Looking Back is Blinding

Remedy to pain

Leo's perspective

Upon our entering the memory, the first thing I did was turn of all the lights. I had a few arrows in my quiver, and fortunately, the memory was at night time. The night Sal's best friend wasn't around to protect him, and he had to take in all sorts of bullets for every single movement he made.
There were three lanterns that were still functioning in the park. A 13 year old Sal was heading back to school after a huge conference party with his school mates.
Disappointed and let down as always by those closest to him, despite achieving wonders that night.
I hid in a conveniently big bush and waited for the bus to head out of sight. By the time it was gone, the red wraith had managed to claw into the memory through the portal I left open.

Without a second to spare, I snuffed out the lanterns and shot for Red's arm. And the arrow would've hit the target, hadn't he sensed my anger.
He swiftly rolled away from the arrow before going after me. While I did adore Red's energetic antics I was absolutely waiting for this very moment. I was livid. And it's all Red's fault.
The amount of pressure and work I had to put up with because of this kid was just too much.

"May I know why we're fighting?!" Shouted the red wraith before pouncing in my direction. I've run out of arrows at this point, and he took notice of that quite quickly. I drew my sword, and without taking out of the sheath, I aimed my hilt towards his head.
He quickly dodged it of course, children are quite the energetic demons after all.

"Because I'm pissed!" I shouted back at him.
You'd think separating any association with yourself from emotions would do ya good. But eventually, once you got someone to throw all the blame on. You just blow up.
And that's what I did.
I took my sword out, this time aiming for his nails. He'd give up fighting once he realised he had no way of fighting.

Sure enough, he jumped at me, extending his left claw,his nails blazing like a furnace.
I dashed at him, keeping my sword low until I was close enough to reach his claw.

When the claw was within two inches away from my face I swiped to Red's left, my blade cutting into his claw nails like a knife in butter.

His nails fell to the ground immediately. He got more furious, so furious in fact, that he started radiating flames. Everything close enough to him was reduced to ashes. He was unaware of that of course, his main concern was me.. As was he my main concern.

Now, he had two options. Continue fighting, or forfeit. Seeing how agitated he was, I knew he would give in, so I waited for a chance to strike him as he encircled me. The flames he emitted made it hard to see. Thus it was matter of time before I had to yield. I had no time to spare.
Within moments, he dashed at me with his nail-less claw, his aim ambiguous.
I ducked, then quickly tackled Red as he lost his footwork.

To which Red's response was muttering in jibberish before storming off further into the memory.

"Where ya goin', Red?" I teased
Without looking back at me he scowled
"Away from you, Leo. Leave me alone" he shouted in defeat.
Red sure looked scary. All of Sal's emotions looked scary if you were to ask me. He's at that age after all.
But if there was an emotion that was easy to confront and win over. It would be the loudest cry for help, when sorrow didn't do his job properly that is.
"Aw come on, Red. Help me out here, would ya? Please? Pretty please?" I teased further, poking at his cheeks while maintaining safe distance from his embers.

"Screw off"
He took off. And I chased after him.
Of course it wasn't that hard chasing after Red, he's still a kid after all.

"Leave me aloneeeeee" he cried.
"No" I smiled, poking his adorable red cheeks once more.
"I'm here to help you, silly" I chuckled
"Oh yeah? Prove it!" He stood his place, thumping his feet as loud as he could.
Without hesitation, I pulled him towards me and hugged him. It may have seemed funny to me, but to him it meant a lot.
"How come no one gives me hugs often?" He whimpered
"Well. It's not like you ask now, do you?" I looked down at him. He shrinked in size the more time I spent embracing him..
Hugs are important, more than one can imagine.
I calmly rubbed his back, his stiffening easing up as I reached the centre.
"There there, better now?"
"Yes" he breathed.
Red's anger slowly faded. His vibrant Red hue splitting into a faint Red and a deep blue.
He quietly drew a safety horn and put it to his lips.
He was about to call forth his younger twins out of hiding.

A few moments later, Two twins stood before me. Sorrow and Pain. Red's, Anger's, younger twin siblings.

"You'll draw us back to sleep, right?" They looked at me with hopeful eyes.

"Of course" I smiled.

"Now. We need to shut fear up. Would you three help me?"

All three beamed at each other, before looking back at me. They nodded in unison. Cute.

I took the twins in my arms while Red led the way back to the portal. We were headed to the archives of Joy. The place where every horrid memory is stored, scrutinized and thoroughly drained to create "what if" situations where a better outcome could be reached.

It's Fear's kingdom. And we were about to storm it.

"Ready, boys?" I didn't wait for a response, we simply dashed out of the memory. And headed towards the horrible fog that now filled the memory tunnel.

"Dear lord.. here we go" I sighed.