"The rest of the world was black and white,

but we were in screaming colour."

–Out of the Woods, Taylor Swift

"What happened?" Ophelia whispered, her eyes squeezed shut from fear––as if she was too nervous to see us in our new monotone forms.

I, however, was staring at her with wide eyes, feeling utterly and completely confuzzled.

"Nothing."

"What?"

"Nothing happened, Ophie!" I cried, half-excited and half-terrified. "We have our colour."

Ophelia opened her eyes slowly. "If this is one of your jokes, Solis––" Then she froze, picked up a strand of her hair and gaped at its still bright-purple, pink, and blue strands.

Then she looked at me. "What does this mean?"

What did this mean? Did it mean we weren't Nightwatchers? Could we still go out during the day? Or were we still supposed to stay in the night? Where would we stay?

Would I ever find my mother?

That last question was the one I thought of most.

Twelve years of endless searches had passed and I still hadn't found her. Leaving me with only one more place to look...The Night.

Maeve Moore had to be in the Night. It had to be where she'd disappeared to the day I turned six years old.

Now, you might be thinking. "Oh, so you didn't really go with Ophelia because you cared about her. You went because of your mother."

Well first of all, you're wrong. I don't go anywhere unless Lia is with me or I know she's safe, and vice-versa. So, I certainly wasn't having her go into the Night without me, she was the closest thing I had to a family and I was never letting her go.

Buuuuuuut, she was the only reason I hadn't gone into the Night before now, so her getting sentenced was kind of a really good excuse to go look for my Mum.

Was I going to tell her that? Nooooooo.

"Will we be able to leave?" she asked, as if I know.

"I dunno," I muttered, pushing any thoughts of my Mum out of my mind. I couldn't have Ophelia know how much pain I was in at that moment. "But I do know that we need to find a place to camp out until we find out. C'mon, Sunshine." I picked up Fish (who'd managed to fall asleep) and began walking away with him.

"Shut up," she frowned even deeper.

"Light of my life?" I tried.

"Solis."

"Fine, Grumps."

"I deeply regret nicknaming you Apollo," she muttered.

"Serves you right, now let's find some shelter, Solar-panel," I teased even more.

"You are truly pathetic," she rolled her eyes, following me down the street, still wide-eyed with shock at our (maybe failed?) 'draining'.

☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎

"My legs are about to fall off, Ophie," I panted, "let's take a break."

"Rest is for wimps," she said sternly, "are there really no hotels or something for Nightwatchers?"

"I dunno, I've never been a Nightwater before."

"Ha. Ha. You're so funny," she said sarcastically, continuing our search. After about thirty seconds she stopped in her tracks, making me walk into her back. I yelped in pain.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered.

"Besides my legs detaching from my body? No I definitely––" She put a hand over my mouth to shut me up.

Then I heard what she was talking about. Two people whisper-shouting nearby.

"Shove over," a girl's voice said angrily.

"Shove over," a boy imitated her, "you have half of the bush to yourself, idiot. You shove over."

"Shut up, you're gonna make them hear us."

"Oh the people we're spying on?" the boy whispered (yelled), "yes let me just let them know they have an audience. HEY, COLOUR PEOPLE––"

That's when I believe the girl pushed him out of the bush they were hiding in. Because he tumbled out, screaming in alarm.

"CASSIE, I SWEAR I WILL TELL AXEL," he cried.

"Yes, because he'll definitely believe you over his own sister," the girl (Cassie), also climbed out of the bush. She then turned to me and Ophie, a wide smile on her face. She ran towards Ophelia.

"Ohmygoshyou'resooooopretty!!!!!!" she squealed, talking at the speed of light. "I haven't seen so much colour in a person in ages, and your hair?!?!?!? GORGEOUS."

I snorted. Ophelia wasn't one to respond to compliments easily. But she surprised me by giving a shocked but pleased smile to Cassie.

"I––uh, thanks," she said.

"Are you a hugger??? It's totally cool if you're not. I'm alway cool with a casual handshake or a wave, honestly whatever's fine with you, girl," Cassie said, once again talking so fast I wondered whether she ever took a moment to breathe.

"A––um, a hug is good?" Ophie said, reluctantly, looking kind of honoured when Cassie jumped on her in excitement.

"You have no idea how amazing it is to meet you! We're gonna be such great friends, and wait 'till you meet Rora, she'll love you!!" she gushed. Then, as if only noticing I was there, she turned to me and shook my hand.

"Nice to meet you guys, I'm Casseopia Patel," she beamed.

"Nice to meet you too," Ophie and I both said, unsure of everything that had just happened.

"We're––" I began to introduce us but Casseopia interrupted.

"Oh, no need to introduce yourselves. I already know. Solis Zeno Moore and Ophelia Calliope Martiez, oh and I can't forget about your dog, Fish!! Such nice names, by the way," she said, "we get a report of newbies every time we need to host new Nightwatchers."

"Host?" I said, in confusion.

"Oh yeah, the Nightwatcher mansion. Every single Nightwatcher to ever exist lives there. My twin brother runs the place."

"Okay, the poor kids just got here, Cass. Give them space to breathe," the boy who was with her finally spoke up. "I'm Nereus Astell, but I also go by Neo, nice to meet you guys," he reached forward to shake both of our hands.

"Don't be fooled by Neo's calm appearance at the moment, you two," Casseopia warned us. "He seems to be intelligent, but let me tell you he's lacking all but one brain cell," she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, 'cause you're so smart," Neo snapped back, "ok guys, let's take you back to the mansion."

"Woah woah woah, you don't expect us to just follow you?" I said, firmly, "I'm sorry to be rude but we don't know who the hell you are and you've been spying on us for who knows how long."

"Yes, but it's either you come with us or you sleep outside until the authorities bring you to us," Nereus grinned. "Your pick."

"Like I said, you've been officially registered as soon as you went through the draining," Cass said, brightly.

"Um, excuse me. Sorry to interrupt, but we didn't go through the draining. We have our colour. We only need somewhere to stay for a night then we'll be off," Ophelia explained.

"Show me your arm, sweetie," Cassie said, moving towards Lia.

"What?"

"Just turn it so I can see your wrist," Cass instructed. Ophie did as told.

And right there, in the middle of her wrist, was a little picture. A picture of a crescent moon.

"Solis you do the same," Casseopia said. I did the same.

I had an identical mark. Both Cass and Neo showed us their wrists, revealing the same tattoo-like picture.

"It's the Nightwatcher symbol, the second you go through the draining, you have it. If you have it, you're stuck here forever," Cass said.

"Now you two appear to be a weird case, keeping your colour, and don't ask why, but it hasn't saved you from the rest of the package."

That's when I fully took in the scale of Casseopia and Nereus' lack of colour. They both had pitch-black hair, so I assumed that was their real hair colour. Neo's skin was paper white and Cassie's was a dark shade of grey. Their clothes were both a bunch of different shades of grey and Neo's eyes looked like a watercolour painting done in monotone.

How long had they looked like that? If I were being honest at that moment, I would say I found it pretty freaking magnificent.

"Oh." Ophie's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Okay, we'll come."

Everyone turned to me.

"I don't have a choice, do I?"

"How 'bout this, you come with us and if you still don't like it, have a talk with Axel," Cass said. Neo shot her a knowing look, but said nothing.

I took a deep breath, knowing I'd say something I would regret.

"If Ophie is in, then I am, I guess."

☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎

"No."

"What do you mean, no?" Casseopia cried, "they're poor unfortunate souls, look at them!"

She indicated to me and Ophelia like we were puppies in need of a home.

"I mean, no," said the boy in front of her. Who, by the similarities in their appearance, I assumed was Axel. "I'm looking at them and all I see is colour. Colour is suspicious, how do we know they're not impersonating Nighwatchers or something?"

"How would anyone possibly pretend to go through the draining without actually going through it, you idiot?" Cass snorted. "Plus, Neo and I saw them go through it, they were practically crying."

"I was not!" I blurted out, like the idiot I am. "Plus it's fine, we didn't want to stay anyways. You're nice people and all but we're good on our own, it's all we've had our entire lives and you wont change it. Have a nice life."

"Wait," Axel called after me. I stopped, kinda intimidated by this guy.

"You're staying," he said, crossing his arms.

"I––what the hell?!" I yelled, "are you just trying to contradict me?"

"No, but I've thought about it and you're staying," Axel said, simply.

"Yes, and I've thought about it and we're leaving. Come on, Lia," I turned towards the door. These people didn't seem safe. I wasn't leaving Ophelia with them for even a second.

"Solis, why don't we stay?" Ophie whispered, "just for a few nights, see if you like it."

"You can stay, extra room service!" Cass suggested.

"Don't push it, Cassie," Axel muttered.

"And what if we do stay, hm?" I turned around. "How can we guarantee that you won't poison us in our sleep or something?"

"If I wanted to poison you, I would have done it already, you git," Axel rolled his eyes. "And despite how I seem, I'm not a murderer."

"You really wanna stay here?" I asked Ophelia.

"Seems safe, and we don't have anywhere else, Solis," she said.

She was right.

"Fine," I muttered.

"All of that and in the end he agreed 'cause of the girl," Axel rolled his eyes, "you have got to be kidding me." Ophelia kicked him in the shin because of that comment.

"I like this one!!!" Nereus said excitedly, "she kicked Axel! I like her."

I, on the other hand, needed a word with this Axel.

"Axel, a word," I said sternly. Axel led me into a different room so we could talk.

"You're keeping her safe," I said, "if one thing happens to her, you'll regret it."

"You're embarrassing yourself, Moore," Axel laughed harshly.

I'd had enough of this dude.

"She's all I have. All. I. Have. Do you hear me?" I said sternly, moving an inch towards him,"And I know she can take care of herself; she could slice your throat open in a heartbeat, for goodness sake...But still, the second that you hurt her, that you even lay a finger on her – I'll take pleasure in breaking every single one of your bones. Every. Single. One. Without a doubt."

Axel's eyes both softened and darkened at my words, if that were even possible.

"Listen, man I––I won't hurt her, or you for that matter," he said, putting his hands up in defence "I don't trust you, for sure. But I wouldn't cause any harm to your family, no matter how much I dislike you, you got that?"

I nodded.

"Your rooms are beside each other, top floor, rooms 106-107," he explained, throwing me the keys. "Don't lose the keys, I don't plan on breaking you into the rooms if you manage to misplace them."

I nodded again. "I need space for my dog too. If I stay, the dog stays."

"Ah yes, the retriever with the sea-creature name," Axel said in mock amusement. "He has a small room to himself that's attached to yours, don't worry about food and drink, I've taken care of it."

"Appreciate it."

"Wonderful," he replied sarcastically. "Now get settled in, you only have half the Night left before you experience the Disappearing."

And with that, he left me standing alone, wondering what the hell the disappearing was.

☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎

I somehow, after about twenty minutes of searching, found my room. I left Ophie to get settled in and went inside.

It was funny how I––unlike Ophelia––could take all I wanted with me to the night. I didn't have the police telling me what I could or couldn't bring.

But I only brought one thing, just like her. I pulled the pictures we took in a photobooth a few summers ago out of my pocket. I wasn't one to save possessions or take care of them...But this? God, I couldn't let go of this. It was one of the many memories that I wanted to save.

Aaaaaandddd, just as I thought about that, my heart dropped into my stomach.

Because I could just imagine her face if she realised how much I was hurting, how much I was missing my mother. She'd leave, just like everyone else. She'd think I was a burden to handle and the only person who'd ever stayed would leave.

I sat down on the bed (which was extremely comfortable, by the way), and immediately felt stuck.

What was I going to do now? We were in the night; was I not supposed to be looking for my Mum? Should I have been helping Ophelia with her unpacking? No, wait, she didn't bring anything with her, did she? Ugh.

That's when there was a knock on my door. "Come in," I said, thinking it was Ophelia.

News flash, it wasn't.

"Hey, are you getting settled in alright?" Casseopia said, leaving the door open.

"Yeah, thanks," I muttered. Why was she here?

Cass sighed and sat down on my desk, giving me a knowing look. "Where's your dog?"

"Asleep, he's in the room next to us," I replied, "why?"

"Oh no reason, he's just adorable, that's all," she looked around the room aimlessly. Then she stopped. "I'm terrible at small talk, aren't I?"

"Yep," I nodded.

"Okay, fine. I'm here to ask about your Mum," she said, a small smile was forming on her face.

I'm pretty sure my heart stopped beating for a moment.

"Huh? What are you talking about, I––I don't––" Cassie held her hand up to interrupt.

"You can't convince me otherwise, Solis. Your surname, Moore, is the same as a woman who lived here for a while. She actually ran this place for a bit until she disappeared," she shrugged, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Maeve was like the mother I never had. I was about eight when she arrived, she's been gone since Axel and I turned twelve; we haven't seen her since," Cass looked at me with sad eyes. "I remember her mentioning that she had a son and daughter back home, she said they were her whole world."

"Maeve," I repeated, laughing slightly, "I haven't heard anyone call her that in a while."

"Were you and Ophelia her kids?" asked Cass, curiosity shining through her eyes. "Is she your sister?"

I laughed out loud. "God no, we're not related. We might as well be though, my Mum took Ophie in when we were younger, until she disappeared and Lia had to go back to her own family and I went into foster care. We were both six years old at the time."

"Well what if I told you I could help you find her? Your mother," Casseopia said eagerly, jumping off the desk, "I'd just need your help with something in return."

I perked up at that. "What?"

"You heard me," she said, beaming, "want some help finding Maeve?"

"I––yes!" I laughed, "I'll do anything. Do you know where she is?"

"No, but I have some resources we could use. You just need to help me out with a similar task."

"What do you need me to do?" I asked, adrenaline rushing through my veins.

"I need to find out who my parents were," she said. "I've been trying for a while, but what with Axel being annoying about it and stuff, I haven't gotten far."

"I'll help," I said, "of course I'll help, what should I do?"

"Just keep Axel distracted while I steal some papers and all, just simple stuff like that. Neo doesn't have the guts to stand up to my brother when it comes to this, and Aurora is too much of a goody-two-shoes to steal."

"That sounds fine. But...Why do you trust me? don't I look a little strange, what with the colour and all?" I mumbled, doubt beginning to creep in. What if this was some kind of trap?"

"All you want is to keep yourself and your friend safe," she laughed, "what could be so strange about that? Now help me out here, do we have a deal?" She held out her hand, expectantly.

After hesitating for a second, I grinned and reached forward to shake her hand.

"We have a deal."

a/n – second chapter done!! probably won't have another for a while so enjoy!!! have a nice day/night :)