𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐇𝐒 | 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐄

一 | 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄

[𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝟏] — 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐡𝐬

━━━━━━━━━━━━
•─────⋅☾ 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒆/𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒇𝒖𝒍 ☽⋅─────•
━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑹𝑰𝑺𝑬𝑵 𝑺𝑼𝑵 𝑰𝑺 𝑨𝑵𝑵𝑶𝑼𝑵𝑪𝑬𝑫 𝑾𝑰𝑻𝑯 𝑨 𝑾𝑬𝑳𝑳-𝑩𝑬𝑯𝑨𝑽𝑬𝑫 𝑭𝑳𝑶𝑶𝑫 𝑶𝑭 𝑮𝑶𝑳𝑫𝑬𝑵 𝑳𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 𝑻𝑯𝑹𝑶𝑼𝑮𝑯 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑾𝑰𝑵𝑫𝑶𝑾. You stretched your arms upwards, straightening out your fingers and elbows as you attempted to touch the ceiling. Your muscles ached, but there was a rush of epinephrine surging through your veins. You envisioned a pleasant afternoon. Your palms brushed against the chilly, solid surface of your desk as you lowered your hands. Your stretches caused every bone in your body to scream in pleasure. This was the type of life you aspired to lead. A routine, perhaps a lifestyle, that seemed carefree and easy to maintain. Returning to your dormitory after the happiest days was almost agonizing since it meant abandoning the wonderful, happy life you had worked so hard to achieve and entering a world where you didn't belong.

Run through a flower valley and put your studies aside for a small taste of happiness provided by the tips of your fingers and the thrill of the scene. Quite a dream, you would imagine, but it's unlikely to occur anytime soon. You could only recline back in your chair, your eyes wandering across your schoolwork, the engravings on the parchment glittering underneath the natural light as your fingertips stroked against them, while you took notes in your typical flamboyancy. The hollow sense of never being perfect enough crept deeper into your mind, engraving itself like a stitching needle on the kinks of your head. Perhaps what you were doing just now was only a diversion. A minor, fleeting distraction that can take your mind off the ordinary, painful, and harsh aspects of life.

You've gotten proficient at diverting your attention away from those unpleasant memories.

You never actually indulged in activities with others, despite being extremely popular at school. You found it revolting, realizing that you had deceived people rather than exposing your real persona. You've often pondered whether or not you should remove your mask. But, like your own parents, would they think of you as uninteresting and plain? You pressed your lips together as you frowned.

You were relieved, though, that you had created your circle of friends by this point in the school year. Many students in Advanced Nurturing High had haughty personas that made you wonder if they were that way for a cause. Can you blame them, though? You were also doing it. It seemed as though time slowed significantly while you continued to ponder foolish matters.

Your entire life has been based on a ridiculous falsehood.

You reasoned that there must be someone else in the world who had had similar experiences to you, who had seen the world in subdued tones as you did. That, though, could just be wild speculation. You emphasized to yourself that it was a greedy thought. It was naive of you to expect there would be individuals willing to spend time trying to discover exactly who you were. You didn't want to be a burden toward others.

This merely reminded you about something you'd read on the web before. You were certain that people's perspectives on the world differed, and that it might apply to anyone and everyone. It was called Viewing the World in Color, but you didn't know why you were so obsessed with it. You did, however, see something that piqued your curiosity.