813

813 is a 72,695-word horror thriller told entirely in present tense through a single point of view. No POV shifts. No resolution. Five days of escalating dread in Bethlehem, PA.

Structure

18 chapters covering five days. The present tense locks the reader into the protagonist's immediate experience with no ability to step back or gain distance from the escalation.

Protagonist

Camille Folarin, a DJ whose relationship with sound becomes the story's central tension as an auditory outbreak reshapes the city around her.

Craft Choices

• Present tense throughout. No past-tense reflection, no future knowledge. The reader knows only what Camille knows, when she knows it.
• Single POV. No cuts to other characters, no omniscient framing. The claustrophobia is intentional.
• HBO-level content. Tasteful but unflinching. The horror earns its weight without becoming gratuitous.
• No resolution. Book 1 ends without comfort. The story continues.

Series Architecture

813 is the first book in a planned series. Two engines drive the larger narrative: the NULL identity (what the outbreak actually is) and the Adapted society (what emerges on the other side). Both are seeded in Book 1 but not resolved.

Editing Score

9.15/10 on editorial evaluation.

Comparables

• Sinners by Ryan Coogler (location-specific horror, community under siege)
• The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (outbreak fiction with a singular protagonist)
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (collapse through intimate perspective)
• Zone One by Colson Whitehead (literary horror, slow-burn dread)