Ten years can measure a reign, a ritual, or a ruin. Here, it maps a descent. It is about the choices made not in freedom, but in the stark silence of a locked room. It is about the uniforms we wear—blue, green, pale yellow—and the invisible scripts of power that decide our fate based on the color of our cloth. It is about memory that clings like a ghost, and the terrifying courage required to forget in order to live another hour, another day.
The text moves, restless, between languages and states of being—between the stark clarity of instruction and the chaotic nightmare of its execution. It is my hope that in this mirrored labyrinth, you will feel the chill of recognition. For the cages we build are often ornate, the selections we face are often silent, and the monsters are rarely the ones we are taught to fear.
Thank you for stepping into this arena. May you find your way back out.
Summer Saif
SUMMER SAIF is a writer whose work exists in the liminal spaces between languages, cultures, and systems of control. Drawing from a deep fascination with folklore, gothic bureaucracy, and the psychological weight of power, their fiction explores the fractures within the self and the societies we build.
With a background that bridges the stark clarity of instruction and the chaotic nightmare of its execution, SAIF’s writing is a construct of many rooms—each one a mirrored labyrinth designed to unsettle and resonate. Their debut work is a testament to the belief that the most profound stories are often found in the gaps: between the word and its echo, and the person you are and the person you must become to survive.
SAIF lives in a place where multiple languages are spoken daily, and when not writing, can be found navigating the quiet, invisible scripts of everyday life. This is their first published work.