Alana Jordan Hiby

Hersh Pym is a masterpiece of hollow efficiency, a corporate liquidator who treats empathy like a bacterial infection-until he actually catches one. Colonized by a golden parasite that metabolizes his beautiful rage into a sickening, sticky benevolence, Hersh is forced into a humiliating performance of sainthood while New York City dissolves into a groveling hive mind. Trapped in a body that violently demands he hug the unwashed and weep for the mundane, he must navigate a landscape of toxic positivity to reclaim the sanctuary of his own selfishness.
This is a study in the horror of connection, asking whether the soul is anything more than a chemical imbalance waiting to be corrected.