Paranoia - s.reid

Tricked

An hour later, the entire team exited their SUVs and made their way into the abandoned building, weapons up. Their eyes narrowed as they searched around in pairs.

"It's too dirty. The walls. On the call, the wall behind Ellie was clean." Spencer mumbled, shaking away his thoughts. 

"Clear!" Emily's voice echoed throughout the building.

"Clear."

"Clear."

"You should all come see this." Strauss called out. The team made their way over to her, their eyes immediately drawn to the wall.

In big, bold letters the words 'TRICKED YOU' were written in a crimson liquid. No one could tell if it was Liz's blood, but they hoped it wasn't.

"We need to get back, rethink about where he might've taken her." Hotch stated, earning nods in response. Spencer didn't react, he was dwelling on how they wasted an hour and a half driving to Maryland and checking out an abandoned building. They were stupid to think it would be that easy, Marceau knew how they worked.

-----

Over an hour later, the team were situated back at the office, pondering their next move.

It had been 23 hours and 19 minutes since they found out Liz was gone meaning she's been gone for over 24 hours. She's been gone for more than an entire day.

They all sat, making conversation about their ideas every once in a while, forcing themselves to figure it out. To figure out where she was. 

Spencer didn't contribute, he couldn't. His brain was mentally frying itself even thinking about where Liz was, it was running too fast for him and he couldn't keep up. He was hurting too much. All he could do to keep him calm was stare at the engagement ring replay the last encounter they had together. She'd just finished cutting his hair, it wasn't too short, but it wasn't long. It was just just barely long enough to reach the nape of his neck, but it was still shorter than normal. He asked her to sing for him, basking in the sweetness of her voice as he memorized her touch, her scent, her everything.

His peace was disturbed by Morgan. "We've been looking our answer in the face the whole time. Marceau claims to love her, right? He mentioned seeing her when she was teaching a class. That's where he'll be keeping her, in the class she taught in."

Rossi nodded. "But we don't have records of him attending classes and she taught in different classrooms all the time, which ones would we rule out?" He contradicted.

"We already know it'd be empty and isolated, I heard her say something about a building at the academy was closing down for something, I can't remember." Emily interjected, leaning over her desk.

"Garcia, give us the address of the building that shut down at the academy."

"Sent."

------

Hotch, Spencer, Strauss and Emily made their way into the old building, armed and ready to go. "Reid, can you remember which classrooms she taught in?"

"C129 and C162." Spencer replied curtly.

"Prentiss and I will take C162, you both take C129." Hotch ordered. Everyone complied. splitting off into pairs. 

Spencer and Strauss made their way down the corridor, stealthily heading towards the end of the hall where a small commotion was heard. They reached the door, waiting a second before swinging it open.

They were met with Marceau in one corner of the room and Liz still tied to the same chair. Without any warning, French high schooler began running towards the two agents, immediately falling to the ground after a gunshot went off.