Garcia's heart pounded as she walked alongside JJ. The two trailed the Ring Master in and out of the exit crowd. They kept pretty good pace with him, catching at the last second when he ducked inside a tent.
Garcia stopped just outside, forcing JJ to sigh and pull her through the lip of the tent.
Inside it looked like a kitchen of sorts. With long tables covered with stoves, pans, dishes, containers, silverware, and spilled piles of goo on the table and ground.
The Ring Master was just walking through the very end of the tent, out the exit flap.
"What the heck?" JJ cried, chasing after him with Garcia close behind.
The caught him going around the corner alongside the backs of the tents.
Going around the corner, they found him entering a long, rectangular tent.
On the inside of the entrance lip of the tent was a tall metal door.
When JJ tried it, it swung open easily.
"Wait a minute." She said when they were inside, "This is too easy. You saw how fast he was. If he wanted to get away, he would have."
Garcia was silent for a second, "So why is he letting us follow him?"
And then the door behind them shut, plunging them into the black darkness!
"Hey!" JJ screamed, knocking on the door. Then she felt the walls, waiting for rough polyester to touch her fingers.
But only cold, hard metal did. She felt for the edge of the wall, hoping they could climb over.
There was a metal cieling just above them.
"We're trapped!" Garcia squeaked. Letting the fear she'd been holding at bay since last night finally overwhelm her.
Hotch had seen Garcia and JJ enter the tent, he'd also seen Mr. Drahtseil sneak over and slam the door shut, turning something in his hand just below the door handle.
"Hey!" Morgan screamed as they ran over.
"I'll find him, you get them out!" Hotch cried, giving chase.
Morgan looked over the door, then pulled back the wall of the tent to see it hiding a metal wall. Above was a cieling.
They were boxed in?
Meanwhile, Hotch chased Drahtseil around the corner and down the road.
"Detective Collins!" He screamed and pointed toward the running trapeze artist.
The Detective nodded and joined chase, tackling the middle aged man to the dirt.
"Manny!" Mrs. Drahtseil screamed, running past Hotch. Had she been following him?
She pulled the detective off with surprising strength and laid herself protectively over him.
"You leave Manny alone!" She screamed.
Mr. Drahtseil looked up at his wife with surprise, "Cynthia?"
"Come on Manny, we'll get you all cleaned up in our tent! Oh, lets hope you didn't- ah good! You didn't destroy your pants in the fall! Mr. Orbis will be so angry if you do that! Oh!" She'd just tripped and fallen into Hotch who caught her.
Mr. Drahtseil grunted and pulled his wife close to her, but as they tried to leave, two cops in casual wear stepped infront of them and Hotch approached them from teh back.
"Mr. Drahtseil what where you doing locking two federal agents in and then running from the scene when we called out to you?" He asked, letting the mask he'd created from years of lawyering slip onto his face.
"Ahh... they were in there?" Mr. Drahtseil tried feebly.
"Yes, and you knew they were. You waited until they'd gone completely inside before you locked the door, now answer the question or I'll have you arrested as an accesory to the kidnapping and possible murder of Agent Spencer Reid."
Morgan had just run up, about to tell Hotch that they were locked in and he couldn't break the door when he heard the end of Hotch's sentence.
"Murder?"
Hotch turned, surprise splattered on his face, to see Morgan staring wide-eyed at him.
Hotch gave him a look before turning back, "My colleague isnt as well informed. He's been trying to realease the locked agents. Now, what were you doing?"
Mr. Drahtseil and Mrs. Drahtseil gave a pained look before he stepped forward, "You see," He said in a thick german accent, "Mr. Orbus just wanted a private conversation for a few minutes. He was gonna unlock the door when they'd finished. But he wanted it completely private, no one hiding behind thick screens and all that you know? We were never gonna do anything wrong, just get a conversation out of them."
"Well would you mind unlocking them?" Morgan asked before turning to Hotch, "Try as I might, I cant get that door down. And its a complete metal box from the looks of it, I cant find another way in."
Mrs. Drahtseil squeaked," But Mr. Orbus will be so cross with us! Can't you let them finish their conversation? Then they'll come out fine. He'd never do anything to-"
"No ma'am we cant." Hotch interrupted stubornly.
Mr. Drahtseil threw his hands up in defeat, "Fine! I will unlock the door for you."
JJ ran down the long hall of mirrors, with Garcia following slowly behind. JJ banged on the mirrors, abandoning concern that they'd break and just hitting the heck out of them. They never did, but Garcia really thought she shouldn't have been doing that.
It looked like they were trapped in the hall of mirrors, a large maze of mirrors one could easily get lost in. And GArcia was sure they were lost. She couldn't remember the way they'd come.
"Hey!" JJ screamed for the hundreth time, banging on the mirror with her hand, "We're in here! Hey!"
A shadow passed one of the mirrors, dimming the light shing from below and above it for a second it was so tall. Garcia squeaked in fear. She couldn't tell where the shadow had passed.
"JJ." She whispered when she saw it again.
"What?" JJ turned, breathing hard from running and yelling.
"Something's in here with us!" Garcia shrieked when she saw it standing in one of the full length mirrors!