I sat by her bedside, holding her hand, praying to whoever was listening that she would get better, that she would smile again.

Her light latte colored hair was gleaming less and less, becoming brittle and dull and her dark brown eyes that had hints of amber in them when she smiled or when the sun hit them just right were losing their gleam. I had fallen in love with those eyes and now they were slowly losing their twinkle.

I blinked back some tears and the world suddenly turned black and white. I closed my eyes and shook my head thinking it must be the stress of my wife, the love of my life, my soul-mate, dying in front of my very eyes and I couldn't do a damn thing to stop it.

My eyes were heavy but I didn't want to fall asleep. I couldn't...not now.

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat and closed my eyes. I opened my eyes again and my wife was the only thing in color, her tawny hair, sallow skin, and her slowly closing brown eyes - everything else was different shades of grays, black or white.

"I'm so tired..." she quietly said.

I blinked again and everything was back in color. I shook my head again and looked at the woman I loved lying in front of me.

"Get some sleep, darling." I got up from the chair and leaned against her chapped lips giving her a kiss pouring all of my love into that kiss.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too..." I swallowed another lump forming in my throat. "Get some sleep."

I grabbed her hand again and sat back down.

Sleep finally overcame me and I leaned my head down on her hand and everything slipped away as I lost the battle with sleep.

There was something cool was pressed against my cheek.

"Sir?"A soft voice came to my ears. "Sir..." she said again, this time timidly.

I knew before I looked up - I had chased every witch and wizard healer out of the room, yelling not to disturb me unless they wanted me to...what had I said...I remember it was something with disemboweling...

"Sir?" Gods, what did she want?

"What?!" I snapped at her still keeping my head down on the bed. I could hear her move away from me.

I felt the coolness against my skin again and my head shot up.

The world had taken on a plethora of grays - the sky outside the window, with white fluffy clouds, was a bright gray, my own hand was light gray; I looked down at my wrinkled shirt that had, when I fell asleep a deep green, was now a dark gray. There was no color except from my wife who had slight tints and rays coming from her.

Her eyes were open, their twinkle gone, but now instead of the deep brown that I loved, they were almost a black with amber tints; her hair was almost white instead of the toffee color it had been.

I lunged forward grabbing onto her. She was so cold. I started yelling and crying - screaming at the top of my lungs.

Two men came rushing into the room and grabbed me under the arms trying to wrestle me away from her.

"Get the fuck away from me! Let me hold my wife!" I screamed at them.

I looked at them in their long robes and they were in hues of gray, black and white. The timid healer was standing in the corner, again in monochromatic black and white. What the hell was going on?

I kicked over the chair as they pulled me away from her. My wife was the only thing with any color in the room and it was slowing fading as time seemed to slow down as the men wrestled with me to get me out of the room.

All color faded from her as they drew a blanket, now black, that I had known for sure was blue last night, up over her.

I stopped kicking and allowed them to carry my limp body from the room.

Everyone around me was dressed in black. That wasn't what surprised me, I mean for Merlin's sake it was a funeral; what surprised me was what else was. Since her death, everything I saw was in some way black or white. I saw no color, except for pictures of her and even they were slowly losing their color.

I swallowed, no emotion showing from my face. I couldn't even get up to say a eulogy.

I looked over at the picture of us at a charity ball we had been forced to attend and saw her slender, form fitting deep green dress robes and sparkling jewels of several colors at her slender throat. Her toffee colored hair was cascading down over her shoulder and was sleek in tight, bouncing curls. In the picture, she was smiling and I stood next to her in my sleek black robes, then I reached over and grabbed her hand. She looked at me, smiled and we kissed. Flashbulbs went off everywhere. I saw the green, it was becoming less and less vibrant. I blinked - black and white. I blinked again - green hues.

I looked at the casket and saw all the flowers covering it but none of them had any color. The multitude of different hued roses, lilies, and her favorite, orchids were all colorless and looked dead.

I heard the voices of those praising her life, her achievements. I drowned it out.

I felt a cold drop hit my cheek. I closed my eyes and felt more and more frigid water hitting random places on my body.

I heard people getting up from their chairs and moving away from me. I heard multiple people cast spells to repel the falling water. I opened my eyes in time to see two wizards with their wands out slowly lowering her casket into the ground and then covering the deep hole with freshly dug earth.

I continued to sit there, letting the rain soak through my clothes, plastering my hair to my forehead.

I sat there until the wizards had finished and ran to get out of the rain.

I finally got up, soaked to the bone, freezing but I didn't care. Water dripped from my bangs. I looked at the marble headstone marking where my wife was laying. My tears started to mix with the cold water running down my face.

I fell to my knees, numb from the cold and the shock.

Next Time:

Four Years Later...

I had become adjusted to the world around me being black and white.

Everything around me were only black, grays or white - people included.

I continued on with my life but I had become harder, more cynical and almost never talked unless I had to.