Colourless

It happens over time, a long time.

Things change and you don't notice them as they change, just when the change is complete, or close to complete.

I never noticed it, no one did, until it was too late.

We just assumed everything was normal, and was fine as we went about our daily lives, thinking nothing was changing when in reality it was, and for the worse, but no one saw it.

The weather was not terrible, but there was a lot less sun and blue sky, and a lot more greyness, in the form of clouds covering the whole of the firmament.

It didn't cause any problems, or so we thought, but the lack of sun stunted crops, but we still had the rain so we wouldn't starve or die of thirst.

Life continued and I started to think that colours weren't as bright as they were, I noticed it on road signs, and television programs that just seemed a little drabber.

I don't know when this happened, but all my pens and writing implements were black as though colours were being taken or replaced with a more monochrome shade.

I switched on the television and the news was in black and white, there was no colour. I wondered if I should go and see my optician. I went to a mirror to look at my eyes, to see if there was anything obviously wrong. The only thing was that there was no colour in my eyes. They were no longer blue, they were a shade of grey.

I was starting to get worried.

The skies were greyer, the weather colder, and colour seemed to be draining from the world. There was no mention of it on the news, no mention of the fact that road signs were black and white, buses and cars were a uniform grey, the colour of ash like the world had been burned.

When I asked neighbours or anyone about it, they just acted as though nothing was wrong, in fact, they ignored my questions. I was getting no response, I looked for somewhere where I might find something normal.

I went into town, all the shop fronts were a uniform grey, and even the words of the shop signs and advertisements were becoming unclear and indistinct. I walked around in the hope of seeing something that might give me hope, but everything was fading into grey, it was not even black and white, just grey, grey, grey.

I am scared. I am frightened. Nothing prepared me for this. No one can see me, and now I can see no one, just some ghostly shapes wandering in the greyness.

I cross a road and the shape of a car passes through me but I feel nothing, it does not touch me. I am nothing in a land of nothing, a no one in the grey emptiness. I try to shout and scream but no sound comes from me, I am mute. Any hope has flown away on grey wings.

I feel like I am a ghost. No one sees me or acknowledges me, and there is no colour now, all I see is a grey wall of mist, and looking at my hands and clothes, they are now grey too, I feel I am merging with the mist, disappearing from the world that I know. I feel cold, that is all, nothing else, I know that I will not be here much longer but I don't know if I am moving on or I will just disappear into nothingness.

Is this what it is to die?