When the Colors Fade

I can’t tear my eyes away from the horizon.

I’ve heard about the sunset all my life, but words can’t do it justice. The orange and pink illuminating wispy tendrils of clouds, the indigo and purple spreading down the sky, soothing the receding flames of the sun. 

It’s beautiful.

And I’m most definitely not supposed to be watching it.

My name, Ebony—it fits me. Raven-black hair framing ivory skin, slim figure, but most of all, I’ve never seen colors as vibrant as this. Compared to the scene I’m glued to, my life has been shades of black and white. 

There’s no rule against watching the sunset, per se; it’s just one of those things nobody does, and for good reason. As the red and orange flames sink below the horizon, a new kind of beauty, a dark and ominous kind, overtakes the landscape. 

Night. 

It’s a well-known fact that the sunset is fleeting, and ushers in the darkness of the night when the colors fade. 

And the night ushers in the Wraiths.

The last of the light fades and I take a deep breath as I turn around, putting the faint orange glow behind me. 

On second thought, I could have just stayed inside and watched this from the window, but it isn’t the same. If I was going to risk seeing the Wraiths for this incredible sunset, I was going to go all in. 

A decision I’m beginning to regret, now that I can pick out the stars in the sky. 

Stars. Another thing I’ve never seen, and something I have no time to admire. 

I have to get from this hill to my tiny apartment on the city square, with its blackout curtains and locked doors. I’ll be safe there.

I set off at a fast walk, glancing back and forth, over my shoulder. With every twisting shadow I pass, every glimpse of movement in a side alley, my speed increases.

Wraiths. The third thing I’ve never seen, and the one I’ve never even heard about. People have theories, of course, and everyone knows they roam the city in the darkness. Some say just looking at them will kill you on the spot; others insist that you’re cursed, and still others believe that the Wraiths embody your deepest fears, your deepest secrets, your insecurities. 

I fall into the latter category. 

When I reach a paved road, I can hear the echoes of my pounding feet on the buildings rising up around me. The alley on my right is where my mother found herself a few years ago, in the same place as me. Sprinting home after sunset, in the darkness.

She’s the one who told me about the sunset, how the colors were more vivid than she’d ever seen. She’s also the one who warned me about the dangers of the Wraiths. When she came back from that midnight journey, she wouldn’t speak of them. My questions were met with wide eyes and head shakes, and the same warning every time.

Never look out the window at night, Ivy.

I’m Ebony now, and that warning is the only thing that remains from my past, but even then it wasn’t enough to stop me from seeing the colors my mother described. I couldn’t stay away. 

And now, sprinting between buildings, passing unlit lampposts and traveling deeper into the shadows, I regret it. 

A flash of movement from ahead catches my attention and I freeze.

A twisting shadow of black vapor, vaguely resembling a human figure, materializes in front of me and I stumble back, heart pounding. 

The vapor swirls and shoots toward me in a clean line, condensing around my face. I gasp at the freezing touch and my eyes go wide as the scenery around me changes. 

A brightly-lit clearing, sprinkled with wildflowers and covered in waist-high grass. I spin around, breathing hard. 

The wind rustles through the nearby trees, and the grass sways, but other than that, the clearing is silent. Dead silent. 

It’s eerie. 

“Hello?”

I must be dreaming. I pinch my arm, but nothing happens. 

I’m awake, then. 

I suck in a breath as the realization hits me. 

A Wraith.

I spin around again, searching for the vapor, but there’s only sunshine and grass as far as I can see. 

A cry reaches my ears and I freeze. It was close, and it sounded...young. Like an infant. 

I take a few steps forward and find the source, sitting in the midst of the grass. I was right—an infant, all alone and crying. 

I reach out my hand and go to take another step, but my feet are rooted to the ground. I glance down. 

Ivy is wrapping around my ankles, snaking up my legs, holding me to the spot. I jerk at it frantically, but it doesn’t budge. 

A wolf enters the clearing from the nearby forest and my eyes widen. It ignores me, gaze fixed on the infant.

The ivy reaches my waist. I rip at it, but for everything I clear, double the ivy takes its place. 

The wolf stalks closer to the infant.

The ivy catches my wrists, pinning them to my sides.

“No!” I yell, fighting against its hold, even trying to draw the wolf’s attention. 

The ivy winds tighter around me and I wince. 

The wolf ignores me. 

I’m only paces away from the infant, but I’m completely helpless. 

My head spins and my heart crashes in my ears, making it hard to focus. 

I’m helpless. 

This wasn’t supposed to happen again. 

I can only watch with wide eyes as the wolf lunges at the infant.

I scream.

The scene changes in an instant, meadow and sunlight and ivy disappearing, and I drop to my knees, scream cut off.

I’m back on the street. 

I drag myself to my feet, gasping and leaning on the concrete wall next to me. 

No wonder my mother wouldn’t talk about the Wraiths—I wouldn’t talk about it either. 

My wild gaze darts around, but the vapor is nowhere to be seen. 

I have to get home before I encounter another one. I am not going to be caught helpless and off-guard like that again, not even in whatever kind of hallucination just happened. 

I shove my shaking hands in my sweatshirt pocket and walk with my head down.

I don’t know if it’s luck or if the Wraiths decided to stop bothering me, but I don’t see another one the whole walk, despite the deepening shadows. I step into the square, the heart of the city and the darkest area, and fix my eyes on my apartment door.

A freezing, silky feeling caresses my hand and I jerk back, shivering. 

The vapor swirls around my wrist, making its way around my arm, winding around my neck with its icy touch. It pulls me forward, into the center of the square, and somehow stifles my cry. I can’t manage more than a small, choked sound as the vapor condenses in front of my eyes. 

It rushes at me and I gasp as the wave of cold envelops me. 

This time, the scenery doesn’t change. The pitch black square is exactly the same, except for a teenage girl staring back at me. 

I don’t know her, not anymore, but I recognize the soft brown eyes, the ivory skin, the round nose. The only difference between her and me is a few years and some hair dye. 

This is Ivy. My old, reckless, arrogant, young self, come back to haunt me in the flesh. 

  This is worse than the last Wraith. I changed my name last year for a reason—I wanted to leave Ivy behind. 

The girl gives me a wicked grin and I step back.

“Ivy,” I whisper.

She frowns. “Don’t call me that.”

“Leave me alone.”

“No, I can’t do that.”

“Why not? Just…” I make a vague gesture, trying to still my trembling hands. “Just go back to wherever you came from.” 

The girl chuckles. “No, I can’t do that either. I’m here for a reason, Ebony.”

“How do you know my name?”

“Do you know anything about us?”

I don’t answer. 

The girl shakes her head slowly, a dark smile on her face. “Well, then, I’ll keep it short. I’m you, Ebony. But you knew that.”

“Why are you here?”

“I’m here to show you who you really are.” The girl spreads her arms wide as her face and body change.

I take another step back, eyes wide in horror. 

The girl is now younger, so much younger, around five or six. 

“You’re just a scared little girl, Ebony! You changed your name so that nobody would know the bravery you used to have. You’ve been masquerading as the pretty little quiet one, but you’re not!”

The Wraith is hitting closer to the truth than I’m comfortable with. 

“Go away,” I growl, balling my fists. “You’re just in my head.”

“Is that what you think? No, I can see it in your eyes. You know I’m real. You’re just scared, scared of being helpless again, scared of standing by and watching your loved ones get taken from you! But you’re helpless, Ebony.”

“Get out of my head!” I yell.

“But I’m not in your head.” The girl smirks. “You should’ve listened to all the sensible people who warned you to stay out of the darkness. You know that’s where we thrive. If you had just minded your own business, let us be instead of choosing confrontation, you wouldn’t be here right now.”

The darkness.

The Wraiths thrive in the darkness.

My gaze travels to the lamppost in the center of the square. Unlit, like all the rest—nobody wants to risk going out at night to light them—but I can fix that. 

I finger the lighter in my pocket and bolt. 

“What are you doing?” the girl shrieks as I shove her to the side. I click the lighter and reach up, standing on my toes. My face twists with the effort of reaching the top, but I manage to get the wick to catch. 

The girl recoils from the light. “Put it out!”

“Get out of my head!”

“Put it out!” she shrieks again. 

I light the other lamp in answer. 

The girl lets out a blood-curdling scream and shrinks back, then evaporates back into the black vapor and disappears into the nearby alley. 

I let out a breath and close my lighter, then turn toward my apartment. Faces peer out from windows all around the square, some pale, some that disappear the second my eyes glance over them, and all with wide eyes. I ignore them and slip into my apartment, locking the door and drawing the blackout curtains. 

I know why Wraiths thrive in the darkness, now, at least. They’re our fears, our insecurities.

But I also figured out a way to banish them. The light. It disintegrates them, like bringing our fears and insecurities into the light disintegrates those. 

Or maybe I’m reading too much into it, I decide as my shaky legs give out on me, dumping me onto my bed. 

All I know is that I’m not planning on watching any more sunsets. No amount of beauty is worth the Wraiths that haunt the shadows when the colors fade.