Oh my goochies! Thank you all so much for the reviews! I'm on summer vacation now and thought I'd post at least one chapter before the movie comes out! GAH! So excited right now!
She had come out of the shower about three minutes ago and was dressed in a tan-colored, midriff-revealing shirt and her favorite pair of jean capri pants. The cold sopping wet ends of her hair touching her bare lower back didn't make her too happy at all. But there was one quick way to solve it. She placed the hairdryer's plug-in into the electric socket against the wall. She liked wearing her medium-length mane down rather than up in a high ponytail or a twist bun.
Emmeline, known by family and friends as Emmy, thought she had heard a thump of some sort outside that bathroom door. She expected it to be one of her brothers, for sure.
~Inside Emmy's mind
"Who else?" Repugnance said, rolling her eyes. "That's what brothers do, particularly little brothers. Dad's at work, and Mom's running a few errands." She carefully watched in the mirror how and where Emmy was blow drying her light brown hair.
Elation finally came down from her room and joined her fellow Emotions. "Morniiinnnng" She greeted melodically, which no one responded to. She sipped at a freshly made yellow mug of coffee and watched Repugnance's work contently, silently amused by the wet hair waving about in the blowing air like a flag. "Lookin' good, Pug."
"Please don't call me that." The fashionable, green Emotion grumbled, disgruntled at the nickname.
The headquarters interior of Emmeline's brain was like the average headquarters of the brain, only in a mix of a high school setting and pastel-colored version of a glamorous teen girl's bedroom. Even most of the Emotions had a pinch of the fashion sense of a uniform-required high school, from clothing to the female Emotions' hairstyles.
"It's probably Ace," Rage theorized. "Gallivanting around like that every morning. And the brat doesn't even need to have coffee or Red Bull."
"Oh, go- Don't even get started on Red Bull." Repugnance mumbled and sneered at the memory of Emmy having a sip of that awful stuff and spewing it out almost right away.
"Well, all the more for him." Elation chimed, winking at Repugnance.
"And Erik isn't the type to do stuff like that." Misery pointed out, wringing her hands around the blue ponytail that reclined against her left shoulder. "He should be getting ready right now."
"Well, just as long as he isn't running around and making any noise." Fright assured, trying to loosen up the tension.
A gurgling and choking noise sounded outside and a few feet away from the bathroom door.
"There he goes." Rage grumbled. "I say it's about time we tell the little poop to put a sock in it. If only we could break his little legs."
"Um…" Fright thought out loud nervously. "Gurgling is okay, but I'm not too sure about the choking sound."
"Even still, it's probably Ace." Repugnance sighed.
"Choking could mean anything…" Fright insisted. "Anything dangerous and life-threatening."
"At ease, soldier." Repugnance rolled her eyes.
Frustrated, Emmy turned off the hairdryer and marched to the doorknob.
"You pesky, hyperactive, little…" The sixteen-year-old girl grumbled through gritted teeth. She turned the knob to open the door
She looked to her left. Down at the floor. So that's where that choking noise was coming from. But all for the wrong reasons. In fact one of the worst reasons ever!
"Omigosh!" Emmy shrieked out in a whisper. Her heart raced inside her. How badly she wanted to scream bloody murder. "Erik!"
Erik was lying on the floor on his side. This was nothing like she had ever seen. He shook violently in rhythmic patterns. His arms and legs were contorted in random positions, and his hands were rigid. His dilated eyes seemed to want to roll into the back of his head but could only get so far back and were stuck in that position. His tongue was unconsciously being chewed on between teeth that swung back and forth between clenched and open. Saliva with a tinge of blood leaked from his half-agape mouth. His breathing was either shallow or nonexistent, and his face had turned a shade of blue.
Fright was screaming at the top of his lungs at pitches even shriller than the screams heard in the horror films Emmy's Emotions had watched. He pressed several buttons rapidly like a concert symphony pianist.
"Oh. My. Lord." Elation gawked. 'Little brother' Erik was acting like this—and even worse, involuntarily.
"Erik! Wake up!" Emmy said in loud whispers and she pulled her brother's forcefully tilting head onto her lap. "Snap out of it!" She began lightly slapping him in the face. "C'mon, Erik! Wake up!...Come on…"
"Oh, forget this, he's not coming out of this any time soon." She said frantically. She made herself stop slapping him and held his head gently in the hopes it'd stay in place. Nervously, she looked to her right. Through the doorframe of one of the bedrooms, she saw her youngest brother fast asleep in his Avengers-themed bed. "The brat had better not wake up."
"Because we only need one person freaking out." Rage finished Emmy's sentence. "I mean, can you imagine…?" Misery quietly twirled a knob clockwise.
"What are we doing?" Elation asked, concerned. "Slapping isn't going to do anything."
"We stopped already!" Rage snapped. "Thanks, Mis."
Fright ran around the room in random directions like a chicken being chased by a recently unchained dog. It was a wonder he hadn't passed out already. No doubt, he was frightened.
Well, everyone inside Emmy's brain was frightened. In some way or another, it showed on everyone.
"Tell me he's going to be okay." Misery pleaded to her associates, wringing her hand around her hair once more.
"He should be." Elation tried to say through a sad but forced smile. "I think so."
Emmy kept her brother close, even if he could stay on the floor. Surprisingly she had calmed down a bit, even though she was screaming on the inside.
"If only I had paid more attention in Health Class, let alone that babysitters' First Aid class." She wished through a shaking whisper. "Then I'd know what to do."
She noticed something as tears barely leaked from her eyes. Erik's shaking body was calming down. His face was still a bit blue, but he was finally breathing. In the midst of his spine-chilling, labored sighs, a moan escaped his lips.
Emmy managed a sad smile. "It's okay, Erik. It's okay." She absent-mindedly assured in a soft, high voice as if to a baby. "It's going to be okay."
"'Okay'?" Fright repeated, holding himself tightly behind a lime green bean bag and barely watching Erik. "Do we really, really mean that?"
Elation had just pressed a few switches. She winked and tilted her hand sideways back and forth in a more-or-less gesture.
Remembering what she could from her first aid class, she rolled his deadweight body onto his side and folded one each of her brother's arms and legs into the standard recovery position. She winced at some quick, slight pain somewhere in her back and shoulder. "Must've pulled something. Gah!" Something struck her. "What the heck am I even doing?""
"We should call Mom." Misery said rushed. "She'd know what to do."
"Good thinking, Mis." Elation patted Misery on the back.
"But we can't leave Erik like that." Fright protested, finally crawling out from behind the bean bag."Who knows what'll happen to him when we leave."
"It's only for less than a minute." Repugnance tried to assure the panicky Emotion but in an annoyed manner, which wasn't very assuring at all. "We'll get the phone and come back up really quick."
"I'll be right back." Emmy absent-mindedly told her unconscious brother. Unwillingly, she left her brother and ran to the house's foyer and snatched up the landline phone. She dialed her mother's number as fast as she could, messing up a couple times and trying again. There! She pressed the 'Talk' button.
~'Oh there's no*buzz* place like home *buzz* for the holidays, *buzz*
'Cuz no mat-*buzz*-ter how far*buzz* away you roam,*buzz*'~
Emmy turned around to find the source of the holiday song and buzzing coming from the kitchen counter.
"Oh, shoot." Rage grumbled. "Darn it, Mom."
"This isn't happening." Fright whimpered.
"Oh, but it is." Repugnance said, believing the situation as much as she believed in hell freezing over.
Her mom had left her cell phone at home.
"Shoot." Emmy hissed, biting down on her lip.
"Now what?" Misery said, feeling hopeless. Her chin had begun quivering. The other four had to act fast before the Eeyore-like Emotion would break out in another crying fest.
"Eureka! I got it!" Elation shot, raising her hand. "We call 911."
"But remember the last time we called 911, we got into big—" Fright tried to protest.
"Scrap it, fraidy cat!" Rage shouted and slapped away the paranoid purple Emotion. "Let's do it!"
On a roll, Emmy hurriedly punched in the three-digit phone number and Talk button and hurriedly flew up the staircase. She had barely reached the top of the stairs when the dispatcher picked greeted.
"911. Where's your emergency?"
"54147-South-Blanton-Street!" Emmy blurted her sentence as if it were a single long word.
"Easy does it." Elation coached, trying to gradually guide Fright away from the console. "I know just happened is a good legit reason to be scared—"
"But now we can't show it." Repugnance finished. "Emmeline's sixteen, so we've gotta act it."
"Well said, Pug." Elation complemented. Once again, the green Emotion frowned.
Elation pressed two buttons in a gentle rhythm.
Emmy mentally took a few deep breaths as it probably wouldn't' sound best for the dispatcher to hear prolonged puffs over the speaker.
"What's your emergency?"
"So…my brother was spazzing out in the hallway upstairs…he was unconscious, he wasn't breathing…"
"What time did he start spazzing?"
"Erm…" She picked inside her brain. "I wasn't there when he started. I saw him spazzing at about 7:20."
"How long was he spazzing—convulsing?"
"How should we know?!" Rage shouted. "Who the H-E-double-hockey-sticks is calm enough to track how long?!"
"That's what the word was." Misery said. "'Convulsing'. Rats!"
As much as Elation tried to take control of the situation, Fright wouldn't leave the console alone, thus a pinch of fear escaped through Elation's effects.
"I don't know, ma'am." Emmy responded nervously.
"Has he stopped convulsing?"
"Y-yes."
"What's your name and address?"
"Emmeline, Emmeline Netzel." She said more calmly. "My address is 54147 South Blanton Street."
"Okay, Emmeline. I'll send some paramedics over to assess what just happened with your brother."
"Okay."
"Sis…?" She heard a weak call. Emmy smiled, sadly but with relief.
She returned to the phone. "Thank you very much. He's awake now. Thank you."
"You're very welcome. You may hang up now."
Emmy pressed the 'End' button to hang up and turned to a barely awake Erik.
"Thank goochies!" Fright sighed. Everyone heaved a large sigh of relief and collapsed to the floor. The lavender Emotion shot back up, standing up straight. "Seriously, though, is Erik okay?"
"Well, let's find out." Elation answered.
"Hey, Erik," Emmy called softly, smiling. "How're you feeling?"
"'How're you feeling'? 'How're you feeling'?!" Anger repeated before replying sarcastically. "Just peachy! We've never felt better in our lives!" In all reality, he felt like he was having a hangover.
"What happened?" Fear asked anxiously. All he could remember was being in total darkness and pain—surges of stinging pain.
"How should we know?" Disgust pointed out. "We just fell asleep in the hallway." She silently reviewed what she just said when her eyes shot wide open in shock and slight repulsion. "Why did we fall asleep in the hallway?"
"Look at me." Emmy continued to talk in a calm, light voice, hoping this would conceal how freaked out she was.
Erik drowsily looked up at his sister. He smiled before saying, "Hi, sis." Thing was his s's was a mix of 's' and 'f'.
"How're you feeling?" She asked him again.
"Ogay." He responded. "Ti-yud (Tired)."
"Okay, we fell asleep and woke up after a while. So, why do we still sound like a drunk?" Disgust asked. "We'll try again, but we'll put more emphasis into an exact pronunciation."
"Kmph!" Disgust, Sadness, Fear, and Anger heard the combination of a snort and a suppressed laugh from the corner.
"What's so funny?" Sadness asked.
"Em?" Erik called, attempting to speak clearly.
'Okay, that was a little clearer' Erik's Emotions thought in unison.
Meanwhile, Emmy's Emotions were in mildly peaceful spirits but still extremely cautious after what just happened.
"Okay," Elation said, finally smiling without any force behind it. "He's awake—and talking. Now that's what I call progress."
"Could be." Fright noted. He remembered at least something from those health classes. "Of course, slurred speech is one of the main symptoms of a stroke. But did they ever say a stroke involves convulsions?"
"Not that I recall." Rage shrugged. "Somebody check on him again."
Fright remembered the age-old method of testing how functional a person was after being unconscious—well, at least knocked out. He quickly twisted a knob.
"Hey," Emmy called. "Erik?" The teenage girl held her hand a couple feet away from her brother's slightly puffy face. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
"That old one?" Repugnance raised her upper lip.
"It was the only one I could think of." Fright said. "For the moment."
"Fibe." Erik responded.
"Wonderful, grand. Bravo, bravo." Repugnance sarcastically applauded Fright's move.
"Well, he knows we've held up all five digits on our hand." Misery smiled. "That's promising."
"So close yet so far." Sadness reported. Anger smirked. Disgust was ready to bang her head against something, but of course she couldn't mess up her neatly kept complexion. Of course, she was now finding herself brushing off smoke remnants off her cute green dress.
Joy smiled in a light sense of pride. She took another look at Disgust and chuckled again.
Disgust and Anger lightly glared at the glowing Emotion. After all, how could anything be funny in a time like this? Fear could only raise an eyebrow in the midst of his worrisome frown.
So much was on Emmy's mind. With no means to contact her parents, she hoped she was juggling at least four balls of chaos splendidly. She had probably never been so scared in her life. She finally looked at the clock on the hallway wall—7:42.
"This is so not happening." Fright sulked on the floor.
"Oh, but it is." Repugnance repeated the déjà vu, believing the situation even more than she did before.