The Abyss

[krazykat]

For Matilda3948 as part of a story exchange - am off to read my fic now!

Friedrich Nietzsche said “whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And, if you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you”. I fear that I have spent too many hours staring into that abyss.

Emily gazed out of her apartment window, watching quietly as the sun slipped below the horizon. Slowly the darkness crept in, the shadows dancing across the walls. She hated the shadows, hated the way in which they only served to remind her of the dark presence that was slowly and stealthily pulling at her soul.

A lone tear slipped down her cheek as image after image of human depravity flickered around the edges of her consciousness. Slowly, one by one, the black and white images shifted into horrific Technicolour; the black colour of blood turning to vibrant russets, the gray hue of skin turning into the white, blue and purple tones of death. She shivered as the colours of death cloyed at her soul. When the images first started to haunt her she had found herself forcing her eyes closed in a vain attempt at shutting out the madness, but that never worked. No, these days the only thing that worked was madness itself.

Slowly she raised the glass of bourbon that had been dangling from perfectly manicured fingers to her lips, a lone tear slipping down her cheek as the ice melodically danced across the crystal. The rich smell of bourbon pervading her sinuses, eradicating the ghostly scent of death that continued to haunt her senses.

She drank. The liquor burning as it touched her throat, her body shuddering in response to the wave of self loathing that accompanied the heavy feeling of numb warmth that followed the alcohols path. Her glass now empty, she crossed the room to refill it, the numbness inside her waging war with the despair she felt at her own actions. She drank again and again, her actions becoming less fluid with every shot of bourbon consumed and her eyelids growing heavy. Slowly, ever so slowly, the evilness of mankind started to slip away.

But then, the screaming began.

[krazykat]

One week earlier

Emily sat staring at the case file in front of her, one hand slowly massaging her temples in an attempt to alleviate her headache. As she flipped the pages, her eyes came to rest on the image of a young girl, bludgeoned and butchered, and before she could steel herself against the horror of the image she felt her stomach beginning to churn and her skin growing cold.

Closing her eyes, Emily inhaled slowly, ignoring the concerned glances from Morgan and Reid. Instead, she concentrated all of her energy on pushing away the wave of revulsion that had washed over her. Several minutes passed before she opened her eyes, took another deep breath and focussed her attention on the image in front of her. Exhaling slowly, she studied the photograph, her analytical mind noting the emaciation evident in the small frame, the burn marks on the thighs, the criss-crossing stab wounds on the chest and arms and the myriad of bruises that the UNSUB had inflicted on Jennifer Metcalfe.

As her mind noted the depth of the UNSUBs anger and the lack of care that had been paid to the victim when the body was dumped, another wave of revulsion washed over her and the headache that she had been fighting all morning ratcheted up a notch. As the headache intensified, she could feel slight pricks of perspiration appearing on her forehead, the pounding of her heart in her chest and the taste of bile at the back of her throat. Taking a deep breath, she closed the file, stood up and walked across the bullpen, her inner monologue praying that a cup of coffee could help restore her equilibrium.

As she walked towards the coffee maker she could feel his eyes watching her every move. Fighting the urge to look around and meet his steely gaze, she grabbed a mug off the wall and started to pour a cup of coffee. Her mind supplying the image of him, gazing at her, slight worry lines emerging around his eyes as he consciously broke the inter-team moratorium on profiling each other and tried to assess her behaviour.

Lifting her mug, she turned to walk back to her desk, her eyes looking upwards to meet his gaze and as she had expected, a deep crease was evident between his eyes. Forcing a smile, she nodded towards him, playing the role of the calm, collected and professional FBI agent, whilst on the inside a storm raged within. Reaching her desk, she placed the mug on her desk as in her mind she heard his gentle, but authoritative voice saying: "Prentiss, this is the job, and I need to know you can be objective".

At the time he had said that to her, she had told him that she had needed to know that she could be human, but now she wished desperately for the remote detachment that had previously scared her. She sighed, ignoring yet another glance from Derek as she sat down at her desk. Slowly, she reopened the case file and pushed down the wave of revulsion she felt, trying desperately to force her humanity aside long enough to place herself into the mindset of the individual who could so calmly snatch a young girl away from her family and torture her for a week before dumping her body in the Potomac.

[matilda3948]

She's going to be sick and full of angst and turmoil?!! Be still, my heart! This is amazing!!!

Thank you!

[krazykat]

She's going to be sick and full of angst and turmoil?!! Be still, my heart! This is amazing!!!

Thank you!

No problem - just need to work out how we get to that stage!

[krazykat]

NOTE: there won't be any sneezing until much later in this fic.

Completely absorbed in typing up a preliminary profile on the Metcalfe case for the local police department, Emily visibly startled as a hand came to rest on her shoulder. Operating purely on auto-pilot, her right hand reached towards her hip as she spun round in her desk chair, only to see a mixture of hurt and confusion grace Reid's features as he noted her hand seeking the solace of her gun in response to his touch.

Shit she thought to herself, her mind racing as she tried to find an explanation for her behaviour. With none forthcoming, she opted for the next best thing. Exhaling sharply, her heart still racing from being startled, a sharp rebuke fell from her lips: "Nice one boy genius! Do you make it common practice to sneak up on people who are engrossed in crime scene photos?"

"Err nuh...no, it was ju...just that err Garcia has a case for us and, err Huh...Hotch wants everyone in the conference room" Reid stammered, a slight pink tinge creeping up his neck as he noted the ire in Emily's eyes.

Emily watched as Reid adopted the whipped puppy look he managed to pull off so well, and suddenly a wave of shame washed over her. It wasn't Reid's fault that she seemed to be permanently on edge these days. Standing up, she took a deep breath before sighing and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I'm sorry; you just scared the crap out of me! I guess I was deeper in that profile then I thought I was. No hard feelings?"”

Reid nodded and smiled, before asking "do you know that hypervigilant reactions are commonly symptomatic of post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety based disorders?"

”

Laughing, Emily poked Reid in the shoulder. "You calling me crazy, Robot boy?" she asked, her light hearted tone concealing the mild panic which enveloped her at the thought that Reid might be right. As Reid sincerely replied that of course he didn't think she was crazy, she reflected on the sleepless nights, the constant feeling of low grade panic and the nightmares that had plagued her for the last few months.

Perhaps I am crazy she thought to herself as she turned back towards her desk, opened the drawer and removed the ill-appropriated IPad that Garcia had issued to each team member. Smiling sadly, she turned back to face Reid and breathed an inward sigh of relief as she realised that he had descended into a factual foray on the statistical relationship between DSM-IV diagnoses and employment in law enforcement and military roles. Shaking her head gently, she muttered "we really should get Garcia to install an off switch in you" before spinning Reid in the direction of the conference room and giving him a gentle push.

As they walked together, she vaguely heard him protest that he didn't need an off switch and that she just needed to be more willing to listen to what was obviously a fascinating subject before resuming his tutorial. Taking comfort in Reid's voice as they walked up the stairs to the conference room, Emily failed to notice Hotch's eyes tracking her every movement. If she had, she would have seen that his normally unreadable expression was coated with worry at what he had just witnessed in the bullpen below.

[krazykat]

Morgan looked up as Emily and Reid entered the conference room, and rolled his eyes when he realised that Reid was giving a lecture on the neurobiological basis of the fight or flight mechanism. Unable to resist winding the kid up he grinned and pointed at Reid before asking "hey Prentiss, what is the walking encyclopaedia muttering about now?"

Placing her IPad on the conference table Emily laughed at the mildly affronted look that Reid had adopted. Winking at Morgan she said "it beats me! There was something about law enforcement agents losing their marbles, zebras and the neural cortex. If he has a point I'm not sure he's made it yet".

“"Hey that's not fair, this is really fascinating stuff. Did you know that..." Reid managed to utter before Garcia sashayed into the room, ruffled his hair and said "we've talked about this Reid, the things that you find fascinating tend to make me sad".

Morgan laughed, before winking at Garcia and saying "Baby girl, losing one of your fluffy pens makes you sad, so that's not really saying much now is it?"”

As Garcia stuck her tongue out at him in a childish response, Hotch and Rossi chose that moment to enter the room. Rossi smirked at the behaviour of the team, whilst Hotch asked in an authoritative tone "what have we got Garcia?"”

Sliding a paper case file across the table to Reid, Garcia turned on the large screen in the conference room and began reciting the details of the case. “"An eight year old girl, Abigail Calhoun, was abducted from her home last night. Local law enforcement contacted us due to the method of the abduction". Clicking the pointer, the screen flicked from the smiling image of a blonde girl to one of a lifeless teenage girl bound and gagged. "Eighteen year old Lisa Calhoun was found by her mother this morning. A 9-11 call was placed at 11.28a.m. Pacific Standard Time. The local M.E. estimated time of death at 2a.m. Pacific Standard Time meaning that Abigail has been missing for approximately 10 hours".

“"Any indications that the UNSUB might have done this before?" Morgan asked.

“"Yes"” Garcia replied, clicking the pointer again to reveal the images of two more teenage girls bound and gagged. “"This is the third case that LAPD have dealt with. Nine year old Tracey Jonson went missing from her home six months ago. Her nineteen year old sister Claire was found by her mother. She was bound, gagged and asphyxiated just like Lisa Calhoun. Three months ago, seven year old Samantha Roberts went missing, her seventeen year old sister was found dead. The UNSUB used the same M.O."”

“"What about the younger sisters?"” Emily asked, slowly massaging her head as the headache she had been fighting all morning threatened to return.

“"Both Tracey Jonson and Samantha Roberts were found in parkland 96 hours later; Tracey by a woman out jogging with her dog and Samantha by a group of teenagers using the park to get drunk and high". Clicking the pointer again, two images appeared on the screen. “"Autopsy report shows that the cause of death was manual strangulation. Both of the bodies showed evidence of vaginal penetration".

“"Penile or object penetration?"” Rossi asked.

“"Penile. Traces of semen were found on the bodies; however DNA analyses reveal that the UNSUB is a non-secretor. In addition to the semen, the M.E. found needle punctures on the bodies. The tox-screens revealed that the victims had small amounts of diamorphine in their blood stream".

“"Was there any evidence of sexual assault on the bodies of the older sisters?"” Hotch asked, surreptitiously glancing at Emily as Garcia flicked through her notes. As he watched her force the heel of her hand against her forehead, his concern for her increased further. Glancing at Rossi, he noticed that he was not alone in watching the younger agent, and made a mental note to discuss his concerns with Dave at the earliest opportunity.

“"The autopsy reports show that no penetration occurred, however traces of semen were found on the victim’s bodies. The CSIs also found traces of the same semen on bedding and clothing removed from the scene"” Garcia replied.

Reid, who had been silent throughout the briefing suddenly spoke. “"He's organised. The age-gap between the victims is consistent, as is the victimology. That means he's most likely employed and has a high degree of social competency".

“"Intelligent too"” Morgan added.

“"In all cases was it the mother who made the call to 9-11?"” Rossi asked.

“"Yes sir"” Garcia replied, consulting her notes before continuing. “"In all cases, the father had died several years earlier".

“"So we have an organised sexual sadist who is killing to schedule, with a distinct M.O. If he sticks to the schedule that he's used previously we have just over three days until he kills Abigail Calhoun"” Hotch said, making eye contact with everyone in the room, before continuing. “"We need to know what his stressor is. Something will have happened recently that has made him act out his fantasies".

“"We also need to explore the pattern in the victimology"” Rossi said. “"In particular, we need to determine why he is he choosing young girls with sisters who are ten years older than they are? Why single mother households? What exactly does that group of victims represent to him? And, how does he identify them?"

Standing up Hotch nodded in agreement with Rossi's assessment of the situation before saying "grab your go bags and be ready to leave for the strip in 10. I want wheels up in 30 minutes".

[Tassielli]

Can't wait to see where your going with this

[ichixshiro14]

This is great so far! Thanks for sharing