OMG DOES SOMEONE WANT TO KICK MY ASS INTO GEAR PLZ? Jeez I take so long.
INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC FOR THIS CHAPTER: My Humps – B.E.P
Thanks for the crazy amount of alerts on this, everyone. (: And of course the reviews; your support means the world to me!
For this fic you must now picture Reid with that short hair he had on these past two episodes. He was so gorgeous, I damn near cried. Hot ass.
Ashes of Our Lives – Chapter 2
JJ roused slowly, waking to the comfortable sensation of a warm body resting against her side. She blinked foggy blue eyes until the world came into focus. She was surprised to see that it was despairingly dark and washed out, despite the fact that her last memories took place in the early evening. She sat up straight, brow furrowed. The first thing she noticed upon moving was the fact that her right ankle was shackled to the floor. Her stomach twisted violently and she fought the urge to call out.
"You awake?"
The soft voice nearly made her jump out of her skin, and she turned her blonde head just slightly, allowing her partner to come into view. Reid watched her curiously, the lightest yellow of his eyes glinting in the sallow overhead light. She glanced over his lithe frame, then her own. She spoke after she'd deduced that neither of them had acquired any physical damage.
"Yeah, barely." She frowned suddenly, as though remembering something, and looked around. Her stomach twisted once again when the realization sunk in. The room was dark; only one dim light bulb hung from the ceiling. "Where are we?"
Reid shrugged one shoulder. "It looks like some kind of cellar, but there are cages down here. Like a kennel."
The thought of dogs that needed to be kept in cages send a cold tendril of fear through JJ. She looked at Reid harshly. "How can you act so… so nonchalant?" When he didn't reply, she continued. "Reid, why did you get in that car? I trusted you to get us out of this, and you just went along with him."
He looked at her sharply, and she was startled by the regret she saw. "Because I had something you didn't," he said, and she winced at the bite in his voice. "The profile. You trusted me to get you out of it, and I would have. Even though I drew my weapon on him, I couldn't shoot him. But he would've shot you if I hadn't listened. In any situation like that we, as agents, are supposed to give up our weapons."
She was quiet, her pale eyes averted, so he continued. "His profile said that he would have killed both of us there without a second thought without compliance. At least this way we have a chance."
"Are we going to die here, Spence?" She finally asked, her tone softer than one would expect.
He looked away, watching the door at the top of the distant staircase. "Not if we can help it."
"How?" JJ asked with a furrowed brow. "How do we fight a murderer when we're locked down in a cellar, half-drugged?"
"We use the one tool we have."
"The profile," JJ replied quietly. "What does it say? I can't… I can't read people like you guys can."
"I'll teach you some tricks," Reid offered, "it'll help you now and in the future."
"If we have a future."
He frowned. "Don't be negative. We've been through worse."
She didn't respond right away and he was about to call her name when she suddenly squeaked his. He looked at her inquisitively. "What is it?"
"Oh, my god," she murmured, leaning back against the wall, "Reid, tell me what the hell that is." She gestured to the far wall to their right, nearly fifty feet away. Reid's dark eyes traced toward the wall and he stiffened at the sight.
Tools were put up on the walls. He certainly didn't know what all of them were, but he recognized many of them. Tools and surgical instruments, adorned the wall in a macabre collection. He had no doubts they'd be facing some of them up close soon enough.
"That's the true torture," Reid said softly, "the torture of not knowing. Anticipation."
"Not knowing… what's going to be used next?" JJ asked in response, and she felt sick when her companion nodded slowly.
"So it's psychological torture as well as physical."
JJ was about to reply when the door at the stairs creaked open. Both agents looked immediately and stiffened at the sight of the man who was now making his way down. He looked unnaturally calm and so average. However, unremarkable as he looked, her looked nothing like the friendly looking man that had offered them a photograph back at the bar.
He finally faced them in worn denim jeans and a gray tshirt with a logo neither of them recognized. His hard blue eyes studied them. "You ready?"
"For?" Reid asked, and JJ leaned back to allow him to do the talking.
The man smiled bitterly. "I think the three of us should become better acquainted, don't you?"
"I think it depends on what you mean by that."
His expression hardened at Reid's soft sarcasm, but the young agent looked resigned if anything, not defiant. The unsub tilted his head.
"Sarcasm doesn't suit you. First, we should discuss the rules."
The agents exchanged looks, and Alex Napuri continued. "First of all, you're going to stay down here for as long as I decide. You can struggle if you want, but you won't be able to get anywhere, clearly. But stay quiet or I'll have to keep you sedated. Unless you want to be constantly on drugs, you' better do as you're told."
Reid visibly recoiled at the thought, but JJ just watched their captive with a growing amount of dread building in her pale eyes.
"You've already seen the wall," he replied, sounding bored. "I'm not giving any hints beforehand, so use you're imaginations. I'm sure they're very active."
"Our team will find us," JJ said suddenly, unable to stop even as Reid shot her a desperate look. She missed the anger that clouded on Alex's face. "They'll find us and you'll spend the rest of your life in jail if you don't get the death penalty."
"JJ," Reid hissed, his low tone unheard as Alex's entire demeanor shifted. His calm was gone and his face was twisted. He sprang into motion without warning, like a striking snake, and lashed the young blonde once across the face.
"Stop," Reid half-shouted, leaning forward and pulling harshly at the shackles. JJ reeled back but didn't make a sound. She only watched their captor warily.
"Idiotic bitch," Alex said, "you wish they'll come for you but they won't. They can't. They won't find you; they haven't found me yet and they aren't going to. I'm too smart; I've hidden myself so well they won't find me, not now not ever. The only evidence of my existence are the bodies I leave. So at the end of the month when they find your mangled, tortured carcasses in the grass… that will be the only thing to ever say where I've been. And I'll be sure to leave them a copy of the journal this time!"
"What journal?" Reid implored quietly, trying to sound meek. He found it disturbingly easy.
At this, Alex smiled cruelly. "Well, what would all this be worth if I couldn't relive it? I'm going to document absolutely everything that goes on for the duration of your… stay, here."
JJ squirmed, settling heavily against the wall and letting her arm press against Reid's. She decided to stay quiet this time and let him talk; he knew what he was doing and all she could do was hope and pray that she hadn't just made a very big mistake.
"You seem very hopeful," Alex continued, "that your team will find you. But they won't. You see, I've hidden myself so well, they have nothing to lead them here. They can tear apart my entire life and they still won't figure out where you are."
Both agents were quiet as their captor made his way to the far side of the room, where a tiny vent leading to the outside allowed in a small sliver of light. Alex pulled a shade over it, tearing away the only shred of natural light.
"You will have no sense of time," he said. "You won't know how long you've been down here, and that is exactly my intention. Tell me, genius, what is that?"
Reid's reply was immediate. "Sensory deprivation."
JJ tensed, and Alex nodded once. "Complete isolationism."
He paused a moment before glancing away. "Your damsel looks rather distressed. She isn't really a field agent, is she?"
Reid felt an involuntary shiver, disturbed at how much this man knew about them. His dark eyes flicked over briefly to look at JJ, and he noted that while her face was collected, she was very tense. Distressed indeed.
Reid closed his eyes a moment before answering, turning to glare at Alex Napuri with a new hate. "JJ's proven herself time and time again as a capable agent. Both in the field and through the media."
"Clever answer," the unsub replied coolly, turning to make his way back up the stairs. He slammed the door behind him and JJ began squirming immediately, trying to get her foot loose from the restraint.
"Where's he going?" she hissed, reaching around to grab the cuff. Reid didn't reply, and after a second, light once again flooded the basement. They glanced up to see Alex returning down the stairs, closing the door. He held a leash in one hand. The leash was latched to the collar of the beast currently loping down the stairs with Alex in tow.
JJ plastered herself against Reid's side, blue eyes wide as saucers. She didn't make a sound, and Reid watched the dog with a grim expression.
"I'm sure you noticed the kennels," Alex said, coming to a stop just feet from them. The big animal growled at them, ears pinned back. "This is Tank. He's a German Shepherd; pretty thing, isn't he? Black sable. I'm sure you'll get to know him real well during your stay here."
He moved to latch the leash onto a clip in the cement floor near the base of the stairs. When he let go, the canine immediately ran for the agents. JJ made a strangled noise, and Reid leaned into her instinctively but the dog was stopped by the leash when he was only a few feet away from them. He barked madly.
"The clip that's holding the leash in place can snap open," Alex explained lightly, "on the push of a button. So I suggest you behave unless you want those teeth in you. He's rather mean. You guys have a nice night; I'll drop in later, but for now, I have some work to do."
He left the basement again, leaving the two stunned agents in the basement with a mad dog.
"Reid," JJ hissed immediately after their captor's departure, "what do we do?"
She was leaning back into the wall and into him, trying to get as far away from the dog as possible. The canine refused to sit; he still stood, stock stiff, staring at them with copper red-brown eyes. The glinting of his bared, white teeth offered the only source of light in the dim room.
Reid watched the dog warily. "All we can do now is try not to disturb him."
"That's not what I wanted to hear."
"I know, JJ, I know," he replied exasperatedly, "I don't want to be here either, but we're going to have to think things through before we start acting. He will hurt and kill us if we're not careful."
"Then what do we do?" She asked again. "I can't figure him out like you can, I'm useless in here!"
"You're not, you just need to calm down."
"I can't calm down, there's a dog right there!" She pointed at the animal just as the catch on the lease released. She jerked in shock and the dog lunged toward them, jaws snapping.
"Get it away!" JJ shrieked, throwing her hands out as Reid did the same. They pushed at the dog but the animal was impossibly strong. Reid leaned forward as much as he could, wincing at the feel of JJ pressing harshly into him. The animal clawed and bit at their hands.
Despite the screams and combined efforts, it wasn't long before jagged claws and polished teeth sank into soft, relenting flesh.
BLAH that was so much shorter than it should have been. Oh well. :C
This chapter: I actually own a black-sable German Shepherd; he's massive and if you don't know him, he's frickin' scary. Actually, he scares my family sometimes cause he IS aggressive and has bitten my mom… but we love him too much to get rid of him and he's getting a lot better, behavior wise. He's so pretty, but I'd never want to cross one in the dark. His eyes are seriously brownish-red. His name is Cody and he is vicious but also a love-muffin. XD
(I also own a Chihuahua named Peanut.)
Next Chapter: The team will be like wtf is happening and the plot will begin to take a few turns. Stay tuned, peoples~!
Please read, enjoy, and review!
TIL ALL ARE ONE,
- Sharky