Avatar: Genesis Book 2: War of Elements

Chapter 1: Hollow

(Kohja)
I flew to the floor as a firebender rammed his fist directly into my cheek. The crowd went wild as a stream of blood
flew from my mouth and on the wall behind me. He grinned as he pushed his foot into my face, and I howled in pain.
"Come on airbender!" he challenged me. "If that's really what you are that is." He raised his foot one more time and jammed
it into the mangled mess that was my left arm. The doctors here did everything they could to help breathe new life into my
arm, but all they succeeded in was making it worse. There is no way to push my bones back into place so all they did was
hastily bandage my arm, and throw me into the courtyard. That brings us to where we are now.

A sickening crunch sounded as my arm was somehow broken in a place it wasn't before, and blood oozed from the new wound
that my bone made through my skin. I screamed and kicked at the firebender, but he grabbed my foot and threw me around like
I was a ragdoll, giggling like a mad man. He slammed me into the floor, and even a nearby wall. "The warden is coming!" I
heard from behind the man. Everyone scrambled back to their posts while the firebender who was beating me left a few kicks
in my stomach. He ran back to his mop and bucket, then proceeded to mop up streaks of -my- blood that was caked on the floor.
I groaned as I struggled to stand, and felt someone slide their body under my right arm. "Are you okay Kohja?" I heard a
familiar voice. I turned my head slightly to see long blonde hair cascading down the shoulder of my friend, and her warm
blue eyes were softened in worry. She smiled hopefully, filling my heart with happiness as she rescued me.

"Serena.." I coughed her name. Blood shot from my mouth and spattered across the floor, and she carried me quickly to her
cell that was nearby. She layed me on the floor and shut the cell door to prevent any other 'visitors' from giving me a
warm welcome. She unwrapped the bandages on my arm, and reached for some toilet paper from beside our makeshift toilet.
The toilet paper isn't even worth using as toilet paper, it's too rough and clothlike. This place is hell.
"Are you okay Kohja.." She stammered over each word. It pained her to see me in such an atrocious manner. I sat up slightly
and held my side, grinning painfully, "Don't worry. I'm fine." I said. She punched me suddenly in my broken arm, and glared
at me. "What the fuck are you doing?!" she screamed at me. "I don't understand how or why, but nobody should be alive after
all the shit you've been through." I rubbed my arm slowly, seething as I ran my fingers across my shattered skin.
"I would tell you if I know." I said, fixing my gaze on her as she reset my bandages. "I'm not sure if I'm blessed..or cursed."

Several images fired through my mind: the bloody heads of firebenders rolling on the ground, and the burnt body of Leeva sitting
in my lap. The most alarming ones were crystal clear: my rampage through the capital of the firenation; Serena seemed to
see my thoughts too as I shuddered at the terrible images. "What the hell was that exactly..?" She tightened the last piece
and sat infront of me, placing her hand on my leg to comfort me. "Whatever it was, I didn't feel human." I shuddered again.

She reached forward and wrapped her arm around my neck, trying not to touch my broken arm, "You didn't look human either."
She cried. She sniffled and tightened her hold on me. "Your eyes were a coal black, and your pupils were like two silver
coins hanging in an abyss." She tenderly raised up my arm, and didn't even look at me as she said the next few words.
"Your arm..." She shuddered. "I've never seen anything like it. It was a steel gray, and numerous eyes were all over it."
"You were some kind of demon.." She never locked eyes with me the rest of the night once she said those final words. She
climbed into the roach-ridden sleeping bags provided by the lovely jail, and tried her best to sleep.

I stood up, feeling my bones creak. I groaned as I used my right hand to steady myself against the wall beside me then
rolled my arm over my chest to get a better look at it. Whatever happened to me at the temple destroyed my arm. My fingers
were not even in their proper places, and some of them were bent in funny angles. Instead of my arm being my regular skin
tone, it seemed to be an ashen gray. My arm even seemed to be decaying, patches of skin were peeling off like bandages. I
cringed as I pulled my fingers back to their proper places, hearing unhealthy pops and snaps. To my surprise I felt no pain,
the thug must've destroyed the last of my nerves. Once my fingers finally seemed close to where a human hand should look like
I crawled into my own sleeping bag, stomping some roaches as they scurry to safety.