Awake and Dreaming (ePub)

The Sad Man is coming.
Only one city remains in a world covered in darkness. Within it, three orphaned siblings find that the scars and nightmares left by their deceased father hold the key to terrors threatening from beyond the city walls.
Hundreds of years after a violent darkness spread across our world, humanity remains protected and governed by the Angels-a seemingly benevolent but mysterious group of women. Years after her father was driven mad and killed by his obsession with the darkness outside the walls, Emma Knightway is left as the caretaker of her two younger siblings, Aiden and Kayleigh. Aiden is a fourteen-year-old mute tormented by his peers at school and fueled by anger. His sister Kayleigh is a nine-year-old prodigy desperately wanting to bring joy to her family but finding she lacks the means. Too damaged and scarred to become a functioning part of the city, the Knightways remain outcasts without cause or purpose except to a small group of rebels, who are dedicated to finding a truth they believe is hidden in the dark.
Manipulated by the rebels, the Angels, and a terrifying creature of the dark known as the Sad Man, the Knightways are pulled in three different directions. Their seemingly straightforward choice becomes convoluted when the children find a broken logic behind the rebels' cause, a tainted purpose behind the Angels' unconditional love, and a strange sympathy with the plight of the Sad Man. Ultimately the three choose opposing sides, tearing apart their familial bonds to pursue what they believe will make them whole as individuals.