Shadow Lines

<p>In the summer of 1963 the small mill town of Harriston Massachusetts feels timeless-slow weathered and ruled by the unspoken secrets adults pretend children can't see. Eleven-year-old Jimmy Carrow and his friends spend their days at the Harriston Boys' Club a crumbling brick building that teaches lessons no school ever could: how to fight how to read danger how to survive.</p><p>The boys-quiet Eddie charismatic Tommy genius Sticks loyal Danny and quick-witted Jimmy-orbit around one magnetic force: Freddie Belden a kid with a good heart a soft smile... and a spark inside him no one else can see.</p><p>When the group discovers a hidden stairway beneath the old Boys' Club they stumble into a world buried for centuries-an underground system of corridors chambers and impossible machines built by something not human. Down in the dark waits the Watcher the Architect and a presence so ancient it predates the idea of gods.</p><p>What begins as adventure becomes survival as the boys realize the ruins are not abandoned. They are <em>listening</em>.<br> And they want one thing:</p><p>A successor.</p><p>When Freddie is chosen by the Architect system he begins to change-glowing pulsing with alien power pulled toward a destiny he never asked for. Jimmy refuses to lose him. Together the boys descend through collapsing worlds and impossible tests fighting to save Freddie from becoming something beyond human.</p><p>In the final chamber the First Presence offers Freddie a choice:</p><ul><li>Ascend and become the new Architect<br><br> </li><li>Die and let the system continue<br><br> </li><li>Or sacrifice the world itself<br><br> </li></ul><p>Freddie chooses something forbidden: Us.<br> The ruins collapse. The system dies. And Jimmy pays the price to bring Freddie back to life-giving him a piece of his own spark in exchange.</p><p>They survive the impossible.</p><p><br> </p>