Author's Note
Stories don’t always begin with heroes. Sometimes they begin with warnings.
This collection grew out of a question I couldn’t shake: What happens to humanity when the world we built stops protecting us—and starts watching instead? Each story explores a different fracture in the future: places where technology twists, where society forgets its own people, and where fear becomes the only constant.
You won’t find neat answers here. Dystopias rarely offer them. Instead, you’ll meet characters trying to survive systems larger than themselves, machines that behave a little too much like us, and shadows that feel uncomfortably familiar.
A quick note before you dive in: these stories do include death, though it’s not described in a graphic or gory way. It’s there to serve the atmosphere and the stakes, not to shock. I do not want to trigger anyone!
Thank you for stepping into these worlds with me. I hope you leave them with your imagination buzzing and your sense of wonder intact.
