Katara's throat would allow no air into her lungs. Not that she wanted air anymore.
Everything she loved was dead. Everything was gone.
She was alone in the ice.
All the windows had faded into black.
She put her back to the wall, slid down to the floor and hugged her knees. She buried her face into the crook of her elbow.
"No," she mumbled into the fabric of her clothes, "no, no, no, no, no." Each 'no' was louder than the next.
All of her pain could not contain its self within her suddenly small body. So she screamed.
It was like unleashing an ocean. A very high pitched ocean.
It was long and agonizing. She had never screamed like this ever before.
When it finally came to a gurgling and strangled stop, she quickly stood up. And she ran.
She couldn't keep still. She wanted to throw herself against the ice walls or out of the windows into the blackness. She wanted to… die.
But she was already dead.
Her feet were slipping on the cold floor as she pushed her muscles to go faster. Her eyes were shut tight, teeth clenched, fists forced into tight balls.
She could feel her heart beating faster and faster. She heaved in air, which burned her over used throat.
She collided with something. And it wasn't hard ice. It was soft and warm.
She opened her eyes. "Mom?" she whispered hoarsely.
Her mother grabbed her wrist, "Katara, you have to get out of here." Her mother's eyes were full of fear. "They are coming, go back to the village. I'll hold them off!"
Katara's eyes widened. She had heard this before, when she was younger. Right before her mother died. "No, Mom, come with me."
"I'll be okay," her mother said frantically. Her mother pushed her away. "Go! Go now."
Katara took a step back from her mother. Her mother's eyes said she knew she was going to die. "Take care of your brother and father for me, okay?" She said with a broken smile and tears. And then she turned and ran in the direction that Katara had come from.
Her Mom was gone again.
Katara whipped around and kept running. Tears somehow managed to still spill from her eyes.
How is all this happening?! Is this what it's like to be dead?
And then there was a rumbling. The ice cracked beneath her, sending her skidding across the ground. Long splits in the ice walls traveled from the floor to the ceiling, or at least so she assumed, because she couldn't even see the ceiling.
It's all falling apart…A large icicle crashed to the ground beside her. She tried to scoot away from it. Another one exploded behind her as it landed.
Then the floor collapsed. She was falling. Darkness surrounded her.
She was in the darkness. And it was cold.
That's all she could feel, the cold.
There were whispers all around her.
"Who's there?" she tried to call out, but her voice cracked.
The whispers grew louder. And then there was one discernable voice. "You let me die."
It was her mother.
"And me." It was Toph.
"And me." It was Sokka.
"You let us all die," Aang's sad voice could be heard above the others. "Why Katara? Why didn't you protect us? Don't you love us?"
"Yeah, you let us all die. How could you?" It was the Earth King.
"We aren't important to you?" It was… Haru?
"It's like you killed us." It was… Yue.
"You failed." It was Jet.
There was the chirping sound of a lemur. Even Momo blamed her.
A low rumble announced that Appa was there to.
All the voices mumbled the same things over and over again.
"Katara," Aang seemed to whisper close to her ear, "Katara."
Katara was crying silently.
"Katara."
"I'm sorry," she whimpered.
"Katara." They all seemed to be murmuring her name.
"I'm sorry Aang." She spoke softly.
"Katara, wake up!"
Katara's eyes shot open. The roof of the tent was above her. And so was Aang. And Sokka. And Toph. And Momo.
Appa gave a low rumble from outside the tent.
"You were dreaming," Sokka said.
She slowly sat up.
"And crying," Aang said staring at her face with concern.
She put her fingers to her face and felt the wetness.
"And talking too." Toph said folding her arms.
Katara's face turned red. Then she suddenly brought them all into a hug.
They were all shocked.
They hugged her back. Except Momo, who managed to escape.
Then, she let them go.
They looked at her apprehensively.
"Feel better Sugar Queen?" Toph asked.
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Good! Then I'm going back to sleep." She left the tent.
Sokka went back to his sleeping bag and was asleep almost immediately.
Aang gave her a quick grin and went out of the tent also.
She laid back down and sighed. She couldn't go back to sleep though.
She got up and went outside into the warm night.
"Want to talk about it?" asked Aang who was lying on Appa's tail.
She shrugged her shoulders and sat next to Aang. "It was just a bad dream."
"What was it about?"
Katara was silent for a moment. "Everyone died."
There was silence again, then Aang spoke, "Well don't worry about it. We're all safe."
"Yeah." She said sadly, thinking of her mother.
Aang sat up and looked at her. "You don't sound better."
"Well," she played in Appa's fur, "I still feel sad. The dream seemed so real."
He put his hand on her shoulder. "It wasn't real Katara. Try to forget about it."
She nodded. She would try. "Thanks Aang." She gave a half smile.
He hugged her, "I don't want you to be sad. Okay?"
She smiled a little. "We should try and get some sleep."
"Yeah," he nodded pulling away from her. "Tomorrow we'll be going over the grasslands which stretches on for almost ever."
She got up. "Good night then Aang."
"G'night Katara." He yawned.
She slowly walked back to the tent.
A twig snapped behind her.
She turned.
A sharp pain went through her as a Fire Nation blade pierced her. She couldn't even scream.
Aang jumped up, "Katara!"
Her vision blurred. But she could see a light growing brighter. It was Aang. He was going into the Avatar state.
Sokka and Toph were yelling. Appa gave out a bison bellow.
Wind ripped around them.
The Fire Nation soldier was dead.
Everything seemed to calm down.
Katara's eyes were wide. She was trying to see. But blackness was taking over.
Someone had taken her in his arms and was calling her name.
Blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth and made it's way down her chin.
Someone was crying.
It was getting cold.
"Katara, Katara, Katara, Katara…" The voice faded… It sounded like Aang…
And everything went black.
She opened her eyes slowly, almost unwillingly.
She was crying but couldn't remember why.
She began walking the long hall of ice. The walls seemed to go up forever. The ceiling was not visible through the darkness.
There were four long narrow windows. She went to them. Maybe she could get out.
She clutched at her mother's necklace.
It was cold.