A World Without Colour

02 | solis

"The rest of the world was black and white,

but we were in screaming colour."

–Out of the Woods, Taylor Swift

"What happened?" Ophelia whispered, her eyes squeezed shut from fear––as if she was too nervous to see us in our new monotone forms.

I, however, was staring at her with wide eyes, feeling utterly and completely confuzzled.

"Nothing."

"What?"

"Nothing happened, Ophie!" I cried, half-excited and half-terrified. "We have our colour."

Ophelia opened her eyes slowly. "If this is one of your jokes, Solis––" Then she froze, picked up a strand of her hair and gaped at its still bright-purple, pink, and blue strands.

Then she looked at me. "What does this mean?"

What did this mean? Did it mean we weren't Nightwatchers? Could we still go out during the day? Or were we still supposed to stay in the night? Where would we stay?

Would I ever find my mother?

That last question was the one I thought of most.

Twelve years of endless searches had passed and I still hadn't found her. Leaving me with only one more place to look...The Night.

Maeve Moore had to be in the Night. It had to be where she'd disappeared to the day I turned six years old.

Now, you might be thinking. "Oh, so you didn't really go with Ophelia because you cared about her. You went because of your mother."

Well first of all, you're wrong. I don't go anywhere unless Lia is with me or I know she's safe, and vice-versa. So, I certainly wasn't having her go into the Night without me, she was the closest thing I had to a family and I was never letting her go.

Buuuuuuut, she was the only reason I hadn't gone into the Night before now, so her getting sentenced was kind of a really good excuse to go look for my Mum.

Was I going to tell her that? Nooooooo.

"Will we be able to leave?" she asked, as if I know.

"I dunno," I muttered, pushing any thoughts of my Mum out of my mind. I couldn't have Ophelia know how much pain I was in at that moment. "But I do know that we need to find a place to camp out until we find out. C'mon, Sunshine." I picked up Fish (who'd managed to fall asleep) and began walking away with him.

"Shut up," she frowned even deeper.

"Light of my life?" I tried.

"Solis."

"Fine, Grumps."

"I deeply regret nicknaming you Apollo," she muttered.

"Serves you right, now let's find some shelter, Solar-panel," I teased even more.

"You are truly pathetic," she rolled her eyes, following me down the street, still wide-eyed with shock at our (maybe failed?) 'draining'.

☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎

"My legs are about to fall off, Ophie," I panted, "let's take a break."

"Rest is for wimps," she said sternly, "are there really no hotels or something for Nightwatchers?"

"I dunno, I've never been a Nightwater before."

"Ha. Ha. You're so funny," she said sarcastically, continuing our search. After about thirty seconds she stopped in her tracks, making me walk into her back. I yelped in pain.