The colors

           Prologue

“Go! Go!” screamed Elspeth, a rainbow toad worker. “I’m immune to the disease, but you’re not! Now hurry! Get out of here! NOW! Escape while you can!! The disease will get you if you don’t run now!”

It was chaos  with rainbow toad workers running around like a swarm of bees after their honey had been taken, with none of them listening or hearing Elspeth. Soon it was too late. The white disease had caught them. Toads collapsed around Elspeth. Elspeth, feeling grief and shame, collapsed too. He felt so much sadness because he felt that he could have stopped this from happening. Elspeth just stared at the gray faces of the toads around him.

After many days of thought, Elspeth decided that he would go to a place where he would never see any more sadness or death. He would go to the hollow mountains, which were full of caves and crevices. He would find a good cave and survive until he faded away, himself, from old age.

I’ll be fine, he told himself, unconvincingly. It doesn’t even matter if I’ll be fine, anyways. What matters is that I will survive. That time, he convinced himself that he would be fine and that he would survive.

    

   Many Years Later

Elspeth had lived in a small cave in the hollow mountains for one hundred years. He had survived on plants and stream water, and he had decorated his cave with animal skins and paintings made from dirt and crushed flowers. He was about as happy as you can get in that kind of situation.

I have lived a good life, he thought to himself. I have seen many things in my lifetime, and I am glad I survived. Living in a nice cave with everything I need right next to me is better than trying to survive in the forest.  I am happy.

           Chapter 1

                  Gray World

You can close your eyes to the things you do not want to see, but you can not close your heart to the things you don’t want to feel.

             -Johnny Depp

The world was gray. No color. Ever since the rainbow toads supposedly went extinct, the color factory was broken. And there were no willing rainbow toads to fix it. Since the factory was broken that means there was no color.

That also means that the white disease was spreading. Many people were suffering. The disease didn’t make anyone die. But it did make them suffer. A lot. And the people did come close to dying.

Raelyn and Porter Beckett knew a lot about the white disease. Their mother had it. They did their best to take care of her, but there was no cure. Except for if the color came back.

        Chapter 2

     Raelyn and Porter Beckett

The best revenge is massive success.

                  -Frank Sinatra

DING! The doorbell made its usual chime when I walked through the door of the bookstore.

“Good morning, Raelyn! You’re looking nice today!” said Lola, the owner of the book store. Lola was the friendly face I saw every morning. Since my mother caught the white disease, Lola had become my best friend. She was almost like my sister. I told her everything, and she listened.

“Hi, Lola.” I said, not feeling very happy after my younger brother, Porter, got caught shoplifting, and I had to go to the local police station and pick him up, since my mother wasn’t capable.

“Why the droopy face?” said Lola. “Is something wrong?”

“Porter shoplifted today, and I had to go to the police station, and pick him up.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.” said Lola. “I’m sure you are not feeling very proud of him right now.”

Before I could answer, the doorbell dinged again, and a tall man walked in, wearing a black suit, shiny shoes, and an unusually tall black top hat. He had to duck to fit under the doorway. I saw Lola slowly walk backwards. I was kind of scared of this man, too.

“C-Can I help you?” Lola quietly whimpered. I could see people on the street outside were watching.

“I am looking for Porter Beckett.” the man said in an unusually high voice for his size. “ Is he here anywhere?”

“U-Um excuse me sir.” I said, finally deciding to do something.”I’m Porter’s sister, Raelyn. What do you want with my brother?’

“Will you please take me to your house, then? I urgently need to speak with your parents.”

I pulled back.

“How dare you. You insulted us, and now you want something from my brother. Leave now, and never, ever come back.” I was practically yelling at the end.

“Fine. I’ll leave.” then he just walked out like nothing ever happened.

I ran over to Lola.

“Are you okay?” I asked, hugging her.

“I-I’m okay. I just hope that man never comes back. Awful, he is. Awful. Just Awful. I do wonder what he wants with your brother, though.”

I sighed. I hoped no harm would come to my brother. That man was scary, and I’m sure he didn’t have good intentions. No matter what happened, though, I would protect my brother.

          Chapter 3

            Nightshade Keeling

But those with an evil heart seem to have a talent for destroying anything beautiful which is about to bloom.

                            -Cynthia Rylant

KNOCK! KNOCK!

“Porter! Will you please get the door?” I yelled. I was in the kitchen making chicken soup for dinner when someone arrived at our front door.

I faintly heard Porter and the stranger having a conversation.

“Hello, young man. What’s your name?” said the man.

“I’m Porter. What’s yours?”

I heard the man gasp.

“What’s wrong?” Porter said worriedly.

I smiled. That was just like my brother. He worried so much when someone gasped. He thought the world was going to fall down around him. When he was little, lots of kids told him that the world would end five seconds after someone gasped. He came home crying that day, and even though I told him they were lying, he didn’t believe me.

“Oh, nothing.” the man said. “My name is Nightshade Keeling, and I have come to take you away.

I started running to the front hall. My suspicions were right. It was the man in the suit that I saw at Lola’s Books this morning.

“What do you want from my brother?” I yelled.

Nightshade Keeling held his hands up. “I have heard of your brothers amazing stealing skills. I just wanted to take him to the mountains and show him a few tricks. He would perform for the local village people, and he could earn some money to fix this place up.” He gestured around at our run down house, covered with dirt.