pieces | ethma

danger zone sneak peek

CHAPTER ONE

Ethan

I woke up drenched in sweat.

Holy. Shit.

I've had crazy dreams, but not like that.

Sheesh, my heart was beating so fast. I looked around me, finally realizing that I'm fine, and I was just home in my room.

I had a dream they took her away from me.

Let me explain a little.

Emma is my closest friend. She's been visiting me in my dreams since I was two. We've been through everything together, but only in my dreams.

She doesn't exist in real life.

That's why I'm not allowed to talk about her to anybody that isn't my mom. My mom knows, and she told me never to speak of it again unless I was talking to her about it.

I wasn't even allowed to tell my twin brother.

I was seventeen at the time, and life felt pretty normal for a teenager.

You know, hating the government, but never saying a word about it. Wondering if you'll ever escape the hell hole that is Sweland.

Maybe even just leaving the province.

It was completely allowed, and even encouraged. As long as you didn't leave Sweland, you could go anywhere within the twenty provinces.

I didn't know why I had always felt such a strong connection to Mayfield, Wisconsin in Province 6. I lived all the way over in Province 17.

Hankersville, New Jersey, Province 17.

I never felt like I belonged in Hankersville. Ever. Maybe I felt like I wasn't even supposed to be in New Jersey. Definitely not Province 17.

But why did I feel such a strong pull towards Mayfield?

I was seventeen, a junior in high school, and a baseball player for the All-Province 17 team. I made the top team, so we'd play ball against some of the other Province's teams.

Emma was a regular part of my life, except I was the only person who was allowed to know about her. I stopped telling my mother about it years ago, because I could tell it scared her.

I mean, my dreams were vivid. I could feel, see, touch, hear. That wasn't all. I could remember. Most people I knew couldn't remember the dreams they had, but I remembered every single one of them.

Emma meant everything to me. She was just as real to me as anyone I had ever met.

I loved her.

It's true. I really loved her.

We went through so much together.

Every dream, every nightmare.

Maybe she didn't exist, but to me she did.

That was the biggest confusion in my life.

If she did exist, where the hell was she?

If she didn't exist, why has she been in my dreams this whole time?

Finding out she didn't exist was something that would break my heart. I decided I didn't wanna know.

She existed to me, and that's what mattered.

I remember the day I got a letter in the mail, addressed to only me. I usually didn't get much mail, so this was intriguing for me.

I went upstairs to my room, opening the letter.