After Image

Mara Ruiz is rebuilding her life one graveyard shift at a time—until a four-note melody slips out of a busted AM radio and the past walks back in. Evan Cole, the guitarist she loved and lost in a hit-and-run, is still here—an afterimage bound to the old silver key she can’t quite throw away. He can ride wires, flicker lights, and bend sound between 2:10 and 3:10 a.m. He also can’t stray more than three blocks from the key…or let Mara move on.

What begins as “protection” curdles into sabotage—until Mara writes house rules and gives them teeth: scare a date again and she burns the key. When a midnight fire and a bridge blackout force hard choices, Evan learns restraint and Mara learns she doesn’t need a haunting to survive the night. Their last test comes on a rooftop at dawn, where love stops meaning possession and starts meaning release.

AFTERIMAGE is a quiet, propulsive ghost story about consent, boundaries, and the courage to leave well enough alone—and then try again.

$1.00