MISSING--Revised edition

Blame

Chapter Four

Blame

              It’s all his fault.

              He promised he’d be home.

              He wasn’t.

              Now I’m here.

Katara cried in silence. Murmurs from behind the door fused with her thoughts. What is Yakone planning to do with her anyway? Spirits only knew.

If he had just been there.

This wasn’t like the other times where he’d come in late with a shy, goofy smile and begin to stutter through an eloquent apology that got her every time. This wasn’t like the times where she grew so frustrated that it took hours for her to accept the apology. Deep down, she believed that he loved her with every fiber of his being. She understood his split life of being the world’s balance and being a husband and father.

 “Don’t be late, please.” She had said, looking over his shoulder to the bay that always came between them. When he kissed her, she felt butterflies in her stomach as if she returned to being the fourteen-year-old version of herself that was swept off her feet by the boy she rescued from the iceberg. She watched him fly off and remembered the kiss on the wall of Yu Dao.

Both kisses felt as if it was the last one.

Like he wasn’t coming back.

It was all his fault.  

The door opened.   

“Katara,” a different voice pulled her attention. The man in the doorway had a slender build and was slightly shorter than Yakone. His clothes were plain and his head was shaved.  He carried bread in one hand and a jar filled with water in the other.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Who are you?”

“That’s not important.” He mumbled as he crossed over to her. He sat beside her on the cement at a comfortable distance. “Here.” He broke a piece of bread and extended it to her. She turned her head away from him. “Look,” he sighed, “if you want to eat, this is how it’s going to have to be. Unless you want to eat off the floor.”

“I will die before I have to depend on a man like you.” She spat at him.

The man just shook his head. “You’ll die if you depend on your husband to save you.”

“How dare you—“

“Shut up! Listen, you and I both know that this isn’t about you. You think any person in his right mind would want the Avatar hunting him down like he’s gonna hunt Yakone? No. This is about control and chaos. If Avatar Aang doesn’t comply with Yakone’s demands eventually, you will die. And if you don’t die, you’re gonna wish you did.”

The words cut her deep. There was no way out of this, not with her dignity. There was no avoiding pain. She was just a pawn in a sick game played by sick people. Now her husband was forced to play too. If he had just been home when he said he would be, none of this would have happened. They could be out counting the stars together; instead, Katara could only count her breaths until her last. With tear-filled eyes, she watched him get up and walk to the door. Another man with a crooked smile watched through the window of the door.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to go back to my other job.” The man left the broken bread and jar on the floor. When he opened the door, he fought the man with the crooked smile away.

It’s all Aang’s fault.