Author's Note: YAY, another Ib oneshot xD This one is even more on the angsty side than the last one, so... You've been warned. Warning for this one is main character death.

I wandered around by myself, still trying to find the 7 balls of paint. I'd found two of them so far, but that was it. I was extremely uneasy, I constantly felt like I was being watched.

Which I probably was, considering the disturbing doll was determined to follow me absolutely everywhere.

'What are you looking for? I wanna know!' Aforementioned disturbing doll was sitting against a wall, text written it bright red ink displayed next to it.

I didn't reply to the doll, but I opened another door and went in. I felt a suffocating feeling, realizing the room was filled with some kind of strange gas.

"I don't want to stay in here too long.. I can barely breathe in here…"

I grabbed the umbrella to my right and left the room, violently coughing all of a sudden. My rose had lost over half it's petals while I was in there.

"...O..Oh my g- goodness.." I quickly went over to the 'Eternal Blessing' vase and put my rose inside of it. I took my now fully healed rose back and sighed.

"That was terrifying, that could have killed me... What was with that strange gas?" I felt a little dizzy, but it wore off fairly quickly.

I looked at the umbrella. "What am I supposed to do with this, though..?"

I looked around, spotting the fishing hook painting. "...?"

"Is this real, I wonder?" I lightly poked it, wincing as it got my finger. "..Oww… Well, I suppose that answers my question. ..Hm?"

I thought I heard giggling behind me, but when I turned around, there was nothing there.

I sighed, dismissing it as me hearing things. I'm starting to lose it. I have to get out of here soon...

I looked back to the fishing hook. I thought for a moment, then put the umbrella on the hook.

"!?" The umbrella got sucked into the painting. "...Well then. All sorts of strange things have been happening in this place.."

I walked away from the painting. I still had that incredible feeling of uneasiness like something else was there, but I brushed it off as just being that same disturbing doll.

I didn't like the doll, but it was slowly beginning to bother me less as it didn't seem like it intended to harm me in any way.

It seemed more like it had an obsession with me than anything- which was creepy in itself- but ignoring it seemed to be the best option for now.

So I continued looking around the room for anything I'd missed. I knew there was a paintball in the room I'd just been in, but I didn't want to go back in there so soon.

Just the quick action of grabbing the umbrella and getting out had almost done me in. I knew I needed to get it, but I was gonna delay as long as possible.

"..Hm? What's this?" I noticed the 'Juggling' painting had a slot to put in a number. "What year was I born?" I read the question out loud.

"Ahh, I don't think I remember ever seeing anything about this painting.. Huh." I thought for a minute, trying to figure out if I had and had just forgotten.

Six two two three. I heard a whisper, assuming it was my own head telling me what I had forgotten. "Oh!"

"That's it! I don't remember where I saw that at though… My memory must be foggy from all of this madness." He put the number in, and sure enough it was correct.

Another paintball fell down by him, then disappeared like the other two had.

"Only four more to go.. I wonder where they are though? Well, i know I saw one behind those bookshelves in that room up there, but I can't move them for some reason.."

"Then there's the one in there." I looked towards the room I had gotten the umbrella from.

"I don't know if I can get to it and back out fast enough though, that gas is strong enough to kill a person very quickly… Should I really risk it?"

"I don't have much of a choice, though. I have to get it at some point."

I looked at my rose, which still had all ten of it's petals since I had healed it after I had gotten out of that room the first time.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes for a moment.

"Alright, here goes nothing." I went back in the room, instantly being hit with the same suffocating feeling I had felt the first time I went in there.

I couldn't stand it, but I forced myself to run over to the paintball and grab it. My rose was already missing a ton of petals.

I ran back to the door, barely making it out before I collapsed, coughing. The suffocating feeling hadn't completely gone away, which was worrying.

I wondered if I could possibly be dying from inhaling so much of whatever the heck that was in there, slight panic setting in.

After a minute the suffocating feeling went away, but I felt overwhelmingly dizzy and I had a headache. I sat up, leaning against the wall behind me.

"Garry!" I suddenly heard a familiar voice.

"..Hm? Mary…!?" Sure enough, when I looked up the blonde was standing right in front of me, but she was alone for some reason.

I sat up all the way, looking at her. "...Mary, how did you get here? And where's Ib?"

"Uhh, that's not important right now. Ib's fine, I left her upstairs. What happened to you though, you're really pale…?"

"I am?" I hadn't noticed that before. But now looking at my hand and arm I could see that. "I was in that room back there too long, it's filled with some kind of weird gas."

"I'm not sure I can stand, I'm really dizzy, can you take my rose and put it in the vase over there before it dies?" I asked her, pulling my very wilted rose back out of my back pocket.

"..Hm, okay!" Mary took my rose and looked at it. "Yikes, it only has one petal left."

"I k- know, can you please go heal it? Quickly?"

"I wonder what that room did to it? Or is it you affecting the rose, not the rose affecting you?" Mary just kept rambling, apparently not understanding the urgency of the situation.

"I don't know, maybe both? But Mary please, would you go heal my rose before I end up dying?" The urgency in my voice was clear this time.

"Yeah, you're right, maybe it did something to both you and the rose? That would explain why it lost so many petals so quickly.

"..Mary please…"

"But what exactly did it do? And for that matter, where did all that strange gas come from?"

"Mary. Are you listening?"

"Yeah, of course, silly! I'm just thinking. Also, why roses? Have you ever thought about that?"

"Mary, we can talk about this later. I'm dying, Mary. Would you please-"

"And how do those vases work anyways? Some kind of magic? That's the only explanation I can think of." She tilted her head a bit.

I wasn't sure how she didn't see how bad the situation was. Was she really that naive? Or did she just not care…?

There was no way that was the case, she was just an innocent little girl. Then again… Something had seemed a little off about her from the beginning.

"Mary, are you just gonna stand there and let me die? I've told you more than once now to go and heal my rose, you're either not listening or you don't care if I die or not…"

"And why are all of our roses different colors? Why aren't they all red, like Ib's? That's kinda weird too, don't you think, Garry?"

"Mary, I don't understand this. Why aren't you listening to me?"

"Oh come on, you can't even guess about any of these questions?" She turned and looked me in the eyes- She had been listening to me, she just didn't care.

"..." I didn't know what to say to her now. She was perfectly content with letting me die, and I had no idea why.

She gave me an 'innocent' grin, opening the door to the gas filled room.

"... Mary, what are you doing n-"

Without warning, she grabbed me by the shirt and dragged me, shoving me back into the room. She tossed my rose in with me, then shut the door.

"If you can get to that vase in there and back without dying I'll let you out!" I heard her call from outside the door.

I already felt like I was suffocating again, and it was much, much worse than before. My vision was blurring. I noticed the vase, which had been empty before, now had water dripping in it.

I couldn't stand, but I grabbed my rose and desperately tried to get over to the vase. But I was way too weak, I just ended up collapsing onto the floor again.

My vision was cutting in and out. I couldn't breathe, I knew for a fact I was about to die. I thought I heard a second voice aside from Mary's outside, but I didn't have time to fully register it.

I had an extreme dizzy spell, then my vision slowly faded to black.

"Mary, there you are." Ib came down the stairs, finding Mary at the bottom. "I was wondering where you were, did you find anything?"

"No, but there's some other rooms I haven't checked yet." Mary said, motioning towards the gas chamber room.

"I peeked in that one but didn't see anything, there's some kind of strange gas in there though. But it must be there for a reason, so, wanna check?"

"Okay, but if that's the case we should be careful."

"Yeah, alright." The two girls went back over to the door, side by side.

Mary opened the door. "...!? Is that Garry?"

Ib gasped, running into the room. She grabbed him by his shirt and dragged him out, leaning him against a wall. "..Garry!?" She gently shook him.

"Garry, wake up!" Ib shook him a little harder, to no avail. "Garry!" She kept trying, but nothing was happening.

"Ib, I don't think he's alive, he must have been trapped in that room too long…"

"Why was he even in there in the first place?" Ib sniffed, tears in her eyes.

"He probably went in there to see if it was an exit and got trapped." Mary shrugged. "It could've happened to anyone."

"We could've saved him if only we'd realized sooner…. This didn't have to happened… We could have saved him… But we didn't…."

"Come on Ib, let's just go."

"And leave him here?"

"Well neither of us can carry him, can we?"

"...I guess not."

"Okay, come on then!"

"..Okay, Mary."

END: Trust