The Purple

The boy held his hand to his eye, feeling the thick liquid seeping down his cheek. His head throbbed. He slumped against the grooved wall and closed his eyes, trying not to scream at the unbelievable pain that settled in ever crevice of his body. The neon sign above him washed a blue light over the room. The boy heard a scraping sound to his left. He looked up. His attackers stood around him a semi-circle. Their faces were shadowed, but he could hear their laughter. They were laughing at him. Even their laughter was accented. The tall girl approached him and held his face in her hands. She was wearing purple lipstick. His sister used to wear a lipstick like that. But that was years ago. Or was it yesterday? He didn’t know. He couldn’t remember. He couldn’t remember her anymore. She was before all of this.
The tall girl grinned at him. Her head cocked to the side and her smile widened. Her two front teeth were crooked. He blinked slowly and felt his neck snap back as a great force slammed into the side of his head. All he could see was the purple grin, taunting him from a world of fiery pain and agony.

The boy saw purple. An ocean of purple. He was drowning in it. Shades of lavender, mauve and lilac surrounded him, dragging him down. He sunk deeper and deeper into the sea of colour, his lungs filling with liquid. As he sunk he heard a voice singing. It sounded familiar. The boy closed his eyes.
“London Bridge is falling down...”
He held his head with his hands.
“Falling down…”
He was drowning. Drowning in purple.
“Falling down…”
Where was that voice from? Who was singing?
“London Bridge is falling down…”
The singing. The song. The purple. He remembered.
“My fair lady…”
“VIOLET!” he screamed. He opened his eyes and scoured the swirling water for his sister. All he could see was the purple. “Come back!” he shrieked. “Come back! I need you…”

The boy was alone. The dark room was silent apart from the buzzing of the sign above him and the constant dripping of blood from his eye onto the ground. He was no longer in pain; all he felt was numbness. He looked down at the blood on his arm. In the blue light from the sign above him the blood looked purple. He grinned.