CHAPTER 16
Dani feels the strong force of his punch makes contact with her jaw.
She stumbles to the side, feeling her head heavier than usual. The drugs that put her to sleep are still affecting her correlation.
The girl sits up slowly, moving her jaw carefully, and instantly tastes the metallic flavor of blood.
She woke up about two hours ago, with her at first not realizing the situation that she was in. She woke up feeling lightheaded and confused at the unknown area that she was in.
The girl could have sworn that it was some sort of dream at first until she realized that she was tied up with no escape.
It was in fact no dream. This was a nightmare.
But the worst part is that she couldn't wake up from this nightmare. She couldn't escape it because it was real.
That punch to her jaw just confirmed that all of this was real.
She smirks and spits out the blood in her mouth, looking at the man's eyes. His light blue eyes were looking at her with anger.
A type of anger that Dani has rarely seen.
And boy has she seen a lot.
"You know, punching your house guest isn't a good idea if you want to give a good first impression," she casually says, breaking the eerie silence in the cellar.
"But if I'm really frank with ya, I already had a pretty bad impression from you ever since you decided to kidnap me."
" I think you should improve your communication skills if you actually want to impress your guests."
"You're quite the jokester, aren't you?" He asks the girl, still at eye level with her.
"I can only do so much when I'm being held against my will," Dani replies back.
"I thought you would be more scared. I'm kind of disappointed," the man tells her.
He reaches out for the girl's chin and runs his thumb across the place where he just recently hit.
Dani pulls back, hating that the guy just touched her again.
"I'm sorry for the disappointment. Believe it or not, this has happened before. I don't think this phases me anymore," she tells him in a confident manner.
Though she sounds confident, in actuality she was dying of anxiety on the inside but is managing to put up a farce.
Where was she getting the courage from? The girl has absolutely no idea. She had no idea what this person wanted from her. All she knows is that he dragged her out here for a reason.
If he wanted to kill her, he could have done it when she was unconscious. It would have made it easy on him but he didn't take the chance to do so.
Dani knows he wants to hurt her. What scares her is that he wanted her to be awake for it. There are only a few reasons why he would do that.
Dani was afraid for the worst possible reason which is that he wants to kill her slowly.
And Dani did NOT want to die that way.
"I'm pretty sure you didn't bring me here for a tea party or something like that," she says as she moves her head in order to clean her bloody bottom lip with the hem of her shirt.
"So tell me. Why am I here?"
The man smirks, with Dani seeing how his eyes change from anger to some sort of amusement.
"Take a guess," he simply tells her.
Daniela frowns, seeing how he didn't answer her but she does want to know why the hell she was taken. It had to be for something and if she had to play a guessing game in order for her to receive an answer, she will.
"Aight, aight. I see you want me to play," she said, flashing him a smile.
"Let me be real honest with you. I know about a good hand full of people who probably want me dead."
"That's all thanks to my dear and absent father. It's all gang banging type of shit but I don't think that's the case for you."
"How come you say that?"
"Simple. You're not a gang member," she said as she sits up.
"I know what gang members look like and from what I can see, you're not one of them."
She is certain with her response. The guy was no gangster. Well, at least he didn't have the traits of a typical one. The girl sees no tattoos on him. The clothes he is wearing do not represent a gang around the area.
The girl knows more about the streets than she likes to admit, including the main traits of a gang. This man has none of them.
"Very observational of you," he says coldly.
"But, it's hard to tell why you have me here if I don't even know how you look like," she tells him.
"You're hiding your face behind that mask. It shows me that I shouldn't fear you because you don't have the courage to show your face," she says, taunting him.
The man appears to take the bait, shifting to the side and having his back against the camera. He slowly takes off the ski mask, revealing his face.
The man looks young, with him being no more than his early twenties. His skin is pale and has dark blonde, wavy hair.
Dani quickly notices that his left eyebrow had a nasty scar going through it. The image reminded her of the fictional character Scar from The Lion King.
Dani looks at him with a puzzled face. She never met that man in her life. She tries to think back to a time she could have crossed paths with him but came out empty-handed.
"Do you know who I am?" asks the man with a brow raised.
Dani shakes her head. How would she know who this guy is?
The man suddenly pulls her collar from her shirt aggressively. They are now looking at each other face to face.
"Do you have any idea of who I am?!" the man exclaims in an angry tone.
Dani feels his breath with every word he said.
"No, I don't!" she exclaims.
"I don't know who you are or what the hell you want. No offense, but I think you have the wrong person."
"No. I have exactly who I want," he says with an evil grin.
"What do you want from me?" asks the teen, still being held by the man.
"Listen, man. I have no idea who you are. Just me go!"
"That I cant do. You are an important part of my plan," said the man.
He lets Dani out of his grip and places his ski mask back on, concealing his face.
"What's your plan?" Dani asks.
"Payback for a wrongdoing," he simply replies.
"Que? Payback for what? I didn't do anything to you!" Daniela exclaims.
"But you know someone who did."
That sentence was something that the girl was not expecting. This wasn't about her. It was about someone else and she has to pay the price.
Fuck, she thinks to herself.
The man unties the ropes that had Dani's feet tied against the pole and stands up. He adjusts his mask properly, ensuring that it was placed correctly.
"Stand up," he orders the girl.
Dani shakes her head. "I don't want to," the teen protests.
"You are very stupid," he tells her.
He grabs Dani from her arm and pulls her up with force. Dani reluctantly stands up to her feet, fearing that she would fracture her shoulder if she wouldn't comply.
She looks around the place trying to find a possible exit. She thinks about the possibility of fighting the man, but her hands are still tied up together with a rope and she didn't know if he was armed.
The man drags her and pushes her to a chair that had straps on the arms. He quickly unties her hands and immediately straps them to the arms of the chair.
Dani tries her best to pull her arms away but there was no use, he was too strong.
"There is no point in fighting. You will just waste your time," the man tells her.
He takes out something from his back pocket. It was a blade.
"You will die either way."
Dani looks at the blade, trying to hide her initial shock.
"A Drop Point blade?" she said with a brow raised.
"I prefer a Needle Point blade. I guess it's a matter of preference," she said with a smirk.
"You are something else, you know that?" says the man walking closer to her.
"I will admit, I thought you would be scared to death by now," he takes the blade and drags it down Dani's face.
He does it lightly, barely touching her skin. This is enough to make Dani shudder.
"Oh come on now. Don't tell me you're still mad for what I did to you at the alleyway. I only managed to give you a little scratch," she says, referring to when she stabbed the man's forearm.
"Does it still hurt?" She asks as she nods toward the man's left arm, seeing how it was wrapped in an elastic bandage.
"I was caught off guard with that," he tells her.
"I didn't expect you to carry around a blade like that. What kind of a person walks around casually carrying a knife?"
"It's a force of habit I suppose," the girl replies.
"But who are you to judge? Who the hell kidnaps a girl because they are too afraid to target their real source of anger?"
That sentence did not go well with the person who was holding her captive. His relaxed expression quickly changed to anger, his brows frowning to show his displeasure.
This girl was not going to attack his ego.
He grabs a fistful of Dani's hair and pulls it back with force, forcing her head to look up. She lets out a small yelp, surprised at his sudden outburst.
"You saw the scar I have, right?" He asks her coldly.
"No shit. That thing is huge and nasty," Dani says with an attitude, clearly annoyed and uncomfortable with what was happening.
"Anyone can see that from a far distance."
The man looks at her and lets out a sarcastic laugh.
"Ha. As a payback for the little stunt you pulled out there in the alleyway, I was thinking about giving you the same scar. Take it as a form of gratitude," he said while tracing her face with the blade.
"If you somehow manage to get out of here alive, you will always remember this day each time you stare at the mirror."
He moves the blade to the bottom of Dani's left eyebrow. She clenches her fist when she feels the blade cutting through her skin.
The man drags the blade slowly, with Daniela feeling the sharp blade cutting through the rest of her brow. He stops and lets go of Dani.
Walking back, he lets out a burst of maniacal laughter.
The cut is deep. Dani feeling part of her face stinging in pain, feeling blood coming out of her wound, tracing around her face and part of her eye.
"You're a piece of shit," she exclaims, spitting out her words.
"What? Does it hurt already?" He asks while tilting his head. "That was just the beginning."
Dani was still feeling blood going down part of her face. She tries her best to wipe it away with her shoulder.
"Why are you doing this!?" The teen exclaims in anger.
The man walks towards Dani and makes the tip of the blade come in contact with her arm, barely touching her skin.
"This isn't about you, it's about her. Don't take it personally."
He presses the blade to her skin and drags the blade up her arm. The teen couldn't contain her initial pain, a groan escaping as she feels the blade piercing through her skin.
She clenches her jaw through her pain as he continued to drag the blade down her skin. He takes the blade and makes another cut, then another, then another.
Though the girl is trying her best to control her emotions, she lets out a painful whimper when feeling her skin stinging in pain.
He stops and switches to the other arm, doing the same thing.
He cuts her five times, making sure that the slashes weren't too deep but visible. Once done, he places the blade back in his pocket.
Dani places her head down, refusing to look at him. She instead looks at her shoes, desperately wanting to concentrate on something else in order to zone out the pain.
The man gets close to Dani and mumbles something in her ear. Something that makes her even more confused.
"I will see you later my friend," he tells the girl as he stands up. He looks at her once more and walks away.
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The team looks at the computer screen, horror written on all of their faces. They all can't believe what they just witnessed.
The act of torture that they saw Dani suffer made them all feel a variety of emotions, none of which were good. They just saw a person that they care about get hurt.
And that feeling of being unable to do something to help was overwhelming the whole team.
The female members were trying everything they could in order to hold back their tears, with them having watery gazes at the screen.
The male members had their blood boiling in anger, fists clenched in order to contain their emotions.
The video now shows Dani sitting alone in the cellar. She is breathing heavily, letting out a curse word once in a while but mostly mumbling to herself in Spanish.
But the teen was determined not to show a sign of weakness.
Then suddenly the screen went blank.
Emily feels fire in her chest, burning with both sadness and anger. She tries to contain herself in her tears, but one tear manages to escape, tracing down her face.
She quickly wipes it away, not wanting to show her team how hurt she was.
During the course of the years, Emily has seen countless videos of Serial killers torturing their victims.
Emily never liked this part of the job, but she managed to get through it. This was different.
This wasn't just any victim. This person was her daughter. The girl that she took in her home in order to love and protect her. She watched as she was getting hurt without being able to help her.
And that was the part that was killing Emily the most.
"Garcia, did you manage to get a location?" Asks Rossi, breaking the silence.
"Unfortunately, I wasn't able to trace anything," Garcia said, wiping tears away from her face.
"The video would bounce back every thirty seconds."
"Who is this son of a bitch?" asks Luke. His anger was very evident on his face.
"Well, we have a rough physical description of the unsub," Tara speaks up.
"From what we were able to see, he is a white male with dark blonde hair. From his body structure, we can conclude that his age ranges from early to mid-twenties."
"From what he was saying, he has a scar going through one of his brows," Matt added quietly, not wanting to remember how the unsub dragged the blade through the teen's brow.
"And we know his motive in taking Dani," said Rossi while placing a file folder on the table.
The team looks at him in order to let the man give his explanation.
"What do you mean?" asks Garcia, not quite catching up on what the man was referring to.
"He said it himself. Dani isn't his real source of anger. She is being used as a pawn," said the older agent.
"He is going after someone who is close to her."
"I think I know who he is going after," Reid says as he looks up at the Unit Chief.
"He is going after you, Emily."
Emily makes eye contact with the genius and is instantly met with confusion at his statement.
"After me?"
"Well, the unsub mentioned Dani knows someone who wronged him." He stated.
'This isn't about you, it's about her. Don't take it personally," he quotes directly, using his eidetic memory to his advantage.
"He took Daniela for a reason and that was to target the weakest point of his actual person of interest. This person of interest is a female which means you fall in that category. Daniela is the closest person to you which makes her the perfect target in order to make you pay."
"This is why he chose Garcia as the person of contact. He knew that Garcia would immediately tell Emily once we arrived here. This isn't about Dani, it's about Emily," Tara states.
"We were looking at this case in the wrong direction. We were searching for people who would want to hurt Dani directly. We need to look for people who would want to hurt Emily."
"He is using Dani to get to Emily," JJ said, looking at Reid. Reid nods in agreement.
"What a coward," she mumbles under her breath.
"So this unsub believes Emily wronged him in some way?" asks Matt.
"This can be anyone from any of your past cases," Matt says, directing his attention to the brunette.
"Not just anyone," Emily said, walking towards the computer.
"This person's anger shows that it's something very personal that he has against me. He is going through all these forms in order to get back to me, knowing well the risks of him getting caught. It's more than something on the surface level."
"This can be from a more extensive case, somewhere where you were actively involved," Tara said while looking at the brunette.
"This person can be a family member of a person that you apprehended."
"That's going to be a long list," Emily said with a sigh.
She could only imagine the long list of people she arrested during the years. The list would be a long one once family members are added.
"But with the physical description we have we can start narrowing it down," Garcia said while typing on her computer.
She was searching for any cases Emily was involved in which had people that match the description.
"We can pull and divide the records that Garcia pulls out in order to fasten the search," Rossi states.
"We can determine who is our prime suspects depending on their physical description and geographical location."
"As you all do that. I will go get some files from my office that have crucial cases I was involved in. There might be something that stands out in comparison to the rest," Emily tells the team.
They all nod and she walks out of the briefing room. She enters her office and closes her door.
The agent sits on her desk and immediately opens her file cabinets, revealing a well-organized compartment of files.
Once she takes out a handful of potential important files, she separates files that she believes could be related to this situation.
Files from more extensive cases throughout her years in the BAU.
Emily has been working for the BAU for slightly over a decade. She always knew the potential risks that come with this job.
From getting injured (which has happened so many times that Emily has lost count) to having a list of people who would more than gladly hurt her as a form of revenge.
After all, her job is to hunt down serial killers. They certainly hold a grudge against the people who stopped them from committing their horrendous crimes.
The ultimate price that she and the rest of the team were risking is death. Emily has definitely danced around with death before.
Before, she would say that her death would be the most frightening part of her job.
Hunting down the vilest and violent killers is not exactly the safest job around and losing her life is a very real and possible outcome.
She faced her fear and ended up "dead" years back when she faced the infamous Ian Doyle. She remembers the sleepless nights she had before her encounter with him.
How tormented she was when she found out that Doyle was free and out to get her.
And just like she feared, Doyle managed to get her. He managed to overpower her and hurt her.
He managed to turn her life into a living hell once he killed her. No. Maybe he didn't manage to eradicate Emily out of the surface of the earth like intended but he did ruin her seemingly normal life.
It was truly a frightening experience.
But what she is going through now is more than just frightening. She can't describe what she is feeling with just one word.
It's impossible to do so because she is feeling a storm of negative emotions.
Daniela was taken because someone wants to get back at the agent for wrongdoing. In other words, Dani is the person who has to pay for Emily's actions.
This makes the agent feel tremendous guilt. She feels awful at the fact that a young girl, a child, has to face and suffer at the hands of a despicable person.
A person who is nothing but a coward because he decided to target the weakest link out of the two.
It wasn't fair. Daniela has absolutely nothing to do with whatever this man was angry for. It was something between him and Emily with no other third party involved.
The woman would do anything in order to trade places with the girl. She wants to be the one who is held captive, the one who is getting hurt.
She wants all the pain that Dani was feeling to go her instead.
While going through files, Emily glances at a picture frame that was on the left corner of her desk and manages to let out a small smile.
The picture was from Dani's birthday last year. It shows Emily and Dani hugging with cake icing on both of their faces.
The icing is courtesy of Daniela's close friend, Antonio. Before Emily brought out the cake, he mentioned how in many Latino cultures, especially in Dani's Mexican culture, it was tradition to have something called La Mordida.
In short terms, it involves the birthday person getting shoved on the cake while they take the first bite, thus creating the cake face.
Emily has heard of it but has never done it before so she decided to take a shot at it.
Let's say that the girl was caught off guard with her having part of her bottom portion of her face covered in cake. Not to worry though, the girl quickly retaliated with a cupcake that was next to her.
That is how both of them wounded up with icing on their face, perfect for a picture that Penelope took.
In the picture, both faces were filled with joy, Emily embracing the teen with a tight hug.
And now Emily falls to the realization that she can't hug her daughter.
The woman can't hold in her feelings much longer. It was too much for her to handle. The pain and sorrow that she tried so hard to push down have finally managed to break out, leaving her emotionally frail.
She breaks down, quietly but with heartache. Tears streaming down her face, something that she has rarely ever done.
The tears she cried represent her sadness and fear. She couldn't bear the feeling of the possibility of losing Dani.
Emily wouldn't know what she would do if something really bad happens to her.
The agent knows she can't afford to do this. She can't let these feelings get the best of her. Not right now when Daniela needs her the most. She has to be strong for Dani. She has to think with a clear mind in order to get her daughter back.
The agent will go through anything in order to save her.
Emily wipes her tears away and composes herself. It's a hard task but necessary if she wants her daughter back.
She reviews through more files, hoping to find the person who has the girl. She looks at crucial cases she was involved in. Specifically, cases in which she had a violent altercation with the unsub.
Emily thinks of the reason why Dani was taken. She was taken in order to hurt Emily.
What if the case I was involved in didn't end well? She asked herself. What if the unsub resulted in injuries. Maybe the unsub was killed during their apprehension.
These cases are rare but do happen. Emily has witnessed unsubs being killed during her years working in the BAU.
She never liked it when cases ended with the unsubs death. She has always had a firm belief that the killer should pay for their crimes with prison, not death.
Death was just the easy way out.
These thoughts bring a chill that travels through her whole body. This person wants revenge.
Emily knows that if the person the unsub is avenging died during one of her investigations, Dani would be in danger of running the same fate.
Emily feels her heart crumbling just by thinking about it.
Suddenly in her quiet office, her phone starts to ring.