Chapter 3 - Clean this, wash that

We got to Alice's house just before the sun came up. Debbie and Darren went into Alice's living room with Harkut and the rest of us went into the kitchen. Alice left for a moment to get a first aid kit and Vancha put me in a chair, then went over and leant against one of the benches in the kitchen and watched me.

Alice came back and wet one of the cloths she had in her hand, after setting the first aid kid on the table. Looking for something to hold onto I grabbed it and held it close, smelling in the scent of sterility and treasuring it like it was gold. Alice came back and wrestled it out of my grip.

"Hysterical isn't he?" She commented as she grabbed my left arm and started to clean the caked blood away.

"You're probably the first human he's seen in 10 weeks." Vancha replied, Alice threw the other cloth at him and he wet it before coming over and grabbing my other wrist, I let my head dropp with a thud onto the table as I'd been resting it on the arm and continued sobbing like a baby while they addressed my wounds and talked.

"Ten weeks? What the hell where they doing with him that long?" Alice's expression turned to hatred and she halted her cleaning for a moment before grabbing a small amount of my dirty blonde hair and lifting my head up to get a better look at my face, tears and all, then she let it drop again and resumed the cleaning.

"This is one of the kids that disappeared. There were three altogether, but the other two we found dead." The contempt dripping from her words was clear even to me. She dropped the bloodied cloth on the table and opened the first aid kit, pulling out a leaf of alcohol wipes and handing some to Vancha, who looked at them curiously.

"It's for his wrists. It'll help keep infection out." She ripped open the packet and pulled out the damp brown piece of whatever it was they dipped the concoction in and opened it up before grabbing my arm again and starting to wipe my wrists with it.

I yelped loudly as the alcohol seeped into my wrist and made it sting. She didn't release her grip even as I tried to pull back and continued, it stopped hurting after a moment when she'd completely covered the wound in alcohol, using up three wipes. Vancha did the same to my other wrist. My tears finally walled up and I grabbed the cloth she'd used on my wrist and tried to clean my ankles.

"Wait. I'll wash it." She picked up both cloths and went over to the sink. Her exhaustion finally set in and she let her shoulders drop forward as she put the cloths in the sink and sighed. Vancha dropped my wrist and walked over to her.

"You need to sleep. I'll help him finish cleaning his ankles. Can we get him into a shower? And his clothes cleaned? He smells worse than I do." Alice laughed.

"There's a bathroom down the hall, there are towels in there. When he's undressed, the room next to it is the laundry, put the clothes in, add half a lid of det-"

"I'll do it." I piped up, my first words since the tunnel. Alice and Vancha turned back to face me.

"What?" Alice asked. I looked up at her, meeting her soft light blue eyes.

"I'll do it. I don't mean to sound rude, but I don't think he'll know how to use a washing machine." I looked back down.

"He's right." Vancha said turning back to Alice.

"Ok," She paused, contemplating on continuing her sentence. "You can use the bandages to wrap up your wrists and ankles when you're done." They both smiled and Alice left, retiring to her bed to get some well-deserved sleep (after she'd had her own shower of course). Vancha grabbed the now clean cloths and came over, handing one to me. I pulled one of the other chairs over, put my feet on the edge and started to clean one ankle while Vancha did the other one. We continued in silence. When they were clean and alcohol wiped I stood up and started walking to where Alice had said the shower was. Vancha followed me and I stopped at the door and looked up at him. "Are you going to watch me shower as well?" I asked.

"I don't want you running away." He replied.

"Do I look like I'm in the shape to?" I said seriously, but dropped the subject after that and walked in. Vancha had brought a chair along from the kitchen and placed it near the sink before sitting down. I eyed him cagily as he started to observe his robe of purple furs and I stripped before stepping into the shower and turned on the water.

I sighed happily as the water rushed over my bruised, bloodied and tired body, leaning against one of the walls and watching as the red rivulets rushed down the drain and into the sewers we'd just been in. There was a blue cloth hanging on a rack and a bar of soap on it's own private one. I grabbed both and started scrubbing at the dirt and severely caked blood. I scrubbed so hard that my skin turned a bright red color. Finished with my body I picked up a bottle of shampoo and conditioner and cleaned the grime from my hair as well. My hair went back to its original mousy blonde color and I turned off the tap, feeling completely clean –physically- and fresh. Vancha looked up as I stepped out and wrapped a towel around my waist. I looked over at him and finally noticed just how much he smelt as well. "Are you going to have one as well?" I asked. He seemed to think it over before he stood up and pushed me towards the seat. "Don't move from there." I sat down and examined my wrists as he went through the same procedure I had, though with more speed and stepped out, wrapping a towel around his own waist. His green hair was finally visible after all the blood and dirt had been washed out and he smelt fresh. Too bad our clothes didn't. I picked both sets up and held them away from my body, trying not to get any more filth on me. Vancha followed after as I walked into the laundry and he opened the lid when I asked. I dumped the clothes in and spread them evenly before grabbing the bottle of cleaning detergent. Alice hadn't said how much to use so I looked from the clothes to Vancha. I ignored the lid and poured in maybe two or three caps. I closed the lid and pressed the power button, selected the highest wash cycle – heavy duty, it didn't have extremely heavily soiled- and pressed the start button. While our clothes were washing we went back into the kitchen – Vancha grabbing the chair out of the bathroom- and alcoholed my wrists and ankles again before bandaging them up and taping them in place.