Rachel Ryu

One year into a plague of flesh-eating, mind-altering worms, the nocturnal town of Ashland, Ohio, has embraced the parasites’ rule. Under cult-like Mayor Joshua, zealous Ranchers spread their gospel—by persuasion or by force. A trio of uninfected women cling to survival through scavenging, extreme hygiene, and evasion. But everyone breaks eventually, unleashing betrayal, sacrilege, and body horror.

Drawn by a strange ringing, a weary writer slips out of her life to follow it through the city, encountering strangers whose fleeting, intimate moments stir something lost in her. Phantasma reflects on the cards we’re given and what we choose to do with them.

What if God’s Original Plan was for queer reproduction, and humanity’s Original Sin was turning away from it? Four Gods—Diekololaoluwalayemi, Ohanzee, Urvisha, and Gedaliah—create two male couples, Dana and Adam, and two female couples, Stephanie and Eve, to multiply through immaculate conception. Centuries later, a shape-shifter urges humans to reproduce without the Gods, causing chaos. The Gods send Jabril to guide Josephine and Mariah, whose child Jesse advocates for the Original Plan. Love, creation, and all forms of connection are revealed as sacred, and the choice to bear children is freely granted. History, society, and human existence are reshaped under this vision, challenging the foundations of family, identity, and relationships.