All of the emotions looked at the main screen. None of them said anything.

"Joy..." Sadness then approached her, carefully stepping over the memories that were still all around the floor, "I know you tried to make Riley happy for at least a moment..." she chose her next words, so as to refrain from hurting Joy's feelings, "...but this isn't solving anything."

After Sadness said that, Joy stopped looking at the screen. The smile disappeared from her face.

She turned around, to face Sadness.

There was no arguing against the point that Sadness had made. Joy, crushingly, completely agreed with her.

Going back home was no option.

Going back to the hockey training was also no option.

Going to school, for whatever reason at this time of day - night, in fact - was definitely no option.

Or, to put it all too simply...

Going anywhere that made Riley happy was no longer an option.

Ever.

Under any - but genuinely really any other circumstances - Joy's next question would be what to do now.

Not anymore. After witnessing the events from the disgusting comfort of the headquarters, there was a heartbreaking truth that Joy realized...

She could no longer reach Riley.

That was the whole of it.

Joy could no longer reach Riley.

It took a long, long while for that realization to actually make itself solid in Joy's own thoughts. But once it did...

First, Joy burst into tears. Slowly.

Riley turned around. She was once again facing the city she lived in.

She once again saw that tall building.

She spent a lot of time - more than that - even more than that - staring at that building.

All the other emotions wondered why Riley was doing this.

Fear might have realized!

"Oh no..." he thought to himself, "...I'm not gonna let you do that."

And he pulled the levers backwards. To himself.

But it didn't work.

Riley still went forward.

In other words... the main deck was no longer working.

Joy didn't pay any attention to all those other, almost unimportant, things. There was only something else on her mind.

"I'm gonna go now, guys," she said to all other emotions.

The reactions that they all had to those words was... confusion.

"Where are you going, Joy?" Sadness asked her.

But Joy didn't respond.

She just kept moving. The opposite way from the main screen.

Away.

"Joy?" Sadness whispered once more. To no reaction.

"Joy?" Fear did the exact same thing. Still no reaction.

Joy just kept walking. Just in front of her.

"Joy?!" Anger exclaimed, in a somewhat more determined manner.

Nothing.

No attention was being paid to what was happening on the screen - that was now no longer in front of them, but behind them.

Riley had already made her way out of the beach.

And she was already making her way - simultaneously very slowly, for she wanted to keep feeling the cold city breeze for some more time, and with a lot of determination, for she knew, all too well, what she was to do next - in a new direction.

Not the direction of any of the places she had been.

No.

Somewhere entirely else.

The only place she had left.

The one place she always had left.

"Joy, will you stop already?"

That, and an overwhelming amount of similar exclamations, was pointed towards the one emotion that was, quite literally, always there for Riley.

The one emotion that Riley, now, abandoned first.

The other emotions' pleas were not reaching her.

And why should they?

Even if she were to listen to what they had to say, even if she were to suddenly regain her willpower, and so get back to the main deck, even if she tried to run that deck, in spite of it actually being broken, even if she tried her absolute hardest to find a way to make it seem like she "fixed" it...

Even if all of that were to happen - nothing would change.

It was already far, far too late for any of those actions to have any sort of heartwarmingly positive effect on Riley.

Already now was she aware of it.

Tile after tile after tile after tile.

That was the pace at which Riley was getting closer. And closer. And closer.

Still so, so far.

But with each new step, ever so closer.

No, she wasn't back at that place where she had received the phone call she very intentionally missed. It was somewhere way else she was heading.

But she wasn't all too far from that location, either.

She just kept moving forward, passing by literal hundreds and hundreds of people she would never meet, not even considering slowing down, let alone stopping.

During this seemingly unstoppable process of hers, there was something else she passed by, and used nothing but her peripheral vision to barely even notice.

It wasn't until a few more unbearably long seconds afterwards - that she stopped!

Riley's dad regained consciousness.

And it wasn't anyone but Sadness that noticed Riley having stopped.

For about the same amount of time, Riley did nothing but stand there.

Right then, she also felt something in her pocket. A coin.

Without a second thought, she turned back to what she had seen, and got exactly in front of it.

Took the coin out of her pocket. Carefully inserted it into the case. And dialed.

Ringing.

More ringing.

And a lot more ringing...

"Hello?" was finally heard at the other end.

"Hey, mom..." Riley uttered, "...it's me."

"Riley?!" her mom exclaimed, stopping the car, instantly getting on the verge of tears. "Oh my goodness, where are you? Are you okay?"

"Mom..." was all Riley said to it.

There was simply just one more thing she wanted to say to her mom. Saying that very thing was the whole point of that phone call.

But that which she wanted to tell her... was the same thing that her dad told her less than a full day prior... immediately after giving her a wound that time would not heal.

"I love you, guys," was all Joy told her fellow emotions.

She closed her eyes.

"We love you too," only Anger replied.

Not understanding what exactly Joy was attempting to do, Disgust was the first one to try to approach her.

Embarrassment was the next one.

Anxiety followed.

Those were the only emotions that even tried to make that first step to reach Joy.

Before she let herself fall over the edge.

"Joy, NO!" all the emotions exclaimed, using the full capacity of their lungs.

...

Joy was no more.

Riley hung up.