I've always been eager to know more about the curse. What exactly happened and why nobody was able to break the curse. My mother always told me not to worry about those who could see color. She told me they were brats, awful creatures, yet that didn't scare me off. I wanted more. More knowledge, more facts, more information on how it all started, but we'll safe that for later.
It was a sunny day in my village, and yes, before you start wondering if we ─living only to see black and white─ could see the sun, we can, as I opened the curtains, in the shadow of my closet , throwing on a dress, just a simple, dark shade of grey dress, as I rushed down the stairs and opened the door, to get outside.
I squinted my eyes as they met the bright rays of sun that shone in my eyes. I let out a deep sigh, enjoying the tingle that the rays gave me on my skin. I was sixteen, tired and that was obvious ever since it was around 8 am. You could hear the birds, but not see them, and you could see the sheep, but not hear them.
Half an hour later I waddled back inside, stretching my arm as I got greeted by my mother who was cracking a fresh egg open in a pan, filling the room with this delicious egg scent. I loved egg, especially if they were freshly taken away by our chickens.
We lived in a normal house, but we had this huge backyard. A few months ago, there was a dog running around, but sadly a car ran over it and it died, right now, we had this huge chicken coop, where we had approximately twenty chicken running around, but we had no rooster, sadly. I'd love to hold some little chickens sometime.
Within ten minutes, my mom had made me breakfast. An egg with bacon on bread with some milk and tea, de-li-cious. I drank my tea, my milk and ate my bread. Before you start wondering that I should go to school, don't worry, we are on summer break, just about a week ago, and I promised myself that I would go and take a walk, go to a lake with Lauren, Az and Kade, and go to the bonfire party of Caleb.
Caleb, only even the name got me tight breathed. Caleb was the typical hunk of our high school. Everyone had a crush on him, even I had, at some point. Anyway, moving on, his parties were the events to attend. Big house, big pool, huge, huge bedrooms or the ones who wanted to get kinky.
After breakfast I got upstairs, brushed my hair and took a couple of strands, pulling it back. I checked my phone, no further messages sent, and that meant that we would meet at the, what we call, galaxy pond at one. I put my phone down and waked to the closet, trying to find something or tonight, something in what I would stand out, or well, mix in but, you know, be myself. After about half an hour searching or some clothes, I got three outfits. High waist black shorts with a floral top, a simple black but elegant dress, and some mom jeans with a plain black shirt. But being me, being indecisive, I decided I would choose one of these outfits later today, so I wouldn't have to worry about it now.
An hour later my stomach rumbled again. I was watching Netflix this morning, and eating cookies with. This summer seemed to be relaxing, as it would be a staycation, just like every year after the cure had been put upon us. Being lucky me, we have the galaxy pond around the corner, and you're probably wondering how we got the blue lake's named to the galaxy pond, well let me explain.
Me and Lauren have been friends or while now, and with a while I mean like our years. We used to always go to the galaxy pond together, and always around 2 pm, not really important but okay. Moving on, we had this bonfire party of Caleb, three years ago, and that's were Azarius, who we call Az, and Kade came in. we talked or a while, eventually ended up being friends with them. Meanwhile we talked and started our friendship, other guys and girls were playing truth or dare, typical. Kade eventually convinced me and Lauren to play with, as Azarius was with Kade. We agreed, played truth or dare, and I was dared to the Galaxy pond. Lauren told me she did not want to leave me alone that time, and as you may already guess, me and Lauren sneaked away from the bonfire party to the Galaxy pond. I might as well add, that the Bonfire party of Caleb wasn't only for teenagers, on the contrary, it was for the whole village, so yes, it was a dare to escape the grips of parents. We eventually arrived at the lake. Lauren and I both stared at the lake for a minute. Galaxy. The lake looked like a freaking galaxy. The shadows of the trees, mixing with the stars of the sky above reflecting in the water. It looked awesome, something you can quite imagine unless you've seen it with your own eyes. We started calling it the galaxy lake after, but lake was so overused, and if we would use lake, everybody would come there, and that was not what we wanted, although most people knew about this place already. So we came up with the galaxy pond. We would talk about the galaxy pond, no one would actually ever know about what Kade, Az, Lauren and I were talking. You should see this as our little secret.
It's a fifteen minute walk, five minute cycle session if you wanted to go to the Galaxy pond, from my house at least. At around quarter for one, I started walking. Wearing a dress that reached my knees, and from my vision it was a dark shade of a color. What color I couldn't seem to recognize, seeing as I can't see color, that was kinda obvious. Once I arrived, I met up with Az and Kade, still waiting for Lauren to show up, and that took a damn while until we saw a silhouette moving through the trees with two- no three bags. Lauren.
Kade was the first one to get to her and took two of the three bags from her. But something was not right, Lauren was panting. She looked up at Kade and sighed, murmuring something that I could not understand.
'They are coming, they have been following us for a while now.'
Being me, I was utterly confused what she meant with that. So also being me, blunt me, I walked over and chuckled, shaking my head as I kneeled in front of her, now she had been sinking to the ground slowly.
'Lau, you're just unwell. Az, grab some water for the poor homo sapien.' I said, wiping a strand of her hair out of her face, my eyebrow raised.
Lauren bit her lip and got up, grabbing the bag, pulling it to the lake as she walked, leaving me, Kade and Az in confusion. They are coming, they have been following us for a while.
'I it a sign, warning, or just complete bullshit?' Kade asked slowly.
'I vote for complete bullshit.' Azarius stated.
Both heads turned to mine, which had been turned to look at Lau.
'Aella?'
As I heard my name, my head turned to them in a second, recalling the question of Kade in my head. 'Warning.' I said, and after that single word escaped my lips, I got up and walked over to Lauren.
I flopped down next to Lauren, following her gaze. The water.
'So,' I started, hating the silence. 'what's in your bags?'
'Food, extra clothing and towels.'
'why would you need extra clothing?' I asked, utterly confused.
'The voices told me to. Can't help it. They just creep up on me and I can't stop them.'
'Lauren, I think you had too much alcohol, or drugs. Have you been using drugs? I mean, wouldn't surprise me if Kade got 'em for ya, but I wasn't expecting you to use em.' I heard Azarius say, from a small distance.
I looked up and turned around to see Azarius leaning against a tree, a smirk upon his face and his arms crossed.
'Have you been eavesdropping us, Az?' I asked, my blood slowly starting to boil. How dare he.
As soon as I asked the question, I heard Az laughing. Not a friendly kind of laugh, more like a scoff. Like he was insulting me somehow.
'Me? Eavesdropping, oh dear I possibly could not.' There was this mock in his voice, something she never heard before, or at least not in his voice.
I instantly got chills upon by skin, pulling my knees up to my chest. 'You're lying. And honestly, I think it's time for me to go.' After I said the words, I got up and gathered my stuff. 'Call me when you all are feeling good again, 'cause right now, y'all are scaring the crap out of me.'
After twenty minutes of slow walking, I got back home, and I was walking slowly this time, that's why it took me twenty minutes. Once I arrived home, I got the toaster down to make myself some French toast.
The rest of the day was rather uninteresting, until the time I went to bed, exact time 00.06 I got a call from Lauren.
'Idiot, what time do you think it is?' was my reaction as I had to open up my eyes and grab my phone, facing the bright light, even though it was only for a second.
'I swear, we gotto run. They're coming.' Lauren said.
In a second, I sat up in my bed.
'What do you mean Lauren?'
'They, color people.'
Color people. They were coming? What did that even mean?
'Lau, get your sleeping pills, we will talk about this tomorrow. You just need some rest.'
'I'm dead serious Aella, they warned me. They're warning me. I can hear them.'
'Right, yes, of course, just rest, I said we'll figure this all out tomorrow, I promise.'
It was a bad night. I was thinking about all that Lauren had said. Colour people are coming? What did that mean? Was it bullshit or indeed a warning, like I thought it was. Eventually, all my worries drowned as I fell asleep.
The next morning I woke up I got out of bed, for the change (just kidding) I took a shower. Soon as I got out, my phone was blown up with notifications. I didn't read them, leaving for when I was done with drying myself and I was dressed. Soon, I was sitting down, eating breakfast. I decided earlier that I would leave the messages for when I was having breakfast.
I wish I had opened them earlier though.
As I unlocked my phone, I stared at the sentence, the message I received from Kade. I spat out my drink, coughing as my mother just entered the room. She looked at me, frowning. I looked up, a hand running through my hair.
'What's wrong dear?' she asked, as I shook my head.
'It's Lauren, she's missing.'