Stephanie Johnson

The room was horribly awkward after Trigger left. Castle had made herself comfortable on Trigger's bed as I stayed huddled in the corner.

"So, where is my brother, exactly?" I made a poor attempt to start a conversation. Silence continued for a second before the woman sat up, turning to me. She took out an earbud, seemingly uninterested.

"What's up?" Did she seriously not hear me?

"Uh, I was just wondering where my brother was."

"Honestly, I don't know. You'd have to ask Miranda. I don't like walking around down there, it's gross." Shrugging her shoulders, the woman laid back down, about to pop the device back in.

"You call her by Trigger by her actual name?"

"Uh, yeah? She's my fucking girlfriend?" What? Girlfriend? I'm so confused.

"Holy shit, I thought you were just joking. You're gay?" I cringed at how incredulous my voice sounded.

"Why is that such a big deal? No wonder Mirror couldn't stand your ignorance."

"Oh." So he has a code name now.

The silence continued and I grew more embarrassed by the second. Do I really come off that dumb? I never felt this ignorant back at home. If anything, I knew more about things than anybody else. Sensing my discomfort, Castle rolled over the bed, putting a paper in my hand.

"Here, I've got a map. Show me where Miranda took you."

The map wasn't quite what I expected. Instead of a top view of a large room, it looked like a maze. Only a few doors were named and the stairs were merely a black rectangle labeled as such.

"Um...," I tried to recall the path we took to my brother. "I know there were some stairs here...," My hair fell in front of my eyes, forcing me to brush it out of the way.

"First off, I can't see where you're pointing, come here. Second, there are a million other places that you could've gone after the stairs." Uncomfortable about sitting on Trigger's bed, I pulled up a chair on the other side of the bed.

Once again, my hair fell in front of my face. Every time I pushed it out of the way, it fell right back. To think I thought it made me look like a princess. When I was younger I always wanted long hair because I thought it made you look prettier. Now, all I wanted to do was tear it out.

"Want me to cut it?" Startled, I jumped, causing my finger to become stuck in a knot of hair. I looked at Castle's hair. It had a grown out vibe to it, a not quite there mullet. Picturing the style on me made me cringe.

"Relax princess, it'll just be a bob cut. I'm not gonna give you a pixie." Running my hands through my hair, I tried to picture it.

"Alright."

Castle quickly got up and dragged me, still in the chair, across the room before rummaging around Trigger's desk.

"I know I put them somewhere..." After a few minutes, Castle brandished her newly found pair of scissors. Coming towards me, I suddenly recalled the horror movie scene that plagued my nightmares. Castle held her scissors by the handle, eyebrow raised.

"You act like I'm going to murder you." Unbeknownst to me, my hands had been clinging to the sides of the chair.

"Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised." She looked me up and down.

"Since you're not Miranda's type, I guess you're fine." She laughed, "Then again, neither was I."

"What?" Castle grinned as she stood behind the chair. Carefully she began snipping away at my hair.

"She was originally on a date with someone else when we met. The guy looked like a snob and wasn't a fan when I got his order wrong."

"You were a waitress?" I couldn't help but watch as the red pieces fell to the floor.

"Anyways, some woman came in around the same time and showed me a picture of him to see if he was here. When I led her over, it turned out she was his mom and wanted to make sure his date was going okay. Then she went on and on about how darling her son was and Miranda just sat there and nodded."

"What restaurant did you work at?" It was no use asking, Castle was already lost in her daydream. By now, my hair littered the floor like a flaming nest.

"When she was about to leave, I gave her a free cup of coffee with my number."

"You were so corny." It was hard to believe the woman in front of me could even consider doing such a thing.

"Hey, she was cute and it looked like her date didn't go so hot. I was just doing my job as a lesbian. Imagine my surprise when we met again at camp!"

I laughed, it had been a long time since I felt this good. We continued talking about this and that, eventually she asked about my own friends.

"Hmmm, my closest friends were Zoe and Audrey. We used to go shopping a lot even though we never bought anything." Thinking about it now, I don't think we did anything else besides that. Sometimes we'd hang out at each other's before deciding to go to the mall. It was a little weird since none of us had a never-ending well of money.

"Done!" My hands shot up to my hair, noticing how much lighter my head felt. This is amazing! I should've kept my hair short.

Knock knock.

"Come in!"

The door opened, and in my happy state, I neglected to look over my shoulder.

"Hey, Miranda! That took a while." Castle was sweeping up the hair on the floor, a smile on her face.

"Did it?" No. That voice. Fear crept up my throat. Beside me, Castle tensed. I looked at the source, hesitant.

At the door was Minhyuk, with Trigger.

The part that caught my eye, however, was the knife at her throat.