maniac. | spencer reid

| eleven |

SPENCER.
—

hotch looked at the team. "morgan, gather an investigative team and visit schumacher and carlton. i'll get a search warrants for their homes." he ordered.

spencer wondered why hotch didn't let him tag along, but didn't say anything scared that hotch would just scold him for complaining.

they sat in silence watching them continue interrogating gracen jones.

"what were you like in high school, gracen? could you tell us about that?" jj asked.

"high school...i was-i was so happy." she smiled sadly, still wringing her wrists. "i had friends. a lot of them."

"were you one of the popular kids?"

gracen nodded slowly. "i-i was a cheerleader."

figured. spencer thought. she was beautiful and popular. unlike him in high school, he was a loser and a weirdo. another reason why they didn't match.

"what did you do in your free time, gracen?"

"i liked to draw and paint. i sold my paintings to people online. i hung out with my friends a lot—we-we went to a lot of parties. i was never home." she bit her lip, eyes watering. "i was never home to spend time with my parents." her voice broke.

"if she sold her paintings, there's probably a very high chance that her stalker bought one of them if he was that obsessed with her." spencer said, pushing back the urge to storm inside and give her a hug. it looked like she needed it.

"you said he killed most of your friends. out of these people, who do you not see in here that you were close with?" emily prentiss gestured are the photos laying on the table.

"i-uh..." she thought. "hazel turner. shawn wilkinson. lindsey stone. they were some of my friends."

"garcia send the addresses to rossi's cell." hotch said into his phone that was still on a call with the computer analyst. "dave, tell them their friend was found and ask them why they never went looking for her."

rossi soon left, following hotch's orders.

spencer's eyebrows furrowed. "why hasn't the unsub gone after them?"

hotch shook his head. "he must've not known about them. maybe the unsub didn't have eyes on her 24/7."

"when did you hang out with these people—outside or inside of school?" prentiss asked.

"outside. parties."

"that would mean that the unsub didn't stalk her at parties or outside of school that much." reid muttered. "he has to have been at the school."

"alright, i know this is going to be difficult, but can you close your eyes and listen to our voices. we're going to take you back to the day when you were kidnapped." jj said softly. "we'll be right here. you're safe with us."

spencer noticeably stiffened, knowing that this wasn't going to end well at all. he didn't say anything and hotch eyed the genius.

gracen's eyes fluttered closed and she nodded. "i'm ready."

"go back to october 12, 1997. that was a tuesday." prentiss said, her voice calm. "you woke up, did your normal routine getting ready to go to school, correct? can you see yourself grabbing your backpack and leaving the house?"