I hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: The Legend of Korra doesn't belong to me yada yada yada...However the plot of this story is mine and you may not use it without my written permission.
Korra never felt quite satisfied with the coffee sold on the university campus. The cream they used was too thick, too sweet and the barista never added enough sugar when she specifically asked for five tablespoons. It exclusively wasn't Korra's fault she was so finicky when it came to coffee. The caffeinated drink acted as a life boat to get her through those tedious morning classes. It was a must. The last time she went without her double shot mocha espresso, she may, or may not have threw a textbook at one of her classmates during a heated debate.
Korra humorously explained to both the Dean of the university and her parents that there was a chemical imbalance in her brain that could only be fixed by a cup of coffee. To say the least, they all saw through her lie and Korra was suspended and restricted to her dorm for three days. It was miserable, having all that alone time to herself. It felt like one of the longest three days of her life.
Of course, some days have been longer, more miserable.
The sidewalk Korra slowly strolled down was mostly empty―the occasional morning rush brushing past her. She kept her hands deep in the pockets of her blue jacket, her eyes on her brown boots that crunched over the thin layer of snow. Her knit beanie was pulled over her short brown hair dusted in flurries of snowfall; the fabric kept her ears warm. She blew silvery, frosty air through her chapped lips that made her craving for her cup of coffee all that more appetizing.
When Korra spotted the small café, she rushed in and was relieved to see no line. In no time, she had her double shot mocha espresso and was on her way back to the university to attend her first class of the morning. She stepped back into the cold air, but paused by the glass door to dig around in her leather satchel. She retrieved an orange bottle of pills, unscrewed the cap, popped two tablets in her mouth and chased it down her throat with a burning gulp from her Styrofoam cup.
The pills, despite the bite of mocha flavor, still tasted bitter on her tongue and she refrained from spitting. Instead, she took another searing chug of coffee and nourished the burning on her tongue. It was the only part of her body that didn't feel cold.
She stole a glance at her watch. Fifteen minutes till class. She walked fast across the snow slicked pavement, every once in a while stealing a quick look over her shoulder.
Only a precaution. She told herself.
Korra tapped one of her hard soled boots against the sidewalk impatiently as she waited for the traffic signal to allow her to safely cross the street. She checked her watch once more and sighed, knowing that if she waited any longer for the traffic light, she would be late to class. She was already in the hotspot for her attitude. One more slip up, and she would lose her scholarship, and be shipped back to the south pole. She contemplated crossing the street but decided against it as a Sato mobile and a semi truck sped past, nearly crushing her toes under the tires.
Another sip of coffee. To ease the stress.
The slap of footsteps pounded from behind Korra and as she turned with her heart lodged in her throat, a man was barreling toward her, dressed in all black from head to toe―wearing an expression of panic and hatred. Korra stepped out of the man's way just before he could slam into her, but his shoulder still roughly clipped her own and she stumbled back, nearly losing grip on her cup, but righted herself before she had the chance to fall butt first into oncoming traffic.
She turned to the sprinting man and angrily called after him. "Hey! Watch where you're going ass-" Korra's protest was painfully cut short as she was hit in her side by a force powerful enough to knock her to her back. The tightly packed snow absorbed most of impact as both her head and back crashed solidly to the ground. Her hand released her espresso that unfortunately, splattered all over the sidewalk, staining the snow brown.
Gasping, Korra registered it was hard to breathe, but she quickly figured out that the heavy weight pressing to her belly and chest was the same weight that nailed her so easily to the cold snow. Korra's squinted eyes flew open and saw his chattering pink lips before she saw his wide, faultless amber eyes that screamed of fault. His skin was several shades paler than her naturally russet skin, and his jaw line was sharp, long and defined. However, his cheeks were red like a spring's harvest of fresh cherries. The man's breath was heavy and smelt sweetly of candy canes and faintly of tobacco. His large gloved hands were flat on the other side of her head, holding him up―preventing his body from crushing Korra's any further.
Korra shamelessly concluded that the man was handsome.
Before she noticed she was staring, she noticed that the man was still on top of her. Inhaling a cold breath Korra fitted her hands between the small space separating them and shoved him curtly off of her and reeled back. The man gaped at her, still breathing heavily in sync with her own labored breathing. Korra brushed strands of hair from her face and righted the beanie on her head.
"I'm sorry!" He sputtered before staggering to his feet and sprinting past her.
Korra looked over her shoulder with narrowed eyes. "Yeah, you better be sorry!" She shouted, her hands fisting the snow. "You owe me a coffee!" But the man was already gone, sprinting in a quick pursuit of the other running man. She grunted loudly and slammed her fist down on the snow packed earth, now staring mournfully at her spilt coffee puddle a few feet away from her.
It felt like a pitiful thing to do, crying over her spilt coffee, so she made her farewell brisk before struggling to her feet. She brushed the powder from her jeans, coat, and the places she could reach on her back. She readjusted the strap of her satchel on her shoulder and began to walk away, but something small, rectangular and brown caught the corner of her eye.
She bent down, ignoring the faint ache in her back, and retrieved a small leather bound book. Korra turned toward the direction the man ran and watched as he skidded around a corner. She puckered her lips, debating whether it would be the right thing to go after him to return his book. But she was already on a tight schedule, and with her coffee now a sodden blend of mocha and melted snow, she wasn't feeling so generous.
Tucking the book in her bag, she slicked her damp hair behind her ears and ran across the crosswalk in a speedy pursuit back to the university.
Dr. Katara, Korra's therapist, first prescribed Prozac for the depression. At first, Korra's mother monitored her dosage making sure the medication was taken timely and responsibly. Korra hid the pills under her tongue as she swallowed the water, her mother's eyes intent on her. She would harshly swallow the beverage, pretending it was a struggle to down the tablet. When her mother wasn't looking, she would slip the pill from her mouth to her hand where she would stuff it into her pocket to discard later.
The depression got worse.
Dr. Katara prescribed Paroxetine for the anxiety. The Sertraline was for the hallucinations. Voltaren was for the pain.
It should help. Her father had told her back at the south pole. You'll be back on your feet in no time, Kiddo.
Korra sat on her bed, back in her dorm room with a small flickering flashlight as her only light source as a courtesy to her roommate whom was fast asleep. A long red pillbox sat in her lap and she popped the third cap, scooped two pills into her hands, shoved them into her mouth and washed them down with a swig of cold water.
She looked around the small room, and her eyes found her book bag she had left on her desk. Striking amber eyes flashed in her memory. Korra's eyes never left the bag as she scooted off her bed and padded across the room to her desk. She slid the chair out as quietly as she could and sat down.
After shuffling through notebooks and loose paper, Korra found the leather book. She turned it over in her hands several times, hesitant to open it. She had her morals to thank for that. She turned in the chair and looked to the bed where her roommate was still fast asleep then turned back. She drew in a breath, and leisurely opened the book to the fist page.
The first page contained nothing but a name, and instantly Korra believed she was about to read the man's diary.
Mako… Maybe I shouldn't read this...
Korra turned the page and tried her best to decipher the sloppy scrawl of pen marks made on the lined page.
3:34pm: Suspect Left premises alone
5:16pm: Suspect returned to apartment with a young women (25 yrs?).
7:15pm: Suspect peers out window before drawing the curtains shut.
7:35pm: Leaves apartment with woman
9:23pm: Suspect and unidentified female enter Kwongs Cuisine
10:13pm : Leaves establishment without unidentified female.
Korra's eyes widen as realization dawns over her. It wasn't the man's diary. It was some sort of logbook and from her own experience with her law enforcement major and countless nights of binge watching NCIS, Korra knew Mako wasn't some sap who carried his diary around with him. He was a detective.
Korra almost tore the paper in her haste to turn to the page. She read, and read, thumbing through the pages―looking at profiles and small paper photographs of mug shots held to the page with paperclips. She read the times, and descriptions hungrily and with an untamed excitement. She read of a kleptomaniac teenage boy, an old woman who liked to steal and harbor cats, a bank robber, and finally a murder.
She would never admit it out loud, but this was a lot more satisfying than readying some stranger's journal.
On the thirty second page, a black and white paper clipped photo put Korra's fun to an end. Her eyes widened painfully, her fingers going rigid around the book. A familiar buried terror gripped her tight in the chest, making breathing a difficult task. Blurry black eyes stared at her from the book, the same eyes that she had memorized and locked away in a vault in the back of her mind. Now the vault had burst open, spilling out quick flashes of horrific memories, and voices she shoved pills down her throat to silence.
You're weak.
"I'm not weak." She rasped silently, her fingertips, pressing hard into the pages of the book, created bends and creases in the paper .
It's over! No one is going to save you. It's too late.
"It's not over. It's not over. It's not over." She chanted in a hoarse whisper, much like a broken record. A lone tear streaked down her cheek.
Korra squinted her eyes shut and slammed the book down on the desk before shoving it away from her. Drawing her legs up, she buried her face into her knees and bit down on the inside of her cheek―she willed the voices and memories back into the vault. She shut off her mind like she had practiced many times before and everything fell silent, save for the unsteady drumming of her heart.
Korra dropped her legs from the chair and checked to see if her roommate had slept through her meltdown. She did. She didn't even stir.
It took several attempts to look at the book again, and when she mustered up the courage, she flipped to the following page, refusing to look into his black eyes.
Tears blurred her vision and she whisked them away before reading Mako's messily written profile. Korra's blood runs ice cold and slow through her veins.
The Red Lotus Killers: Consists of four individuals suspected of multiple homicides and disappearances in the span of three years-
Her nerves prevented her from reading further and she flipped the page and read the intricately
detailed logs Mako had wrote, memorizing the text.
Korra didn't sleep that night. After she gained all the knowledge she could from the detective's book, she closed it, shoved it into her satchel and stumbled back into bed. Short brown hair splayed like a perfectly round chocolate halo beneath her as she stared at the ceiling. She didn't dare close her eyes, abundantly aware of what nightmares awaited for her in the vulnerability of unconsciousness.
Feedback is appreciated! :D
~Megan~