A Horror Novel
The word-of-mouth BookTok hit about a supervisor at a top-secret government facility running experiments on human beings. He’s always been able to tell himself it’s for the greater good—until the day his work follows him home.“Inventive, scary, wholly entertaining, and deeply thought-provoking . . . T. J. Payne is the real deal.”—Jose Molina, writer/producer on The Vampire Diaries, Sleepy Hollow, and FireflyJoe works for an organization known only as “The Company.” He cannot speak about what he does in public. He and his employees live in a constant state of paranoia that The Company is listening to their phones and watching their search histories. Why? Because on the bottom floor of the facility, rows of padded cells keep a group of humans in a constant state of extreme sensory deprivation. With their minds awake but their senses unable to ground themselves, they have gone insane, oscillating between vegetative states and fits of violent rage.These experiments have a purpose, though—when the minds of these inmates transcend their physical selves, they’re able to “intercept” the sights and senses of anyone in the world. The process, however, is painful. Torturous.Joe likes to think that his work, helping the government track down bad guys, makes the world a better place. He has no regrets. Until the day when his ex-wife dies by suicide. He learns that a woman who looks very much like one of Joe’s inmates had been haunting her. After his ex-wife’s death, Joe’s daughter Riley comes to live with him. And then she begins to have visions of the woman too...Has Joe somehow played a role in turning the government’s most sinister weapon against his own daughter? And, most important of all: how far will he go to save her?
Contributors: (W) T. J. Payne
T.J. Payne is the author of Intercepts, The Venue, and In My Father's Basement. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he moved to Hollywood with plans to write romantic comedies, but as he worked on his craft, he found his stories drifting toward more sinister themes. Eventually, he discovered the natural outlet for his voice—horror. Now, he explores the depths of human cruelty, hoping that his characters can find small wins in a dark world. He lives in Los Angeles with his high-school-sweetheart-now-wife.