The House

Two

My hair had started matting up again. Every couple of days, sometimes less depending on the engagements, I have to sit in front of the slightly reflective metal sheet covering the oldest fireplace in existence and brush.

The knots hurt when they pull on my hair, and with the brush. It's what I get for keeping my hair long, I guess. Most of the girls, especially the older ones, have cut most of theirs off with a broken piece of glass, hacking at it until it was all gone. Less knots that way. Less pulling.

I sat down in front of the large piece of metal, brushing my hair with my fingers until the knots eventually fall out, untangling.

The sun barely makes it through the windows, considering they're high enough up that only someone who was over ten feet tall could see out of them.

The echoing of a few of the other girls in the other human-proofed rooms around me fills my ears. Nothing else.

I do miss the sound of crickets in the summertime. Most of the outside sound is blocked out down here, only the cracking of thunder and lightning make it through these walls from outside.

"Are you brushing your hair again?" spoke Liah from the small archway to my left.

I stopped trying to see myself in the metal sheet and turned to her. Short dark hair and dark brown eyes stared back at me. She was older than me by a few years, one of the oldest girls that had lasted this long, that's for sure.

We've heard they get moved to other places, some of them just don't make it out, though. That we know, is true. It's not exactly a quiet place at nighttime when all the downstairs rooms are connected like they are.

"It's gone all knotted again."

She nodded, "I don't know why you don't just cut it all off. It makes everything easier. Less painful," she spat at me. The older girls are always trying to get me to cut my hair. I just can't do it. I know it's more painful.

Liah sat down next to me anyways, like always, helping me untangle the unruly mess without another word spoken. She didn't have to. There was nothing to say anyways.

It's all been the same for years. Nothing ever changes. We've accepted it won't. Can't.

I'm not the youngest anymore, there's four girls that could easily be as young as fourteen. And there's also Dakota. She's the current youngest, at twelve.

Nobody speaks about it though. Age doesn't matter when you're all experiencing the same things. Nothing changes just because you're a couple years younger.

I was still the youngest to ever be here.

And for the sake of the other girls, I was glad that was true. Better me, who had already lost hope in leaving this town, than a little girl that wanted to do be something special.