Unfamiliar

Six

Anxiety woke with a groan and everyone ran to his side - except for Logic, he dimmed the lights so that they wouldn't hurt his already sore eyes. Anxiety was grateful and flashed a small smile to Logic, the smile however did not reach his eyes which unnerved Logic more than it ever had.

Anxiety was very expressive, despite his face remaining neutral most of the time because his emotions where conveyed in his eyes. Which was why, if you tried, you would be able to read him so easily. But his eyes, at that moment when he smiled, where empty. Not quiet dead, fear flashed through them momentarily as he assured himself that the man in front of him wasn't Depression, yet something close to it. Somethung far worse.

But Logic merely smiled - a much more sincere - smile back at the youngest side as he walked over to him slowly. Scaring him into another panic attack was something that they would all like to avoide, so they where as slow and gentle as possible when approaching and talking to him. It was like he was made of glass.

"I'm sorry," Anxiety muttered as he sat up. He felt bad about telling the others, he knew he shouldn't have; he deserved it all.

---

It was sunny, a normal occurrence at this particular spot in the woods although one would think the sun would rarely be seen due to the two men that lived there. Anxiety and Depression, the only two mental disorders that lived inside Thomas' brain lived in a small cottage in the woods. It was out-of-the-way and somewhere that no one would find them, even if they where looking for them.

Not that anyone would.

Depression liked that about his cottage, it meant he could get away with an awful lot more than what he could of those other pesky sides where constantly breathing down his neck. It ment he could mould his little plaything to be whatever he wanted, and to obey everything he said. It was perfect for a cruel, manipulative, man like himself.

Depression wore Thomas' face like a mask, he looked nothing like one would expect his namesake to. He did not look remotely sad, instead a hint of sadistic glee could be found in his eyes and they upturn of his mouth.

The same could not however be said for the younger disorder: Anxiety. He shook like a leaf and stuttered through sentences before flinching back as if stuck. Anything could being him to tears, yet tears would never fall. He looked like a strange hybrid of Depression and Anxiety, moulded together to form someome too afraid to stand up for himself.

The child - for that was what he was, a child no older than ten - scurried from his hiding place as he heard Depression call his name. Or rather, the insults that had grown to become his name. Anxiety stopped just before he ran into the older man, and bowed his head slightly. He wasn't allowed to look him in the eyes.

"I am going out for a few days, do not touch anything and do not go near anyone else. If you do they shall not be as kind as I am and they shall give you what you truly deserve. If you break any if these rules, or if one thing in this house is out of place, you will regret it. Understand?" Depression barked at him, a smile on his face as he addressed the boy.

"Yes sir," Anxiety muttered fearfully, almost flinching when Depression placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Remember that I care about you, I'm the only one that can. I shall return soon, little disorder," Depression said kindly, his eyes looking the sadistic gleam for a moment. Anxiety hated it when Depression got like this, it only reminded him that he had ruined the man before him.

"I know, thank you," he said, like he was taught to, as he watched Depression walk out of the small cottage and into the dark woods that surrounded them.

It was sunny, yet an aura of dread hung over the little stone cottage on the outskirts of the forest.

---

He was pulled from his thoughts by Morlaity and Thomas slowly reassuring him of something. He didn't know why they where reassuring him, it wasn't like he didn't get lost in memories often and that had been one of the best memories he had of his childhood.

Yet the wetness on his face altered him to the fact that he had been crying, presumably for no reason and that must have worried the others. He was so stupid, he couldn't even look back on something without crying like a baby. Slowly Anxiety stood up, his knees shaking slightly, before he sunk down back into the mindscape.

His room was the same as it had been when he first walked in, although he now knew what the posters where for. Most of them where band posters; MCR, TØP, P!ATD and FOB being the most common; others where fact-files on plants and woodland creatures.   The walls where covered with these fact-files, and the occasional poster for a TV show or book, with hardly an inch of the actual wall to be seen.

It was nice, lived in, and nothing like Depressions cottage had been like. The open space calmed him down, reminded him that he wasn't with him anymore. That he wasn't in that cramped closet with hardly any light and air so dusty that he felt like it was suffocating.

No, he was in his room that lacked any dust what-so-ever, with nice plants and so many lights it was almost ridiculous.

Yet despite his reassurances that he was no longer with Depression, a voice in the back of his mind told him to make himself go back to when he was. To 'trigger' himself, and make him relive those memories.

So he turned of his lights and climbed into his cramped closet, silently enduring the panic attacks that it gave him.