The Shadows We Dance With

Ch36: Broken

The studio was suffocatingly silent in the wake of Valentino's arrest. The only sounds were Spencer's gasping breaths and the distant echoes of the world outside—a world that felt a million miles away. The moonlight that had once cast an eerie glow over the room now seemed to highlight the devastation etched across Spencer's face.

Hotch and the rest of the team could only watch in helpless horror as Spencer began to unravel before their eyes. His breathing quickened, his chest rising and falling with increasing rapidity as the weight of everything that had happened began to crash down on him like a tidal wave. The calm, controlled Spencer they knew was gone, replaced by a man on the brink of collapse.

"Spencer," JJ whispered, her voice trembling with fear as she took a cautious step forward. But her words seemed to fall on deaf ears, Spencer's wide, unseeing eyes darting around the room, as if trying to find an escape that didn't exist.

In Spencer's mind, a million thoughts raced at once, all of them tangled and incoherent. The statistic he had once read about the human body generating entirely new skin cells every seven years played on a loop in his mind, taunting him. It had been years—he had been clean, untouched by Val for so long. And now, in just 48 hours, everything had been stripped away. He was back at square one.

He had been so close to being free. So close.

Now, he could feel the phantom weight of Val's hands on his skin, like fresh burns that would never heal. The thought of those hands, those cruel, possessive hands, made his stomach churn, bile rising in his throat. He felt dirty, contaminated, as though every inch of his body had been tainted by Val's touch.

His thoughts spiraled, each one more frantic and disjointed than the last. The panic took hold, tightening its grip around his chest until he could barely breathe. He was hyperventilating, the air in his lungs coming in short, sharp gasps that did nothing to calm the storm brewing inside him.

The team watched in terror as Spencer began to back away, his movements jerky and uncoordinated, until his back hit the wall. With nowhere left to go, he slid down to the floor, pulling his knees to his chest as if trying to make himself as small as possible. Tears streamed down his face, his sobs becoming more desperate with each passing second.

"No, no, no..." The word fell from his lips in a broken, pitiful whisper, repeated over and over again like a prayer to a god who wasn't listening.

And then, the sobs turned into screams—raw, animalistic cries that tore through the team's hearts, leaving them shattered in the wake. Spencer's nails dug into his arms and legs, scratching frantically at his skin, as if trying to tear away the sensation of Val's touch. He clawed at himself with such force that blood began to well up from the gashes, staining his hands red.

"No!" Spencer screamed, his voice cracking with the weight of his anguish. "Get him off me! Get him off me!"

"Spencer, stop!" JJ cried out, rushing toward him, but Emily held her back, her eyes wide with horror as she realized how far gone Spencer was. He couldn't hear them, couldn't see them. He was lost, trapped in the nightmare that had consumed him.

"Hotch, do something!" Morgan shouted, his voice laced with desperation as he watched Spencer tear into his own flesh. "He's hurting himself!"

Hotch's heart broke as he looked at the man he had come to think of as a son, now reduced to a terrified, broken shell. He knew there was only one way to stop this, but the thought of causing Spencer more pain made him hesitate.

But there was no time left to hesitate.

Steeling himself, Hotch took a step forward. Spencer's eyes were shut tight, but it was as if he could sense Hotch's presence, and the terrified young man tried to push himself further into the wall, his sobs growing louder, more desperate.