Again, thanks so much for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! It really makes my day! And as an FYI, I won't be accepting any requests to feature anyone or anyone's fan characters in this story.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Sadness and Fear tiredly cringed at the shrill screaming coming from the break room. As serious as the situation was, Joy couldn't help but chuckle every time she looked at Disgust.
"Lookin' good, Bride of Frankenstein." Joy complemented.
"Joy!" Disgust screamed, being officially the most awake being in Headquarters. "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING EARLIER?!"
As Joy had paid homage to the old monster movie heroine, the green Emotion's hair was standing almost straight on end, smoldering at the tips and ruining the perky yet meticulous trim job.
"That's great, Disgust." Anger said, after releasing a smirk at the epic failure of a hair style. "But we've got more important stuff to focus on."
Erik heard his sister calling both elementary and junior high schools and saying that neither Erik nor Ace wouldn't be coming in today due to a family emergency. Well, she had to call 911, so it must be a legitimate emergency for Ace to be absent. Keeping the home phone close, Emmy had never left her side; she didn't even dare to.
"Are we sure he's okay?" Fright asked.
"For the billionth time…More! Or! Less!" Rage answered harshly, shaking his associate with each of the three annunciated words.
"But in reality, we're not all that sure." Misery reprimanded.
Almost seconds after Emmy finished her last phone call, the brother and sister both heard an urgent knock on the front door of the house.
"They're here." Fear and Fright said under their breaths in unison. "OMG; they're here."
"Well, then," Joy and Elation said simultaneously, nervous but somewhat secure about the situation. "Let's get this show on the road."
"I'll be right back. That's probably the ambulance." Emmy told Erik.
"Ooh cawed un ambuwunce?" Erik asked.
"Yes, I did. Promise me you won't freak out or bite them." She smiled forcibly.
"Ogay." He assured with a chuckle, weakly smiling at his sister. "Em?"
"Yeah?" She turned around.
"Wuh 'bow high sh-goo?" He asked.
"Don't worry; I'll get there. Even if I'm a few minutes late." She winked before dashing to the front door. She took a quick, deep breath and opened the door.
A quintet of men dressed uniformly in pine green pants and short-sleeved, button-up shirts stood at attention. A few of them had bulky, cloth-lined cases labeled with the Red Cross.
"This is like the army." Misery commented. "Kind of."
"Only not as intimidating." Fright added, taking a gulp. "But more intimidating than a pizza delivery guy."
"Is this the location of 54147 South Blanton Street?" One of them quickly but clearly.
"Yes." Emmy managed to say calmly. "Yes, it is." She opened the door wider to let the well-prepared crew into the house, of course while stepping out of the way. "Just follow me." She led the band towards the more specific scene of the emergency.
Meanwhile…
"Easy, easy, not too close to the double yellow lines—AH! Watch out! Crazy driver at our left!" Mrs. Fear directed while she pulled two levers—left one up and right one down in correspondence to the steering wheel.
Surprised by this potentially dangerous encounter yet having enough common sense in this panic to keep functioning and not freeze and scream, Mrs. Netzel swerved out of the driver's way and made sure she made in back into the lane in time before another car could come through the other lane.
"Whew!" She sighed once the encounter was out of sight behind them.
"Hmph!" Mrs. Anger snorted while crossing her arms, turning away from the rearview mirror within the car. "Road hog. Nah, idiot is more like it."
Mrs. Joy, ignoring the well, angry Emotion stepped up to the console and turned a knob, letting Mrs. Netzel turn the volume up on the radio.
Mrs. Netzel turned the volume up on the radio by twisting a knob, curious to see what was playing on whatever station she was listening to last.
"I came in like a wrecking baaalllllll!" blared from the radio. She looked a little surprised at the stereo controls and expressed her disbelief through a smirk-tinged face.
"Yeah, just like that idiot driver." Mrs. Anger commented.
"Bleurgh! No, thank you." Mrs. Disgust sneered as she pressed a button as a sequel to her cheery, glowing associate's action. After buzzing through fifteen channels, she finally found something that definitely fit Mrs. Netzel's taste of music.
"I'm starting with the man in the mirror, ooh!" played more smoothly.
"Ah," Mrs. Netzel breathed through a content smile. "Much better." She looked at the small digital clock between the air vents—7:46. "Man, who knew an errand like that would take so long." She paused, forgiving herself for taking an extended time than what she had intended. "Well, we'll be home in time to pick up the kids, drop them off at school, do some—"
"OH MY! OH MY! OH MY GOODNESS!" Mrs. Fear screamed. "WHAT'S HAPPENING?!"
Mrs. Sadness ran post haste to the console and pushed down as hard as she could on a large button.
Pressing on the gas pedal, Mrs. Netzel made her way to the curb in front of the house. In front of her had already parked an ambulance, a fire engine, and two police cars. In the forces of adrenaline and fear of the worst, she dashed out of her parked but still running car and into the house.
"Ace! Erik! Emmy!" She called urgently. "Gang?"
"Mom?" Erik tried to reply through his weak, incoherent voice.
"Mom!" Emmy cried in relief and ran to greet her mother.
"Mom's here." Anger announced. Erik's Emotions sighed with relief.
"Even still, what happened?" Sadness asked again. Suffice it to say, that was the most popular question this morning—enough to be this morning's motto. But today was too scary to be irked by the constant repetition of said question.
"What happened?" Mrs. Netzel asked, following her firstborn.
"He started spazzing this morning." Emmy explained, totally forgetting to say the correct word for what Erik had done. "But don't worry; he's stopped."
"Oh boy." Mrs. Netzel said under her shaking breath. "I'd better call the school and tell them Erik's not coming in today."
"I took care of that. Ditto with Ace and his school."
"'Kay." Mrs. Netzel looked at the hallway clock—7:49. "You've gotta go to school; we're running late."
"S'okay, Mom. I'll run like heck and get there, even if I'm late."
"All right. See you, love you, be safe." She quickly gave Emmy a kiss on the cheek. And with that, the teenager snatched up her backpack from her room and flew out the door.
"Thank God, we're out of there." Rage said, working with the two large handles like the handles of a motorcycle as he increased Emmy's speed in the dash to school. Luckily, it was a fifteen-minute moderate trek between home and classes. "Those guys were asking us the same questions that 911 lady asked us."
"You're sure we're okay leaving everyone there?" Fright asked, wanting to look behind at the house.
"Yes." Repugnance said, rolling her eyes. "Remember the times Emmy and the boys got hurt? The scraped knees? Road and rug burns? Mom has always known what to do. This was our first time handling something like this!"
"And we didn't do too badly at all, didn't we?" Elation swelled with pride at today's accomplishments. Nobody responded.
"I still hope he's okay." Fright bit down on his lip.
"Hey, buddy." Mrs. Netzel greeted, kneeling down at her son's side. "Everything's gonna be okay."
"Okay, ma'am; we'll be asking your son a couple of questions." A paramedic announced. "But you're fine to stay with him if you like."
"Mom?" A younger voice greeted behind her. "What's happening?"
In Ace's mind
"What's the matter with Erik?" Panic asked.
"He looks sick. Really sick." Blues commented, squinting her eyes and almost crying at the sight. "Maybe he barfed or something." Everyone remembered last month's stomach flu incident and the all-night prayer meeting before the toilet gods.
"Well, thank goochies that Mom's here." Distaste smirked as she tried to be oblivious to the more than awful reminder. "Nothing she can't fix."
"Wow…" Happiness whispered and leaned against the console in admiration. She was oblivious to whatever Blues or Distaste had to say. "Can you hear the sirens outside?"
"It's terrifying." Panic whimpered, holding himself closely.
"But it's gotta be cool." Happiness finished. "Police cars, fire trucks, but forget the ambulance and whatever these guys are, para-something."
"This is serious stuff, Miss Dreamer." Madness snapped, shoving Happiness away from the console. "Now isn't a good time to get our heads in the clouds."
"Hey, pal." Mrs. Netzel sadly smiled and wrapped her hand around Ace's. "You doing okay?"
"Yeah." Ace tried to smile for his mom. "What happened?"
"Erik got very sick." The nervous woman managed to explain without getting too graphic. "These people are going to help him."
Ace grimaced at the news and the site of his mysteriously ailing big brother. "Oh," He piped. "Is he gonna be okay?"
"He should be." She reassured. "By the way, no school today."
"Okay." He stood beside his mom's shoulder, more unsure of the situation than ever.
A paramedic had caught Erik's attention. "Hold still," He instructed as he held Erik's lower left arm. A needle's single poke on his hand made Erik wince in pain. The paramedic mentally listed a few simple questions to ask. "What's your name?"
"Eh-vick." Erik answered, puzzled at a question as simple as that.
"'What's your name,'" Anger growled after the question was asked twice again. "What are we? Idiots? Amnesiacs? And what's with the poking? Do we look like a stinking pin cushion?"
"They're probably running tests; one of the guys said that." Sadness said. "Simple ones like blood sugar, glucose levels, that kind of stuff."
"What day of the week is it?" The same paramedic asked.
"What day is it? What day is it?" All five of Erik's Emotions pondered in thought. All of a sudden this was a hard question to answer; they had to really think on this one. Fear tried to recall a memory, but due to whatever had happened things were running a bit slow.
"Um…Tuesday!" He guessed aloud after five seconds of no results.
"No, it's gotta be…umm…Monday!" Disgust said from a distance, coming out once her hair was fixed.
"Yeah, Monday." Sadness echoed.
"Yup!" Anger said.
"Monday, it is." Joy decided and pushed a button.
"Mum-bay." Erik responded.
"Correct." The paramedic gave him a thumb-up. "And what's your name again?"
"Eh-vick."
"Day of the week?"
"Mum-bay."
"Monday." Erik's Emotions agreed once again a few seconds after having to think about it, and Joy tiredly pressed the same button. For some odd reason, it became difficult to remember some things.
"The name question is no problem." Fear said. "But the day of the week question takes a bit of work."
"We all know Erik's name is Erik, and nothing else." Joy said. "And today is ummm…Monday."
Anger growled at what paramedics he could see on the screen. "Okay, wise guys, we aren't that brain dead! We just can't be! We'll show you!" He turned to his colleagues. "Quick! Let's think of a basic but not too basic math problem. Fractions! What's two and one-quarter equal to as an improper fraction? Go!"
"Um…" Disgust tiredly hummed.
Fear tried to recall the memory of a similar question from last week's math test, but it was coming up the same speed as the Monday memory. The purple Emotion shrugged in defeat. "Dunno. We're stumped. Too brain dead, I guess."
"I can't think of anything." Joy pursed her lips together and looked outside at the rest of the mind to see the slow unsteady progress of the mind's mechanisms. "I know what you're asking."
"We all do, Joy." Disgust told her dully.
"I just can't make out the answer." The yellow Emotion finished.
"Okay, maybe Erik's mind is that brain dead." Sadness sighed, sinking to the ground.
"Dang it!" Anger hissed. "Neither can I."
"Oh!" Fear exclaimed. "Six divided by three!"
"Two." Disgust answered, still not too happy. "It's always been two. No-brainer."
Everything was silent for about half a minute as they watched paramedics run tests on Erik, ask Erik the same questions one or two more times, and discuss things between each other and Mrs. Netzel.
"I think I might know what probably happened." Sadness announced. She sat on the sofa in the exact same position as the Thinker statue.
"Oh?" Disgust responded skeptically.
"What then?" Fear asked, preparing to hear the worst.
"Erik may have just passed out." Sadness theorized. Everyone cocked an eyebrow at her. "Remember that one girl back in third grade? One day, just out of nowhere she passed out, collapsed and fell to the ground, chair and all. The school nurse came and had to check on her before taking her to the nurse's office. When the girl came to, she was groggy and weak, like Erik."
"Touché." Disgust said.
"Good thinking, Sadness." Fear complemented.
"So, that's what it's like to pass out." Joy said, aspired by Sadness' momentary brilliance.
"I'm not saying that as an absolute truth." Sadness pointed out. "Does passing out have any relations to the flashing lights and rumblings before things blacked out?"
"Don't ask me." Anger said. "I know about that as much as you do."
Erik was still feeling groggy and yawned. He couldn't stay on the floor for forever. With a bit more effort than usual, he pushed his arms and hands against the floor to sit himself up.
"Erik, honey," Mrs. Netzel coached. "Don't push yourself too much."
"Iz ogay, Mom." Erik assured. As much as he felt (and sounded) like a zombie, he had to show some signs of improvement. If he couldn't show it mentally or verbally, no thanks to the gruesome twosome consisting of slurred speech and weak cognitive thinking, he could at least try physically. He had managed to sit himself up—without any assistive support.
After all, he just passed out. That's the worst that could've happened.
So, I watched the movie. And my goochies, it was amazing! It's right up there with Up & Wall-E, and is easily one of the best cartoons I've ever seen. I've seen it three times already (obsessive, I know) and hereby declare that you must watch it. It definitely had its moments, both happy, funny, and sad—sad enough to the point I cried. I'll see you next chapter, fellow Insiders!