𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 | C.M.
The orchard burned on a wedding night no one remembers fondly. Smoke rose into a black Virginia sky, curling like fingers around a forgotten name.
By morning, there were only cinders, and one woman walking out of them like a ghost - Emery Vale.
Sixteen years later, the ground stirs again. A murder. A signature. A heart carved into skin.
The BAU is called in. For Aaron Hotchner, it's just another case - until he hears the name of the town.
Until he sees her face again.
Grace Haynes, a teenage girl, is found dead in the orchard. Her best friend, Calla Vale, doesn't cry. She sketches instead. And the face she draws? A girl named Ivy Hart. A girl she's never met.
But the adults in Manassas, Virginia have met Ivy.
They remember her. They just wish they didn't.
The past is rising like smoke again. And this time, it's coming for all of them.
OR when,
The past is not only unresolved - it's alive, bleeding back into the present through ritualistic murders, buried trauma, and a long-forgotten death. The BAU arrives in Manassas expecting a case. What they find is a deeply personal reckoning for Aaron Hotchner, a haunting return for Emery Vale, and a chilling echo of Ivy Hart - a girl who died young, but may never have truly left.
