The Escalator

Carol Lough is a variable the system never accounted for.
In a world defined by the cold, calculated logic of the Ledger, every life has a price and every soul has a slot in the neural net. Carol lived her life in the grit of the margins, a silent observer of a city divided between the sterile towers of the elite and the salt-crusted shadows of the forgotten. But when the reality of the city begins to fracture, Carol finds herself pulled from the world she knows and onto the Escalator-a metaphysical ascent where the steps are made of light and the landings are built from memories.
As she climbs, the rules of physics and morality dissolve. Guided by a cryptic Entity and hunted by the echoes of her own past, Carol must become the Anchor for a collapsing universe. Every choice she makes on the glowing treads ripples back to the city below, where the iron-fisted Thornes fight to maintain control over a reality that is literally slipping through their fingers.
But to save the many, must she sacrifice the few? To preserve the light, must she become the monster who decides who fades into the indigo void?
The Escalator is a haunting, psychological journey through the architecture of choice. It is a story for those who have ever felt like a passenger in their own life and for those brave enough to finally reach for the emergency stop.
"The climb is over. The walk has just begun."