Live in Color

eight - yellow

To say I'm in shock when I reach the town park would have to be an understatement.

By the time I begin approaching, I can already sense something is wrong. Camera crews and news vehicles are parked and practically surrounding the park. There are some police cars as well- my commute is definitely slowed down from the amount of times I've had reduce my speed for the police to pass by. Besides that, though, there's the obvious huge fire lighting up the night sky right in the middle of the park.

I park my car in the first spot I find, practically sprinting out of the car while texting Jamie that I'm here. I can hear the sounds of chanting and screaming going on and as I approach I see just how many people there are gathered around this fire. My eyebrows furrow; why would people want to be around a fire?

Through pure luck, I'm able to find Jamie and Cole standing near the front of the crowd after searching for only about three minutes. Pushing through the people, I barely manage to stumble over to them, Cole grabbing my arm to keep me from falling on my face when I almost trip over someone's foot. Jamie turns to me, her blue eyes wide and wild. "Natalie!" she yells but I still barely hear her over the crowd of people. Grabbing my hand, she pulls us to the very front of the crowd, when I can finally see what exactly is going on.

Rebels.

The fire isn't a natural one- it's an enormously tall bonfire. Rebels are gathered around it, chanting something I'm not quite able to catch, tossing what looks like to be color books in the fire. I feel my breath hitch- it's a protest.

Protests aren't all that rare- they might happen once or twice a year. I never paid much attention to them before, so at first I'm confused as to why Jamie called me down. But then I'm quick to realize- Jericho.

"Have you seen him?" I yell to Jamie, knowing that she'll know right away who I'm talking about.

Jamie shakes her head, "No, I'm just praying he's not one of the protesters."

Against my will, I feel my heart ache at the thought of Jericho being at one of these protests after already finding me- his soulmate. Shaking my head, I rid myself of those thoughts and take my time to try and look around. There's a good sixty people chanting and throwing books into the fire. There are police officers trying to negotiate with some of the protesters, but there's not much they can do- nothing happening here is exactly illegal. Rebels have the freedom of speech, just like everyone else. The bonfire is being contained safely and the burning of color books isn't against the law.

I've never seen the point of these protests. No matter what, those people are going to find their soulmate. My mom had once told me that rebels do what they do because they've been hurt in the past either by a soulmate, or someone they know has and they lose belief in them. As sad as I find that, I don't think it's worth doing stuff like this and then rejecting your soulmate when you finally do find them, leaving you sick for the rest of your life. Rebels cover if up well, but it's obvious that those who have rejected or have been rejected are never the same now. Looking at the group of sixty now, even now I can see the older men and women looking worn out, either way too thin or way too overweight than what is healthy and almost permanently angry looking.

"Jericho!" I hear Jamie yelling beside me, my head snapping to her direction to see her waving to someone in the onlookers. I exhale in relief- Jericho isn't part of this protest. Well, at least he's not one of the ones burning the books.

When Jericho meets my eyes, I expect him to turn the other direction. Instead he turns to the person beside him, tells them something, and the heads over to us with a blank expression. When he gets to us, his arms crossed over his chest, I notice his amber eyes are hard. Jamie gestures to the chaos going on, "What is this?"