In the year 2093, the world had lost its colors.
Not completely.
Technically, the sky was still blue, trees were still green, and neon signs still burned pink and violet across the skyline of New Aurora City. But people no longer felt colors.
Joy didn't feel yellow.Love didn't glow red.Hope didn't shine gold.
Everything inside people had faded into the same quiet shade of grey.
Scientists called it Emotional Neutrality Syndrome. It had begun after decades of wars, climate disasters, and digital overload. To survive, humanity had slowly trained itself not to feel too much. Pain was dangerous. Passion was exhausting. Attachment was risky.
So the world chose numbness.
Everyone except Riyan.
Riyan was sixteen when he first noticed it. He was walking home through Sector 12, where towering screens displayed calming messages like:
"Stability is Safety.""Balance is Peace.""Extreme Emotion Harms Society."
As he passed one of the screens, a little girl tripped and dropped her metal lunch box. No one stopped. No one reacted.
But when Riyan looked at her trembling hands, he saw something strange.
A faint, flickering blue light surrounding her.
Sadness.
He blinked.
The blue disappeared.
He thought it was imagination.
Until it happened again.
When his teacher smiled politely during class, Riyan saw a thin crack of bright orange around her chest — hidden anger. When his father sat silently at dinner, Riyan saw dark purple shadows around him — unspoken grief.
And when he looked in the mirror that night, he saw something shocking.
A swirl of silver and gold behind his own eyes.
He could see emotions as colors.
Real ones.
Not the artificial mood indicators embedded in smart-watches or the public emotional monitors installed in city centers.
These were raw. Untouched. Human.
Riyan tried to ignore it. In New Aurora, being different meant being reported. The Department of Emotional Balance constantly scanned citizens for irregular brain patterns.
But the colors kept growing brighter.
One evening, during the city's mandatory Silence Hour — when all networks dimmed to reduce emotional spikes — the entire skyline flickered.
For a split second, every billboard shut down.
And in that darkness, Riyan saw something extraordinary.
Colors.
Exploding everywhere.
Hidden inside buildings. Flowing through streets. Bursting from windows.
The city was not grey.
It was drowning in suppressed color.
And then a message appeared across the sky, written in shimmering violet light:
"If you can see this, you are not alone."
Riyan's breath caught in his throat.
Someone else could see the colors too.
Somewhere in the silent city of controlled emotions, another person carried the forbidden spectrum inside them.
For the first time in his life, Riyan felt something dangerously bright.
Not grey.
Not silver.
But blazing red.
Courage.
And he knew one thing:
Loneliness had a color.
But so did rebellion.
to be continued.......