White

White.

That was all she saw. White on the ground to crunch below her feet, white in the sky to block the sun, white in the ice on wind that cut across her face. A white coated bag beating against her side. Something white peaking out of it.

Sometimes the snow would break off her hair and she would see a flash of color only for it to be drowned back out almost to soon for her to notice. She didn't know if she was thankful to have seen it at all or mad for it to mock her- just a glimpse of something new, just enough to know there's better, and soon it's gone again. But that didn't matter right then.

Her mother had hair red like a fire. The kind so red no matter what you put on it it always shone through. Dye, dark, or the white that seemed to follow her around like it was a stray pup and she was a piece of meat. A literal color in a world with none. She took in a breath, letting the bladed ribbons slice through her lungs and down to her gut. Her mother did that a lot. Said it was a good kind of pain.

Then there was Calum. A tall guy. Sometimes to her mind his head looked like it would burst right through the clouds and he'd leave them all behind. He could've. A lot of them could've. And yet, in the same, they can't. She thought they all might've had the same feeling in some form or another. How you can't escape the white. That you could just keep running and running and in the end it would swallow you whole.

And sweet little Rosalind. Well, maybe not too sweet. Her chubby little hands would grab at everything in sight, even if she couldn't reach it. She didn't care everything was white. She was just happy. She wondered if she used to be like that too.

White.

She stopped.

Red.

A flower.

White.

She sat. Her back rested on the slab behind her. They all looked the same. But she knew this one, and the two beside it, and most of the ones on and on. Rather sad, she thought. All these people get to show they lived is a little slab of rock just like everyone else.

White.

She closed her eyes.

Black.

The darkness.

White.

The light.

White.

The bladed ribbons wrapped around her neck.

White.

A snowflake.

White.

So much white.

White.

Winter.

White.

Why does the winter cover everything?