Monochromatic

There was this girl in a monochromatic world who reeked of colors. In this world where black and white were the standards despise any droplet of color. It was wretched, strange, and staining. The aura of color was so strong that even the presence drove people all away.

  People didn’t want to touch it thinking it was contagious. They also feared becoming different, feeling suffocated. To stand out. To suddenly not be able to hide under their monochromatic cloaks.

  So this girl roamed about, like an infectious disease. Her colors emitted a glow that scared people. Whenever she tried to get along with them, they would put a wall, they would put her down and scoff at her. Colors were permanent and commitment was terrifying.

  One day, a curious boy saw her colors. He could feel her intensity, he knew it would burn but his fascination and curiosity made him want to learn. He approached her slowly, taking her by surprise. She didn’t know to react because he was the first person to share a space with her. Her desperate eagerness made her act fast and she grabbed his hand.

  He was alarmed. It felt like something beyond his imagination. The colors scorched him, searing into his skin. The immense shock of it all made him snap away. He was terrified at their difference. She realized she had hurt him, shrinking away, she tried her best to tame the colors from hurting him anymore. However, the damage had been done. She felt terrible.

  The pain was too much for him, he didn’t want to feel it anymore so he ended up running away. A week passed by and he looked at his scorched hand, scarred of colors. His friends told him to get it treated but he didn’t want to. His friends him that he would look funny if he continued to walk around with colored scarred hands. For some reason, he didn’t mind. He had felt something different and his curiosity was growing.

  Slowly every day he began to experience new emotions. He started dealing with new situations and to him, life began more interesting. He had gotten used to this pain, but it was teaching him so much more.

  Days passed by and he realized the color wasn’t that bad. The heat wasn’t necessarily burning but could be seen as warm. Being used to the icy coolness of the monochromatic world was comforting, however, he was learning the new boundaries of the heat of the color. Suddenly, he didn’t want to be the same. He wanted to try new hues.

  People started looking at him funny, found him repulsive, and his refusal to regain his icy veil made him unwanted. Still, he was becoming happy. He discovered a new form of comfort, he started discovering his individuality, and he started finding confidence in his uniqueness. The colors gave him the strength he never knew existed.

  He wanted to find the girl again, to tell her how much she had helped him.

  When he found her though, her blazing colors had diminished significantly. If before the colors were comparable to the sun, now they looked candlelight, desperately clinging onto the oxygen in the air to breathe. He asked her what had happened, she said she had burned too many people and was working on taming her flames all this time.

  She said she left too many people hurt. He shook his head and said it wasn’t the pain they were feeling, but an unfamiliar shock so new people would wince as if it were something harmful. She look at him doubtfully, she had just recently learned to be proud of her ability to hide her colors. And here he was, unraveling the reality she had just managed to get used to.

  He pointed at the burning ground behind her, a very clear trail of where she had just walked. He said people would come, just like him, they would all come back because they wouldn’t be able to go back to the monochromatic world.

  She still doubted him, proud of her dimness. He reached for her hand and was taken aback at how much the color had spread. He had left it to engulf his entire arm and beyond his shoulder. What began as a mark, he had left it to grow, cultivating the colors to his own liking. When their hands touched, for the first time, nobody pulled their hands away. He held her hands tightly, warmth met with warmth, a sensation she never felt before. He reassured her this wouldn’t be the last time she would feel this.

  A year down the road, she was surrounded by people of color. They all came back. All of them walked together, holding hands, scorching the ground they walked on with hues. Her little flame grew in size, though incomparable to the beginning. She was slowly regaining her ability to emit a stronger light again. The majority of the world was still monochromatic, and people found colors repulsive, but the group didn’t care. They were just happy to share their colors with the world. And they started to attract all the colorful people who had only been trying to contain their hues, just like her once.

  Their monochromatic world cracked a little. There was a clear path of color that existed now, and it was up to people who saw it to decide whether to take part.