Heshra

Chapter 1

In my dream, I am in my house, sitting in the living room, but something is different. I look around and then realize what it is. The door is no longer the metal and steel that it normally is. It is a polished wood that shines in the light of the room. I stand up and walk over to it. I turn the round handle and push the door open. Standing outside of it is a hooded figure. The figure lifts up its head and when I look into the hood, it is not a face that I see but an eye. A big round eye is in replace of the head. The light of the morning sun glints off the shiny surface. The eye is bloodshot and glares at me. I scream and try to run but fail. It is like my feet are stuck to the ground. I stare straight into the pupil of the horrific giant eye and then everything becomes dark.

I wake up, gasping, just as the sun starts to rise in the horizon. I know it was just a dream but something about it make it seem so real. I sit up and my eyes scan the room. They land on a dress, sitting at the foot of the bed. My graduation dress. It is a skyblue and has sequins on the top and bottom part. It flows when I walk like a flag soaring behind me. I never wear dresses much, but in all the ones I have worn, this one by far is my favorite. Today is a special day. It is the day I will be sent away to training. All the Rivas (revolutions around the sun) do it. It is part of being in my society. My society is called Heshra. It is one of the six Sectors in our world. Never have I traveled to any of the other Sectors. I have heard many great and adventurous stories of them from my mother and father of course. There is Whylex, Saurina, Duranza, Laurotha, Karkus and finally, Heshra. All of the fifteen year olds also known as Rivas (because after fifteen, the ages don't matter,) are taken away to training along with the fifteen year olds from all of the other Sectors. We are called Rivas because it is the last year that we really care about our ages. We all have the same birthday. The first day of the fourth month. Ages are not an important part in our society other than graduation year.

I slip the dress on and head into the kitchen. Mom is already in there, frying eggs. She has dark shadows under her eyes from the lack of sleep in the morning. Her blonde hair is pulled into a bun with wisps falling out to frame her face. My little sister Penny is sitting at the small table we use for breakfast, finishing up some last minute homework. Her head hangs down as she focuses on the paper in front of her, her small hand scribbling away pausing to calculate the equation in her head. They both look up from what they are doing to admire me in my new dress.

"Wow Myra," Penny says, looking me up and down. "I like your dress."

I smile and twirl for them a little. Just then, Jay, my twin brother walks in. He is wearing a tux that Mom had to practically force him to buy. It suits him though. His hair is still in a tangled knot that makes him look like he rolled out of bed and down the stairs. "Morning," He yawns making his way to sit next to Penny.

"Morning," I reply, pulling out a chair so I am sitting across from him.

"Nice dress," He looks at me, his sleepy eyes traveling from my face to my hair and down to my dress.

"Thanks. Are you ready for today?" I ask him.

"Not sure," he replies. On the outside he looks so calm but after fifteen years of sharing my life with him, I am able to see through his calm demeanor to the fear behind his eyes. Thought of leaving to go to train on a island in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of strangers scares us all.

I look around the room and see Dad appear in the doorway, the newstablet in his hand. In my history class, we learned that news were told through newspapers and other things like that. Now we use newstablets. They are connected to the doors and taken down when you want to find out what the weather is like or hear what happened in one of the other Sectors or read articles. Then, when you are done with them, you attach them to the door so the neurons and wires can feed it more information.