This is the story I wrote for a competition years ago. Finally uploading it here. Enjoy!
The last drops of rain fell on her face, and she slowly blinked her eyes open. The infinite sky above her was still dark, but far from her, the last rays of the sun were peeking through the clouds, painting the dark clouds a shade of orange.
It was the darkness she loved, the perfect darkness that you only see on a rainy day, not too dark but not too bright. She always loved the rain, loved the feeling of getting wet in the rain; it calmed her. But what she loved more than rain was rainbows.
She was five when she first witnessed a rainbow, and somehow, it was a memory still engraved in her head. She was playing with her baby brother in the rain, running from their mother, who was trying to get them inside the house, but they weren’t listening. They used to live in a small village where there wasn’t much crowd, the lands were preserved and clean with so much greenery that fascinated many tourists.
When the rain stopped, her brother started crying, but then, right in front of their eyes, a rainbow formed. A big, giant, colorful rainbow that made her brother’s eyes sparkle with awe. It was right beside them, with one of its ends vanishing into the middle of a dense forest that started from their backyard.
She felt called. She wanted to chase it, wanted to find what lies beyond, but her mother pulled her back. She was fed with horrifying tales to keep her from chasing rainbows, but she never believed in them. Instead, it made her way more curious.
They moved out to live in the city, and she never witnessed a rainbow from up close. Never like how it was in her village. The mesmerizing beauty of one color merging into another, the mystery of what lies beyond?
After twenty years, she was finally back in her village and was greeted by the joy of nature. It was still like it used to be. Giant trees danced with the wind, mountains were visible in the distance, and the creatures of nature sang with joy, welcoming her back.
As her eyes wandered all around, taking in the scent of fresh, cool air, a rainbow started forming in the distance. She felt called once again, and her legs took flight. She was running, chasing the end of the rainbow, which, like the very first time, was vanishing into the dense forest.
She kept running and running until finally, the other end came into view, and her body slumped. There was nothing but just the forest. No, this can’t be.
Taking each step slowly towards the end, she studies the colors. They always brought her joy. Their amalgamation was fluid, the violet perfectly blending into indigo to blue to green to yellow to orange, and finally red. They sparkled like crystals, though it wasn’t visible from afar. Something about them was pure and unique, maybe that’s why people who were cast out by society chose these colors to represent them, like her.
She reached out her hand in the hope of touching the colors, even after knowing that wasn’t possible, but a gasp left her mouth when her fingers went through it, coloring them violet. It was like her fingers were under millions of tiny waterfalls.
As she examined her fingers, she saw that there was indeed glitter, silver glitter, but subtle. It wasn’t overpowering the color. As she took the final step and stood right beside the end, she noticed that there was something about the forest.
It was similar yet different from the rest, the color of the leaves was darker, with a hint of blue in them. She decided to go in further, but when she took another step, the land below vanished, and she fell.
It was all a blur, but when her shoulder hit something hard, she stood up and noticed that everything around her was surreal. The trees were blue with silver glitter all over them, there were rainbows leading from one humongous castle to another.
In this land unknown, she saw that the people were dressed as they desired; they were free to express themselves with no boundaries. A cold wave brushed past her at that moment, and in a flash, the memories of her past lives rushed through her, the memories of who and what she was.
This was her home all along. This was where she belonged. The Goddess of love and equality was back in her realm, and it was time to send the messengers of love and equality back to earth, where cruelty and inequality had taken root in the last few centuries.
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