I Won't Leave You (Toph Beifong x Male! Reader)

The Puppetmaster

(A/N: Apologies that it's late. Long day.)

You all sit around the campfire telling stories, Toph started it off with The Man with a Sword For a Hand, Aang passed it to Sokka who told the total bore fest, The Blade of Wing Fun. You decide to go next. "I experienced this one myself." You say, "Me and Zei were walking through Ba Sing Se when from a door, we heard a man gasping for breath, like there was none in his lungs, we go in. The man is on the floor, convulsing. Me and zei act quickly turning him on his side, letting him seize it out and helping him spit up flem when he was done... well, that was what it was supposed to be, instead he was coughing up blood. He clutched onto me with dead eyes, his skin as pale as the moon. I knew he was gonna die, but I kept calm as Zei rushed to get a doctor. I asked him what'd happened, what caused this? He was so weak. He whispered in his last raspy breaths, 'Red eyes... pale skin... vampire.' And with that, he passed away in my arms. When they did the autopsy, his skeleton had collapsed inward. Nothing can do that, sure as hell wasn't The Bride of Corinth. We looked for months. Nobody fit the description. I don't know what attacked him to this day, god help us, it could still be out there."

"Now that's a scary story." Toph says, "Take notes, Sokka."

Sokka acts cool, "It wasn't that scary. You're only scared because it was real."

"Well I've got another real story that might change your mind, it didn't happen to me, though." Katara says.

"Is this one of those 'a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to' type of stories?" Sokka asks, lazily.

"No, it happened to Mom." Katara says seriously. Sokka tenses up. "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. While the men went out to search, Mom stayed in the house. When she was alone, she heard a voice." In a small voice, she whispers, "'It's so cold and I can't get warm.'" Back to her normal voice, "Mom turned and saw Nini standing by the fire. She was blue, like she was frozen. Mom ran outside for help, but when everyone got back, Nini was gone."

Aang covers his ears with Momo's in terror, you pull Toph a little closer instinctively and Sokka hides behind a tree. "Where'd she go?" The Water Tribe boy asks.

"No one knows." Katara says, gravely. "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."

Toph gasps, "Wait! Guys, did you hear that?!" Katara, Aang and Sokka huddle together. "I hear people screaming under the mountain."

Sokka seems to think it's a joke. Maybe it is. "Pfft, nice try."

You close your eyes and sense the area as they continue talking. "No, I'm serious. I hear something." Toph insists.

You reach the blood-curdling screams of what would seem like the damned, deep beneath the ground. "You're probably just jumpy from the ghost stories." Katara dismisses.

"No, she isn't. I can feel them." You whisper, "Anguish, fear, loneliness." You look up, terror in your eyes, "I think something is terribly wrong."

"It just... stopped." Toph says.

"Alright. Now I'm getting scared." Aang says.

Suddenly, you hear a voice from the woods, "Hello, children." The group shifts sides, huddling around Toph as you step forward, pulling out both of your swords, ready to fight if need be. "Sorry to frighten you, my name is Hama." An old lady says, revealing herself. You hold your swords steady. "I will not hurt you." Reluctantly, you put them away. You can sense something sinister radiating from the woman. A wicked energy, a killing instinct. "You children should not be in the forest by yourselves at night."