AN: This is my story for Round 4 of the Pro-Bending Circuit. This time the theme was genres. The genre I chose was Horror. My prompts are: Clock (object), Blood (smell), and First Person POV (restriction). My word count is: 1397
So my sister and I came up with the idea for this story during a wedding reception. And if you knew either of us, you'd know that we can both come up with some very disturbing things. So this is a warning to all those faint of heart: This is going to be graphic, disturbing, and probably going to ruin your childhood. Enjoy :D
"So what are we doing here?" Sokka asked Aang as we approached a large cave. The cave had stones and debris covering the once wide and dark entrance. I had a brief flashback of when Fire Nation soldiers shot the entrance to barricade us in; Me, Aang, Sokka, Appa, Momo, and the singing bards had all been trapped. This was the Cave of Two Lovers.
"Yeah Aang, why are we... here?" I asked.
"Where is 'here', exactly?" Toph questioned us.
Sokka took the liberty to explain, "This was back before we met you. These singing guys lead us to the cave, then these fire nation guys trapped us, then we got separated, and I made a large red mark on my forehead from facepalming, and..." he then looked at Aang and I, "And I don't know what Aang and Katara did, but they both came out of the cave all red-faced and happy looking." Sokka ended with a bit of mischief in his tone.
I blushed while Aang smiled fondly at the memory of us... together, in the cave.
"Oh, ok! That explains absolutely nothing!" Toph smarted off to Sokka.
"It's a labyrinth that constantly shifts it's layout. Crystals to lead the way out appear in the dark, but we didn't figure that out for a few hours." Aang cleared up for Toph.
"Thank you, Twinkletoes."
"No problem. Anyways! As to why we're here-" Aang began.
"Finally! Get to it Aang!" Sokka dramatically hurried him.
I smacked Sokka in the back of head before chastising him, "Shhh! Be quiet and let him finish."
Aang ignored Sokka and continued, "We're here because the spirits of the couple came to me in a dream. In the dream, they told me there were evil spirits trapping people in the cave, and making them crazy. They asked if I could help, seeing I'm the Avatar and everything."
"So you want us to follow you into a cave that drives people insane?!" Sokka complained.
"We'll be fine, as long as we stay calm and focused." Aang cheerfully explained.
"You do realize this is Sokka, right? He can't stay calm or focus." Toph joked.
I laughed with her, "Well, he's a goner."
"Seriously though guys, just be careful in here." Aang suddenly got a tense tone to his voice.
We walked for what seemed like an hour in the dark. For some reason, the glowing crystals weren't showing up. It wasn't a big deal though. Toph could show us the way out if we needed her to. Things were going decently, despite Sokka's constant, annoying complaints. Man, those were getting really old, really fast. And I know I wasn't the only one thinking so.
Suddenly, the ground began shaking. At first it was just a slight vibration. But as it continued, it became more intense to the point of us not being able to stand anymore.
"What is this?!" I yelled.
"I don't know! I can't control the earth for some reason!" Toph answered in a panicked voice.
"Aang, do you know?!" Sokka and I both yelled. For some reason, we weren't receiving an answer. "Aang?!" I tried. Still nothing. "AANG?!" I tried as loud as I could. Suddenly in the dark, I could make out a limp figure. Was that... "AANG!" I yelled as I quickly crawled over to him. I immediately saw that he was unconscious. I grabbed his body to keep it safe from any falling debris, and then started making my way back over to Sokka and Toph.
Suddenly, my vision went black. I felt as if I were floating in a large, dark, empty space. Then I started hearing whispers. They kept getting louder, but I couldn't tell what they were saying. And then this clock appeared. It kept slowly ticking away.
And then as quickly as I passed out, I woke up again.
I looked around the dark cave for anyone. At first, I saw nothing. After my eyes had readjusted though, I could vaguely make out Aang. He was lying limp on the floor. But I could hear his faint breathing. I carefully made my way over to his body and began trying to wake him up, "Aang! Aang? Come on, wake up Aang!"
He started groaning as his eyes began opening. "Katara...where...are we?"
I put my hand on his back to help him sit up. "There was some kind of earthquake, and then we both passed out and ended up here. I don't know where Sokka and Toph are."
"Well, maybe we can try and find them. Lets walk a little through the cave and see." Aang suggested.
"Alright then. Hopefully we can find them soon."
As we walked through the labyrinth, Aang mostly kept quiet. He had been acting weird since he woke up. I wondered what was up with that. Then he suddenly spoke something odd.
"You know, if I had known earthbending that first time we were here, or if Toph had been there, we probably could have made it out a lot faster." Aang laughed.
Did he just wish that Toph was here instead of me? No... no that can't be it. Aang and I are dating now. And Toph obviously likes Sokka. So he can't be wanting to replace me.
"Yeah, she would've been much more useful than me!" I force laughed.
Aang chuckled and responded with, "I guess so..."
Wait... he actually just confirmed that Toph would be more useful than me... No, no, NO! This place is getting to my head. I need to stay calm and focused. Suddenly, the voices began again. Saying stuff like "He wants to replace you." And "He doesn't appreciate you." They began getting really loud. And there was this pounding in the back of my head. My vision started getting blurry as I fell onto my knees. The last thing I saw before passing out was Aang trying to catch me.
There I was, back in the dark space again. The same clock ticking away. But the voices were gone now. It was all silent. I stood and watched as the clock hands reached midnight and the chiming began. It was a loud, deep, metallic sound. Once it made the twelfth chime, my vision began returning.
Strangely, I was already standing up when my vision had returned. And for some reason my hands were kind of wet. Then the crystals to the cave started glowing, and revealed a horrible sight before me.
Aang was lying on the ground, unmoving. There was a puddle of blood coming from his mouth, trickling down across the dirt floor. His eyes had an expression of terror and sadness. The entire scene screamed tortuous. Then I remembered something: my hands were wet. Trembling, I looked down at them. I wanted to puke as I brought them closer to my face to inspect. I could smell the blood on them. And I could see trails of both blood and saliva on them. Maybe I had tried to save him...
I looked over to closer inspect his body, and saw what I feared. There were red hand marks on his neck, the size of mine. I killed him...
Suddenly the picture of Aang, saliva and blood pouring from his mouth, wide terrified eyes, came to me. I could hear him trying to call to me, to snap me out of it... "Katara... kat...ar...a... ka..." kept repeating in my head.
"No... no...no...no, no, no, no, no!" I screamed. I dropped his body and ran in the direction of the crystals. Aang choking on my name kept repeating in my head, like some sort of terrifying song. Finally, I saw light. I ran towards it. Before I could make it out of the cave though, something stopped me. In front of me, appeared a woman. I quickly recognized her as the woman from the Cave of Two Lovers story. "What...?" I tried to ask in my terrified state.
"You're just like me... we had to kill our lovers... forced... There will always be people like us... who lose to the void... who kill those they love... always..." she whispered in a sad voice.
"NO!" I screamed as I pushed my way through and out of the cave opening.
"Katara?" Sokka's voice came from farther ahead. "Katara we're so glad to see you- why are your hands bloody... And where is Aang?!"