What color is the sun today?

I hear birds chirping in the distance. Soft rays of sunlight caress my eyelids through the void of sleep. My whole body is warm.. so warm I'm almost hot. But it's a pleasant feeling. Like taking a hot shower but still being in control of how hot exactly the water is.

Suddenly, the birds sound louder and more numerous and my stomach flies up into my ribcage like I'm on a rollercoaster. My whole body flares white hot. My forearms and the backs of my knees tingle and itch and lights flash beyond my eyelids.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, the sensation stops.

A warm breeze caresses my hair, and I feel grass as soft as silk beneath my body. Birds call in strange chirping noises I've never heard before. Somewhere in the distance something explodes, and I feel the ground under me shake with impact.

I raise a hand to shield my face from the sun, and open my eyes just a crack. I'm met with a sight so otherworldly I'm left to wonder if I'm even still alive.. or if this is the afterlife?

The sun is not a sun, really, but a giant yellow ball. It hangs uncomfortably low in the sky, which is bright pink and dotted with wispy clouds. There is nothing as far as my eyes can see. Only a single blue tree and fields and fields of neon green grass stretch across the pink horizon. The blue tree casts a dark shadow, and under it I can see a small, bright figure.

I rise from the silky grass, flowing in the wind like fine hairs on the head of a giant. I reach down to touch it, and notice something equally unsettling.

My skin is blue.

Where all my skin would normally be a tan, flesh color, is now a vibrant green-blue. The veins I can see through the thin flesh of my wrist are purple looking and the fine hair covering my arms and legs is lighter.

I turn back to the tree, and the bright figure under the shade. My bare feet begin to carry me of their own accord through the fine grass. It feels like my steps are longer, like I've either grown taller or time is moving slower.

As I approach the tree, the bright figure burns white hot and my eyes tear up. Looking at them is just like looking straight into the sun. Her form ripples like fire, captivating to look at but with the slightest touch you'd be burned.

"Hello," they say. The voice is distinctly feminine, and shakes the leaves on the trees with it's sheer power. Even though the situation I'm in right now is so strange and her voice is so imposing I feel safe with the figure, somehow.

"Hello," I say politely back. As I step closer to her brightness I see the form of a woman's face take shape in the white hot mass where I'd expect a head to be. I feel as if I recognize her face from somewhere.. but I can't remember where.

"You wanted to talk to me." The figure says. Her voice has shrunk, and it does not shake the tree above us. Her form is more solid now, and not as bright as before.

"I did." I agree, not knowing what exactly I'm agreeing with. I sit down next to her, and her brightness burns little replicas of her onto my retinas.

"What about?" She asks as I stare forward, into the yellow sun. Her voice has shrunk more, and turned childlike.

"I think I just wanted to talk to you." I say. After a moment I turn to her again, and in the figure's place is a small girl. She's got long, dirty blonde hair in a lank ponytail and green eyes that are puffy and red and leaking tears. Her clothes are normal; a grey sweatshirt, old blue skinny jeans and ratty converse sneakers.

"Hello," the girl says. "You've been asking for me a lot, lately." Her lips are cracked and dry and red. She has been picking at them.

"I know. I'm sorry. I just like talking to you." I say back. Our voices almost sound the same. Her's is a little higher pitched though, and it sounds like she's got a stopped up nose from her eyes constantly leaking tears.

"I like talking to you too. It makes me feel as if things aren't so.. bad." She sniffles.

"I'm sorry," I say lamely, knowing it won't help.

The girl ignores it. "Can you tell me what colors the sun is today?" She asks. More tears drip down her face and they look like they're from a cartoon. Big and blue and shiny.

"Yes, of course." I say. I bekon her closer and she comes to me. She sits across my lap and I wrap my strange blue arms around her as she closes her dripping eyes against my chest.

"Today the sun is yellow." I begin. "It is a yellow like laughter and sitting in the sunshine and feeling warm all over and lemon pie with coconut. The sky is pink like that nasty bubblegum medicine you hate. The grass is soft like silk and green like moss after a fresh rain....."

As I talk, the girl's tears roll down her cheeks faster and faster, like tiny rivers of animated blue saltwater. When I finally stop describing our surroundings her frail body wracks with sobs and she's clutching the front her sweatshirt like she's trying to put pressure on a wound. I try to rub comforting circles into her back, but she's so upset I don't think she even feels it.

"W-will I ever see the c-olors again?" She splutters. Her ruined bottom lip trembles and her face is flushed red and crumpled in on itself with anguish.

"Yes," I say with complete confidence. I offer her a sad smile and brush a strand of oily hair from her forehead and cup her wet face, "you will. You will see the colors and taste and hear and feel again. You will be alive again."

Her big green eyes stare up at me, with not a single eyelash to decorate her eyelids. More tears drip down her flushed cheeks.

"You promise?I would love to see the colours of the sun someday" she asks with an urgency I have not known in some time. A need to have one crumb of hope to hang on to. To have any hope at all.

"I promise." I say. And her bare eyelids flutter as she smiles for the first time. I cup her face with my blue hand and wipe away her remaining tears. She clutches weakly at me now, at my arms and my face. Trying to hold on to me and the hope I give her. Scared for when I leave her alone.

"It's okay. Don't be afraid. You will be alive again." I tell her and lean forward. My lips brush her temple.

I look down at the lake. There's a faint reflection of the moon. A phantom wind breezes across my skin and ruffles the silky grass as far as I can see. I hug her closer to me and sit and watch nothing. Everything.

And I whisper to the neon world, "I promise."