Wretchedly Divine (Gasping for Air)

I closed the door softly behind me and set the peroxide down by the tub, along with a towel I would use to catch my hair. I took a mirror meant for checking teeth and put it beside the tub also, I had a plan for how I'd fix my hair so I'd be as unrecognizable as possible.

I stripped, feeling slightly self-conscious since the incident of the feeling of that ever familiar presence, and slipped into the water. It was slightly too cool, but I had been conditioning myself for cold by taking cold showers so it wasn't so bad. I sunk down to my neck slowly and listened for my parents. There was no talking so I assumed it was okay for me to start. I leaned over the side of the tub, my back pressed against the side and my hair hanging in its bunch over the side. I let it down and took half of it in my hand and then picked up the scissors.

"I won't miss you." I whispered to it before snapping the scissors once and then running them across my hair. My hair became significantly lighter as the large strands of straight black hair fell down. I repeated the process with the other side and then grabbed some hair from the front and brought it forward so it covered my face. I cut them short, so the hairs barely brushed my eyebrows, hoping the framing would make me less recognizable as Ashley Abernathy.

I looked in the mirror and hated it, I thought back to the picture I'd decided to mimic from some contraband I bought in the slums and realized that I was missing something. It was too thick at the bottom. I took a layer and cut it shorter, then did the same thing two more times, making each one shorter, then I took the side of the scissors and thinned it further making the transitions between the layers smoother. It wasn't evenly cut, but it was different enough that I was happy.

I stepped out of the tub, avoiding the hair filled towel and ignoring the chilliness of the air around me, and started draining the tub. I stopped it about halfway through and grabbed the peroxide, wondering how far I could really push it. I took the bottle poured some on my hair and let a towel catch it then pressed my hair in it. I repetitively checked it for color, and when it was sufficiently lighter I pulled the towel away and dipped my hair in the water, rinsing it thoroughly before washing it.

When I was done I wasn't necessarily happy, but it was good enough. I was mostly blond and orange haired, and very little of the original black showed through.

I took several bands from the bathroom drawer and put then around my wrist. Draining the rest of the tub I started drying my hair with a towel. I glances in the big mirror above the sink and barely recognized myself. I wouldn't recognize myself on first glance. I dried my hair as much as possible and then put my shoulder blade length strands into one of the hair bands, and leaving the short front hairs covering my face. On a whim I took my hair down, and grabbed a son hair on either side of my short hair and cut it so it hung around my face, making me look much different.

I sighed and put the longer hairs back up and threw the hair in the towel in the toilet along with the peroxide bottle, hoping it would go down and flushed. The hair was gone, but the bottle just spun and refuses to go down. I sighed and wrapped the bottle in toilet paper and places it in the trash can and then put more paper on top of it. It was light enough while it was empty that they shouldn't notice it unless they're looking for it.

I folded the towel full of hair and put the one full of peroxide in the hamper, taking the towel I'd used to dry my hair with me and wrapping it around my head in case my parents came out unexpectedly.

I snuck into my room and closed the door audibly so if my parents were up they'd hear me, but they wouldn't wake up of they were sleeping.

I didn't turn my light on and navigated completely by feel as I removed my towel and climbed into bed, carefully I pulled my cover over myself and checked the clock.
Nine. Good. I'd sleep for four hours and be up at exactly the right time unless I for some reason had a dream, but since I had one the night before I shouldn't, usually the dreams that kept me up happened once a week, and even when they were more frequent they were never back to back. I'd been forcing myself to sleep for only four hours, and then go back to sleep after awakening, but I had practiced going long periods of time without sleep, or with little sleep.

I smiled as I took my hair down and despite everything I felt giddy. I was getting out, finally, I was leaving.

I fell asleep with a smile, knowing that in six hours I'd be outside, or dead, and I'd be happy with either fate.

Notes

Another short chapter from Ashley's POV, the last chapter was from Andy's POV, just in case you were unsure. I was trying to keep Andy's POV in the third person, but would you guys rather it be in the first? I can make that happen if you want, I just thought it was different, and cool.
Anyway, thanks for reading so far, and thanks to the one new subscriber, there are three now. Woot woot!!

-Ciao♥
Ashtin