I stare at the bloody floor of the barn, shining my flashlight across the ground, hands shaking. No, not just my hands, my entire body is shaking. I'm alone in a barn that may contain the unsub, and Spencer is nowhere to be found.

I direct my gaze towards a black corridor next to the barn. I inspect it, and before figuring out that it's clear, I press my back against a wall, so that nobody can sneak up from behind me.

I run my hands through my now very knotted hair, with tiny pieces of dirt and hay in it. I glance down at my white shirt, covered in splotches of blood.

I shrug off my appearance, and focus on the space in front of me, making sure that Tobias doesn't sneak up on me. I keep my gun aimed in front of me, ready to shoot at a moving target.

After a few moments, I hear the echoes of multiple feet enter the barn. I take a deep breath, and emerge from the darkness.

"FBI!" I state, announcing my presence, training my gun on the figures in front of me. I cant quite make out their faces.

"STELLA!" Someone yells, but I cut them off.

"Don't MOVE!"

"Stella, it's Morgan and Prentiss. Don't shoot, it's okay!" A voice yells, and I watch as Derek emerges from the darkness.

Soon after, the realization hits me, and I slowly lower my gun.

"Are you hurt?" Derek follows up, inching closer to me.

I ignore his question as Emily comes to my side. "Tobias Hankel is the unsub."

"Yeah, we know." Derek responds.

"I'll go call in an ambulance." The sheriff says, leaving the barn.

"We just thought he was a witness. I- I had to kill them." I look over at the dead dogs once again.

"Stella, where's Reid?" Morgan asks, tearing his eyes away from the dogs.

I ignore his question again. "They just completely tore her apart, there's nothing left-"

"Stella, look at me." Emily speaks, and I slowly turn my head, still in shock from what just happened moments ago, and Emily continues. "Look at me. Where's Reid?"

I glance in between her and Morgan. "Uh, we split up. He said he was going to go around back."

As soon as those words leave my mouth, I watch Morgan as he sprints out of the barn. Emily ushers me out of the barn as I use her for support. Tears threaten to fall down my cheeks, but I don't let them. Not until I'm in private.

-

I sit on the back of the ambulance as an EMT checks my eyes for a head injury, and checks me out to make sure I'm not seriously injured. The sheriff stands behind the EMT, watching him make sure I'm good.

Just as the EMT turns off the light that I followed with my eyes, Emily runs up to us.

"Hey, any sign of him yet?"

"We got every one of our units on the road. He won't make it far." The sheriff responds, before patting Emily on the shoulder and running in the opposite direction of the ambulance.

I furrow my eyebrows. "You can't find Spencer?"

Emily shakes her head. "Not yet."

I see Derek coming up behind Emily, and he taps her arm. "Prentiss."

She turns around, and they move out of hearing distance. All I can tell is that Derek looks upset, defeated, angry. I can't help but think it's because of me. I could've stopped Spencer from splitting up, and we wouldn't be in this mess.

Before I know it, they're getting into a car, leaving me behind on the back of an ambulance.

-

I sit at a round table, with many of Tobias' belongings scattered across it. Each member of the team is reading journals, newspaper articles, anything to tell us about Tobias and his current whereabouts. This has been the past 8 hours.

Eventually, Hotch returns with Penelope, who gives us all a saddening look.

"Welcome to our nightmare." I mutter.

"His computer is an extension of his brain." Rossi begins. "I need you to dissect it."

Garcia nods very urgently, before Derek speaks up, lightly grabbing her arm. "I'll get you set up. Come on."

I watch Derek and Penelope enter another room, and after a few moments of silence, Hotch is the first to speak up.

"So nothing new since I left?"

"Well, the good thing is, the guy documented practically every second of his life. The bad news is, we are still unpiling." Emily responds, gesturing towards the stack of journals.

"From the looks of it, he hasn't left this place in years." JJ shares.

"He knew he could pretend to be looking for a motel and throw us off his trail." I suggest.

"No, no, no. It's more than that." Rossi retaliates. "Sheriff's office, 911 calls. Every time he engages the police, he gets away with it. Reassures himself, God's on his side, not ours."

-

I stare at myself in the mirror of Tobias' bathroom as I run a yellowish brown sponge under the water. I bring the sponge to my sleeve, in an attempt to get the blood off.

After about 2 minutes of no prevail, I set the sponge down and lean on the counter, shutting my eyes for a moment, only to hear a growl come from behind me.

I open my eyes and look into the mirror, to see the dog from earlier sitting behind me, fangs showing. I reach for my gun slowly, before whipping around to shoot it, only to see Emily.

Emily raises her hands, palms facing toward me. "Hey, hey, hey. Stella, it's me. Are you alright?"

I lower my gun, and slightly shake my head to make sure it's her. "Uhh, yeah. I'm... I'm sorry. You scared me." I say with a forced chuckle.

Emily doesn't look convinced, but responds anyway. "I'm sorry." I put my gun back in my holster as she continues talking.

"I'm talking tomorrow morning to some guy who knew Hankel from Narcotics Anonymous. Why don't you come with me, get out of the house?"

I give a small nod. "Yeah, I'll come."

"Ok. Great." Emily responds, and begins to walk away, before I call out to her again.

"Emily."

"Yeah?" She says while turning around to face me.

"How come none of this gets to you?"

Emily furrows her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

I shrug my shoulders. "You came off a desk job. Now suddenly you're in the field surrounded by mutilated bodies, and you don't even flinch."

"She's right. You've never blinked." Hotch cuts in from behind us, looking up from his cell phone.

Emily hesitates before she speaks. "I... guess... maybe I compartmentalize better than most people."

We all stare in silence, before the shouting voice of Derek Morgan fills the house.

"Hey, guys! I think I got something!"

We all urgently head to the source of his voice, and find him outside of a trap door. All 3 of us remove our guns from our holsters, and follow Morgan down into the cellar.

When we get down there, we aren't faced with Tobias, or Spencer, we are face to face with Tobias' father. He is surrounded by ice, and is dead.

-

"Tobias Hankel. I haven't thought about that boy in probably 10 years."

Emily and I stand outside of a house that belongs to the man who knew Tobias through NA.

"So you two were in a program together?" I question.

"He should tell you, but yeah, I was his sponsor. Small town, we all get lumped together. Me, I was just a drunk, But Tobias, he was a whole different sort of animal."

"So what was Tobias' drug of choice?" Emily speaks, looking up from her notepad.

"Dilaudid."

"Drugstore heroin." I mutter.

"He used to cut it with a psychedelic. That boy was looking to escape as far from reality as he could get. Addicts don't get excuses, but if someone ever needed to self-medicate, it was that boy."

"Why is that?" Emily asks.

"You know anything about his daddy?"

Emily and I look at each other before I speak up. "We think Tobias Hankel may have murdered his father."

"Good for him." The man spoke, which causes my eyes to widen underneath my sunglasses. "You know, Tobias' mama ran off with another man when he was seven. His dad went section-eight. started preaching about sin, end of the world stuff. He beat Tobias silly. He burned a cross in his forehead when Tobias was 10. If Tobias wore a hat, he beat him more."

"Is there anyone Tobias would turn to if he was on the run?" I ask.

"As far as I know, he never left home. You know, honestly, between his habit and the old man, I'm amazed he's still alive." He finishes, and Emily and I thank him for his time as he enters his house, and we make our way back to the SUV.

In the car, I can't help but asking. "Emily?"

"Yeah?" She asks, her eyes darting to mine for a second, before looking back at the road.

"What if Tobias is giving Spencer dilaudid? I know it's unlikely, but even a small dose of that stuff gets you addicted."

Emily sighs. "I'm trying not to think about it. Don't mention to anyone that you know this, the team knows, but if Spencer found out I told you, he would probably never speak to me again."

I turn to look at Emily. "What is it?" I say, nervous for her response.

"Well, to put it in simple terms, Spencer is a recovering addict. He's a few years clean from narcotics. Years ago, he got shot during a case, and they gave him narcotics at the hospital to help with the pain. He went to meetings, and slowly got off of them. I'm just afraid that Tobias is giving them to him, because all of his hard work would go down the drain." Emily finishes, her words shaky at the end.

I feel my heart plummet into my stomach. Is this what Spencer was hinting at when he said he "understood" what addiction was like?

Now I understand why he was pushing so hard for me to not take more than I'm supposed to.

He didn't want me to end up like he was.

-

Emily and I enter the room that the team is in, and are faced with many journals.

"Any luck with the rehab contact?" Rossi asks Emily, who walks up to the evidence board.

"Well, he has no idea where Hankel might be, but we did learn that he has a serious drug problem - dilaudid."

I watch as a brief moment of silence arises between Rossi, Emily, and Hotch, probably about Spencer's past, before Hotch speaks up.

"Well, that could explain the psychotic fracture."

"What are you talking about?" I ask, looking in Hotch's direction.

"Tobias is living as at least 3 different people. Himself, Raphael, and his father."

My eyes widen at Hotch's words short before the sheriff walks in, bearing some bad news.

"Well, this could be some bad news. A computer store was robbed in the middle of the night. A suburb outside of Atlanta. A thief got away with 4 laptops, external hard drives, and a satellite."

"If it's Tobias, it puts him right back in business." Hotch reminds, and we turn back to the evidence board, trying to make some sort of connection, and figure out his whereabouts.

Only a few seconds later, Derek comes shouting from the room that Penelope is set up in. "Guys! Guys! Get in here!"

I immediately drop the journal I'm holding and follow after Rossi into the other room.

When I enter the room, I see many computer monitors, the ones I saw outside the window. But this time, they aren't videos of families in their homes.

They're all live broadcasting a video of Spencer, who sits alone in chair, tied up.

"He's been beaten." I mumble, my voice cracking. "Can't you track him?"

"Hankel's only streaming to his home computer." Garcia mutters.

"This is for us. He knows we are here." Rossi spoke, shoving his hands in his front pockets.

"I'm gonna put this guy's head on a stick." Derek exclaims, turning away from the monitors.

"Why can't you locate him?" Hotch questions.

"He's rerouting to a different IP address every 30 seconds, I can't track him." Garcia states, typing quickly on the computer.

I just stare in horror at the screen as Tobias enters the screen. I can't tell which personality he is playing as right now.

I didn't quite catch what Spencer or Tobias said, but before I knew it, Tobias picks Spencer up by the shoulders, shaking him viciously.

"Can you really see into my mind, boy? Can you see I'm not a LIAR!" Tobias yells, and a frightened look crosses Spencer's face. "Choose one to die, and save a life. Otherwise, they're all dead."

He drops Spencer back down in the chair, and Spencer looks past the camera, which I can assume are video feeds of people or families. He wants Spencer to pick.

"All right, I'll choose who lives." Spencer answers.

"They're all the same." Tobias reminds.

After a few moments of silence, Spencer finally speaks up. "Far right screen."

Tobias immediately follows up with the facts on who Spencer picked. "Marilyn David, 4913 Walnut Creek Road."

"You got that?" Hotch asks Garcia.

"Yeah."

I tune out JJ, who is calling Marilyn, and focus all of my attention on Spencer.

He doesn't move for a few moments, he just stays slumped back in his chair.

Once JJ hangs up the phone, Tobias reappears onscreen, and Spencer looks up. "Raphael."

Right then, in the blink of an eye, every single computer screen turns black. The image of Spencer disappearing.

I bring my hand to my mouth and immediately walk out of the room, not being able to be around everyone all of a sudden.

I take a seat in one of the chairs at the kitchen table, and rest my cheek in my hand. Derek comes out of the room, punching the door on his way out, but I don't even flinch, nor look up.

My best friend is facing death. I mean, I feel like him or myself is always facing death or being kidnapped, but he's never been this close.

I feel a tear roll down my exposed cheek. I am truly terrified.

-

"I thought you were going to try and get some rest."

I hear a voice from above belonging to Derek. I look up. "Everybody else is working. I should be, too."

"We can handle it." Derek responds.

I sit straight up at that comment. "It's funny... I keep thinking, the one thing we need to crack this case is uh.. well, Spencer."

"Yeah." Derek says flatly, and begins to turn around, back to the other room.

"You think Spencer and I should have stayed together at the barn, don't you?" I call out, feeling anger rise in my chest.

"Stella, go get some rest."

"I can tell that's what you're thinking, so.."

"I just want Reid home safe."

"But.. if I had his back, like I was supposed to, he'd be here now."

"Stella, what do you want from me?" Derek snaps, throwing his hands to his sides.

"I just.. I want someone to tell me the truth!" I exclaim, a little louder than I should've.

"The truth is one of you is here, and one of you isn't. You got to figure the rest out for yourself."

Before I can say anything else, Derek returns to the room where Penelope resides, and I am left sitting alone at an empty table, scattered with Tobias' belongings.

I know it wasn't my idea to split up, but I knew it was wrong. If I would've said something, Spencer would be right here, right now. Just like what Derek said.

Wow, it really is my fault.

-

After about 30 minutes of staring at the same page in a journal, listening to the rest of the team coming in and out of the room, I decide to get up.

Soon, I find myself by Garcia's side. "Any more sign of Reid?" I ask, leaning down so that I'm looking over her shoulder.

Garcia shakes her head. "And he just posted the last murder online. It's had over 17,000 hits in the first 20 minutes."

"I want to see it." I say quickly, maybe a little too quick.

"No, you don't." Garcia mumbles.

"Don't tell me what I want and don't want." I snap, probably coming off too harsh. Garcia looks up at me, seeing if I'm okay, and I look away with guilt plastered all over my face.

"If I can't watch this.." I continue. "I have no business being in the field."

"Stella, it's not a competition."

"I-I need to see it."

"If you stop being affected by things, you lose parts of yourself, you know."

I sigh. "Garcia, a lot of things don't affect me anymore. Show me, please."

She hesitantly clicks the replay button. "I won't watch it with you." She mumbles, before exiting the room. I lean closer to the monitor.

I watch as Tobias slices the wife's throat first, and then the husband's when he enters the room. I don't even flinch. I watch them bleed out on the floor. I watch as the life leaves their body.

I just blink.

No words come out, no sighs of disappointment.

I just.. blink.

I stand up and exit the room once the video ends, and walk out in the middle of a conversation between Derek and Emily.

When they see me, they stop talking, which gives me an opportunity to speak. "Uh, where's Rossi?" I ask calmly.

"He's upstairs. Why, what's going on?" Derek responds.

"Hankel just posted the latest murder." I mutter, before turning to go retrieve Rossi.

-

I follow Rossi into Garcia's room. After a few minutes of Rossi and Garcia arguing, they finally came to an agreement, and Garcia put a virus on the video.

I run my hands through my hair and turn around and start to walk out of the room, when I hear the sudden voice of Tobias.

I whip around and see Tobias standing in front of Spencer.

"This ends now." Tobias exclaims, and my eyes widen in horror. "Confess your sins."

Spencer is silent for a moment, and in those moments, Tobias raises his hand and slaps Spencer across the face, causing him to almost fall out of the narrow wooden chair.

"Confess!"

"I haven't done anything." Reid mumbles through cries.

Tobias winds back another punch.

"Tobias, help me." Spencer cries.

"He can't help you, he's weak. Confess!"

"Tobias-" Tobias slaps Spencer across the face once more.

"Confess your sins." Tobias, or I should say, Raphael, repeats once more.

"No."

"No?" Raphael (Tobias), yells, grabbing Spencer's chair and pushing it, causing Spencer to fall on his back.

I cover my mouth in horror as Spencer begins to seize, gasping for air and shaking viciously.

"Oh my God, he's killing him." I say through shaky breaths.

After a few more seconds of Spencer gasping for air and shaking, all of his movements stop.

"That's the devil vacating your body." Raphael states, looking down at Spencer.

I run out of the room quickly to grab a chair from the kitchen, and pull it up next to Penelope. I'm no use anywhere else, and right now, everyone could use some company.

A few moments later, Tobias reappears onscreen and runs to Spencer's side. He stands over him and begins to perform CPR. I watch as Tobias pumps Spencer's chest and then gives him a few breaths. I yell for everyone to come in the room, and soon, we all stand around the monitors, watching Tobias attempt to resuscitate Spencer.

After minutes of no response, a miracle occurs. Spencer begins coughing, his back arching up and his head looking up.

Everyone around me lets out sighs of relief, and then Emily is the first to speak up.

"Wait, when was the video of the last murder posted?"

"9:23." Morgan quips, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"And what was the time of death?"

"The 911 call came in at 9:04, and the murder must have been moments later."