This year, I participated in a WITS writing camp. For the camp, we wrote a short story and talked about the other elements along the way. This is the story which I wrote. I hope you enjoy!
Imagine a world where color is stolen. The world is naturally grey, so colors are taken from other planets that are both willing and unwilling to give their source of brightness away. Now imagine what would happen if all the colors suddenly went out.
“Why are you making such a fuss?” I asked tiredly, “It’s not that big of a deal,” I rolled my eyes, much to the annoyance of my best friend, Jadelyn.
“Yes it is!” Jadelyn insisted, “Don’t you think it’s weird that we steal colors, Edith?”
I shrugged, “That’s the way it’s always been on Arcus. Stop thinking about it too much and let’s just go home,”
Jadelyn sighed before nodding with a pasted-on grin. I smiled thinly, relieved that a conflict had been avoided. We hurried to my house, excited for our sleepover. Jadelyn trailed behind slightly, but I knew that she would forgive me and I would forgive her. We always made up after our arguments, usually about the same topic that we had fought about today.
We got home and my eyes lit up when my cat, Rosa, came to greet me. I chuckled, relenting to Rosa’s indignant purrs to be petted. When I finally stood up, I realized that Jadelyn had gone inside. I smirked, knowing that my best friend couldn’t resist the special cookies my mom made when she came over. Petting Rosa one more time, I stepped inside to the warm and familiar smell of freshly baked cookies. Jadelyn was climbing up the stairs, a tray in each hand, beckoning me to go with her. I raced up the stairs, eager for us to get to my room.
We played a lot of games and talked about everything. I picked up the TV remote and had just opened Netflix, when something flickered. We looked around, scared and trying to figure out what it was. There was another flicker and I looked at Jadelyn wide-eyed. I could tell that she had also figured out what it was. “The colors,” I murmured, frightened. They flickered one more time, then stopped at grey. Jadelyn and I both made the decision simultaneously. We dashed downstairs to check if it was just our room or the whole world.
As we biked through our neighborhood, my stomach sank lower and lower. When we reached the normally red party lanterns emitting a faint grey light, about a mile from our house, we realized the truth. I checked my government-given watch frantically for an update. There was none. I stared at my usually bright clothes in despair. Jadelyn looked down, biting her lip. It was official. There was no color anymore on Arcus.
Jadelyn’s eyes glimmered, but not from tears, “The Rebellion- they’ve done it”.
