Brain Freeze
Chapter One
T H E C R A S H
Prefer to listen? Check out the audio version below:
part one: February 20 - The Back Door
Nick Havill had it all mapped out—grades, soccer, orchestra, college. But one unexpected drop in rank and a stolen test send him spiraling. When his best friend Jim drags him to a secret game room behind a lingerie shop, Nick finds himself in a VR war zone where survival beats strategy—and no one’s grading the outcome.
part two: May 19 - Pine Ridge Research Center
After a trip to Boston to secure continued funding for her research, Dr. Samantha Jorgensen returns to the quiet of her mountain cabin and the owls she’s been studying. Once thought to dwell only in the desert, the Desert Tawny Owl's surprising shift to forested habitats offers Sam a rare glimpse into real-time adaptation. But even as she immerses herself in the rhythms of the wild, the outside world presses in—through a strained romance, the constant buzz of technology, and a lingering sense that something far bigger is beginning to shift beyond the trees.