Disclaimer: I own nothing, but I want to!

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"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." ~Ambrose Redmoon

"Somebody count the…things," said Tara, shifting her eyes around the room warily.

"Fifteen," answered Alex, staying close to the door, as if she hoped it would open any second by sensing their desperation.

"And there are five of us," said Tara matter-of factly. "Pick three and start digging," she said, handing Sasha a knife.

"Wh-wh-what?" said Sasha, shaking from head to toe. "I can't, there's no way."

"Why not? It's already dead," said Casey, growing angry. "Do you want to get out of here or not?"

"Of course, but-"

"Then get to work. We don't have time to fool around," she said, staring at her bare feet. Casey proceeded to hand Ally a crude cutting knife as well. She looked at the pig lying closest to her, and she did the only thing she could. Closing her eyes and biting back a cry of disgust, she sliced open the stomach with one quick stroke. The smell made her gag viciously and she tried not to vomit. Unnoticed tears streamed down her face as she reluctantly placed her hand inside the gap. She couldn't hold back the cry this time. Through a haze, she could hear Sasha sobbing, Casey and Tara cursing, and Alex whimpering.

Ally forced herself to think of something else; she remembered when she was a little girl, about six or seven, and her dad took her to the local carnival for the night. There was a game she could never win: it required one to be blindfolded and stick their hands into something, anything! Sometimes jell-O, spaghetti, mystery meat…she wasn't sticking her arm into the body of a pig. It was a plate of pasta, like it was the last time. And she had to find a key…a goddamn key…it was in there somewhere.

She didn't know how long she spent on the poor creature in front of her, but it became apparent that there was nothing hidden inside of it after a while. So she moved on, picturing a carnival…nothing again. She tried another. Nothing.

Ally sighed, not sure if she was relieved or annoyed. Maybe the others found something.

She turned and saw Sasha in the corner, crying softly. The rest were looking at her earnestly. "Did you find it?" asked Alex breathlessly. It was hard for words to come out of Ally's mouth…her teeth were chattering so hard.

"N-n-no, I thought you might have it."

Casey screamed out of frustration, slipping her hand through her blonde hair angrily. "Well if it's not here, then where is it!"

Ally turned towards the door where the message was scrawled.

…in one of the creatures in front of you…

…now the wine is another matter entirely…

…choose carefully…

"It's in us," she whispered, panic seizing up throughout her entire body. "Creatures…"

"What did you say?" said Tara, quickly.

"He said 'one of the creatures.' Not that it was a pig, or a cow, or whatever the hell else we just cut into. Just like with the wine. His choice of words…it's too general."

Silence and terror filled up the frozen room. Alex talked next. "So what now?"

"Check yourselves," said Tara in a deep voice. "He had to get it inside of us somehow. Start looking."

And they did. Ally looked at her arms first. Smooth…same with her legs. Her stomach seemed fine and as far as she could tell, her back was completely normal. Surely she could tell if a foreign object had been placed inside of her.

"I'm clean. Tara?" she asked.

"Fine."

"Same here," said Alex, followed by a nodding Casey. They turned to Sasha, who had backed up into the corner where she stared at them with eyes blown wide.

"Sasha…" said Ally slowly. "Where, Sweetie?"

"My-my side, I think. Get it out, get it out, GET IT OUT!" she cried, arm swiping at her left side furiously.

"Shhh, shhh, calm down, it's okay. We'll get it out," said Ally calmly. "Just sit down and let us see."

Sure enough, there was a small cut in her side where an unnatural bump protruded forwards. "I-I thought that when I was attacked, maybe I was hurt," stuttered Sasha, tears falling again. "I felt it, but I thought it was a cut or broken bone, maybe. I didn't know…"

"I know. You're okay, it'll be fine," comforted Ally. She motioned for Casey to kneel beside her.

"You need to hold it open, and I'll try to coax it out, okay?" she said softly, so as not to upset Sasha even more so. Casey nodded mutely. Ally shuddered as she thought about how much this might hurt…

"One, two…three!"

She gently pushed the bump to the left, closer to the entrance in Sasha's side while Casey held it open. Sasha cried out in pain, but remained still, remarkably. It moved a couple centimeters…

"Again. One, two…three!"

Another push, another cry, and another centimeter or two.

"One more, and we should be good. One, two, three!"

There was a clang as metal met the white tile floor. Exuberantly, Alex reached down and picked up the red-stained key, while Ally did her best to calm down the girl on the ground, who was crying, but smiling gently though the tears. "Let's get out of here. It's cold."

Laughing lightly, Ally picked Sasha up and the five ran to the door as Alex turned the key. It slid open and they stumbled through, slumping onto the ground, which was considerably warmer than the previous one.

After a few moments pause, Alex spoke up. "I don't get it."

"What?" asked Sasha, breathlessly.

"What was the point of that? You weren't injured to the point of dying. Once we knew what to do, it was relatively quick, right? No one freezing to death…so why that room?"

Ally grimaced. "To waste time. Every three hours, right? Well, how long were we in there? A good two hours, at least."

"So what now?" growled Casey. She hadn't even finished her statement when a door mechanically opened to the right of the group. The five gasped at the smell.

Fresh air…

…..

"We need to get an organized profile," said Prentiss, sighing.

Hotch stood up to take control. "What do we know so far," he said, uncapping an erasable marker and heading towards a white board.

"He's particular, and dangerously so," began Morgan, sending a quick glance at Reid who was also in the room, and trying not to say anything to upset him. "I mean, it's risky to abduct this many people all of the same looks and ages and not get noticed. Which probably means that he doesn't care if their abductions are connected. He's confident and thinks that no one will ever find them."

"He's probably between the ages of 20 and 30 himself, like the victims," said Gideon. "As to what they represent…a cheating girlfriend? Family member? It's hard to tell. His kills differ widely in each victim, but they all seem to be hands off. He doesn't want to do the dirty work himself. He somehow manages to get the girls to kill themselves, and he only focuses on dumping them."

"Whatever it is, he shows a large hatred for these girls, whether it be for their looks or their pasts. I'll have Garcia do thorough background checks on this last particular group," said Hotch, who had finished writing and re-capped the marker.

"Wherever he is, it has to be private and isolated," he continued. "Society wouldn't be too happy seeing six abducted women in their neighbor's house. We have a start." Hotch looked at Reid as he said this, while Reid just nodded in appreciation.

They were getting closer…

"Any existence deprived of freedom is a kind of death." ~Gen Michel Aoun

…..

Author's Note:

Like so far? Really fun to write, so I'm having a good time, hehe.

With love, MissdaVinci77