Welcome to Halcyon: Dead Mawl #1 by S. G. Tasz

The service industry can be a nightmare. But at Edensgate Shopping Center, the customers aren't the only monsters to worry about.

Sixteen-year-old Cari Hembert expects an uneventful last day behind the register. The Suttermill Department Store has been dying a slow death for months - not surprising since the shopping center surrounding it is practically abandoned already. The only real challenge is keeping herself distracted from what she will do tomorrow, when she is stuck in a dried-up mining town with no prospects and a mother who spends so much time at the bottom of a bottle Cari has considered forwarding her mail. Luckily, she has her best friend, movie theater employee and wannabe-anarchist Drexel "Rex" Ranganathan, to keep her spirits up with nachos and video games.

But when she and Rex find themselves accidentally locked in overnight, they discover a force invading this “dead mall” that is far more horrifying than the decline of brick-and mortar-retail. They’ve survived bad bosses and minimum wage. But will they survive the night shift?

Welcome to Halcyon is the first book in the Dead Mawl novella series, where saving the world from the forces of evil is all in a night's work. For fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, and Ash vs Evil Dead.

Cover art by Joseph Reedy.