Stillwake

Every night at 3:33 a.m., Xavier wakes...then forgets.
Ash gathers beneath his fingernails. Time skips like a broken record. And something loving hums to him from the dark.
When a doctor recognizes the ash as human bone and locks the door, Xavier learns the truth: whatever he becomes at 3:33 isn't asleep-and it isn't praying. A woman with milk-white skin and a voice like comfort finds him in the streets, in his thoughts, in the hollow places of his heart. She offers warmth. Purpose. Love.
But love, at 3:33, always wants something in return.
STILLWAKE is a descent into fractured memory, ritual hunger, and the terror of being cherished by something that needs you conscious-just long enough to be consumed.