. The ME followed it to the city hearse and supervised loading it into the back. The press had begun to arrive and so had JJ. She had hugged him as tight as she could with her growing baby belly.

"Are you okay?"

He couldn't speak as the acid taste of losing the small breakfast he'd lost, burned his throat. Tears threatened and talking to JJ would bring them to the surface. He shook his head and she kissed his cheek.

"That was a very stupid question I know. You don't have to say anything."

"Thanks JJ…" He croaked out to her.

"Get some rest today." She ordered in a soft voice.

"I will, Hotch told me to take the rest of the day off."

"Good," She said and he could see the worry in her large doe eyes.

"Don't worry about me." He said indicating her baby bump. "Remember you're supposed to be avoiding stress."

"I can't help it Spence, you're still my friend."

"Thanks, you don't know how much I needed to hear that today."

"Go home," she gently shoved him in the direction of the SUV he'd come in with Hotch. "I'm going to go handle the jackals over there." She indicated her "friends," in the press.

His apartment looked the same as when he left it. There was no one there to greet him when he opened the door and dropped his bag by the table in the entryway. He looked around trying to see if the place looked different. It didn't, it was the same.

"Katie…" He called out softly, but she was gone. Only the faint scent of lilacs remained behind.

He went to his bedroom, and pulled off the work clothes he'd been wearing since the day before, and changed into a Star Trek Convention tee-shirt and black sweats. He climbed into bed and surprised himself by falling straight to sleep.

For the first time in years, Halloween was forgotten by the young agent.