The Lightkeepers

22

8. Prey I gripped the pair of scissors tightly. My knuckles were white as my fingers gradually grew

number. Ellie shifted in her sleep and her eyes fluttered open. Groggy and discombobulated, her

eyes were hazy and unfocused as she rolled over and snored softly. My muddy eyes stared at the

gleaming shears; their handles painted in a delicate floral pattern. I don ’ t know how we got them,

but they were definitely sharp enough to stab someone with. I touched the point to my fingertip,

not placing enough pressure on it to break the skin. Ellie flopped onto her back and turned her head

to look at me with a lopsided grin, now fully awake.

“ Mornin ’ ! ” she drawled with a Southern accent.

“ God, you ’ re such a princess! ” I grumbled, playfully smacking her side as she stretched

her arms and sat up, just like in the movies.

“ Can ’ t help it. I sleep like the dead and rise like the pampered, ” she laughed, glancing at

the scissors in my hands. “ What ’ re you doing? ”

“ Can you cut my hair? I don ’ t know how short — maybe shoulder length, so I can still pull

it back — whatever you think ’ ll look best. ” I chewed the inside of my cheek.

My lips were bitten raw and sometimes tasted like copper. She positioned herself behind

me and gathered my dry hair in her hand. Her fingers gently combed through the tangled bird ’ s

nest that had amassed at the back of my head. Satisfied with the minimal tangles in my hair, she

stopped and nibbled on her lips, leaning over my shoulder to speak with me again.

“ Should we wet it first? ” She asked.

“ Nah, let ’ s just do it, ” I sighed, preventing myself from stopping her.

Ellie gingerly picked up the scissors and grabbed a section of my hair. Snip, snip, snip.

Chunks of my hair fell gracefully and collected on the blankets between us, like feathers drifting

down on a gust of wind. She continued this process until the ends of my shortened hair tickled my

chin. I turned around and poked the pile of stringy hair on the makeshift bed. I smiled softly,

remembering how the wind would grab it and it would dance, or rather blind me.

“ Maybe we shouldn ’ t have done this on the bed. We ’ ll be finding hair in these blankets for

the rest of our lives! ” I giggled.

Ellie chuckled and crawled out of the window. I followed right behind her, careful not to

disturb the pile of hair. The bob swayed and tickled the back of my neck. I shook my head,

experimenting with how my hair moved. It was surprisingly light and bouncy. I smiled and ran a