The Value of a Number

Chapter 8 The Grand Apology: Finale

Four looked at Flower then at everybody else.

There was no escaping.

Four clenched his fists, he sealed his eyes shut, and swallowed hard. As he swallowed, he could feel a huge lump at the back of his throat. It felt terrible.

Four hated how he felt. He felt like he was suffering, he felt lost, vulnerable, lonely, weak, pathetic, and... worthless.

Four opened his eyes and began to finally talk.

"I feel lost, scared, lonely, pathetic, and I feel... worthless. I want to change. I DON’T want to be a a MONSTER, I DON’T!!!! I want...to... change. Be... better.", Four stopped as he felt himself shaking. He felt tears forming at his eyes. Four slammed his eyes shut. He was not going to cry! No way!!!!!!!!!

Flower stepped in. She was not going to have it.

"Stop fighting it, Four. Let it out.", she said.

Then, Four unclenched his fists, he opened his eyes, and allowed his tears to fall. The tears fell with no effort at all. His shaking became so bad that he could not stand anymore. Four fell sharply to his knees, scraping his left knee.

That's when Four cried.

Four cried. He started out soft and quietly, then it began to get louder, then after a few moments, his cries got so loud that he finally was sobbing and wailing from the sheer weight of all of his troubles.

The contestants and the hosts watched with pained looks and sympathy as Four helplessly sobbed from everything. Tears fell from his eyes like they were faucets from a sink. His nose had mucus falling in excess and he shook like maracas.

Soon, the others began to slowly walk up to Four and all of them placed their hands on Four. They all comforted Four and whispered reassuring words to him. X held a box of tissues in his hands and handed him the box.

It was quite the sight. (Four went through many tissues.) Four hugged all of the contestants and Announcer and Purple Face. When Four got to X, however, he grabbed X and never let X go. Four buried his face into X's head (X is very small, even smaller than Four when Four was on his knees), and bawled.

After a long while, Four finally began to calm down. He looked over to the others and finally found the strength to get back up again. He felt... better. Like a huge weight was lifted up from his back. He felt lighter and could feel himself being free from all of his problems and fears.

It felt so good.

The others looked back at Four and backed up to get him some space.

"Are you OK, Four?", asked Woody. Truth be told, Woody was very worried about Four and wished he could have helped Four sooner with his fears.

Four got up wiped off the tears from his eyes as he sniffled. "Yeah, I am OK, now. I feel better... really I do. I feel like... like... like I am free and happy again. Wow! I feel like nothing bad happened.", he said, surprised.

"That's the feeling of release from trapping your emotions. The more you hide your feelings, the more you feel trapped and lost. But, once you finally release your emotions and let them go free, you feel free and happy. You feel truly like yourself.", said Flower.

"Looks like you are now realizing what it takes to be a person.", said Blocky.

"Yes, looks like I am.", said Four. "Also, everyone, I am truly sorry. Not just for my outburst earlier, but for everything I had ever had done to all of you. I guess I had just gone too far long without people who truly care about me that, I forgot what it was like to truly feel like... I was good.", There was pause.

"I... I am... sorry."