When he first opened his eyes, he saw nothing.
Then there was bight light everywhere, covering everything. It was all that existed. It was frightening and awesome and it lasted for a heartbeat of a year. It blew his mind, and he couldn't find the words to describe it, nor could he summon the thoughts to fathom it.
The bright light faded, and new things appeared; he would later learn they were called 'colors', and they were even more amazing than the light. Some of them reflected the light, others stole it and kept it for themselves. They formed shapes and textures, and he looked around slowly in awe at everything around him. It was, pure and simple, beautiful.
Over time his eyes grew accustomed to the light, and he learned how to see depth, distance, and angles. It helped him to maneuver through the world that was laid out before him. And at the end of the day, when the last of the light faded and the colors disappeared, he would be back in the darkness once again.
Safe.
The light was dangerous. It allowed him to see, and sometimes he wasn't supposed to see. The things he wasn't supposed to see were ugly and terrifying and whenever someone discovered he had seen them bad things happened. In the dark, nothing could be seen, and there was no danger of seeing things which were meant to go unseen. He was grateful for the dark. It gave him peace.
He didn't understand why there were things that no one wanted him to see. He didn't understand why there were things he wasn't to hear. He did understand that they wanted to hide something, and whenever he started to learn about it bad things would happen. He didn't want to learn, he didn't do it on purpose--but it happened, whether he wanted to or not, he saw things.
Except in the dark, where the light was absent and colors couldn't shine. Here he saw only the images in his mind.
Those images were safe. They had no real light, and no one else could see them but him. They were also much happier than the things he saw in the light; the colors were brighter, and the bad things stayed away. The Outside was here, and so were all the other things he loved dearly. These images were called 'dreams', and they were special to him. He guarded them, keeping them hidden from the Overseers.
Dreams gave him joy, but they also sparked something else in him that was far more precious.
Hope.
