A/N Hey, sorry for being two days late with this. I just had a lot going on this weekend.

I hope you enjoy it! We're getting closer to the endgame.

Chapter 9

Reid and Emily heard the scream from the hallway on the first floor. Since Emily was too weak to run and see what had happened, Reid went alone, walking slowly in case another set of traps would be rigged up. When he turned the corner he spotted Garcia lying on her side on the floor. Slowly he approached her, calling out her name in a faint first nail he saw was the one in her shoulder and he gasped as he saw even more when he turned her to face him. They were all rusty which would make the wounds ten times worse. With a shaky hand he reached out to her neck and when he felt that steady throbbing against his fingertips he allowed himself to breathe.

He tried to get her to wake up, but it was a hard task. Reid could vaguely hear Morgan and Will's panicky voices coming closer down the stairs. They were soon by his side, trying to wake the unconscious blonde. After a few more failed attempts she finally stirred.

"Can you sit up, baby girl?" Morgan asked as soon as she opened her eyes.

Garcia turned her head. "It hurts too much." She said, already with tears in her eyes.

"You have to try. We need to get you out of here." Morgan said.

Garcia sighed heavily and brought her uninjured arm to try to push of the ground. She knew that when she'd gotten into a sitting position they would expect more from her. They would expect her to stand, something she knew she couldn't do.

"Tsk tsk tsk," the loud voice startled them. "This was not a good ending for poor Penelope Garcia." The man snickered. "But I did tell her to dodge."

They waited with anticipation for him to tell them that it was okay to let Garcia out. And the permission came only a minute later. Morgan and Will helped Garcia up on her feet and let her support herself on them.

"What happened?" Emily asked when they entered the living room where she had now gotten herself up to one of the armchairs.

None of them wanted to sit on the couch since it was still covered in Hotch's blood.

"The bastard made us play dodgeball, only he shot nails instead." Morgan explained as they approached the door that had just clicked open.

"But you and Will are okay?"

"Yes, I only got balls." Morgan said.

"I got some kinds of plastic disks." Will said.

They were now by the door. Both dreaded to let go of Garcia because they knew that she didn't walk well by herself and the last time, when Rossi got out, there hadn't been anyone out there to help him.

"Hey, baby girl, we have to let you go now okay?"

Garcia took a steadying breath. "M'kay. I can do this."

She let go of the men and fumbled to open the door. When she gazed outside she was relieved to see Rossi and Beth. But the relief was short lived as when she took a step outside the pain took a hold of her again and her legs folded under her.

Morgan saw this, but there was nothing he could do since the door shut once more.

"She'll be okay." Will said to calm Morgan.

"She was so weak." Morgan said, sadly.

"But she is strong." Emily said. "She will fight to stay alive."

Morgan knew the brunette was right. After all, Garcia had survived being shot.

It wasn't long after that when the man on the speaker came on again, sounding more impatient to hurt them.

"Time to play some more." He said and seconds after a ball rolled into the living room. Morgan was quick to react and ran in the direction from where the ball had come.

Nothing. It was empty. He couldn't even hear someone running away. It was just all to calm and quiet. When he came into the living room again the others were all looking at him, expecting him to say something. He only shook his head and picked up the ball.

"I want Spencer and Derek to stand opposite each others and Will in the middle." The man announced.

Before obliging Morgan inspected the ball, knowing something was wrong with it if they were forced to play this game. There were no nails sticking out and nothing to suggest that it was a bomb. It looked like a regular soccer ball. Then something else would go wrong in this game. Something that would eliminate one of them.

Emily didn't get to play this game either, all of them suspected it was because she was still a little affected by the shocks or that he needed to keep her there for a little longer since she was his way to get them to do what he wanted.

The three men however lined up like they were told, not wanting anything bad to happen to their friend. Morgan was still holding the ball. He knew this game from when he was a kid. Charlie over the water, they had called it. A game where two or more people had to throw the ball to one another and a guy in the middle had to try and take it. None of them needed further instructions of how to play this game, but still the voice came on not long after they were in their places.

"Spencer and Derek will throw the ball to each other and it's Will's job to try and get the ball from the others. Have fun!"

Reid and Will looked at Morgan, waiting for him to throw the ball to Reid. Morgan did as what was expected of him and Reid caught it easily. The younger agent had never really been good at sports in school, but it was all about physics really so he managed to catch every ball and also throw it away for Morgan to catch it. Will in the middle was only looking at the ball, not really trying to catch it. If the ball just flew back and forth between the two BAU members nothing too bad could've happened. So he just watched for now, breathing in and out calmly.

"Fuck." they heard Emily's voice all of the sudden and Reid caught the ball, turning towards Emily who was now slumped in the armchair, cringing in pain.

"Are you okay?" Morgan asked, although he knew she wasn't.

Emily tried to catch her breath before saying: "I think he wants you to catch the ball." She looked at WIll and he looked back at her apologetically.

He took a deep breath and nodded for Reid to throw the ball. Will jumped a little to try and catch it, but he didn't really try that hard or he would've made it. They were all tall and the ball didn't fly that high up into the air. The ball went back to Reid once more and Will stretched up his arm to try and get the ball. They could all predict that something would happen as soon as Will caught the ball, but what it was none of them knew. This was why Will was so hesitant to try and catch the ball, they all knew that. Though, their UNSUB was getting impatient and when Emily received yet another shock Will decided to catch the ball.

They were right. Something did happen. The ball opened the moment Will had caught it above his head. Morgan and Reid jumped away from him as thousands or millions of fire ants fell on Will, crawling all over his body, biting where they could. Will started jumping around, trying to rid of the ants. Reid was walking in their place to keep the pests from climbing up their legs, Emily just stared in shock, too tired to move but kept her eyes on the ants in cased they'd crawl up the armchair, and Morgan ran away to the kitchen, in search of insect spray. He found it under the kitchen sink and hurried back into the living room, quickly spraying wherever he saw ants. They started dropping off Will, and though many dropped dead, some also ran away across the floor to some safer place without a crazy man with deadly poison.

Will breathed heavily when they were all gone. His arms, and probably his entire body that was hidden by clothes, were covered in white pustules and it stung as hell. He'd been bitten by fire ants before, but that had been one bite at a time. This time his whole body was covered.

"Man, are you okay?" Stupid question again, Morgan knew it, but it was the only thing he could say.

Reid was already by Emily's side, checking on how she was doing and silently wishing that they would let her out soon too.

"I'll be fine if I can just put something on this." Will said, scratching every part of his body.

"He'll let you out." Reid said to Will without even turning to him, while removing a strand of hair away from Emily's sweaty face.

She looked at him and smiled almost reassuringly, as if she was okay. Reid turned around then, nervously, and looked at the other two. Will really did look bad.

"Did you know that fire ants actually are a variety of different stinging ants, 285 species in total. They bite to get a good grip and then sting to shoot the poison in. It can be deadly if..."

"As much as I love to hear you talk Dr Reid, Will here seems to be in serious need to relieve those itches." The man interrupted Reid.

Will was already on his way to the door when it clicked open and he could walk out.

When Garcia fell to the ground Beth hurried up to her to see if she was okay. There was a lot of blood that told her she wasn't and also she had trouble standing up when Beth was trying to help her off the ground. Since Rossi still only saw a big blurry mess over by the door, it was hard for him to navigate where they were and in turn help. He wanted nothing more than to help, but the blindness made it feel impossible.

He heard their voices soon and tried his best to walk over to them, putting one arm under Garcia's when he felt them next to him. Both of them helped Garcia over to the car, placing her carefully in the backseat. Beth took the driver's seat and Rossi the passenger's and they drove away.

Once again Beth broke all laws trying to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Garcia looked bad. She let out some whimpers from time to time and just seemed over all weak.

"We should call in SWAT." Rossi said after being silent for a long time.

Beth glanced at him. "Are you crazy? He'll kill them."

"No, he won't. His profile tells us that he's not a killer. He hasn't done it yet and therefore probably won't so I say we call them."

"NO!" Garcia suddenly shrieked out of nowhere. "He will shock her. The necklace gives her shocks every time we disobey him." Garcia breathed heavily, the rant taking her breath away.

"Okay, okay, calm down. We won't call anyone. I promise" Rossi said, trying to reassure her. When she saw that he meant it, she slumped back in her seat.

After that the car was filled with silence again until they finally reached the hospital the second time for Beth that night. Beth jumped out of the vehicle as soon as she'd put it in park and she called a nurse over, asking for two wheelchairs. The nurse did just what she was asked and Beth helped first Rossi into his and, with the help from the nurse, Garcia into hers.

The nurses eyed her suspiciously on the way into the hospital. It wasn't normal for one person to come in with three wounded people during one night. Maybe they should've chosen different hospitals, but they didn't want to take too much time dropping people off and getting back to the house.

So it came as no surprise when a police officer stepped into the waiting room as soon as Beth had made sure that Rossi and Garcia got the help they needed. She had just approached the receptionist to ask about Hotch when the officer called behind her.

"Miss, we'd like a few words with you."

He watched them with a sick smile on his lips. He liked watching them scared. Everything he read about this team had told him that they wouldn't give up without a fight, but right now it seemed like they had all given up. Maybe it was the threat of killing them all off that had them obeying everything he told them. And the fact that he would shock Emily every time they didn't do as he pleased. That had been a smart move from his side. If he hadn't they would've called the police already, not that they could've done much. His plan was too good not to work.

The blonde had gotten out now. She was hurt pretty badly because she hadn't had time to dodge all of the nails his nail gun had shot at her. It was quite fun to watch the woman scream and cringe in pain.

Then he had gotten too excited and impatient. He just wanted to get rid of them so he could get what he wanted. Therefor he had been quick to let Penelope Garcia out and move on to the the next game. A game he had played several times when the older boys had taken his backpack and thrown it to each other above his head. He had tried a lot harder to get his backpack back than this southern guy who just stood in the middle looking at the ball. Will just had to catch the ball and this whole game would be over. It had to be over for him to move on the the next one. They forced him to push the button and give Emily another shock. It was Will's fault of course and he knew it too. When Spencer Reid threw the ball again Will raised his hand in a lame attempt to get the ball. Not satisfying at all. This would take forever if he continued like that so he gave Emily one more shock. As soon as he had done that Will caught the ball and another button was pressed to release the millions of fire ants. It hadn't been that easy to get that many ants, but he had just loved the idea of them ever since one of the older boys pushed him into an ant nest. So he knew what Will was feeling right now and it was a glorious feeling to see someone else experience the same kind of pain. Through his glee he spotted the youngest of them running to Emily's side. He saw how much he cared for her and how she returned it. The whole sight warmed his heart. It just made everything a lot more perfect. In just an hour or so they would be his, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.

A/N Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you can review it too! Especially now when you got a sneak peek of what the UNSUB wants:)