Mágoa // Spencer Reid

Chapter 24

"Fear is pain arsing from the anticipation of evil."
Aristotle

The team have been working tirelessly to find Maria, the Local PD were helping as much as they could but in reality they were getting under the teams feet. The team had a profile that they were sticking to but little did they know they are dealing with a team. Spencer is struggling the most he had a bad feeling about Maria going undercover, and now she's been taken. He can't lose her, she is his best friend.

The profilers gathered in the conference room they all had guilt and fear in the pits of their stomachs. Even Aaron Hotchner the mighty leader was showing worry, he couldn't let anything happen to Maria. He didn't realise it but she is a vital member of this team, not to mention Bill will kill him if anything happens to his niece. Each member of the team grew more agitated at each passing moment, they have seven hours to find her. She will probably be in horrendous amounts of pain as she has been gone for five hours and this unsub spends time torturing each victim.

"Agent Hotchner?" A young police officer asked, the team turned to face her "there's been another body dumped."

-

Maria opened her eyes slowly allowing them to adjust to the harsh lighting of the room, "Alex?" She whispered she attempted to stand but she fell back down again in agony, the bleeding in her legs isn't stopping, sure it's slowing but she is still bleeding she grunted in pain. She managed to drag herself over to where Alex was laid, "Alex wake up!" She whisper yelled, Alex moved and opened her eyes "crap your legs are still bleeding here let me wrap this around them," she removed her long sleeved top so she was just wearing a tank top, next she ripped the material and tied it around each of Maria's legs, "Alex, we are going to get out of here. I promise."

-

The team arrived at the crime scene, "this can't be our unsub. The victimology is different" Rossi formulated, they all sighed a breath of relief as the stared down at the body of a blonde woman, it's not Maria. However they did notice that she wasn't as mutilated as the others, in fact she wasn't mutilated at all. One single cut to the throat, no torture at all. Surely this was a different unsub.

A forensic investigator handed a letter in a plastic bag to Morgan instructing him not to take it out of the bag, he read the scruffy hand writing:
One more to go. Then you'll see.

That was the only message left, the team tried to hazard guesses at what it meant but the simply couldn't, it's random considering the drastic switch in victimology and MO, nothing about this killer is random.

Two and a half hours passed and the team weren't any closer to finding their newest member, if the unsub was on schedule they now have four and a half hours to find her.
The young police officer appeared, "there's another body." Once again the team got there as fast as they could and they were relieved to see that it wasn't Maria, but the second unsub had struck again. There was another letter:
None of this is random, see what I've done. She has to be stopped. I cannot stop her, I have too much to lose. She has nothing left to lose. I never wanted any of this.
"She?" JJ questioned, "does this mean there are two of them?"

-

Maria and Alex were plotting their escape, the woman hadn't returned for a while and Maria was growing weaker, "you know what to do when she gets back?" Maria asked, there was no room for error.

-

"Guys!" Reid called the team over as he pieced some of the puzzle together. "Look at the pattern, nine bodies. Dumped in groups of three, if you look at the distance between them it's morse code. It's morse code for SOS. 'None of this is random, see what I've done.' The unsub had to place two more bodies for us to see the pattern, someone is begging us to help. And I bet it's the second unsub." He rambled, "Reid what does this mean, how do we find them?" JJ asked, Reid frowned "I haven't figured that out yet."

"Maybe I can help." A voice spoke, the team spun around with their hands reaching at their holsters, "I didn't want to have to kill those two. But you needed to see. I didn't do the other seven. I- I had to d-dump them." The man's voice shook and he shuddered, "Beth is the one you are looking for, she did all of this." Morgan quickly cuffed the man and took him to an interrogation room, "Why'd you do it?" Morgan demanded, "She made me." He replied, "I need to explain." Morgan took a seat and the rest of the team stood eagerly waiting for information on the other side of the glass, "my wife is doing this. It's my fault, I was having an um, affair. And she found out, she took Alex and made me grab people who looked like her, she made me get rid of the bodies otherwise she would kill Alex. I love her." Morgan sighed and stood up, he made a subtle eye roll at the glass, "so you went along with seven murders so your mistress would live? Listen to me man, your wife of a sadistic psychopath she will kill your mistress anyway sooner or later. Tell us where she is and we will find her."

It didn't take long for Morgan to get the address out of him and as soon as he did the team dashed to the SUVs they need to get Maria back.

-

Maria and Alex sat side by side in the corner of the room waiting for the woman to return, Maria began to shiver from the loss of blood so Alex cuddled up to her. The woman returned with a chair that had straps on it, she grabbed Maria and dragged her to the chair Alex leapt up just as Maria elbowed her and sliced the woman in the stomach, she pulled a gun from her waistband and aimed it at Alex, "No!" Maria screamed, BANG.

Alex fell to the floor and Maria sobbed in the chair, she was shot in the chest so she needed medical assistance as soon as possible the woman grabbed the knife from Alex and lifted it to Maria's throat, pausing for a moment, Maria took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

"FBI put the knife down!"

Morgan cuffed the woman who put up a protest, Reid ran to Maria and demanded a medic, he held her. One arm around her waist pulling her close and the other held her hand, she squirmed away from him and feel down beside Alex, she began attempting CPR despite her deteriorating state, "no, no, no. I promised I'd get us out of here, come on, stay alive please Alex." She cried "you're gonna be okay, I'm so sorry." Reid pulled her up so she could be checked out she sobbed into his shoulder.

He knew she was hurting but she's alive and she will heal. He has her back.