I'm only saying this once: SPOILER ALERT!

So, this story takes place three days after Riley ran away, and in order to make the ending unknown, we are saying that Riley's hockey game NEVER happened. This way, you don't know what will happen, or if they will be okay. ;)

Now, background information: Joy and Bing Bong got caught in the dump, etc...you guys know the story. This isn't what you know. The story you know is about to turn VERY dark.

I have 9 prewritten chapters that I will edit to make more FanFiction-friendly, as I gave the story a limited release between my friends before I decided it was FanFiction-worthy. If you want, afterwards, I can release a "Writer's Cut" version, but I'm going to shut up now.

Sorry if this chapter feels unstable, but I wrote this while still waking up, so I obviously am not as comfortable yet. Okay? Now, let's kick up our feet and enjoy a nice depression story.

(UPDATE: I updated the chapter and fixed a few small errors, including in the flashback section, some exclamation points were changed to periods. Thought it made the story look cheesy and ruined the tone, rather than amplified it.)

PART I: Is she okay?

Chapter 1-Memories

Night had fallen in San Fransisco, on another perfect day. Well, almost perfect day.

It had just taken a day to get to know all the new kids, now that Riley was opening herself up to them. She didn't know why she'd done so many wrong things. Including: yelling at her parents, dumping her best friend, quitting hockey, stealing her mom's credit card, and running away.

She had been told to try and forget about the events, but it was impossible.

Riley still couldn't get the events that happened three days before out of her head. Although her parents had forgiven her and only mildly lectured her about stealing her mother's credit card, she still felt like an idiot. These people are my life...she thought to herself as she got ready for bed.

The moving truck still hadn't come yet, and she was left sleeping in that sleeping bag that was covered in her sweat from three nights ago, when she'd had a nightmare about Jangles coming again. Sure, broccoli scared her. But, Jangles...just the thought of him was enough to ruin another great day.

As Riley lay there thinking about all this, her mother came in. She looked extremely tired.

"Riley...I'm so sorry. I need to accept that you're growing up, and that you can't be happy all the time. I guess it was my fault that you tried to leave..."

"Oh mom...it's not your fault. I just...didn't know how to tell you guys. Now, um...I was thinking a lot about a nightmare I had that woke me up that night and made it possible."

"What was it?"

"It was where Jangles-"

"Oh, it's okay, Riley..." Riley's mom responded, hugging her. "That still haunts you? Well, I'm also quite sorry about traumatizing you with that."

"It's fine."

"Well, um...you look quite tired, so I'm going to let you go to bed, okay?"

"Okay mom. Good night!"

"Good night!"

And with that, Riley's mom turned off the light, and Riley was alone in the dark.

Joy was smiling. It had been the best day all week for her girl. Fear, Disgust, and Anger had been given a leaf of absence due to having to take control of the console for a few days. They were all probably sleeping in their rooms...

She and Sadness smiled at each other, as they both pulled the lever that would help Riley fall asleep. Within seconds, Riley had shut her eyes, and was finally asleep.

"And...we're out!" Joy said, looking again at Sadness.

Why did I ever reject her? Joy thought to herself as she prepared to start loading the memories back into Long-Term. And, considering how much Riley had been through the last few days, and since Sadness had just kept playing the memory of three days ago over and over, she had decided just to take on Dream Duty for tonight. After all, she'd slept pretty good the first two days of her return, so she felt like she had the energy to do this.

"I'll take Dream Duty. You need to sleep, Sadness."

"Okay, Joy. If by slight chance you need anything, come and find me, okay? You know where I am."

"Um, actually, I don't." This was true. Joy never paid attention to where Sadness's room was, since she never paid attention to Sadness.

"It's right next to yours. It's quite bright, due to the fact that your bed glows extremely bright yellow. Oh, one more question, Joy: why is your glow blue?" Sadness asked, wanting to ask her one more thing.

"Uh..."

Joy had always believed that her blue glow was just a coincidence. However, after her episode in the memory dump, which she didn't dare to think about, she had been thinking a lot more about why her glow was blue. Although she still didn't know, her working theory was that she was always surrounded by sadness, and that she was the only other emotion that could cry.

"I don't know," she said to Sadness, hoping that she wouldn't accidentally tell her the wrong thing. After all, Sadness may be her best friend, but she was extremely sensitive. She never wanted to make her sadder than she already was.

"Well, have a great night! I'll see you in the morning!" Joy said, smiling. Sadness smiled back and trudged back to her room.

It's just you and me, Riley. Just like it was eleven years ago, Joy thought to herself. She still had those selfish thoughts, despite the fact that she'd learned a hard lesson in the dump...no, she didn't want to think about that. Instead, she decided to take a quick look at the new Family Island, which was the only one that was back as of right now. She wanted to put in the sad core memories and see what would happen, but she decided against it. Riley didn't need a sad night.

But then, something caught her eye. A trail of blue memories off in long-term. Even though it was hard to see memories in long-term, she could still see them. She knew exactly what had caused them: Sadness. And why were they there?

The Memory Dump.

Joy found herself looking at the Dump, remembering the pain that had been eating her alive. She had never cried once in her life...except for that. However, then she remembered something else, something that made her heart shatter.

It had failed twice...

She was almost ready to give up again. Suddenly, Bing Bong took her hand. "Cmon Joy. One more time. I have a feeling about this one".

And so the two of them sang the special song needed to launch the rocket. "Sing louder!" Bing Bong said, before...he jumped out.

Joy didn't know what he'd done, so she kept singing, frantically and loudly. Finally, the rocket crashed into the top, and Joy collapsed to the ground, before getting up and dancing. "WOO HOO! WE DID IT, BING BONG! Wait..." she started, noticing that he wasn't there! "Bing Bong?"

She looked down, and saw him dancing around! She just stared, horrified.

"Go! Go save Riley!" Bing Bong said. Tears started again in Joy's eyes.

"Take her to the moon for me, Joy," Bing Bong said...and waved as he disappeared.

The pain in Joy's heart lead to a scream of heartbreak.

And now, that exact pain started up again.

"No...Bing Bong..." Joy thought to herself, before she let out a scream that could be heard all the way in long term. Within seconds, she'd collapsed to the floor in tears. The third time in a week she was crying.

Within seconds, she got up and wiped her tears off. I have no time for this...

As Joy calmed herself down and walked back to the console, she made a decision. I won't tell them...she thought to herself as she prepared to see what was on Dream Productions tonight.

But deep down, she knew something was wrong.

That's the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed! Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye!

-AnnaTheMockingjay