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A/n hello all... Here's my annual Halloween tale. This takes place after the opening of season five. There will be a few spoilers. Also Reid is off crutches. There will be mention of Poe, Baltimore and some tourist sites in Baltimore. I've never been to these site and have relied mostly on what I imagine them to be like. No offense to anyone that lives in the area if I get it wrong.
Now... enjoy this tale of murder, kidnap and maybe just a little mayhem and a tiny bit of friendship/romance with a new OFC for Dr. Reid.
Prologue
Pain had always been a part of his life. Physical pain became his best companion when he started school and excelled fast enough to incur the wrath of other children. They showed him what it meant to curl up in a ball and cry because the pain is so enormous; it overshadowed even the need to breathe. It showed in the crimson stain of his blood on the earth, his skin and his clothes.
He learned to control the pain so his mother wouldn't know. He learned to accept it as part of living in a world that didn't accept someone so different from the norm. The emotional pain became the most difficult to mask.
Pain punched through the haze that accompanied his attempt to open his eyes. His eyelids opened slowly as though one-pound weights hung from them. His eyeballs felt like someone had blown sand into his eye sockets. He groaned as pain lanced through his right side and head, as though he had been shocked repeatedly with high voltage electricity. In fact, the only thing that didn't seem to be actively hurting was his knee.
He stood up, he realized, on two good legs. He blinked his eyes against a mellow golden light that seeped into his field of vision. He blinked repeatedly, as his eyes adjusted to the light. Something clicked as he tried to draw his arms down over his head. They wouldn't move at all. Something held them up over his head. He pulled again on his numb limbs and more soft clicks invaded his aching head.
He tried to look up, but the light did not penetrate the black haze over his head. He looked down. The movement caused his stomach to rebel. He swallowed against burning acid and bile in his throat that burned like sand in the desert.
Something clinked again, but it didn't sound like the chains holding his numb arms over his head. There came a rustle and a shadow that blocked the light. Someone stepped up to what he saw now as a kind of doorway.
"You're awake I see," the voice said.
That familiar silky voice sent his heart to slamming in his chest and his blood in torrents all over his body. He tried to draw back, but couldn't as more chains rattled around his feet.
No!
Something he couldn't see attached his feet to more chains. He couldn't see what it might be. "Please…" He pleaded.
"Shh… Dr Reid, it will all be over soon."
The figure stepped back and bent over the task he'd begun. Reid looked right and left into darkness. There was nothing to see beyond the reach of the lamplight casting its golden glow over his feet and the cuffs of his pants.
"My team will find you." He said with as much conviction as he could muster.
"No… They won't find me until I wish it. When they do, let's just say you'll be a permanent addition to this place.
Pain pounded in time with Reid's heartbeat as the figure, still shrouded in darkness held up something in the light. It looked like a mason's trowel. Reid felt his eyes go round. It was a trowel. He looked down at the doorway and saw the bricks laid in three new rows across to the original wall.
"No… You don't have to do this."
"Oh but I do Dr. Reid… I'm finished with what I set out to do. You'll be my finest work."
"Why!"
The figure looked up, but Reid couldn't see his face with the light behind his head.
"Why? Because I can, Dr. Reid, don't worry… It will be over soon. You'll run out of air long before you die of thirst."
"Please don't do this. If you let me go, I'll talk to the DA. I'm sure…"
The figure ignored him. In fact, the man began to whistle as he completed three more tiers to the brick wall he built in front of the terrified profiler.
"Dr. Reid, you've become very quiet."
Reid watched him, not saying anything as the wall rose higher in front of his eyes. He pulled uselessly on the chains encircling his wrists and his feet.
"Dr Reid!"
The angry tone of his captor made Reid look up at the shadowy face. "Why don't you show me your face?"
"You know my face. You have always known who I am. I told you before, I'm Death."
The man lifted another brick into place and tapped it down as Reid watched fascinated. It was like watching a train wreck or car accident. He couldn't look away from his doom even as the light dimmed as the tier climbed higher and higher up the wall.
Finally, there remained but one brick to fit into place in the wall.
"Dr Reid."
He lifted his head from looking into the blackness that had nearly claimed him. His body shook and tears rolled down his cheeks.
"Look upon me and despair." The figure held up his lamp letting the light reveal what he'd hid from the young profiler. He showed the young man his true face, the one he'd kept hidden from the world.
Reid screamed and screamed. The figure screamed back at him as he fitted the last brick into the wall. He mortared it securely in place. The aging ingredients he'd added to the mud would make it indistinguishable the old brick work after it dried.
He gathered up his tools and left the wall to eternity.