Acceptance

They raced through the dark corridors, side by side, knowing fully well how important it was for them to get to their destination on time.

“We need to hurry before the others get there,” she said, sounding worried.  

“If they’re not there already,” he said grimly.

They both rounded a corner and stopped in their tracks, panting. They were too late.

The inner sanctum of the man’s mind was deep, and at the moment, dark. The way it gets when someone goes around putting out all the lights in a fully lit room. Which was exactly what was happening.

As Hope and Resilience stood and watched helplessly, Anger went around pulling all the lights from their holdings.

Hope looked around and almost missed Joy sitting in a corner, head in his hands. She went over and knelt beside him.

“You can’t give up now. He needs you the most at this time,” she tried to coax him. Joy didn’t move. He had taken a blow in the gut, and wasn’t getting up any time soon. 

Resilience stepped forward and at that exact same moment, so did Denial.

“What do you want?” Denial snarled in Resilience’s face.

“This isn’t going to be of any use,” Resilience said.

“Yeah? Well, nothing is.”

“Come on…”

“Shut up!” Denial sneered and walked away.

Resilience watched helplessly as Denial walked around the sanctum of the man’s mind, stomping up and down, steam rising from the floor, as he went about shutting every window, completing the darkness. 

Resilience felt his power ebbing away with each passing second, while at the same time sensed Anger, who was just waiting in a corner now, getting darker and stronger. Hope, on the other hand, was still trying to revive Joy, who was as pale and gaunt as death by now.

“This can’t be happening,” Denial was saying. “There’s no way this is happening. It’s some kind of a joke. Or maybe a test. Yeah, a test. Any minute now, this is gonna turn out to be a test.”

Resilience winced. Anger gritted his teeth.

“I mean, how could this be happening, right?” Denial said.

“Why the hell not?” Anger snapped.

Everyone turned to him.

“WHY THE BLOODY HELL NOT!?” Anger roared, standing up and coming forward. 

Resilience sank to the floor.

“Isn’t that how it’s always been? Hasn’t it always been one big bloody joke?” Anger raged on.

“But everything was so…so beautiful…” Denial said stubbornly.

“Oh yeah. Perfect setting, don’t you think? Build a beautiful dream and then take a goddamn hammer to it. BLOODY PERFECT!”

Dark black smoke was rising out of Anger now. The entire sanctum of the man’s mind was getting hot. Resilience was feeling faint and Hope had sat down beside Joy in the corner, too weak to say anything.

“Please,” Hope begged.

“Stop…” Resilience said.

Anger clenched his fists till he began shaking.

“Every time,” he hissed. “Every. Single. Time…” Anger’s skin was burning now. Huge, black flames were filling up the sanctum.

Everyone watched in terrified awe as Anger started burning to the ground. And from the ashes of Anger rose Grief.

Pale. Thin. Dark. Grief didn’t even look at anyone as she stepped forward. Denial was gone. Anger had burnt away. Joy had rested his head against a wall and closed his eyes. Hope was using whatever strength she had left to hold on to his hand simply to keep him alive. Resilience was curled up on the ground, too weak to say anything.

Grief walked around like a figure in mourning, exuding Depression from each pore. They could hear the man crying. Only tears flowed out of his eyes. His mouth was silent. But his mind was howling. Grief was doing her job well.

Resilience tried to crawl forward. But every movement he took drained him a little more than the previous one. Desperate, he looked to Hope, tried to call out to her. But she was using the last reserves of her very being to hold on to Joy’s hand.

Grief walked around, scattering gloom around the sanctum from her pale white robes. Depression, who hung overhead like a cloud, absorbed all the gloom, getting bigger and deeper. The more Grief shook her robes, the more Depression expanded.

Grief started melting as she walked, turning to tears and flowing out of the man’s eyes in a never ending stream. His mind wept bitterly. Depression kept getting stronger. By the fourth day, Grief had completely melted and turned into Depression.

Dark, scary thoughts echoed into the sanctum of the man’s mind, as he went through the motions of daily life.

It’s all pointless.

It’s no use.

You’re nothing but a joke.

You had no business being so happy.

“Please,” Resilience croaked. “It’s been a week already…”

Did you really think there was going to be a happy ending?

Have there ever been happy endings?

Do you think you even deserve them?

Have you not learned your lesson yet?

You’re stupid, you know that?

It was only on the tenth day that a trench coated, stockily built figure stepped into the sanctum, cutting through the dense could of Depression. Resilience twitched. Hope opened her eyes.

He kept staring at the center of Depression, which held its own. Undaunted, he walked right into the cloud, all the time staring hard from under his hat at the nucleus, which, unwillingly, grudgingly, began to dissipate.

It took another day, but at the end of it, the cloud had completely cleared. The newcomer walked around slowly, his heavy boots echoing through the sanctum, as the last few wisps of Depression took the form of Denial, Anger and Grief.

“If you kids’re done playing around,” Acceptance said firmly, “I got some work to do here.”

Denial, Anger and Grief looked as if they were going to start something. Instead, they meekly walked away and were gone within seconds. Resilience and Hope felt the life returning into them.

“You two,” Acceptance said crisply. “Off your asses.”

They got up with surprising ease. Hope looked down at Joy, who was still looking like a ghost.

“Let him be,” Acceptance said. “He’s gonna need some more time.”

He laid down a sack on the ground.

“Positive memories,” he said as he opened it. “Had to rummage around to pick out the best ones for the man to focus on. Get the lights back, will you? And open some windows”

Joy took his first deep breath in days.