Episode 1 Synopsis
Matthew Winters, an eighteen-year-old patient with striking green hair, finds himself in a psychological evaluation after brutally attacking another patient named Seth. However, Matthew's memories of the incident don't match the official account, he remembers the cafeteria crowd cheering him on, but security footage shows them begging him to stop. As Dr. Sawyer pressures him about skipping his medication, strange things begin happening: lights flicker, Matthew sees a pale, dripping child that no one else can see, and time itself seems to fracture.
When Matthew refuses to take his increased dosage of blue pills, claiming they're not treating an illness but controlling him, fellow patient Jade pleads with him to comply, warning that without the medication he'll die. Torn between his growing paranoia and his feelings for Jade, Matthew eventually relents. But after taking the pills, he experiences increasingly vivid hallucinations of the mysterious boy named Teral, and gaps in his memory grow larger. The episode culminates in Matthew waking to find himself in a blood-soaked cafeteria surrounded by corpses, including his friend Anthony, with armed soldiers closing in. As bullets tear through him, Matthew dies wondering if he was ever sane at all, while Dr. Sawyer watches with sorrowful eyes and whispers, "Simone would have loved you."
Key Themes: Unreliable memory, medication as control, the nature of reality vs. hallucination, loss of agency.
Note: The book is published on other platforms under two names, Putherghost, in most recent; Scribblehub, Webnovel and Royal Road, and ZekeTheGhost on this one. Each platform besides webnovel is still in Episode 1 of the novel, so, if you found this one, for now, stick to it please.
