When the bright colours of their town begin to fade, Zosia and Tymek race to find out what is hiding in the City of Emotions.
In the City of Emotions, every street had its own colour. Orange Street glowed with laughter, Green Hope Square hummed with calm, and even the windows seemed to shine a little brighter when people were honest about how they felt. Zosia loved watching it all from her bedroom window, especially when a good mood made the rooftops blush pink or a burst of excitement turned the shop signs gold.
That morning, the city looked wrong.
A pale grey veil hung over the street below, dulling the bricks, the doors, even the little yellow sun that should have been climbing over the rooftops. Zosia pressed her hands to the glass.
"Tymek!" she called. "Come here. Something's happening!"
Her little brother burst in, clutching his favourite purple ball. He stopped so suddenly that the ball slipped from his fingers and rolled across the floor. It was grey.
"No," Tymek whispered. He picked it up and turned it over in his hands as if that might wake the colour back up. "It can't be broken."
In the kitchen, Mum stood over a tray of rainbow cupcakes for the festival, staring at bowls of icing that had gone soft and colourless. She looked tired in a way Zosia had never seen before.
"People have stopped saying what they feel," Mum said quietly. "The city doesn't know what colours to wear anymore."
Zosia glanced outside. Their neighbour next door, usually bright as a sunflower, was hurrying past with her face turned away.
Something clicked in Zosia's mind. "That's it," she said. "The colours are fading because everyone is hiding their emotions."
Tymek hugged his grey ball to his chest. Fear and excitement flickered across his face at the same time. "Then we have to find out who's hiding the worst feeling of all."
They were already halfway to the front door when they saw him.
A boy in a dark blue coat stood under the lamppost at the end of the street, holding a glass jar in both hands. Inside it swirled something silver and bright, like tears caught in moonlight. He looked straight at Zosia, and the air around him seemed to go even colder.
"Are you the one taking the colours away?" Tymek asked.
The boy did not answer. He only tightened his fingers around the jar and lifted it a little, as if he was about to show them something inside.