Being Alone

Sadness stirs next to Joy. Wiping away a tear, she looks into my eyes and confesses, "Being alone."

I swallow, my throat constricted with sudden tears. "That's your biggest fear?" I whisper, kneeling before her.

She inhales a shaky breath. "Y-yes. Being alone... it makes things...worse." She shivers. "It's like the walls start talking to me."

"S-sorry," murmurs Fear. All eyes to turn to her. "I guess I sometimes get a little too into my monologues."

I quirk an eyebrow. "You mean the movie quoting happens even without Myths around?"

Anger groans from her new perch against the couch. "You don't even know."

Fear shrugs. "I like dramatic scenes."

I shake my head, chuckles echoing around us. Sadness even exudes a small grin.

I turn back to Sadness. Hating to end the small joy, I focus back on her fear. "It's more than that, though, isn't it? More than the silence and being left to your thoughts?"

Sadness avoids my gaze. "Yeah. Being by myself isn't bad, not always. It's the feeling that those voices--Fear's, Myths' or my own... It's the feeling that they're it. They're all I will ever have, echoes and isolation. It's believing that everyone has abandoned me and it's all my fault." She hides her face in Joy's side, tears shaking her shoulders anew.

I nod, resting my hand atop hers. My own tears finally break the barrier and trickle down my cheeks. I know her pain, I realize, squeezing her hand in mine. I know her pain because ours is one and the same. I've experienced it before; many, many times before.

...

Join me tomorrow as I share how pain from our past can infiltrate our present and impact our future.