1 chapter one

There is no such thing as a rainbow. My mother would always tell me this when my grandmama would rave to me about when the world had color. When I was a kid, I believed her, but as the years passed by, I realized how unrealistic that would be. This world was far too dull for such fancy stuff, I thought.

There have never been any colors except white, black, and grey, in fact, only grandmama thinks otherwise. Although, I have always wondered what it feels like to see all those colors. So, I continued to daydream as the sun's warmth brushed against my face and my body began to feel heavy.

As soon as I heard the village's horn, my eyes wided. I had only closed my eyes for a second, but it was pitch black and the sun's warmth was no longer there. I knew I shouldn't be this far out, but I'd always been a curious girl, and I couldn't stay put.

I couldn't help but worry about the black abyss that surrounded me as I made my way back through the winter night wind. My only sources of light were the moonlight and the fire that lit the village. So I had no choice but to rely on the sounds surrounding me to find my way home.

I almost made it, till I heard a faint sound, a whisper. "Eldora! Eldora!" it called. I wasn't one to be scared of what was in the dark, but the sound of the voice made my legs grow weak. I trembled in fear as I turned my head in its direction. Its call grew softer and softer as I approached.

BAM. I fell backward when I hit my nose against something hard. As I reached forward to see what it was, I felt the frame of a door. Confused, I began searching around it, trying to determine why such a thing would be in the woods all alone.

After checking its surroundings, I determined it was nothing more than a simple door with nothing behind it or in front of it. After a while, I started to poke my head through the crack in the door I had created. I pushed the door open further as curiosity urged me to do so. But before I took a full step inside, something caught my eye.

The moonlight had shined perfectly on it, making me able to see how bright it was, and how it wasn't the usual black, grey, and white. "It couldn't be," I replied to myself in disbelief. A winter aconite, that was a strange color to the eyes.

I was startled by the horn's blow after reaching down to examine it more closely. I desperately wanted to stay and examine both the door and the flower further, but hearing the horn made me nervous. I raced back, stuffing the flower into my pocket, and headed back toward the village.

When I eventually arrived in the village, I was struck by how quiet it was. Yes, my village was small in comparison to the other towns and cities around us, but it was far from tranquil. But it wasn't until I came over the crowd that flooded our house that I realized what this was. A black rose party.

When someone dies in the village, it is customary to have a "black rose" party in which all the family members pay their final goodbyes to the one who has passed away. My brother and grandmama were both sick, so my thoughts raced as I tried to figure out what had happened.

My house was crowded with people as I pushed my way through and went inside the house that was filled with friends and close relatives. A room of pitiful eyes followed me as I made my way to my grandmama's bedroom. Mothers was weeping on the ground, while fathers prayed. Grandmama was laying in bed with a cloth covering her face.

I walked up to her bedside and sniffled as I held her stone-cold hand. My body began to shake, and my eyes began to sting. She was just fine the last time I saw her, so what happened?

"She took her final breath a while ago," my father said, trying to lift my mother from the floor as she sobbed uncontrollably.

"Where were you?" My father yelled. I was taken aback but still answered.

"I was out in the woods," I answered. I was informed that I wasn't supposed to be there but foolishly did it anyway. He remained silent and, for a brief period, opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut it again and took a deep sigh. "All you had to do was one job," he grumbled as he led my mother out the door.

My heart ached when I realized I hadn't given my grandmama her daily medication. She was nearing the end of her life, after fighting soul shock for the last three years of her life. so missing even one dose was lethal. As a measure, my father had warned me not to go out for too long or too far from the village.

Soul shock was an illness that plagued those who lived before the world's colors vanished. The person's body would gradually stiffen over time, inflicting enormous discomfort and a horrific death that caused one to suffocate to death. Grandmama was our village's first and last elder to have it.

We held Grandmama's funeral the next day. Before putting her in a box, we put a black rose in her lips and crossed her arms. I stood there watching while the village chief burnt the box and gradually filled the hole with soil.

My mother had been silent throughout the burial, my father had barely spoken, and Paco, my younger brother, was still with the doctor and had not been present for grandmama's passing. 

Though Paco was only a little younger than me he was ten times more trouble prone than I was.

But now he does nothing but sleep after catching summer's eye, a disease that develops when one stares at the sun for an extended period of time, resulting in permanent blindness. During the day, both the sky and the sun are light in color, making it difficult to determine where the sun is.

She was buried by the time the sun set, and while the rest of the village went about their business, our family mourned. My face was covered with tear streaks by the time I came home, and I had a runny nose. My mother and father had both refused to speak to me after dinner, so it was somewhat quiet.

Afterwards, I was sent to my room without so much as a goodnight. But I couldn't sleep, so I just stared at the stars. But as soon as my eyes began to droop, I heard shouting. I crawled out of bed and placed my head on the door to listen in.

"She's nothing but a troublemaker!" screamed father, slamming the door to his room. My father was very loud when he was angry so it wasn't hard to listen in on bits of their conversation.

"But she is our daughter," mother pleaded, sobbing. The room was silent for a moment, and as my heart hammered in anticipation of his response, he said something a father should never say to his child.

"Our daughter is nothing but a curse," father said once again, "you should have drowned her the instant we spotted that hideous yellow hair."

Upon hearing this, I dashed over to the pail of water in the corner of my room, confused. As I glanced at the reflection, all I could see was my short, curled black hair, greyish skin, and black eyes, causing me to wonder about my father's mental state. But it wasn't until a strand of hair fell into the water that I understood what he was saying.

I remembered seeing this color earlier, so I dug through all of my pockets until I found the winter aconite. My hair and the flower were both the same hue. It started to make sense why I wasn't permitted to play in the river with the other kids anymore.

Based on what my father had just said, I assumed that this was yellow. However, it felt as if my heart had also stopped beating. I didn't know what to say after hearing this. My father had planned to murder me. Before I knew it, my eyes were flooded with tears, and all I could do was cry.

Soon my sobbing became so loud that my mother came out of the room to console me. My father followed soon after and refused to look at me. Even while crying, I waited for him to tell me it was a joke, a sick joke, but a joke nonetheless. Instead, he simply replied, "you weren't intended to hear that,"

My mind went blank, and I felt as if my heart was going to shatter into a million pieces. I couldn't stay in this house any longer. I pulled myself up, still bewildered, and walked out the front door, having no idea where I was going.

My mother tried to stop me, but I pushed her to the side, out of the way, and I began running. As my mother urged me to come back, I kept running, as my mind raced to the words of my father. I soon found myself on the same path I had taken when I came across that door and started hearing faint voices.

"Eldora! Eldora!" it cried out once again. As I began searching for the door I was once again met with the moonlight that shone over the winter aconites. When I noticed the vibrant flowers, I realized the door had to be nearby and approached it with caution, pecking inside once more.

As I entered, I noticed two beams of light in front of me, surrounded by the blackness of the night sky. As I moved away from the door, it felt like I'd walked into something far bigger than I could manage, but I kept going as the door slowly closed behind me, enclosing me in darkness.