Chapter 1

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Do you ever notice how calm and silent the world is when it's snowing? It's almost as if everything pauses for a second just to let the snow float slowly down from the sky to the ground.

Staring out my room's window, I thought of this. I imagined myself being shrunk down to a microscopic size just to float down on a snowflake, only to land in the nothingness made of white.

Looking at Area 27, it looks as if it got cold and pulled a blanket of white over itself to keep warm, though the snow itself is cold. The Area looked so peaceful. Everyone in their houses probably doing whatever their daily lists say they need to be doing.

Standing there at my window, letting my warm breath fog it up only to wipe it away seconds later, I forgot what I was supposed to be doing. I looked at my reflection in the window to take a look at my collar bone for the 7th time that day. It still said 24Mo/8760D/210250Hrs/12614400M/756864000S then 756863999S and so on, and so on.

I know that looking at it isn't going to make the time count down faster but I just want to meet them. I want to throw my arms around their neck and whisper, "I'm so happy I finally found you."

I've done the math of what age I'll be when it happens. I'll be 19. Which means I'll have to have our first child at 21. We absolutely have to wait 2 years before we start a family. The Ones never explained why though. They just told us that in two years, you will know everything you need to about your mate and it's a healthier relationship if you both are more comfortable with each other.

"Ketsia!" A voice from downstairs yelled and broke my train of thought.

"Yeah mum?" I yelled back, already having an idea of what she was going to say. It happened almost every day at the same time over and over and over again.

"It's time to come downstairs! You need to clean up from dinner," her voice was getting closer, meaning she was coming up here.

I took a look around my room to see my books and paint sprawled everywhere.

Sure, you'd think books and go, "oh. She's a book reader," but no. Well, I am but these aren't your average books. I'm looking up the history of the world but it's hard because all of the books on it that came out before the year 2100 were destroyed. At least, that's what I've been told.

Being she was coming quickly I had to shove them all under my bed and at that time, I was glad my house came with a hovering bed and not one of the old-timey ones that just sorta sat on the floor on a frame that couldn't get higher or lower. I was also grateful for the fact that my blankets went down to the floor.

Shoving everything under my bed, I started to hear my mother's footsteps getting closer and closer by the second. I gave up on the last few things and pretty much jumped to my door, grabbed the door handle and stepped out just in time for my mum to come around the corner.

"Oh, you're on your way down now?" She asked.

"Yeah. Sorry I had to, uh, go pee," I said in a hesitant rush.

"Umm, okayyyyy," she said back with a question mark face.

I started bounding down the stairs when my mother rushed up behind me and said, "stop that!" In a yelling whisper, "do you want us to get in trouble for running, Ketsia?"

I sighed dramatically then slowed down and replied, "no, mother."

Though I'm 17 years old, I'm still not used to all of the strict rules The Ones have set. We aren't aloud to cry in public because they think that if a spy from The Hostiles sees us crying, they'll see it as a form of weakness and strike against us.

In case you were wondering, The Hostiles are our enemy. They seek out to kill us, or so we've been told. I say that because I don't think that's what they want. I think they want to overthrow The Ones and claim The Areas as their own. That's what I think.

I finally got to our kitchen and everyone was just sitting there, staring at me. This is not what usually happens. What usually happens is, I come downstairs, sweep up the dust, clean up the kitchen and throw our leftovers in the trash bin and take the trash out to the incineration can.

Tonight wasn't our usual night.

"Ketsia," my dad began, "we got a call from one of the Overlookers. Your grandmother, she," he cut off with a sob and right then I knew what he was saying and then I realized. All the windows had been covered with our blackout curtains that are only to be used in the case of a tragedy.

My grandma... She's dead. I felt my knees start to shake as my legs gave out and I fell to the floor and just sat there like a pile of flesh and bones.

Everything about my grandma, my memories, her smile, everything was running through my mind and that's when I could feel the tears stinging my eyes when they finally spilled over onto my cheeks. Once the tears started, they wouldn't stop.

"When," I started to say then sobbed and attempted to continue, "when did she—" I said but was cut of by my sobs which were so intense they made my whole body double over in emotional pain.

"Earlier this evening," my mother said, sounding surprisingly calm. I mean, I know she wasn't her mother or anything but my mum loved grandmother. She should be crying along with me, my father and my younger brother, Kyo.

I looked to the left of me where she was standing and she just standing there with her arms crossed over her chest with one tear falling down her cheek.

We knew she was getting sick, my grandma. She had some sort of parasite that was causing her to go insane. I guess the Norns finally decided to put an end to her insanity...

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The rest of the night was a blur but I remember crawling into bed and getting comfy and the tears started again and I cried myself to sleep.

A/N: Sorry it took so long to write the first chapter. Because of the fact that it's my first story on here, I sort of became a perfectionist about it.. I still don't think it's perfect and nor will I ever but nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed it.

A/N: I've decided that the best person to represent Ketsia would be India Eisley, so that's who I've chosen. I think she fits perfectly.

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