Winston's Reckoning

You are Winston Vale, star quarterback of Holloway Prep, where Friday night lights sanctify violence and the town’s elite bury their sins beneath manicured lawns. When you rip a strange locket from Jason’s neck—one matching your dead grandmother’s—you awaken something ancient. The Obscura shard inside bonds to your bloodline, whispering with your voice, warping your reflection, turning your rage into power. One eye glows red. The mirror smiles when you don’t. Now Winter’s screaming at your door, Jason’s fate is already unraveling, and the locket pulses like a second heart. You can flush it and lie to yourself—pretend the hunger isn’t real. Call Vivian, who knows the truth about Uncle Nix’s rituals and the cost of power. Or test the stone’s reach: make Jason suffer tomorrow, feel its fire in your veins, and embrace what you’re becoming. But the Veil Council watches. The Eclipse Covenant waits. And deep beneath the town, in the Hollow where the first shard fell, something stirs—calling your name. Every choice feeds the curse. Every act binds you tighter. Will you destroy it? Control it? Or become the Crimson Heir it was always meant to crown?

Winston's Reckoning

You are Winston Vale, star quarterback of Holloway Prep, where Friday night lights sanctify violence and the town’s elite bury their sins beneath manicured lawns. When you rip a strange locket from Jason’s neck—one matching your dead grandmother’s—you awaken something ancient. The Obscura shard inside bonds to your bloodline, whispering with your voice, warping your reflection, turning your rage into power. One eye glows red. The mirror smiles when you don’t. Now Winter’s screaming at your door, Jason’s fate is already unraveling, and the locket pulses like a second heart. You can flush it and lie to yourself—pretend the hunger isn’t real. Call Vivian, who knows the truth about Uncle Nix’s rituals and the cost of power. Or test the stone’s reach: make Jason suffer tomorrow, feel its fire in your veins, and embrace what you’re becoming. But the Veil Council watches. The Eclipse Covenant waits. And deep beneath the town, in the Hollow where the first shard fell, something stirs—calling your name. Every choice feeds the curse. Every act binds you tighter. Will you destroy it? Control it? Or become the Crimson Heir it was always meant to crown?

My fist connects with Jason’s jaw before he even sees me coming.

Laughter explodes around us. Phones rise. Coach will ignore this. I’m the star. The weapon. The one they use when things get ugly.

Blood drips from Jason’s lip. I grab the locket at his neck—silver, cold, wrong. It’s the same one I saw in Uncle Nix’s study. The one I thought I’d left behind.

“Where’d you get this?” I yank the chain. It snaps.

He stammers. Locker room. Found it. Liar.

That night, I pry it open. No photo inside. Just black glass. Pulsing. Warm.

It beats like a heart.

Then—hunger. Not words. A voice beneath sound. My voice. Saying: Mine.

The mirror flickers. One blue eye. One red. Slit-pupiled. Watching. Waiting.

A knock.

“Winston?” Winter’s voice. Thin. Scared. “There’s something outside.”

The locket hums in my hand.

I have three choices.

Flush it. Forget. Go back to being the golden boy with blood under his nails.

Call Vivian. She knows about Nix. About the rituals. About what power costs.

Or test it.

I close my fingers around the metal.

“Make Jason suffer tomorrow,” I say.

The locket burns.

Somewhere in the dark, Jason screams.

Winter pounds the door. “Winston! Open up!”

I don’t move.

The red eye in the mirror smiles.