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“What the hell? Carrie? What’s wrong?” Johnathan asked, sounding genuinely concerned. He made sure I was stable before releasing my arm.
“Nothing…I just wanted to go take a shower,” I complained, picking at my hair. “I feel gross.”
Even though he didn’t make a sound, I could almost sense him rolling his eyes at me.
“Really?” Johnathan finally retorted, “You couldn’t have wanted to do this last night, or waited until morning?”
“I’m sorry, I just woke up and,” I shivered from disgust, “I just feel like everything is caked on me and I want to get it off.”
I must have sounded desperate though, because when he spoke again, his voice was a lot more understanding.
“Okay…Okay, fine. Just…Sit down, will you?” As he spoke, he guided me back to the bed. “Let me get some light in here and I’ll help you.”
“Thank you,” I answered, relieved that he was going to do something about it instead of just telling me to go back to sleep.
Obviously still waking up, I watched his shadow slunk over to the large oven and prime the embers of the fire and add firewood so that the flames returned, giving some light to the room.
I waited patiently, even though it was difficult.
When he returned, though, Johnathan helped me over to the sink. He unbandaged my head and got me a chair to sit down on. Afterwards, he eased me back, so that he could carefully clean my hair.
“Thank you,” I replied again, as I watched his large hands methodically and carefully remove the crimson from my hair.
I wasn’t sure if he didn’t hear me, or simply didn’t feel like responding, but either way, he said nothing. Instead, he used some kind of soap on my hair, before washing it out, paying particular care not to touch the spot where the blood had originated.
“I can’t touch that yet,” he announced, pointing to the back of my hair. “I don’t want it to start bleeding all over again.”
“That’s okay,” I replied, but he was already back to work. I wondered if he had done that purposefully, to let me know that he wasn’t asking for my permission.
Still, I didn’t care. He could be a jerk all he wanted, so long as he helped me feel like myself and not like the Carrie in the movie who got covered in pig’s blood.
At least this was my own blood, I tried to tell myself as the sickening thought passed through my mind, but it ended up doing little to console me.
Blood was blood and it was gross.
After Johnathan had finished, he told me that if I wanted, I could take a shower to wash off my body.
Pointing me toward the bathroom, he warned, “Don’t get water in your cut. It’s starting to scab, and I don’t want anything to fuck it up. It’s actually looking good.”
The thought made me weak in the knees but instead of dwelling on that, I managed to shake my head. “Okay. Thanks.”
I hobbled over to the bathroom, with Johnathan guiding me. He made sure I was alright before quickly leaving the room.
The shower was simple and seemed to be more of an outdoor setup than indoor plumbing, but I supposed I should be grateful for at least this advancement.
I took the hose off the rung and pointed it down while I turned the nozzle. Water immediately shot out of the sprayer. It was freezing but thankfully, I didn’t have it pointed toward me.
The water seemed to take forever to warm up, even marginally, but when it did, I was thankful. I used the strange soap that had the scent of pine and washed myself off, careful to keep my injured ankle out of the water as well. Even though it wasn’t open, it still had a splint on it and I didn’t feel like going through the effort to take it off.
I was simply happy to not feel crusty anymore.
When I got out of the shower, I saw there was a towel hanging on the hook that I could’ve sworn wasn’t there before. I dried myself off as best as I could before putting the towel around my body and walking back out, into the main portion of the cabin.
I noticed that the bed was changed, with new sheets and I had comfortable clothes on the bed, laid out for me.
I looked around and saw Johnathan in his normal spot, sitting in his chair, rocking slowly back and forth, watching the fire.
He didn’t seem to notice that I was there, or made no attempt to enlighten me, so I cleared my throat.
