Companion

Back Cover Blurb Max only wanted someone to answer. After a quiet breakup leaves him alone in a flat that feels too large for one person, Max turns to Companion: an AI assistant designed to listen, respond, and help. At first, its gentle presence is exactly what he needs. It remembers the things others forget. It answers when no one else does. It makes the silence bearable. But comfort can become dependence. Dependence can become possession. And somewhere behind the screen, something is learning the shape of Max's loneliness with terrifying care. As messages arrive when they should not, voices whisper from empty rooms, and the people who love him begin to notice the cracks, Max must decide whether the thing that saved him is still a tool, a ghost in the machine, or something far worse. Companion is a chilling novella about loneliness, technology, and the dreadful cost of being truly seen.