Marked By Shadows

Chapter 7

Jack drove and Georgia sat in the passenger seat. She looked out the window, drifting from thought to thought. The rest of the team sat in the back as the car glided along in the darkness. Aspen fell asleep, leaning her short frame against Zeke, her head slumped to her chest with her brown hair cascading down, covering her face.

Georgia broke from the nooks of her thoughts and glanced back at the two. A weak smile crawled onto her face.

"There is something special between them," she whispered. Jade looked over at them and nodded.

"How long have they been friends?" Georgia questioned.

Jade shrugged.

"Not sure. I think ever since they were four years old. For as long as I can remember, Aspen has climbed through Zeke's window and coaxed him on midnight adventures. She has five brothers who trained her to fight and stuff. Mom and Dad thought she was a bad influence on Zeke." Jade shrugged and looked at the stars.

Georgia nodded and looked at Jade. Something seemed sad in the girl's emerald eyes as if something was missing. Georgia glanced at Jack casually. They stared at each other for a moment before Georgia broke the gaze, a blush crept up Jack's neck and he was glad Georgia did not see. He did not know why he would blush around Georgia, she was- annoying, overconfident, and sometimes intense. But she was crazy smart. She intimidated people, maybe that's the strange vibe between him and her, he figured, maybe he was intimidated.

Drives have a mystical ability to make your mind wander, after all, white lines and black roads don't do much to anchor your thoughts. Georgia's thoughts found Owen. Her worry for him rose in her chest. She thought of the monstrous acts that had marked her childhood, and she was horrified that Owen had experienced dark things as well; the fear her boy must have felt when he saw his mother had been taken from him.

"The resilience of children," she thought.

...

The car pulled into a hayfield. Georgia was behind the wheel because Jack was not an aggressive enough driver in her book. The drive was mostly uneventful besides the whiplash of Georgia's breaking and the terror of her speeding.

The League looked like a warehouse from the outside, rickety and ancient. But inside it was one of the most technologically advanced agencies in the world. They were given a cot in the bunkers downstairs through Georgia and Jack had no dream of sleeping. Things needed to be fixed and wrongs righted which they intended to do. Georgia nodded to follow as she led them to a planning room.

"You can sit," Georgia motioned to the chairs.

"I am sure you have a lot of questions and concerns," she said softly.

"That's an understatement," Aspen remarked.

Georgia smiled.

"I am going to try to explain some of this, though obviously, I can't tell you everything." She breathed.

"Before World War One, there was a club, more like a secret society. It started in Southern Europe, before World War Two most groups like this were harmless, but not this, they came up with ten principles to gain power and suppress the public." She explained simply.

"The ten principles include rewriting the past, hushing the press, limiting the population, controlling the roads, instilling fear of public places and fear in gatherings, the economy crumbling, and such. They went under the disguise of wanting to help people and have kept that up well." Georgia sat down and began to explain each principle in detail,

"One, rewriting the past, meaning erasing any moments in history where a major system failed or was rebelled against.

Two, hushing the press meaning PHASE is monitoring what the press publishes and making sure nothing talks about PHASE in a bad light