This was taking forever. Spencer Reid was ready to jump out of the car and sprint to the goddamn house, but that wouldn't be logical. He knew they'd get there eventually, but right now that wasn't good enough. Melyssa had been with Tack for a multitude of hours, they were getting dangerously close to the common death time. No, that wouldn't happen, that couldn't happen. But what if it did…

"How much further?" He asked Morgan, who was driving.

"About three more miles." The other man replied, pushing harder on the accelerator, "We'll get there Reid, don't worry."

'Don't worry.' Spencer thought with an internal scoff, 'How the hell can I not worry? My girlfriend is alone with her psychopathic stalker and he tells me not to worry.'

However, in the midst of said worrier, Spencer failed to recognize the moment they pulled up.

"Reid, man, let's go!" Morgan yelled as he himself shot out of the car.

In that moment, Spencer snapped out of his thoughts and quickly took in his surroundings.

It was 12:30 in the morning and pitch dark. They were in a small clearing surrounded by a small, semi-circle forest-line that cut them off from the main road on the other side of the field. Off to the side of the clearing was a wooden two-story house and Spencer automatically understood how the 'haunted house' rumor started.

The wood was weathered to the point of turning gray and was literally falling off. Some of the windows were cracked and had holes, others were crudely boarded up. There were groups of tiles messing from the roof. On the side of the house was a rusted green pick-up truck on cinder blocks and the gravel driveway was being taken-over by grass and weeds.

He was a little scared.

"Burn! IN! HEEEEEELL!"

Melyssa was finding it harder and harder to keep awake. Normally, she would've have given into the tempting prospect of sleep, but this sure as hell wasn't normal.

"You need sleep, my love." Tack told her softly.

"Not tired." She said simply and confidently.

"I know you are." He replied with a smile.

"You don't know the difference between the Australia and Austria, dipshit." She bit back.

"I know enough to know that you owe me." He said through clenched teeth.

"What the hell would I owe you for, asswipe?"

"I killed for you." He told her, "I avenged your pain. I made your parents pay."

For a moment, Melyssa could say nothing at. She could just stare at him, and imagine horrible, horrible ways for him to die a long, lonely, terrifying and suffering death.

"Burn in hell." She finally said, her voice so quite she herself barely heard it.

"What was that, love?" Tack asked her innocently.

"Burn." She said louder, glaring at him in a rage she had never before felt. "In. Hell."

Tack looked at her, his eyes crazed.

"I'm sorry love," He forced out, his eye and upper lip starting to twitch. "I don't think I heard you correctly. What is it you said?"

"Burn. IN. HEEEEEELL!" She screamed at him, her throat burning in a pain that Melyssa wouldn't noticed for another few hours.

Feeling deep inside herself the sense of sheer homicidal rage that over-took the entire atmosphere of the room, Melyssa was unable to notice anything- including the sounds of FBI agents, police officers and a SWAT team swarming the floor upstairs- aside from the increasing twitching of the criminally insane man that currently had her chained to wall.

In the horrid silence that surrounded the two of them, Melyssa heard a swish . Sparing a glance to where the sound came from, Melyssa took note of a switch blade in the right hand of Mr. Leroy Tack.

'Well shit.' She thought, showing no emotion, as he stalked closer to her.

'Shit, shit, shit.' His eyes never left her's, the tension between them electrifying.

"Say it again, Wheeler." He told her. "I dare you."

Though the child inside her was trembling in a cold, damp place, Melyssa's outer self was laced with a false confidence as she looked him directly in the eyes and whispered,

"Burn."

Where was she?

This place, it seemed so familiar, yet so new. And frightening.

It was as barren as a Nevada ground was cracked and gray. There wasn't a thing, aside from some odd rock formations. One of them looking like a small archway. Through the archway, Melyssa gazed at the mountain-line in the distance. The sky above the tips of the mountains seemed to be a time of twilight, beautiful colors of gray, blue and lavender. How was it that something so beautiful could make her so un-easy?

It was then that Melyssa noticed something on one of the mountains. How she could possibly see that far, she didn't know, but that didn't matter right now. All that matter was the fact that there where three creatures atop the mountain. One of them was half robot, the middle one had a lobster claw for an arm and the other one, well, she had no idea. She couldn't see what it was. That particular creature was the most intimidating.

She didn't like this. Not one bit. What were those things? Where was everybody? How did she get here?

For a minute, she looked back to where she saw the creatures. They weren't there.

"She lost quit a bit of blood and suffered some head trauma and minor wounds, but she should be fine." Dr. Gates informed the team of agents sitting in the waiting room.

The doctor thought back to when they had brought the young lady in. She had been drugged, chained to a wall and at the end of it all, she had had her throat cut. Thankfully, the agents had gotten to her in time so that the cut wasn't too deep and had been tended to as best as possible. That alone increased her chances greatly.

"Than why isn't she waking up?" The youngest man asked, clearly agitated.

"Defense." Dr. Gates's colleague, Dr. Shultz- Clinical Psychiatrist, stated simply. "She's been through a lot a trauma. I've heard that the man that kidnapped her also killed her parents? In that case, it's no shock that she's not entirely ready to come back to us yet."

"But she will come back, right?" A young noirette asked.

"Of course she will," An older gentlemen assured, "She strong and determined, not to mention stubborn. She'll come back, with out a doubt."

Dr. Gates and Dr. Shultz shared a look before the gave their goodbyes and walked away.

"The young one was taking it really hard." Dr. Shultz said.

"You should've seen him when they took her into surgery," Dr. Gates told her, "he was a nervous wreck."

'Mommy'. Melyssa thought as she continued to run, not sure from what or to where.

'I'm so sorry, Mommy. I love you. I love you and Daddy so much. I love you Daddy. I'm so, so sorry.'

"I'm sorry." She chocked out in a sob as she continued running across the gray ground to no where in particular, the tears on her cheeks completely unnoticed.

Spencer went into Melyssa's room and saw her lying in a hospital bed. She had the simple set-up of an IV and an oxygen tube. It could be so much worse, he reminded himself. But either way, it pained him to have to see her like this. But it was part of the job, and he knew neither one of them would give up this job, so he'd just have to get use to her being in danger.

He walked over to her side and sat in a chair. He didn't know how long he had been there before he noticed. She had tears streaked down the side of her face.

Without a second thought, Spencer leaned over and wiped the tear-trail and kissed her temple, wondering what she was dreaming about.

"I love you, Melyssa." He whispered in her ear before leaning back in his chair, holding her hand in the process.

A/N: Whelp, there's that. Gawd, that took forever. So, yeah, there ya go.