Heightened: The Federation Series Read Free

decided, I wanted to get away, to learn and explore. Education is one of only four occupations that allowed you to travel outside of our territory: Politics, Transportation, and Defense were the other three. I am not cut out for Politics, Transportation seems terribly boring and Defense would never be an option for me; I am too weak and afraid of what is outside our borders.
    BANG
    I jump, bringing my hand to my mouth to cover my screech.
    “Are you done?” Pam’s voice is shrill and annoying, as usual.
    “In a minute,” I snap back at her.
    I look in the mirror. I look the same, but today I will become a new me. My mind wanders to my nightmare, which is what I’ve decided to call it because accepting the notion that it could be anything more is terrifying. I can still see his eyes, but his face has faded. I feel a twitch in my heart, and I can feel a slow, warmth spread across my face.
    “If only you were real,” I say to myself. It’s always the same after I have the nightmare; I ache for him. He is a part of me. It is an angry, cruel, twist of fate that I long for someone that is merely a wisp of a person.
    I lean close to the mirror. “It feels so real.” I can remember him from the nightmare, and from dreams of places I have never been, or seen. I have moments when I feel like he will turn the corner, but it’s the heartache of opening my eyes and expecting him to be lying next to me in the morning. I’ll reach for him in my sleep, and wake terrified. I’ve walked the house searching for him before I realize he was just a dream.
    I finish getting ready and open the door to Pam: arms crossed; foot tapping and a scowl focused directly towards me. I hear my parents’ downstairs getting breakfast ready. I don’t want to argue with Pam.
    “I’m sorry,” my voice is quiet and steady, “I was reminiscing…daydreaming.”
    “I keep forgetting,” she says. She tugs at her hair, twisting it around her forefinger. “Who will I fight with…now that you’re leaving?”
    I think for a minute how my leaving will affect her and my brothers. I’m 18 and the oldest, so no one in our family has had to say goodbye to a child. Well, I guess I’m not a child, anymore. I’m an adult and for the next year I will be experiencing our territory, meeting new people and beginning my life.
    “It won’t be that bad,” I say.
    “You can say that because your life is perfect,” she scowls, “soon to be Mrs. Adam Benson.”
    “I’m far from perfect and I don’t think an arranged marriage is romantic at all. Besides I might score incompatible with Adam.” My voice is too loud, and I can see she’s upset, but I don’t care. I’m still aching for the man in my nightmare. “Wouldn’t it be nice to fall in love?”
    “You are insane.” She uncrosses her arms and points her bony little finger at me. “You shouldn’t say things like that out loud, or someone will think you’re conspiring with the rebels.”
    “There are no rebels, just unorganized bands of crazy, disease banished people.” I’m starting to go from annoyed to angry. I don’t want the last moments with my sister to be bad moments. I take a deep breath. “I’m sorry; let’s not fight.”
    “It’s okay; you just frustrate me. You’re so naïve,” she smiles. “You, need to remember who you are and keep true to you.”
    I take a moment to take in what she just said to me. It was an odd thing, for a 16 year old, to say, but it was her tone that surprised me. Was she warning me? I brush the thought aside.
    “You can bother one of the boys,” I say with a forced smile. I usually like our arguments, but this conversation is beginning to bring down my mood. She is my only sister, and we share a bond greater than I do with my brothers, but I have so much happening in my life right now.
    “They’re no fun.” I see tears swell up in her eyes, but they disappear as soon as they form. Her program takes over and calms her emotions. She walks past