Clouds are innocent and heedless, drifting without reason, raining and vanishing. They form anew, each day, coming from the mountains, across the sea and from the mountains - across the burning forests. The clouds meet above my home, where I have lived for a thousand years, born anew, from the mountains and the sea. Clouds rain and vanish, heedless, drifting and innocent.

"Happy little rainclouds are brightly edged here, in this dark corner, behind the flames." Bob Ross explained to me. I stared at the burning forest. It was a blank canvas a few minutes earlier. The terror I had felt at the image was relieved by the promise of cooling and soothing rainclouds coming from a great distance. My eyes watered and beheld the natural order. Fire and then water.

When I was alone, I walked through the park. I was not alone in the park. I looked at the pine trees, dripping. It was difficult to imagine the dry summer where they had become a fire hazard. The blue and white in the sky formed a pattern that I could see. It seemed natural, too. I knew it meant that peaceful interactions were prevailing. I could feel the calm after the storm. I had my boots on, so I bunny-hopped through a mud puddle, grinning innocently.

"Today we are going to paint something serious, a little bit of sunshine through the clouds, onto a field. Now that we are done with our clouds and our field, we will carefully craft these sunrays, starting from the top and making quick, thin sweeps down to the grass. Good." Bob Ross told me. "Very good."

I wasn't painting anything, just watching, but it felt right and natural. He really believed in me. I was doing a good job.

When I was on my own, I caught the bus. I was not alone on Metro. I looked out the window and I saw people walking and drinking coffee and begging. It was difficult to imagine that they were strangers, somehow a danger to me. The colors of their clothing and the colors of their skin formed a pattern, not unlike the colors I was studying. I could read them; I knew that I had not seen a stranger, not yet.

Before I got off the bus I turned and looked at everyone, noticing that they started to look up at me while I took a deep breath, smiling - about to say something. I just let it out:

"Have a good night, everyone! I love you!" I announced. None of them were strangers, I could tell.

"It's raining outside. Have you ever painted rain? Let's begin..." Bob Ross gave me a knowing smile. Bob Ross wasn't a stranger: he had a familiar look in his eye. He knew how much love I was feeling. I saw a little bit of that same look in the eyes of everyone I met, no matter which color God had painted them. God sure had a lot of different colors to use. Everyone I met in Seattle looked different from everyone else. Yet they all had that same familiar look in their eyes. I could tell.

I hugged myself, smiling contentedly as I watched Bob Ross paint the rain. "You are doing a very good job. We're almost done for today. Would you like to add a little finishing touch?"

"Oh yes!" I sighed.

"Very good." Bob Ross nodded and added a little silver smear aside one of the clouds.

I blinked, stunned. I had never seen a cloud like that before. It looked natural and real, yet different from any other. I felt a chill, something was wrong with that cloud. Bob Ross stopped smiling and explained:

"Just a little edge to keep it interesting. It looks good, though - right?" Bob Ross asked.

I shook my head.

"Well, I am afraid that is all we have time for. Just remember - always look for that silver lining." And he gave me a strange smile. It was a sad smile, an honest and natural smile, full of some unfamiliar feeling. I didn't like it: he was scaring me.

Without anyone beside me I walked the street. I felt nervous, uneasy. I kept glancing up at the sky, expecting at any moment that I would see a silver lining. None appeared and I continued on my path.

As I grew up I always remembered my time with Bob Ross and all those days with partial clouds. On those days, when I thought about the truth I had witnessed in the work of Bob Ross and stared at the skies, seeing the cloud formations and their shapes, I knew things. I knew all about the harmony of nature and the will of God. I could see the answers to all of my questions and I knew no doubts.

Always there was the threat of the silver lining. Bob Ross had shown me what it looked like, and I dreaded seeing it in nature. My fears kept me alert. People passing me on the streets would notice I was friendly and wise, and they gave me sincere greetings. I recognized myself, knowing I was different. I began to understand that I had a gift.

During my teenage years I was not afraid of the silver lining. I wasn't even sure of myself anymore. I made jokes about Bob Ross and I stopped looking at the skies all the time. I became involved with Seattle's modern witches and fortune tellers. They regarded me as one of them, someone who merely posed and dabbled in the occult and in mysteries. I claimed no magic, I just told people what I could see. I was always right, so I earned a reputation - and some money.

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The first time I saw the silver lining was early one morning after a long night of having some fun with people who weren't strangers. Nobody was a stranger. I hadn't met one yet - nor had I seen the silver lining. I knew both existed, but I had forgotten about them.

I gasped in surprise as I asked how the day was going to go and saw it there, the exact place in the sky my eyes went to. I stared in disbelief and a gradual and unfamiliar feeling of utter dread crept up in me. I instinctively knew that the cloud I was looking at was all the warning I would get. Something horrific was to happen and I would be involved somehow.

I felt sick, nauseous, and agitated. I couldn't just stand there. My whole body was alert to the danger. I stamped around, my arms jerking. I started sweating and a hot taste in my mouth signaled that I was going to lose my breakfast. I ducked into an alley and projectile vomited onto a wall and a dumpster. Then I smelled death.

I looked over and saw the dead body of a girl, naked and stabbed. There were bites taken out of her and her eyes reflected the clouds above, shaped a certain way. I looked up and knew, by their formation, that the clouds were telling her story. Nobody else was paying any attention.

I staggered out into the street as cars raced past me. Suddenly everyone looked like a stranger. I could only see the anger and resentment in their eyes. They didn't care about her and they didn't care about what had happened. They just wanted it to go away, for it to be someone else's problem. I couldn't understand why nobody was concerned for the dead girl.

I sat down and wept. Bob Ross had known this would happen to me. He had tried to warn me, to show me the silver lining. He had tried to ease me into it. I wasn't ready, I would never be ready. I started to feel some of the anger and resentment I had seen in other people's eyes. I was afraid of what I was becoming, of what everyone else was. They were wrong, they had the stranger in them. I wanted to go back to the early days when the clouds just told me I was going to have a good day.

I stared at the skies, meditating. I asked God why such a thing had happened. Who could have hurt her like that? Why? It made no sense. I felt like everything was senseless, like everyone was too. I felt senseless.

As my weeping and trembling slowly gave way to shock: I was approached by Seattle Police Homicide. Detective Valence asked me if I had found the body. I told her that I had. I told her that I had seen the silver lining and that Bob Ross had tried to warn me. I wasn't making sense to her. Detective Valence saw to it that I was introduced to a therapist.

While I was in therapy I was discouraged from my practice of fortune telling. The doctors I was seeing wanted me to distance myself from things that 'weren't real' and to focus on dealing with reality. I told them that there was a silver lining on the day I found the body and it was the last thing they allowed me to say about clouds.

When I stopped going to therapy there was a day that I went to the park. I sat on a bench and looked up, staring at the clouds for a long time. I had called some of the shops where I practiced my fortune telling and told them I needed work. None of them wanted me around. Word had spread about my involvement with the killings.

I wandered around after that. I looked at the skies and knew where my next meal would come from or where I should sleep. I knew the people I saw and none of them were actually strangers, although I was now quite wary of the fact that someone out there was definitely a stranger.

Then there was the day I had to tell the police what I had learned. I saw another silver lining and I closed my eyes. I felt the most awful feeling of nightmares returning and knowing that things were only going to get worse. When they found the next body, I had not moved or opened my eyes.

Detective Valence reminded me that we had met before at the scene of a murder. I told her it was coincidence. She told me that in her line of work there were no coincidences.

Then I noticed the red skies and the sick looking clouds. I was looking up and Detective Valence followed my gaze. "Want to tell me something?"

"There is a stranger watching us." I realized. I felt the rise of panic and heard my voice breaking as I spoke. I looked around at the gathered crowd. The crowd were all trying to see what the police were doing. The perimeter included me, but nobody could see the body from where they stood. Except Detective Valence and my own line of sight, if she wasn't blocking my view. I looked at each person's eyes as Detective Valence watched me.

Then I felt the creepiest sensation of all. I felt watched. Someone or something was behind me, something strange. I saw the shape of my own destiny in the clouds as I looked up and then over, behind me.

The man standing there looked away, avoiding my gaze. I stared at him. I had seen people of all shapes and sizes and colors and kinds. Everyone was different and yet none of them were strange. This man was exceedingly plain, the most average and familiar looking person I had ever seen. He had no color, no skin, no eyes, nothing.

A stranger.

I knew he had killed all the dead girls. It was obvious to me. Only a stranger could have done what he had done and only he was a stranger. Everyone else was perfectly normal and had a little bit of Bob Ross in them. When he looked at me I knew that this man hated Bob Ross.

I shuddered in horrified dread as his empty eyes bore into me. I felt threatened and desperate. I screamed and fell back into the arms of Detective Valence.

I pointed directly at him, my mouth open and trying to take a breath of air. My wide and terrified eyes shone my own silver lining in the reflection of the clouds. He realized I knew he was the killer and he lost his composure. The whole crowd and all the police were staring at him. For a second he just stood there, blankly.

Then he tried to turn and run for it. His sudden departure was halted by everyone around him. The crowd could see what I had seen. The look of malice on his face had replaced his mask of indifference. He now stood out from everyone else. He brandished a knife in one hand and blood oozed from his lip as he bit down. He backed away from the crowd, slashing at the air, crossing into the open, through the police tape.

Detective Valence karate chopped the knife out of his hand and tackled him to the ground. She arrested him for disturbing the peace, malicious mischief and interfering with a police investigation. All of the charges were later dropped.

He pled guilty to six counts of murder.

"Happy that you are here with me today. I couldn't do this without you. Today we are going to paint some reflections on the water. Let's start with the clouds..." Bob Ross was smiling warmly.

I was ready to paint along with him. I looked outside at the passing clouds. I always look, now, for the silver lining.