Never giving up is what makes people strong. That resolve creates legendary people that do legendary things in this world. They would always to never give up despite many hindrances. Whether it be a dying loved one, failed relationships, heartbreak, and even bankruptcy. Never giving up is that one hope people should cling on to. That resolve makes or breaks a person. No matter what happens, one shouldn't be so submissive to this world's problems.
Joseph kept going to that thought. A thought that was implanted to him by his father. Every time Joseph would run away from his problems, his dad would always give this blatant sermon to him. He would say first that Joseph was such a pussy, and then go start with the never give up speech. Joseph would hate that speech. It reminds him of how little his father thinks he is.
Now, those same words keep popping on his head. Never give up. Never give up. Never give up. Joseph jumped on his pink bed, hands raised, with great determination on his face. "I'll never give up! I'll never give up on love!!" He jumps down, doing a superhero landing, his face still filled with confidence. "I'll never give up on you, River Midnight!" he said as he walked away from the infirmary and back into the pink halls of the asylum. Everyone there looked at him, but weren't surprised at all. This is a facility for the insane after all.
His memory of what happened earlier that day was cloudy at best. All he remembered was that he was talking to a girl who he now knows was a girl named River Midnight. Even though he knew that River had punched him hard enough to send him flying, he still didn't blame her for the black eye. He blamed it on a banana peel.
Joseph kept mumbling those words to himself until he reached the lobby. There, he was greeted by another girl he thought was pretty as heck. Her pink hair was something he would only see on those manga's and anime's he had seen. Her name was as unique as her looks. Rose Pink.
"How's your eye?" she asked. Her face was expressionless, her voice mono-toned, yet Joseph knew, or at least he thinks, there was some genuine concern there.
"I've had worse. If anything, I think she's playing the hard to get route."
Rose held her clipboard containing her notes and started to write something on it. "Does that mean I've made progress? You know, on becoming more hopeful and outgoing in life?" Joseph asked.
"You have. You just have to keep this up." She took out her phone in her pocket, opened up the recorder, and pointed her phone closer to Joseph so the mix will be able to clearly pick up his voice. "How have you been feeling Mr. Valeska?"
Joseph had been asked that question many times by her, every single day since he has been in the asylum. It was their job, but it seemed like a chore to answer the same question day by day. His common answers were "I'm in this asylum so I'm not fine." Or "Like I want to kill myself." And at some occasions where he would feel severely depressed, he would say nothing.
"I've been here for almost a month now, Doc. Sure, the anti-depressants do kind of work. But I still can't help thinking about my past, my future, all of it. It looms over at me especially at night."
"Which is why I have told you to find some hope in your life. Depression is a lack of hope in someone's life. Tell me again, what do you hope for?"
Joseph had been told before that saying stuff out loud will make your brain easily remember them. "I'm hoping I could be with someone. To finally fill the emptiness I've been wanting to get rid of ever since—"
Joseph felt pain on the right side of his body. He stumbled down to the ground, landing on his back. Right next to him was a girl that was also wincing in pain.
"River?" Joseph called out to the girl. "River! I am so sorry. It's me, Joseph!"
He saw that River was shedding tears. He watched as she stood up and wiped the tears from her face. "Oh my gosh did it hurt that bad? I should've seen that you were coming." He tried to help River but Juno came running to her rescue.
"River, you okay?" she asked as she lifted River of the ground. Joseph noticed Juno's bloody lip and asked her about it. She didn't answer his question. She only answered with a "Oh hey, Joseph."
Joseph watched the both of them as they sat down on a nearby chairs in the lobby. He didn't know what the hell was going on, why Juno's lips were bloody and why River was crying. Joseph regained footing and took a long hard look at the two. "Did something happen between you two?"
River was covering her face. She had stopped crying and went over to look at Juno's bloodied lips. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I know it wasn't you."
"But it was me, Juno. It wasn't Midnight. It was me." Her tears started to fall from her eyes again. Joseph saw this and sat right next to River. She was now sandwiched between a girl with bloody lips and a man they barely knew yet. Joseph looked around to find Rose Pink and was unable to find her.
"It was me," River continued. "It was what that bastard Linda said. She said that everything that had happened to me wasn't my fault. That it was my other personality's fault. Those were the exact words I told myself when I was abandoned by my family. The same family that told me that they still love me. I got so mad at that overly positive woman that I couldn't help but punch her straight in the face."
"I kind of saw it coming, which is why I tried to stop you from earning a one-way ticket to solitary confinement."
"I ended up hitting you and it's not okay. Linda said my family still loved me and I snapped. All the anger I have for my family just—" River sighed. She seemed like she couldn't explain everything that had happened or what she felt at the time.
"You know--" Joseph started talking. Juno was looking at him, River continued to hide her face with her hand. "—there was these amazing people I knew back then. Those two amazing people did some amazing stuff. But the catch was that one was good and one was evil to the core. Oh yeah also, they're siblings."
"You really suck at talking in general."
"River, let me finish. Anyways, One was good and the other a real bad guy. What they had in common was that both were treated by their parents unfairly. The bad child became a vampire and the good child became a warrior."
"That doesn't like someone a person knows. Especially a person like you," commented Juno.
"Okay whatever, the point is that they were both treated horribly by their parents. They both experienced a lot from their father. Unfairness, fear, and even neglect. That one child became an angry evil vampire because he learned anger from his father. But the good child became an awesome warrior because he reacted differently to the negative things his dad had done to him. What I'm saying is that you shouldn't let what happens to you define you. You're different than your family."
Juno squeezes her hand on River's. "And you're different from your darker side. You're different from Midnight."
Joseph nodded in agreement. "Exactly....who the hell is Midnight?"