Nocturne: Book One: Gem

The Forever Darkness cloaks the world in perpetual night. The star's light hasn't been seen in years and crimson clouds loom in the sky, static and pulsating with queer and dire energy. In response to the constant gloom, a collection of political elders named The Powers counteract the Forever Darkness with the construction of a metropolis of such intense electric light, utopian ideals, and materialistic luxury, that not one of its citizens would ever have to feel the hostile effects of living in the dark. Serena Bonner's life is like many 23-year-olds in Gem City - full of parties, booze, and thoughtless intoxicated evenings dancing at various clubs and venues in Red District. Serena understands the best way to keep back the fear and sadness of night is to fill her life with narcotic highs and ignorant optimisms; optimisms offered to her by the comforts of her friends, but predominately by her superhuman abilities. She harbors an extraordinary talent of transcendental meditation - a state she can enter at any time under her own will. These meditations quell all of her concerns with numb ecstasy, and promote a bubbly, happy personality that's helped make her the alpha of her small group of friends. But one evening, a night out gradually dissolves into a series of unprecedented and intensely hallucinogenic meditations. These meditations culminate into a series of psychedelic experiences that tear Serena's comfortable life out from under her. After a terrible nightmare, she awakens the next day to find that a mythological prophecy has seemingly come true...