She was a shadow. She was awake only where there was light, yet the light never touched her. The world unfolded around her in colour and vibrance, but she could never step fully into it. She tried to chase the colours, to know them, but whenever she reached for them, they faded in her hands.

When the light vanished, she sank into a deep sleep, and only its return could wake her again. And whenever she slept, she dreamed in colours. She dreamed of texture, of taste, of touch. She did not understand those dreams, yet they felt more real than the world she knew — so vivid they seemed almost possible, and yet forever out of reach.

In those dreams, she was different — her skin had colour, her body had depth — she could smell the air as she breathed it, she could feel the wind on her skin. She felt heavy, her movements had texture and weight to them — nothing she knew before, she always floated gently.

She dreamt about seeing the sun — she would look up at the sky, but she always ended up blinded. She would put a hand up to her face to cover her eyes, and all she could see were rays of light slipping between her fingers.

One time she woke up to a slight drizzle and sunshine dancing on the tiniest drops of rain. She looked around and saw a rainbow — a gorgeous bridge of colours, a colourful ribbon painted across the sky. Her gaze travelled along it from one end, hung up high in the sky, all the way to the bottom where it touched the path ahead of her. She did not remember ever seeing anything like it — the place where the rainbow is born.

Without thinking, like the wind, she ran towards it. The closer she got, the rainbow seemed to be moving away and the colours were getting less intense. She didn’t give up. She kept running as if her life depended on it.

Finally she reached it. She was surrounded by tiny translucent drops of colour, hanging in the air all around her. She opened her arms and started spinning. As she was dancing and turning, she caught a glimpse of someone — or something — dancing with her. A shape was moving in the light, surrounded by a faint halo.

It was a girl.

Every time she moved, the girl moved too. Every time she turned, the girl was turning. Every time she threw her hands in the air, the girl did the same.

Who was she? Was she the one she dreamed about? Did she come to life under the rainbow?

From that day on, she would see the strange girl, always copying her movements. Sometimes she wondered which of them is real… the one in the light or the one that cannot exist without it.