Lost Cyborg

Chapter 3.

Ellora woke up as the cold water hit her face as a wave of shower. She started coughing hard as she opened her eyes. At first it was all blurry. But then slowly everything started coming into focus. And the first thing that she saw was the boy's face right above her, staring down at her, his face inches away from her's. She jumped and pulled herself in a seating position, scrambling away from him quickly. She was again pinned to the bedside table. The flashbacks started coming back one by one. This wasn't a dream. It was real. The boy was real. There was a boy. In here. In the Dark House. In the abandoned house. She was not alone, not the only one to step in this house in 15 years. There was another one. A boy.

She felt a throbbing pain in her head. She touched it and realized she had caused herself a big bump from fainting. She must have hit her head hard. She looked around at the room. He had switched on the lights. How is there any electricity in the house?  She thought. But she couldn't think much. He was seated only a feet away from her, holding her water bottle in his hand. Ellora automatically touched her shoulder and realized he had taken away her bag pack. She spotted it lying behind him with its things scattered around. She coughed water out of her mouth. He hadn't even splashed the water. He had directly poured it down from the bottle down on her face.

"I apologize," the boy said and Ellora jumped. His voice was cool and calm, nothing like how she was feeling. She tried to get as far away from him as she could. But there wasn't even an inch of space between her and the table. "I did not mean to wake you up so startled. Are you ok?"

A million things ran through Ellora's mind. Was the boy apologizing to her? Why was he apologizing? She tried to say something. To say anything. But she was still in shock. "Who are you?" She finally managed to ask and she was terrified of how small her voice sounded. He didn't look like a ghost. He looked like a perfect human to her. Too perfect, to be honest. Then again, what if he really was in his appearance right now?

"I am Ezra," he said and Ellora remembered him saying the same thing the last time, too.

Ellora was trying to calm her mind down and think straight. The boy looked at her hand, which was still holding the back of her head, where she hit. "You hit your head," he said. "Are you hurt?"

Ellora wanted to say of course she was hurt if she had hit her head. And if he was so worried why hadn't he helped her when she fainted. But instead she asked, "How are you in this house?"

"I live here," he replied, his tone matter of factly.

Ellora wondered if the boy was making fun of her. Did he think she was a fool? "No one lives here," she said. "No one has been here in almost 15 years." She didn't think her heart had ever beaten this faster before. Not even when Jashwa had asked her to be his girlfriend. Jashwa. The thought of him made her want to cry. She wished he was here now. He would have calmed her down. He would've told her everything was ok even if it wasn't.

"No human, you mean?" He asked.

No human? What does he mean by that? Isn't he a human?

"Yes," she said, clutching the edge of the table. She needed to calm down. She couldn't panic. She started taking deep breaths and releasing it. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Ellora could feel it working slowly.

"First of all, you've already broken that record," the boy said. He spoke so casually that if it wasn't for the situation, Ellora could almost imagine they were just discussing the weather. "Second, I am not a human. I am a humanoid robot."

"Huh?" Ellora asked dumbfounded. "You are a what?"

"A humanoid robot," the boy repeated, patiently.

"What nonsense?" She was sure now that he was making fun of her.