Michael sees the world differently. Numbers have colors. Voices have textures. Emotions paint themselves across his skin in shades no one else can see.

But the world doesn't reward difference — it punishes it.

Forced to mask his synesthesia since childhood, Michael has spent years performing normalcy so convincingly that he's forgotten what he actually sounds like. When a chance encounter forces him to confront everything he's buried, the carefully constructed walls begin to crack — and what spills through is neither beautiful nor safe.

The Scars of Light is a raw, sensory literary fiction about identity, neurodivergence, and the devastating cost of hiding in plain sight. For readers who loved The Midnight Library and Convenience Store Woman — and for anyone who has ever felt too different to be accepted as they are.

"The Scars of Light"

by Éon D. Aletheia