The Seattle Syndrome

Jack Sawyer doesn't just see the world differently-he hears it, tastes it, and sometimes bleeds with it. His synesthesia turns lies into bursts of static and Seattle's endless rain into music only he can hear. But five years ago, that same strange gift couldn't save his wife.

Now he gets by as a private investigator, chasing down fraud and infidelity, numbing his senses with routine work and cheap whiskey. Until a former colleague from the force brings him a case too strange to ignore: multiple people found dead while using virtual reality headsets from a rising tech company, Neureal Entertainment. No injuries. No digital trace. Just frozen expressions-rapt, disturbed, unknowable.

As Jack digs deeper, the investigation pulls him through Seattle's decaying neighbourhoods and into the vivid, curated worlds inside Neureal's simulations. His synesthesia begins to fracture under the weight of what he's seeing-and what's being left out. It's not just the victims who were affected. Something is bleeding through the layers, and it knows Jack is looking.