Accidental Avatar 3.5: The Burn Book

Spoopy Scary Stories

A/N: So this one really should have been a Halloween special, but oh well.  Enjoy fam!

Sokka had just got done doing his little scary campfire story, which honestly was not all that scary. To which Katara decided to follow it up with an admittedly scarier story. Except, it was a classic kid who goes missing, another kid finds a frozen body near the fire, gets help, the missing body, forever after people randomly see smoke from the abandoned house.

Classic.

4/10 scary.

Muteki looked like he had something in mind but muttered to Mog and me that it might be too scary for the small ones.

So we turned to Mangetsu, who had kind of just stared blankly at the fire during the stories like he'd heard scarier.

Doubt it.

"So, you look like you've heard scarier than that," Mogui immediately called the kid out.

"Maybe," Mangetsu shrugged.

"I know I live for these types of story," Muteki said. "I know at least three, one of which involves good ol' Slendy."

"Let's not turn these kids into emotional wrecks," I chuckled. "But let's hear yours, Mangetsu."

"It's not much of a story and more of a rumour that went around the Village," Mangetsu said, poking the fire with a stick. "The leader of our village had become strange, violent. He had implemented a terrible method of graduating from the local shinobi school."

"What was it?" Katara asked, her eyes wide. The others were all on the edge of their seats now.

"Well, everyone would learn to fight together," Mangetsu said. "Kids, who would play together, eat together, train together... in order to graduate and become a full-fledged shinobi... would have to fight to the death."

A gasp went through the kids.

"Only those who survived this ordeal were considered strong enough to become shinobi, the most exceptional becoming a member of the legendary Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. And for this practice, the Village earned a terrible name... The Blood Mist Village," Mangetsu said. "But this practice was stopped suddenly one day."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Aang whispered.

"Maybe," Mangetsu said.

"Why would a bloodthirsty leader of a village known for its brutality suddenly stop a practice that encouraged brutality?" Mogui demanded.

"Because of the Demon of the Mist," Mangetsu said ominously.

"Oooohhh," Muteki shuffled forward. "This is getting good."

"This 'demon' was not a student," Mangetsu said. "But one day, he walked up to the class that would soon begin their exam and slaughtered over one hundred trained-soon-to-be-shinobis."

"That's impossible!" Sokka said, clutching his sword closely.

Mangetsu shrugged. "Believe it or don't. He was well known for his silent killing technique."

A mist began to build up, slowly creeping into the camp.

"When the mist makes it hard to see or hear," Mangetsu slowly disappeared into the thickening mist. "He will kill. So quietly, you can't hear him coming..."

"Dead," the whisper in my ear caused me to scream in surprise as the mist rapidly vanished, to reveal a smug Mangetsu.

Ok... 8/10 was scary.

"Dude, that was good," Muteki laughed. "You've got a flair for theatrics."

"Yeah, I had shivers; that was brilliant," Mogui grinned.

"You guys are weird," Sokka sighed, him and Aang holding each other tightly while Katara had a stiff smile on her face.

Toph suddenly gasped and put her hand to the ground.

"Wait, guys," she cried. "Did you hear that? I hear people under the mountain, and they're screaming..."

The others all hugged each other in fear while Mog, Mut, and I all looked at Mangetsu, who shrugged.

"Think his story was so scary the mountain spirits are scared?" Mog suggested.

"That would be ridiculous," Mangetsu answered.

"No, I'm serious," Toph said. "I hear something."

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

"It just stopped," Toph said.

"This reminds me of a story," Muteki said.

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

"Hello, children."

No joke. We all screamed. I think Mog jumped high enough to leapfrog over Muteki's head, who gave a surprised squeak-scream. Mangetsu had a sore throat from his near-death strangulation, so he just kind of stood there like a deer in headlights and stared at our new friend. Pretty sure he's playing possum. I'm not proud of this moment. I jumped into Sokka's arms, him being the closest person to me.

It was awkward all around when we all finally calmed down.

"Sorry to frighten you, my name is Hama," the old woman smiled sweetly. "You children shouldn't be out in the forest by yourselves at night."

"What am I? Invisible?" Mogui demanded.

"No, just a large child," Mangetsu said. "She's already got your number figured."

"I guess Jin and I are the same," Muteki chuckled.

"To be fair, compared to her, we're all children," Mangetsu shrugged.

"Dude," I swatted him, but gently because of a head injury from his close encounter with crazy. "Rude."

"I have an inn nearby," the old woman seemed amused by our banter and not at all offended. "Why don't you come back there for some spiced tea and warm beds?"

Mangetsu and Mogui made identical expressions that can be best described as conflicted. Since Mog was closest to me, I leaned over and whispered to him.

"What's up?"

"I dunno," he answered softly. "Something feels weird about all this."

Before I could answer, Sokka enthusiastically agreed.

The old woman smiled and started to leave with the others in tow. I leaned back to Mog and quickly whispered.

"Could be the stories getting your imagination going," I suggested.

"Maybe..." Mog didn't seem convinced but followed along anyway.