Another dark ficlet. Hints of Hama/Kanna, but could be taken as gen.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
In the cage, when it felt like her stomach had stuck to her spine with hunger and her bones rattled against the bars with the force of her shivers, all she could think about was home.
Sometimes she thought she could feel the wind across her face, strengthening her, turning her skin rougher and rougher, instead of the sallow, dry parchment it is now. Hama rubs the edges of her jutting wrists until it feels like she's about to scatter like dust in the still air. She can trace the outlines of all her bones if she wanted to, the way Kanna used to before, when there was still some meat on them. Eating herself from the inside out, that's what she's doing, living on meals long since eaten and memories long since lived. Is she forgotten, she wonders? She wouldn't be surprised, she would forget herself if she could.
Rats are nice, nice rats are. They used to wait for her to die, impatient, nibbling on her naked limbs as if to hurry her along. Now they dance for her obediently until she's too hungry to concentrate and she has to eat them. Gruel and rats, breakfast of choice for the Southern waterbenders.
There used to be a boy in the next cage over. Looked younger than he was, Hama thinks, limbs bend from disuse and short from malnourishment. She used to stroke his hair through the bars while he stared at her with bright, empty eyes. They were the last ones.
Now Hama is alone, dreaming of the life she used to have. It should be a great shame to her, that if she knew where it'd get her she would never have raised a hand against the firebenders. But there's no shame in this hell, it's burned away long ago along with dignity and hope. Hama has no hope, even if she thinks she might get out of here. There's no going back for her, no future outside of revenge. She's a burned husk of a woman, and she can no more return to her loved ones than if she were the breathing corpse she sometimes thinks she is.
Kanna may have children by now. She's always been beautiful, and there would have been no shortage of offers for her. She used to say Hama was beautiful herself, what would she think of her now? Hama can't decide what would be worse, horror or pity for the sad ghoul she has become, grinning in the dark where no one can see.
This is what they get, Hama thinks, when they bury living people in the dark - ghouls. She wouldn't have bothered the Fire nation if she knew the price she'd have to pay, but now it's too late. She is what she is and there's no other path for her, but that of a monster.