The first time he saw it he was four years old, struggling to pry his mother's clawing fingers from their vice-grip on his wrist. He'd screamed and begged while she roared threats into his tear-streaked face, and then his voice choked in his throat when he saw those glimmering eyes lazily observing him from a shadowed corner. A forked tongue flicked out, the color of freshly-spilled blood. Thousands of staring eyes the same color as his. A dark stirring in his belly that made his mother seem less like a horribly invincible monster and more like foolish prey that had wandered too close. The ghost (demon?) disappeared once he'd blinked the stinging tears from his eyes, cringing at the way his mother's nails dug into already-scarred skin. That feeling the thing had sparked, though, insistently remained, quiet but ever-present, preying on the emotions he'd been forcing himself to swallow down ever since his father died. And it only got worse from there.

𓆏 Highest Rank: #1 in LGBTfantasy [This story was inspired by @junebugs.n.scones' OC TikTok series, also know as @actualtrash402 on Wattpad!] 𓆏 Sampson Whittager hasn't lived with his grandparents in over ten years, but when his father dies of a mysterious illness and his mother falls ill due to her grief, he and his siblings have to make the tough decision of selling the family farm and moving back to the town of Wisteria Willows. With Sampson soon to turn eighteen, starting public school for the first time, and having to work on the farm to help his grandparents and earn his keep, he doesn't have time to be stressing over silly, childish things. At least, that's what he keeps trying to tell himself in the midst of strange happenings; recurring dreams from his childhood have come back full-force, people are going missing in the woods surrounding his town, and a strange yet charming boy has quite literally fallen into his life and caused quite a stir. Sampson's life is a fragile egg, and all he can do is try to balance it in the spoon that is his fate. It's much harder than it sounds. 𓆏