Cursed

Prologue

In my world everyone has a light, or, as we call them, "Molecular Units That Educate Society," or "mutes," for short. This light is like a magnet to everyone in my world, and it's impossible to hide. The problem is whether you're going to be on the positive end of the magnet, or the negative.

These "mutes" are floating colored orbs that somehow never get lost, never make noise, and never touch you, or anyone else. It appears when you're born and disappears when you die, seemingly coming and going from nowhere. Every person in this world has one. It's just a natural and unquestionable thing.

Their purpose is to reveal your inner self to the rest of the world. They warp into a color that is displayed for everyone to see, like a reflection of who you are. If you're unhappy with your color, you can't do anything about it. The only way to hide a mute is to hide you. These colors that are portrayed represent everything about you. For example someone with a bright orange mute could be an artistic, vivacious, or cheerful person, with a tendency to argue.

For most people mutes are convenient. They're not ever-changing, walking mood rings; the color you're born with is the color you stick with until you die. If your color ever did happen to change that means your personality has. Even then it's normally only a change in the lighting or tint, not the actual color. The true color can only change in extreme cases and are virtually unheard of.

People base their entire perception of others on their mutes. Your mute is who you are, and when it's reflected to the rest of the world, some people won't accept "you." That's why everyone was separated into districts. The color you're born with is the district you'll be placed in, no matter what color your parents are. These "distinctions," of sorts, influence the mindset of my world. They think their color is the best; that they can only mix with the color they have. Even friends of different colors are unheard of. A "red," so to speak, would never get along with a "yellow," a "green" would never think to mix with a "pink" and "whites" only stick with other whites.

The white mutes are the so-called elites. They're better than everyone in any of the color districts and no one else can talk to them or make any form of contact with them. Even watching from a distance is forbidden. Whites are like the royal court of my world, and no one has ever questioned this system.

Then there's an unmentionable type of mute. It's shunned, ignored, despised. To have this color is disgraceful and some parents even kill their child if they're born with it, to save themselves from the disgrace.

They're the ones with black mutes and, to everyone else, they're tainted. No one knows what personality or "special trait" is associated with them. They just know to stay away. Black mutes live alone, self-ostracizing themselves to stay away from the disdain of the more "pure" colors.

I'm one of the extreme cases of changing mutes. When I was little my mute turned from a normal color, to black. I don't remember what the color was, when it happened, or even why. My life before now is a complete mystery. All I know for sure is that, in this world, I'm cursed.