✑ The Wilt of the Rose

Scrapped Samneric fanfic sequel

Helloooooooooo :) It's been a while since I've posted to this journal. All you need to know is that I am still working on my original novel as well as the Stranger Things fanfiction that I had started. No, they're not abandoned. I'm just having a hard time trying to find a time frame to write with college and currently working two jobs.

So you probably saw the title of this chapter, and if you're here now then you've probably also read my two Lord of the Flies fanfics. Before I even thought about writing The Red Means I Love You, I was planning on writing a sequel for Sam's life after the island. I ended up scrapping this concept for a number of reasons. But first, why don't I tell you exactly what the concept was?

I had the framework set up for this concept before I completed Our Love is God, so I hope that puts into perspective how early on I was planning on writing this now scrapped concept. This fanfic would've been way longer than both The Red Means Ily and Our Love is God as it was going to follow Sam's life up until college.

While I came up with this concept when writing the first fanfiction, I also scrapped it before it was completed and added some of the scenes I planned on using for the Our Love is God epilogue.

I wanted to delve into his inner conflict and angst that would of course come out of crashing on an island and losing a twin. I explored this a little bit in the epilogue of Our Love is God.

At the beginning, the main focus was them going against Roger in court, time and time again only for nothing to come out of it. I would have gone into the relationship building with his parents and the way they all contrasted in attitudes during this rough patch. Thomas Burrow slowly losing hope but being a safe place for Sam while Daphne continued to fight, basing their entire lives around this case until it became to exhausting for her ex-husband and son. As the chapters progressed, Sam would become more and more drained, beginning to loathe everything about the situation as his hope dwindled. At the start, he would've been much more determined.

I thought it would be an interesting to have him make eye contact with Roger in court for the first time after the island. It would be a very big turning point of drama and angst. It would've raised the stakes to have that "first glance." I wanted to go into detail the way his blood boiled despite the intense fear he had of Roger. And as they continued to lose in court, Sam would go from angry, to discouraged, to completed done with it.

This could've been interesting since in my epilogue he was very much done with his mother and how she based their entire life on getting justice for Eric, but Sam became too burnt out and wanted to forget about it. It would've been too much for someone as young as him. Thomas gets tired of the constant disappointment as the law failed them, not one good thing coming out of this shit fest. In turn, he moves states, leaving Sam and Daphne back home.

Sam is seen in the epilogue of Our Love is God trying to "erase" the memory of Eric by not talking about him and obscuring all the photos of his brother. There would be further detail of how he hid and dealt with the physical scars left by Roger, and what a burden it left. His detest and and feelings of anger towards Veronica would continue to grow as he found no real reason to hate her despite wanted to hate her so badly.

And of course his parents also splitting for a second time would do a measure in the midst of all this, so I would've gone deeper into the events of that. Sam would become a shell of the person he used to be. Lost and adrift, entirely wanting to leave his old life behind. Daphne dwelled on it too much. It was suffocating, and Sam wanted out. He was tired of dealing with and hearing the same old thing. In his eyes, it was time to forget and move on. It was hopeless. Nothing would come out of the situation. Roger would indefinitely be a free man. Sam accepted that far before his mother could.