Start with this one:
Then try:
If you like those, and get through them, ask again and I will recommend the next in the Merrickville stories... Most of my stories are interconnected, set in the same town, with recurring characters. Orel, Finn, Axl and Ollie are all from:
and:
It's sort of Hunger Games, but far more deadly, it's High School.
Everything they do is watched, there is no turning it off, there is no privacy.
Their lives are performance art.
Tim and Justin are screwed.
Two sworn rivals wake up in bed together, then discover they're being blackmailed by a secret society that's turned their school into a twisted reality show. Now they must fake a relationship while hunted by anonymous tormentors—and the game is only getting deadlier.
You've hit on the plot of my next story (already written) 13 Hearts. How much invasion of privacy is too much? And what do you do if you're entire life is monetized for someone else's gain.
that's the feel I wanted for these stories... I wanted you to feel like you're watching an old timey western. Hitting all the tropes, and the nostalgia like I had when I was a kid watching and reading these kinds of tales.
ACK... you need ROMANCE my friend. Sweet and loyal guys exist, and Finn's earned his Orel, and let's face it, Orel kind of gave Finn no say in the matter. "You're mine, I'm keeping you!"
I like that no one in this story is a magic bullet.
Ollie doesn't fix Axl's problems, Axl doesn't fix Ollie's.
Orel just facilitates by nudging them together.
Aiden and Marshall are just existing in their space, loving and loved by Axl. Their one dependable constant.
Chapter Five: Isopod Canada: A Glimpse Behind the Curtain
The carriage house behind the old manor Grady Place had been converted into something between a home and a laboratory. Shelves lined every wall, each one filled with terrariums of varying sizes—some no bigger than a shoebox, others stretching nearly the full width of the room. Inside them, a small universe of isopods went about their tiny lives, unaware that they were the subjects of one of the most quietly obsessive YouTu
I like Levesque in this one, Community leader and the local Militia leader. Elias Harding does his investigations, but it is Levesque organizing the townsfolk and preparing a defense. Gives him agency. The general, directing.
Bobby mounting the bridge defense, organizing the choke point. The officer on the ground, ready for war.
And keep an eye on Kieran McCormick, he's got a redemption arc to go from pick-pocket to earning forgiveness for his part in Timmy's shooting.
Chapter 9: The Devil’s Run
The Wilderness Trail. Noon.
Jack did not run like a horse. He ran like a machine fueled by a purpose that was both simpler and more profound than human thought. There was no vocabulary for duty or love in his equine mind, only a landscape of sensation and instinct: the ghost of Theo’s hands, trembling as they released his bridle; the sharp, metallic scent of fear on the canvas satchel; the desperate, choked pleading in the air around him. It wasn’t a command