lullabies through the window

Fifteen: The Deal Breaks

"So I assume Mark is in the car?" Amber asked.

"You assume correctly." Hotch said stiffly. This couldn't go wrong, or all of them could die. They weren't going to try to take in the unsubs tonight-- saving the victim was the first priority. 

Margot raised her eyebrows.  "Alright, bring him out." 

Morgan said quickly. "Bring out Spencer then." 

Sarah looked between Hotch and Morgan, making her lips a tight line. "Uh, yeah right. We have the upper hand right now, I don't think you get to make the terms. Bring out Mark." When the two didn't move, she rolled her eyes. "It's not like we're just going to kill him on the spot."

Morgan and Hotch turned their heads to eachother. Hotch nodded stiffly.

Morgan walked calmly to the car, and pulled open the door. "Come on." He said to the young agent. 

He made sure to stumble slightly, giving the effect that he was afraid, but was doing this by choice. He kept his eyes down. "I can pull this off." He thought. His name was Charles Rifkin, and he was a failed actor. That's one of the reasons he was hired into the FBI; he was good undercover, he had already given upon his "dream" (and wasn't going to leave), and he was one of those faces that were easy to lose in a crowd. He was average. He was forgettable. He was the kind of guy who could die alone without anyone noticing. And maybe that's how he would die. If it was, we wouldn't know.

Charles stared at the ground. He could almost hear them smiling, the joy of what they thought they would soon be able to do to him was something they could not ignore.

"Look at us. Look up, you coward." Amber growled.

Charles slowly looked up, letting his hands shake at his side. He looked Amber in the eyes, pity and regret filling his eyes. She smiled viciously. 

"So you do remember." Sarah said curiously, looking into his eyes. 

He looked back down.

Margot sneered. "Wow. So the devil himself can feel remorse."

"Bring out Spencer." Hotch demanded.

Margot rolled her eyes. "Fine. Sarah, help me." 

The two strolled leisurely to the trunk of their car and opened it. Morgan and Hotch watched in apprehension as Sarah and Margot, with little to no effort, lifted the starved and tortured agent out of the back of their car. Blood tainted his weak body, and he was seemed smaller than they had ever seen him. The two BAU agents stiffened. Margot let Spencer's legs fall to the ground. Sarah shrugged, and dropped his shoulders. Now he lay helplessly between the two groups. 

"Pleasure doing business with you." Sarah remarked, a smile tugging at her lips. "Let's go, Mark."

Charles stood stock still. "I knew this was going to happen." Amber groaned. She lifted a gun and, before Morgan and Hotch could stop it, shot Charles. He fell to the ground, his arm crushed by his stomach and blood spattering to the ground.

Morgan made as to walk to Charles, but was stopped by Amber. "Damn it, you said you wouldn't--"

"Really? You didn't think that we wouldn't shoot him to get him out of here? We said we wouldn't kill him here and anyway, that shot would be easy to heal. It's just to stun him. My goodness, what, you thought you'd hand him over and we'd treat him to a spa day and a weekend of therapy? Please, agent, I thought you knew what you were in for." Amber said harshly. She was too close to her goal for anything to go wrong. 

Hotch and Morgan froze. What the hell were they supposed to do? Spencer and Charles were laying between them, both bleeding and motionless.

Amber was still eyeing Morgan furiously, her gun now aimed at him. She put her finger on the trigger-- and a deafening gunshot rang out.

"Morgan!" Hotch yelled, fear screaming in the sudden silence. Morgan looked at Hotch, surprise on his face.

"I-" he looked down at himself. "I-- I'm fine, Hotch." He said

Sarah fell to the ground, clutching her stomach. She began to cry desperately, sobbing and screaming. Amber whipped around to see Sarah, then whipped back to Morgan and Hotch.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HER?" Amber screamed. 

There was another gunshot, and Margot let out a muffled cry of pain. Amber seethed, looking from Charles to her friends, then up and around. She screamed in anger and dragged Sarah into the car, and pushed Margot in with her. Amber was sobbing and cursing as she threw herself into the driver's seat and swerved away. Things could not have gone worse. It was a nightmare.

Charles sat up, clutching a pistol. 

"I... I did what I had to do." He said calmly. He stood up and ignored the blood flowing from his shoulder. Morgan and Hotch nodded and hurried to pull Spencer into the car.

"Do you need any help?"  Hotch asked Charles as Morgan carried a limp and unconscious Spencer to the car.

"No, like they said," Charles winced slightly. "It was just to surprise me."

"Good thing you didn't let it." Hotch said, getting swiftly into the front seat. Charles silently slid into the passenger seat. Morgan sat in the back with Spencer's head resting on his lap. 

Spencer's pale skin contrasted significantly with the deep red that littered his body. "Let's get moving Hotch." Morgan's voice shook.

two chapters in one day and one late-ish last night so basically three chapters in one day???

how you guys feeling? good? bad? upset...? 😈 

i hope you guys aren't bored yet because, although we are closer to the end than the beginning, we aren't at the end quite yet...