Illuminated

She stood before in the dark, her reflection gazing back at her from the mirror before her. Everything about her, and her world, was a dull, drizzly monochrome. She'd become used to it, and developed the ability to distinguish herself apart from her surroundings. Her world had always been this way though. She'd thought it always would be.

She was pulled from studying herself by a bright glimmer over her reflection's shoulder. The brightest sight she'd ever seen. Outside, it was raining. But this rain was unusual. This rain was rainbow. She gasped as she turned around for a better look out the window. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. It was so bright. And beautiful. It brought with it a light that illuminated her world in a way it had never been illuminated before. Not only did it illuminate her world, but also the fact that she was the brightest thing in the world.


She turned back to the mirror, seeing herself a new. The colour of her hair, her clothes. Colour in general. "Is that really me?" she asked in a whisper. She leaned in closer to the mirror, her face now mere inches from her reflection. She tapped the mirror, her reflection doing the same. She blinked. Again, her reflection followed suit. And the woman she was seeing, like she'd never seen her before, was still there. "It's really me." She was breathless, gasping for air as she just stared at herself in a mixture of pure shock and awe. "This is really me."

She looked at the world around her. She stuck out like a sore thumb against the backdrop of the monochrome world she'd lived in for so long. Even as the grey started to melt away, as if the rain from outside had washed it away, she was still the brightest thing in the room. She always had been. She just hadn't known it yet. Little did she know, she always would be.