Innocent: Spencer Reid ✔️

{25} Turning Page

t w e n t y   f i v e   . o n e
A v e r l y n
h e l p

I wake up alone. Spencer's side of the bed is empty—it hasn't even been slept in. I sit up and rub my eyes, yawing and stretching. Spencer's clothes aren't neatly folded anywhere in the room. Why didn't he sleep in here? I climb out of bed and run a hand through my hair, surprised when my hand stops at the feeling of a braided plait holding the hair out of my face. I look in the mirror and I am deeply surprised when I see there isn't makeup covering my face, and my hair is neatly tied up, out of my face. I wrap a blanket around my shoulders and leave my bedroom, making my way to the other bedroom where I assume Spencer slept. It's empty though, and that bed hadn't been slept in either. I check the bathroom, and then the kitchen and see if he's slept on the couch. He's nowhere to be seen.

I grab my phone from the coffee table and find his contact information, it vibrates in my hand twice before Spencer's shrill, annoying ringtone starts to blare on the island counter. I stop calling and grab his phone. Multiple missed called from Derek, JJ and an answered call from Penelope. So he was here, but he left? I keep the blanket around my shoulders as I move towards the front door. When I get to it, all the bolts on the door are unlocked but the door is closed. I open it and peer out, coming face to face with a slouched security guard. Spencer's gun is on the decking and both security guards have their throats slit. Oh, my God. The knife is on the floor covered in blood.

A black SUV wails its sirens as it pulls up outside, Derek and JJ climbing out with their guns in their hands. "Spencer's gone! The bed hasn't even been slept in and his phone is over there! Derek he's gone!" I yell, my hands shaking. Thomas and Joshua were never off the radar, they were planning the perfect execution. "Help me." I whimper, collapsing into Derek Morgan's arms.

———

"Time of death for the two security guards was 1:40AM. The ME reports also show they had propofol in their system to put them to sleep. So I guess we assume Spencer was taken between 1AM and 1:40AM." JJ says, and it's the first thing she has said since we all got here. I've been particularly quiet too, because I slept through the whole night, unaware that Spencer was missing. I warned him. He promised me nobody will get hurt. Some promise that was.

"But why kill those guards, if they were already out of it." Rossi adds in a questioning manner. I stay quiet, making sure to keep the water I'm sipping down, although my body is making it very clear that it doesn't want anything in it. I take a deep breath and finish my glass of water, sliding it away from me.

"So they can't identify their attackers, maybe." Emily suggests, but Rossi doesn't sit right with it.

"No, they wouldn't care if they were able to identify them. We would know either way, that it's Joshua and Morlace." I feel dumbstruck, that I'm suddenly no help to this team unlike I felt yesterday. Yesterday I felt I had made a difference, today I feel like I've failed. "We know Spencer was abducted just outside the house. But what made him go out there at 1 in the morning?"

"They also waited until Avery was asleep. They could have been waiting out there for ages before striking." Derek states. He looks tired, and although he's slept, he sure doesn't look or sound like he has.

"But why Reid? He's harmless. Why would they take Reid?" Penelope worries, her hands are shaking slightly with the remote in her hand. Today she wears a pink patterned dress with her hair in two space buns and matching pink glasses. I have my right hand resting on my thigh as my fingers tap rapidly.