A child is born in a city that has forgotten mercy. Jordan and Marin Reyes only wanted a safe place to bring their son into the world. What they found instead was a maze of failing systems, closed doors, and a government more concerned with compliance than compassion. When their child's birth triggers an unexplained phenomenon behind a faith-based shelter, it quietly draws the attention of people on the margins-an exhausted shelter worker, a former fundamentalist, a cautious believer, and a journalist chasing truth in a city that punishes it. Each of them must choose whether to walk away or step into something they do not understand. As whispers spread and authorities close in, a newborn becomes the center of a struggle between power and humanity. What follows forces a country-and those who claim righteousness-to confront the cost of their own indifference. The Second Arrival reimagines the Nativity in the world we live in now: a world of registries, suspicion, controlled narratives, and systems that collapse hardest on those who need help the most. It is not a prophecy, but a mirror-one that reflects what happens when institutions tasked with protecting families instead become the force that tears them apart. This edition contains the Judgment Ending, in which the consequences of fear, policy, and unchecked power echo far beyond a single night-and a single child. For readers who appreciate grounded, human stories with moral weight, modern parables, and quiet emotional devastation, this novel offers a haunting re-telling of a story we thought we already knew.

J.C. Flloyd has spent most of his life working in technical fields, drawn more to systems, logic, and quiet problem-solving than to the spotlight. Writing was something he set aside after his early years, when he published a handful of poems in small magazines that likely no one ever found twice. Only recently has he returned to storytelling, now with the time?and the willingness?to follow ideas where they lead.

He approaches fiction the same way he approaches the world: with curiosity, a restless mind shaped by ADHD, a tendency toward solitude, and a deep interest in the forces that shape human behavior. Though not religious, he is fascinated by the power of belief, the stories people build their lives around, and the tension between what we preach and what we practice. Much of his work explores those contradictions, especially where compassion, fear, and authority collide.

The Second Arrival is his first novella.