" Did he propose?" Mother's pretty small features glowed with excitement as she rooted through a large cabinet, finally dragging out a glowing purple gem and placing it in my palm.

" Uh yes."

Mother clapped her hands together, then she was in neutral.

"You can never meet that disgusting mule Blue of yours ever again." She stated, as if it was a fact," You did pull quiet the stunt talking to the Green!"

" Mother he was being a toad following me, Lola and Charlie around," I made myself the picture of honesty, the heavier bleeps of pain echoing in my brain turning louder, telling me I had succeeded. Satisfied I made myself innocent, relaxing my tense muscles and spine.

She nodded," You showed him the best didn't you?" She twisted a beautiful gold strand of hair in her finger and pointed at the gem," Do wear it at the ceremony, it was mine and my mother, and my mother's mother and those before her."

I fingered the cold little stone in my hand and forced a little smile," I love it Mother."

" As we love you," my Father's unexpected voice drilled.

I choked down the lie and smiled at the tall figure standing slightly away from us, curled up on our own purple glass chairs, hands fiddling with some pretty little patterns on the table.

Embroidery, she called it, fit for Purples.

A waste of time, I knew it. Fit for wobbly idiots who had nothing else to do with their sad miserable lives.

At the thought the throbbing noise in my head was a clashing bark.

I stared up at the beautiful ceiling made of glass, little drawings of Silvers flying around here and there. Fake angels.

I sighed, then asked in a fake content voice," Will I have to take the test if I'll be a Silver anyways."

"You most definitely won't need a ring, but you will obviously do the test," the quiet male voice said," Just to show Abigor you are a good person at heart. A Silver."

I looked towards my Father. He was always quiet, but always yearning for rules to follow and loving the government. Loving the Colours. But always silent-

I nodded, making an expression of calm flash on my face.

Panic mode activated- just like that cartoon Skyfly, banned for inappropriate mindset, happiness, freedom, adventure. Creators were seen taken into the building and never seen again. People say the ashes of them hang somewhere on the building.

I never got how it stayed together, was it really a beautiful silver building underneath, just coated in the hell fire? Probably not.

Tomorrow I turned sixteen. Tomorrow I didn't get a ring.

A flush of guilt rushed through my body, living like a Princess, letting everyone else die while I-

No more. You have to go through with this Faranza, do it for a future for everyone here, you can't very well save America if you're dead.

I snorted internally, and how exactly are you going to do any of this Sunstar?

No clue.

I blinked taking in our beautiful living room. Two chandeliers of pure ice hung from the glass ceiling, a giant silver statue dwarfed the stunning ice table, a tall man, a grin plastered on his face. The man, the murderer.

I took a heavy breath in and swiped a neutral on my own face.

I worked quietly with the large silver pins sticking out of the purple mess that was supposed to be a flower, and I glanced at Mother, her hands grabbing my mess and deftly patching it up, and I slowly saw it come to life, pretty fluttery edges forming.

Mother smiled and scolded me half-heartedly on the terrible work.

I let in a genuine smirk, Father even offering a grin.

The buttery bird bell sang again. Reminding me of Grandma. Again.

Father tightened his posture and went to get the door, Mother quickly grabbed the embroidery and took it somewhere inside.

Thoughts buzzed in my head once again, the distractions were gone.

" Sir, I was hoping to see your daughter, Fara." the smooth polished voice said.

Mother sent me a little smile and her eyes whispered, go on.

Great, and now he was here.

The guilt burned me once again-

I forced myself to hurry to the door, past the beautiful purple hallways.

Father stood there, socially stupid, but putting on a good act, smiling courteously and leading Abigor inside.

Abigor's black-purple eyes lost a thin shade of black as he met mine. I did a little nod, and let Mother be the host.

I played along with the game of perfect throughout the tea – posh, golden plated china cups, with fresh mint dangled over each cup- and biscuits, soft cream edged delicious things.

But to maintain the act I had to only nibble on one, that didn't stop me from pocketing five. Hopefully my parents thought Abigor was a fast eater. I was very subtle.

They made stiff but very excited conversation, no I don't know how that feeling works either.

I managed to stay out of it only offering polite responses consisting of a yes or a no. Internally I was begging for this conversation to be over. Fortunately, it was. But everyone knows a fortune comes with an unfortune.

Unfortunately, there was a new conversation. Directed at me.

"So Fara, I see your family's just as beautiful as-"

Do not finish that sentence, the words burned in my eyes.

He only laughed, setting Mother off in a stream of awkward giggles. Father just stared at the tiled floor. And kept staring.

That evil...

I jerked my head slowly," Curfew at nine."

Mother and Cleansing and Father were all throwing daggers at me. But I really had to think, about if this was all worth it?

" Is that the polite way of saying get lost?" But he was grinning and that loosened up the hostile atmosphere.

Mother and Abigor spent a while bumbling on about this and that while my Father and I had a silent conversation. I think I had a spooky way to communicate with people using only eyes, because somehow I could always understand them, and them me.

You are seriously getting married.

Surprise echoed all over me, And I thought you wanted to be a Silver.

Yes, yes I do, his eyes seemed to sigh with annoyance.

Seriously? This is the first time you've ever been casual you know?

Daughter, you are just so dang annoying no one wants to talk to you, I could spot a wince, his ring obviously, but he ploughed on, I'm joking. Eye talking is just impossible to be formal in. I do love you, I don't know why I'm telling you this, but make the right decisions okay?

I could see the words written on his eyes, like little text flashing over them, as long as I maintained the right eye contact. I could read anyone like a book, but only if they were looking into my eyes too. It was creepy but a kind of superpower at times.

Right now though I was scared my power was backfiring because... This was crazy, Father, being... so ... nice, so casual and close? He was always distant and only ever happy with Mother. This was new.

The shock must have shown on my face because his eyes seemed to whisper, Make the right decisions in life please, his face slowly went desperate, please.

The ring was tightening and his skin was going red from blood screaming to flow. I couldn't help but look away from the thin brown haired man.

And there were two more people staring at me, it seemed someone had asked a question.

" I'm so sorry," I plated my voice high," What were you say? "

A ghost of a smirk danced on Abigor's face," Oh I'd like to take you somewhere."

Please no, I had to think everything through and I only had this night. I tried begging with my eyes but he just smiled back and shook his head.

"Curfew?" I offered weakly.

Mother was lit up with anger at me, and Father was in neutral, his infernal ring sucking up everything good in him.

Abigor grabbed my hand, his smooth and blemish-free. I tried not to think of the hand in mine not too long ago-

"C'mon darling, it's gonna be great."

Toad.

I tried looking happy, and let him lead me out of the house, waving goodbyes to my parents. He stopped at the sleek black car, well, a very long car, stretched out. Apparently it was a 'limo.'

The sky was now inky black, it being a winter evening at eight forty-five pm.

He opened the door on the front seat of this 'limo' and held it open for me to get in. I still didn't say anything until we were both inside, hidden behind the rose-tinted windows. The interior was beautiful, cream velvet seats like feathery clouds, everything covered in cream, so many buttons I couldn't think. So many things everywhere that I had no clue. 'Lost in a Limo' would make a lovely headline.

"What is it Abigor?" I demanded in a quiet voice, as he began to navigate the roads. But I couldn't be bothered to care about the outside anymore and busied myself with figuring out the buttons. The small circular ones would bring you up a different type of drink on the left side and if you wanted them to leave, or you had drunk enough the drinks would go away. There were three types of drinks, the first one was water with some weird green substance coiling around, the second one was a thick sloshy strawberry liquid, with what looked like milk in it. The third one was a posh sort of orange juice with a hint of some exotic fruit I had once, they called it 'mango' I think.

"Nothing darling, aren't I allowed to take you for a drive-"

"What's going on?"

"Nothing." He kept his focus on the road while I tried a flashing green button on the top of my seat-

"You probably shouldn't-"

The seat began to jiggle and joggle me around squeezing gently, on me-

My eyes began to wobble and I shook with terror," What – What?"

Abigor was also shaking, but from laughter.

The jiggling began to get more and more intense and I yelled," Quit your giggled duffo, I'm being assaulted!" My voice went high and terrified. Okay, I am not proud of that.

Abigor couldn't wipe off his choking laughter, and he broke off as I began to scream at the creepy metal fingers poking at my back-

"It's a massage," he managed to stop guffawing," Press the b-button on top of the- Limo complete massage procedure on Passenger Number Two."

The moment after his command the seat stopped poking and shaking and creeping me out. I shuddered," That was terrifying."

He couldn't stop bellowing with more cries of laughter.

"What is so funny?" I demanded angrily.

"N-n-nothing," he managed to stop.

"Why are you wasting my last day of being happy and free?"

He looked a little offended," The world won't be all that terrible once you turn Silver-"

"Abigor," I said his name quietly," What if I don't want this?"

The car jerked to a stop, and obviously we were on the middle of a rickety Green road, the headlights illuminated the slightly saggy cottages around us.

"Don't you want to live?"

"Not when everyone else is dying."

A heavy silence hung between us, that seemed to last decades until-

"There's no other way, Father has made the tests stricter and- Fara you can't get hurt," his face softened as he looked at me.

"Why?" I whispered the question, staring into his eyes. But I couldn't read it this time, it was a jumble of words, something unexplainable hanging in the blacky-purpleness.

He shrugged," Please don't do anything stupid Fara. Please just get this over with."

I bristled with annoyance, stupid did he think?

He must have noticed it because the next moment, he was grinning," Come on, you'll be sixteen and that means something right? Just save your own guts then save the rest of the world's okay?"

"Do you get how terrible it is for the lower Colours, do you even understand what your stupid 'Father' is doing every day. His existence is killing me- sorry not just me, everyone in the remains of this long gone beautiful nation. He's worse than orange man, and that's saying something."

Thankfully Abigor didn't challenge me, and he just drove on.

I had discovered that a red button with wavy orange lines sent burst of hot air up and down my seat and I was loving it, sipping on the weird orange juice.

"So where are we going?"

"Somewhere," he shot me a grin, we were going down some unfamiliar windy road.

"For all I know you could be taking me down to murder me or something Mister Abigor, and it's way past curfew-"

"Who sets the curfew?"

"The President."

"And what is the president to me?"

"The President."

"No, what's our relationship?"

"President and subject."

"Ugh you're so dang annoying woman," he muttered under his breath.

I laughed," It's only the truth." I played with a new button by my shoes, which sent a flash of calming cold air was sent through my stinky black high heels, polished with valse from the shop Purple. No my parents would never loose the theme.

"No, he's my father, and he set's the rules and I'm his son, so I'll never get in trouble and you're technically family so..."

I rolled my eyes, yes I knew that but there were more important facts. Or was I just being stubborn-