𝐆𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 [ᴢᴜᴋᴏ]

Chapter 41

Episode 8, The Puppetmaster

So, after Katara and I were back, we all were sitting around the fire and telling scary stories. Sokka tried to make his story scary but he failed. And I snorted when he made ghost noised.

"Man, water tribe slumber parties must stink," Toph said.

"No, wait," Katara quickly said as she hugged her knees, "I've got one and it's a real water tribe story." She looked at all of us.

I raised my eyebrow and slighly tilted my head to the side. Do I know the story?

"Is this some of the 'a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to' stories?" Sokka asked and rolled his eyes.

"No," my twin replied seriously, "It happened to mom."

Now she had all my attention and the others' ears percked up as well. We all sat up straight and looked at Katara waiting for her to start with the story.

I crossed my legs and leaned slightly forward. This is about to get interesting.

"One winter, when mom was a girl, a snowstorm buried the whole village for weeks," Katara started, "A month later, mom realised she hadn't seen her friend Nini since the storm. So mom and some others went to check on Nini's family. When they got there, no one was home. Just a fire flickering in the fireplace."

Holy nations, what's going on. Katara made a small pause and looked at each of us. I leaned even closer to her with wide eyes.

"While the men went out to search, mom stayed in the house."

That's stupid, everybody knows that you shouldn't stay alone in an abandoned house. I get goosebumps from only thinking about that situation alone.

"When she was alone, she heard a voice," Katara's tone got higher, "It's so cold, and I can't get warm." She looked directly at me and I leaned back again quickly and grabbed my brother's arm.

"Mom turned and saw Nini standing by the fire. She was blue, like she was frozen. Mom ran outside for help but when everyone came back, Nini was gone."

Sokka and I hugged each other while Aang hid behind Momo, only his eyes peeking out between Momo's ears.

"Where'd she go?" Sokka asked slowly while I bit my lip.

"No one knows..." Katara said and I held my breath, "Nini's house stands empty to this day. But sometimes, people see smoke coming up from the chimney like little Nini is still trying to get warm."

There was a very silent silence. Like even more silent than just that normal one. It was unbearable and creepy.

Toph gasped and touched the ground with her hand while I flinched and hugged Sokka tighter. "Wait, guys, did you hear that?" she asked and I only watched her with big eyes.

"I hear people under the mountain," Toph stood up from the ground and looked around, "And they're screaming."

Sokka let out a scoff and let go of me, "Nice try."

"No, I'm serious. I hear something," she insisted and I had a feeling that she meant it and was not trying to scare us.

"It just stopped," Toph whispered after a few heartbeats. I looked around the forest which seemed to be more creepy and darker than before.

"All right, now I'm getting scared," Aang said and I nodded.

"I don't want to sleep here, the forest freaks me out," I whispered and looked at the others.