• “Everyone belongs here! Join our utilitarian society today” the lights glared at her contrasting with the gray surroundings, she squinted and raised her hands to cover her eyes, turning around she began to walk home passing each utterly familiar and identical house. Her name was Lucy and her hair was a dull ashen blonde her skin pale from lack of sun, the sun never shined the clouds only mixed together creating a dome over the world, sealing everyone into its gray atmosphere mirroring the dull streets below. Gray. That was the only colour that existed here, the clothes, the houses and the identical grey eyes that seemed to possess the community. This was home. This was about to change. Lucy was knocked to the floor. She glanced up to see what she had hit and covered her face at the barrage of hues attacking her vision; she had never seen anything like it. Opposite her stood a man his hair like fire burning her eyes and his clothes seemingly originally grey reflected all the colours of the world. He held his hand out to her; it seemed unreal, like solid gold. Lucy had never seen anything like this before, it was forbidden. Which meant He was forbidden, she took his hand and he pulled her to her feet? Lucy was confronted by glowing grass green eyes. “Who are you and what are you doing here” she demanded glaring. “My name is-“.she interrupted him, “Scratch that, I don’t want to know who you are, just tell me what you are doing here”. “I am here to help, you people need some colour in your life, literally, no one can live like this like a smudge of grey on a coloured map where no one can’t tell you apart” he responded. She felt her anger bubbling to the surface “no, you can’t help us, we are the same, and we are all grey. In name and in personality, and that’s just the way it is, leave us alone” she argued but was confronted once more by the colours he wore, yellows and purples pinks and oranges in almost every hue seemed to dance upon his chest. She ran. She didn’t know these colours, she couldn’t have, there hadn’t been colours for years. She shut the door behind her and willed herself to forget everything about the colourful man, but as she glanced down she saw imprinted on her grey clothing a smudge of colour, one she could not identify she ripped the shirt off and scrubbed but it did not disappear.

    The next day she awoke claiming it to be a dream, however the shirt seemed to glow among her belongings proving it was not. After she had dressed something had caught her eye, under her door someone had slipped a note, upon inspection it read:

    To the woman with the strong voice,

    I wish to prove you wrong, let you see what you are missing. Meet with me at five o’clock where we first met.

    Sora (Because that is my name if you had let me finish)

    He had written the note in that strange colour, curiosity gnawed at her insides as to what that colour was. She headed out the door. He stood there once again glowing like the sun in the grey city, but no she would not let him pity her. Lucy strode up to him demanding “I’m not here because you told me to, I’m here to find out what this colour is”. Sora laughed “that colour, why that colour is you Lucy” he said with a smile and begun walking gesturing for her to follow.”Me?! what do you mean this colour is me, it can’t be” she muttered and followed obediently behind him, she looked around surprised that no one had noticed this man, but then as she thought about it she didn’t really see much of anybody, the community had decided that it was better if everyone separated as to not cause feelings of exclusion, she only really saw people when she attended work functions and so on.

    Sora stopped in front of Lucy so abruptly she almost ran into him, he was standing in front of a large shed. As they entered she found two other people a man and a woman seated on the floor in front of a large sheet of paper, they were somehow creating colour on the page, Lucy looked closer discovering that they wielded a wooden utensil with what seemed to be hair on one end, she watched them dip the utensil in the colourful liquid and then spread it with precision across the page. Sora informed Lucy that it was a paintbrush, and that they were artists in secret. Sora pulled Lucy over to a corner and lifted a sheet revealing several images of swirling colours of reds and pinks and oranges, purples. “What are these?” Lucy asked. “They are the sky, Lucy” he laughed. Lucy was confused “But the sky is grey it always is” she answered “how can it be like this”. Sora smiled “you saw it as grey a few times and now you never look up, the sky is never constant”.

    Lucy stepped closer to the images filling her mind with images of swirling skies of orange and purple, she spent the day demanding the names of such colours as tangerine and marmalade, watching the other artists make what they called cellophane flowers of yellow and green that towered over her, but every time she asked about the mysterious colour on her shirt all he every replied was “that colour is you Lucy” followed by chuckles from the other artists. Lucy glanced at Sora feeling a change in perspective, he was like a kaleidoscope a swirl of colours and vitality, and she felt alive rather than living like a robot on a constant cycle. She grabbed Sora’s golden hands with her own ivory ones “Thank you, I –uh, you proved me wrong, this is amazing” she stuttered. Sora placed a hand on her head “you are the amazing one” he laughed and led her outside “See you tomorrow Lucy” he said and pressed his lips to her forehead causing a red flush over her cheeks “Lucy, your changing colours, I knew you were special” he smiled and left her to return inside.

    Lucy walked slowly home looking to floor, which she realised wasn’t a grey colour but more of an ashen brown, she glanced at the houses to find them pale yellows, blues and pinks rather than gray. She smiled to herself and thought of the man who had brought this to her, this unique view of individuality and the ability to distinguish. But when she reached home she knew something was wrong, the door was open and men in dark uniforms stood by her door. She turned to run but they grabbed her wrist pushing her to the floor, she struggled to see as they yelled words she didn’t understand and shoved her painted shirt in her face, she kicked and screamed but as they covered her mouth with a cloth whenever she breathed she seemed to become dizzy and her vision blurred resembling a stormy sky as it faded to black.

    Lucy opened her eyes to find herself in a darkened room, as her eyes adjusted she discovered she was not alone, across the room sat Sora and the other artists; they looked battered and bruised, smudges of purple and red covering their body. “Sora…what happened” she whispered. “We were found out” Sora laughed reducing himself to a coughing fit “But Lucy don’t worry, you won’t be punished, they’ll let you out soon I promise” he said with a smile although his eyes seemed sad “I’m sorry for this Lucy”. Lucy drifted back to sleep. She awoke to the sound of dragging finding herself being picked up off the floor by two men, she looked to Sora panicked, but only to find him motioning to his pocket and smiling sadly once more “Wait, Sora, what is this? “she asked, the officers responded for him, saying she was being set free “Why isn’t Sora coming with me” she thundered her voice piercing the air like lightning but his answer was unheard as the door fell closed.

    The town is no longer gray. Instead it is dyed red; it flows in little streams between the cracks of the cobblestone paths. Sora and the artists are consumed by red; I will no longer see those glowing eyes or that coloured shirt. I walk into the now abandoned shed, all the paintings have been torn and destroyed, there is a knock at the door and outside a parcel is waiting. It is addressed to her, she opens it slowly and suddenly remembers Sora motioning to his pocket, reaching in her own she draws out an object, there is a little mp3 player and a note.

    Lucy (the girl with the eyes like trapped butterfly wings),

    The time we spent was fleeting but with impact, I hope you will finally see the colours in the sky around you, you do not belong here, you belong in the sky surrounded by the many colours in the sky, I hope you will come to realise this, I hoped I would be there to see it, but unfortunately I believe that is not the case, I have given you two things that remind me of our time together, treasure them please and get some colour in your life.

    Sora Sky

    Lucy gripped the earbuds of the mp3 and put them into her ears pushing play on the device. The music was slow and trance-like

    “Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
    With tangerine trees and marmalade skies “

    She pictured the colours she had asked about not long ago, she opened the package to find two of the cellophane flowers, the music continued

    “Cellophane flowers of yellow and green,
    Towering over your head.”

    As if the music could tell what she looked at, there was a painting, it pictured the sky but instead of reds and oranges it was dark like a thief with a pocket full of diamonds gleaming through the hole in his trousers. And in the centre was a woman, with hair of woven sunlight and skin as pale as the stars behind her, her eyes that mysterious colour, she looked familiar.

    “Lucy in the sky with diamonds”

    The music continued and Lucy read the words at the bottom, “Lucy in the sky – Sora Sky” she begun to cry, tears like raindrops fell from her eyes like they were the sky itself. Lucy looked up. The sky was no longer grey, it was streaked with red and that mysterious colour that matched her eyes, she wailed as realisation dawned upon her, she knew that colour, images flashed before her, Sora’s words seemed to echo as she looked up with tears in her eyes “That colour is you Lucy”. Blue.