Chapter 1 - The Eyes 

Dave and Laura were walking through the Beverly Centre shopping mall on the cusp of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. It was a beautiful Wednesday afternoon in the middle of July and most of the college students were winding down from a year of hard work.

Laura and the rest of the seniors at UCLA had an end of year party in a few days and she managed to convince her boyfriend Dave to come out shopping with her for a new dress.

Like most guys Dave didn't particularly enjoy following his girlfriend round shopping. Laura would visit all the stores, try on a million things and only make her mind up at the end. However being the cunning man he was, he agreed on the premise that he would get to pick out some new lingerie for her to wear to spice things up in the bedroom.

Laura's phone beeped to signal a WhattsApp message from her best friend and housemate Angela. They had been good friends since the first year of college and kept it going ever since. They shared a house together in Westwood, a North Western LA neighbourhood, home to a stylish student community and a bevy of stars.

Laura clicked on the message with a photo attached.

"Hey Laurz! Just bought this black and blue dress for the party. Have you got yours yet? x"

Angela texted back. "Emmm it's white and gold love!"

"Nooo, it's black and blue!" Laura insisted.

Laura wasn't an argumentative person, far from it but she had an issue with Angela calling the dress black and blue, as she clearly saw it was white and gold. Her face screwed up as she wandered if Angela was winding her up or got hit with a temporary case of colour blindness.

"Babe." Laura turned to her boyfriend Dave. "Angela just texted me a picture of a dress she bought. What colour is it?"

"It's black and blue."

Laura stopped, lifting her hands up slapping it on her thighs.

"Are you kidding me?" she said disappointed.

"No," replied Dave.

"Have another look."

Dave looked again. "Oookkk, emm. It's clearly BLACK & BLUE. "

"No it's not. It's white and gold. What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? How is it white and gold?"

"Because it IS!"

Laura huffed and puffed and carried on walking. "I dunno what's wrong with you but you need to get your eyes tested!" Laura said flustered.

"Whatever. You're the one who needs your eyes tested. Me and Angela both think the dress is black and blue. Who's the odd one out?"

Dave was studying maths at college. This gave him excellent analytical skills and he could be very direct at times. Laura on the other hand was less direct as she liked to let things happen and fall into place. However she could rise to a challenge if necessary, like in freshman year when she organised a beach volleyball fundraiser to save endangered seals on the beaches of LA. His comment was executed in style and this could only call for one thing.

A woman in her early 20's was walking to the left of Laura and was about to overtake her before she was stopped. Laura pulled out her phone to show her the picture.

"Excuse me, what colour is this dress?

"It's black and blue."

"Hah. Told you." Dave said excited.

Laura was getting hot and bothered now. She didn't mind being wrong, but when she knew she was right she would fight till the bitter end!

She began looking at the people in front of her. Someone who would maybe think like her.

She picked out a good looking black guy in an afro, dressed in a red short sleeved shirt and black ¾ length combat shorts.

"Hi excuse me."

He looked puzzled as he saw what seemed to be a couple and wandered what was going on.

"Hiii" he said uncomfortably.

"Sorry to bother you," she said smiling.

"I know this is totally random, but I'm Laura and this is my boyfriend Dave, we're having a debate about the colour of a dress."

"OK," the guy said bewildered.

"What's your name?" Laura asked.

"I'm LaShawn."

"He thinks the dress is black and blue. And I keep telling him its white and gold. What do you see?"

"It's black and blue." LaShawn replied.

Laura's heart sank. She started thinking there was something wrong with her. She always thought she was a little different from everyone else but special, in her own unique way. She comforted herself by thinking she had a higher purpose, like she had a major part to play in something epic but that never stopped the feelings of alienation.

She kept a lot inside and very rarely opened up to people. Being young and in a university environment she began to feel the alienation even more. Now being the only one who so far saw the dress in white and gold started to get to her. First Angela, then Dave, and now two passers-by. She was the only one who saw the dress in white and gold.

University was supposed to be a time to find herself, discover who she was. And right now the only thing she would find is an empty party of team white and gold.

LaShawn smiled. "Only joking. I was....just teasing you as I could see it meant a lot to you. I'm like that sometimes. It's white and gold. Definitely white and gold. I don't know how any one else can see something different."

Laura put her hand on her chest breathing a huge sigh of relief. "Oh thank you. You don't know how much you mean to me."

"What. Are you stupid?" Dave got mad and grabbed her by the waist walking her to one side. "You gonna chat up another guy right in front of me."

"I...didn't mean it, to say you. I meant 'that'. You don't know how much THAT meant to me. Laura was really embarrassed now and was going bright red. Dave looked at LaShawn like an animal about to defend his mate from a straggler.

LaShawn looked nice enough but also like he could handle himself if he needed to. He was about to walk away but changed his mind and walked back to them.

"Are you OK," he asked Laura."

Dave turned to him, with a face red like a tomato, pissed off as hell.

"Fuck off I'm talking to my girlfriend."

"The guy stood there."

Dave pushed him forcefully.

"I said fuck off."

"Do that again and I promise you, you'll regret it." He said calmly.

Dave took off his jacket and slung it on the floor ready to fight. LaShawn put his hands up, pivoting back and to the side like a professional martial artist. Laura stepped in between the two males, with her hands held outstretched to stop the confrontation.

"I'm fine," she said to LaShawn. "That's my boyfriend."

He relaxed and put his hands down.

"Ok. Whatever."

He walked away focused on Dave making sure he wouldn't try anything else. Dave stared back with as much venom strong enough to ground a 15,000 lb elephant. Their stare down was so intense one would think lasers would come out of their eyes like superman, but not on this occasion.

"I can't fucking believe you." Dave said to Laura. "You're talking to another guy when I'm here."

"I said I was sorry I muddled my words. I meant to say that not you. I'M SORRY! Just get over it. It's not that big of a deal. It's not like I was kissing him or something."

"You know, since the exams you've been really been something else. I'm in college too remember, I have exams too."

"Well I'm sorry I can't be Mr Cool Dave all the time. I'm sorry if I feel the pressure a little more than you. You're on a scholarship with your straight A's, I have to work a little harder than you.

"What the hell are you talking about, I have to maintain straight A's and play well at football. Where's all this coming from, are you on your period or something?"

"Noo! You're such a misogynist. I can't believe you."

"No I'm not. It does affect your mood right. What's sexist about that?"

"Hmmmn."

"Look I said I'm sorry. I can't take it back, it was a mistake. Let's just sit down somewhere and relax," she said trying to make amends.

"You know what, I don't even want to be around you anymore. Good luck with your exams. And with your damn dress!"

"No. Wait David, please," she brought her hand out to try to stop him from leaving. Dave pushed it away and walked on.

Onlookers were walking by observing the lovers tiff and she caught a few uncomfortable stares. Laura felt embarrassed. Had she just been dumped by her boyfriend in the middle of a shopping mall? Over a dress?

Laura looked around. A few people were staring at her and Dave was slowly fading away in the distance.

She thought about trying to catch up with him but he was pretty angry. Anything now would probably just make it worse. She figured it was best to let him cool off. Dave was cool most of the time but had a habit of losing his temper on occasion. This happened all too quickly for Laura. How did spending the afternoon with her boyfriend to buy a dress and some lingerie end up being a total nightmare and get her dumped? Guess it was just one of those days.

Laura was pretty flustered right now and needed to calm down. She decided to get a coffee before continuing on with her shopping.

As she was queuing up, three female friends were in front of her arguing.

"How can you say this dress is blue and black? That's the complete opposite of what it is," one of the friends said.

"Look, its blue and black."

"You need your eyes tested. It's so white and gold."

"Emmm. I see blue and brown."

"Are you fucking serious. You see blue and brown. This is weird."

"All of you need to be locked up."

Laura breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wasn't the only one arguing over it and had met another white and gold person.

"She stepped in to talk to the girls."

"Sorry to jump in. I actually just had an argument with my boyfriend over this."

"No way," one of the girls said perplexed.

"Yeah unfortunately" she said embarrassed. "I think it's white and gold."

The white and golder in the group high fived Laura. Laura gladly took that seal of acceptance and felt once more like she belonged to the human race.

"Thank you," the stranger told her.

"No thank you," Laura replied. "I thought I was the only one who saw white and gold and started freaking out."

Laura ordered a Frappuccino and sat down. She brought her phone out to message Angela.

"Hi Angie."

"What's up?"

"I've had the worst day ever."

"Really, what's going on?"

"Me and Dave were arguing over the dress."

"Oh God!"

"I heard everyone's talking about that right now, this is insane."

"I ended up asking this cute black guy called LaShawn what colour he saw and Dave thought I was trying to chat him up."

"Why. I thought he wasn't possessive."

"He's not. It was kind of my fault. I muddled my words and practically said I liked him.

"Oh no."

"Yeah. He was kind of cute though."

"Laura you are bad," Angie remarked.

"They were literally about to kill each other. I had to step in and tell them to cool it."

"Wow!"

"He's so upset with me. I've been acting like a real bitch because of these exams and he's really fed up."

"Oh no. Just give him a while and call him later.

"I don't think he wants to listen to me. I think he wants to break up."

"Stop guessing. Trust me. Just give him time and call him later."

"Ok."

"How's your day been."

"I can't talk right now I've got to go out for a job interview. Let me know how it goes."

"Ok."

"Ok bye."

Laura finished her coffee and wanted to go home. She felt hurt after the bust up with Dave and couldn't be bothered to do any more shopping. She decided to make her way home and cool off. 

Laura wasn't one for confrontations, especially with people close to her and this dampened her spirits. If she wasn't happy about something she would pull a disgruntled face and try and brush it off without raising a scene. She would only say something if someone was taking the piss, like when Dave kept her waiting for 45 minutes on a night out. He was lucky to live to see the next day.

Dave and Laura had a few arguments since their relationship but this was by far the worst. Laura preferred to vent out her frustrations over the phone or by emails that way she wouldn't be so uncomfortable. She wasn't the type to share her dirty laundry in public. It was the act of a typical 'commoner' and no good could ever come from it.

On her way out of the shopping centre she walked past a dress that made her stop and look. It was a white and gold dress, the one she had 'supposedly' seen from the photo. Angela texted her. It was mid-thigh length, with rows of either plain white or pretty gold stitching across the width. A small white jacket was fitted on the top, and a lovely gold chain with a heart was on the neck of the manikin.

Angela had the black and blue version, so she thought it'd be cool to have the white and gold one. They could be the tensies version of Thelma and Louise with an enthralling adventure of twists and turns on a rollercoaster ride through the big bad world of adulthood. She went in the shop to try on the dress. It fit her perfectly and matched her shoulder length blonde hair. The dress brought out her curves nicely showing off her voluptuous body and long legs.

As she stood there looking in the mirror she couldn't help but smile at herself. "Dave would be a fool to dump this she thought," as she fitted her boobs and stroked her thighs in the dress.

She bought the dress and drove home, turning on the TV to listen to the news while she started tidying up.

__________________________________

"A dress has caused a global debate overnight. A picture of a dress posted on the Internet is seen in different colours by different people. Some people see the dress as white and gold and others see it as black and blue. Millions of comments have been posted on social media sites about the dress, and even celebrities have got involved.

So how did it start? Well the mother of a bride to be Mrs Hanover took a picture of the dress and sent it to her daughter that she would be wearing it to the wedding. When her daughter showed it to her fiancé they disagreed on the colour. They then sent it to their friends and they also saw something different.

They decided to post it on Tumbler to get other people's opinions, that's when it went viral.

The dress is a product from the retailer Rhapsodie Blues, who have experienced a major surge in sales as a result of the memes.

So why do we all see different colours? Science has the answer. It's about how our brains are wired to see colour.

Neuroscientist Sarah Dabazky explains how. I think it's much more likely perception which is actually to do with the brain. Our brain is really good at filling in information that's not actually there. And so the brain is basing what it sees, on its own interpretation of the image.

If your brain thinks this dress should be white and gold based on the interpretation of the picture itself, the lighting, the conditions that the pictures being viewed in, it's going to build that image as white and gold.

It goes back to the optical illusion issue of the white and black squares. You expect the square that looks lighter, to be lighter because it's in the pattern where it should be lighter so you can cut the squares out and put them next to each other and show you that they are in fact the same colour. But in context your brain is taking that image and its making sense of it.

Everybody's reality is different. Understanding that what you see is not necessarily what your neighbour sees, I think this is a really good example of that."

__________________________________

Laura sat down on her sofa and tried to call Dave. She called three times and he didn't pick up. He was probably still pissed off. She decided to text him and apologise once again asking if they could meet up at the college bar later on. After an hour he still hadn't responded.

She decided she'd done all she could and would let sleeping dogs lie. Angela had come back from work and demanded to catch up on all the juicy goss! They ordered pizza, had a few drinks and watched some episodes of 'Orange Is The New Black.' At least those were colours they could both agree on.

2. The Awakening

The alarm on Laura’s phone woke her up at 6am on the dot. Her room was dark and normally it would take a few moments for the rods in her eyes to become activated and provide a better picture. Not this time. Her sight was an illuminating yellow, it was as if someone had replaced her eyes with two mini suns, and that was all she could see.

There was no lighting in the room, and the curtains were closed. So why was everything around her bright yellow?

“Angela. Angela,” Laura screamed.

“I can’t see.”

Laura questioned what was going on with her eyesight. She closed her eyes and rubbed them to try and get them back to normal. Everything was still illuminous yellow all around her, even when she kept her eyes closed.

First yesterday’s drama, now this! There was only so much a young lady could bear.

“Angela wake up. Help me, I can’t see.”

She opened her eyes trying to locate the doorway to get to Angela’s room but it was so bright and hurt like hell. Even with her eyes closed they still hurt. She closed her eyes and held her hands out to reach the walls, trying to feel her way to the door. Was this what being blind felt like? She stepped down hard on the electrical plug of her IPhone charger left carelessly on the floor, which unfortunately for her was turned upside down with the pins upright. The pain made her react in shock, lifting her leg up drastically and in doing so kicked the side of a wooden chair causing her to lose balance and fall flat on her ass.

“Ahhh,” she groaned.

 Angela burst into the room, having been woken up to all the commotion.

“Laura what’s wrong?”

“Angela, thank God you’re here.”

“I can’t see. Everything is bright yellow.”

“I can’t see a thing. I think I’m blind. Everything is so bright yellow,” Laura said scared shitless. 

Angela knelt down to reach Laura, and put her hands on each side of her chin. She pulled her hair back with her right hand freeing up space to fully inspect her eyes. They were covered in yellow; even she rotated her eyeballs the yellow was all around the full circumference of her eyes.  

“Try opening them again,” Angie said.

Laura squinted but it hurt. It was too bright.

“It’s been like this for 2 minutes now; I don’t know what to do.”

“Let’s go somewhere different,” Angie suggested.

Angela lifted her up gently, and brought her into the living room. It was also dark there.

“Try now.”

She squinted, but again it was still bright.

“OK, em, maybe if you open the curtains,” Laura suggested.

“The sun’s out. It would probably make it worse,” Angela said.

“Trust me nothing could be as worse as this.”

She walked over to the curtains, pulled them aside and opened the windows.

“Try again. This time open them fully, OK.”

“OK.” 

“But you have to keep them open for 10 seconds.”

“No way!”

“Come on Laura. We have to know if this actually works. Opening it for 2 seconds won’t do any good, you’ll never know.”

Laura looked disheartened.

“Don’t worry I’m here babe.”

“OK. I’ll do it,” Laura agreed.

Laura opened her eyes fully.

“Ahhh,” she screeched.

“Keep them open.” Angela put her hands on her eyelids to keep them open. Nearly there.”

She closed them again.

“Is that better?” Angie asked.

Laura wasn’t sure. She gave it a few seconds before responding. The brightness went down a notch.

“Erm yeah. It’s gone down. It’s still bright but not as much as before. It’s definitely better,” Laura said with a smile.

“OK keep them closed. Now we should try………walking over to the window and looking outside.” She grabbed Laura’s hand and walked her over to the windows.

“OK. We’re gonna open them slowly.”

“Wait how long for. Let’s double it, go for 30 seconds.”

“OK”

“On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”

Laura squinted again and made a slight groan.

“Ok keep them open. You’re doing great that’s 5 seconds. Just ten more. 10, 15. Close! Any better?”

She waited a few moments and opened them again.

“Yeah that is better. This is actually working,” Laura said with a glimmer of hope.

“Oh my God that’s great. I think we should go outside,” said Angela. Angie put on her slippers and helped Laura put hers on too. “If it felt better then I think there’s no other option now than to look at the sun directly. I don’t know how or why, but I think that would heal it,” she continued.

“Are you sure? Shouldn’t we go to a hospital?” asked Laura.

“They probably wouldn’t know. Let’s try this first. If it doesn’t work I’ll take you there myself,” said Angie reassuringly.

“OK,” said Laura

“Keep em closed,” Laura nodded. They walked out in to the road.

“OK the sun is this way,” Angie instructed. “She grabbed Laura’s hand, and walked her diagonally a few steps. She positioned her body and turned her head slightly sideways and forwards to face the sun.

“OK Laura, you’re facing the sun. When you open your eyes you’re gonna look directly at it until it heals. I think this will work. Don’t stop looking until it’s fixed. Promise?”

Laura stayed silent.

“Ok, I promise,” Laura conceded.

Laura opened her eyes. Angela stood behind her, resting her head on her back and wrapping both hands around her waist.

“Go on Laura you can do it. Believe!”

Staring at the sun was complete agony for Laura. It hurt like hell and felt like someone was trying to gauge her eyes out with a laser. Laura screamed grabbing the loose ends of Angie’s pyjamas and squeezed them tight, trying to work her way through the pain.

 The warmth and comfort from Angie made her dig deeper and endure the suffering. She believed in herself and prayed to a God she didn’t believe in for the pain to stop. She told herself that this was the worst part and something brighter was ahead.

“Believe,” Angie shouted.

Laura really believed.

After what seemed like an eternity (but what was actually one minute) her eyes seemed to click into place and the yellow light disappeared, it was as if someone had just turned the lights off.

Laura stopped screaming.

A few neighbours looked out of their windows and came out of their houses, worried at the sound of a female voice in excruciating pain. The animals also began to get involved and began chirping, howling and running round frantically. Somehow they could feel the energy, the change in consciousness, the change of vibration.

The sun shone bright and majestic. It was as if it had been brought closer to the Earth even by a few inches, and Laura felt the difference. The energy made the flowers blossom, and heal the entire Earth like an orb bathed in crystal waters. A New Age had ascended onto the world and mankind, would be locked into an existential crisis. 

Laura held her hands out and took deep breaths in through her nose, harnessing the energy and becoming one with nature. After what seemed like an initiation into a secret society of adepts and mystics, Laura felt refreshed, energised and blissful like never before.

She turned around and gave Angie the sweetest hug ever.

“Thanks Angie. You’re the best.”

“No problem. You know you’re my girl.”

Laura let go of Angela and looked around.

It was like a baby’s first sight after being released from the womb. The world looked new, as if it was being viewed by an innocent baby for the very first time.

“Everything is so clear. Oh my God, I can see everything to the highest detail. It’s amazing. Can you see this?”

“See what?” asked Angela completely unaware of Laura’s enhanced sight.

 “It’s like a sparkling crystal world. Oh my God Angie, You look so beautiful. You have colours coming from your body. Its light green and purple.”

“Really?” said Angie was unsure of what to make of Laura’s new found senses.

“And the trees and plants. I can see their life force. I can see the spirits of animals and the power of the universe. It’s like my eyes have been upgraded.”

Angie looked at Laura a little weird, she didn’t see or feel anything, apart from sorry that Laura seemed so hippy like. Maybe it was the after-effects of overcoming the blindness; but Angie was willing to give her a pass for that one.  She did seem like she was a little high and Angie of all people would know this as her roommate, she just hoped this (like the blindness) would be temporary and Laurs would go back to her normal self again. 

“Oh my God Angie. I wish I could share this with you.”

Laura had taken the words right out of Angie’s mouth and Angie looked disappointed. She wished she could experience it too but nonetheless was happy for Laura. Some of the neighbours had gathered round and were smiling. They began to clap and cheer at what seemed like the reunion of two long sisters. Others were also smiling like they had just had a meeting with angels. They must have experienced the blindness as well.

They went round talking to their neighbours about what had happened and how it felt. They advised other sufferers how to heal it. After 20 minutes or so they went back in the house. Angie switched on the news to see ‘BREAKING NEWS’ displayed at the bottom of the TV Screen.

“This is so totally weird. What the heck is going on right now?”

“I have no idea, Laura replied.”

      __________________________________

Scores of people across the world have been rushed to hospitals, health centres or have remained at home nursing injuries for what’s been termed ‘hyper luminescence.’ Patients eyes have suddenly become coated in yellow and they have complained of an encompassing, blinding yellow light.

Doctors are totally bewildered by the situation and are working diligently to solve the problem. This isn’t just local to America, this has been reported in over 100 countries of the world.

Of all the days to happen this came directly after the dress debate, where people either saw a ladies party dress by Rhapsody Blues in ‘blue and black’ or ‘white and gold’. There is an almost 100% chance that this is due to yesterday’s dress debate.

All hands are on deck investigating the condition to cure it and find out what caused it. We will update you on this mystifying story throughout the course of the day.

        _____________________________________

“Oh my God this is insane” said Angie.

She turned on her laptop to find out more. I’m gonna google this. Hyper luminescence. 

OK, Laura grabbed a drink of water from the kitchen and went into her room.

She picked up her mobile phone and rang Dave. ‘Please pick up she thought, please.’

She rang for 15 seconds. No answer.

‘Is he still sleeping,’ she thought.

She rang again. Still no answer.

She grew impatient and restless. She got up and walked backward and forward.

‘Come on Dave I need to talk to you. Where are you?’ she said to herself.

“She picked her phone up from the bed and rang again.

“Hello,” a sluggish voice answered.

“Dave wake up. Are you ok?”

“Yeah I was asleep.”

Something just incredible happened to me. I woke up this morning and I saw nothing but bright yellow. I was so scared I thought I was going blind. Oh my God sorry, sorry about yesterday it was all my fault I totally screwed up. I don’t wanna fight anymore. I really miss you I wanna see you now, I just wanna..”

“Ahhccheeeew!”

“Dave.” Laura stopped baffled. “Who was that?”

“No, one. I mean just Tom.”

“That sounded like a girl. Dave you have a girl in your bed? We fight for one day and you’re already sleeping with another girl?”

“It’s Tom.”

“That was a girl Dave.” Laura screamed.

“No its Tom. You’re not here, what would you know.”

“Ok put him on the phone.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because.”

“Because he’s not fucking there you bastard. You fucking jerk.”

Laura slammed the phone down and sat back on her bed. She was sure she heard a female sneeze and his answers were so lame and obviously made up, unless all her senses were completely out of sync. She needed to know. Dave lived about 15m away and knowing him he would probably start getting rid of her. If she left now he would have got rid of her.

She closed her eyes and tried to imagine his room. His front door, the corridor leading into his bedroom, his bed. She opened her eyes. She saw a young lady slumped on the bed with white sheets over her back. He was looking up at the ceiling contemplating what he’d just done feeling guilty for getting caught. She could see this clearly like she was in the room with him or watching him on CCTV.

She was more worried about the fact that he was cheating more than the fact that she could practice remote viewing. A deep sadness enveloped her spirit and she began crying. She felt really sad, like someone had just stabbed her in the back. She lay on her bed holding her hands in her head. She had just been betrayed by her black and blue boyfriend.

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