A little love goes a long way

5-

Sophie's imagination grew within the confines of her imaginary walls, set in place by the restrictions of her Mother. It had recently turned from school time to the six weeks holiday - normally the best time for families and children alike - though for Sophie, not the best at all. There were stricter ways to get punished, thinner lines and shorter tempers, but her sanity - or possibly insanity? - helped to keep her sane, or at least keep her alive. Since her emotions and fears were personified, she felt as though she no longer needed to act out on them.

For example pain. When her Mother hit her or thought up new ways to punish or demean her, she would dissociate and Pain, the personified version, would take it all in greedily, that - from Sophie's creation - was how they survived. Of course, Sophie did feel the pain, she just disconnected it from herself, it was the only way she thought she could survive.

Nobody knew of her coping mechanisms, not even Jake, as she knew that even he wouldn't truly understand, and she thought that he would call her insane, or lose all of his respect or admiration for her - he wouldn't, but Anxiety talked over Hope, Stress on Anxiety's side - she found that her reasons for living, lay with Jake, and the people in her mind that she could create more of, that's what she did. She wrote stories in forms of revision, and when not revising, she wrote and created and drew; finding a burning passion in the arts she had never held before, as if the pencil she wielded was a key to unlocking her future, or her Hope for a future, reaching out to her art teacher, a sweetheart of an old woman, Mrs Portly - dyed purple hair and the fragrance of roses - she inquired more about art courses, and if it wasn't too late to enrol in the art course. She agreed so long as Sophie created some kind of portfolio by the end of the week, her character designs and creativity got her into the art course, along with her paragraph - explaining why she wished to move from Home Economics to art, her creative way with words ensured her a spot in art. While creating her portfolio, she had deepened her knowledge of her fears and personalities, their appearances and such:

Anger was a feisty young woman with flaming red hair - a symbol of her burning fury - and deep green eyes - a calmness for those she might have cared for, had she not been created solely for anger. She feasted on Sophie's anger towards people, humanity, her school. Anyone and anything. The personifications had names, of course, though Sophie mainly opted to call them by their emotion, though Anger was named Aella - after the Greek for whirlwind, storm, after an interesting Greek mythology book. Her temper is ever rampant and the smallest change of the wind could set her off. Those who knew her knew also not to get too offended - by those who knew her, we mean to other fictional creations.

With anger, Sophie never knew what to expect in her day to day life, and she never knew who she would blow up at next, only for them to ignore her - even she thought she was real - though if Sophie was telling the truth, the outbursts never failed to make her smile, even a little bit. Especially if it was directed towards Olive.

Anxiety was a quiet and shy boy, who refused to voice his opinions louder than the others for fear of ridicule, he - of course - feasted on the anxiety Sophie felt in classes or when her Mother called for her. He had dark to light brown hair in a fading downwards ombre - a dare from Danger - and hazel eyes, which he kept downcast and hidden behind his bangs. They all opted to call him Gailen, the one who is peaceful and quiet - as he does not seek to provoke his fellow creations, though he always seems to become Anger's target. He listens to music as a relaxer.

Anxiety always sung for Sophie, when her other creations were not around - she had no control over when they appeared - he knew how it felt to feel so alone, and as his fix was music, he shared his personal tastes with her, songs she had heard at one point or another in her life. Alternatively, he would let her play with his hair when others were around.