𝑭𝑳𝑨𝑴𝑬𝑺 || 𝑨𝒂𝒏𝒈 (𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 3)

The Puppetmaster

Leaning back on her hands, Jade could feel it; she was minutes away from nodding off. The only thing keeping her awake was Aang, who would poke her side every time he noticed her head dropping.

She wished he wouldn't. Sokka's campfire stories weren't scary, which was saying something considering Jade was easily scared.

"Suddenly, they heard something down the hall in the dark. Ooh~..." Jade bit back a yawn. "It came into the torchlight..." He glanced around eerily. "And they knew the blade of Wing Fung was haunted!"

Drawing his sword, he pointed the blade at the fire with a loud, dramatic wail. His friends remained unfazed.

Aang furrowed his brows. "I think I liked "the man with a sword for a hand" better."

"Water Tribe slumber parties must stink." Toph muttered.

This time, Jade yawned out loud. "Can I just go to sleep now?"

"No, wait," Katara raised her head. "I've got one! And this is a true Southern Water Tribe story."

Quirking one eyebrow, Sokka sat down. "Is this one of those "a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to" stories?"

"No. It happened to mom."

Sokka straightened and Aang sat up. Jade even woke up a little.

"One winter, when mom was a girl, a snowstorm buried the whole village for weeks. A month later, Mom realized she hadn't seen her friend Nini since the storm. So Mom and some others went to check on Nini's family. When they got there, no one was home. Just a fire flickering in the fireplace."

Pulling her legs close, Jade could already tell that this story was scarier than all of Sokka's put together.

"While the men went out to search, Mom stayed in the house. When she was alone, she heard a voice;" Katara spoke in a higher, soft voice. ""It's so cold and I can't get warm!" Mom turned and saw Nini standing by the fire. She was blue, like she was frozen. Mom ran outside for help, but when everyone came back, Nini was gone."

Sokka hid behind a curved tree stump. Shifting closer to each other, Aang and Jade huddled together.

Jade's voice trembled. "I hate campfire stories."

Sokka peeked out from behind his stump. "Where'd she go?"

"No one knows." Katara replied. "Nini's house stands empty to this day. But sometimes, people see smoke coming up from the chimney, like little Nini is still trying to get warm."

Tense silence followed the end of Katara's story. Clinging to Aang, Jade let out a wavering sigh upon realizing that she wouldn't be sleeping tonight after all.

Suddenly breaking that silence, Toph gasped and pressed a hand down to the ground beside her. "Wait! Guys, did you hear that?" The rest of the group darted together to cling to each other as she stood up. "I hear people under the mountain. And they're screaming."

No longer shaking, Sokka pulled away from the huddle with a scoff. "Nice try."

"No, I'm serious." She insisted. "I hear something."

"You're probably just jumpy from the ghost stories..." Katara reasoned.

Toph paused. She frowned to herself. "It just stopped."

"All right, now I'm getting scared." Aang muttered.

Squished between him and Katara, Jade squeezed her eyes shut. "I hate campfire stories."

"You already said that." Sokka pointed out.

"And yet, you guys keep telling them."

"Hello, children."