Happy New Year!

So sorry for the wait on this chapter. As with every year, the holidays were very hard on me. I struggled through a rut of terrible anxiety. And while it has gotten much better, I still have some more problems to overcome. Many thanks to KiffyBee and CoconutCinnamon for their constant and amazing support.

Also, another thing that pushed me forward to write this chapter faster was my young cousin Ally, who is roughly Riley's age. She read through my story in a stunning two days, telling her parents (my first cousin and her fiance) that it was as good as a professional finished book. TwT Support like that is what makes me want to write!

Speaking of, I ask that you please be sure to leave a review. It always helps, and I always read and appreciate every one. Thank you so very much. Here's to a great new year full of lot's of writing!

Chapter 36: Grave Situations

"In less than a week, Riley, we will die!"

"We will Die!"

"Die!"

The grim exclamation played on an endless loop in Riley's muggy mind, each repeat bringing with it another wave of dread upon her form. Her blood became as cold as ice, her heart sank to the bottom of her chest. With one dark declaration, Sadness had brought the high optimism of the group plummeting to the ground. The problem that they had assumed was just about solved now felt entirely hopeless. Certain death seemed to loom on the horizon.

Then, like a mental reset button had been switched, Riley's mind went totally blank. Her expression morphed from terrified to baffled. Something had scared her. Something had dragged her mind down into the depths of depression. But it was as if she had suddenly forgotten what. Like the words of the blue creatures statement had fallen apart into gibberish. Her mind had refused to accept the sentence as truth, and had simply deleted the entire phrase from memory.

With her thoughts now empty, Riley was forced to start the conversation over.

"W-wh-what..?" She stammered as her face grew pale."Wh-what did you say..?"

As if trained to do so in perfect unison, the three emotions; Fear, Anger, and Disgust, turned from Riley to Sadness. Their wide eyes and bewildered faces demonstrated that they, too, had been unable to fully comprehend what had just been said.

Sadness's ocean blue eyes darted from one face to the next, before finally she exhaled a mournful sigh. Her figure slumped forward, and she quickly fell into a seated position with her heavy head hanging.

"It's the withdrawal." She began at last, slowly removing her fogging glasses and wiping them clean with the bottom of her thick white sweater. "Emotions can't tolerate it for very long. It pushes our bodies to their limits. Just like a candle that burns with a brighter flame, it's sure to melt that much faster. Without a console to get the withdrawal under control, our bodies will basically burn themselves out. In less than a week, we'll... be no more..." Large tears began to roll down her light blue face and onto the hard wood floor.

An uncomfortable silenced lingered in the air for a few tense moments as the others took in this information for a second time. Their ears hadn't deceived them; they were now in real danger. Fear's hands were clasped so tightly that his knuckles turned a purple white. "W-w-we c-can't die..." His form shivered uncontrollably, the antennae like structure on his head twisting into a knotted zig zag. "What... What w-would happen to Riley..?"

"We aren't going to die!" Anger shouted, stomping a few steps forward, shoving Fear hard with a strong blocky arm as he stormed past. "We just have to get back home, and then everything will go back to the way it was. We... We can fix Joy in less than a week!" His ruby eyes flickered to the blue emotions face, unable to mask his own self doubt. "Right..?"

Sadness shrugged. "Making a recall pulse takes so much energy. Even the healthiest emotion experiences severe pain when it happens. She's so injured. Unless we can close those gashes, her body will never produce a recall pulse."

"But how do we close them?" Disgust's emerald eyelashes fluttered as she placed a hand on Joy's make shift mattress. "It seems like they're only getting worse with time."

As if to emphasize her point, Joy's arm suddenly jerked in her unconscious state, causing a few more golden light specs to fly off her wound. Riley stared with mournful eyes at the glistening particles floating effortlessly through the air.

"I... I don't really know..." Sadness sighed in defeat, placing her glasses back upon the bridge of her nose. "I never got a chance to finish that part of the manual. But as long as she continues to lose her energy beads like that, she's never going to recover."

Riley put her quivering hands to her now throbbing head. She was in no mood for more baffling information about these tiny creatures from her brain. She shut her eyes tight and massaged her temples. "Energy beads..." She grumbled to herself.

The cerulean emotion turned to her host, quickly taking note of her stressed body language. "Yeah." She tried to explain in her best calm voice. "They're basically raw emotional energy. All emotions are made up of these colored beads. The yellow ones are 'joy' in its purest form. We constantly deplete and replenish them almost automatically. But because of the withdrawal, Joy is using them faster than her body can replace them."

As she explained the emotional biology to her host, Sadness's eyes suddenly lit up. She lifted her head slightly, her gaze drifting up in deep thought. "Maybe..." She began with her brow beginning to curl in contemplation. "In headquarters, we replenish our energy much faster when we interact with the console; when we make you feel that same emotion. Maybe her body could absorb the joy from an alternate source..."

Fear and Disgust exchanged a brief, hopeful glance at the idea. But Anger breathed an exaggerated scoff and shook his head. "What are you saying?" He growled in utter disbelief. "If we all act happy, Joy will magically get better!?"

Sadness winced at the furious creatures sudden reaction. She had thought the idea seemed plausible... She brought her soft hands to her chest and once again lowered her head, sapphire blue hair spilling over her round face.

Retaliating for the defeated emotion, Disgust jabbed a lime green elbow into Anger's brick-like shoulder. "Hey!" She hissed. "Do you have any better ideas? I say it's at least worth a shot. We don't exactly have a lot of options."

"Or a lot of time!" Fear whined, roughly dragging his hands down the sides of his long face. "Besides, how are we ever supposed to stay happy when we can't even control our withdrawal?"

After a brief and silent pause, all four of the conscious emotions slowly turned their gaze to Riley. Surely, they thought, their host would know the answer. Lost with their own leader incapacitated, they looked to Riley for direction. She had managed to solve all their previous problematic situations with ease.

But the young girl refused to even lift her eyes. The child who was always so resourceful and full of brilliant solutions to even the most difficult problems was at a total loss. She shook her head, sniffling, unable to muster even an ounce of hope. They had come so far; she had managed to recover all five of the shattered fragments of her psyche, only to learn that it had all been in vain. Joy, she believed, was simply too far gone. Without the final recall pulse, the emotions were trapped in this world until their over worked bodies inevitably gave out. Riley's mind would remain incomplete her whole life, her thoughts numbed forever more. Riley pulled her knees close and began to softly whimper, ashamed that she was unable to offer her tiny companions any guidance.

A few glimmering gold particles began to dance past Sadness's vision. Wiping her eyes, she slowly turned around to face the source of the shining light specs.

Joy was awake now, lying in a more relaxed posture on the green foam, the aspirin having finally eased her pain. Her head was rolled to face the blue figure, whom she gazed at with a weak smile despite her condition. Large tears began to escape her eyes and roll down her cheek, removing a few more gold particles as they washed over one of the gashes. "Sadness..." She barely managed a whisper.

Sadness rose to her feet and solemnly shuffled towards the fading emotion. "Joy..." She sniffed, grasping at her sweaters thick turtle neck, beginning to cry once more. "I'm sorry..."

"Look at us." Joy continued, seeming to ignore the cerulean emotions last statement as her smile continued to widen. "We did it. We finally found each other... We're all together again."

Sadness froze for a moment in thought. Though she knew deep down that Joy's blind optimism was no doubt a result of her withdrawal, she was right. They had found each other. Sadness finally returned a smile. She turned to each of the other emotions, who exchanged glances between each other. Through all the panic and confusion, they had almost forgotten that, for the first time in what felt like ages, they were finally back together.

Silently, Sadness closed the gap between her and the golden creature, and she carefully embraced her weakened form. Joy's eyes gently shut as she beamed an expression of pure relief and happiness, and she sighed contentedly, her usual glowing aura began to strengthen.

Moved by the gesture, Disgust overpowered her own heightened emotion and joined the two, wrapping one petite green arm across both emotions shoulders. She was quickly followed by Fear, who had also approached to join in the embrace, trying in vain to hold the tears back in his huge, bright eyes, as his gangling limbs wrapped around his fellow figures. Even Anger, who opposed any and all physical contact, found himself joining as well, wedging his short form between Fear and Joy and reaching up with his stubby, thick arms.

For that brief moment; the withdrawal, the gashes, the uncertainty; none of that mattered to them. All that mattered was that they were together. They were a family again.

Joy nuzzled her face deeper into the arms of her fellow emotions. In a bright yellow flash, a good chunk of her missing golden particles reformed in her deep gashes, almost entirely sealing one shallow cut across her ankle.

Sadness smiled excitedly at the sight . She released the others and turned quickly to Riley, who had been silently watching the emotional exchange with a look of quiet awe and whose face had brightened significantly with a glow of hope.

"This will work." Sadness nodded, adopting Joy's optimism. "We can do this. We can still get back home."