Psychopathy

Chapter 4- Safes And Mirrors

Isabel sat with her knees pulled to her chest, her clothing doing nothing to protect her from the scalding ground. She looked around, shuddering when she saw the way the flames danced across the sky. There was smoke in the distance, but none of it came anywhere near her. The fire kept its distance too, for that matter, only coming close enough to barely lick her skin. Only the heat was allowed to get at her- but Isabel could tell that it was holding back, never giving enough of itself to seriously injure her.

She supposed that was how he wanted it. Knowing he had trapped her in hell was mental torture, but when it came to physical torture... Well, he probably wanted to keep that privilege to himself.

In the distance, she heard a scream, and she wondered if she'd soon be meeting the same fate. Forced to endure the same torture that awaited the damned, even if she was still alive. For now, anyway. Isabel distantly wondered that if she were to run, would she even be able to make it across the fiery landscape? Or would the fire and smoke and demons get her as soon as she left the invisible circle he had made?

It didn't matter, though. She wasn't going anywhere. She leaned against the pillar of rock that marked the middle of her circle, sighing sadly. She looked down at her feet, gently brushing her fingers against the shackle around her ankle. Her eyes ran along the chain, all the way to where it was attached to that pillar. Even if she wanted to chance running for it, she'd never get far before the chain ran out.

No, he had her right where he wanted her. She was trapped, and the only thing she could do was wait for his torture to begin.

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"Hotch, Reid and I were thinking," Akilah started, before realizing that Hotch was already talking to Martel. He gave her a side-eye, and she nodded, stepping back and giving him an apologetic smile. She looked back at Reid, who had his hands folded in front of him, waiting patiently. Now, in all reality, they probably could just go ahead with their plan without telling Hotch. But Akilah had a feeling it was better to at least tell him about their whereabouts instead of just disappearing.

It had taken Akilah close to ten minutes to calm down after her and Reid's conversation. Now, normally, she would have taken a lot longer, but she had reminded herself that they were on a tight schedule, so she had to keep her dramatics to a minimum. Did she feel any better? No, absolutely not. But they had work to do, so for now, she was just going to push her emotions into a little box and shove it to the side.

Though she had started to understand the reasoning behind Ciara's actions, she was still pissed off about them. She was still angry that she didn't feel able to tell the team about what was going on with her. She was angry that Ciara didn't seem to trust the capability of the team enough to even let them try and track down whoever was after her. And, above all else, she was pissed that Ciara, after all this time, still felt the need to bear all of her burdens by herself.

"Alright, what were you going to tell me?" Hotch asked, and Akilah shook her head slightly, bringing herself back into reality. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't even noticed Martel and Hotch finishing their discussion.

"Right. I don't know if you noticed him on our way in, but our building has a doorman. So Reid and I are gonna go talk to him and see if he possibly saw our Unsub," Akilah explained, and Hotch nodded.

"Good. Let me know what you find," he responded, before walking away to inspect something else in the apartment. Akilah looked over at Reid and shrugged before walking out of the apartment, trusting that Reid would follow her. And if he didn't, she could talk to the doorman by herself- she did know him fairly well. It was a habit of hers to try and give him at least five minutes of her time whenever she could, after all.