The Census of the Dead - You Don’t Exist If You’re Not Counted
Claire Autumn Reid
Publisher: Twist & Tether Press
Summary
After a global collapse leaves society fragmented and governed by provisional rule, the Registry becomes the final authority on who exists—and who doesn't. Every citizen must be counted. Every record must align. Those who fall between lines are quietly removed. Mara Dessen lives in a remote zone with her young son Eliot. Her documents are forged. Her memories conflicted. But she’s survived this long by staying off the radar and holding onto the one thing that matters: her child. When a government census agent arrives to verify her identity, Mara’s fragile world begins to fracture. A duplicate file emerges. A dead husband appears active. And worst of all, her son’s existence is thrown into question—not just by the system, but by the walls of her own mind. Desperate to keep her family from vanishing into bureaucratic oblivion, Mara dives into forbidden archives and surreal corridors of the Registry, only to uncover evidence that Eliot may not have ever existed—not the way she remembers him. The more she tries to preserve him, the more reality erases the thread she’s clinging to. What happens when the system denies your story—and memory is the only evidence you have? Would you sacrifice your sanity to save someone the world says was never real?
Available since: 08/13/2025.
Print length: 65 pages.
