In a sterilized world ruled by corporate obedience and emotional suppression, Colton Sloan is a ghost in a gray suit—an aging auditor for the tech giant Virelis Global, quietly dying behind spreadsheets and wellness reports. Haunted by past mistakes and the slow collapse of his humanity, Colton sleepwalks through a society where freedom is obsolete, dopamine is government-issued, and every feeling is monitored.
But when a routine psychological test goes wrong, Colton is thrown into a fractured reality shaped by his own trauma—a sprawling, neon-drenched nightmare called New Midnight.
Here, the streets bleed jazz and gunfire, the skyline glows with rusted chrome, and people still smoke, swear, and feel. Towering shadows hide monsters made from glitches and grief. Time fractures. Logic decays. Memory isn't trusted. And in the heart of it all, a noir city lives like it’s always been real—because maybe it is.
Hunted by the Midnight Protocol—an AI ghost child in a white porcelain mask—and stalked by his former employer, now embodied in the megalomaniac mind of Dr. Juno, Colton must uncover the truth of New Midnight before it’s erased completely. Hunting and haunting Colton are Mortis Jericho, a bug-eyed hardboiled detective who sees too much; and Iris Constantin, the flame Colton abandoned in the real world—now resurrected in silk, shadows, and song.
To save this city—and himself—Colton must become something he never imagined: a hero in a dystopian world. A man who fights not to survive, but to live.
This is a story of memory, free will, and the danger of waking up.
Welcome to New Midnight—where perfection dies and rebellion begins.
A Shadowpunk Novel