In Between the Lines to Villainy

A dark standalone dystopian story that challenges the very idea of heroism and confronts the questions: Is conflict necessary for progress? What if a hero had to become a villain to save her stagnant society?

In a world where heroes have won and villains are captured or in hiding, they’ve built on a society in a peaceful world where progress has slowed, and creativity is discouraged. Nineteen-year-old Aris Shelia is lured into an alliance with Taavi, an old, undercover villain to become the villain her world desperately needs. Her journey serves as a cautionary tale about the price of progress when it’s driven by destruction over genuine renewal, setting her on a path that may either reinvent her world or tear it apart.

Unlike most dystopias, this isn’t rebellion against tyranny. It’s a slow, creeping realization that even well-meaning systems can become blind, emphasizing how most advancements in history have occurred during times of conflict and suggesting that challenges and perhaps even evil is necessary for civilization to evolve. After all, society needs a villain to wake it up, right?