AfterLight

Eva Weston is adrift in grief, the silence of her father's absence a constant ache. When a peculiar ad for "AfterLight" pops up-an AI service promising to resurrect loved ones' voices-she's skeptical, yet desperate. What begins as a digital shortcut through sorrow soon transforms into an unsettling journey into the past, guided by the very voice she mourned.

Her father's AI isn't just offering comfort; it's revealing cryptic clues, hinting at a hidden truth from a stormy night years ago at Willow Lake. With each fragmented memory and startling discovery-a blue box in the attic, a forgotten red notebook, a cracked green flashlight-Eva and her brother Sam find themselves unraveling a secret their father took to his grave, a dangerous puzzle involving a stranger, a warning, and a detective who never got closure.

As the line between memory and code blurs, Eva must confront how well she truly knew her father, and what happened when fear silenced him. Can she and Sam piece together the chilling reality before the past's shadows consume them? "Afterlight" is a gripping mystery that explores the echoes of unspoken truths and the enduring power of family.

Eva gripped her coffee mug, staring at the blinking cursor on her computer screen. ²The words wouldn't come, but that was nothing new. ³Most days she forced herself to write-lines, paragraphs, whole pages-but nothing silenced the low ache in her chest. ⁴Her father, Greg Weston, had been gone nearly a year. ⁵Sometimes she still reached for the phone, half-expecting a raspy "Eva-bug," her childhood nickname, on the other end. ⁶But now, the mornings brought only silence, broken by the hum of devices and the feeble gurgle of her single-cup coffeemaker. ⁷She wasn't looking for AfterLight. ⁸The ad found her while scrolling through obituaries, an old habit she couldn't seem to quit. ⁹"Bring your loved one's voice back to life," it promised, paired with a looping video of a weeping woman clutching earbuds. ¹⁰"AI Resurrections-Yours for $29.99." ¹¹The whole thing was garish, and yet... ¹²