Your shadow shows what you're really thinking.

Not what you're saying. Not what you're pretending. What you actually want. What you're about to do. The lie you're telling gets exposed the second your shadow moves.

This is just how the world works. Always has been. Everyone's adapted. Job interviews happen in bright rooms. First dates in dark restaurants. Politicians master shadow control or they don't make it past their first debate. Kids learn to manage their thoughts before they learn to tie their shoes.

Most people get pretty good at it. Some never do.

And sometimes shadows separate from their people entirely. Usually during extreme psychological distress. Suicide attempts. Severe trauma. The shadow just refuses to participate anymore and walks away.

The Department of Shadow Services collects them. Stores them in facilities called Wards. That's their job. Keep separated shadows contained and catalogued. Keep society running smooth.

These 33 stories follow people living in this world. The collector who retrieves abandoned shadows. The nanny whose shadow bonds with the kids. The senator whose career depends on perfect shadow control. The guy on a first date who notices something very wrong with his date's shadow.

Each story is its own complete nightmare. Personal horror that scales bigger the more you think about it. The kind that starts with someone's shadow giving them away at the worst possible moment and ends with you lying awake wondering what your own shadow knows that you don't.

Welcome to Cast. Where everyone can see what you're hiding. Where your body betrays your secrets. Where the truth has a shadow.

And that shadow might know something you really don't want to find out.