[At this rate it doesn't look like I'll have this finished by Halloween, but it is nearing the conclusion! Things only get more exciting from here, so stay tuned! As always, read and review.]


"What's all the hullabaloo out here?" Anger demanded as he stomped out of the bedroom. Already not a morning person, he was glaring about the hallway looking for the source of the annoying sound that had disturbed the quiet of this far too early hour. What he found was Joy standing there, looking perplexed.

"I'm not sure." She answered slowly. "Fear was up here, but he freaked out when I asked him why Sadness was crying in the washroom."

"When are those two not freaking out or crying about something?" Disgust rolled her eyes as she emerged into the hallway.

"But this feels difference from their normal hang-ups" Joy explained. "I think something happened during Dream Duty."

"What happened was they left us with a big mess to clean up!" Anger shouted with outrage from the lower floor, gesturing to the orbs scattered about and kicking the nearest one to vent his frustration.

Joy ignored him in favor of gently knocking on the washroom door.

"Sadness, is everything okay?" She asked sweetly.

The weeping from behind the door paused only for a second for Sadness to answer, "No. Everything is awful!" before drowning out all other sound with a wail of misery as her crying started up again.

"She'd better not be crying into the good towels." Disgust chided.

Joy frowned. Worried about what could possibly have made Sadness so upset. True, the blue emotion was known to cry at the simplest of things, but to isolate herself from the others wasn't like her. It reminded Joy too much of the painful sight of Sadness trying to run away from her in long term. She gathered her resolve to get to the bottom of this.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She proposed.

Another pause, followed by a sniffle. "I appreciate the offer, but I don't think I can." Sadness's voice quivered.

"Um, why not?" Joy inquired, confused, but not yet ready to give up.

"It's not my place to say." Was Sadness's only response before the sobs returned, quieter this time.

"So much for being nice." Disgust shrugged and went on to join Anger downstairs.

Joy sighed, as much as she wanted to help Sadness, she wasn't being given much to work with. And while it was possible that Sadness would come around on her own, the uncharacteristic intensity of her behavior gave the leader doubts. There had to be a way to cheer Sadness up, but the blue emotion's happiness was always a tricky puzzle and to make things more difficult was that Joy felt she was missing a piece. But if Sadness wasn't going to talk about what was upsetting her, there was at least someone else to ask.


Enveloped in darkness, huddled between a mop and a broom, Fear tried to get a hold of himself. Seeing Joy had only instantly reminded him of how dire his situation really was. His plan was down the tubes and Riley would be going into the haunted house completely defenseless. There would be no way Joy would find anything happy about that. He felt trapped, and it had nothing to do with the tiny space he had confined himself to. Telling Joy the truth would do him no good, only spread out his failures before her. But she was going to find out eventually. And the dread of seeing her disappointment in him twisted at his insides. And to add to his troubles, it was also more than likely she'd not be pleased with finding out he'd offended Sadness. So, Riley was doomed, Sadness hated him and Joy was going to loose all respect for him soon enough. At this point he may as well stay in the closet forever.

"There you are! What's the big idea leaving all those memories out for us to trip over?"

Fear found himself jarred by the simultaneous barrage of the door being flung open- his eyes burning with the sudden flood of light, Anger's shouting destroying his mindful silence, and the jolt of surprise at being found when what he really wanted was to be left alone.

Anger naturally ignored Fear's discomfort and continued scolding him, "You were up to something last night, weren't you? Didn't I tell you? I don't like things going on behind my back! What was I being left out of this time?"

"Nothing." Fear sighed, "Nothing happened last night that did anyone any good." He stood up and left the closet, his head hung low.

"Well if you're done playing in that smelly closet you can help clean up this mess you left." Disgust said. "Was dream duty really so boring you'd rather watch memories of Riley getting her teeth cleaned or…EW SPIDERS!" She dropped the memory she had picked up and took a few steps away from it for good measure, shaking her hands as if the spiders had crawled out of the memory and onto her. "Ew, ew, gross!"

Anger chuckled, but Fear was finding nothing funny in his current situation. He wordlessly started picking up memories and sending them away through the recall tube. His heart nearly stopped when he spotted Joy coming down the ramp and heading straight for him. What was he going to do? Surely she was coming over to yell at him for being so mean to Sadness and for plotting behind her back. This was it, no where to run; humiliation and punishment were imminent. He braced himself for her harshest words.

"Fear, can I ask you about Sadness?" her tone didn't sound angry, but he refused to relax just yet. "She seems really upset about something but she won't tell me what. You were talking to her before, right? Can you tell me what happened?"

His mouth dropped open in surprise. Sadness hadn't told her? Why wouldn't she tattle when he had hurt her feelings so badly? He fumbled for words as Joy waited for his response. Should he tell her the truth and just get it all over with? But what if this was his only opportunity to come up with a plan B before it was too late? He could come up with some lie to pacify Joy's curiosity, but that could backfire on him if Sadness changed her mind about talking. No matter what, Joy wouldn't stop prodding until someone gave her an answer. Maybe, he decided, he would reveal only the immediate problem. That way he could satisfy her question and still avoid mentioning how unprepared he was for Saturday. She still might be upset with him, but he could minimize the damage and hold on to the chance to get back in her good graces with an impressive performance at the haunted house, however that may happen. One thing at a time, he told himself.

With palpitations in his chest he readied himself and spoke,

"We had a misunderstanding and I said something I shouldn't have."

Joy's expression remained the same anticipatory stare. "What did you say?"

He fiddled with his hands, sucking on his lower lip before sheepishly telling her, "I'd rather not repeat it."

She nodded, "Ok. Did you apologize?"

"Of course I did!" he reflexively shouted. He caught himself and lowered his still panicked voice. "But she kept crying and I don't know what to do."

He waited for her response, worried she'd ask for more information. He needed to control how much she knew about the situation, otherwise he risked hitting the limits of her gracious nature.

"Well, if you said you were sorry, I'm sure she'll come around eventually." She said reassuringly. "Maybe you should try talking to her again. Maybe I can help you!"

"No!" he interjected, eyes nearly popping out of his head. Realizing he was again incriminating himself with reactionary shouting, he toned himself down and nervously chuckled, "I wouldn't want you to get in the middle of our silly little problem."

"Oh, I don't mind. That's what friends are for, right?"

It was the last answer he was looking for, and she made it worse by grabbing his arm and dragging him to the washroom door. She knocked.

"Sadness, it's me. I brought Fear so we can work things out."

There was a sniffle from behind the door.

"He told you what happened?" Sadness asked.

Fear cringed; now he was in trouble. Joy was so close to learning exactly what sort of helpless, thoughtless mess he really was.

"He told me it was all a big misunderstanding. Wasn't it Fear?" She coaxed him to the door and gave him a confident 'you can do it' grin.

He stammered. What could he say? He had already apologized until he was blue in the face. And with Joy watching he couldn't say anything that could potentially tip her off about Saturday. But he had to say something.

"Sadness, I know what I said was wrong. Please, don't be mad at me." He pleaded, hoping by now she'd cooled down enough to forgive him and then they could put all this stress behind them.

To his surprise the door opened and Sadness slowly shuffled out, wiping her eyes with a tissue.

"I'm not mad at you." She said with wet, puffy eyes that turned to the ground. "But what you said still hurt to hear."

What started as a sigh of relief poured out instead as if he had the wind knocked out of him. Did this mean she wasn't going to forgive him?

Noticing the distress on his face, Joy tried to cheerfully intervene.

"But that's water under the bridge now. No real harm done, right?"

Sadness gazed at Fear, his features anxious but hopeful.

"I guess you're right." She conceded.

"Ooh! That's wonderful!" Joy celebrated, wrapping the other two into a group hug. "I knew we could work things out. Now let's all go give Riley a great All Hallows' Eve… eve!" She released then and scampered off, singing to herself about grim and grinning ghosts.

Fear watched her leave with the relief that the situation hadn't gotten out of control. He had avoided her learning of his fallibility so far; he only needed to keep it up until tomorrow night and in the meantime formulate a back-up plan to give Riley the edge she needed to ward off the excess of the Heebee Geebies.

He looked back to Sadness who was eyeing him bashfully.

"I'm glad you were able to tell Joy about your problem. I know it probably wasn't easy for you, but now she'll be able to help you."

"Uh… about that…" Fear grimaced, fiddling with his hands, his eyes searching about as he hesitated to continue.

Sadness read his body language and made a sobering deduction.

"You didn't tell her?" her eyes widened then looked away, thoughtfully.

Fear tried to defend himself. "I did tell her about some of the things that happened…just not anything related to Halloween, or my plan and it not working out." He felt he was floundering and tried again, "You know why I can't tell her!"

Sadness, giving him an impassive stare, slouched slightly and sighed, "We can't have Riley becoming a daredevil hooligan."

He wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic but proceeded to explain, "This may be my last opportunity to come up with a way to show Joy I can handle myself. Isn't that why you didn't tell her?"

"I didn't tell her because it wasn't my place to. I thought you would tell her when you were ready. I thought you'd be ready sooner. I guess I was wrong." She squeezed and twisted the tissue in her hands, avoiding eye contact.

A pang of guilt hit his heart. She had that much faith in him to think he'd confess his failings to Joy? But he knew he couldn't do that, not yet.

"Look," he explained, "I have one day to make things right. If I tell Joy now that I can't handle the haunted house, she'll take over on Halloween night, tell me what to do the whole time and I'll look like I can't do anything on my own."

"And you think she'll respect you more if you don't ask her for help?"

"Yes, exactly! If I can pull this off, Joy will see how well I can take care of Riley and help her be mature."

Sadness watched him in silence a moment, then stared down at her shoes with a half-hearted nod.

"I understand. I won't say anything to Joy." She stepped past him and hurried down the ramp.

"Thanks!" he tried to tell her, but she didn't look back or answer him.

A sinking feeling welled up inside him. Had he hurt her feelings again? It's not like he had promised her he'd tell Joy and then broken his word. But there was a hint of betrayal in her voice that made it sound like she was disappointed in him.


"Can you believe that Afro wig on Mr. Fitzgerald?" Asked Sam as Riley followed her and Alexis to the lunch room.

Riley laughed, "Yeah, I'm surprised that he could get it through the classroom door."

"It was like ten times the size of his head!" Alexis giggled.

\/

"Haha! It was so huge!" Joy chortled, twisting knobs and pushing buttons to help Riley best experience her amusement.

"At least it looked better than his usual bad comb-over." Disgust added.

/\

"Hey guys, over here!" Amy called out, waving her friends over to the lunchroom table she was sitting at. Joanie and Madison were already sitting with her.

Riley sat down removing her brown bagged baloney sandwich from her backpack.

"Did any of your teachers come wearing costumes?" She asked Joanie.

"Miss Pohler wore a witches' hat, but it kept blowing off her head every time she walked across the classroom." The taller girl snickered.

Riley snorted back a laugh, careful not to choke on her bite of sandwich.

\/

Fear grumbled to himself as he pulled a lever. He already had too much to worry about without preventing Riley from inhaling lunch meat. He had wracked his mind all morning trying to think of a way around his dilemma.

And to add to his distraction was Sadness. She had done nothing but mope over the console since they had last spoken. She hadn't done anything to actively affect Riley, but occasionally she leaned on a few buttons listlessly while moaning about how sad it was that some of the teachers couldn't afford nice costumes to wear to class today, or how the caramel the math teacher had given out was now sticking in Riley's teeth, or how poor Mr. Fitzgerald's wig was probably a big reminder to him of his premature male pattern baldness.

It was obvious she was in a funk and he knew he was the cause of it. To worsen matters was that Joy had noticed and tried to intervene by peppering Sadness with words of encouragement and making offers to talk.

Sadness kept true to her word however and only told Joy that she needed time to herself to think.

Currently the blue emotion was silently staring out the back windows at the Islands of Personality. Friendship Island, specifically, as it glowed and its statues moved energetically, a reflection of the good time Riley was having with her classmates.

/\

"Take a look at this." Amy announced, pulling a pamphlet out of her backpack. She spread it out over the table, revealing blood red text on glossy black surrounded with photos of people in fright make-up and scary costumes mugging threateningly for the camera. Big letters at the top read "Warehouse of Fright- XXL!"

"Is this the haunted house we're going to tomorrow?" Asked Alexis.

Amy grinned, "Yep. My brother went with his friends last night and he said it was the scariest thing he'd ever seen."

Riley leaned over to get a better look.

\/

Fear studied the view screen, taking the opportunity to read over the flyer to get a good idea of what horrors Riley could anticipate for tomorrow. The advertisement boasted that the haunted house had been running for "Ten Terrifying Years" out of an abandoned warehouse where guests would navigate "Six Spine-Tingling Spaces! Each scarier than the last!"

"Every room has a different theme." Amy explained. "There's a haunted forest and a creepy hospital, and you go through each one while the actors jump out and scare you. I heard that because it's their tenth anniversary this year, they made the attractions ten times scarier."

The other girls "oohed" at this information. Joy did too. Fear however cringed.

Just his luck that Riley's inaugural visit to a haunted house would be at the time its proprietors decided to up the scary factor. The names of the themed sections she'd be touring weren't encouraging either. Names like "Dr. Hacksaw's Horror Hospital", "The Cannibal's Butcher Shoppe", and "Miss Spider's Parlor" put him on edge. But the one that really got him trembling was "The Psycho Circus", highlighted by a photo of a scary clown wielding a bloody jugglers' club.

Clowns, why did it have to be clowns?

He gripped a knob on the console almost without thinking about it and slowly twisted it up a few notches.

Riley sank back in her seat, an apprehension rising inside her. She looked away from the flyer and around at her friends who were all excitedly chatting over the prospect of being scared out of their wits.

Joy noticed Riley's excitement levels were dropping steadily. She glanced over and saw Fear biting his lip, staring at the screen with his hand on the console's controls. Gently she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, we're gonna have fun at this, you'll see." She encouraged.

He turned to her and instantly took his hand off the knob.

"Yeah, fun. I'll think about the fun." He said and plastered on a smile.

It was a good start, but she could tell by the strain on his face that he was still nervous. She eyed the screen and saw Madison sitting next to Riley, peeking at the pamphlet.

She got an idea that made her grin; not only could it help Fear, but it also may help Sadness cheer up too. She did a little dance with a giggle at how clever she was and scampered over to grab Sadness.

"Sadness, look! This will be Madison's first Halloween in San Francisco too. I bet she'd really like someone to talk to about it."

Sadness looked up at the view screen and the ghost of a smile passed over her face.

"I guess she's feeling a little homesick like Riley is." The blue emotion agreed and shuffled to the console.

/\

Riley noticed Madison next to her, reading the flyer. Like herself, Madison had moved to San Francisco recently and it occurred to her that her friend might be feeling as unsure about going to a strange new place on Halloween as she was.

"So," She began to ask, "Did you go to any haunted houses back in Chicago?"

Madison looked up at Riley and smiled.

"Yeah, my parents have been taking me to one every year since I was nine." The other girl beamed. "I was worried I'd have to give that up when we moved here, but after Amy told me about this one, I got really excited."

Riley's heart dropped. Not only did Madison have experience with haunted houses, apparently she loved them. This was not the response she had been expecting.

\/

Fear gulped nervously; so much for looking to a fellow newcomer for support. A quick glance over to Joy showed that she had been equally thrown off by this news.

Beyond Joy he spotted Sadness, staring at him. It looked like she wanted to say something and was trying to build up the nerve to do so. A look was in her eye as if she was waiting for his permission.

He knew what she wanted to do. She wanted Riley tell Madison that this was her first time to a haunted house, to tell her that she was afraid, to seek out some sympathy and council. But wouldn't that lead to all her friends finding out? Possibly lead to them making fun of her? It was a risk he wasn't ready to take.

"So are we the only kid in this school who has never been to a haunted house? What is up with that?" Anger asked aloud, breaking the tense silence.

Fear lowered his head, Anger had a point. All of the other girls had been to haunted houses before, and probably at a young age like Madison. They'd surely tease Riley if they learned she was scared of her first time going. He gave Sadness an apologetic look and turned to Joy.

"Well, if they've all been to one and want to go back, I guess they can't be all that scary, right?" he bluffed.

"That's the spirit!" Joy exclaimed, grinning. "I'm so proud of you, being brave and giving this a chance."

Now the knife of guilt twisted in him a little more. He didn't want to lie to Joy, but these were dire straights. Behind Joy he could see Sadness frowning and looking away, Disgust preening her hair, not paying him any attention at all, and Anger rolling his eyes with a look of exasperation. Then an idea struck.

Tapping a few buttons he got Riley to change the subject of her conversation to what costume Madison would be wearing on Saturday. While Joy became distracted with helping Riley be encouraging, he snuck off to the other side of the room where Anger was reading his newspaper.

"Um, hey, can I ask you a favor?" he timidly asked.

"I'm surprised you can ask me anything with your lips stuck on Joy's behind so often." Anger answered scaldingly without lifting his eyes from his reading.

Fear frowned and gave a sigh. "Actually, I need your help for Saturday. I need you to teach me how to handle the haunted house." Anger looked up at him, a look of disbelief on his features. Fear continued, "You said if I wanted to up Riley's bravery I should come to you. Well, here I am."

Anger put down the paper and got off his chair. "You're really that desperate, aren't you?" he asked. Fear meekly nodded. Anger gave this some thought. "Hmm, trying to desensitize you didn't work. And when it comes to prioritizing Riley's fears, you're a mess..." he paused and glanced out the windows, a smirk crossed his face. "But I think I've got an idea that if it doesn't work, it'll at least be fun...for me anyway. Meet me down here one hour after dream duty starts. Got it?"

Fear hesitated. He didn't like that Anger was being mysterious, but what choice did he have?

"Uh, yeah. Got it."

"Good." The red emotion smiled, then went back to his chair and his newspaper.

Fear breathed a sigh of relief, he finally had his backup plan. As he headed back to the console he caught sight of Sadness sitting on the couch. Closer inspection showed she was doodling frowny faces on a piece of paper. Another pang of guilt twisted in his chest. If it weren't for him, right now she'd be guiding Riley through a heartfelt confession with Madison...Or helping her cry through the pain of her friends teasing her for being a big scaredy-cat. Either way he had cost her a moment of usefulness and after his accidental insult he knew this wasn't making him look good in her eyes. He assured himself that once Halloween was over he'd find a way to make it up to her, though at the moment he had no idea how.

As the day wore on Sadness became more aloof, looking away whenever she caught him looking in her direction, keeping her distance when they were both using the console, and eventually walking away from him whenever he approached. It was driving him nuts with anxiety and remorse.

Fed up, he followed her into the Mind Manual library and cornered her into listening to him. "Sadness, I need to talk to you."

All he got from her was a solemn, "Don't you have something more important you should be Doing?" before she started walking away.

What really hit him hard was the complete lack of malice in her words, like she genuinely believed he did have something better to be focused on than her. And that's what hurt the most. He had done nothing but maker her feel awful since his outburst, and she had done nothing to deserve it. He knew how sensitive she was, but did that stop him from turning away her input out of fear of his own embarrassment? No, it hadn't.

"Sadness, I'm sorry about..."

"Please stop apologizing." she stopped him. He choked on his unused words.

"What?"

"This is a stressful time for you, I can tell. So, you do what you think you need to do. Don't worry about me."

She turned and left him standing there, dumbfounded. She didn't want his apologies, she didn't want his presence, she didn't want anything to do with him. He had lost her, and it was all his fault.

[To Be Continued]