Detective Harvey Johnson didn’t do early mornings. 3am was something that happened to other people. So when he received an unprecedented call from HQ at the witching hour, he was less than excited. 

Regardless of the sun’s absence, the city was shifting with activity. Shadows of people slouched in doorways and trailed after sluggish taxis, everything wrapped in the grey blanket of the city’s smog. Johnson, blinking sleep out of his tired eyes, cursing the inconvenient hour for a murder, turned the corner into

the normally pitch black alleyway behind a popular jazz club. Except now it was lit up with white spot lights, assumedly trained on the body. He instantly noticed something different about the atmosphere. There were too many people doing nothing at all. Standing around looking about photographs, flipping through files and scribbling quietly in notepads. But mostly huddled in small groups, staring off into nothing with the expression of confused fascination. Like they’d seen a ghost that had confronted with their deepest fears. One figure among the crowd was shaking, hand over their mouth and leering near the body. As they turned away they caught Harvey’s eye, and he saw that they were smiling, in a sickly, horrified way. 

A cold hand gripped his shoulder and spun him around  “Greetings” a familiar voice said. His partner in crime and best friend Otto smiled back at him. “You okay bud? You look like Death” Harvey shook his head. “Lets just get this over with” he muttered, guested weakly to the scene behind them. Otto raised an eyebrow over his glasses at his friend’s disgruntled demeanor, but silently followed him. 

Something was off. Everything seems to be in its place but something, something. A woman was laying on the concrete, her neck bent in an unnatural angle, her rib cage fully exposed.  But something… his mind began to fill with heavy static. The pool of blood was a shade he had never encountered. The tattered fabric of her dress was bright and shiny, reflecting the light in a way that make his eyes sting. It was yellow.  The names came back like long forgotten memories. Static seemed to fill up everything, screaming the colours names again and again, overflowing, overthinking and drowning the grey world.

Harvey found himself dry heaving over a nearby trashcan. Why me? He thought hazily.  Why did this have to happen? I’m just doing my job. His swirly train of thought was broken by Otto appearing in his peripheral vision.  He ran a gloved hand through his black greasy hair nervously. 

“It’s working”

“What?” Harvey gurgled, straightening up.

“I said, should we get to work? It’s still is a crime scene”

He saw his reflection in Otto’s  thick black glasses, his face was ash white, he looked as terrified. The fear was in Otto too, he could see in his shuffling feet and clenched gloved hands. All of a sudden the world had been flipped upside down, and by god he was going to figure out why.

They soon swung into the motions, with Otto using his silver tongue on the witness and Harvey examining the crime scene. It was painful to look at, like he believed that he would blin and everything would go back to normal. Expect it didn’t.

Exhausted and unsettled, they regrouped and agreed that there was nothing to report. Nothing expect...well….you know. They agreed to pick up the case later after a rest. On his short walk home, Harvey could swear he felt eyes on his back. Walking faster now, coat collar pulled up against the wind the only thing on his mind was the security of a locked door and a warm bed.

But the eyes followed him there. He dreams of eyes. Green eyes watching over the top of newspapers. Blue peering around corners and Yellow glaring from behind curtains. They snuck closer...closer...closer, until they were everywhere surrounding him accusing him, peeling away every insecurity and and throwing him into the blinding,unforgiving light.

The investigation continued. Reports of colourful murders became a frequent occurrence. There was no use trying to keep it from the public anymore. The media snapped it up instantly as it began to spread, printing the very first coloured pictures in their black and white newspapers. Windows were flooded with orange light, billboards shon red and coffee was brown. It was exciting and new and horrifying; and Harvey was determined to do something. Raids and ordered on artists and politicians questions, but to no avail. It felt like a huge cloud hanging over the city, a heavy question on everybody’s lips. How?

Afters weeks of fruitless work, Otto invited Harvey out of a drink. Some things are better viewed from the bottom of a shot glass, they both agreed.”I just don’t understand” Harvey slurred over his third glass. “I’m shooo close to an answer, I can feel it in my..ah.. In my bonethh!” Otto nodded patiently, hands folded on the table. He watched the detective ramble on and on for a while, unsurprised at his inability to hold his drink. They had shared may nights like this one, which normally ended with Otto carrying his partner home in the early hours. But with everything going on, could you blame him for getting smashed? The pressure had been building on him, you could see it in his tired grey eyes. “I’ll buy the last round” he suggested, lifting up from the booth and wondering out of Harvey’s already foggy vision. Harvey didn’t remember any more of that night.

He woke up and everything was wrong. Although his vision was fuzzy, he could see the space was lit with candles, shadowy figures stand at scattered desks. He realised with a shiver that all of the figures had bright, colourful eyes; watching him with the sinister interest of a young child gazing upon a horrific car crash. One shadows oiled it’s way towards to where he was tied to a chair. 

The figure lifted a candle higher, higher, higher into the air. The reflection of the orange flame swam in their glasses.

“Greetings”

“Oh, oh no! Otto please, pleas- you’re doing..all those people- how could you Otto?”

Harvey shook his head in disbelief, vision spinning “You’re insane!”

“Oh don’t be cliche, Harvey! You know me better than that. We’re just righting the wrongs in this world. Do you really think that we’re destined to be monochrome forever? That colour was always going to be outside our grasp?”  And besides” He added testily, “What's wrong with a bit of colour?” Slowly he removed his glasses, to reveal intelligent, emerald green eyes.

“N-none of this is natural, I don’t believe you”

                                   Otto’s mouth smiled, but his eyes did not.

“Then you had better start believing”