Colors : The Spectrum of Light

Chapter 6

Alabaster stared at her, fascinated yet somewhat nervous. Something about her presence felt like it was draining the life away from him. It was odd to him yet none of the others seemed to feel off.

After stepping out completely into the light, she looked from Spots to Alabaster, her black irises never blinking, consuming the light around it to make them look like bottomless holes in her eyes. She trekked forward, standing tall before Alabaster who was seemingly avoiding eye contact.

Alabaster unconsciously swallowed, finally looking up to her. She was even taller when she stood closer to him. She gave him a curious glance, squinting her eyes as she inspected him as he stood there rigidly, not knowing what to do with himself.

She spoke. "When was your induction ceremony supposedly going to be?"

Alabaster gulped again, not knowing why he was so nervous. He tried to steady his breath as he spoke to her. "It was yesterday."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "You got away? You're very lucky. I haven't known a single White to escape, and I've seen a lot of people. Consider escaping an achievement."

Alabaster wasn't sure of how to respond, but thankfully he didn't need to. She refocused her attention on the others. "If you guys don't mind, I'd like to speak with him. Each of you had your turn at some point when you were all the new ones, so now it's his. Besides, he's extremely rare and I think he has an interesting story to tell. If you guys could leave for a moment, he'll be down soon enough. Just don't leave, I'm pretty sure he hasn't memorized his way around the woods yet."

The other four granted them the opportunity to speak alone. Alabaster stood there anxiously as she paced back and forth.

Her hair swayed as if it was under water and her steps were like she was dancing on the clouds. Her movements were elegant and graceful yet she still gave off such a powerful aura, one that made you feel like she should always be the one in charge.

"You know, it isn't a lie when I say you're rare." Midnight began, lowering herself to the floor so she could sit down. Alabaster followed suit, finding it weird if he stayed standing. "I'm guessing you think I'm a rare color too, don't you?"

Alabaster nodded. It wasn't a lie, it was a genuine belief. That's what he had always been told and he never thought twice about it. Until now of course.

"That's what they told you, no?" She continued, staring him right in the eyes. Again, he nodded. "We're the unwanteds, the omens of death and bad luck. The sketchy ones. Everything that could go wrong with someone is what we are.." She let out a sigh, glancing from the floor to the sky, then back at him. "That's all a lie."

Alabaster thought he would be more surprised when he heard this, but his whole life was a lie at this point, it wasn't surprising that other information that they fed him was false.

"They only tell you that because they know that there's some of us out there. There's a lot of us out there. A lot of us manage to escape our predetermined deaths and live on. They couldn't conceal the fact from the children so they made up a lie saying that we're useless and not needed in their "perfect" world. But it never mattered. It was us that never needed their world. Since a lot of us had escaped, they couldn't hide us, unlike the Whites. They were completely erased from history, only to be seen as the symbol of the children. They make us look like the enemy when they don't know that there's hundreds of us. Thousands even. We're not the outcasts they tell you we are. We are the symbols of elegance, power and mystery, we may not be the most social but that doesn't make us outcasts. We're just neglected and denied, but we're beautiful in ways that others can't seem to understand sometimes... That's why someone becomes a Black. It's not that they don't have a purpose, they just have a strong sense of self that isn't defined by their personality. They can't be defined that way so think of it like a genetic malfunction where your body doesn't know how to read the code it's given. Really we can be just like anyone else but we have a special characteristic in where we are the hardest to influence, whether that be other people, words, or ideas." Midnight paused, realizing that she had said more than she wanted to. "White is the only real rare color because it's rather the opposite of that and I find it fascinating that you managed to make it out alive." Midnight told him. "Tell me, how did you get out? You're wanted dead more than me, and that's saying something."