"If it is acting not out of love, then what?"Near the bottom of the bottle, two strangers caught behind the wind of a snowstorm in Smithers, British Columbia quarrel over living with the dead. In his first experiment with the art of short story, JD Slajchert drops a potent mixture of cutting dialogue and bone chilling cold. A bittersweet slice of life that leaves you at the edge.
Big dreams aren't common in the small everytown of Darling, Colorado, but fifteen-year-old Phoenix Iver doesn't seem to believe in much of anything. As a tortured young soul with crippling, episodes of social anxiety, Phoenix believes he's completely alone. As a result of his isolation, Phoenix leans on his father, local police officer Herman, for comfort. Although, with a past and present both equally cloaked in mystery, Phoenix's understanding of who his father truly is remains unclear. Then, on the brink of discovering the answers to the origins of his dark thoughts and the secrets of his father's past, Phoenix walks into the library at Darling High one stormy morning in 1999. Trailing just moments behind Phoenix are two students who, instead of holding books, are holding handguns. And if Phoenix couldn't believe in the light before, how can he possibly believe in it now?