The Dirge & The Void

In the shadowy clubs and speakeasies of a rain-soaked Seattle, Frederick Layton, a struggling saxophonist, clings to the last hope his music can provide. By day, he faces mounting debts and the dreary solitude of a creaking attic; by night, he pours his desperation into brassy improvisations that scarcely earn enough to keep him fed. Yet everything changes when a mysterious stranger materializes one night, offering a devil's bargain as intoxicating as it is terrifying.

Haunted by half-seen shapes in alleyways and insidious dreams hinting at cosmic depths, Layton finds himself torn between his yearning for artistic transcendence and the creeping dread that clouds every note. Whispers follow in his wake-rumors of performances that border on the impossible, of melodies resonating with forces beyond mortal reckoning. As the boundary between genius and madness blurs, he unwittingly draws audiences into echoes of horrors older than time.