I am sorry, but this is gonna be another shorter chapter. I do apologize. As I said in chapter 1, these lengths may fluctuate wildly.
I did have a guest with a question in the previous chapter. Due to being anonymous, I am unable to respond via pm, so I am posting my answer here. Yes, the story does indeed take place in the summer. I believe I wrote something about the 'summer air' while they were outside. Or at least, I know I meant to. But I also realize that somewhere in the really early chapters (1 or 2 I believe) I mistakenly mentioned something about homework. This was back when I was planning on setting the story in Spring, when certain parts were going to occur at school. I later decided against this, but have yet to edit the previous chapters. Thanks for the question!
If you have your own, feel free to pm me!
Otherwise, I do please ask you to continue to leave me some reviews, as it really does help me to write. Thank you to everyone who has in the past, especially those who review with every chapter! I couldn't be more thankful for the feedback!
Now, please enjoy!
Chapter 14: The Storm
Riley glimpsed once again out the screen door, as she had done every ten minutes for what felt like forever. Sure enough, her lawn loving neighbor was still out there, tending to his plants and picking out any weeds that had weaseled their way into his flower beds. Riley growled to herself. He had been out there for so long. He had to run out of things to do, she thought. He had already done so much.
She had waited impatiently while he trimmed his hedges, aerated the soil, snipped the flower buds, watered the hanging baskets... She wondered if the man had a life outside those plants of his. She had never really noticed before how long he spent working on his yard in a single day. It was only now that she wanted him gone that he seemed to continued to linger.
Frustrated, she trudged back over to the living room. The emotions, who had been waiting for her on the couch, looked up at the young girl. But upon seeing the frustration in her eyes, they turned away. They didn't have to ask to know the answer. The man hadn't budged. They would have to keep waiting.
Riley had turned the television on for the two creatures. She felt the need to keep them entertained, but there wasn't much they could do being so small. They had watched a few shows with mild interest, but as time wore on, they got more and more antsy to get outside and find their next coworker.
Fear in particular was done waiting. He was worried. Both he and Disgust had been found in such a critical state. What if the emotion outside was even worse? He and the green emotion had been lucky enough to land inside. Both had, at some point, stumbled upon sustenance themselves. But there was no pantry outside. The only clear food source out there was the neighbors apple tree, and it would be another few months before it bore any fruit. Fear began to wonder if it was possible for emotions to die, and if their bodies emitted the painful rings after death. The thought began to make him feel sick, and he tried to focus instead on the tv. But it was too late. All he could do was sit there and mentally imagine a world where Riley had only himself and Disgust. Images of his other friends lifeless bodies flashed through his mind. He tried his best to control his shivering.
Disgust was getting worried, too. But she managed to keep her hopes up. After all, she thought, worrying wasn't going to help anything. And even if it did, she knew Fear already had it covered. Still, she was starting to get annoyed that they couldn't just go out and check already. She hated the tension hanging in the air. She wished that the man would just go inside, as if somehow she could will the neighbor away from his garden.
Irritated, the young girl paced back and forth across the living room floor, not even realizing she was walking right in front of the tv. The emotions didn't really care, though. They dealt with the intermittent obstruction without complaints, they weren't really that invested in the show. To them, it was just about waiting.
After another ten minutes had passed, Riley returned once again to the screen door, expecting to see more or less the same scene yet again. But to her surprise, the man was gone. She thought perhaps he had just briefly moved out of sight, as she had been fooled before. However, all his tools were absent as well. His wheelbarrow, trowel, clippers, and giant bag of plant food had vanished. The heavy door behind his screen one was shut and locked. Riley breathed a sigh of relief and excitement. It was time to check the yard.
She raced back to the next room with her heart pounding. The loud crescendo of her approaching footsteps startled the tiny creatures, but when they met her smile they knew it was good news. Happy the wait was over and excited to find their next emotion, the two hopped to their feet, prepared to be whisked away.
In one fell swoop, Riley scooped the duo up and made a u-turn back to the door. She kicked the screen open, dashing out as it shut, noting the strange clunking sound it made but choosing to ignore it in favor of the hunt.
This time, though, the emotions weren't treated to the same scenario. The sun hadn't shined on them as the exited. The warm breeze had cooled significantly. The trio hadn't realized how long they had been indoors, but they could imagine why the elder gentleman had retreated. Heavy grey clouds covered the once blue sky, making it appear almost as dark as night.
Riley, who before this incident had been mildly nervous about thunderstorms, knew that rain would fall soon. The normal her would've been concerned and scared about the approaching lightning, but this numbed her cared only about the missing creature. She decided to use what dwindling time they had to search. She stepped out into the center of the backyard.
Fear and Disgust were placed in the uneven grass. "Okay." Riley called down to them as she began to walk towards the shed. "You two spread out and look for them. I'll see if they arent in here."
The two emotions looked quickly at each other, then began to walk in two different directions. Fear made his way closer to the only tree while Disgust wandered towards the fence shared with the friendly neighbor. Riley pulled the old shed door open with a yank, expelling a puff of dust from within the tiny and jam packed room.
All three shouted to the unknown lost emotion, testing the different names it may have responded to.
"Joy?"
"Sadness?"
"Anger! Sadness! Joy!
"Anger?"
"Joy!"
All three explorers tried all three names multiple times.
Suddenly, as if somewhere a switch had been thrown, the storm began. With absolutely no warning, a bolt of lightning shot down from the black clouds, reaching out with glowing claws and striking the top of another neighbors dried, sickly tree. The dead leaves and sapless sticks mixed with the intensity of the electricity and sparked a small fire, that burned for only a few moments before the sudden downpour of rain extinguished it in a puff of smoke.
Startled by the explosively loud thunder clap, Riley decided that the search would once again have to wait. She slammed the shed shut and ran to collect the creatures as the rain picked up. She went towards Disgust first, knowing that she would most likely hate to get wet. She sped over, scooped up the tiny green figure, and protected her beneath her fingers. She turned to face Fear.
He had frozen.
He stood like a tiny statue, not even a shiver to make his body move. His glassy eyes were open wider than she had thought possible, despite the rain that that fell right in them. The appendage on his head stood straight up in an insane zig-zagging pattern, almost mimicking the shape of the lightning bolt that struck moments earlier. The smell of the smoke hit his nostrils, and his pupils constricted to pinpoints. His hands clenched, his muscles tightened, his body began to shake violently.
He began to scream.
It wasn't like the other yelps and shouts he had made while in Riley's presence. It wasn't a reaction of being startled or being worried. This was a shout of pure terror. It sounded less like he had been frightened by a lightning bolt or fire, but like he was experiencing some ungodly horror. The scream was deeply unsettling not only to Riley, but to Disgust, who had never once heard him emit such a terrifying sound.
When he ran out of air, he simply took in another breath and screeched again. And again. Riley, who had stopped momentarily when he had made the first sound, now dashed over to the insanely panicked creature. But before she was anywhere near, he took off. He bolted back towards the house, emitting that same screech with every exhale, screaming off at speeds he had never been capable of achieving before.
"Fear! Wait!" Riley had to scream to be heard over his horrible sounds.
"I DIDN'T MEAN IT." He screamed back, not really in response but as if he was talking to some unseen person. "THE FIRE IS BURNING. YOU NEVER LISTEN. IT'S TOO STRONG, IT HURTS. THE FIRE IS BURNING."
The girl could feel the little green creature in her hand grasping onto her flesh with every last ounce of strength, truly horrified at her coworkers sudden and insane outburst. Though thankful the wordless screeching had ceased, he was now spouting bizarre sentences that made almost no sense. He screamed them repeatedly like a broken record, each time with the same tone and inflection and each time at full volume.
"YOU NEVER LISTEN. I DIDN'T MEAN IT. I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING. THE FIRE IS BURNING. I'M SORRY, I'M SO SORRY."
Though she ran as fast as her legs could carry her, the insane energy of the being of pure panic made him impossible to catch. As her eyes tracked him racing his way to the house, she could see that the screen door looked off. She realized that the clunking sound the screen door had made was due to the frame catching on a rock, leaving a small crack as an entrance to the house. Fear blindly barreled his way through, screaming his way into the house like a madman.
Panicked about the creatures safety, Riley stayed hot on his heels. She was only moments behind, almost crashing into the side of the building. Flinging the screen door open for her and the companion gripped in one hand, she darted into the house and scanned the floor for the purple figure. But Fear was already out of sight. Though they couldn't see him, they could still hear him, screeching like his life depended on it. Taking only a split second to listen, Disgust pointed a lime green hand towards the living room and the source of the sound, and Riley ran that way.
But just as she did, just as she passed the front door, her ears caught another sound. It was the sound of an ancient car rumbling its way into the driveway.
Gasping, she whipped her head around to the clock. To her horror, she had completely lost track of time. It was already 5. Her cousin was home, and Fear was screaming, uncontrollable, and nowhere to be seen.