Marked By Shadows

Chapter 17

David sat in the map room and gazed at all the massive charts embedded in the ugly old walls. Maps of the United States, Europe, Asia, and every other country and continent on the planet shattered the room. A large hologram of Earth levitated in the middle of the table. He tried to relax, "Living in a freaking science fiction movie," he muttered as he leaned back. David always felt miniature in the room, the world was a massive maze of places he had never been and the stage for adventures he had never had. Yet the maps cured the homesickness, he could see the shape of his home, see the island levitating on a field of blue.
All of this was swimming in his mind when a small girl with sunset red hair and gray eyes, gray like they understood the bleakness of despair but also the light of the future walked in. She froze when she saw him.
"I'm sorry I didn't think anyone would be in here," she said softly like rain on a flower.
" am I in your way?" he said, trying to smile. She seemed like the instructions for wiring, the print too small to glean any help, yet dangerous to avoid. He saw her scanning him with those deep eyes. "uh-David, I am David." He spat out hoping her gaze would relent.
"I know," she smiled sweetly, "your name fits you."
His eyes expanded and he stood up. "H-how, I mean, have we met?" he inquired
"Nope. I know because it's my job to know."
"Are you stalking me?!" He asked, trying to be calm, but confused.
"I am Lucy," She smiled.
He eyed her like she was insane like she was some foreign creature infringing upon his world. "Who would stalk me?" David thought.
    "no, I am just a hacker, not a stalker," she said.
    "Is there a difference?"
"Yes. Hackers typically have a soul and stalkers don't" she replied simply which made David hurry out of the room.
...
Lucy sat down opened her laptop and let the blue light from the screen illuminate her face, which caused her to squint and reach for the glasses Jack had given her after conducting eye exams that confirmed that she had serious vision issues.
She had been in front of a computer since she was five. She knew all the ins and outs of the web, she knew 3 different ways at least to restart the computer, and she knew how to hunt whoever or whatever. It was always up to her to get around any computer system, firewall, or whatever weak system she was told to jump into.
Leaned over the laptop swaddled in a red sweatshirt that was infused with the aroma of pine and coffee (a scent she somehow knew but couldn't put a finger on where it was from) she paused her work on combing through the League's faulty database to switch over to David Prescott's file, but she pulled back before she could press the enter key.
"Why do I want to spy on him? He seems harmless-" she whispered thoughts were slashed with her slamming the enter key in a fit of 'f-you' to her screaming brain.
...
      Aspen sat at the table balancing her pencil between her fingers as it tottered like a see-saw. Her memories of the world were slowly coming back, but not fast enough for anyone's liking: Mike was still frustrated and angry that she was 'pretending to not know who he was' and Zeke kept pestering her trying to come up with a scientific way to get her mind back.
All she could put together was the fact that she had been fed lies her whole life. Everything was caught in a complex web of false headlines and fake events, all her memories from her family to the government manipulation were blurred together and she couldn't tell what was true and what was fake.
Zeke walked in and smiled at her, but she did not smile back. He slowly walked over to her "You ok? How's your memory?"
"I feel like a cold vegetable" she replied
"I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding. Maybe they didn't mean to wipe your mind?" Zeke suggested even though he knew that couldn't be true.
"Yeah right. That's some misunderstanding, to see a 16-year-old girl and think that it's ok to just wipe her mind for fun" Aspen shot sarcastically, eyes angry.
Zeke had no reply, he knew Aspen was smart but he never saw her being smart. He loved her but he considered her shallow, just into getting her fists bloody and her paintbrush wet.

"So Aspen, Jack, and I were talking and we made a bet, well more of a deal but well yeah, and if I asked you out, he would ask Georgia out. Since I-since it's pretty obvious that he's in love with her but doesn't have the balls to ask her out" he tried to say it evenly and like he figured Jack would ask Georgia, very man-like. Aspen looked at him and smiled a little
" Like now that the whole universe is collapsing? You want to go out with a brain-dead girl who doesn't even fully remember you?" She asked, turning in her seat.
"Well, why not? You've always told me that when you feel dissatisfied, to do something major. I can help fill you in on things you can't remember. Maybe talking will help"
Aspen watched him and considered, chewing her lip "Fine-meet me in the field by the league at six. You better tell me everything"
...
    That evening the two sat out in the field that was full of dying grass, the winter air crisp as they sat on the frosty ground.
"I'm Zeke. We've been best friends since first grade, you pretty much forced yourself into my life because I needed help on how to be cool and you said you were an expert" he began, watching as she played with the dead
grass.
"Um-i have a sister named Jade who you picked on because that's how you were raised, your brothers picked on you a lot. Your family is very dysfunctional and got the police called on them a lot. So you'd come to my house sometimes and sleep in my bed to get away from the yelling. You wanted to leave high school but your brother Andy said you couldn't, that you needed to become something. Andy's your favorite of all your brothers, you say it's Jake but I know it's Andy."
Aspen looked over at him and tried to process all of this information. Very small chunks of memories were floating to the surface, and Zeke with his rambling helped her identify some things.
"So are you feeling less depressed about the world and whatever?" Zeke asked, trying to break the silence.
"Why don't you seem bothered by this? We could have died-"
"Yeah, you keep harping on that almost-dying part."
"Shut up, I am serious, you can't be this calm, this- whatever about it." she shot.
Zeke paused," What do I think about this? Am I so shallow that I don't even see things are changing because I am so fixated on Aspen? What the heck is wrong with me?! I am going to miss school in the fall if this stupid whatever keeps up, and I will fail and not graduate- but even that is stupid in the grand scheme of this, What is wrong with me?" his panicked thoughts halted when he looked at Aspen, her dark blue eyes never failed to help calm him down.
She stood up and gently pulled him to his feet, stood on her tiptoes and her lips met him in a kiss. The space between them closed as he held her a little closer, trying to memorize the feeling of a first kiss but as soon as the kiss began, it abruptly ended. Aspen stepped back and returned to her normal height, which didn't change much since standing on her tiptoes only made an inch difference.
"I- I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking. I-" She was 100% more aware of the fact that Zeke's hand was on her lower back as they walked to the car, her cheeks heated up a little and a new feeling surged through her body. None of that was meant to happen at least not now, not with all this violence and she knew Zeke thought the same thing, yet even though her society had been a lie she knew these feelings were not, at least she thought these were good feelings bubbling at the surface of her mind. They walked to the league in stunned silence.
"That kiss was a thank you for helping me," she said before she headed to her room.
                                    ...
    Georgia finally set her book down when Aspen walked in "
What happened? Where were you?" Aspen hadn't told anyone where she was.
"Oh-zeke and I were just talking. He told me some stuff about how I knew him and a little about my family and that brought some stuff back" she explained, watching Georgia's face as the woman's expression calmed.

"Wait, I missed all that," Jade said, looking from the book she had been enveloped in. "what happened?" She asked.
"It wasn't a big thing. Don't worry. Aspen just got some memories back" Georgia explained gently, knowing Jade was aware of Aspen's situation.
"Oh! That's amazing Aspen" Jade hugged the fire-filled girl who awkwardly hugged back