Chapter 12: In Which Riley Discovers Nostalgia

Very VERY Sorry for the lack of updates, I've just been so busy lately! Anyway here you go, please enjoy and review if you can. Sorry about the length!

It had always amazed Riley how things would get lost under the bed. Old black socks with holes in them, an eyeless toy, a battered shoe, a coloring book frayed and brown at the edges. When she was a child she often pictured a black hole that was situated underneath the mattress that came out to feed like a panther devouring any stray items of clothing or any dolls that lay broken and forgotten on a dusty carpet. Riley always told her mother about this whenever she came in with the laundry basket. She would be greeted by a tiny pig -tailed girl in a pink cardigan wailing. One winter's day, Riley had seen it snow from her window and desperately ran to find her favourite mittens, only to discover one was missing. She ran to her mother in a panic. "The monster has eaten my glove!" to which Mrs Anderson would smile and respond, "Oh it's okay sweetie, mommy will find it." Hours later the purple glove had been retrieved, always leaving Riley to wonder where these things went every time she needed them most.

It was around this time that Bing Bong came into her life. While her mother was in the kitchen cooking, or her father at work, she would draw constant pictures of an animal she had once or twice created from her other favourite things. A mass of pink crayon candyfloss body, a long and curved trunk, two pea green eyes and a bushy purple tail. She would be well into her work when her mother would return taking off her oven mits. "That's cute. Who's that honey?" she would ask.

"Bing Bong," her daughter would reply matter of factly.

"Well, does Bing Bong like chocolate fudge cake?" her mother would laugh, "Should I cut him a slice?" to which Riley would immediately bound into the kitchen to sit at the table.
Bing Bong soon began to form in Riley's head, no longer was he a mere drawing on paper, (and sometimes the wall) but a living breathing reality. He and Riley would hide in the sheets on laundry day and pretend they were in a fortress. If it was sunny outside, they would play in the half full paddling pool and pretend to sail on the high seas. On garden days, they would run through the bushes and pretend they were lost in a strange exotic jungle.
Bing Bong would always join the family at meal times and sometimes would bring back food of his own from Imagineationland, giant french fries, cake with layers of icing and a special type of food he call Nutcake, a sort of loaf dotted with pieces of peanut, pistachio and cashew. This confused as when she asked him what it was, he kept saying, "I told ya Riley, it's Not-cake! "
Riley had forgotten all memories of Bing Bong after that, as by the age of seven she was going to school and making real friends. She hadn't needed Bing Bong to play with her or watch TV with her or help her with childish dilemmas. So she could hardly believe that here she was, walking along a sea of forgotten memories with him, talking as they relived time after time together.

"Hey, remember that time we were in a band?"

"Oh yeah! I played pans!" Riley giggled, "What about the time my Dad opened the car door for you when we went to kindergarten?"

"Yeah, d'ja remember what I said to him? I said "Yessir, Mr Dad Sir!" he recalled, saluting with his trunk.
Riley laughed, "Oh yeah, I remember! That was the day we had show and tell and I brought you in to play with the other kids, 'course they couldn't see you but still it was fun!"

"That teacher was great! Hey do you remember the time you and I went back in time?"
Riley thought for a moment and then nodded vigorously in excitement. "Hm-hm! We had breakfast twice that day!"

"You remember?!"

"Yeah, how could I forget! We went back to before we had lunch and ate toast and waffles again!"

"YOU REMEMBER!" cried Bing Bong, beside himself with joy. He turned to Joy herself, who had been surprisingly quiet since his and Riley's reunion. He whispered to her, the glint of a candy corn appearing in his eye, "She remembers me."
Joy beamed. She had waited and waited for this day. She had always wanted to see if a memory resurrection would work, ever since Sadness had shown her the passage in the manuals. In fact she knew it was Sadness she had to thank. The small blue emotion was shuffling close to, yet still keeping a respectful distance from Bing Bong and Riley.

"Hey Sadness?" she asked. The blue lump approached her, and was suddenly thrown into a tight hug.

"Thanks." All Sadness could do was grin and hug back, "You're welcome Joy - for whatever I did."

"You brought back Bing Bong silly!"

"I did?"

"Yeah, if you hadn't shown me that Long Term Memory Retrieval Volume 12, he wouldn't be standing here right now!"

"Oh..." Sadness glanced at their old friend as he caught up more with Riley. Although she wasn't sure how helping Joy do her homework on memory retrieval was such a huge thing, she was glad that her "miserable existence" as she called it, was of worth.

Anger, Disgust and Fear was just as curious as to what their old friend had been doing all this time, aside from being forgotten. Fear kept asking a dozen questions, primarily all being euphamisms for whether he was a product of psychosis. Disgust seemed interested in him, even if his sense of fashion was something to be desired. Anger waddled along seeming perplexed by the whole situation, and was beginning to wonder what other loopholes Sadness had found whilst flicking through those manuals.

"-And then there was that time we opened the Squishee Dough packet!""

"-Yeah, my hands got all messy, so did your feet I was scared Mom was gonna find out about the footprints!"

"Ugh, that stuff was gross!" Disgust groaned, "it was always so icky and don't get me started on the smell!"

"I can't remember if it was toxic or not, did it have a label - it must have had a label." Fear pondered aloud.

"Ah, who cares?" shrugged Anger, "the worst part was when it didn't mould into what we were trying to make!" He clenched his jaw, "We make a sheep and it gives us a shapeless, useless rock...!"

Riley felt a soft elbow at her side. Bing Bong was nudging her gently in the ribs. "Gee, who invited these party-poopers?" he joked.

"I HEARD that!" Anger sounded, neither of them sure whether he was joking or serious.
Bing Bong cringed comically, earning a loud laugh from Riley. Bing Bong smiled, Oh what a marvel it was to hear her laugh again. It was such a carefree, juvenile sound that was highly contagious to anyone standing nearby.

"So Riley, didja ever get out of Kindergarten alive?"

Riley laughed again, "Thankfully, yeah I did!"

Bing Bong looked amazed. "How did ya escape?!"

"Well, I got moved up into First Grade, then Second Grade and so on...and then about a year ago we left Minnesota and moved West, so now I'm pretty much in a new school with new friends."
Bing Bong looked a little crestfallen. "Oh. So uh...no problems?"

Riley shook her head. "Everybody's pretty nice. I got on a new hockey team and History's cool. And I can spell really long words now. Remember when I couldn't even spell "boat?" Well listen to this: S! Awesome right? I'm thinking of maybe joining the championship spelling bee this year!"
Bing Bong was smiling but at the same time sighing inside. His Riley really was all grown up, and didn't need him anymore. But it was a fantastic thing to be able to speak to her again. The last time they conversed she had been a toddler just given up pacifiers.

"So...what exactly are you again?" Riley asked suddenly.
Once again, he lit up. "You know it's unclear, but shape wise, you gave me cotter candy belly, an elephant head, a cat tail and the voice of a dolphin."

"Dolphin?"

Bing Bong 's trunk instantly became a long pink nose, and he clicked and made whistles. Riley could feel happiness return to her again. She had always loved dolphins and anything from the ocean. She could have sworn Bing Bong was part sea lion by the way he clapped his hands as he clicked his tongue. "That's so Cute!" she exclaimed.

"You always thought so," laughed Joy, joining them, "I was working the controls that day!"

"So Riley, what are you doing down here?" Bing Bong asked at last.
The knot in Riley's imaginary stomach returned tighter this time. Her chest, so thin and cold with no real heartbeat to be heard was once again burdened with a weight.

"Um...well, I...I-"
Seeing her struggle, Joy stepped hurriedly in between them. "She's had a sort of...accident. But it wasn't her fault, it's technically mine."
Bing Bong looked confused. "Accident?" he peered at Riley as if trying to make sure she was unhurt,

"Riley you can't still be wetting the bed?"
Joy fought back the urge to giggle. "It's not that kind of accident. Bing Bong, could I talk to you for a minute? Alone?"

"Uh..." he glanced at Riley. He still couldn't believe she was really down here with him, and still couldn't figure out why. "Yeah okay...Sure." Hesitantly he joined Joy who lead him away to a secluded mound piled high with memories. "Wait here okay Riley? Make sure you stay close to the others!"

"We're the babysitters all of a sudden?" groaned Anger.
Riley nodded. She felt a cold cloth placed into her hand and realised it was Sadness looking up at her with wide eyes behind her spectacles. Riley noticed there were tears there, glistening like tiny flecks of stardust hidden behind glassy moons.

"Are you...okay?"

"Yeah...being down here just makes me weepy is all."

"Do you want me to clean those for you?" she gestured to the moons which had begun to fog at the rims.

"Oh...okay," Sadness carefully took them off and Riley, trying very hard not to break the tiny frames polished them on her pajama top.

"Can she...feel fabric at all?" Fear whispered from the sidelines.

"I don't know," Disgust shrugged, "How come?"

"Well, she seems trapped in a strange state right now, between reality and here. Isn't she technically a ghost of her former self?" Remembering he was afraid of ghosts his antennae twitched and he placed both hands over his head. "Oh please No! Disgust forget I said ghost!"

"Pipe down frady-cat!"

"Yeah," added Anger, "besides if Riley really was a ghost she would be making lots of annoying noise like in the movies," Then he added, "gets me really darn ticked! "Rattle my chains indeed..."

"She can't wake up?!" The clueless elephant scratched the underneath of his bowler hat as Joy tried to quieten him.

"Ssh! I know it's bad! But we're on our way to fix it. Riley's just asleep right now and it's going to take a lot to wake her up."

Bing Bong paced on the mound for a moment. "Oh well we can't have this at all! If Riley's asleep she'll miss out on all the fun the day has to offer her! We gotta wake her up!"
Joy smiled glad he was taking it lightly. She didn't want to worry him about the real consequences a coma could bring. "Yes! Exactly! Which is why we need your help to get her back on her feet. So to speak."

"Well, I'd be delighted to help! Riley's gonna need all the help she can get Mm -hmm! And I know just how to do it!"

"You do?" Joy's light seemed to glow whiter for half a second.

"Nope! But I'll think of something!" Joy rolled her eyes in silent exasperation. If Bing Bong was their only hope he was going to need to pull off something big in order to show dedication to his former child. He muttered to himself for a moment or two before snapping his fingers "I Got it! Why don't we take her to Imaginationland?"

"Great idea-!"

"Oh wait a minute," sighed Bing Bong, "I don't have my rocket no more."

"That's okay! Sadness could see to that! She found old bits and pieces and made an even bigger rocket for us to fly home in!" Bing Bong could have screamed with happiness. "My rocket?! A new rocket! And it flies too, oh boy!"

"So whadaya say? Imaginationland?"

"Imaginationland!" declared Bing Bong proudly, "Hey Riley-!"
Joy skipped across the memories following Bing Bong through the dense darkness to join her fellow emotions and Riley, providing the bright torchlight to source out the odd shapes in the shadows. Finally Riley's face was lit up, looking confused but relieved that she could see her feet again.

"Well Riley," beamed Joy clapping her hands together. "Great News! Bing Bong's going to help us out! We've decided that we're going to head on forward, and make it to Imaginationland!"

"Imagi-huh?!" Riley said cocking her head.

"Your sanctuary Riley," Joy explained, "filled with neverending possibilities and creative ideas!"

"It's not just a Sanctuary," added Bing Bong, "it's a Paradise," he murmured dreamily.

"Bet it's overrun with Boy Generators now," muttered Anger but let out a sharp yell of pain as Disgust stood on his foot.

"Watch your mouth Brickhead," she hissed. Anger was about to let steam but Fear interrupted them.

"I think we're losing ourselves a little here," he said "Shouldn't we be moving?"

"Righty-ho!" said Joy glowing brighter again, "Sadness?"
The little blue shape shuffled over dusty memories until her face and the reflections in her glasses became visible. "Y-eah?

"You still got that box?"
Sadness instantly drew out the red cube from her sweater and placed it gently on the ground.

"Whenever you're ready Sadness," coaxed Joy softly.
Sadness gave a tiny cough into her blue hand to clear her throat and then turned to the emotions, Riley and Bing Bong.

"S-Stand back everyone," she warned quietly. All did as they were told, covering their ears and shutting their eyes. Sadness closed her eyes for a moment. She wasn't so sure herself whether her own contraption worked yet. She had spent so much time restoring her best friend's most treasured possession that she hadn't had any time to test whether it would come out of the box unharmed. Would it explode? Would it get stuck? Just thinking of such scenarios made her eyes sting but she swallowed it down. It was only once she'd regained her composure that she hears the infuriates voice of Anger from his corner. His eyes may still have been tightly shut but he didn't exactly take silence as a promising sign of progress.

"Push...the...dang...button!"

Sadness hesitated no longer. She looked away and pressed with a *click*
Almost instantly there was a crash and a rattle and the sound of hard steel and plastic colliding with rubber wheels made them all jump. Sadness stumbled backwards, falling straight into the pile of granite orbs with a giant thud. The others all covered their eyes trying to avoid the possible flying metal. Joy peeped through her fingers and then took her hands away in amazement as an enormous wagon sat there, with multiple seats and pretty floral patterns painted on the side.

"It's Beautiful!" she squealed, "Sadness you're Amazing!"

Sadness gave a very rare wide smile. She hadn't expected it to convert into its form as well as it did, considering many parts had fallen off during construction made with blood sweat and tears (tears being literal, she had failed so many times she used them as a bonding agent) but the finished project was worth all the effort.
Bing Bong's eyes were full of wonder, shock and surprised as he surveyed the wagon. He traced every part a smile appearing on his face. Then he rushed straight over to Sadness and enveloped her in a hug.

"Thank you." he whispered holding her tightly.

Sadness looked a little surprised but she patted his back and said "you're welcome," very quietly.

"Well what are we waiting for?" said Bing Bong breaking the embrace, "Let's get this puppy up and running!"
Joy was the first to eagerly grab a seat and strap herself in. She gestured to Riley to come and sit in front of her beside Bing Bong. Riley instantly agreed-there was no way she was passing up an opportunity to ride in a real rocket!
Disgust and Anger buckled in next, trying to sit as far away from one another as possible. Fear sat in between them to act as a buffer zone in case an argument broke out. Finally Sadness took her seat beside Joy and Riley. "Uh Joy-"

"Ssh! Wait a minute Sadness Bing Bong's about to sing his special song!"

"But Joy-!"

"Alright everybody okay? Riley you ready to go?" asked Bing Bong turning around.
Riley nodded so eagerly she thought her head would fall off.

"Okay, we have to sing my theme song to get the rocket off the ground. Everybody remember it?"

"I do!"

"I do but-"

"I guess."

"There's No Way I'm singing!"

"Do I have to sing in front of everyone?"

Riley thought and thought. Finally she said "I'll try." to which Bing Bong could have burst with pride.

"Well, if anyone finds it difficult I'll start," said Joy. "Who's your friend who likes to play...?"
The others sat blankly so Joy nudged Sadness, "Oh! Um, who's rocket makes you yell...hooray?"
Something awakened then inside Riley, as though a long lost memory had rolled into place.

"Bing Bong...Bing Bong..."

At this, everyone sat frozen with utter delight. Childhood; memories that Riley held so dear to her that it caused a string of them to rain down on everyone.

"Who's the best in every way?" Disgust sang loudly, causing Anger to stare wide eyed. "Who wants to sing this song to say? Come on Anger!"

"I don't sing," the grumpy brick replied harshly.

"Well, too bad because you're gonna have to if you want to make it out of this dump!" Disgust shot back before quickly turning to Bing Bong, "No offence!"

"Ah, none taken! I've been meaning to clean up around here!"

"Oh, Fine." Anger grumbled, He began to utter the words under his breath. "Who's your friend who likes to play..."

"Aw, come on Anger!" Joy teased, "We all know you can do better than that!"

"Grr...WHO'S YOUR FRIEND WHO LIKES TO PLAY...?!"

"That's it! Who's rocket makes you yell "hooray!"

The emotions began to chorus, Bing Bong and Riley's voices raised high above the rest. Slowly but surely, the rocket hosting them began to lift slightly off the ground.

"It's working!" cried Joy, "sing louder everybody!"
The emotions raised their voices an octave, Fear's becoming higher, Joy's louder, Anger's strangled, Disgust's screechy and Sadness' deeper. The rocket moved another inch off the ground-and fell back to the faded ground once more.

"What?!" gasped Anger.

"What happened? Why aren't we moving?" complained Disgust.

"Oh no, we're stuck!" panicked Fear.

"But I don't understand-how could-?"

"Joy?" Sadness patted the yellow emotion's arm and alerted for her to face her. "Um, that's what I was trying to tell you...it can't work on just song power."

"Oh are you kidding me?!" whined Fear.
"

We'll never make it out of here at this rate," agreed Disgust.

"Why can't we just kick the darn thing into submission?" questioned Anger.
Riley took all of this in glancing at Bing Bong who looked incredibly nervous, turning his gloved hands over each other. Riley blinked back the dust from the deceased memories-when the rocket had landed it had created tiny dust flurries that carried an uncomfortable smell and smog which threatened to block her vision. She hated it down here and was actually willing to go ahead with Anger's plan of kicking the contraption like crazy in order to get it to move, but she didn't want to upset Sadness so fought the urge.

"It needs something stronger," explained Sadness, "something that's equivalent to a memory but with a higher level of intensity."
Riley nearly jumped out of her seat as Bing Bong leapt from his own. "Yippee! I got it! Everyone follow me! Come on Riley!" Riley wasted no time in racing after him-she had just found her childhood best friend and was not about to lose him again. Joy followed suit with Fear practically throwing off his seatbelt to travel behind Riley in case she slipped in the dark. Sadness, Disgust and Anger followed Joy who lit the way-they had just met the girl they had all been looking after for twelve years and were not about to lose her in a maze of forgotten memories.
Bing Bong hopped over the orbs as if they were pebbles, skipping with delight as Riley and the emotions struggled to keep up with him. Riley couldn't believe her old friend could run so fast for someone who was imaginary and had been trapped in the dark for years. Eventually he stopped abruptly and outstretched his arms, causing Joy to bump into him. "Wait! You guys! This is it! This is the place!"

Riley was looking around in expectation but couldn't see anything interesting enough that could make him excited as he was. The darkness had boxed them in and was only being kept away by the glow from Joy. As her eyes scanned the blackness, she felt something cold and steely under her feet and looked down to see the odd shape of a tiny spade. She bent down and curiously felt for the handle, but couldn't find one-then she felt something long and solid hidden under the orbs and managed to lift it from the ground and saw that it wasn't a spade at all, but a shovel. Sadness came close to study it, poking the head as if it were a bomb ready to go off. It wasn't long before Joy came across one, lifting out with all her might, Anger cursed as he stubbed his toe on a smaller one, Disgust pulled one up like a carrot and Fear shrieked as if a spider had run over his foot. As the rest stared at them in confusion, Bing Bong was ecstatic, looking at each new shovel as if it were a magic wand.

"Bing Bong, what are these?" asked Joy.

"I'm glad you asked Joy," he replied, "These are for treasure hunting.!"

"Treasure hunting?" repeated Joy, a little puzzled by his motive.

"Ha Ha, Yep!" giggled Bing Bong.

"Uh, not that I don't love looking for easter eggs as much as the next person but how is a treasure hunt going to help wake Riley up?"

"Oh right!" Bing Bong snapped to attention standing on what looked like granite sand that had been ground from dead memories. "Everyone! May I present the Amygdala pit!" Everyone stared in utter confusion.

"Amigla what?" Riley asked.

"Amygdala pit!" Bing Bong repeated, "It's sorta like that part of the mind that stores memories, except this stores the really happy memories and it buries them real deep down and they get locked in under all this dirt, so overtime it all builds up and you get these beautiful memories which you wanna hold onto forever!" He sat down on the black soil and Joy joined him. She was amazed to find out it was soft and comfortable like velvet. The other emotions joined in investigating the strange place, Sadness lying face first on it, Anger letting his shoes sink into it, and Disgust testing it out with her feet. Fear stayed at the side until he realised there didn't seem to be any danger and joined in too.

"Huh. Doesn't feel like I expected it to," said Disgust, "Feels kind of...soft."

"Yeah, and smooshy," agreed Anger.

"And warm," added Sadness.

"There doesn't seem to be anything hazardous about it," said Fear, "It's actually kind of...springy."

Upon hearing this, Riley took a running start from the fallen memories and jumped straight onto the pit, causing the other emotions to go flying three feet feet in the air.

"Woo-hoo!" she screamed delightedly.

"Careful Riles! This is a new dress!" Disgust said holding her hem.

"Oh please!" snapped Anger, the bounce causing him to bounce upside down. "That's an old one!"

"How would you know?" Disgust snapped back, "do you document all my dresses?"

"Only the ones as ugly as sin!" Anger retorted.

Disgust's hand moved to "slap some manners into him" as she put it but just as things were about to get really get ugly, Joy came to the rescue. "Hey that looks like fun!"

"Oh! Oh! Me next, me next!" chanted Bing Bong.

The yellow emotion's and the elephant clambered onto the pit and bounced with a force so great it sent the other four skyrocketing, causing Riley to squeal, Fear to shriek and Disgust to hold her cheeks to stop herself from vomiting.

"WOO-HOO!" Riley bellowed, "Look Joy, no hands!"

"Wait'll ya see this!" declared Bing Bong. Using his hands as a lift up he pushed them deep into the soil of the pit. When he let go, he was sent higher into the air, along with the other emotions who all let out a panicked scream.

"I really wanna get off now!" said Disgust dizilly.

"We are wasting time!" warned Anger.

"Ooh! Right, sorry!" Bing Bong sat himself down the soft velvet allowing everyone to recover. Riley and Joy were still laughing hysterically and even Sadness shared a giggle as she pulled up her glasses. Disgust flattened her hair which had become a tangle of green cord in mid-air, although she joined Riley's side and Anger who had landed in shoe deep in the velvet quicksand was at least happy that Riley was laughing properly for the first time since she arrived. Fear looked like he was going to pass out.

"Okay, so Bing Bong tell us about this...thingie," said Joy.

"Well I found it when I was down here. I was floating around still sad that I hadn't gotten to save Riley's islands when suddenly I hit something like a wall and I heaved it away, kinda like pushing a rock...and I find this. I started digging and wouldn't ya know it there was a whole pile of happiness down there all about me and Riley. Suddenly this place didn't seem like so scary."

"But wait," said Joy, "You faded. I saw you. So how could you have been-"

Sadness thought for a moment and then spoke up. "I think I read about this." She turned to Joy, "After you told me that you watched him fade I did some research and found out that he might not have really disappeared, but just changed into moving ground up particles."

"Soooo….like a phantom?" offered Riley.

"Yes," Sadness nodded, "It said that because you were young, you could hold on to a strong memory for longer, and that once you make a connection with someone, you never really forget them."

"You hear that Bing Bong?" beamed Riley, "I didn't forget you!"

"You didn't forget me!" echoed Bing Bong excitedly.

"I always knew I had some sort of childhood friend that I did tons of cool stuff with, but I just couldn't remember a name or a face. But I remembered the friend!" She jumped up and the emotions followed her, "That means there's other stuff I've forgotten about that are all here under this!"

"Maybe it's just what we need to get you back to Mom and Dad!" said Joy.

"Well, what are ya waiting for? Pick up a shovel and start diggin'!"

Bing Bong, shovel in hand began to plunge it into the Amygdala repeatedly. Joy and Sadness snapped straight into action, Fear struggled with his while Anger and Disgust fought over them. Joy picked up two and handed one to Riley. "Come on! Let's get to work!"

Riley dug her own stone tool into the the soft black earth, scratching faded memories as she did so. Although the emotions struggled with the weight of the shovels, to Riley hers were as light as feather. Being in this world, she seemed to be weightless, barely a physical being. But with every kick of earth she saw her goal of getting back to her parents. The sound of steel and metal breaking orbs into quarters echoed from the pits. As much as it hurt Joy to destroy memories even if they were hardened rock it was worth it to help her girl.

"Almost there!" Bing Bong shouted over the noise. "I think it's splitting apart!"

Riley looked below her and saw that the ground beneath them was ripping, tearing like delicate valour. Then suddenly the pit bulged in the middle creating a miniature mountain.

"There it is, there it is!" cried Bing Bong. "You have to hit it before it goes down again!"

"Now Riley!" shouted Joy.

Riley circled the bump cautiously, raised the shovel above her head and brought it within the pit splitting it open completely. Immediately a great flash of light knocked her backwards where he she caught by Sadness and Fear. There in the centre of the Amygdala emanated the most beautiful sunshine. Disgust covered her eyes and Anger buried his face in his sleeve. Joy however was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. There was something which called her to it, which encouraged her own light to glow brighter.

It was glorious-at first the light hit hard, it's sudden impact on Riley similar to her experience of being in the headlights of the truck-then as she pulled her fingers from her face one by one she saw adjusted. The entire pit was suddenly aglow with the most incredible aureus gold, which cast itself on the faded memories and making them shine like silver for the first time in years. As it hit, the dust was almost completely blown off of them, hitting the atmosphere and becoming tiny shimmering specks. Looking closer into the pit, small pebbles were visible-yellow and joyous but they shone brighter than the regular ones at Headquarters or Long Term Memory. Within these orbs buried right at the bottom was something solid, wooden, a table among stars. Riley didn't know why, but she suddenly felt...safe-as though a warmth had emerged from within her that reassured her everything would be alright.

Bing Bong was ecstatic, clapping his hands like mad and dancing, "Hooray! We've struck Nostalgia!"

"Wow. That's what that is…" whispered Joy.

"Pretty…" said Sadness softly.

"It's like everything will be fine," smiled Fear, "that it'll just stay the same, forever."

"Is this our treasure Bing Bong?" asked Joy.

"Oh yes! And it only gets better from here," the elephant replied, "Come on!"

Riley and her emotions followed him as he moved on all fours to sit on what was previously a springy mass, now reduced to soft ribbons. Riley felt great, as though she were at a sleepover with her friends, and they were revealing secrets.

"This is amazing!" breathed Disgust, "It's like you Joy, but times twenty!"

Joy smiled. "Oh well, I'm flattered but-Ooh look!" Moving the bright pebbles she dug through the earth vigorously. Riley collected the gleaming pebbles and let them fall through her fingers like beach sand. "What's is it?" She traced something brass with her fingertips. Joy and Riley unearthed the object and using all the strength they could muster, which in Riley's case took hardly any effort at all, they lifted it so it sat neatly in the pile of shimmering stones.

It was an oak chest with a brass lining etched around all sides and just above it's solid gold keyhole centre was a tiny copper "R" . It didn't look as though it had been trapped under six feet of of pure jelly for more than a decade- it seemed to be struck with some kind of magic, a tiny glimmer in the keyhole or the fibres in the wood which Riley assumed only she could see. It was something very special for her and her alone.

"Well." sighed Anger. "Would ya look at that."

"A treasure chest!" beamed Joy hugging Riley close. "Bing Bong! Is this-?"

Bing Bong managed to silence her with a face as proud as Puff when he had opened his catflap by himself. "Why don't ya open it and find out?"

"Oh yes-!" Joy began but faltered, "-But there's no key. How are we supposed to get into it?"

Bing Bong thought for a moment and then turned to Sadness. "Still got my bag Huggin' Buddy?"

Sadness pulled it out of the folds of her sweater. "Grrreat! Now Riley, I want you to picture a key in your head, but not just any key okay? This one has to be real special and only you can use it to open the crate!" Riley closed her eyes. "Um...it's got a purple-"

"No need to say it Riles!" hushed Bing Bong, "just picture it in your head and I'll see what I can do."

Riley thought deeply, trying to create the perfect key, which only she could have. It proved challenging but she decided on it. No sooner had she opened her eyes that Bing Bong had stretched into his pink bag and brought out the most magnificent key any of them had ever seen. It earned a large "Ooh!" from the emotions. The key was made from titanium, with a violet head and silver bottom. It had five coloured circles fitted into it at the top; yellow, blue, red, green and purple. In the middle of the key there was an unidentified dent where it looked like a circle should have been but wasn't. Riley assumed she had left it out as she opened her eyes. She was pleased to see that her imagined initials had made it just under the blank dent.

"Alright Riley!" cheered Anger.

"Way to go!" Fear added.

"Should I open it then?" Riley whispered contracting the the excitement in the air like the flu.

"Go for it." Joy nodded. "It's all yours."

Riley took a deep breath and plunged the key into its hole. She turned and smiled as it unlocked, a gentle clicking sound escaping the chest; with trembling fingers, Riley stretched it open. All at once, the aureus light appeared again, this time causing everyone to shield their eyes-fortunately it had gone as quickly as it had come. The emotions and Bing Bong instantly pushed their way to where Riley was crouching to peer in the chest. Disgust was the first to speak after the party stared in simultaneous confusion. "That's it? It's just Brick-a-Brack?"

Bing Bong gasped and Disgust was worried she had offended him, "Oh, no I didn't mean-!"

"Not that! Look!" he lifted a rubber duck out of the chest and cradled it to his own "It's Wacky-Quacky! We used to play with him all the time. I wonder if the other Bath-Time gang are OH MY GOSH Mermaid Minnie and Snaptooth the Shark! I remember we played with these in her old kiddie pool!" Riley brightened.

"I've been looking for the Bath-Time Buddies ever since I was six! They were my favourites. I wonder if Snaptooth still has that mark from the submarine adventure," she added quickly turning the toy fish onto his belly "Haha, yep!"

"Hey look!" said Fear, "Your Old children's books! These were the fairytales Mom used to read us every night." He flicked through the pages with apparent caution. "I hope that evil sorceress isn't still in this…"

Anger reached into the box next and pulled out a stretch action figure. "Aha! This was my favourite! We always used to play with this when we were mad, you could stretch him and stretch him and he would never break!"

"Whatever," scoffed Disgust, "this is my favourite. Molly Malone, Hollywood starlet. We'd brush her hair with Meg to distract us from those irritating boys."

"At least my guy doesn't wear a dress!"

"Need I remind you that guy is based off a famous Scottish stuntsman. THEY wear kilts, it's the same thing!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is so not!"

"Is so too!"

Riley pulled several items out of the chest at once. It seemed to be neverending, a portal from her childhood inviting her back into simpler days. Bing Bong and Sadness poured over Riley's fairy figurine collection while Riley and Joy were busy lifting out old books with the occasional "Is so remember this!" Suddenly Joy hit something hard. "Huh?" She lifted up the last first reader book and instantly lit up. Riley felt a gush of sudden warmth reach her stomach as the two found themselves staring at old technology from Riley's youth. "Your Old Walkman!" cried Joy "and the cassettes!"

"The Queen record Mom got us for our birthday," Sadness said smiling sweetly, "It's my favourite cover too, the sad sad robot holding dead people."

"VHS tapes!" Riley squealed, "Oh my gosh I used to watch these all the time, I think we left the old VCR at our house in Minnesota."

"Ugh, those things would always get so worn out and mangled," said Anger laughing from the memory of sheer frustration, "Ya had to hit the darn thing with your fist in order to get the tape to stop cutting!"

"The old camcorder," declared Fear taking it out, "I wonder if the film in this is still-GAH!" The flash on the camera instantly went off and he dropped it on the ground, the camera landing while printing the most perfect picture of a screaming Fear.

Riley giggled "Oh yeah, it was always doing that! I tried to get Dad to fix it for me but he never got around to it. Said the camera film was too fuzzy."

"Speaking of old and fuzzy camera," Disgust piped up holding more photos, "Did our hair always look like that or is that just a bad lense quality?"

"Ohhh, so cute!" squeaked Joy, "It's our first day at elementary. Look, there's Callum and Marty and look at Meg with all her freckles!"

"I remember that!" said Riley, "Mom dropped me off, I was so scared about the idea of being left alone to do maths and stuff even if it was just the basic levels like the other kids were learning. But the building was warm, and I met lots of great friends and the teacher was super nice! I wish I could remember her name-!" Riley paused as Sadness dropped a golden pebble into her palm and closed her fingers around it. It seemed to have a fleeting effect on the girl. "Miss Hatcher! That was it!" said Riley, amazed she had recalled after all those years. The next photographs were those of family outings. Joy would often comment on how much she had enjoyed that day out to the beach or that time when they went up to Niagra Falls for summer vacation while Disgust would occasionally groan and apologise to Riley that she hadn't helped stopped Mom from making her wear that "hideous tree sweater." The rest of the photos were pictures of Riley as a toddler, clutching stuffed toys and braiding the tassels on the new furniture. Bing Bong smiled and laughed at each one but at the same time he was slightly crestfallen that there had been no pictures of him. He wondered why he never showed up on Mom's camera-Disgust was right, it must have been the poor lense quality.

There were only two items left in the crate now. Riley went to delve into it and nearly started weeping with joy as she pulled an old moth-eaten teddy bear out of it.

"Mr Cuddles the bear!" she said, her childhood flashing before her eyes. "I remember you!" This discovery had caught the attention of Fear and Sadness who crept over to peer into the button eyes of the toy. "May I hold him a second?" asked Fear. Riley handed it to him and was amazed at the ferocity he hugged the bear to him. Sadness patted his side. "You okay?"

"Oh me? Yeah I'm fine, sorry it's just- Mr Cuddles got us through a lot of nightmares and thunderstorms. That's all, just an old habit." He tried to make light of it, but Riley noticed him hold the bear tighter and whisper "Thank you."

"C-Can I h-hold him now?" asked Sadness.

"Just a little bit longer? Please?"

Riley went to pull the last item out of the chest and her phantom heart leapt in her throat. Bing Bong looked over and Joy could only watch as he slowly pushed past her, the candy corn beginning to appear at the corners of his eyes.

"What's that? Show us Riley!" begged Disgust.

Riley turned it around. It was a crayon drawing of some kind, a little unrecognisable, except for what appeared to be a puffy feline tail...and instantly the emotions saw it; the pink blob of an elephant's head, the limb of the trunk, puffy mauve fur and bold stripy feet. The sketch trailed a wagon behind him, scarlet red; and the unmistakable name in Riley's sloppy four year old handwriting:

"bInG bOnG."

Riley looked up at her friend who's candy wrapper eyes were threatening to open their flood gates at any moment. As if to prevent the dam burst she hugged him tightly. "I knew it…" she whispered "I always somehow knew it. You were there. You were real weren't you?"

Bing Bong knew he wasn't, nor ever would be real. He only existed within Riley's imagination, but nothing in the world was going to make him shatter this moment.

"Yeah- Yeah I was kiddo."

Riley felt a sudden burst of energy flow through her. It was as though the sun itself had worked it's way into her heart and exploded in the form of a smile. It was like seeing a baby walk for the first time, or a dog playing fetch with its owner. It was like watching a duckling hatch, or listening to a beautiful song or sitting in content comfortable silence with a good movie flickering across a screen. Riley felt this surge of happiness push her back towards the now empty chest and pick up the key still in its lock. Before pocketing it into her pyjamas, she glanced down and then did a swift double take at the coloured circles. The yellow one was lit, as if someone had switched it on like a light bulb. Perhaps this was it, she thought, what she needed to get home.

Turning to Bing Bong and the others she held up the picture. "This," she said, "I choose this,"

Bing Bong looked like he was going to cry candy until he burst like a giant pink piñata.

"Perfect!" said Joy, "Come on you guys back to the wagon!"

"Alright, coming-" said Fear going to put down Mr Cuddles.

The ground began to rumble slightly and he instantly clutched him again. Everyone froze in their tracks.

"Uh, Guys?" questioned Disgust, "It's it just me or was the ground shaking right then?"

"Told ya to lay off the chocolates."

"Anger!" hissed Joy, "Not now!" She listened for it again but nothing came. Much like the light from the chest it had gone as quickly as it had come. "What is it?"

"I don't know," said Bing Bong, "It's never done that before."

The emotions held their breath. Riley could hold in nothing but on the inside she was shaking.

Nothing.

"Huh. Oh well!" said Bing Bong, "Come on everyone, back to the wag-"

BOOM!

A defeating roar sent them off their feet as the memories rattled beneath them. Joy was flown forward and managed to catch Sadness mid-flight who nearly fell head first into Anger.

"Mindquake!" yelled Bing Bong. "Everybody get down! Uh, or is it jump up-?"

"This is the END!" Fear panicked, "Our mind is breaking, WE'RE ALL DOOMED!"

Suddenly the shaking came to a halt and the emotions fell straight back down onto the hard stone memories. Joy and Sadness fell over each other and Fear had knocked Disgust straight into Anger which caused them to be rather uncomfortably close. Riley seemed to be the only one unshaken, since Bing Bong had caught her in his arms before she had been allowed to fall.

"What the heck was that?!" yelled Fear at once.

"Don't ask me!" protested Disgust shivering a disgruntled Anger away from her.

"Guys…" whispered Joy, using her arm as a torch to guide their gazes to where the dust had began to clear.

There was a dark figure emersed in the shadows, tall and ominous, like the kneeling of a bell. A sense of dread crept over everyone except Fear. He had just been lifted into the air shaken around like a ragdoll and was now watching what looked like the devil rise out of the earth-he was beyond dread.

The figure turned to face them, moving slowly and slowly out of the darkness. A human arm made its way through the last cast of a shadow as the being fully emerged. All stopped as a young girl stepped out of the blackness, a very tall, but nevertheless young looking. Riley was certain she was around her age. She looked far too regal to be a child though, elegantly poised on ballerina like feet, with skinny arms and lanky legs. She had dark skin and even darker hair which seemed to appear navy in the type of light they were in and piercing yet intelligent looking golden eyes like a hawk. She wore a long onyx dress and a cloak which blended so naturally with the shadows you would almost assume she was invisible. She carried with her nothing but a long tree-branch staff with a ball of crystal perched on the end. Most striking of all though was that from her shoulders to her back, she had an enormous pair of black-feathered wings.

Sadness pushed Joy forward, urging her to say something to the girl. Joy couldn't find a voice but eventually managed a short yet croaky, "H-Hello."

To everyone's surprise, the girl smiled politely back at them and responded in a perfectly normal sounding friendly voice. "Hello. How are you? I apologise for the entrance I'm a little new here."

"Oh I see," said Joy her apprehension fading, "You just appeared didn't you? It's okay, we all make a fool out of ourselves when we first start our jobs here."

The maiden shook her head and laughed. "Oh no no! I am not new here, I simply mean I am new to this place," she said gesturing around her. "I've never been to a dump before."

"Come on up to Headquarters, it's not much different," muttered Disgust and Fear flashed her his "Please stop or we might get killed," face.

"How come we haven't seen you before?" Sadness asked.

"Oh you wouldn't have gotten a chance to," the girl shrugged. "I was here before any of you were. I have been here for thousands of years. I know, it seems impossible doesn't it, it we all have our off days. I never come out of the corner to do my job. And I'm very grateful for that!" she added somewhat hurriedly. "You all do such great jobs too and I'm proud to share the same place as you, really I am. It is in fact if I may add a great honour to share the same realm as you!"

Joy looked baffled but pleased, "Well, we're happy to have you here newbie! What brings ya?"

"I'm glad you asked," the girl said, "I'm looking for a Riley Andersen?"

Riley appeared from her hiding place behind Bing Bong. "Ye-s?" she asked, calmly yet cautiously.

"You are Riley yes?" the spirit asked her shooting a brief smile.

"Course she is!" Joy smiled back, "This is Riley, I'm Joy, This is Sadness, That's Anger, This is Disgust, That's Fear and This here is Bing Bong. What do you call yourself, I can't say I've seen an emotion like you here before."

The girl looked a little surprised and embarrassed but tried to keep her composure. "Oh no, you must be confused. For you see, I am not an emotion. I am Death."