For Heather Morell, nightmares and hallucinations lurk around every corner, relics of schizophrenia and childhood bereavement.

Until she meets Raine and Evelyn, that is — self-proclaimed bodyguard and bad-tempered magician — and learns she's not insane at all. The spirits and monsters she sees are all too real, the god-thing in her nightmares is teaching her how to surpass human limits, and her twin sister who supposedly never existed could still be alive, somewhere Outside, beyond the walls of reality.

Heather plunges into a world of eldritch magic and fanatic cultists, trying to stay alive, stay sane, and deal with her own blossoming attraction to dangerous women. But being 'In The Know' isn't all terror and danger. Sometimes the monsters wear nice dresses and stick around for afternoon tea. Sometimes you find you have more in common with them than you think. Perhaps this is Heather's chance to be something more than the defeated husk she'd grown up as, to find real friendship and meaning among things like herself - and perhaps, out there on the rim of the possible, to bring her twin sister back from the dead.

Katalepsis is an Ancient Greek word which means 'comprehension', or perhaps more accurately, 'insight'. Katalepsis is a serial web novel about cosmic horror and human fragility, urban fantasy and lesbian romance, set in a sleepy English university town.

New chapters are currently posted once a week, on Saturdays.

The first four arcs (Volume I) are also now available as an ebook and audiobook. If you've just finished one of those and you're here to pick up where the story left off, you'll want the start of arc 5, right here.

Cover art by Noctilia.

This is a Royal Road mirror of Katalepsis' own website, located here, currently updated at the same time with a new chapter every Saturday.