Unfamiliar

MATT SMITH ((graphic death mention))

It was stormy, the roar of the clouds representing the thunderous thoughts inside my head. My hands shook as I concentrated on pacing and breathing. I was furious, my trembling hands clenched and unclenched with every step I took but it wasn't enough to douse my anger. Nothing was, nothing could be until I was back with him.

Everything was wrong. He wasn't supposed to disobey me like that, he wasn't supposed to feel anything other than what I caused. If I said jump he was meant to say how high, but those 'Sanders Sides' had to stick their too-big noses into my belongings. Anxiety was mine, he wasn't allowed free will yet he went with them of his own accord. He disobeyed me and he would regret it.

I paced the length of my living room, looking out at the dead forest that surrounded me. Anxiety's positivity and wonder (and the influence of Happiness) was the only thing that was saving the wildlife, without it my natural negativity was sucking the life out of it - literally. Everything was desaturated and almost grey, plants crumbled into dust and leaves fell from trees as I continued to pace and pace. My footsteps echoed throughout my empty cottage, bouncing off the walls and pounding on the floors beneath me. Blood - now dried - still stained them, evidence of past crimes that had been committed in the house (it hadn't been cleaned since he left, I was unable to part with the last reminders of the misery that fuelled me) but new droplets joined it.

The sent of misery tainted every room, though whilst most was old and faded a new powerful type mixed with it. The new misery seeped from the blood on the floor and the memories of screams past mixed with the beautiful cries of Anxiety, the please for help from both parties forming one huge cloud of pain and suffering.

It almost made me regret killing him, just because now those wonderful screams would never be heard; each side screamed differently after all and I couldn't wait to hear how my Anxiety screams after so long. Would it still be the high-pitched shriek of a child, or would his screams evolve and change like he had over the years?

My blood rushed through my veins as I studied the forest around me, it was crumbling even quicker. It wouldn't take long now for the death of a trait to affect Thomas and then those pesky sides would come looking for me, leading my darling Anxiety back into my hands. I would once again be a puppet master with a puppet to control, I would have a purpose after years of being without. Anxiety and I could finally rule over Thomas' mind, after I killed his 'friends' anyway and made him hate himself even more. Which wouldn't be too hard, not with the self-loathing and doubt I was sure was running through his head right now; I had planted the seed for it long ago, and by now it would've turned into a forest of hatred for the other sides.

Words of times past - "don't trust the Sides, they will get close to you only to destroy you. You are a disorder, a freak, and I am the only one kind enough to let you live." - would bounce around inside his head and make him second guess every kind action. He would come crawling back to me, begging for forgiveness, when the doubt got to much and then I could reattach the cut strings and control his every action again.

And I would break him.

I don't know how yet, maybe I would act kind only to beat him down, or I could make him watch as his 'friends' where slaughtered in front of him, or perhaps I could force him to kill them himself. Make him stain his filthy hands with their crimson blood, force him to listen to their pleas for mercy, make him beg me to let them live only to watch his face fall as I demand that he hurries up. I could practically feel the misery and pain in the air as I stared out my tiny window, and the blood that came from the corpse downstairs made me think of the perfect scene.

Anxiety, at my feet, covered in the blood of the Sides and begging for me to end his life.

I almost walked away from the window, before I saw a leaf crumble and fall to the ground. The Forest of Joy was finally fading, Happiness' death must be effecting it more than it had last time now that Anxiety was no loner keeping it alive. I smiled, once again imagining the betrayal on Anxiety's face as he realizes that the Sides led him to his (or what they must've convinced him was) 'past abuser'. The.. well the depression from that alone could sustain me for years, but I'm greedy and I want more; I want what I used to have.

And I would get it soon, misery and sadness was causing the forest to fall and soon they will come running, soon he will be mine again and I can have that power, that control, over Thomas that I used to.

"I cant wait until you come back to our cottage, Anxiety," I whispered as the last leaf fell and the tree trunks turned black.