Sides of a Hero

11. The sealing of a friendship

"ReMeMbEr. TrUsT. AcCePt"

The voices were carried along another gust of wind. Patton shivered slightly, not hearing the voice that graced Virgil's ears but feeling the cool bite of the air.

A blanket flopped onto Patton's head. "What?" he exclaimed, crawling out from underneath.

"I would take you into my room, but we both know that won't end well."

Two bean bags appeared on the blanket and Virgil crawled over to slump down into one. Patton jumped into the other, pulling the blanket with him. He wasn't really that cold, but the weight of the blanket was very much a comfort.

"These really are comfy. I can see why you enjoy sitting in them so much." Patton snuggled deeper into the bean bag.

"Yeah." Virgil laughed. "They are very calming."

"Virgil?"

"Yeah, Pops."

"Earlier, you said that you sealed Depression away." Virgil waited silently for Patton to continue; even though he already knew where he was going with his questioning. "But you just said that you couldn't stand up to him alone. Was it the other impulses that helped you?"

"Some of them," Virgil sighed and positioned himself so he could look at Patton. "Most of the impulses didn't care what Depression did. They had their own path to follow. Not everyone used this Safe Space regularly...they preferred other areas."

"But some of them helped you, right?"

"Yeah. I wish some of them hadn't though."

*********************************************

The cliff edge was a buzz as the group of impulses mucked around with a paper airplane; a replica of what Thomas had made that day. Anxiety had mentioned to Deceit that he was worried about Depression's increasing effect on Thomas and the impulse had organised a meeting at the cliff edge. Envy, Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Ego, Rage, Impatience, and Guilt had all agreed to the secret meeting at the cliffs edge. Depression hadn't left the Safe Space in over a week, so they weren't worried about him showing up at all.

Anxiety sat near the edge, looking down into the eternal darkness that had been slowly climbing up the cliff. He wanted to help Thomas. He wanted Depression to stop making Thomas sad, snappy and reclusive. He needed the others to help him, but he just couldn't bring himself to speak.

Impatience huffed, "Come on, Anxiety. We are here. Hurry up and tell us what this is all about."

The others stopped throwing the plane and looked at Impatience, who was standing behind Anxiety; hands on his hips and leaning to the side.

Anxiety stood and turned to where the others were; head down, fidgeting with his sleeves. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out.

Deceit walked over to stand next to his friend and carefully laid a hand on Anxiety's back; his split eye glowing yellow. Anxiety looked up but couldn't see any of the other impulses.

"It's only you and me here, Anxiety." Deceit whispered. "You are only talking to me."

Suddenly feeling less pressure, Anxiety could finally form words and his worries poured out. Every concern he had over the effect Depression would have if he continued to grow in strength.

"And what do you expect us to do? What do you want from me?" questioned Greed.

Deceit twisted the words, so they sounded like they came from his own mouth.