The Ordinary Dead

The Girl In Black

Kyran, Leliel and Ciara sat in Kyran's black Land Rover as they drove to the nearest town centre. The drive wasn't long, compared to the last time he took Ciara out anywhere. Kyran was awfully quiet with Leliel around, and Ciara wasn't quite sure why. Perhaps Leliel made him nervous - after all, he was an angel - or maybe something else was wrong. Maybe he was worried about Cynfael, or perchance one of his brothers or sisters coming to find him. Or - was he jealous of the attention Leliel was showing Ciara?

She brushed the thoughts off, thinking that most of the time, she overcomplicated things. After all, her thoughts had been broken into fragments after the incident with Cynfael. Brendan had never brought a knife up to Ciara, but she partly expected a demon at Cynfael's level of power to possess her, or set her on fire. Looking back, she realised that this was a stupid expectation, and she should have probably stopped watching so many movies about demons.

They reached the car park at about 1pm, the sun reaching high in the sky, enough for the heat to press down on their faces, stepping out of the car. Kyran took the keys out of his pocket and locked the Land Rover, after taking a ticket from a parking machine and placing it on the dashboard. He lead Leliel and Ciara silently through the car park, meandering towards the town's centre. It was less busy than in London, with hurried people walking around little stores and market stalls.

"In here." He walked towards a hair salon, stepping slowly into the doors.

It smelled of chemicals and hair products, with a slight hint of bleach masked underneath various scents. Along the wall stood hair dressing tablets and black leather chairs, and to the group's side sat a black leather waiting area. Customers filled the black leather chairs at the dressing tablets, shrouded in a backwards plastic cloak, their hair being chopped off finely. The waiting area, however, was empty, and in the middle of the circle of leather seats, a coffee table was place, stacked high with hair and fashion magazines, to give customers inspiration on what they would like their hair cut like.

Ciara didn't really want a change of hair style. Her wavy hair suited her just fine, running down her shoulders in a black waterfall, and ending below her waist. Still, she picked up a magazine - titled 'HairToday, Gone Tomorrow' - and began to flick through the pictures. The first few were all too short for her taste, and covered up less of her face than she would have liked. The next few turned out to be shoulder length hair, and one of these framed the model's face perfectly, but Ciara still suspected Photoshop use.

The last few were for short hair also, although she didn't like short hair very much, she laid eyes on one she particularly liked. It cropped close to the model's hair in a bob-style haircut, except messier and layered. The model's hair had been layered and back combed lightly to create a messy, bed-head effect. The girl in the picture's face was long and pointed at the bottom, like Ciara's. The hair itself was dyed purple, and the title above the picture of the haircut read simply ''Blue Bob'. She didn't like the blue colour as much as she liked the haircut, and decided that if she was to have that haircut, it would have to be a light, pastel pink.

Flicking through the rest of the magazine, Ciara couldn't find another hairstyle she liked just as much as the 'Blue' Bob' haircut she would prefer in pink. She flicked back to the page, and showed it to Kyran, who sat beside her.

"What do you think?" She asked, holding it on her lap as Kyran poked his head over from his magazine.

"It's nice," He smiled. "I don't like the blue so much, though. Maybe... Red?"

"I thought pastel pink."

"That would work, too." Kyran waited, studying the photo. "What do you think, Leliel?"