The Scarred Avatar (On hold)

7: It's been a year

The bullet shoots through the air and lands right in the middle of her forehead. Her body lands harshly onto the ground with the back of her head facing Haruka. She crawls slowly to the body as she feels herself hyperventilating, watching her mother's body sitting in a pool of blood. She carefully caresses her mother's head until it abruptly turns and Haruka could see tears of blood in her eyes.

"It's your fault I'm dead!" She shrieks. Haruka falls backwards as she sees her mother getting up from her position shakily.

"I'm sorry Mama! I could've saved you but I coul-"

Her mother scoffs and gives an unfamiliar smile that sends chills down her spine, "Stop lying to yourself! But that's what you're good at, right? Lying! Your lying and you being weak is the reason why I'm dead!"

Haruka's tears fall freely as she covers her mouth and crawls backwards, trying to keep her wails in as she sees her dead mother inch closer to her. But she stops, hitting the wall behind her and tries to sink into the wall to get further away from the unfamiliar woman in the shape of her mother.

"What type of Avatar are you? I thought the Avatar job is to bring harmony and balance to the world; to save those in need. You don't deserve to be the Avatar and you don't deserve to be a Hero if you couldn't even save me!"

The bloody eyed woman, now just in front of her, reach out her hands and grab a hold of Haruka's neck. She tightens her grip and Haruka gasps for air, scratching at the woman's hands to release her.

"Always lying right?" She giggles, "that lying of yours... will be the death of those who care about you!"

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Haruka jolts awake, crying out in fear, breathing heavily and sweat covering her back and forehead. For some odd reason, ever since her mother's incident, she could only see nightmares when she sleeps. The only time that she can see the Avatars is when she meditates in the material world.

When she meditated, she asked Korra why she couldn't see them in her dreams, but she said she'll understand eventually. Whatever that meant. She looks to the alarm clock on her bedside table and sees it's 3:43 am. She glares at the clock, wondering why the alarm didn't go off and shoves the covers off her, trudging to the shower.

But before she got there, she stops by the kitchen and sighs at the sight of her father. Annoyance and frustration overtake her body but in the back of her mind, she can only empathise with him. His head laying on top of the kitchen table, sleeping, surrounded by beer bottles and paperwork.

She goes to the couch, grabs the blanket and gently lays the blanket on his body. She grabs all the beer bottles, properly storing them away, and fixes his files so they weren't all over the place. But as she is doing that, she sees her father's clenched hand holding a photograph. A photograph of her mother. She feels tears forming in her eyes, but she blinks them away.

It's been a year. Get a hold of yourself. You'll feel better once you avenge Mama.

She quietly heads back into the shower and as she is showering, she thinks about what happened at the hospital when the police came.

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~ Flashback ~

When Haruka's injuries gotten better, the police came in for questioning. They continuously ask her the same questions over and over again. The questions being, 'do you remember anything that happened at your apartment?' and 'do you know why they came to your house?' but she never answered those questions. If anything, their questions gave her headaches and the only way to ease her headaches is when she looked out the windows to stare at the cherry blossom trees.