Whelve

Chapter Fourteen

Ev

"French roast?" Daniel called out while holding onto the dye. I shed him a quick glance and then my eyes moved to Omen who had her head stuck into the plastic bag on the table.

"I've never done my hair brown, so I wasn't sure which one to get. Though this one is a very good brand and I actually trust their samples..." I replied and picked out two latex gloves from under the sink. "Let's go to the bathroom," I told him and grabbed the plastic bag.

My hair looked very dull and to be honest ugly. Despite the fact that my black roots were starting to show my slightly bleached strands seemed kind of unhealthy, just because their colour wasn't as vibrant as it used to be. I had dyed it about a week before I met Danny, which meant that it was close to fours weeks, the fact that it had lasted as long as it had, surprising me.

"I'm going to dye yours first, then dye mine," I told him as he came into the bathroom, Omen in his arms.

"When are we going to cut it?" he asked almost enthusiastically.

"After we rinse off the excess colours. I need to dye it first," I told him with a soft shrug.

I put on the gloves and patted the washing machine so he would sit on it. Without a word he placed Omen on the counter and sat on the washing machine, leaning forward and placing both hands on the appliance on the corner between his legs. I took a deep inhale, looking at the mop of hair on top of his head and squirted a big amount of brown dye on my one palm. Danny eyed with momentary hesitation.

"It's darker than it will be on your hair... don't forget you're blond," I said reassuringly. He nodded and shook his shoulders as to calm himself. "Okay..." I muttered and slowly started placing the dye on his hair.

I started off with the strands before going on the roots, careful not to colour his skin and slowly I went over all his head. I knew the latex gloves often tugged on hair, so I moved my hands as lightly as I could, not wanting to hurt him, but at the same time I made sure to cover everything. Giving him weird highlights wasn't my goal at all.

After I was done with him, I changed gloves and turned to the mirror in order to start dyeing my own hair. I watched him with the corner of my eye looking over the box of my dye and he said the word Regalia under his breath.

"So... um," he muttered, setting the box aside and pulling Omen onto his lap. "I saw a dream last night..." he went on. My eyes moved on the mirror and settled on him.

"Do you want to tell me what it was about?" I asked softly, finishing the top part of my head.

"I was at the zoo," he started, not looking up at me, but rather focusing on where his fingers were disappearing in Omen's fluffy fur. "Well, I wasn't at the zoo... I was in an enclosure."

"In?" I echoed, shedding another glance at his direction.

"There were no bars around it... I just knew I couldn't leave. And I wasn't tied to anything either. There was a... a metal collar around my neck, but it was not attached to any chain or rope or anything. It just sat there heavy and cold against my skin," he explained. I squirted some more dye on my palm and waited for him to go on. "There were some people watching me, but no one seemed to want to help me... actually no, they were all... they were all smiling."

I felt a chill go done my spine and looked down as I massaged the dye onto my scalp, refusing to look at Daniel or at myself in the mirror as he spoke. I didn't want him to misjudge any kind of emotion that ended up being on my face.

"At some point, I felt something crawl on my skin. Spiders. Hundreds of spiders were climbing up my legs and arms and they..." he stopped, and I couldn't keep my head down any longer. I looked at him and saw him staring at me. "I remember feeling them travelling up my neck, going under my collar and over my skin and then they – they got in my mouth."