Riddle Me This
Summary: This is my version of Castle being kidnapped and having to play games with other people while Beckett, Espo, and Ryan race to save him (synopsis for episode 12).
AN: I watched the promo for episode 12 and the writers definitely aren't doing this and they are limited to 42 minutes. Again, thanks for reading and all of the reviews, favs, and follows – you are awesome!
As usual, don't own Castle; ABC does. Just playing with the characters for fun.
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Chapter 4: What Do You Fear
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Flashback - 3 months ago -
"Tell me in one word what you fear the most physically?"
'Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my,' Castle immediately thought as a snarky response. He then looked at the woman in the lab coat patiently sitting across from him as she waited to type his answer into the computer. He sat back and thought for a moment before answering because really, the mess that his life was in was not her fault.
But the more he thought, the more he couldn't come up with an appropriate answer. No one word was powerful enough to explain that what he feared the most was actually occurring in his life right now.
His wife, the person whom he thought was the love of his life, had left him before their first anniversary without any explanation – just walked out without looking back, and he had had little contact with her since then.
He had spent weeks racking his brain to figure out why she had left and his traitorous gut kept coming back to his conversation with Bracken – that Beckett would always be chasing windmills, that he would never be enough for her, but more importantly, that she was doing something dangerous and didn't trust him to help her, and she had made it perfectly clear by leaving and kicking him out of her life.
He felt like his life was spinning out of control as angry waves rolled over him, holding him down so that he couldn't reach the surface, drowning him in a sea of impotence.
And then he knew clearly what this reminded him of.
"Tsunamis," he finally decided on because that not only described his deepest physical fear, but metaphorically described what his life was like right now.
- End of Flashback -
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- Current Day -
After he collapsed limply on the floor, Castle remembered being manhandled by two gorillas and quickly bound with his hands in front. A blindfold was placed over his eyes and something shoved over his ears that blocked out all sound. He was then lifted off the floor and placed on a cold metallic table, where he was secured again.
Alien abduction, his mind immediately thought, as he felt the table move. Well, it had all the earmarks – his car had broken down at night in a semi-deserted area and he didn't remember anything after that until he had woken up in the room and was forced to undergo tests with other people.
But some terrestrial beings did that also – with the exception of the tests maybe. Two agencies immediately popped into his mind – the agency whose name he never knew that had drugged Beckett and him that night, and the agency that his father worked for that might have been behind his disappearance.
Ouch, he thought as he felt the needle enter his arm – he was so tired of having people take his blood without permission.
He then found himself upright and again being shoved until his back hit something solid.
Castle waited a few moments to make sure he wouldn't be stopped before bringing his still secured hands up to his head and removing the head phones and blindfold, and then stared at the sight that awaited him.
Holy Hunger Games, he thought as he looked around the room.
Five other tubes like the one he was in were set around the room in a circle, each occupied by one member of the group. The clear tubes were tall, but narrow, a little larger than an MRI tube, giving the person inside only enough room to stand and move their arms slightly. A small panel with 2 buttons was at waist level.
Like him, a few in the group had already removed their headsets and blindfolds and were staring at their surroundings. Others in the group were just standing there, not moving.
But what caught his attention, both fascinating and repulsing him at the same time, was what was contained in the top of the tube just a foot away from each person's head.
The compartment over Maria's head was brown, but he could make out movement – roaches – not just any roaches but large roaches – giant roaches, the size of the roaches that he and roommates had raced in the hallway of his first apartment.
He tilted his head back to look up at his tube and saw a clear surface – no, it wasn't clear – it was distorted – as if looking through an aquarium – and he knew immediately what was above him. Water, lots of water – water that could drown him, he thought in a panic before dragging his eyes back down the room.
The compartment over Collin's head was also brown, but it didn't move – dirt perhaps, maybe mud? But based on the amount, it wouldn't be enough to smother him, but Collins couldn't tell this from his perspective.
The compartment over Risner's head contained snakes – some very green, some very brown – but lots of snakes.
What seemed like hundreds of spiders crawled along the inside of the tube over Felisha's head.
And Tanya was back, and the tube over her head was warm and glowing – a fire perhaps – with smoke starting to build.
Tanya pounded on the glass surrounding her to get his attention. "Mr. Castle!" she yelled, her voice muffled.
At least the tubes weren't sound-proof.
"Are you okay?" Castle yelled back at her.
She nodded.
"But there was so much blood," said Felisha, who had removed her mask and head phones by this time.
Tanya nodded, giving a little laugh that ended in a sob and wiping a tear streak off of her face. "When they grabbed me, I elbowed one of them in the nose but it didn't do any good. I've been in here ever since then."
"I have snakes over my head," Risner said, his voice almost too calm, his eyes wide as he looked up. "I hate snakes."
Castle nodded at that confession. "Risner - Risner!" he yelled to get the man's attention. "Look at the snakes – tell me if their heads are round or shaped like a triangle."
"I can't tell," Risner said, shaking his head.
"Yes, you can," said Castle. "Now, look up and tell me."
Risner gulped and looked up again. "I think they're round – like a spoon."
Castle nodded. "Good – they aren't poisonous. They won't hurt you."
"Can anyone get out?" Castle yelled as he pushed against the door on his tube.
"No," the group responded as they each tried but to no avail.
"What's happening?" Maria asked in a scared voice, casting frightened glances at the swarming mass above her. "Why is someone doing this?"
Castle frowned as he tilted his head back and looked at the water above him. "Fear – they want us to be afraid. That's what they've wanted all along." A memory that he couldn't place started tickling the back of his mind.
"Yeah, and it's working," said Felisha. "Spiders creep me out with all their little glowing eyes," she said with a shiver as she snuck a glance above her head.
"What's above me? I can't see anything," said Collins.
"Dirt – or mud," replied Castle. "Does that mean anything to you?"
"Yeah," nodded Collins. "When I was a kid, we went to the beach and my brother and I built a tunnel. It collapsed and I was trapped inside for several minutes before I was rescued – those were the longest minutes of my life."
"And I hate roaches," Maria said. "In some of the buildings that I clean, they are so big they could carry you off."
Castle nodded again, his brain desperately trying to make a connection between the objects and the fears. "So this would be common knowledge?"
"Oh, yes," said Felisha. "Last Halloween, my fiancé played a trick on me and put a fake spider in my shoe. He wound up with a black eye when I kicked it off and it hit him in the face."
"What about you, Mr. Castle," asked Tanya. "Are you afraid of water?"
Castle shook his head as he looked up, frowning. That didn't make any sense. "No, I'm not."
He was about to say something else when a low hum caught his attention and he felt the tube around him start to vibrate slightly. He looked up and saw a small swirl beginning to form as the water above him started to churn.
At the same time, the objects in the other tubes started moving more rapidly as if being spurred on.
The metallic voice rang out, "Left for self, right for might. Time given, time removed. Play together and all shall win. But save yourself if you must, while the others turn to dust."
Timers at the base of each tube lit up, displaying 5:00, while the buttons on the control panels lit up.
"What does that mean?" asked Maria timidly.
The monitor in the middle of the room displayed '1 1 2…' and the metallic voice said, "Complete the sequence."
"Four," said Collins but the timer kept ticking down. "What the—"
"The buttons!" shouted Castle. "Press the button."
"Which one?" Collins shouted back.
"Right for might—" said Castle. "The right one."
Collins pushed the button and the timers stopped at 4:45. "So what do you think the left button does?" he asked.
The monitor changed to show a hippopotamus, a bird, and the number 2. "Complete the sequence," said the metallic voice.
Felisha half-way snorted. "That's easy – ewe. Hippo birdie 2 ewe – happy birthday to you." She pressed the right button and the timers stopped at 4:40.
"Good, good," said Risner.
The metallic voice started again. "What comes next in the sequence… S…"
The timers counted down and the noise above them became louder.
"E!" yelled Tanya. "Eight! They're the numbers one through seven."
She pushed a button and then pulled her hand back as if shocked. "Oh – I'm so sorry – I pressed the left button."
The timers stopped at 4:15, and then changed, Tanya's going back to 5:00, the rest of the timers dropping to 3:30.
"Damn," swore Risner.
"Now we know what the left button does," said Felisha.
The metallic voice began again. "Complete the sequence."
The letter appeared on the monitor and the group started shouting answers at each other.
Staring at the water above him as it swirled faster and faster, Castle ignored them as he tried to make sense of what was going on. There was something he was missing.
He looked down at the grate he was standing on and saw the nozzles pointed up at him. He was going to get very wet in about 3 minutes. Not just wet, but drenched, battered, bruised, and possibly drowned – almost if he was stuck in whirlpool. No, not a whirlpool – a tsunami.
Castle stiffened – he wasn't afraid of the water, but he was afraid of tsunamis. And Beckett was the only other person who knew that because whoever had kidnapped him certainly didn't based on where they had set up the tent.
But what did that matter? His brain tingled again.
No, he had told someone else that – that woman last December when he applied to be part of a drug trial. Was it that simple? He had all but forgotten about it when they didn't contact him.
Castle looked out into the room as the timers counted down and realized he had 1 of 2 choices – he could keep playing and be stuck in a tsunami, or he could try to escape the tube and rescue the others before the timers ran out.
He looked at the bottom of his tube and made a decision.
When he had baby proofed the house after Alexis was born, he had become an expert on what it took to anchor items securely so they couldn't tip over. The tube didn't have a bottom and would be top heavy with the weight of the water. The bolts connecting the tube to the grate weren't particularly long, definitely not long enough to keep the tube from tipping over if he applied the correct amount of force.
Yeah, he could do this.
Castle looked at the timers again – most of them were down to 3:15 – and put his hands on either side of the tube and began rocking back and forth.
"Mr. Castle!" Tanya yelled at him as she watched him. "What are you doing?"
"Keep playing!" he yelled at them as he rocked the tube and felt it move slightly. "The water makes the tube top-heavy. I may be able to tip it over."
"Hey, I can do the same thing," said Risner.
"No, no!" said Castle, rocking the tube again. "There's not enough weight on top of your tube and we don't want the snakes to get out."
"Oh, good point," said Risner.
"But we're supposed to be solving the puzzles," Tanya yelled.
"This is the puzzle," said Castle as he rocked the tube harder, feeling it move more this time as the water sloshed on the floor.
A couple of good shoves should do it, he thought as he felt the tube move even more. One more time…and then there was a crack and the tube was tipping over.
As he was caught in the movement that felt like distorted version of an amusement ride, his adult voice commented calmly, "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all."
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