When war returns to Okinawa, three brothers confront experimental soldiers with stolen voices and a monster older than myth, forcing them to choose between surpassing human limits or losing what makes them human.
2026, Okinawa is under occupation.
The island goes dark, and the world hears rumors of geopolitical catastrophe. What survives is a fractured archive: field notes smeared with blood, villagers’ voices warped into testimony, and stuttered, contradictory transmissions. Yet in the gaps between fragments, another presence stirs— an old shape surfacing in the waters and forests, its outline etched in whispers and broken data.
Three brothers, Shade, Sun, and Scorch enter the battle on a Dare. Middle brother, Shade is caught between self-loathing and duty. Scorch, the youngest, burns with fury for vengeance. The eldest, Sun, a soldier remade by secret hands, is already half-claimed by something more than human.
Across abandoned villages and weaponized myths, they confront enemies— prototypes that speak with stolen language, cults prepared for divine violence, and themselves.
But machines are not the only threat. The brothers’ path keeps circling back to the shadow the island itself seems to exhale—a monster neither wholly born of myth nor wholly made in labs, a force waiting to claim them if they falter.
Every encounter forces a choice: to preserve fleeting mercy or unleash a darkness that can never be contained. The Haven brothers’ struggle is more than survival. It is the question of what remains human when nations and nightmares conspire to engineer the future.
Part found-footage horror, part techno-thriller, Cereus & Limnic: Escape From Okinawa Type-B is a case-file novel of beauty and catastrophe, where every fragment points to a truth too dangerous to hold, too human to erase.
Serializing in 2026
Get notified
日本語
沖縄に戦争が戻るとき、三人の兄弟は盗まれた声を持つ実験兵士と神話より古い怪物に立ち向かう。人間の限界を超えるか、人間性そのものを失うか——選択を迫られる。
2026年、沖縄は占領下にある。
島は闇に沈み、世界は地政学的破局の噂を聞く。生き残ったのは断片化されたアーカイブ——血で汚れたフィールドノート、証言へと歪められた村人たちの声、そして途切れ途切れの矛盾した送信記録。だが断片と断片の隙間に、別の存在が蠢いている——海と森に浮かび上がる古い形、その輪郭は囁きと壊れたデータに刻まれている。
三人の兄弟、シェイド、サン、スコーチは「デア」と共に戦場に入る。次男のシェイドは自己嫌悪と義務の間で引き裂かれている。末っ子のスコーチは復讐の怒りに燃えている。長男のサンは秘密の手によって作り変えられた兵士で、すでに半分は人間以上の何かに奪われている。
廃村と武器化された神話を横切りながら、彼らは敵と対峙する——盗まれた言語で語るプロトタイプ、神聖な暴力に備えるカルト、そして自分自身と。
しかし機械だけが脅威ではない。兄弟たちの道は、島そのものが吐き出すかのような影へと何度も引き戻される——神話から完全に生まれたわけでも、研究室で完全に作られたわけでもない怪物、彼らが躓けば奪い取ろうと待ち構える力。
あらゆる遭遇が選択を強いる：束の間の慈悲を守るか、決して封じ込められない闇を解き放つか。マ兄弟の闘いは生存以上のもの。それは、国家と悪夢が未来を設計しようと共謀するとき、何が人間として残るのかという問いである。
ファウンドフッテージホラーとテクノスリラーが融合した『セレウス&リムニック：沖縄からの脱出 Type-B』は、美と破局のケースファイル小説。すべての断片は、持つにはあまりに危険で、消すにはあまりに人間的な真実を指し示している。
Why I wrote this novel
The idea for this novel came to me back in 2022. At the time, I was living in Okinawa, Japan and traveling to many of the various smaller islands that make up the Ryukyu chain. Each island had its own unique spin on Okinawan culture, its own story to tell. So I thought that I wanted to write a story that gave me an excuse to visit as many of the islands in written form as possible.
I began writing the initial draft of the novel in early 2025. I always knew I wanted it to be a prequel to my debut novel "Cereus & Limnic", primarily because it allowed me to relive my experience as a young military officer living in Okinawa in the early 2010s. I completed the initial manuscript in May 2025.
But I wasn't really happy with what I'd written. I used a lot of AI to speedrun the writing, and though it wasn't bad, I felt I wanted to tell a more personal story with the novel.
So after a 5 month break to write my 3rd novel, I returned to the project in September 2025. I had been going through some family drama with my brothers and decided to start the project over again through this very personal lens of three brothers trying to escape Okinawa during a war. That was all I had for the original idea.
I also knew I wanted it to be a sort of case file type presentation. I had recently read "House of Leaves" and really enjoyed the trippy way it was presented. I thought: what would happen if I combined that creepiness with an investigative frame? I'm a former federal agent who worked for the military, so I knew I could unite both of those skills to bring this story to life.
When I listened to the Spoken audio of the first 10K words, I knew I'd succeeded. Just like a real intelligence investigation, the testimonials are distinct and at times disturbing with how they don't always directly link to each other. I loved that puzzle solving aspect of investigative work. I hope future readers of this novel look forward to discovering it as well.
Usually when I begin a writing project, I write everyday and chip away at it until it's done. But this novel presented a unique challenge because it's so personal. I kept procrastinating and putting it off, because I just wasn’t ready to go “there” with my feelings about these ongoing family beefs. I really had to dig deep to bring out the relationship struggles I've had with my brothers, channel their respective voices, and come to grips with how witnessing the early death of my father when I was 16 affected our entire family. I wanted to do this, while making this story a faithful prequel to my first novel, which meant following a strict continuity for existing characters and aspects of the world of “Cereus & Limnic.”
The other factor was including Okinawa itself in the narrative. As you can tell, it's not just an exotic historical setting. I wanted to tap into aspects of the culture in the ways that I encountered them in the 5 years that I lived there. That meant including a touch of the spooky and unexplained in there, which is where the majority of the horror happens in the narrative.
Geopolitical strife, family drama, Japanese and Chinese culture, and Okinawan folklore— though this might seem like a lot to balance in one story, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Primarily because the characters really set the frame for how the reader experiences the story. Some characters are closely connected to the island, while others like the brothers and the narrator Jinhua, only know it intellectually. Playing with perspective in this manner, helped me avoid the info-dump research trap that many authors fall into when writing about a place that they're not very familiar with.
Finally, after I decided to start the project over, I looked at my first draft of nearly 120K words and thought it would be a shame to throw that much effort away. So I decided to make it an alternate version of the events that happened in Okinawa. That's where the "Type-B" in the title comes from. Type-A is the original draft. A completely separate story focused on Li Ma, while Type-B heavily focuses on the three brothers. Which one is the true record? You'll find out at the end of the novel (maybe).
Another big inspiration for this book was the Metal Gear Solid video game series. Hideo Kojima is known for blending genres with exceptional character work. Metal Gear Solid (1998) is a sci-fi political thriller with horror elements, and (I'll admit) the at times cheesy action of a 1980s movie. I had recently replayed the first two games in the series and thought about how I could create my own story using similar DNA. Thus C&L: EFO was conceived.
Ultimately, Cereus & Limnic: Escape From Okinawa Type-B is my most daring novel yet. It's extremely personal, told in a unique manner, and explores themes like the limits of humanity, brotherhood, and evolution (among many others). The Spoken AI audio turned out really well. And even though I normally prefer to record my own vocal performance, I could see myself using it to possibly bring the rest of the project to life in audio form.
