Chapter 6 - The Puppetshow
"... so we both just steam in the room for a few hours before we fall asleep. When I woke up, I noticed that it was a lot brighter than it usually was in our room. I looked up, and I'm not kidding, my mom made good on her threat. The wall and door were completely gone, and the entire side of the room was just bars."
Nerrivik gave a half snort laugh as Kunchen finished his story, and saw that even Yuan was chuckling. "Your mom seriously turned you and your brothers room into a prison cell?" she asked.
"Oh completely. It's just what you have to grow up dealing with, when your mom is the president of the worlds biggest metalbending city," Kunchen was grinning from ear to ear. He'd clearly enjoyed getting a laugh out of both his companions.
Nerrivik relaxed in her chair a bit more. The past few days had seen the trio bonding more and more, with Yuan finally dropping some of barriers. Jokes and conversation came easier and easier as they drove on, and it no longer felt like a chore to get him to say anything. Nerrivik had made the friendly suggestion to stop at a small town for the night, and deciding they could use a rest the boy's happily agreed. They were currently finishing up a hearty dinner at a small restaurant in the downtown.
"Ok, I'm not sure if I can top that, but I've got my own crazy mom story," Yuan offered up with a grin. Nerrivik was happy with how relaxed he'd been getting, but she couldn't help but feel that it was all an act to cover up his nervousness about the city. Glad he was contributing at all, she nudged him to continue.
"Well this was about two years ago, a few weeks after I joined the Village Guard. Phen wanted to throw me an initiation party and had managed to finally wear Teng down. There's no way my mom would agree to this, so they had me sneak out really late at night, and meet them at Phen's house. Teng kept making a fuss about how he'd limit how much cactus juice I drank, but Phen did something to his drink and he forgot pretty quick. This was my first time drinking the stuff, so it hit me like train. By the time we realized how late it was, the sun was already rising, so obviously I panic and try to race home. Those two thought it would be a good idea to follow me, so there we're three of us stumble-running back to my house, and trying to sneak in. When we opened the door, my mom was waiting for us at the table. So the three of us, even Teng who's like 10 years older than my mom, got an hour long lecture. I was pretty far gone so I don't remember what she was saying, but I do recall the phrases, 'irresponsible man-children' and 'my greatest disappointment' being thrown around."
Nerrivik and Kunchen were both cackling as he finished up. Nerrivik stopped when she noticed the two were looking at her expectantly. "What?" she asked quizzically.
"We both went did our 'parents freaking out' stories. Now it's your turn," said a clearly eager Kunchen.
"Oh no, I don't think …" Nerrivik began.
"Oh you're going," said Yuan in a voice caught in limbo between serious and joking. "Even I told a story. We're not leaving until we get a good story."
Nerrivik gave a small sigh. She had been trying to avoid talking about her past for a while now, but if she was going to be traveling with these two they might as well get a peek. "Well the thing is, I don't really have a story like those. My dad was always really strict with what I was and wasn't allowed to do. He wouldn't let me leave the house unless he knew where I was going, and usually he'd accompany me. I couldn't bring any friends home, especially not boys, he didn't even like me being friends with them. If I ever tried to sneak out, he'd freeze my door shut. My mom always took his side whenever we argued, and even ratted on me a few times."
Yuan and Kuchen both had surprised looks on their face. "So is that the reason you're traveling around the Earth States," Yuan asked.
She gave a small nod, "It just got to the point where I couldn't take it. About six months ago, I made a break for it, and haven't looked back since."
"Oh wow …" Kunchen said looking down, "I'm sorry for making you talk."
Nerrivik forced a fake smile, "No it's alright. I'm sorry for being so secretive about it." She was a little upset at being forced to tell the story, but she knew it would have had to come out eventually.
The three sat in a somewhat awkward silence for the next few moments. Kunchen, clearly hating it the most, was the first to break, "Tell you what, I'll go start the jeep up, if you two are cool with settling the bill." Nerrivik and Yuan each gave a nod, and Kunchen quickly bolted out of the restaurant.
Nerrivik and Yuan sat in silence for a beat before Yuan spoke up, "Yeah, I'm really sorry about all of that. Next time I'm being too nosy, just … I don't know, give me a punch or something."
Nerrivik's smile was more genuine this time, "I'll be sure to remember that."
The two got up, and paid for their meal at the front table. As they opened the front set of doors a thick fog rolled into the restaurant. "Oh holy crap," Yuan remarked, "I can't see a thing." Nerrivik nodded in agreement. Their trip into town had been well lit by a full moon, but now they could barely see two feet in front of themselves. They tepidly walked through the haze to where the jeep was parked, but Kunchen was nowhere to be seen.
"Where'd he go?" asked a frustrated Yuan. "KUNCHEN! KUNCHEN! Where are you?" He began to wander off.
"Hey wait Yuan, don't go too …" Nerrivik started, but the Avatar had already wandered out of sight. Nerrivik leaned against the jeep for a minute waiting for him to return. His yells grew fainter and fainter until they eventually stopped altogether. Nerrivik felt a pit of fear growing in her stomach as the silence dragged on. "Yuan, Kunchen if this is a joke, I swear it'll end up hurting you two more. Guys?" Her voice was growing more and more desperate. She began to walk in the same direction Yuan had.
Her slow walk soon turned to a jog, and eventually a small sprint. She called out their names a few more times, but to no avail. As she continued to run her movement became more labored and she began to slow down. "What?" she thought to herself, "I'm not that tired." She continued to slow down, however, until coming to a total stop in the middle of the road. The pit into her stomach became a blackhole, as she tried desperately tried to move even a small part of her body. Her body strained, but refused to move. Her mouth couldn't even open to scream.
With a lurch, her foot moved forward, followed by the other. "What's happening? Where am I going?" She fought desperately, but continued her procession through the street. She was brought before a large truck, with two bodies with bagged heads in the back. She looked closely at their clothes and recognized them as Kunchen and Yuan. "What's happening? Who's doing this?" she screamed internally. Tears were even too much to ask of her body.
She felt a presence come from behind. A hand slowly stroked her hair, and she heard heavy breathing coming into her ear. She stood there in abject horror as a bag slid over her head, and she involuntarily made her way into the back of the truck. She was laid on her back, and soon succumbed to the sudden and overwhelming urge to sleep.
Nerrivik's eyes slowly fluttered awake, only to be greeted by the relative darkness of her new surroundings. Blinking a few times to adjust to the dimness, she turned to see Yuan and Kunchen slowly rousing from their sleeps as well. She tried to move towards them, but found herself as constricted as she had been before. It made no differences as all three of them were soon violently yanked to their feet.
As they slowly came to balance on their feet, Nerrivik's eyes darted around the room, trying desperately to find out where they were. Judging from the pipes and concrete walls surrounding them, as well as the various garbage, tarps, and assorted tools strewn about, her best guess was a basement. This was confirmed as all three were turned to face a staircase, with small shafts of light streaking down itself. Sitting on the middle step was a 30-something man, unkempt with a hand outreached and a sadistic grin plastered on his face.
"I'm so glad that my actors for tonight actually look the part this time," he said heavily, in between several deep breaths. The breathing didn't seem to be the result of fatigue, but rather it looked like he was panting, as a polarbeardog does before eating.
The trio stood there frozen for a moment, before Yuan finally managed to move his mouth, "What is this? Who are you?" The words obviously were struggling to come out, but his voice was definitely one of anger, not fear.
The man licked his lips before replying, "We're about to have a small puppet , it's been so long since my last one. But I'll make sure this is the best one, yet! You all look so perfect for your roles, I know it'll be perfect!" There was a ringing joy in his voice that shot straight into their bones, chilling them instantly.
"That's ok, we need to be on our way. Thanks for offering though," Yuan forced out a friendly laugh at the end. When the man let out a small chuckle in response, Yuan began to struggle. His muscles all began to swell, and his various body parts began to shake. The man seemed unaffected by this, moving his index finger slightly. Suddenly Kunchen's fist came crashing across Yuan's face, with the Avatar letting out a loud grunt. The helpless airbender, with a look of pure horror, continued to pummel Yuan, who was forced to remain on his feet.
"Enough!" finally screamed Nerrivik. "We'll be part of your show, just please stop." The man acquiesed at this, causing Knuchen to go limp.
"You'll make a perfect Joo in my play," the man said with glee. He reached behind himself and drew three pieces of paper, which he proceeded to hand out to his reluctant marionettes. "I'll give you a few moments to look your parts over in the corner. You, my sweet, will play our lovely, but deceitful Joo. Our little bruiser over there will get to play our plucky hero Sung." His smirk disappeared as he finally turned to Yuan. "You'll definitely fit as the villain, the brutish idiot Zhan. I'll give you a few moments to learn your lines in the corner. After that, it's costumes and show time!" He flicked his hand, and all three of them flew towards the corner, where they were held paralyzed looking at their papers. They were right next to a second room, where an ungodly stench began to waft their way. All three of them tried to put it out of their mind what that smell was.
They each spent a few minutes reading their hackneyed, cliched scripts. " 'I've come to steal your girl, because I know she want's someone with muscles, not someone who smells.' Eugh, I can barely write and even I know this is horrible," Yuan vocalized. His faces was bruised and swelling, but at least his sense of humor was intact, thought Nerrivik.
"Yeah, I don't think this guy gets much constructive criticism," spoke a shaken Kunchen. "What are we going to do? This guy obviously isn't right in the head, and I don't want to see what happens after we finish."
"This is bloodbending," interjected Nerrivik. "It's a really powerful form of waterbending. He's in full control of our bodies." She saw Kunchen's eyes sink to the ground at this. She hadn't meant for it to sound so hopeless, but at this point it was looking like just that.
"Is there anything you can do, Nerrivik?" asked Yuan. He still stubbornly refused to show fear, but it was becoming clear how bad their situation was.
"I'm sorry, but I've never dealt with anything like this before. I have no idea what to do," Nerrivik admitted in defeat. She hated this feeling. The helplessness, the fear of what's to come, the inability to move her body even slightly. She couldn't do anything, and just had to wait silently for her fate. Her mind began a downward spiral of pathetic and desperate thoughts. "I've traveled half the world, just to die in a basement. If I hadn't left, if I hadn't been an impulsive idiot, if I had just listened, like a good girl. This is what I get for thinking I knew best."
"You're the only one that can do anything," said Yuan, crashing her pity party. "I can't waterbend for crap, and Kunchen's only good at picking locks. I've got all my faith in you, not just because you're our only option, but because I know you can do it."
Kunchen looked up, "He's right. We need you, Nerrivik. I know you'll think of something."
For once, Nerrivik was glad she couldn't shed any tears. She'd never heard encouragement like this her entire life. She'd never really had friends like this her entire life. Quickly getting a hold of herself, she shot them both a determined look, "Ok, I'll figure something out."
Soon the three were dragged back to the center of the basement, where their director and audience awaited. He made several quick motions, and the trio found themselves putting on costumes. Kunchen got an admittedly cool leather jacket, Nerrivik wore and extremely tight skirt, over her ordinary clothes, and Yuan was stuck with a large pointed paper hat.
"You all look perfect," admired their captor, clapping one of his hands over his mouth. "Well I guess this is it. I'm really looking forward to your performance." He dragged them into position, with Nerrivik at the center and the two boys off to the side.
After a brief stunned moment, Nerrivik remembered her lines, "Oh …. Oh my! I could sure use a big strong man to help me carry this box." she lifted her voice up an octave to fit the part. Her arms moved to imitate her struggling with a heavy box.
Suddenly, Kunchen slid into place, with his lips being contorted into a twisted smile. "Why hello there, my fair lady." His hand made a tipping motion with an invisible hat. "I couldn't help but notice you needing help with your load. I would love to help you."
"Why, you're such a nice guy ... and very handsome too." Nerrivik was struggling to remember her lines, and concentrate on the bloodbending at the same time. She was trying to figure out how it worked, by concentrating on the way her body was dragged about.
Suddenly Yuan burst in from the side and proceeded to push over Kunchen, "Hey baby, I saw this wimp trying to help you, and figured you might want a real man to help you." To Yuan's credit, he was hamming up his role pretty admirably. Nerriviks body fell into a swoon, and that's when she felt it for the first time. It was only for an instant, but she sensed a stream of water inside her arm move, like she might feel a river. It was distorted by her skin and cells, but she had felt the motion.
As the play continued, she began to get a better feel for it. The way the man was moving the fluids within her, causing her body to move. The more she did it, the better she got, and it soon felt like any other water she had felt. She'd felt the power of a full moon before, but had never thought it would have this great of an effect.
The play unfolded over about half an hour, continuing much the same way the opening scene had gone, with Kunchen trying to woo Nerrivik, before Yuan would burst in and ruin everything. There were a few other scenes thrown in for flavor, like Kunchen soliloquising about how girls only want jerks, and a few scenes of Yuan being mean to Nerrivik to drive the point home. The script failed to improve from the first scene, but soon transitioned from it's laughably bad beginning into a more terrifying and sinister end. Scenes of hijinks soon turned into melodramatic declarations of unending hatred. By the time Nerrivik felt comfortable with sensing the bloodbending, they were at the end of the play.
Yuan and Kunchen were shoving each other back in forth, until Yuan fell onto his back. "See Joo, he doesn't care about you," said a clearly freaked out Kunchen. "I've only ever tried to be a nice guy, but you keep on turning me away. Why do you hate me?"
"Because I love Zhan. I only ever pretended to like you, because we thought it was a funny joke, ha ha," she gave the least passionate laugh possible. She was so completely concentrated on the motion of the fluid in her body, that she failed to notice Kunchen's arm darting to the ground, and grabbing a large butchers knife. He looked at the knife with his eyes bulging in terror.
"Nerrivik …" he uttered, but his head was soon snapped back, and his face contorted in pain.
"Stick to the script!" screamed their puppeteer. He moved a finger, and Kunchen raised the knife overhead. Nerrivik looked on in horror as this happened, her body and the water inside completely forgotten. "Now say your lines!" commanded the man.
"No..." protested Kunchen, who soon began to scream as his body was elevated off the ground. He was violently slammed back down, where he rose again with the knife overhead.
"Say your line!" screamed the man. Kunchen continued to protest, and soon found himself being flung about the room. Nerrivik was initially transfixed, but soon took advantage of this opportunity. Summoning all of her concentration, she focused on the water within her body, and grabbed at it, as she might with a puddle. She gave a violent shudder, but soon exhaled and released the tension within her body. Her finger flickered a little, and the feeling of freedom overwhelmed her, as finally a tear of joy streamed down her cheek.
She was brought back down to earth, as Kunchen came crashing down in front of her. "Fine!" screamed the puppeteer, "If you won't do your job, I'll just do it myself." He raised the knife in Kunchen's hand, and brought it down in an arc at Nerrivik. Reacting quick, she rolled to the side, shocking everyone in the room.
The man didn't let the confusion slow him down, as he slid Yuan's foot at Nerrivik's legs to catch her off balance. She gracefully stepped back to avoid this, but soon found herself dodging a series of blows and slashes from her two marionette friends. Finally a punch from Yuan caught her in the shoulder, and knocked her sideways. Her head also snapped back, and she caught a glimpse of the pipes running along the ceiling. She reached up, grabbing the water inside and causing the pipe to burst. Water began spilling all over the room, as Nerrivik grabbed a thin whip from the pipe, which she swung forward into Kunchen and Yuan's torsos. She picked up a second stream, froze it into a spike, and sent it flying at the puppet masters head. He scrambled to avoid it, and quickly began to flee up the stairs, dragging the limp Kunchen and Yuan behind him.
Nerrivik gave pursuit atop a small wave of water. She followed him up the steps, through his sparsely furnished home, and out into a deserted street. Using the water to launch herself into the air, she swung a tentacle of water surrounding her arm in an arc, and brought it down, at the puppeteer. The man moved his hands quickly and used Kunchen as a human shield to take the hit, which knocked the airbender to the side of the street. Grabbing the knife from the ground the man brought Yuan into a tight hold, placing the blade against the Avatar's neck.
"If you move, I'll cut him wide open," he threatened. Nerrivik froze in place on the ground. Her mind raced trying to find a way to save her friend. This stand off lasted for several moments, until a final sickening thought entered her mind. Reaching out beyond herself, she felt for the fluids in the man and Yuan's bodies. With some struggling she found the man's arm holding the knife. With a deep sigh she grabbed a hold of it. In two lighting fast motions, she violently swung the arm to the side, flinging knife away, before she moved again, and launched a stream of water into the mans face, knocking him off his feet.
Yuan staggered away, as Nerrivik gathered water around the man's unconscious body and froze him to the ground. Yuan stared at her in awe, "Holy crap, that was incredible, Nerrivik! I can't believe you did that!"
"Do what?" she asked in a flat and angry voice, not making eye contact.
"The way you moved his arm." answered a somewhat puzzled Yuan.
She flashed him an angry look, before regaining her composure and settling on a serious expression. "I didn't do anything, the guy's hand just spasmed." She'd felt sick just reaching out and feeling their bodies. Actually controlling another person's body was too much. She couldn't even describe the feeling, but everything about it screamed wrong.
Yuan was quiet for a moment before speaking, "I understand. Are you alright?" She gave a small nod, quickly followed by a shudder. Yuan placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's ok. You did … or didn't do, what you had to. Seriously, thank you."
She gave him a small smile. "Thank you for the pep talk back there. I really needed it. Please don't mention what happened to Kunchen, though.Idon't even want to think about it." He quickly zipped his lips shut. She looked at their former captor on the ground again, "So what are we going to do?"
Yuan thought for a moment, "Well I don't really want to stick around for the cops because, you know, highly wanted terrorist and all that. How about I seal him up using some earth, and we leave a message or something for the police."
"What would we write though?"
"Probably to check out that second room in the basement." They were both silent for a moment, trying desperately not to think about what was behind that door.
"Ok," Nerrivik responded. "I'll grab Kunchen and write the note. You go find the jeep, it's a pretty small town it shouldn't be hard to do." Yuan nodded in response. Before leaving, he dragged a blanket of earth over the puppeteer, making sure he was completely secure.
By the time Yuan returned with the car, Kunchen had woken up and Nerrivik had brought him up to speed on their situation. They quickly loaded into the jeep, making sure their note was plain to see on top of the puppeteer. The trio left the city just as the sun began to rise and Kunchen estimated that they were only a day or two away from Republic City. Nerrivik found it hard to muster any enthusiasm, however. She sat in the backseat and found herself continually opening and closing her hand, lost in thought. A few hours of this passed, she finally smiled to herself. The dread of bloodbending was still there, but she instead took control and decided to focus on the positive. She remembered Yuan's kind words of encouragement and how Kunchen resisted the man and tried to save her. For the first time since she'd left the North Pole, she wasn't just excited about where she was going, she was happy for the people she was with.
Coming Soon: Chapter 7 "The Belly of the Beast"
This was my last backlogged chapter, and I'll publish my new chapter tomorrow probably. After that my publishing rate will slow down to about a chapter a week. Thank you to everyone who's been reading this so far. I'd love to hear what you think in the reviews, feedback really helps with writing.