#criminal minds seaosn 5

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

Risky Business: Part Two

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.2k

Summary: The repercussions of being in prison finally take a toll on you. You're yelling at everyone, short and curt, and you're in a constant state of wanting to cry. Will this bitter cycle ever end?

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Season Five Masterlist

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them.

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Spencer and Derek went to check out Ryan Krouse's house to get a feel of who he was before he died. He was the one who died in the hospital after being treated. Like with Trish, there were no secret hiding places or drug paraphernalia. There are pictures of Ryan and his girlfriend, Shaunna in his room that give off a look of happiness. According to his parents, Ryan never dated Trish or even knew of her. The only time they met was at the hospital.

Ryan got good grades and he got a recommendation letter from the football coach to play varsity next year. Derek wanted to take his laptop for evidence but Ryan didn't have one. His father didn't want him to be online without supervision, so Derek will settle for the network IP address instead. Penelope can get into it from where she is.

You get back to the station and meet up with everyone else. You hand Trish's laptop to Penelope who immediately goes through it. You stand off to the side and watch as everyone engages in the case. You'll help if needed but you don't have the energy to be as involved as they are. You're so lucky to have someone like Hotch. Anyone else would have suspended you.

"Hey, you ready to delve into Trish's online world?"

"If by ready you mean extremely capable and even more reluctant, then yes." she hacks into the computer. "That's weird. There's nothing here."

"Nothing useful?"

"Nothing at all. There's no root directory or operating system. The registry appears to be blank."

"Why would she have an empty computer set up?"

"I did not say empty, I said appears to be blank. I'm gonna need a little while." She does something different and immediately unlocks what is hidden. "I got it! It was just a basic Trojan Horse. It just hid the directories and didn't erase them. Oh, God."

"What is it?"

You look up and see Derek and Spencer walk into the police station. Penelope pulls up a website that she frequented a lot.

"She was on a choking game site the night she died. It looks like it's a game kids play where they choke themselves to get a buzz, to get high."

"They call it the good kids' high," Spencer says. "You get lightheaded and a sense of euphoria even though no actual drugs are involved. It's something kids in high school play."

"Did Ryan have a computer?"

"Not in his room."

"What about a gaming system?" Pen asks and Derek nods. "Teenagers will find a way to get online."

"I have the IP address."

Penelope uses it to get into the system where she finds the exact same website Trish went to.

"Bingo. Ryan was on the same site on the same night. I don't think it's suicide." She continues to type. "Hang on, this is a text-to-voice icon. Let's see what happens."

She clicks on it and a computer-animated voice starts to speak.

"Come on, try it. We all do it. I dare you."

"I dare you? Someone was orchestrating this, purposely getting the kids to choke themselves."

"Make sure you close the door. Tomorrow's the big night. We're all gonna play the game."

"There's a whole subculture around this game. They make up names for it and do it at parties. Someone is daring these kids in this area to play the game," Penelope says and looks into the website more. "It's a contest, and there are rules. 'Come on, Evans High, this is the big one. Garfield edged out Casper High last week. You gonna let them diss us?'"

"Diss? That sounds like a kid. Who else would pit schools against each other?"

"Reckless teenage competition," Rossi scoffs.

"The school that logs the most high times this Friday wins. Get your friends on board. Practice makes the high last longer. Gotta do it alone, video it with your webcam, and upload it to the site for it to count," Penelope reads.

"Friday? That's tomorrow."

"Doing it alone requires ligatures. He's basically encouraging them to play the deadliest form of the game with no one there to revive them."

"Garcia, shut this site down," Hotch says.

"Sir, I can totally do that but I don't think you want me to."

"Why?"

"Right now this site is our only way to track the unsub. If I cut into it, he'll know we're watching him, in which case he'll shut it down. He'll write a simple change in code and bring it back up in a more covert fashion. Plus, there's no telling how many servers it's replicated on, anyway."

"You're right," he sighs. "We're ready to give the profile."

You've been writing in your notebook just like your therapist has suggested but nothing is happening. Maybe your own fear is clinging to theirs. Maybe your fear doesn't want to be alone so it brings you down with it. How can you possibly hope to overcome this if you can't even get away from your fear?

"We believe the unsub responsible for these deaths may be a teenager," Derek begins the profile. "He's a loner and doesn't participate in team sports or group activities. He's withdrawn with very low self-esteem."

"His only form of pure interaction is online. He engages in activities that draw attention to himself yet isolate him from his peers. Parents and teachers should watch out for the warning signs--bloodshot eyes, marks on their necks, severe headaches, and disorientation."

"In real life, he considers himself a loser. In cyberspace, he can pull strings. It makes him feel powerful."

"Does this kid know that other kids are dying because of him?" an officer asks.

"Could be. He's choking himself and daring others to do it, so we're most likely looking at reckless homicides here."

"If you see anything that's unusual or suspicious, just call the sheriff's department and we will try to direct you as best we can. Thank you," JJ finishes.

The police will appeal to the public but you, Derek, and Spencer are going to a school to appeal to the kids. Hotch and Emily are at another school, and Rossi and a few officers are at another. The classroom you're in has students who look like they want to be anywhere but here. They aren't paying attention, and some of them are even on their phones and giggling.

"Two different mechanisms--strangulation and hyperventilation--create the same effect: oxygen deprivation in the brain."

A phone beeps and a student tries to hold his laughter.

"Hey, kid. Not a good idea. Let me see it." Derek snatches the phone from the kid and reads his text out loud. "What planet is this dude from? He doesn't want us to win the contest."

"I think the accurate statement would be, 'he doesn't want us to participate in the contest at all.'" He walks to the empty desk in the room and points to it. "This was Ryan's desk, right? This is where Ryan sat? You guys remember Ryan, right? He played football and took Shaunna to Prom. I'm assuming that some of you were probably even friends with Ryan.

"He wanted to win the contest, too, but the way Ryan choked himself, he cut off all the oxygen to his brain. That sent a distress signal to his heart, slowing it down. Then his brain, in an effort to preserve itself, shut off all non-essential bodily functions. His arms gave out. His legs gave out. That means he couldn't loosen the tie around his neck, at which point panic set in.

"In Ryan's case, it escalated to cardiac arrest, which means that his heart stopped. Brain damage began, and within four minutes, he was completely and totally brain-dead. He died scared and probably in a lot of pain, unable to stop what he thought he had complete control of. All because he wanted to participate in what I consider to be a pretty lame game. So, I mean, your text is actually completely accurate. I don't want you to win the contest because I don't want you to play the game."

Every single student is looking at Spencer in silence but they aren't connecting to what he's saying. He gave them technical talk they're not interested in so you have to step it up. You shouldn't be talking to these kids in your condition but you think they need someone like you to make this real for them.

"This isn't a game. This your life," you snap. "Do you want to grow up? Get out of this school? Make a life for yourself? See the world and enjoy it? Well, you won't because you'll be dead due to a dumbass decision you made."

"Okay, that's enough," Derek says.

"No, they're not listening! They're teenagers. They think they're right. They think they can do whatever they want and bad things won't happen to them. They'll play this game because they want to be cool." You turn to the students. "Do you want to know what's cool? Graduating. Getting a job you love. Making money. Starting a family. Guess what? You won't be able to do that because you will kill yourselves, and everything you've worked for will be for nothing. You will be gone and eventually forgotten."

That seems to instill fear in some of them. There are a few that don't care what you're saying but you're not sure what else you can say to get them to realize the gravity of the situation.

"You all believe this shit?" a young goth boy in the back speaks up.

"You don't? Why don't you come up here and tell us what you think?"

"Whatever."

The boy gets up and looks like he is going to go up and talk when he takes off running out of the classroom like a guilty man.

"Hey! Hey! Come here!"

Derek immediately chases off after him followed by Spencer. You stay in the classroom and look at everyone there.

"Listen, I'm not your parent. I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you what your life will look like if you decide to play this game. You might be fine afterward or you might be dead, but the second that you are born, you start to affect everyone around you. What if your best friend played and then died? How would you feel? How do you think they'd feel if you died? Your parents? Siblings?

"You get one life. If you make one mistake, that's it. There are no do-overs. Do you really want to be the person who died too young? Who died because of a game? Games are supposed to be fun, not deadly. You're old enough to know what death is but young enough to not have to be around it. Just something to think about the next time you wrap something around your neck."

If that doesn't get to them, you don't know what will. You leave the classroom and finally join Derek and Spencer's side who has the young goth kid pinned to the ground. Well, Derek does.

"Stop fighting. Stop it!"

"Let me go!"

They wait until he is calm to talk to him.

"Why did you run?"

"Morgan, look at his neck," Spencer says.

Derek reaches for the choker the kid has on but he freaks and struggles against him.

"Don't touch that!"

"Hey, what did I say? Relax."

The kid must realize he can't do anything against Morgan so he has no choice but to let him pull down his choker. There are ligature marks around his neck varying in different colors. 

"Different colors mean different stages of healing," you say.

"You've been doing this to yourself for a long time, haven't you? There's no telling how much his brain has suffered," Dean sighs.

Derek has no choice but to take the kid to the hospital to get checked out. Rhonda is the only one who meets you there since the rest of the team is still at the other schools.

"Dr. Reid," she says when you get there. "Do you think it's him?"

"He's a pretty likely candidate."

A man walks in and you are floored by the energy you feel. It's not a good one. There's something evil about him. You don't like him at all.

"Hi, I'm Wilson Summers. The school called and said my son was injured," he says to a nurse.

"Will," Rhonda says and waves him over.

"Do you know him?" you ask.

"Professionally. He works for the fire department."

"You don't say."

"Sheriff, hi.

You cross your arms and watch him with a careful eye.

"Is my son all right, doctor?" he asks Spencer.

"I'm not that type of doctor. We're with the FBI."

"FBI?"

You sense panic in his body language but he tries to play it off.

"Your son, Christopher, has been choking himself," you put bluntly. "Did you know the kids that have died recently?"

"You're talking about the suicides?"

"They're not suicides. It's a game that kids his age tend to play where they force themselves to pass out for the buzz that it gives them. Do you know anything about that?" He narrows his eyes at you, not liking what you're implying. "How long has Christopher been dressing in the gothic fashion?"

"A while. He's been having a rough time."

"Why's that?"

"His mother died a few years ago, and he's been wearing black ever since."

"Does Christopher spend a lot of time on the computer?" Rhonda asks.

"Just about every waking hour. Why?"

"We think your son may have created a website encouraging kids to compete in this choking contest. Let me ask you again, do you know something about that?" you ask.

"I don't like what you're implying, Agent."

"I'm not implying anything."

"Dad."

Christopher is wheeled in on a wheelchair with Derek by his side.

"Hey, buddy."

"Take him inside," Derek says to the doctor. "Your son needs to go in for some tests."

"Will, when he's done, we're gonna need to talk to him down in my office."

x

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