There were only so many shades between black and white, Ella had observed. Black could only get so black and white could only be so white before you have to fill in the missing gaps with your imagination. Sure, it was easy enough to figure out what was what when it was painted in varying shades of grey. Once you ran out of colors, though- that was another story.
For Ella, the world had only been full of colors for a moment. A fleeting second where she glimpsed a life full of wonder before it was wrenched out of her grasp by that dull, hollow thud. An arm sprawled underneath the cold metal bumper, skin pale white in comparison to the empty, black background of pavement.
A chilled hand brushed her arm, sending tingles down Ella’s spine even as she turned to look at him. The fake smile was back on her face, covering up what she was feeling with years of practice. “Hey,” she murmured, her eyes meeting his. She knew hers were brown. An old man had told her, once, that she had the prettiest brown eyes he had ever seen. The man standing in front of her, however, had said they were bright, crystal, blue. Ella didn’t believe him. Somehow it was easier to not believe when she couldn’t answer him when he asked what color his were. Ella could never tell him.
His world was bright and beautiful and colorful and Ella’s was still black and white and devoid of the hues that blossom before your eyes when you meet your soulmate- or so she had been told by those who had met theirs and could still walk through the park in the summertime and smile, hand in hand, as the world dazzled before them.
Peter had never described the dazzle. He had always thought that she could see it too. The truth, the lumpy truth that got stuck in your throat when you tried to tell him, tried to explain what you knew would torture him, was that Ella couldn’t see the color as it might have been if things had been different. Ella was his, but Peter would never be hers.
The little voice inside her head was screaming, throwing things, yelling in frustration with pent-up anger that had boiled for years but Ella wouldn’t release it.
Giving him another sweet fake smile, Ella stood and he wrapped his arms around her back, hugging her close to his chest.
Devoid - Adrian Brokenshire
1st place
17