Inspiration Station - Criminal Minds
So, I thought it would be fun to reveal some things that have inspired me in some way or another. I'll probably have several different posts dedicated to this topic, depending on how many stories I find buried in the depths of my laptop! And, of course, I'll share some original inspired work along the way! For today's Inspiration Station, I'll be sharing how the ever popular T.V. show Criminal Minds has inspired me over the years.
Criminal Minds is one of those shows that sucks you in and makes you keep watching until Netflix starts making snide remarks at you. Season 14 is starting soon, season 13 still isn't on Netflix, and I literally just binge-watched seasons 5-12 again over the last several weeks. I'm not gonna lie, I have Criminal Minds playing in the background as I write this post. (Which is inspiring this very post.)
I can think of at least three stories I've written that have been inspired in some way by Criminal Minds. One story I wrote was about superheroes falling in love. At the very end of that story, the two lovebirds are about to go off into their happily ever after, but they need to stop at a bank first. And, this being a superhero story, the bank gets held up while they're there. I only had that idea after watching an episode called "Hit" in season 7. That inspired scene in my story was a very minimal one, but I still count it!
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| Me rushing to write a story after inspiration struck. |
Now, I randomly started writing this story at least two years ago, wrote the first scene of a first chapter, and then just stopped. I still like it, but I've just become focused on different projects. But, you can check out the start of my Criminal Minds inspired story down below, and let me know what you think!
Agent Fallon
“You can ask me questions all day, Agent,” he taunted,
leaning over the interrogation table.
“It ain’t gonna do you any good.
I won’t talk.”
I smirked. Mimicking
his intimidation tactic, I, too, leaned across the table, folding my hands neatly. “Mr. Caines, it sounds an awful lot like
you’re talking to me right now. Trust
me, keep talking and you just might avoid the needle. If you don’t talk and my friends find those
girls first, I can guarantee your quick death.”
Nervously, he grunted, “You ain’t serious. You can’t threaten me like that. I’ll get my day in court where I’ll be proven
innocent. I haven’t done a damn thing.”
Trying not to smite him on the spot, I shook my head. “I’m not threatening you, Mr. Caines. I’m stating a fact. Texas does not make it a secret how it feels
about the death penalty. The evidence is
mounting around you, building up higher and higher. Can you feel it suffocating you yet? Because it will. That, and the nagging sense of remorse and
shame. We know it’s there, haunting
you. It’s why you cover the girls up
with blankets after you rape and murder them.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Yes, you do.”
“I ain’t got nothin’ to do with it!”
“Lying to the FBI does not help your case, Mr. Caines.”
“I ain’t lying, you whore!”
He most certainly was.
It wouldn’t be long now before I broke him.
The door to the ten by ten concrete room opened, my superior
officer locking eyes with me. “Fallon, a
moment please?”
Polite interaction never meant anything good when it came to
Special Agent Trevor Cabot. When
formality was gone, our team worked better.
We functioned. Polite manners
always meant something had spoiled.
Leaving Jordan Caines alone to wallow, I followed Trevor
outside, crossing my arms over my chest.
“What’s up, Cabot? Did the team
find the missing girls?”
He nodded slowly, his brown eyes solemn. “Yes.
The team found them ten minutes ago.”
Good. That meant
Caines had only been with the girls for eight hours; he had been in our
interrogation room for the next ten. The
girls could still have a chance.
“And?” I prompted.
“Sarah… was already gone by the time we got there. Maggie was half-conscious and delirious with
severe injuries, but still alive. She
was being rushed to the hospital as of two minutes ago.”
Damn him. Damn him to
hell. If we’d only gotten to him sooner
– taken him out when I suspected him two days ago – those girls would be
fine. This was all my fault. It was my burden to bear.
“You have to let me back in there, Cabot,” I growled,
needing the bastard’s signed confession.
“You have to.”
“No, Fallon. You’re
too emotionally invested in this. You
need to wait for the lab results to come back.
I’ll take over the interrogation.”
“But-”
“No, Fallon. Take a
break.”
A break? How could I
take a break with monsters like this out there, preying on innocent
people? How could I possibly take a
break?
I’d take a break when my wings were clipped.
Defeated for the time being, I shrank away to the conference
room we’d been allowed to take over in the small town sheriff’s
department. I sat in one of the empty
chairs, hating that I hadn’t acted earlier.
Being part of the FBI was a good thing, but it was a slow
process. I’d thought about going rogue
on more than one occasion, but what could I do on my own without draining the
little power I had left?
There was only so much that I could do after being cut off
from Heaven some 800 years. Most of my
angelic power had long ago faded. What
use could I be as a practically wingless angel?
At my best, I was a high-functioning human. That was not nearly enough.
When I first fell to Earth, I was revered as one of the most
powerful warriors in Heaven’s army.
Now? Now, I didn’t even have the
strength to call myself a mercenary angel.
I was barely more than a sack of pus.
“Thought you were interrogating the unsub, Fallon?” Special
Agent Dean Ward questioned, sinking into the seat next to mine.
I glanced over at the stereotypical all-American FBI agent,
then returned my stare to the white wall.
“I was. Cabot pulled me out. Said I was too emotionally invested.”
“Ah. Don’t take it
personally. It happens.” He sighed, resting a hand on my shoulder. “Do you think Caines did it? Think we got our guy?”
I nodded my head, tucking my black ringlets behind my
ears. “It’s him. I would have gotten a confession if I hadn’t
been forced out.”
“What makes you so sure?”
I couldn’t give Dean a completely truthful answer. I couldn’t say I’d looked into Caines’ eyes
and had seen the sins darkening his soul.
Though it was the truth, it would not work on a man like Dean Ward.
“Instincts,” I lied.
“I feel it in my gut. I saw it in
the way he looked at the pictures of his victims. It’s him.”
Clicking his tongue in agreement, he looked at the
door. “Your instincts are always
spot-on. You have a knack for spotting
the guilty ones in a crowd. I don’t know
how you do it.”
Celestial intuition.
“Doesn’t matter,” I returned. “Cabot’s in there now. He’s just as capable of getting a confession
as I am.”
“True.”
Leaving me a moment later with only my thoughts, I glared
holes through the white walls of the conference room. This was not the first time I had discovered
the perpetrator in a case and couldn’t act due to laws and procedure. It certainly wouldn’t be the last. But knowing that I could stop violence earlier and yet, be unable to do so drove me
absolutely insane.
But I had to keep pressing on. I had to keep moving forward. I needed to.
There was nothing else for me on earth.
So, I waited. I sat
staring straight ahead at the wall, hearing the clock tick on the wall for
every lost second that could have been spent helping – saving – someone
else. Closing my eyes, I tuned it out,
focusing my strong hearing on the various conversations in the precinct. Outside the conference room, Ward chatted
with a local female officer, discussing getting a cup of coffee once the case
was
closed.
It wasn’t unusual for him to hook up with at least one
officer in every town we visited. If I
had seen that behavior centuries ago, I would’ve thought he was
despicable. Now, I’d been around humans
long enough to realize it was his way of coping with the loneliness and
hardships of this job – of this life.
Further down the hall, I heard the voice of my teammate
Garrett Gustavin. His voice was quieter,
less confident than Ward’s. He was
insecure about his high intelligence and inability to interact well with people
outside a computer. It was foolish to me. He was extremely successful and a necessary
part of this team. From the sounds of
it, he was updating the software on all the precinct’s computers.
Agent Pinema Rhazoul was in the same area as Gus, talking
with the county sheriff in attempts to soothe him for not knowing a man capable
of such violence lived in his area. She
was our language specialist and people person.
I spoke as fluently, but tended to see the darkness rather than the
usefulness in humanity. Lately,
anyway.
I could very easily blame my job for that. I hunted murderers, rapists, the worst of
humanity. It wasn’t exactly a mystery
why I was feeling so negative about humans as of late.
But it wasn’t as though I was completely biased against
humans. I could see the good too. My team was an exemplary example of the
things humans were capable of. Yes, they
were flawed, but that was what made them human.
And I wasn’t exactly lacking flaws myself. I rebelled, became an outlaw of Heaven, and
probably still had a bounty on my head.
I hadn’t been in contact with any other angels in a century or two, so
it would seem that I was not being hunted as ferociously now, or I was not as
easy to track anymore. Previously, my
angelic nature would have lit up like a beacon if angels were in search of me.
Now, it seemed I wasn’t really all that different from my
human teammates – from humans as a whole.
Except for the fact that I could listen to their conversations in
different rooms as though they were right next to me.
And that's all she wrote. Well, for now at least. Maybe once all my mermaids and vampires are good, I'll pick this baby back up. Let me know what other T.V. shows you've been inspired by!
Write on!
Amy
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