Book I
Book 2
Chapter IIII
The Mortal Burden – Part XVIII: Predator and Prey


The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter III
The Mortal Burden – Part XIII: Zombie or Zombi?
The Mortal Burden – Part XIV: “I Can’t Take You Anywhere!”
The Mortal Burden – Part XIV: The Third Coast
The Mortal Burden – Part XV: Infinity as My Witness
The Mortal Burden – Part XVI: The 4th Wall
The Mortal Burden – Part XVII: Eternity Is a Concept



The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter III
The Mortal Burden – Part XIII: Zombie or Zombi?
The Mortal Burden – Part XIV: “I Can’t Take You Anywhere!”


The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter II
The Mortal Burden – Part VII: Remember
The Mortal Burden – Part VIII: Gods of One
The Mortal Burden – Part IX: Cold Heat
The Mortal Burden – Part X: A World to Die On
The Mortal Burden – Part XI: Boundaries Into the Deep
The Mortal Burden – Part XII: The Singular I


The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter II
The Mortal Burden – Part VII: Remember
The Mortal Burden – Part VIII: Gods of One
The Mortal Burden – Part IX: Cold Heat
The Mortal Burden – Part X: A World to Die On
The Mortal Burden – Part XI: Boundaries Into the Deep


The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter II
The Mortal Burden – Part VII: Remember
The Mortal Burden – Part VIII: Gods of One
The Mortal Burden – Part IX: Cold Heat
The Mortal Burden – Part X: A World to Die On


The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter II
The Mortal Burden – Part VII: Remember
The Mortal Burden – Part VIII: Gods of One
The Mortal Burden – Part IX: Cold Heat


The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter II
The Mortal Burden – Part VII: Remember
The Mortal Burden – Part VIII: Gods of One




The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter I
The Mortal Burden Part I: Specicide Blues
The Mortal Burden Part II: This Mortal Burden
The Mortal Burden Part III: Blood Furnace

The Mortal Burden – Part IV: Six feet of razor-toothed bloody destruction

The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter I
The Mortal Burden Part I: Specicide Blues
The Mortal Burden Part II: This Mortal Burden



The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter I
I decided to serialize my novel. Chapters are just two big for this media type.


Sleep Paralysis
Had lots of it in my 20s and 30s..I still have them, but they are not as acute as when I used to sleep on my back. I’m conscious, while my brain locks down my physical reactions so I can not move. The opposite of night terrors & Sleep walking.
A wall of fear has kept me from the abyss of eternal sleep.
This wall feeds upon my soul; it hungers for my nightmares, a half-delusional matrix caught betwixt consciousness and the domain of vivid alien visions.
Somewhere in this realm lurks a terrible shadow of my reality. A grotesque mocking of the material plane. It teases and prods me, offering unknown vistas of experience and mind. A quest through the immense expanse of the universe, beyond the normal view of existence, to places where only the mind can enter.
The shadow mocks me with these alien expanses of thought and space; it forces me back with a wall of my own fears. This fear, my loathing, and the inability to take that final step, cross that narrow line that will force me over sanity’s edge—an edge I know I can never come back from.
Yet, I crave the genius of insanity, that foresight of the unkown senses, reaching farther beyond the greatest minds, to have insight into the depth of the soul, to know the mad creator of the universe, to be one with omnipotent existence!

©️ Jacob Pickard 2026.