I can see people's auras... and it's a curse

*Aura n.: The subtle emanation surrounding the body of a living being.*<br><br>I've always been able to see people's auras. We're not talking halos, those belong to saints. When I was a kid, I asked my mom about it and she said it was a gift. I think I was about nine or ten years old at the time. She told me I had been born under a special sign. That's when she started teaching me what the colors meant.<br><br><br>I really wish I could control it. I'm not talking "I have a headache and need to take a pill" kind of things. I'm talking screaming in the middle of a grocery store because everyone seems to have an aura of red and I think the world is going to burn itself down at any moment.<br><br><br>Red is anger. Whether it's frustration or outright rage, red is bad. It's like you're talking to this calm-looking, smiling person with a sea of crimson surrounding them. There are basically two kinds of red: a deep, more burgundy color, and a bright fire engine red. I remember asking what the difference was, and my mom said the first color was a slow burn. A person who is brooding. A person who is sitting on their anger until it devours them. The second color, mom said, meant that at a split second's notice, they might lose their mind and snap - and do something terrible. My mom told me to be careful of reds, that they can be unpredictable. It is best to steer clear of them. <br><br><br>There is also the color orange, which is passion. Not a bad thing at all, but you have to be careful with it. Most of the time, it is a great thing. The color of warm sunlight. The color of laughter. The color of good times. Some people have a perpetual orange aura, while others get it when a situation calls for it. I remember this one time my senior class decided to pull off a huge prank. The teachers were trying to get us not to do it, but my aura, and most of the senior's auras, were bright orange. We thought it was the funniest thing ever.<br><br><br>Then, there is yellow. The color of happiness, and it's beautiful.<br><br><br>There is green, and this one is hard to describe. Imagine someone who has just finished a long day of yard work and is sitting down in their favorite armchair, with an expression of "finally." That's green. The color of relief, of sitting down after standing up for too long. It's not happy, but you can tell they feel content.<br><br><br>There's blue. The color of sadness and, depending on what shade, depression. A light blue is someone who just needs to cry. They just need someone to listen to them. A dark blue is someone who needs help. Someone who needs to go see a shrink. Or, at the very least, someone to talk with for more than a couple of minutes.<br><br><br>And finally, there's purple. The color of wisdom. It's the color of professors and artists.ppoIt's the color of people who have figured it out., who have everything together.<br><br><br>There are some people whose aura is a mix of colors, but I don't know how to make sense of it, so I don't try. Sometimes I can see through auras. If an angry person is talking to a sad person, I can sometimes make out the sad person's blue underneath all that red. It's weird. But hey, it's a gift, right?<br><br><br>Well, I'm twenty-one now, and other than my mom, I've never told anyone I can see auras. I'm not called Edgar Cayce or Nostradamus for a reason. They're called prophets because they *could* see things other people couldn't. Me? I'm just a curse.<br><br><br>The reason I've never told anyone is because of what happened back in July. I almost ended up institutionalized because I saw something. Something that made me scream at the top of my lungs. It's basically why I'm alone. No one wants to be friends with someone who sees things that aren't there.<br><br><br>It was a few days after a July 4th celebration, and I was visiting my best friend in New York City. His name is Jack, and he didn't really believe me about the auras. When I told him, he said it was bullshit. But I could see his aura turn a light orange, like he was humored.<br><br><br>*A little background:*<br><br>My parents had died at the end of May. It was a tragic car accident, and I had seen it coming. I remember watching them leave the house and seeing these dark, flashing lines going across their car, like the lines at an airport security checkpoint. They meant death. There was nothing I could do. I tried to do something, but before I could, they were out of sight. I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. Like I was seeing the world through a tunnel. I didn't see much of anything until that evening, when two men in uniform showed up at the door. I wasn't sure how to feel, except angry and guilty, and I didn't get over their death until a few days after Independence Day in July.<br><br><br>So, anyway. Jack is showing me around his university. We've been walking for a bit, and he keeps talking about his classes. There are a bunch of college kids moving around us, mostly freshmen getting ready for the upcoming year. I see a lot of blue auras, especially in the parents. I think I see one girl cry as she says good-bye to her mom and dad. I try to ignore it, knowing better than to tell them what I think I see. I keep it bottled in.<br><br><br>Then, I see a girl with a red aura. Like, a deep red, almost purple aura, and it's flashing at about the rate of a heartbeat. We were sitting on some steps when I saw her. I didn't get a good look at her face, but it was aimed right at Jack.<br><br><br>I was immediately filled with an intense dread that I couldn't shake. I couldn't even move. I felt like if I moved a muscle, something would blow up in my face. I tried to shake it off, tried to show Jack what I saw, but it was too late. Before I could even get my mouth to move, the girl had walked to Jack and given him a kiss on the cheek.<br><br><br>I started screaming.<br><br><br>I don't know what I was saying, but I was trying to explain it to Jack. I was trying to tell him that she was going to hurt him. That she might even kill him. I don't know if he really did, but he said he had no idea what I was talking about. It didn't matter. I was already gone. A few guys came over to tranquillize me, and I woke up in one of the university's counseling centers. I remember Jack saying I didn't seem to know my own name.<br><br><br>That was it. I never heard from Jack again. I heard he pressed charges because my actions had scared some of the students. I took it as a warning to move out of the state. So I did.<br><br><br>That's why I haven't told anyone. I've tried to ignore the aura since then. I've tried to live a normal life. I've had a few failed relationships, and not once have I ever mentioned auras. But I still see them. Even though I try my hardest to ignore them, I still see them.<br><br><br>The reason I'm telling you this is because it happened again last night. I saw a red aura. Someone was going to get hurt. Someone was going to be angry. Being the person I am, I have to stop it. Or die trying.<br><br><br>I was out with a date last night. A girl I met at work, and we had been planning this for almost a week. There was this Italian place in town that we both love, so we went there. This girl, her name is Caroline and she's beautiful. Her aura was a bright yellow, through and through, and I think I might be falling in love with her. We were having a great time talking, and I almost forgot about the whole aura thing. That was until we were walking out of the restaurant.<br><br><br>There was a group of people standing near the exit. Some of them were laughing, but most of them were crying. They were all distraught in one way or another, and they all had red auras. It was the same shade of red as the girl who kissed Jack, and I felt that same intense dread. But I couldn't react this time. I had to swallow it. I had been over this a thousand times in my head. The last time I saw red, I got institutionalized. But this time, there was more red than just one person. Honestly, I didn't know what to think. I just knew I had to get Caroline out of there.<br><br><br>"Hey, you okay?" Caroline asked, placing a hand on my back.<br><br><br>"Huh? Yeah I'm fine. Just worried about those people," I said, trying my hardest not to look back at them.<br><br><br>I quickened my pace, and we walked in silence until we reached my car. <br><br>"You sure you're good?" she asked, once we were in the car. "You're acting really weird all of a sudden."<br><br><br>"I'm fine. Let's just drop it if you don't mind."<br><br><br>"No problem."<br><br><br>The rest of the date went as well as it could, I guess. I couldn't focus on Caroline because I kept thinking about those people. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I knew it wasn't going to be good. I think Caroline realized something was up, but we both decided to ignore it. I walked her up