"Step!" 

I hear the soldiers outside of our house. The sky is visible from our large window seen grey and cloudy with pollution. As always, strict discipline to keep it in order... Their shift is from six in the morning to seven at night. No breakfast or lunch, but a small dinner afterwards. What a life, they must be complaining why they do this.. But illegal if you do not participate as a male of sixteen years of age or older. 

"Salute!" 

I start making breakfast while watching the soldiers outside. "Wouldn't they love to have some..?," I wonder in my countless thoughts.

"Ready!"

"It's so noisy..," I hear my sister, Katrina mumble as she woke up. Her morning hair reflected the sunlight as if a dark, transparent mirror had been hit with white rays of warmness.
"Well, you should be used to it.," I reply. 

"Ignite!"

"They're ready to shoot, unless someone messes up, so put on your earmuffs.." I grab two off the usual hanger and throw one at Katrina. She frowns and puts it on. It is illegal to complain about the noise, for it is none of our 'business'.

"Halt! What are you doing?!," the chief yells as he pulls a soldier's hair. The rest of the soldiers stare in boredom at the soldier ready for punishment. 

"Oh, never mind. Go back to sleep, someone's about to get whipped.," I say while smiling. "Yippee!," unsure of what I had said, she assumed that it was what she expected, and proceeded to take off the earmuffs as she cuddles into her dirty blankets. "We need to wash up everything soon. Spring clean up.," I say softly, expecting an enthusiastic reply. But Katrina had already fallen asleep. 

Our house is two rooms. The counter tops of the kitchen are pressured to the right and the stove and fridge on the left. In the middle of the split kitchen is a dining table for two. It is illegal to have more than two in a house. 
The other two corners of the house contained a bed and a miniature library. In the library is where I teach my sister reading and writing. I attended school for three years, and she is four years younger than I. She could not learn because our parents were assassinated, for you can not attend school without parents. It is illegal. 
There is a television in the middle of the room, broken so that it can not be turned off. We mute it overnight because it is extremely noisy. The small 'bedroom' is our bathroom. 

I spend my time either cleaning corpses outside, praying, or reading. I can not cross the barrier that the king has drew around our home. It is illegal. 
I love reading, but there is a mysterious book in our library that I don't understand. I head over to the library and stare at the book. It is in the same spot as it was since our mother died. I slowly take it out after a couple years of not touching it. The dirty molecules on it disgust me, so I blow it off. The king has been looking for it forever, and I have kept it secretly. It is a memento of our mother, for it is hers. It's related to the old Japanese legend we follow..I read the quote aloud. 

"Your soul mate is tied to you by a red string on your pinky. It is hard to find your soul mate, because you easily become confused with all the other strings that your--" I gasp for breath. Hands grasping my neck, invisibly. Of course, every time I try to find more about the book, a demon shall punish me..for it is bound to my mother's soul.

Not mine.

"Kina. Shut up. I'm trying to sleep!!!," Katrina yells from the other side of the room. "I'm reading the book..the book.," I whisper loudly.

Katrina's eyes widened. "I thought it made your soul -- Put it down now! Dammit!" She ran over and tries to take the book away. I struggle to keep her away but I pinch her and she flinches. "Kina.."

I push her away gently.

"Stop it... Katrina. I'm fine." Her fingers were trembling. 

"I'm fine.."

The rest of the day we laid outside. The soldiers have left to witness a punishment of the soldier who 'messed' up. We stared at the grey sky calmly, wondering when we can leave this world. Today is April the fourth, eighteen eighty-eight. On July the fifth, my birthday, I will leave this house. Katrina will be living alone. 

At the age of sixteen, females must leave their homes and make their way to a 'soul mate meeting'. The law asks the priests of this world to match females with a male soldier to create children. They take your pinkie, read the phrase of the legend and 'find your soul mate'. If they find out you are impure, or in terms you would understand, not a , your head is to be sliced off. That is why females live in a bounded house until the age of sixteen. 

It is illegal to meet with males before sixteen, and illegal to carry out any impure acts. 

Not only your head will be sliced off, your soul is also sold to the devil...

Hope you liked the first part! More to come!