Depression can’t hide from certain eyes. Johnny could see the effects already, as he swept his gaze across the rest of the class. Some students burst with colour. Some were muted, but still hanging in there. One was empty. Johnny no longer told anyone what he saw. Between the voices he could hear and the smells he couldn’t describe and the things he swore he touched even though no one else found anything there, they thought he was mad enough already. Class ended. He packed his bag, staring at the one empty soul. Now, how exactly did you go about mentioning this? “Excuse me, I notice you have no colours today” lacked a certain something. But he wanted to tell her. So Johnny fumbled with his bag. Being the last two, he fell into place alongside her, who shuffled out with all the zip and zing of a robot mourning its maker. He leaned over and whispered, “If you ever wanna talk, I’m here.” Nothing. Johnny waited for anything to happen, then broke off and left her. He’d known Kelly since kindergarten, long enough to tell what she clearly wanted. [hr] That evening, Johnny walked home by himself. Nothing unusual (for him) happened; just a couple of ghosts, an earthquake that affected nothing else, and a crow that kept muttering curses over him. He wasn’t sure exactly when he’d started noticing stuff like this, or even if it had started; for all he knew, he might have been born weird. It definitely made him popular in kindergarten, when everyone had assumed his imagination was top-notch, and then unpopular thereafter, when everyone realized he was serious. Johnny kicked a stone across the street. Thinking. [hr] He was still thinking over dinner, when the rest of his family talked on and on about football and the weather and football and Aunt Millie and football and the TV and football. They didn’t talk to him, exactly. They just talked around him, hoping he’d get the hint and chat like a normal person. In his bedroom, he never played video games. It was hard to kill Nazi soldiers in 3D when you heard their screams and saw them die far more realistically than the graphics should account for. He’d invited Kelly over to play once. She’d clutched her head at the screams which he’d manfully tried to ignore. Then they’d gotten ice lollies. His had tasted like Mozart; hers, Beethoven. Shaking off the memories, Johnny turned to his maths homework. He got every answer right, without in any way actually knowing how to work them out. He ducked out the window. Fortunately, a freak gust of wind cushioned his fall, right on schedule. [hr] Johnny waited at the park. One lantern light glowed over him; the will-o’-the-wisp attached to it was harmless company, if a little dreary from being overlooked the rest of the time. Johnny looked around. “Hyo!” he said with false cheeriness. “Wanna go hunting werewolves again? They promise they won’t run very fast tonight.” Kelly was suddenly there, as colourless as ever. Her face shone damply. “Mom says I can’t,” she murmured. Johnny frowned. “So?” “She knows about me sneaking out. She says I can’t do it anymore. She says I’m going to be a woman, so it’s time to put away childish things.” “I don’t get it.” “This is the last time I can see you. She’ll know.” “You want to be a woman?” “No.” “Well, then, don’t be one,” said Johnny, who hadn’t had certain things explained to him. “I want to be one.” She didn’t look him in the eye. “I’m sorry. If it’s time, then it’s time.” “Huh?” “It’s been fun, Johnny.” And then she turned around and just… vanished. Johnny stared at the spot for a long time, but then old habits of thought kicked in. He shrugged it off. What would it matter, after all? She’d clearly been lying. She’d change her mind. [hr] She wasn’t in school the day after. Johnny stared at the empty chair. He’d pestered his mother until she’d explained it to him. Kelly’s parents had decided to move, for reasons that didn’t make sense to him. Judging from his mother’s expression, though, [i]he[/i] had been an unspoken reason. Yet she didn’t tell him where they’d gone. Without Kelly as company or distraction, Johnny slumped on his chair. He could hear his classmates’ thoughts unimpeded. When he looked down, he saw the colour slowly draining out of his flesh.