False Rainbow

I saw a rainbow on my morning walk with my dog and started thinking about the myth of the pot at the end of the rainbow. I've always thought it was stupid and kinda pushed it out of my memory. But it felt... different. The colors just looked all wrong like it was darker, not so bright and happy. The yellow looked more mustard and the red had turned bloody, I looked away from it shrugging it off like a trick of the mind, or that it was just some clouds in the way of the pretty colors. When I got back home to my partners I looked outside and the colors were still off. Again I just shrugged it off, I mean how bad can it be, it's just another rainbow, just like the flag my partners and I have in our room. I go to take a nap cause I only woke up to take the dog out, I go to work in a few hours so no harm there as long as I listen for the alarm.

About an hour passed and I woke up in a cold sweat. Another nightmare fueled by trauma. I looked over and saw one of my partners working at the desk and sighed in relief. Just a nightmare, only a nightmare and it’s always a nightmare when I do dream. Waking up in cold sweats and forgetting what it was about in a few minutes. Sometimes it's so bad, the world seems to stop turning and I see hallucinations in real life. For some reason it felt different than usual even with not remembering a thing from it. I still wanted to crawl back against the headboard but I can't do that, not today with the big make-up designs I have to do for the movie. I got up and got in the shower just standing there for a bit letting the water run down my face, then I got a flash in my head of the nightmare and zoned out.

I felt the water get colder and knew I'd been in there too long, so I started to get out and dry off to get ready for work. The usual I left soon after saying bye and drove off to work. My brain still didn't register the rest of the day, it was worse when I was driving home at 2am. I cranked up the music blocking out the sounds of the road. I arrived at home eventually and went to take my makeup off and get in pajamas. I lied in bed and fell asleep next to my partners, calming down a bit from the day just from being with them.

The next few weeks I noticed weirder things each day then eventually, I heard things in the attic. I went to check and found out someone had been living there. "Great," I thought, "we have a stalker in our attic." I went back downstairs and tried to call the authorities. I started going to my room and felt like someone was watching me, not uncommon with the paranoia but it feels weird every time.

Why does this happen to me? I just found out there's been a mass murderer in my state, makes me feel like I'm in one of those Scary spaghetti stories kids write. Awkward and weird. I saw the same rainbow as I did weeks ago, like I have every day. I know it's the same cause I keep seeing it out of nowhere for no reason. I've drawn it multiple times and can't wrap my head around it. I went to the attic again like I had every day before and after work. No matter what it always looked different each and every time I did not change anything and knew my partners didn't like going up the ladder. One thing I noticed is a short figure inched closer and closer each time. Very, very, slowly. One day I noticed it right next to the ladder and I dreaded going up after work but I couldn’t control it.

Final day, I thought it was my final day. The short creature finally disappeared and weird things had toned down a lot. When I got home I went up the ladder, for the last time. I got to the top and felt tiny hands strangling me and I was paralyzed, stunned, I didn't fight back. I just stood there. The life dripping out of my soul. My final thought was the rainbow and seeing the blood red. I felt my own blood dripping as I lost consciousness and fell down the ladder with a loud thud.

Next thing I knew, I'm awake in the hospital. My partners are waiting for my awake wanting answers. What they think happened was me trying to kill myself, again. When I explained they looked at me like I was crazy, at that point I gave up completely. I just leaned back and whispered, "We need to move houses." That was the last thing to happen. Now everything is back to normal and we moved to a new house. I haven't seen that false rainbow ever since and I'm glad, so fucking glad.

---

I hope you enjoyed my story. I worked hard on it.