What if justice never sleeps because it uses you while you do?Dr. Miriam Cross wakes with dirt under her fingernails and blood on her sleeve. She has no memory of leaving her bed. But when she learns that a violent criminal was murdered last night, killed with surgical precision while he slept, she begins to suspect the impossible.She wasn't just sleepwalking. She was executing a verdict.Deep in the architecture of human consciousness exists a court that convenes only in darkness. The horizontal court operates beyond the reach of waking law, rendering judgments on those who escape justice in the daylight world. Its jury? Every sleeping mind in the city. Its executioners? Unconscious agents who kill without knowing, then wake with no memory of their crimes.Miriam was one of them.Now, as she races to understand the system that conscripted her, she discovers a terrifying truth: the horizontal court isn't just real, it's growing more powerful. And those who try to expose it don't just disappear. They're erased from consciousness itself, forgotten by both the waking and dreaming worlds.With the help of other "bridges," people who can navigate the boundary between sleep and waking, Miriam must infiltrate the court, challenge its shadow judges, and dismantle a justice system that has operated in secret for generations. But destroying the court means confronting an even more disturbing question: If the guilty escape justice in the waking world, and there's no court in the sleeping world to stop them, who protects the victims?THE SLEEP VERDICT is a mind-bending psychological thriller that explores the nature of consciousness, the price of justice, and the terrifying possibility that the most important decisions about your life are being made while you dream.Perfect for readers who crave intelligent horror, philosophical depth, and protagonists who refuse easy answers even when those answers might save their lives.CONTENT NOTE: This novel contains themes of unconscious violence, moral ambiguity, and the violation of autonomy. While the horizontal consciousness is fictional, the questions it raises about justice, consent, and collective responsibility are deeply real. Reader discretion advised."In the court of sleep, everyone is guilty of something. The only question is, will you remember what you've done?"BY PRASANTH N.M.Author of psychological horror and dark speculative fiction