"Last night, I had a dream the world ended. Half the population disappeared, and unfathomable eldritch beasts shambled out of an unending darkness." In a world with no sun and bloodthirsty creatures roaming the all consuming dark, the only places still safe are the small compounds that managed to get walls up before all came crashing down. Now, life is simple. Stay inside the walls, and you'll stay alive. It's not relatively easy anymore, though. With no one for company but each other, danger lurking only a few yards away from their homes, and half of their loved ones swept away in a mysterious event known only as 'The Vanishing', the morale of the populous is at an all time low. It's only getting worse for some, as their cities that are supposed to be providing for them are failing to do so. Survivors Wesly and Valentine aren't content with this, however, especially since Val's mother desperately needs life-saving medicine that the city just won't send. With no other options, the two journey outside the wall to study the monsters beyond, selling the information they find to the city in exchange for their support. While dangerous, they manage the task fine until one journey out they stumble across a disturbing, gruesome revelation that reveals not only more about the city, but the end of the world as a whole. As the duo begin to pull on the thread and tangle themselves slowly into its snare, they begin to realize there's a lot more to this apocalypse than they ever could have imagined, and that the horrific beasts they've been studying might be the least of their concerns...

2022 Watty Winner || At the age of ten, Sanford Crow discovers the worst secret of all--his father is a serial killer. It was the year 1969. Sanford's dream was to grow up to be a detective. Putting his intuitions to the test, he conducts an investigation into his father. The discovery he makes brings his whole world crashing down, and to the culmination of one terrible Christmas morning. Twenty five years later, it's 1994. Sanford is a divorced and a recovering alcoholic, with an eight-year-old daughter named Sadie. His dreams of becoming a detective never came to fruition. Instead, he lives vicariously through his job of being a crime scene cleaner. As therapy begins to open up doors to his past that he'd rather keep shut, the same string of murders that his father committed when he was a child are happening again all around him. Sanford starts questioning his grip on reality. The answers he finds brings his past rushing back, and has him doubting everything he thought he knew about himself, his past, and his own sanity.

In 2045, Psychwatch treats the mentally ill or cages them. Margo wants to bring empathy to every patient but a killer pushes her, and the system, to the limits ***** In a dark future, more than a third of the United States population suffers from mental illness and violent crime is on the rise. In response, Psychwatch is formed - an organization intended to combine mental healthcare and law enforcement - creating monitored areas and neglected ones known as the Psycho Slums. Margo Sandoval is the latest recruit to Psychwatch, bringing a new level of empathy to the controversial agency known for its unforgiving methods. Margo spends her days as an Empath treating everyone possible, until the arrival of a new serial killer upends her life and forces her to confront the evils of the human mind and the system that claims to be the solution.

The house is safe. The hills outside are not. The basement is out of the question. Joel has been trapped in the house for what has felt like an eternity; all hope of escaping lost after the first few years. Without the company of the eight strangers who arrived with him, he would have gone mad long ago. But while living in the decrepit building is taxing, nothing could be worse than the thing downstairs. Everyone is content to just live in the six rooms that they know are safe until Joel learns that there may be something below. Something other than the creature that torments them. The house goes deeper, further down into the darkness. And while travelling through the unknown halls may be dangerous, and the thing downstairs is always following close behind, Joel is determined to find a way out of the nightmare he's found himself in; for his own sake, but more importantly, the sake of the people he loves. Watty 2022 shortlister Gloria Regali Awards 2023 winner