❝ Just because we might believe ourselves to be done with ghosts doesn't mean that ghosts are done with us. Phantoms so often function as the allegorical because whether or not specters are real, haunting very much is. We're haunted by the past, we're haunted by history. ❞

Ed Simon, WHO'S THERE?

━━━ BODY TO FLAME, STAND-ALONE

A CRIMINAL MINDS FANFICTION !
peoplehoods ©

HOW CAN something be there and then not be there? How do we forgive ourselves for all the things we did not become?

    Esra Kapoor has a tendency to pretend that she's something better than the broken parts she is, to pretend she's something other than the mess she is. Once upon a time, she had an endless supply of intelligence, of energy and drive—and rather than using it to become someone history could remember, instead of pursuing the world and changing it as she went—she directed all of that fire inward, and burnt herself up.

A BODY to a flame may survive, but the burning of one's self is just that: a burning of the soul, not only the skin. One will scar, and the other will cease to be but ashes.

    After a routine Violent Crime Unit mission goes up in flames, Esra Kapoor is the sole survivor left with nothing but a desk job and the measly portions of herself that didn't fade into the smoke with the twenty people that were left for dead. And what do we mean when we say survivor? Maybe a survivor is nothing but the last one to come home, the final monarch that lands on a branch already weighted with ghosts. She leaves that building with not only physical burns, but as well as a spark within herself that never managed to be extinguished—in the basement of the V.C.U. headquarters in Quantico, surrounded by piles of paperwork and low-level assignments, she finds herself victim to her inner embers.

AT LEAST, until Behavioral Analysis Unit section chief Erin Strauss personally requests her on a case after three of B.A.U.'s own become unavailable, in desperate need of any personnel.

    The issue is, Esra Kapoor is no longer the agent—or person—she once was, but when she re-enters the field after six months away, she discovers old habits die hard: especially when the field eventually introduces her to Emily Prentiss, a woman who seems to be fireproof.

STARRING . . .

ESRA "EZZY" KAPOOR / amber rose revah
SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT

━━ OUR NEEDLE !
& the flame

EMILY PRENTISS / paget brewster
SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT

━━ OUR THREAD !
& the rain

WITH . . .
CRIMINAL MINDS CAST / THEIR CHARACTERS

maryam kapoor-list / adria arjona
kenneth list / manuel garcia-rulfo
liam donahue / ed skrein
celine st. johnson / elodie yung
claire green / elizabeth debicki

AUTHOR'S NOTE
& disclaimers

this story will contain scenes and/or mentions of sensitive topics such as crude language, alcohol/drug usage, physical violence, sexual content, blood/gore, and other graphic imageries. please continue with caution - all future chapters containing any of this material will be marked with trigger warnings.

all original plots, storylines, characters, and dialogue featured in this book belong to me and are of my creation. all content from criminal minds belongs to its creators and writers. all rights are reserved, and any plagiarism or copyright violation of the sort will not be tolerated. (p.s. i know i just posted another cm book but its pride month! take the gays!)

THE WORKS

started ━ 06/24/22
completed ━ n/a
status ━ ongoing

TO HANNAH & MILFS & BEN

©peoplehoods / 2022
body to flame