I sat in my bubble, silently observing the world go by around me. The emotionless people lumbered by, completely unaware of my presence. 

Whenever I needed a break from my own reality, I would come here. I didn’t know where this world was or even what timeline it was on. It seemed like Earth, but the people here had no colour and never smiled. 

I didn’t mind though, it was surprisingly calming to watch these people simply go about their boring, uninteresting lives. I could move around this world somewhat freely, floating along the roads and into buildings, but I could not enter people’s personal homes. Whatever was the reason for this, I did not know.

I drummed my fingers mindlessly against my bubble, it felt smooth and cool to the touch. I couldn’t reach through it and there was no exit from the bubble until I returned to my world. When I sat in here, time passed normally in my world so I would only come here when I knew that nobody back home would be trying to reach me.

There wasn’t much worry of that though, not many people reached out to me - it might be the odd business email or scam phone call. But other than that, my family might call once a blue moon or maybe my one friend might spontaneously decide they want to hang out with me. 

I watched as a gray man bumped into another gray man while crossing an intersection. The first man dropped his gray briefcase and emotionlessly, silently knelt down to pick it up, not even acknowledging the other man. People in this world did form relationships and marry one another but they did not seem to express any sort of emotions. No one smiled or laughed but no one got angry or cried either. 

Every day, I would choose a new boring person to watch. Today I decided that I would watch the man who had dropped his briefcase, it seemed that he was on his way to work and I was interested in what kind of boring job this man had. He was probably an office worker like 99% of the other gray blobs in this world, but sometimes I would stumble across another job. One time I had found a policeman, and another time I found a teacher. 

Children were a rarity in this world as well, I had only ever seen ten in my entire time in this world. Granted, all ten children had been students of the teacher that I found. I tried to follow the children home one time, to see if there were more of them or if they had siblings. But once the children exited the school, they almost seemed to phase out of existence and I had never been able to locate them ever again. 

Each time I entered this world, I would appear in a new location but it was always the same city. This city seemed to span for miles. I had found this world two years ago and in those two years of exploring, I still hadn’t found the end of it. The rows of office buildings never ended.

My bubble only allowed me to float a couple of feet off the ground so I wasn’t able to go higher than that to see above the buildings. And each time I would enter a tall building and try to get to the top floor, there was always an immense fog covering the entire city. 

At this point, I had given up on trying to find the boundaries of the city and focused on simply following the citizens around. The citizens also never left this city even though they had cars, buses, trains, and even once I had seen a plane soaring overtop. 

I didn't care too much though, this place was just an escape from my life and I wasn't worried about figuring out the secrets of this city. Coming here had the same feeling as if I had just returned home from a long shift and turned on the TV to mindlessly watch some drivel. 

These people and their lives were unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but then again, who am I to say that my meagre life is important. In my world, I also work a boring office job just like these people. I board the train to go to work; come home on the same train; cook my dinner; rinse and repeat. 

At least here I felt like a God, an omnipotent God watching down over my citizens. Even though I couldn't interfere in their lives, I could watch to my leisure and pretend I had made this world. A world devoid of pain and suffering. 

The people rarely talked to one another. Sometimes if I pressed my ear to my bubble I could hear the steady hum of the street lights or quiet murmurs from their houses. There were no sounds of babies crying or dogs barking. A quiet, peaceful land where the only noises were cars whizzing past and doors gently closing behind the mute citizens. 

Briefcase man was now across the road and walking further and further away from me. I snapped out of my thoughts and quickly followed him, my bubble weaving around the other citizens. There were no clocks in this world, but I figured it must be morning as there was an endless stream of people wandering in and out of buildings, presumably heading to work. 

Catching up to the briefcase man, I floated just behind him. He was wearing the same thing as all the other men in this world - a gray suit with a white collared shirt with a gray tie. 

The women all wore gray skirts with either a black or white blouse. 

In a way, I was jealous of these people. They never had the struggle of opening their closet in the morning and trying to put together an outfit for work. Picking an appropriate outfit for work was the bane of my existence, I wished I could work from home and wear sweats every day of my life. 

We went down the road together, the man never faltering in his steps. We passed by several large office buildings, I wondered which one was his workplace as he had been walking for quite a while already. 

In my previous experiences, the citizens took on average about fifteen minutes to reach their workplaces from the train station or bus station. But we had been travelling for upwards of thirty minutes already. My interest in this boring man was starting to peak, perhaps he wasn't an office worker and maybe I would discover a new job in this world.

The streams of people started to thin out as the citizens made their way into their work buildings. Now only a few stragglers were wandering around. The longer I followed the briefcase man, the more interested I got. I wished desperately I could crawl out of this bubble and ask the man where he was going. 

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After another ten minutes, there was no one else left on the streets except for the briefcase man, and me. I was thoroughly confused, where could this man possibly be going? It didn't seem that he was heading to work anymore, the people of this world were never early and never late and by now he would be considered late for his work. 

In the distance, I hear a faint sound. Confused, I pressed my ear to my bubble and focused hard, trying to figure out what I was hearing. The noise was faint and muffled but it was such a distinct sound that I recognized it immediately - it was the sound of a police siren. 

Upon hearing the siren, the briefcase man all of a sudden picked up his pace. I was shocked, never had I seen one of the citizens jog unless they were in the gym. 

Keeping my ear against the bubble I could hear the sound of the sirens getting louder, almost as if they were following us. The briefcase man was now in a full-out sprint and I was following closely behind him. I could feel sweat gathering on my brow and my heart was pounding in my chest. 

I knew that I wasn't in any danger but I was worried about this man. The people of this world never deviated from the norm but this man was breaking some sort of unwritten rule. 

The briefcase man whipped around a corner into an alleyway, I followed him around the corner but stopped the second I saw what was waiting for him. 

At the end of the alleyway stood one policeman, his gun raised and pointing directly at the briefcase man. My heart was now in my throat and I couldn’t do anything except watch helplessly. 

Without a word, the policeman cocked his gun and fired straight at the briefcase man. Tears streamed down my face and I screamed in terror as the bullet shot through the briefcase man, causing him to crumple to the ground. 

I pounded on my bubble, screaming at the policeman but I knew he couldn't hear me. The policeman turned around and exited the alleyway. I didn't follow him. 

The briefcase man lay lifelessly on the ground. A gray liquid that I assumed was his blood seeping out all around him. 

I had seen funerals in this world before, but I had never actually seen anyone die. I just figured that most of the citizens died of old age, but now I had witnessed a murder. Murder existed in this world just like my world. 

Did disease and famine also exist here and I had simply never seen it before? I thought that I had figured out most of the secrets of this place but now I knew I was wrong. 

Looking at the briefcase man's lifeless body was starting to make me sick. I turned around and started to float slowly away, I didn't want to think about him anymore. My mind was swirling all over the place and I was finding it hard to form a coherent thought. 

I glided along the sidewalk, the roads empty with not another soul in sight. Tears fell silently down my face and dripped onto the floor of my bubble. I had had enough of this world for today, I wanted to leave. 

To leave this world I had to find a transport station. There were quite a few of them stationed around the city but I had followed the briefcase man into an unfamiliar area that I had never been to before. Though if I could find a train station then I knew I could easily find a transport station. 

Starting on my journey through the solemn city, I periodically peered into the ground level of the buildings I passed by. Inside each building was the same scene, rows and rows of cubicles each occupied by a single person typing away at their computer. 

Each desk also had a phone but the phones on the lower levels never rang, only a few times on the upper floors had I ever heard a phone ring. Although when the person would answer the phone they would never say anything, just listen for a few minutes before hanging up. I had tried before to get as close as I could to hear the person but the other end, but I had never been successful. 

Some days I wondered if this land was a figment of my imagination. Maybe I was actually in a coma and having a vivid dream of the real world and this world. I couldn't remember how I came to know of the existence of this world or how I had travelled here in the first place. 

One day I had come home from work, and then the next second I was here - sitting in my bubble surrounded by gray people and gray buildings. The very first time I came here I was scared and tried to escape from the bubble. Clawing helplessly at its smooth walls to no avail and screaming for someone to help me. But I had quickly realized that the people outside the bubble could not see or hear me. 

I wasn't sure if they could feel me, even though I could control the bubble it wouldn't let me close enough to touch or bump into the citizens. The bubble would instantly move away on its own if I happened to get too close to someone. 

Raindrops started to fall from the clouds above, making a rhythmic drumming noise on the outside of my bubble. I wished I could feel the cool air and wet rain on my sweaty skin. My nerves were still fried from the policeman incident. 

The endless rows of buildings showed no sign of stopping and I still hadn't located a train station. This was very strange as usually there was a station every few blocks for the citizens to get to work promptly. 

Another thing of note, I wasn't able to get onto the train itself. I could go down into the station but the bubble wouldn't let me board the train. Some days I would just sit in the train station and watch the people enter and exit the carriages. 

Sometimes I would spot people carrying large suitcases, when I would follow them they would get into cars and drive to either an apartment or a house. Peering in through their windows I would watch them unpack; this meant that people could move to this city from other cities which was strange as the citizens of this city weren’t able to leave. 

I wondered if there were more people like me in these other cities, just floating around and watching over their citizens. 

One time, back in my world, I had posted on an internet forum asking if anyone else had been in a similar situation to mine. But the responses I had gotten were cruel, calling me crazy and saying that I needed psychiatric help. After that, I never brought this up to anyone ever again for fear of being ridiculed. 

People were needlessly cruel and unkind in my world. At least in this colourless land, nobody got harassed or bullied. Sure, they might be devoid of emotion but wouldn't that be better? 

Go to work each day and never hear the whispers of your coworkers talking about how much of a loser you are. Never be called into your boss’s office and told that you're falling behind and need to catch up or risk getting fired. Never sitting on the train to go home and hearing children laugh and point at you. 

I was so tired of existing. I wanted to melt away into this gray world. Maybe one day my bubble would let me out. 

Turning a corner onto another street, I saw a flash of something. It almost didn't register in my mind what I had just seen. A flash of colour, a tinge of bright red that stood out immediately against the deafening grayness. 

There wasn't supposed to be any colour in this world though. Maybe I was just tired and seeing things. I shook my head, trying to clear the fog. 

I couldn’t help feeling that something was wrong, I needed to find out if I had actually seen colour or if it was just my mind playing tricks on me. I started to pick up speed, the colour had disappeared around the corner of a building a few meters away from me - it shouldn’t be too hard to locate. 

Whipping around the corner, I stopped dead in my tracks. 

Standing in the middle of the road, was a man.

A man in full colour.