A/N: In case you are wondering as to how everything in Riley's head isn't working except her emotions, that's because during a coma no one is sure if the comatose person can hear and/or sense everything that's going on in the "real world" if you may. Some people who have awoken haven't remembered anything, others can remember some people talking. It's not like death it's kind of like a trance. Anyway, time for me to shut up now.

Chapter 4: In Which Riley Runs Barefoot through the Darkness.

Darkness. Pure darkness. That was all Riley could see, as ran through thick blue clouds and velvet violet tunnels. Her vision was blurred, everything distorted itself. There was no way to distinguish a shape from a color at that moment. All she saw was black.

It had been an odd transition, from a blinding flash of white to s sudden envelopment in darkness. It had all happened in a few minutes. She wasn't sure as to how she had gone from flying to suddenly running through a never-ending forest of tunnels that were the only silhouettes she could make out. She ran very slowly, trying to speed up, but failing. It was as if a force stronger than gravity was pushing her back. As though she was wading through thick molasses. She tried to move, but to her horror discovered that her feet were being held down by twisting black thorns, that shot up like roots from the ground, winding their way up her calves like snakes. She screamed but found no sound to come out, and she had a feeling no one would be able to hear her there-wherever there was.

She used all of her might to stretch her left leg forward, straining every hockey muscle she has used over the years. Finally, the thorns broke, splitting apart. Riley jumped to freedom but gasped abruptly once she realised they had turned to black sand beneath her feet. Looking down at them, she saw the floor was made of felt. There was no way to describe it's feeling however, she could only compare it to walking on water or air. As she felt herself drifted upwards suddenly as if her that of wind had appeared from nowhere, she saw a a suddenly bright flash of pink light. A thunderstorm was headed straight towards her, great grey nimbuses with electric lines winking at her. Riley's whole body froze; she tried turning in the opposite direction, but the wind grew stronger and only pulled her back into the storm. She helped and covered her eyes as she was suddenly encased in a dark cloud, the lightening's scorching power narrowly missing her each time it hit. Then, suddenly when she thought all hope was lost and she was about to be caught in a hurricane, she felt the smooth surface of glass in front of her. A long cylinder tube lay in front of her, with an opening just big enough for her to get into it. Not wishing to be blown about any longer, she swallowed any hesitation and crawled inside, using her arms as if treading water to grab hold of the tube and pull herself into it.

The reaction was instantaneous. No sooner had she huddled inside, an even stronger gale threw her wildly, and she was sucked straight into it. It was an uncomfortable sensation as she fell, like being trapped in a vacuum. She screamed on the way down, worrying if she had made the right choice or not. What if this lead somewhere even worse than a thundercloud? Maybe a piranha tank, or a furnace? Either way, whatever it was, she was sure to get hurt. Unwillingly, but still in acceptance of this, she placed her arms across her body, like sliding out of an airplane, bracing herself for the crash.

Three...

Two...

One...

THUD!

Riley landed on something solid and painful, like a pool filled with marbles. As she regained consciousness, she was amazed to find that that was exactly what she had landed on. A container, full of polished, multi coloured balls that seemed to glow softly. That's strange, she thought to herself, then looking around to see where she was, she saw that the spheres were bright because of how dim it was. She had landed in a purple room, a very large one, with patterns on the walls and floors. There was a ramp which lead up to another room, and doors that lead elsewhere as well. She noticed huge shelves stacked with what also looked like the rounded balls she had landed in, only they were dark grey and drab looking; like cannonballs, Riley thought to herself.

A sudden sound of voices made her jump out of her skin. She turned to see, to her surprise and confusion, what looked like a giant television screen, with a table, full of levers and knobs. There were people there-she gasped softly. People! Maybe they know what happened to my parents! she thought. She went to remove herself from the container, but suddenly stopped. She took another glimpse at the figures.

They looked like people, but there was no way they could have been. One was tall and burning like a candle, one was a lump with goggles, one was a short, stout looking creature, one was a ghostly looking thing in a robe and the other was a twig, which jerked around so much she couldn't ever see them fully. No. They weren't people, not humans anyway.

She felt an odd mixture of relief when she heard a female voice grace her eardrums. A high pitched one, yet still somewhere soft and gentle.

"This doesn't make any sense!" she was saying, "why isn't anything working?"

"It's all just...broken," came a low and sorrowful voice, who's gender remained a mystery.

"I think we might be dead, Are we Dead?!" came a shrill voice from the twigman.

"Of course we're not dead! The controls are bust that's all." came the drawl of another female.

"It's all his fault!" yelled the short creature, with a male voice so booming and loud, it made Riley wince.

The twig man jerked his thin body again, "M-M-Me?! What did I do?!"

"If you hadn't tried to snatch the controls from her," he pointed a thick hand to the glowing woman, "WE'D STILL BE UP AND RUNNIN'!"

"Not to mention we'd still have something fun to do instead of being stuck inside a plain old room with nothing to do." remarked the second female, who Riley saw had a full head of hair as she tossed it.

"Well I had to!" shouted the twig man, "She was going far too fast! It was bound to lead to an accident!"

"You Shut Up!" snarled the short man, "If you had just done your job correctly, none of this would have happened!"

"What do you mean "If I had done my job correctly?"

"It's your job to keep her safe you idiot! And now look where she is!"

"It's not my fault!" He turned to the woman who was still trying to start up a lever, "Is it, Joy?" he asked somewhat shakeily.

The woman put a hand on his shoulder, "No Fear, it isn't your fault." She turned to the stout man who had folded his arms in a scowl, "It's No one's fault. We've just had a bit of a malfunction, that's all."

"You can say that again," the petty female droned with another flick of the hair.

"We're shut down! Finished!" the short creature added.

"Ahh! What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?!"

The stout man slapped him, "Get a hold of yourself!"

"Ohh, we're never going to work again! That's sad."

"Now, Now Guys! I know this looks bad! But we can fix this! It just takes s

little faith and a little work."

"I'm too sad to work," the lump complained, shrinking.

"I thought you were upset about never having to work again?"

"That was before I realised there would be a lot of effort involved," the lump said, Riley could see it was also female as she fell to the floor, her face acting as a cushion.

"Well, we have to try. Anger! Try twisting that one! Disgust! Trying pulling that one! Fear!" He jumped. "You start up the switch! I'll try from here! Sadness, make sure you push the tear-jerker, crying might help her wake up right now!"

From her hiding place, Riley watched in curiosity as they all started taking bits and pieces from around the table and started turning them.

"Do you think it worked?!"

"Oh please, we only just started it up!"

"Yeah! It's not like it'll just magically turn on by itself!"

"Oh. How unfortunate."

'Let's test it-I'll get a memory!" the glowing girl rushed over to the wall. "Here." She snatched an orb and began furiously rubbing on it with her hands, arms and even elbows.

"Joy..." the snappy female said, sympathy in her tone, "don't. Please."

"It's fine! You guys, I think I saw a spark!"

"It's no use!" the short man said, "just give it up, we tried but nothing's working."

"We're not giving up! I refuse too!"

The plump one went to tug at her dress, "Joy?"

"Not now Sadness! Please!"

"But Joy-"

"I'm on to something!" she rubber even more vigorously, but the orb remained a lump of stone.

The twig named Fear sighed and headed towards her. "JOY! Stop it!" he said shaking her. The ball fell from her grip as he looked deep into her eyes. "Don't you get it?! Nothing's working. We're done. It's no use."

Joy stared, tears filling her eyes. Riley heard her sniff, sinking to the floor on her knees. Fear bent down and put an arm around her as she began to weep softly. The one named Sadness sat on the other side of her and out her head in Joy's lap.

"I-I thought that-if we-if I tried to-then it would-" she gave up, eventually crying into her hands. Disgust and Anger looked at each other and joined their friend on the floor.

"Well. I guess we have no choice but to stay here." he said.

"Yeah," Disgust said, "I guess there's really nothing else to do."

"Wait!" said Joy, sitting up "Yes there is!" She sprung up suddenly, the smile returning to her face, twirling towards the shelves. "How could I have been so clueless?!"

"Uhh, before jumping into anything, you might want to tell us why first?" Disgust said, her own tone of voice returning.

"The Core Memories! They're not going anywhere! They haven't faded!"

"Your point exactly?" said Anger irritabley.

"Don't you see?!" cried Joy delightedly, "We still have all our core memories intact! The emergency tube directed them to the box over here for safe keeping, Which I might add was Sadness' idea, nice going girl!" she congratulated to which Sadness grinned gracefully.

Riley, sensing the girl's voice to reach her began to bury her way into the brightly colored orbs, so that only her hair was visible.

"All we have to do is take a-" she stopped suddenly, curiosity staining her face.

"Joy?"

"I'd everything alright?"

"Umm..."

Riley felt a sudden, small yet strong tug of her hair, and closed her eyes as she heard a loud gasp.