Bo and the Beast (Book #1) (Completed)

10. Bath Time

It seemed that it took a small army of robots to get Bo into some sort of semblance of cleanliness. As the masculine robot led her up the stairs, it was joined by the chirrupy one from before, and two others. They walked her down the long gallery at the top of the stairs on the second floor, where they took a left into a small hallway where bedroom doors clustered. They chose the door at the very end of the hall, and opened it with a flash of a yellow light on a sensor. The lock clicked out of place, and the masculine robot dragged her through.

Before she could get much more than a cursory glance at the dark blue wallpaper and crisp white covers on the massive bed, the robots led her to a tiled bathroom attached to the room. She blinked in surprise at the sterility of it all, briefly remembering the drafty and dust-filled outhouses they used back at the camp. It felt almost shameful to have used a plank of wood placed over a hole now that she was surrounded by a strangely beautiful porcelain toilet, a sink that was big enough to give a small child a bath, and a grand mirror that took up an entire wall.

Behind her was the bath with the chirrupy robot drawing the water. Bo waited to one side, her wrist still clamped by her robotic guard, until the water reached a certain level and the taps were turned off. The robot dumped a packet of scented salts in and swished them around, staining the water pink and filling the room with the smell of some sort of flower. Bo snarled at this. It seemed like an order coming from the Beast. She was to smell like a doll. It was yet another thing she couldn't control.

The chirrupy robot turned to her, and Bo could swear it looked expectant even though it had no features beyond the circular lens in its middle. "Miss, please step into the bath."

Bo frowned. "Miss?"

"Do you have a form of address you would rather we use? If you tell me, my programming will spread the information to all the Service-Matons."

"Bo is fine," Bo said.

"You may call me Madame," the chirrupy robot said. It rotated to indicate a small robot by its side. "This is Fil. Dent and Chan stand behind you." Bo turned to see the masculine sounding robot and one that was a bit taller than the others.

"Oh," Bo said, eyeing the new robots. "How many of you are there?"

Madame seemed to think on this for a moment, her light flashing yellow, before she replied. "Perhaps twenty in service at the moment."

Bo cringed inwardly. That amount of robots would make it hard to escape without being spotted. She'd have to come up with a real plan to get away, and not count on just running once her leg was healed.

"I do not wish to hurry you," Dent, the brown-striped one, said as he hovered forward. "However, we received orders that you be cleaned. We must fulfill these before we can take on other tasks."

"I think we can probably just skip this one, right? Go do whatever else it is you need to do."

The robots didn't move at first, as if they couldn't understand what she said. But when they saw she was making no moves toward getting into the bath, they slowly came to life. Dent's light flashed red, and suddenly all them were flashing around her.

"Please comply," Dent said, his voice hard and businesslike. "We do not wish to use force."

Bo balked. "I don't need a bath that bad."

She hadn't even finished speaking before Dent and Chan surged forward, clutching her in their metal clamps once again. Bo snarled and fought against them as they dragged her toward the bath.