Some Quiet Place

Emotion. She kneels and embraces Morgan, smiling at me with luminescent eyes. This girl wants someone to be kind to her, just once, without the irritation and sense of duty that usually comes along with it.
    Morgan’s muscles spasm and her eyes go dull again. She looks in the direction of the window, soaking up the stars just as Fear had done moments ago. Seconds tick by. After a minute, it seems like she’s not going to talk … but then she focuses on me yet again.
    “Run,” she says, clear as a bell.
    Before I can move or react, Fear is hissing. He moves back into the hall, his coat snapping around his heels like a whip. I quickly follow, leaving Morgan there in that empty room with the box. “What is it?” I ask. The words echo.
    When Fear starts for the stairs without answering, I stop and stand there in the dark. Realizing this, Fear snarls deep in his throat, but he stops, too, and faces me. There’s a moment of silence. Frowning, he mutters, “I thought I sensed … ”
    He doesn’t finish, but he continues to glare at a spot on the wall as if it’s talking to him. “Are you going to fill me in?” I ask.
    He lets out a frantic, frustrated breath, gesturing sharply to the room we just left. “Will you fill me in?”
    Morgan holds no more interest for me. “Maybe,” I tell Fear.
    The word isn’t even out of my mouth completely when he jerks and lifts his head, sniffing the air. His eyes go wide again, and he whirls around. He rushes down the stairs at an inhuman speed. Any moment now I know he’ll disappear.
    “This isn’t a place for my kind,” is all he says.
    I try to stay close on his heels. “There are plenty of Emotions here,” I note, raising my voice so he’ll hear me. My grip is tight on the bannister. “Are you—”
    “Just trust me on this,” he snaps, reaching the ground floor. I quicken my pace as he reaches for the knob.
    Just then a boy stumbles from the bathroom. He reeks of vomit. Before I have a chance to evade him he embraces me, slobbering on my cheek. I shove him away—Fear is already outside. I start running. Cool air splashes me in the face as I sprint out the front door.
    Fear isn’t anywhere to be seen. I’ve lost him. All the other Emotions are gone as well. The party is now just a writhing mass of kids, dancing, laughing, leering, drinking, shouting. Without any Emotions, they’ll feel the same sensations for hours. And even if the Emotions don’t return, they’ll still feel something. Fear told me a few years ago that if there isn’t the actual being around to instill an emotion, humans will draw from a memory of it as a last resort.
    Sophia is standing with a group of her friends, obviously still incensed from our little dispute. Best to avoid her. I start in the opposite direction of the girls, toward the woods.
    Why would all the Emotions abandon their summons?
    Suddenly, the sound of sirens fills the air. Red and blue lights swirl around the house and lawn, reflecting off the water in the hot tub. Sheriff Owen’s voice bursts out, tired and hard, “All right, kids, stay where you are. Ah, Dorseths! Don’t you dare run!” Small-town party bust.
    But Rebecca was so adamant about not coming to this party. I’m not finished. Distracted from the mayhem around me, I survey the whole scene with narrow eyes as I walk, trying to spot anything out of place.
    “Get out of my way, you idiot!”
    The unfamiliar voice comes from a distance, but it cat-ches my attention. Male. Frantic. In the trees, I see bright headlights burst on. A girl falls at my feet in a drunken stupor. I hardly notice as I step over her. My gut insists that something important is about to happen in those woods.
    “She’s hurt,” a new voice says, the words bouncing through the night. This voice I recognize. “We need to get her to a hospital.”
    Joshua. Again I begin to hurry, pushing aside branches. Morgan’s urgent whisper invades my head: Run, run . As I sprint toward the sound of Joshua’s voice, I spot an Emotion, no, an Element, cowering in some leaves. It’s a tiny being with a slight glow. As I pass it, the creature actually jumps on my shoulder and pulls at my hair, her squeaky voice a piercing warning in my ear.
    “He’s here, he’s here!” she shrieks. “Disappear, before he gets you, gets you!” She vanishes.
    The argument ahead continues to drift toward me, though I still can’t see the speakers through the trees and darkness.
    “The cops are here,