Sorry this one took a while. I can't even say that the reason it took so long to write is because of how long it is, because it's short :( I apologize for this, but I can't even make up an excuse for my short chapters. Well, quality over quantity, correct? I hope that's the case here. Let's just get into it!
(I don't own criminal minds or any of its characters)
Ready... Set... GO!
Everyone tensed as an abnormally loud click echoed through the silent room. Addison let out a quiet sob of relief as the empty chamber rotated.
It wasn't extremely surprising that the chamber was empty. With six chambers and one bullet, Reid knew that the survival odds for the first shot would be just over eighty three percent. Eliminating the already used chamber, the next person to have a shot fired-which turned out to be Adam as the unsub moved down the line of prisoners-would have an eighty percent chance of survival.
Adam cringed away from the metal barrel pressing against the back of his head.
Addison looked as if she was going to pass out from stress.
Liam… well, if looks could kill, the unsub would be dead.
Reid was feeling as though he should be able to do something, anything. He was the federal agent. He was the smartest person in this room. He was the one that was supposed to protect people like this family form people like this man. It infuriated him to know he could do nothing. 'Again.' He thought to himself. 'Psychological torture.'
Makaia wasn't breathing as the unsub smiles, crookedly and placed his finder on the trigger.
The unsub simply smiled.
The next empty click resonated off the concrete walls, and Makaia let out the breath she had been holding. The good news in this situation was that nobody had died… yet.
The bad news was that Addison had a twenty five percent chance of getting shot.
The unsub brushed Addison's hair behind her shoulders before pressing the gun to the back of her head. Reid and Makaia stared with looks of anxiety and fear on their faces. Adam looked away, not wanting to see it if his mother's brains were about to paint the floor in splattered, bloody spray. Liam took a breath and stared at his quietly sobbing wife, not knowing what to say.
Another deafening click caused everyone's breath to come the slightest bit easier for about four seconds. The unsub went back to the top of the line.
Liam now had just over a thirty three percent chance of not painting the floor with his brain tissue and cerebrospinal fluid. Liam looked hopeful as the unsub leveled the revolver, and Reid guessed that hope was for the bullet to be in this chamber. He wanted to die before his family so he didn't have to see them killed in front of him. Reid knew that if he was in this position with his team, he would want to go first. Hell, he'd want to be the only one that went. He wouldn't want his family to die, even if he wasn't around to see it.
The click was the best and worst thing any of them had ever heard.
Adam had a fifty percent chance of living and fifty percent chance of dying in the split second it would take for the bullet to exit the gun and enter his head. When the sound of an unloaded gun being fired sounded, all eyes but the unsub's widened and moved to Addison.
"NO!" Liam shouted. "Not her! Please!"
Adam, Makaia and Reid stared, eyes wide and terrified.
Addison looked oddly calm, as if accepting her fate.
The unsub pouted, clearly not happy with this outcome. "Well this won't be any fun if you know for sure this is the shot. We'll just have to fix that, now won't we?" the unsub released the cylinder and once again gave it a dizzying spin, losing the place of the round. He clicked the round back into place, lining up a random chamber with the barrel of the revolver.
The gun was pressed into Addison's hair, the trigger was pulled, and Reid and Makaia received a warm, sticky, red shower as the contents of Addison's skull exploded through her forehead.
CMCMCMCMCM
"Garcia." Hotch said as they drove back to the station feeling completely deflated as they did so. Hotch had no idea why the tech analyst was calling; they hadn't asked her for anything.
"I was digging deeper into Charles Blaine because digging is what I do and I just CANNOT sit around here and do nothing while one of my babies is missing and I had all of these thoughts running through my head that even baby pandas couldn't-"
"Did you find something?" Hotch interrupted. He wanted Garcia to get to the point while they were still in the car, just in case they needed to go somewhere, talk to someone, do anything that would require motor vehicular transportation.
"Yes and no." Garcia sounded unsure, as if maybe she thought her information wouldn't be useful. "That property you just visited, it had belonged to Anderson Smith for ten years."
"Which means Blaine either bought the house under his alias ten years ago when he was in Pasadena, had somebody buy it for him or Anderson Smith really is a person and Blaine either has or killed him." Rossi deduced.
"Well," Garcia used the tone of voice that meant, 'I was just getting to that', "he only got the job at Stokoe's two weeks ago. And he's like their backup plan. If there's no other person to go answer a call, he goes. He's only been to a customer's house once. I looked into Smith's employment history, he resigned from his job as a criminal prosecutor three days before the first victims went missing. He had no family in the state, so nobody reported him missing."
"Sounds like Blaine killed Smith and took his name." JJ said.
"Safe bet." Hotch mumbled. "Garcia, did Smith own any other properties other than his house?"
"No. Unfortunately, he owned his house, his car and that's it." Everyone hated hearing their peppy, sunshine bringer so down.
"Keep digging." Hotch said. "Find everything you can on Smith and Blaine. And their families. Nothing is irrelevant."
"I'm on it, boss." The line went dead.
"I think the newest question is, where is Anderson Smith?" Rossi wondered aloud, voicing everyone's thoughts for the second time that day.
Again, sorry about the length of my chapters. I don't know why they've been shorter lately. I honestly think I'm just having a difficult time with the BAU's involvement, but since I've already written them in, I can't completely abandon them. Oh well. I will tyr to gather my thoughts more clearly an lengthen my next few chapters.
Thanks for reading! Please review! Antio!