October Perpetua

Marshall Oriente has been frozen at five years old for twenty years.

His mother gave up her body to keep him suspended. A six-month arrangement that became permanent. His hair kept growing. His body didn't. Now it hangs behind him like a crown of many textures he never asked to wear.

When October collapses, everything tears open.

Beneath St. Louis, mothers rupture from pods buried in caverns no one was supposed to find. Fathers pass through Marshall's throat like language, like ritual, like so...