"Pol!" I heard Jason swear. "Have you two been up here all night?"

"Huh?" I blinked groggily, squinting at Jason's silhouette against the glaring sun. My head throbbed like my heart and my brain had decided to switch places. "Ugh, what are you doing here, Jase?"

"Asking you if you've been up here all night, now spill." He said, a commanding edge to his voice.

"Maybe." Dakota groaned from beside me and my eyes widened, I realised what Jason must have been thinking.

"We didn't do anything." I said quickly.

Jason nodded towards Dakota's flask sitting on the ground. "Except drink whiskey."

"Vodka." Dakota corrected, his voice dry and husky. "And we tipped most of it out, anyway."

"Most of it?" Jason asked.

"Can we do this later?" I asked Jason, my head gaining its own heartbeat.

He bent down and pulled me to my feet, looking at Dakota disgustedly. "That's not happening. You two were missing at the debriefing this morning, we've been looking all over for you. You need to come back with me to the Preater House."

"Preater..." I trailed off as I caught sight of his purple cape. "Oh..."

He looked over me. "You should clean up first," he wrinkled his nose, "and use some mouthwash. You stink like liquor."

A heat rushed up my cheeks and I ducked my head. "I'll meet you soon." I said, starting down the hill at a jog, not looking back at Dakota. My memories of the previous night were fuzzy at best but I remembered enough to be embarrassed.

"No less than half an hour!" Jason called after me, his voice being pulled at by the wind.

---

A weight fell from my neck as the blade sliced through copper. It wasn't just the hair on the floor that I had discarded but some of my grief fell away too as I hacked at the strands, ignoring the mirror before me and shaving as close as I dared with my dagger, accidentally nicking my ear a few times.The blood stained the orange of my hair with red streaks.

My mouth was sore with the sharp tang of mint mouthwash and my clothes were stiff and new from the drawers but none of that had helped me to feel better. The hair shawn from my head gave me a release. It made the change feel real and physical. Physical change was something I could deal with. I could deal with it much better than the sudden abscence of all these people in my life.

It had started with my dad, it had ended with Mark.

I scraped the hair into a pile in the bathroom corner to clean up after I had returned and dusted the copper shards from my shoulders before straightening my throbbing head and braving the afternoon air.

Notes

It's another short one but I'll try to make the next one a decent length because you guys are awesome :)

Do any of you listen to the podcasts Welcome to Night Vale? I've just started listening and woah!

Thanks for reading! Leave me a comment if you're feeling kind! xx

-Phoebe :)