all things between || Avatar Universe

11 - What Was Lost

The days were the same.

They blurred altogether to the point where Sabrina could not know the date. She didn't care to learn it either.

In the begging, it was darkness.
She never fled her room, no matter what reason her father gave her. Even when he stopped leaving food at her door (trying to see if that would lure her out), Sabrina fasted instead.

The idea of staying locked up seemed alright. But, would it work long term? Unfortunately, no, and it finally ended one day her father broke in.

"You're not doing this anymore, Sabrina," Norm never called her by her given name, only fatherly nicknames, so she knew he was mad.

Norm picked Sabrina because he thought it would be a fun nod to his grandma's favourite comic book. It was an old story about a witch name Sabrina Spellman, and the old lady liked it so much that it rubbed off on Norm. And so his baby got named.

However, with time, the name seemed too cringe to him; he had set himself up in his joke. So he started calling her Lil'Brina (or Bree) and sweetheart or honey. It seemed more caring.

"Get your ass up," he demanded.

Sabrina's room was dim and smelly — the girl living there wasn't so different.

"When was the last time you showered?" Norm asked, regretting sitting down at the tip of her bed. "You know what, don't answer. It doesn't matter. You'll soon get kicked out anyway."

Sabrina wasn't protesting with silence, so she spoke.

"Kicked out?"

"Oh, yeah," Norm nodded. "Not by me; I am your father and if I have a stinky daughter, so be it. But you haven't been useful to the Ometicaya clan now, have you?"

"I am a scientist."

"Are you?" his question made her duck. "You haven't been by the lab in days."

Sabrina turned in her bed, giving her father her back. But it was a single bed, so she didn't quite have a way to hide.

Norm placed a hand over his daughter's covered leg.

"Get out of your room, Brina," he murmured. "If not for you, for me."

His words echoed in her brain, and she squeezed her face, afraid of crying.

The truth was, in the dark of her room and the sadness of her bed, Sabrina hadn't cried in a while. The tears stopped coming, and they were irrelevant anyway. It wasn't possible to turn back time with tears.

"If not for me," Norm continued, getting up, "then for the people. For the Na'vi."

Sabrina watched as her father left her room. He had said many sentences before, trying to convince her. So many hurt like bullets, but only that one could get Sabrina up.

It reminded her of Neteyam.

"I want you to take care of the people," he had said the morning before leaving. "I want you to take care of them because I'll no longer be able to. I'm no longer their heir."

He said it all with watery eyes, but no tears rolled down his face. Instead, he was composed — always the golden boy.

Neteyam held Sabrina's hand by his chest.

"It's not your job to stand for the people," he told, "but it was mine."

He didn't need to say more. Sabrina understood.

So when her father basically repeated Neteyam's request, Sabrina got up. She cleaned her room and picked up all the trash. The girl changed sheets. Sabrina went to the shower — and stayed there for longer than needed because she wanted to make sure she was her perfect appearance for the people.