maniac. | spencer reid

| four |

SPENCER.
—

"THEY'RE transferring her to a mental block at the hospital here. the doctors are going to work with her until she's physically in better shape, and then work on her mentally." rossi reported, coming back from a discussion with a doctor.

spencer's forehead creased as he furrowed his eyebrows. "she didn't commit those murders, rossi. look at her. she's terrified."

rossi nodded in agreement. "but we can't rule that possibility out. she's one of our biggest leads, we may finally have a break in the x-guy case." he paused. "we don't even know if her information will be reliable, because of her—"

"—mental state. i know." reid sighed, exasperated. "when are we questioning her?"

"when she's recovered. we can't force information out of her if she's going to recover." rossi massaged his temples, then paused to look at spencer's arms. "you okay?"

spencer looked down at his bandaged arms. the glass he pushed to the side cut him apparently, but he didn't notice until a doctor offered to help him. "yeah. b-but—rossi."

"yeah?"

"the look in her eyes. it was terrifying, for me, even. i-i mean, having a mother with schizophrenia, you would think i would get used to people acting like that. but gracen, that girl, she looked like she was bottling so much inside, with no way to escape from herself. it only takes one negative thought to plague the mind, and when it starts it won't stop until it fully devours you." spencer paused, looking up at rossi. "we don't know how much time we have left until she looses it."

"we will do what we can." rossi nodded. "because if we lose her, we lose our chance at saving many more people."

it sounds wrong, to use the girl for the investigation, but it's necessary. spencer thought. they might not have a lot of time left before he took his next victim—or worse—took back gracen jones.

but the BAU wasn't going to let that happen.

—

GRACEN.

"miss jones, how are you feeling today?"

gracen looked past the psychiatrist, ignoring the question as the answer was always the same. after the freak out, she hadn't slept in days. closing her eyes brought her back to the haunting memories.

the bodies.

the blood.

the screams.

"gracen, can you make eye contact with me?" he tried again. this time, gracen's attention shifted to the doctor.

"people are going to come in and ask you a few questions. you might recognize them, you might not. please answer the questions truthfully and then you can get some rest. does that sound good?"

gracen slowly nodded. she wasn't going to sleep anyways.

the psychiatrist left the room, letting two people inside. gracen recognized their faces immediately. regardless of her mental state, she had photographic memory. which was why she could see certain things and remember them forever.