Joy blinked her eyes open, slowly registering that she was in bed and the cuckoo clock on the wall was active. The little birdie chirped out a happy melody - something from The Sound of Music, Joy couldn't tell or care at this point. She sat herself up, stretching this way and that. She ached - last night had been a restless one. What had she dreamed about? There had been a dream about another Joy… and then, before that one, a less memorable dream. The details were fuzzy. Fear had been involved in that one - no, two Fears, and one of them was evil… oh, and Anger had been there. The details of that dream were foggy, but then again, thinking about that dream gave her a funny feeling, something telling her to dwell on that particular dream as little as possible. With this mantra in mind, Joy rolled out of bed, stepping on the Would You Rather cards - oh yeah, she had been playing Would You Rather with Fear last night, she remembered that much. Where even was Fear? She'd probably gone back to her own room after Joy had fallen asleep.
Once Joy had visited her wardrobe (why was the Little Black Dress ripped? No matter, she'd break out the sewing machine to fix it before she wore it next) and selected a particularly cute dress, a short, silky affair of lavender and white with a matching lacy top, to wear for the day, she turned her attention to the elevator. The lights flashed on and off before the doors opened before her. A rumble in Joy's stomach decided her destination for her: the kitchen, where she could grab a little something to eat and energize herself for the next couple of hours.
Fear was already in the kitchen when Joy got there, having seated herself at the little round table, flipping through the Mind Reader while munching on half of a cinnamon raisin bagel. Joy gave her a little wave as she walked past her. The toasted bagel smelled absolutely divine, but Joy wanted something a little more substantial for her breakfast. She stepped over to the cupboard and nudged the door open. The Honey Bunches of Oats looked particularly nice this morning, so she reached for the open box.
"Good morning to you, too, Joy."
Joy stopped short, holding the cereal box in her paralyzed arm. Fear's voice sounded… wrong. She knew, all five emotions (and Logic) had voices that sounded pretty similar to each other, and to Sarah, although with key differences. Normally, Fear sounded a bit bubbly, nasally, almost nerdy. Her voice could have belonged to a cartoon character (Fear had made that joke herself). Now, the words Fear used were like a satin gag fastening itself around Joy's mouth. Smooth, delicate, cool, and rendering her incapable of speech.
Joy could hear Fear standing up and approaching. "What's wrong, darling?" she asked softly, gingerly stroking Joy's cheek with one finger. "Don't you recognize your old friend Fear? Or perhaps you've forgotten the agreement we made last night…"
The memory returned in full force.
"Crumpets," Joy muttered under her breath. "It wasn't a dream."
Fear - not Fear, Terror - chuckled lightly. "Well, I can see where that idea popped into your head. Darkness does have a certain… magic of its own. Clipping apart the very fabric of reality. Blurring the line between what you see and what you think and what you see, until you are no longer able to tell what is real and what is not. I can assure you, I am very real. I'll let you eat, and then it's off to work we go…" With a wicked smirk and a sophisticated wave, Terror stood and left through the elevator.
Joy put the cereal box back. She wasn't hungry anymore.
Sarah turned from one side to another, stretching her neck and back as she sat up in her bed. What time was it? Her clock wasn't working, so she'd have to go downstairs to see. At any rate, the sun had risen, casting tiny slivers of light through her Venitian blinds and onto her butterfly curtains. The house was quiet, meaning Kate and Elizabeth were still fast asleep, thank goodness.
She had so much to do today. Read a book, write a story, practice her music, do her homework...
A beautiful Saturday morning. Anything could happen today. Anything…
A chill gripped Sarah's heart as she thought of this normally encouraging mantra. Anything could happen…
"Whazup whazup whazup? Elemasters in da house!" Joy turned around just in time to see Alex sauntering into the main control room. Hot on his trail were Colleen, burying her face in her hand, Caleb, making a desperate but futile attempt to hold down a giggle fit, and Maddie, her cheeks so red they could have been sunburned. Joy couldn't help but let out a few snickers of her own. The Emasters couldn't have come at a more perfect time. All day, she'd been keeping up the appearance of normalcy while still letting Terror maintain a constant presence at the console, making most of the day's memories tinged with lavender. Only a trained eye could tell the difference from normal memories, but Joy's eye had been well trained. She knew that being constantly on edge was going to change Sarah eventually, heck, she was feeling on edge! Now, she could finally reveal the secrets of the previous night to a willing ally.
"We can't take him anywhere," Maddie groaned, rolling her eyes.
Terror gave a cutesy smile and said in a perfect imitation of Fear's voice, "Good to see you, too!" Somehow, this scared Joy more than anything else she'd seen or heard.
Logic pressed the Time Freeze button, and the images on the monitor froze completely. "We'll reconvene in… half an hour? Does that work for everybody?"
"Works for me," said Disgust, grabbing Colleen's arm. "Come on, Colleen, you're coming with me. When was the last time you did your hair?"
"I'm not gonna answer that," Colleen snarked, rolling her eyes but following Disgust.
Now's my chance, Joy thought, locking eyes with Caleb. "Hey, Caleb!" she said enthusiastically, making an attempt to mask her uneasiness. "I found a new song on Music Island I think you'll like, come on!"
"Way ahead of you, Starburst!" Caleb was already halfway up the ramp as Joy ran over. Oh, those freakishly long legs… all part of his charm, I guess.
"Busy night?" Caleb inquired as he glanced at the scattered cards and the torn dress in Joy's room. Joy nodded, concentrated as she was with setting up her CD player. Caleb nudged the cards into a pile with his feet. Clearly, there was a story behind the state of Joy's room. And if he loved anything, it was a good story - or a good song, like the one Joy would soon share with him. Caleb slapped on a happy grin and sat himself down on Joy's bed, ready to be serenaded. Soon enough, a lively electric guitar riff hit his eardrums with surprising force. Before he could open his mouth to comment, Joy turned back to him with an expression of serious concern darkening her bright features.
"There's another reason I wanted to get you down here," she explained in a whisper. "I'm in serious danger, but I can't tell any of the other emotions about this."
"And I'm not an emotion, I'm a Character," Caleb continued, lowering his volume to match hers.
"Right. I should probably start from the beginning. Yesterday, Anger was getting Sarah in trouble again, and Logic had just about had enough, so she sent her to the Subconscious for the rest of the day. With me so far?"
Caleb, nodded, wondering where Joy was going with this.
"So she came back right before Sarah went to sleep last night, no harm, no foul. Fear wanted to spend the night in my room, and of course, I said yes. But then she started getting all panicky, hiding in the wardrobe. Anger came down here, grabbed her, took her and me up to the main control room." Joy paused, breathing heavily.
Caleb leaned in a little closer. "Go on," he urged.
"You won't believe me," Joy sighed.
Caleb laughed, "Joy, I live in Imagination Land. The theme song you guys gave me is "It's Possible". Try me."
Joy nodded, trembling more with every breath she took. "Okay. I'll keep this short, so I don't have to think about it more than necessary. So, turns out there was someone already there. She looked just like Fear, but… darker, I guess. She said her name was Terror, and she tried to merge herself with Fear. Apparently, Anger had done that with someone called Rage, and become Hatred. I tried to stop her, but I couldn't. She sent Fear to the Subconscious. She's taking her place, and she's blackmailing me into superseding control of my girl. She's changing things already, I know it."
Caleb tried to respond, but the words caught in his vocal cords. "Well," he finally managed.
"Do you believe me?" Joy pleaded.
Caleb shook off his shock and chuckled, "I don't see any reason not to believe you. You've never lied to me before."
"So you'll help me?"
"Well, this is Terror we're talking, so I know only about as much as you do. But tell you what. If things get worse for you over here, give me a call and I'll make sure you have a place to stay in Imagination Land, at least until all this blows over. And I won't tell a soul about this. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."
Joy smiled once again, a shaky but genuine smile. "Thank you so much, Caleb," she said as she hugged him. "You have no idea how much this means to me."
"Anytime, Sunshine," Caleb giggled as he let her hug him. "Anytime."
Logic drummed her fingers on the rim of the console, letting her mind wander while everyone else was taking their little break. Alex and Anger were yelling at each other - over something trivial, no doubt - while Sadness and Maddie were having a calmer discussion, probably about a book. Fear, on the other hand, was alone, by the core memory podium. Logic watched her out of the corner of her eye as she picked up a Core Memory. The solid blue one, the one connected to Greif Island. That one had been fading recently, so small wonder Fear was checking on it. She was likely keeping some sort of record about the memory's deterioration. Fear put the memory back after holding onto it for a second or so - rather tightly, though, as if it were about to slip out of her grasp. That was unusual. While it was certainly difficult to handle more than one Core Memory at once, Logic had discovered, through experimentation, that the same force that held the emotions' particles together helped them keep their grip on memories. The phenomenon was surprisingly similar to static electricity.
When Fear put the Core Memory back in its spot, Logic noted a slight change, only visible to someone seeking it. A slight sliver of the memory had turned purple. That gave Logic pause. There was no reason for it to have changed. Granted, certain memories could turn colors when touched by a specific emotion. For example, thanks to Disgust, most of Sarah's memories of elementary school had at least some green. Fear was careful about touching memories she knew she could turn, which were almost always related to past experiences that related to present fears. This did not apply to the Greif Island Core Memory. Fear had held it in the past, with no effect. How had she been able to change it now?
Now that Logic really put some thought into it, Fear had been acting strangely all day. She had never been the most social of emotions, but had barely spoken to anyone today. Anger had been the exception to that behavior. Fear and Anger had been whispering to each other intermittently throughout the day, when they thought no one had been looking. Logic had been unable to overhear their conversations, but they usually ended with a satisfied smile on the face of Fear. And despite Fear's apparent unwillingness to be social, she had spent an awful lot of time at the console. No matter the situation, Fear had found some way to get involved with the goings-on. The memories of the day were overwhelmingly purple, along with their normal assortment of colors, and a surprisingly low amount of yellow.
Speaking of which, Joy had also been acting strangely. She'd behaved more like a Fear than a Joy, constantly glancing around Headquarters, pushing buttons and levers with a great deal less energy than normal. She'd also taken this opportunity to dash away with Caleb to her private bedroom. Normally, she was so eager to spend time with Sarah that she never left the main control room during 'work hours', even while Time Freeze was active. Besides, there had been no new output from Music Island for weeks. Caleb didn't know that, but Logic did.
Something fishy was going on in Headquarters. Logic was going to figure it out before she went to bed, or else she was losing her touch.
The doors burst open. Ecstasy looked up from her paperwork. Mr. Grinch had stormed into the hotel lobby, carrying a large sack of some sort. "I need a place to dump this," he demanded. "What rooms are available?"
Ecstasy nudged open the hotel registar, frantically flipping through it until a vacancy caught her eye. "Will room eleven-thirteen work?"
"Wonderfully." The Grinch made for the stairway. Ecstasy could have sworn she heard a moan coming from the sack.
"If you don't mind me asking," she ventured, "what are you bringing up there."
"None of your business," the Grinch snapped before disappearing into the stairwell. Ecstasy stood there, staring after him, gathering her thoughts.
That dream she'd had last night - the angel - no, Joy - she'd said that there was going to be someone coming to the Subconscious. You'll know her when you see her. Ecstasy thought she had seen her. But so many questions remained: who was she? Why was she here? Why was the Grinch being so huffy about it? How come she'd never heard anything about it?
Everything was about to change, right here, right now. Ecstasy could feel it.