Samuel Cray never cried as a baby.
He blinked once, like the air itself startled him.
By the time he was five, he was talking to things no one could see.
By sixteen, he barely spoke at all.
People said he'd walk straight into the smoke and come back without a cough.
Born in silence on a burned mattress in a dying town, Samuel Cray grows up beneath the weight of secrets, ash, and something far worse - a legacy of violence no one will name out loud. Set in the real-life ghost town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, this dark psychological horror novella traces the childhood of a boy who sees what others won't, hears what others can't, and remembers things that never should have happened.
As the mine fire spreads underground, another kind of fire grows inside Samuel - one that doesn't just burn, but watches.
A Boy Named Cray is the first installment in The Ash Man Prophecies, a chilling series exploring trauma, prophecy, and the making of a monster.