Raizon: The Following (Updates Friday's)

X-Ray | 13

CH 13

PRESENT

My shower was hot. The steam was steadily filling the room and fogging up the mirror but I paid no mind as I let the water rain down on me. I sighed out in content. It wasn't often that I got to take warm showers. It was always cold ones and always quickly so we didn't run out of water- if I got to shower at all. Most times it was a rag and a bucket of water.

The shower would have been more enjoyable if my arm and leg weren't wrapped up in garbage bags and tightly bound to my skin. Showering with these on was a hassle but I wasn't allowed to get my casts wet. Showering with a broken ankle was especially impossible, but luckily for me, the shower had a built-in seat to it. The type of showers that old people would use, I thought bitterly. But it came in handy because it turned out to be very hard balancing on one leg why you only had one arm to do all the washing.

I stared at my broken limbs, then my healthy ones. My right arm and my left ankle were fine. In fact, I don't think I had many issues with them through the years, I scowled in realization that these were the limbs replaced by the raizon. Whatever that sludge had been. Of course, they'd be harder to break, and they would also explain why I had more raizon in me than the remaining test subjects that were like me.

It was strange though... I remembered the vision that Ello had shared with me... practically unlocking a memory that I had forgotten. I still didn't remember it all, especially the stabbing part... but how could I forget any of that? It didn't make any sense to me. Getting an arm and a leg ripped off would be incredibly memorable. Shock maybe? Had I been so traumatized that I forgot such a thing? It seemed possible... but I wasn't sure.

How had Ello even make me remember something like that? And why hadn't they helped me remember all of it? Were they hiding something from me? I remembered their face... or lack of one, from that day. They seemed embarrassed about it, self-conscious even. The thought made me frown. The more I learned about Ello the more I saw just how human they were. What was the difference between them and a human at this point?

I finished up my shower and got out, careful not to fall over. Dressing was also difficult but I managed. Elo had offered many times to help me shower and help me dress and this and that but I wasn't having any of it. They were too willing to be some sort of personal maid, it was weird. I was stubbornly independent, I didn't like being doted on all the time like this. They knew it too but they continued to do it anyway.

I walked out of the bathroom, my hair still a bit wet. I noticed Ello rolling around in my bed, messing it up after I had just made it. I let them sleep in my room for the past two days, but only on the floor and they seemed happy to do so. It kind of made me feel bad to do that to them but any empathy was wiped away by the fact that they could go sleep in their own bed any time.

Ello seemed a bit too happy, almost sounding as though they were purring. "What are you doing?" I found myself asking, unenthused.

They grabbed a pillow and hugged it to their chest as they sat up. "The bed smells like you," They said innocently.

My brows knitted together as I crossed my arms. "Don't say stuff like that, it's weird,"

"Huhhh? But you smell good, I like the way you smell," Ello protested, bringing the pillow to their nose. I cringed.

"Stop it that's weird,"

"Says who?"

"Says me and everyone else on this stupid planet!"

Ello frowned but smelt the pillow again.

"Hey!" I hobbled over to them, ripping the pillow from their grasp rather easily. "Why are you so odd? It's creepy!" I internally took back everything I had thought before. Ello wasn't human-like at all.