Help (a Danny Phantom story)

Chapter 7

The door was near the end of the hall, three doors down from Love. It was plain, but the wood had water streaks down it, as if it were left out in the rain. Painted blue tear drops scattered the wood and a quiet sobbing could be heard behind it. Happiness readied himself to knock, and froze when his knuckles were centimeters away from the door.

"What's with the hold up? I thought we had to get out of here soon." Dash demanded, irritation settling in his voice.

"I hurt Sadness pretty bad when I got kicked out, I don't think he's forgiven me. He's the strongest of the emotions we met, and has the closest ties to the Disorders. If I mess this up... Well let's just say it wouldn't be a good thing." Happiness sighed, but gathered his courage anyway and put on a small smile. He knocked once, and the door squeaked open. They looked inside but didn't see anything at first, until a sob drew their attention to the far right corner. A bright blue Danny was huddled there, knees pulled to his chin and back facing the group.

"Oh no.." Happiness whispered, "he's grown into Sorrow, what have I done?"

Sorrow stopped crying at the sound of Happiness's whispers. He turned and his face showed an array of emotions, which was strange for a singular emotion.

"W-what are- hic- you d-doing- hic- here?" Sorrow wiped away his tears and got up slowly from his corner.

"Hey bud, I came here to get these guys out, can you help?" Happiness said cautiously.

"I know w-what- hic- you're doing. I can only t-take so- hic- much. If it's a repeat o-of l-last t-t-time," Sorrow broke down, his heart wrenching sobs rung throughout the room. Sam and Tucker wanted nothing more than to comfort the weeping emotion, and the rest had looks of pity and remorse. They were still in the dark about what was going on, but seeing someone who usually was so happy and carefree so sad had unsettled everyone. Even Dash, who was slowly growing to care for the boy he bullied.

"I promise it'll be better this time, I'll fix it-" Happiness was cut off by more wailing from Sorrow.

"YOU SAID THAT LAST TIME!"

Sam couldn't take it anymore, she ran to Sorrow and engulfed him in a hug, Tucker just behind her.

"Hey, hey, shh, it's ok." Sam cooed, trying to calm the sobbing emotion. "Hey, remember the first time all three of us met? It was first grade, you and Tucker were playing in the mud and you accidentally threw some at me. But I wasn't mad, I was happy, you ruined some dress I hated that my mom made me wear, and I joined you guys in the mud." Sam and Tucker smiled at the memory, and so did Happiness. Sorrow seemed to calm down enough to talk, and gave Sam a weary yet grateful expression.

"Thank you," he said, wiping his tears once more. "You'll find my Disorder at the very end of the hall, I wish you luck, and I really hope it turns out better this time." Sorrow hugged Tucker and Sam and Happiness led the group out of the room.

"So I guess it's time to find out who the Disorders are now, huh?" Tucker asked, to which Happiness nodded.

"That was a good thing you did in there, Sam. I'm sorry I haven't been very happy throughout this," he chuckled softly, a sound that seemed to lighten the gloomy group, "nor have I been very clear. I think I owe you all an explination."

Sam and Tucker seemed uneasy, "are you going to tell them the secret too?" Sam asked.

"I have to, the Disorders are greatly influenced by it. Besides, they'll put two and two together anyways." Happiness turned to address the group.

"I will start from the beginning. Once upon a time, Danny went into his parents lab to check out this portal they had created, he tripped and hit the ON button. It turned him into a halfa, or half ghost half human. His ghost form is Danny Phantom." Several gasps were heard, but Happiness shushed them and continued. "Over the last year his mind began to change. When thoughts were the wind, they were gentle and you almost didn't notice them. But they got harsher, more forceful, and then turned to thunder and lightning. For a time Rage was around constantly, and Fear was running rampant around the mansion. Up until a few months ago, I was the strongest emotion, and sort of ruled over Danny's head. But then the Disorders came. They crawled their way in through any openings, and I did my best to keep them at bay. But they got in and at first didn't cause a lot of trouble. But they grew and began making things difficult. So I tried to kick them out. But it made them stronger, they fed off of me, twisting my power to hurt Danny. They made him think he should be happy, but took any happiness from him by draining me. After the first mental breakdown, the others got together and said I should keep low and try to focus on my job and not try to tackle them again. They thought that if I sought them out, the Disorders would feed off of me more, grow stronger and cause more havoc, and eventually kill me. And in turn kill Danny. I tried at first but it pained me to see everything fall into disarray, so I went back in to find and hunt the Disorders down. I failed, miserably, and the other emotions decided to kick me out. I've spent the rest of my time away from the mansion, growing weaker as thoughts attacked and diminished me."

Everyone was in shock, whatever Danny was going through was horrible to imagine. Sam and Tucker looked ready to cry, how had they not seen how bad Danny was getting.

"I hope that when all this is over, things can go back to normal. Danny may need help from external sources though, because I can only do so much." Happiness looked down at the ground wearily. The others nodded, thinking of ways to help Danny, they never knew anything about any of this and it was a rude awakening to them all.

"Where should we start?" Valerie asked.

"The least powerful one, down the basement." Happiness led the group down the hallway and stairs, going past the parlor to another staircase leading down below. They reached a metal door at the end, in similar shape to Anger's.

"This is PTSD."