ARC TWO: BODY

The Tenth Chapter

Chill

That morning, Katara draws herself tenderly out of my arms. Blinking sleepily, I watch as she pulls her clothes back on. I crawl out of bed and stride over to my dresser, reaching inside a drawer and withdrawing a slim envelope of bills, marked "Emergencies".

"Take this," I say, pushing it into her hands. "In case…"

"As a precaution," she asserts. I turn my eyes to the ground.

"Yeah. As a precaution."

In no more than thirty seconds, she's out my window and dashing off for who knows where.

I sit heavily on my bed, thinking about everything that had happened.

She…she danced with me. Then attacked me. She asked how I got my scar.

I shudder violently as an unwanted memory invades onto my memory.

"Mom always said to 'look at people's faces'," I say, reminding Azula. She just laughs at me.

"She would, wouldn't she? Well, Zuzu, there is a certain thing Mom overlooked."

"What?" I ask, totally oblivious to my sister's calculating glare.

"That," she drawled, smirking gently, "Dad loves me. Not you."

"You're lying! Dad loves me!" I shout.

"Why don't you ask him now? I hear him coming."

As if on cue, the door flies open and my father stands, shadowed, in the doorway.

"Dad! Dad!" I shout, a little stupidly for my fourteen years. "Do you –"

"YOU!" he roars. The smell of alcohol is on his breath. I look to Azula and she only looks back at me with a wickedly hopeful grin.

The last thing I remember is being held around the throat…a searing heat and It's YOUR fault! You killed her…!

I awake with a start, a mantra of words repeating in my head

You killed her

You killed her

Youkilledyoukilled

You

Killed

Her

"Memories, Zuzu? My sister leans in the doorway, arms crossed and clad in her usual red and gold. Tomboyish. She sneers. "I know that look on your face. You're remembering."

"Go away, Azula." I try to keep from shaking.

"Stop the pretense, Zuzu," she snarls. "I'm not blind. Or deaf, as you apparently think I am. You sound like a mating elephant in bed."

I blink. In any other situation, this would've been funny.

Too bad it isn't any other situation.

"However," the Princess continues, "I'm willing to give you the chance to redeem yourself."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I spit out harshly.

"Oh, please. Brother, do you really believe I wouldn't notice a girl climbing out of your window?"

I stare. "You –"

"I was here, yes. Zhao…bored me," she said haughtily. "Nothing more of a disgust factor than a forty-five year-old man trying to get in bed with a little girl."

I don't answer. I can't answer.

"However, enough about my less-than-satisfactory sex life," she purred, leaning forward to face me. "This about you. Yours. I could retaliate, you know. I could kill you right now; Daddy wouldn't care, oh no. He'd be happy. But I won't. I'll give you a chance."

I hesitate. Azula obviously wasn't bluffing. "What do you want?"

My sister smiles. "Kill her."