Scarred

Chapter 4.

Theo

I contemplate between wearing my dirty sweater or one of the new clothing items I've been given. If I wear one of the new ones, they would end up smelling really bad instantly. So I decide to put back on my old but familiar sweater. My hands shake as the mud caresses my fingers, and the sweat from the sweater sticks to the scars on my body.

I feel my feet plodding on the white marble laminated flooring. A few more steps and I reach my forsaken destination. I stare at the door for a few seconds, unsure of what action to take. Do I knock? Do I just walk in? Do I call out for her?

I settle on knocking, and the door opens within a few seconds.

"Hi," I say timidly.

"Hi."

"I have a problem."

"Okay..."

"The shower."

"You have a problem with the... Shower?"

"Not with showering. I just, uh... I can't turn it on. I don't know how to."

"Oh, I'm sorry I should have shown you how to use it before." I sense that same patronising tone in her voice that seems to be second nature to her.

"It's not like I don't know how to use household objects," I fire back.

"That's not what I meant."

"It obviously is. I've used a shower before. It's just, your one is confusing to work out."

"Look, Theo, I didn't mean to offend you, I just meant-"

"Can you just show me how to use it? Or if you're just going to stand here and insult me further, I'll just run myself a bath."

There is a pause as a look of pain registers across her face. "Yeah, um, I'll go help you with that right now," she says quietly.

I nod, and make my way back to the bedroom I'll be staying in. Eliza traces slowly behind me, and once she enters the room, I signal for her to enter the bathroom first.

She walks in with me following behind her, and she steps into the shower. "Um, you're going need to come in as well... To see what I'm doing."

"Okay." I say, as I step into the shower as well and join her on the left hand side.

"Well first, you have to hold down on this button, until it turns blue, because it allows the shower to activate," she says as she presses a button. "And then, these buttons are for whether you'd like to time your shower. This button is to go up in time, and this button is to go down in time. Would you like to time your shower?" She asks, as her eyes pierce into mine.

"Um... No I'm fine."

She nods, and then quietly moves past me to walk onto the right side of the shower. "Okay, so you turn this button to signal the temperature of the shower. If you move it to the right it'll get hotter." She says, touching a button.

"And this button is to determine whether you want lights in your shower or not. And this button turns off the shower. That's it."