Seeing In Black & White

There was a world where light didn’t exist; where everything was dark, so the only way you could see anything was by the highlights on the objects. Many people wondered about the existence of the highlights because how could there be highlights if there’s no light at all?

One of our character’s names was Cara: a modest name for a modest girl.

School was decent for Cara: it wasn’t super fun, as the dictators made sure of that, but her favourite subject was History because she got to learn about things that seemed unreal. She was a quiet, coy little girl who didn’t have any friends or siblings, so she looked lonely often, but she was actually fine.

She learned about how life was before they took over, before life was dark. There used to be something called colours, something that adorned everything beautifully. Colours fascinated Cara the most because life in darkness was quite boring and uneventful, so she thought colours would’ve been so much fun to experience.

“All students report to your classrooms immediately!” shouted the principal over the intercom. Cara ran through the door 2D and jumped in her desk just as the teacher called her for attendance.

“Cara?” her teacher asked.

“Here,” she responded, unpacking her things. 

Next to her sat a boy named Atticus, who regarded school as a trash picker regards trash; he didn’t hate it, but he didn’t love it either. Atticus was quite popular, because of his looks and personality, but it was mostly fake.

Atticus was rarely by himself in school, always swarmed by people, but he felt lonely because no one was there for him when he needed them to be. They were just another set of mannequins.

Cara was getting out her books on her desk, slabs of black substance, when she brought out something different. It was still a book, but not like the other ones. This one wasn’t black, or even white. It had something else, something that Atticus and Cara had only heard about in history books.

This book had colour.

Cara had no idea how she got this book, but she and Atticus shared a look right before she stuffed it back into her bag, hoping nobody else saw. Anything with colour was forbidden completely, and since they had never seen it before, everyone had thought it was a joke, but at that moment they knew that they were completely wrong.

Cara went through the day of school without glancing again at the unusual book, but right as the bell ended the day, Atticus ran up to her and said, “Follow me.”

Cara was much too stunned about the book, it's colour and Atticus, so she just obeyed. They walked outside to the courtyard where plants were growing, threads of dusk climbing up the sky. They walked to the back, where no one could see them, and then Atticus turned around and looked Cara so straight in the eye that she fell down.

“Sorry,” he said shyly, helping her up. Cara looked at him like he was a coloured book, but they had already both seen that, so the metaphor has worn off.

“Where did you get that book?” he asked curiously. Cara just glared at him.

“I’m not gonna tell anyone.” Cara’s glare relaxed a bit.

“Please?” 

Cara’s glare slid off her face and said, “Fine, but if you tell someone-”

Atticus nodded quickly while she got out the book. It was, well, colourful. In our eyes, it would be a smooth brown leather with a silver buckle tying it together, and in there’s it was just the same, but they couldn’t describe it. It looked...mythical.

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙾𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍

𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐: 𝙳𝚘 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚗 𝚞𝚗𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚐𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚍𝚊𝚢; 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚠𝚒𝚜𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝚞𝚙. 𝙾𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚋𝚎𝚐𝚒𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚋𝚎 𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚘 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔. 𝙾𝚙𝚎𝚗 𝚊𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚔.

“I don’t know how it got there,” Cara said, feeling the smooth cover, “it was just there when I opened my backpack.”

Atticus gently took the book and flipped it over and over, searching for anything unusual, when something fell out. Cara scrambled to find the little note on the ground, and after checking no one else was there, they leaned on the fence and read it.

𝙸𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜, 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚗 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚎. 

𝚃𝚘 𝚏𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚜, 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚔𝚎𝚢𝚜; 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚘𝚗𝚎, 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚋𝚘𝚠. 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚋𝚘𝚠 𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗𝚜 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚢𝚎𝚝, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚘𝚗 𝚎𝚗𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑.

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚢 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞; 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚖𝚊𝚍𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚜𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚔, 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚌𝚊𝚝 𝚏𝚞𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚖𝚊𝚍𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚜𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚔, 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚝 𝚏𝚞𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝. 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚏𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚋𝚘𝚠 𝚘𝚗𝚎, 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚑 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚜, 𝚙𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚛, 𝚌𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚞𝚙 𝚒𝚛𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚋𝚘𝚠 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚏𝚒𝚜𝚑 𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛. 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚒𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚖𝚒𝚡𝚎𝚍, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚒𝚜𝚑 𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚍'𝚜 𝚐𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚗. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎. 𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝚋𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚜, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚕𝚞𝚌𝚔.

Atticus and Cara looked at each other.

“What does it mean ‘the challenge’?” Atticus asked, confused.

A smile slowly grew on Cara’s face. “It means this is the key to freeing ourselves! From this horrible dark world! To a place with colour!”

Atticus looked even more confused. “What?”

“Did you read the note? It says-”

“Yes, I did, but this can’t be true! Colour can’t be real.”

“Did you see the book? It’s colourful! Colour is real, and if you don’t think so, you can drop this. If you believe me, meet me tomorrow at the park. The one with the waterfall,” Cara shouted and strutted off to her house with the book under her arm. It was Atticus’s turn to look stunned; by Cara or colour or the book, he didn’t know but stunned he was nonetheless.

.>.<.>.<.

“So you believe me after all,” said Cara running towards Atticus, who was sitting on a bench in front of the waterfall.

“I did the whole time,” said Atticus.

“Sure. Anyway, how pure does this spring water have to be?” Cara asked, looking at the waterfall. It was pitch-black, like everything else, but she hoped it was already pure so they didn’t have to waste time finding it. The fish scales would take a while to get, since it was in the Head’s garden. The Head was the ruler of the kingdom; Cara and Atticus didn’t even know he had a garden until they read the note. That’s how much information about the Head is known. It would be a struggle to find even where the Head lives, never mind the garden, because it could be on the other side of the city for all they knew.

“How am I supposed to know?” said Atticus. Cara ignored him and looked at the waterfall. No chunks were falling in it, because the bright highlights were smooth, but water could be very tainted and have no chunks, so that information wasn’t helpful.

While Cara examined the waterfall by sight, Atticus looked at it with his hands. He felt the smooth bottom until he was blocked. Picking up a rock, underneath there was a plastic film with words on it, so he called Cara over to read it. 

𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜, 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚝. 𝙳𝚘 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚢; 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝. 𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚘𝚙 𝚞𝚙 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚝𝚘𝚙 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚊𝚕𝚕, 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚘𝚘 𝚍𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚞𝚜𝚎. 𝙳𝚘 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚒𝚛 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚏𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚔𝚎𝚢, 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗, 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚘𝚘 𝚍𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚢. 𝙶𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚕𝚞𝚌𝚔; 𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝.

“You have any containers we could use?” Cara asked.

Atticus shook his head, so Cara looked in her bag and brought out her water bottle. She dumped the remaining water into the pool and asked, “Where’s the top of the waterfall?”

Atticus pointed to the sky, and the lower, and then dropped his hand. “I don’t know.”

“Don’t you have eagle eyes or something?”

“Oh right,” said Atticus. Everyone had their own “power” or sense enhancement. It didn’t matter about your ancestral ties, because it was completely random. Cara had superhuman hearing, Atticus had great eyesight, etc.

Atticus squinted skyward and his pupils dilated. After staring up for a few seconds, his eyes turned back to normal and he reported to Cara, “It’s way up there, about 10 minutes of walking.”

“Lead the way.” They climbed up the dark waterfall, a hard feat, for everything was black so you couldn’t see the handles. After a while, they reached the top where a river spilled into the waterfall, and Cara uncapped her bottle. While holding the cap right above the lip of the bottle, she scooped up some water from the river and immediately covered it, screwing it on as hard as possible.

“So that’s done,” Cara said, climbing down the waterfall. “What do we do now?”

“Well, the note said we should make the grey matter next,” said Atticus beside her.

“How are we supposed to ‘capture’ light and darkness, and merge them together?”

“Maybe there’s another note that tells us how?”

“Where would that be?”

“I don’t know!”

Cara glared at Atticus for a second before jumping down to the floor. “Where would you put the note?”

“Somewhere shiny? So you could store the highlights and the darkness together?”

Cara looked Atticus in the eye this time. “That’s brilliant!”

Atticus blushed while Cara asked, “What would a shiny thing be?”

“...a mirror?”

Cara’s eyes widened with understanding and without a warning went running off to her house with Atticus trailing behind. The waterfall was in the town’s square and Cara’s house was further from town, so they had to run for quite a while before they arrived, panting and puffing like a broken train. Cara didn’t wait long for Atticus; she sprinted straight back into her house and up the void-looking stairs to her bathroom, which was not exactly in its cleanest state.

Atticus trudged up the stairs slowly behind her, still breathing hard when he entered the bathroom just as Cara was exiting. They collided hard, knocking Atticus to the ground so Cara helped him up this time.

“Sorry!” they both said at the same time, and then blushed in unison, and then blushed more at the same time. After a formal cough, Cara ushered Atticus into the bathroom with the book, water, and a little pot and spoon set on the counter.

“You really are brilliant Atticus,” Cara said while setting up the pot. Atticus blushed again in the darkness, but since they lived in a black world, Cara didn’t notice. Lucky for them, they didn’t even know they had a blushing contest; but we do.

“Now, how do you think we should ‘capture’ these?”

“Maybe we just...I don’t know how to explain it, could you give the pot to me? I can show you.”

Cara handed the pot to Atticus and they switched places, so he was right in front of the mirror. Atticus crouched down so his head was in line with the mirror, and he set his arm up so it was perpendicular to the mirror’s edge. He settled down, turning very still, and then suddenly jerked his arm up, scooping up the darkness along with the highlights into the pot, and covered the pot with his hand. Cara sat down next to him, slightly pushing his arm so a bit of the marbled grey matter spilt on the floor, sloshing around in little ovals, like water does on plastic. Atticus and Cara were silent; they had never seen grey matter before, so it was quite fascinating. 

“How did you know how to do that?” asked Cara quietly.

“I don’t know, I just thought of it so I tried it.”

“What do you know the answer to?” They both laughed at that, then lidded the pot and decided that that day was already full of lots of adventures, so they would continue tomorrow and meet at Cara’s house.

.>.<.>.<.

Atticus knocked on the door of Cara’s house next afternoon, and was met not by Cara but by her mother, who was quite curious about the boy at the footstep of their home.

“Hello, what might your name be?” asked Cara’s mother politely.

“Atticus.”

“What might you be here for?”

“Right...I and Cara have a project to do,” Atticus said.

“What’s the project about?”

Atticus shifted his weight uncomfortably. “Uh, it’s about-”

“It’s about insects Mom! It’s about insects! We have to research about them; yes, it’s about insects,” said Cara, catapulting out from the door to save Atticus from this ordeal.

“Cool! When you’re finished we can have muffins!”

Cara just nodded and led Atticus down the steps while her mother called out, “Don’t forget to bring your water bottle!”

“I already have it!” Cara’s mother nodded in approval, and Cara and Atticus ran to the town square, far away from Cara’s bit more than nosy mother.

 “First we need to find the Head’s garden. How in the world are we supposed to do that?” Cara asked.

“We could use some surveillance or something to find out where he lives first,” suggested Atticus. 

Cara nodded and said, “Let’s set up cameras in our neighbours' houses; the Head could be anyone.”

Atticus agreed, deciding they would buy cameras and place them in their neighbours' houses at the front door; it couldn’t be considered spying if it was for a good cause, right?

They both set them up quickly on 4 houses: two next to Cara’s and two next to Atticus’s. They hooked them up to a computer and watched closely; for a couple hours nothing happened, but suddenly they heard a shuffle from Atticus’s 2nd camera. It was an old man whose name was Jeremiah, but they watched him take off his sunglasses and coat to reveal the Head’s face, with much fewer wrinkles, because the Head had been wearing a mask. Cara observed that his coat was left next to the steps, so she directed Atticus to snag a camera in a pocket. He did it quickly, while the Head was inside, and then he came out and put on the coat, which they now had surveillance of. They watched him walk past Atticus’s house, the town square, the waterfall, and then he stopped at an insalubrious shed. Walking inside, Cara and Atticus saw a magnificent view; one of Roald Dahl and J.K Rowling, one of fantasy and adventure, one of only dreams and magic could create.

It was the garden.

Rushing out of Cara’s house, they ran as fast as they could past the house, the square, the waterfall and arrived at the shed. Atticus almost darted into the shed, but Cara stopped him because she had heard the Head coming. Once he had passed by, they ran in and marvelled at the view.

It was huge, and everything was so colourful; green, yellow, pink, orange, Cara and Atticus were astonished. Species of flowers, plants, trees, bushes, everywhere were so colourful, it was like squirts of paint in their faces.

“Where are the fish?” Atticus asked.

Cara just pointed to the little pond in the center, with glistening water and floating lily pads. Little rainbow fish swam around the pond; the life fish.

“Should we just catch them?” Cara asked. Atticus nodded. Cara thrust her hands into the water and brought out a wiggling fish and tried to stop it from moving, but it squeaked, “No!” and dove back into the water.

“You can’t get their scales by force y’know,” a little voice said from behind. Cara pivoted to meet a pixie with transparent wings and pointy ears. “My name’s Alette, what’s yours?”

“I’m Cara and that’s Atticus,” said Cara, pointing to Atticus. “We really need these scales.”

“Then you just have to make the fish laugh, because the scales will slide right off,” said Alette.

Atticus raised his eyebrows but caught another fish and said, “Why did the bike fall over?”

The fish looked Atticus in the eye. “Why?”

“Because it was two tired.”

The fish closed his eyes for a second, but then a hearty laugh escaped from him and his scales just slid off like carrot slices, until new ones grew on his back and he leaped into the water.

Hurriedly, Cara got out the pot and mixed around the grey matter fully and poured in the spring water, turning it into a thin grey material. She crushed up the scales with the spoon, which were surprisingly soft, and mixed it in, creating an iridescent rainbow mixture. Atticus and Alette watched over her shoulder, fascinated. Suddenly the mixture made a clank! sound and instead of a liquid, there was a rainbow key lying in the pot.

“Where do we get the other key-”

A note dropped out of the pot which said:

 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚔𝚎𝚢𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚕𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚗𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚘𝚘𝚛 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎. 𝚂𝚊𝚢 "𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚔𝚎𝚢𝚜, 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚎𝚗𝚍, 𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚞𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍."

𝙶𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚓𝚘𝚋; 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚕𝚞𝚌𝚔 𝚘𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚊𝚍𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎.

Alette shouted, “I’ve seen those! Lemme show you where they are.” 

Atticus and Cara followed Alette to the back of the garden where there were two iridescent black and white keys in front of a blank space. After placing the rainbow key next to the others, Cara opened her mouth to ask where the door was just when vines pulled back to reveal a white door.

Wasting no time, Cara and Atticus chanted, “Three keys, one end, please transport us to the other world.”

The door creaked open, revealing a maze of paths stretching every way imaginable in swirling rainbow colours. Sharing a look with no particular stop in mind, Cara and Atticus ran into the door, to freedom, to a life full of colour, and to another world.