Disclaimer: I wish I had a trillion billion dollars than I could own this show.
Hi all! Thanks for review, following and favoriting my story. I really appreciate it!
Oh, just one thing about the story. I know that I have the team scenes set hours behind the Reid ones. I will work on catching the team up to Reid's timeline in the next chapter.
Please forgive any stupid mistakes!
Enjoy!
Morgan and Blake were already settled in when the team arrived right on time at seven. The agents looked up and waited patiently for their teammates to settle in so they could fill them in on their new information and thoughts.
Once all five agents had settled, it became clear to all that there was one seat left unoccupied. Hotch looked around the tiny station and addressed the early duo, "Where's Reid?"
"What do you mean? You only told Blake and me to go interview Mr. Brookins," Morgan responded with some confusion in his voice.
"Yeah, but when we left to come here Reid wasn't in his room. We figured that he came in early to work with you two," Hotch explained.
"No, we haven't seen him at all. It's just been the two of us and that officer over there," Blake said.
"Well maybe he went out to hunt down some coffee," Rossi said figuring Reid's coffee addiction had something to do with his tardiness.
"Alright, let's give him some time before we start to worry," Hotch declared to the overprotective profilers. "Morgan, what did you two find out from your interview?"
Morgan and Blake went on to describe Mr. Brookins and the information he gave them an hour earlier. They had the local officer working on getting them a comprehensive map of the local portion of the bayou to drop off at Maybell's later. Overall, it took about a half an hour to fill the group in and bounce some ideas off of one another. As the conversation wound down it became abundantly clear that something was holding up Reid.
"Um, Hotch do you want me to go look for Reid now? He's never this late, even if it is for coffee," JJ asked.
"Okay, go out and find him. Take Blake with you and get back here as soon as possible. Rossi and I are going out on a tour of the swamp with Sheriff Whitehead so we probably won't be here when you get back. Morgan, get that map over to the diner than contact the ME so we have some details about the cause of deaths for each girl," Hotch instructed the team before they broke apart to go about their assigned tasks.
The girls went over to the motel and got a key to Reid's room from the front desk. Upon inspection of his lodgings they found nothing out of place. The bed had been slept in, the toiletries were spread out on the bathroom counter, and the in room coffee maker had been used. It was obvious that Reid had taken a shower this morning due to the moisture still in the bathroom, and his pajamas were strewn out on top of his bag. There was no sign of a struggle or a fight. The women determined that whatever happened to their colleague it did not occur at the motel.
The agents returned the key to the receptionist at the desk and asked her whether she had seen the missing agent. Fortunately, she happened to see Reid walking by the window this morning heading down the dirt road to destination unknown. The only other information that she was able to provide was that Reid had walked by her office around six thirty.
Blake and JJ hopped into the SUV and started driving slowly down the dirt road that Reid was walking down this morning. Blake quickly recognized the route and told JJ, "This is the way to Maybell's Diner. Morgan and I were here this morning. We didn't see Reid walking down the road on our way back to the station."
"Well, you and Morgan got to the diner early. It's quite possible that you missed him by minutes. Let's stop in and ask if anyone saw him. How long do you think it would take him to walk here from the motel?" JJ asked.
"Uh…maybe ten minutes. Thinking about it more, Morgan and I were done questioning Mr. Brookins at about six fifteen. So it really based on the receptionists time table it's really plausible that we may have missed him," Blake mused out loud.
The parking lot for the diner was quite full and they had no choice but to create their own spot in front of the doors. The ladies got out and muscled their way up to the counter and flashed their badges at a young waitress. "We need to talk to Maybell if she's still here," Blake instructed the girl and watched as she flitted off to find the proprietor.
A few moments later the little old lady that ran the busiest diner in town bustled out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a dish towel. "This better be good. You're interrupting me during our breakfast rush," she crowed at the agents.
"Sorry ma'am, we promise we'll be quick," JJ said in response to the crotchety woman. "We were wondering if you happened to see another one of our agents this morning. He's a tall, thin, young man. His auburn hair falls past his ears and has a slight curl to it. Oh, and he has huge hazel eyes that remind you of a puppy dog."
"Yeah, sure. I've seen him. He was here this morning buying a ton of coffee. He sure didn't think ahead, because I could tell he was flummoxed on how he was going to carry it all. He came in a while after ya'll talked to John," Maybell said to Blake. "Now if that's all I gotta a kitchen to get back to."
"Thank you ma'am," called JJ to the retreating back of the busy restaurateur.
Together the agents walked out the door and paused to talk.
"So, Reid was here this morning buying us coffee. He must have…," Blake trailed off after something behind JJ caught her eyes.
JJ turned and looked to see what had her friend so captivated and saw a bunch of trash on the ground. No, it wasn't a bunch of trash. It was a pile of coffee cups and their holders. The two rushed over to the evidence and frantically looked around like they expected Reid to be hiding behind some of the trash bins in the alley.
"Do you think…?" JJ didn't even finish the question.
"There are six cups here. Who else in this town would have bought six coffees today?" Blake said answering JJ's unfinished question.
"We need to let the others know. Now!" came JJ's frantic response as she flicked out here phone and prayed that Hotch and Rossi hadn't taken off on their tour yet.
He was lying on his back on the most uncomfortable mattress on the planet. Wait…he doesn't sleep on his back, he's a stomach sleeper.
For the second time that day Reid's eyes flew open to an unfamiliar environment. The light wasn't as bright as the first time he woke up because the cabin didn't have many windows. He was on his back and it felt like there must have been a paper thin mattress underneath his body. He swore that he could feel bars digging into his body. In fact, there seemed to be bars surrounding his body.
He reached his hands up and grasped the metal grid that was blocking his view of the ceiling. He was in a cage! He wound his fingers through the metal squares and started pushing with all his might. If he could just bend the metal back and forth perhaps he could weaken it into breaking. He concentrated all of his strength into pushing on the bars but they never yielded. With a grunt of frustration Reid started thrashing about in the cage trying to vent all of his irritation at being in this situation.
When he had worn himself out from twisting about he noticed a clanking sound. He didn't see the source until he brought his hands up to rub his eyes. How had he missed this before? He had manacles attached to each wrist and the chains led to a metal collar encircling his neck. He pulled at the collar with his iron clad hands and knew his ministrations were in vain. The collar wasn't budging due to the padlock securing it in place.
"Help! Somebody help me! Please help me!" Reid started shouting. He knew that he was out in total isolation but he had to try.
Seconds later the door to the cabin crashed open and the man from the diner stomped inside.
"Cut that infernal racket out will ya! You know there isn't anybody around…you're just wasting your breath," He bellowed at Reid.
"Let me out of here! You can't keep me like this. I'm a human being, not a pet," Reid demanded from his place on the floor.
"I'll let you out when I'm good and ready," the man said as he disappeared behind a door. Reid could hear the trickling of water coming from the room and realized that it wasn't water at all. He heard a toilet flush and the sink turn on for the man to wash his hands. His captor reappeared shortly after the water turned off and walked over to the couch and sat down.
This was the first time Reid actually paid attention to the layout of the cabin. There were no rooms per say, at least no wall separating rooms. Everything was out in the open in a shared space, like a studio apartment. The couch was the barrier in between the bedroom space and the living room. Of course, there wasn't much of a living room, it only contained a couch and one easy chair positioned facing a fireplace. The bedroom area had a double bed with a nightstand and a dresser in it. The kitchen was across from the two rooms. It was made up of a simple refrigerator, wood burning stove, and a counter with a sink. The table was a two seater that looked like it was dry rotting over time. There were only two doors in the whole cabin; the front door and the bathroom door. Reid's cage was positioned along the front wall under the only window giving him a good view of the entire cabin.
"I didn't realize you were such a spitfire. Usually my guests are too scared to make so much noise their first day here. This is your new home now boy, you better get used to it," the man began, still not introducing himself to Reid.
"Look, you gotta let me out of here. Take me back. The others are going to come looking for me, if they haven't already. You're not going to get away with this for long," Reid tried to threaten him even though he knew the chance of them finding him in this swamp was one in a million.
The man started to laugh hysterically and even had to stoop over in his seat to take a few deep breaths, "Seriously! You really think anyone could find you out here? And why would they even think that you would be with me? Nah kid, give it up. No one has ever found their way to my house on their own. No one comes here unless I bring them. And those few lucky people that have been here never leave alive."
Reid swallowed and clutched at the cage again, "What do you plan to do with me?"
The man snorted, "Do with you? Nothing. You're here to work. Look son, I've got a hard job that requires me to be out on the bayou all day. I need someone here to take care of the place and keep me entertained. I'm not going to do anything to you unless you give me a reason too. So mind your manners and follow the rules and you'll be just fine."
"Work? Entertain?" Reid questioned, not liking the possible implications of the second word.
"You're going to maintain the house and yard for me while I'm out every day. You need to make me my meals and have them ready for when I get home. I'll give you a list of chores that need to be completed to my satisfaction, and if they don't get done you'll face some consequences. As for entertain, do you see anything around here that is amusing? It gets pretty lonely out here. So you're going to keep me company and amuse me at night before we go to bed," the man explained like it was the most logical thing in the world.
"Why me?" Reid asked him the question that had been burning a hole in his brain since he had awoken from his second forced slumber.
"Well, I usually don't go after young men…I've never really been interested in your type. But last night when I was listening to you at dinner I knew you were too good to pass up. Your story was amazing, and I could really picture it in my head. Actually, that fact that you didn't complete it pissed me off a little. You're gonna fix that tonight. I want to know how that lady keeps the king from killing her," John explained.
"Are you going to….are you going…are you interested in me?" Reid could barely get the question out he was so fearful of the answer.
The man looked him over slowly. He was a sight to see, lying sideways in that wire box trap. The boy's hair gave him a feminine appeal and his lips were plump like a woman's. His body was willowy and thin which added to his ladylike appearance. John wasn't sure how to answer this question. He hadn't really thought about it before now, and it would be his first experience with a man. No, he just didn't know whether or not he was willing to go there.
"I'm not sure," John said avoiding eye contact with Reid.
Reid shuddered at the vague answer. He needed to get out of here as soon as possible. This man was clearly unstable and sexually confused. He didn't want to be an experiment to find out whether or not the man was attracted to the same sex. But in order to get out of here, he had to get out of the cage first.
"Are you going to let me out?" Reid said as he shook the cage bringing the man's attention back him and his location.
"Yeah, you need to start on dinner soon. I'm going to lock you up in the kitchen so you can get straight to work. I've gotta go out and set my traps for the night. When I get back I expect there to be a hot meal waiting for me. Do you know how to use a wood burning stove?" John asked as he opened the end of the cage closest to Reid's feet. He watched as Reid wiggled his body out of the box brining most of the bedding with him in the process. Once the kid was out he pulled him up and waited for an answer.
"I'm sure I can figure it out if there is some wood and matches available," Reid said hoping the man would leave soon so he could inspect his surroundings and come up with a plan.
"The stuff you'll need is over there underneath the sink," John gestured as he grabbed Reid's left arm and dragged him into the kitchen. Once there he fastened a long length of chain that was drilled into the wall by the refrigerator to Reid's collar. "Don't want you wandering around yet," was John's way of explaining the necessity of the chain.
Reid's face took on a look of disgust at being degraded again. This man really treated his "guests" more like domesticated animals than people. He tugged on it a bit to test the durability of the fasteners. Just his luck, they were quite sound.
"What am I supposed to cook?" Reid asked before the man could leave.
"I don't care. Check out the fridge and look in the cabinets. Come up with something. I'll be back in about two hours," the man was saying as he was walking out the door.
"Wait! You've never even told me your name or asked for mine," Reid yelled wanting to get a name for his developing profile.
The man stopped momentarily to consider what the boy had said, "My name is John, but you'll call me Sir. As for your name…it doesn't matter. I'm just gonna call you boy."
Reid flinched when he heard the door slam shut after John's departure. He looked around the kitchen and tried to figure out what he was going to do. This whole situation seemed hopeless. He started checking out the food selection, trying to come up with something simple to make. He wasn't much of a cook and preferred to eat out or order in most of the time. He went to Rossi's cooking lesson once, but even then he was late and didn't learn a whole lot.
Reid decided to make a simple spaghetti dinner with the canned tomatoes and a few fresh ingredients he found. It was when he went to chop up the onion that he realized that John had left him with a weapon, actually a few weapons. There was a complete knife block sitting on the kitchen counter waiting for him to utilize to his full advantage.
Reid did as he was told and made the man dinner like he ordered. He didn't want to alert the man to his plan by refusing to do the one task he was assigned. He found making dinner a bit more difficult than he anticipated with his limited hand movements. He had to be bent over most of the time which caused his back to ache after a little while.
At this point the dinner was done and waiting for the large hulking man to come back from his work to eat it. Reid positioned himself over in the corner where the counter ended and the eating nook began. He had hidden a knife in the waistband of his pants, taking one from the rear of the knife block hoping that John wouldn't notice.
His plan was simple. He was going wait for John to sit down to eat his dinner. Hopefully the man would be relaxed enough to let his guard down while eating. Reid planned on creeping up behind John and incapacitating him in some form. He would then run out to the boat and take his chances on the bayou. Hopefully John's boat had two-way radios for him to keep in contact with the local coast guard or police. So, all Reid had to do was get the boat a sufficient amount away from the cabin, find a unique landform that the local police would recognize and get sit back and wait for help to come. Simple.
Reid was startled out of his plotting when he heard the airboat pull up to the dock outside. He steeled himself for his upcoming freedom and listened closely for John's approach. The second the man opened the door his gaze settled on Reid. Spencer just smiled nervously and said, "I made spaghetti."
The man grunted and dropped his belongings by the door. He walked into the kitchen and inspected the pot of sauce and noodles. Without uttering a word to Reid he grabbed a bowlful of pasta and a fork then sat down to eat dinner.
"Oh, and you better put that knife away boy. We'll discuss your punishment for trying to escape later," John stated before he tucked into his dinner.
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