Avatar Rose: Justice

Ch.12: Listen Close

Nathan's POV

Where is she? Where did she go?

"Rose?" I call out tenaciously. The sky darkens, blocked by a single, fluffy cloud. My feet pace anxiously on the ground. My eyes scan for a flash of gold and black. I see only grey figures moving about, with faces alive with colour. I pass landmark after landmark. "Rose? Rose!" Where is she?!

"Rose!"

My ears snap. Who was that? Someone I've never heard before. It's a guy's voice but it's higher pitched. Like Evan's after a sniffing competition. Never mind, there's no time to ponder that. Where did  she run off to? How BIG is this place?

I've been running for 4 minutes now. My legs move on their own. My eyes are glazed over, I feel like I haven't blinked in a hour.

I smash into a figure and fall to my back. My head rings and my vision flickers. "WATCH YOUR STEP YOU LITTLE PUNK!"

I didn't say that.

I pull myself to my feet, meeting eye to eye with a boy whose eyes are as blue as my own. I look him over. Blue robes. So there's another waterbender here, eh? Looks awfully familiar, but I can't tell for sure because my vision's clouded with splotches of yellow light that are definitely not in the real world.

His reaction is unexpected. He gives a little smile. And then his fist rams into my jaw, making a lump of saliva scramble up my throat and crawl into my nasal passages. "YOU! YOU SON OF A BITCH!" He's screaming. His eyes slit and his appearance goes rabid.  He morphs into a monster. My eyes are playing tricks on me. "YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!!"

He's still punching. Is this a hallucination? His face looks like Evan's. Evan has the right to punch me. But this is not Evan. Evan is dead. There's no way he's alive. Absolutely no way. No way at all. Wait a minute- I'm still getting punched. Better stop this wacko.

I grab his bloodstreams and squeeze. His face goes hollow and his eyes are wiped of feeling, and he freezes for a second before falling into me. I take a clean step to the side and he lands flat on his face.

I rub my neck self-consciously. His fingers were one second away from crushing my throat.

Well, that happened. I step unfazed over the passed out body and crack my neck. Where is Rose?

Evan's face flickers in my mind. He's dead. I shake it off. There's no use thinking about dead people anymore. There's still people living.

'Nathan.'

Her voice rings out in my head. No, take that thought about life and death back. Mom needs to be remembered. Through memories, people live on.

Memories... that thing. Yeah, I could try that thing. Evan tried to show me back when Rose ran away to Earth Empire.

I place my hand and sink my skin into the blade-like gravel. I focus.

It takes 30 minutes to go through everyone's chi (there's just that many people around) before I find the signature one belonging to Rose. I can tell even before checking the bending type that it's hers. She has the blood of a dark horse.

I follow the source for 5 minutes backwards. I double-check every now and then. She doesn't seem to be moving.

A group of running people moving robotically to the beat of a silent drum almost runs me over and I pass a half-eaten chicken finger on the ground before I make it to the building where Rose is. It's fairly large. I can sense it, Rose is by the entrance.

"Ro-" I open my mouth but I find the name stop at my lips. Rose, I mean, the source is coming from the storage closet.

It's a door with a crooked look, not in the sense that it's actually off-centred but it seems like an awkward place for it. Wedged between a new hallway and a shiny window, it looks like it's just pscrunching itself up and wants to disappear.

I feel like I shouldn't open the door, but the impulsive need to take care of her takes over and I open the door silently.
I don't see her at first, the lights are out and it takes a second for my eyes to adjust the dimness. The light from the hallway floods the concrete floor, and I see the tip of her shoe first.

She's sitting beneath some hanging mops and brooms with bristles of yellow hay nowhere as magnificent as the colour of her hair. She hugs her knees close to her and as my eyes warm up, I notice something odd.

Her pupils are trembling.

She's gazing emotionlessly at nothing but at the same time her eyes just whisper of tears. I sit next to her, taking a similar position, and I hug her body close to mine. Is there anything I can give her?

I search my body mentally and find Wendy's  cookies in my pocket. I pull out the ziplock bag I kept them in and take a ball of crumbs out and offer it to Rose.

I want to help you but I don't know what to do. Would you like this cookie?