The Winter

The Winter is a dystopian story about a girl who wants nothing more than to see snow again.

On her seventeenth birthday, Ballona Willow wanders the crowded streets of a city drowning in artificial light, stifling heat, and political lies with only ten dollars in her pocket and one desperate wish to escape. When a rude driver turns her away, she meets a strange woman who seems to know her before she speaks a word. That woman is no ordinary performer. She is a witch, sharp-eyed and unsettling, and when Ballona makes a wish for snow, she unknowingly sets something terrible into motion.

What begins as a small, lonely wish starts unraveling into something far bigger than Ballona can understand. As the city grows colder, the truth beneath its glowing surface begins to crack open: corrupt leaders, failing systems, crowded bunkers, and a disaster no one wants to admit is coming.

In a world where the stars are hidden, the air is poisoned by light, and winter has almost become a myth, Ballona is forced to face a collapse that will take everything from her.