"Here." She stands before him, just barely coming above his waist. Looking up isn't hard though. He's actually a bit shorter than her parents. In her outstretched arms is a tattered blue coat much too large for her. Though it had served nicely as a blanket.
Smiling that same reassuring smile, he takes the coat back and thanks her while sliding his arms into it. It hangs a tad loose on him, though he can't recall the cause. The fabric may have stretched, but in the back of his mind a more reasonable -and frightening- thought lingers.
He pushes past the fear and asks her a question. One that he suspects will be answered in the negative, given their circumstances. "Are you all right, Ib?" She had passed out in the previous hall and he'd rushed her here. The nearest safe room. Anything to keep her from harm.
Brown locks momentarily cover crimson eyes as she shakes her head. "I had a nightmare." The headless statues and an angry lady of color closing in on her, step by step, and she runs and runs but it's a dead end. There is no escape. Just screaming and darkness. She wraps her arms around herself in a sort of hug, only to be pulled into a real one by him.
Once he lets go of her he kneels to her height and pulls a small object out of his coat, placing it in her palm. Turning it over in her hands reveals it as a piece of yellow candy. He's still smiling at her, and despite all the fear and danger she can't resist smiling back. He's like the big brother she never had. "Thank you, Garry. I'm sorry for causing you trouble."
He stands back up with a shake of his head. "No, it's no trouble, Ib. I'm at fault. I should have been keeping better watch on you. I'm sorry." A glance is spared toward the door, a small bookcase placed in front of it "We can stay here until you're ready to leave. I've barred the door to keep the artwork out." Several steps to another bookcase in the room and he removes a book from the shelf to flip through.
She unwraps the candy immediately, savoring its tangy flavor. She doesn't care for lemon but after today she thinks she might eat anything. Just this morning her parents had taken her to visit an art gallery. A special treat shortly after her birthday. Then the gallery goes dark and everyone is gone, and then the art turned scary and started attacking. Then she found Garry.
After finishing the candy she walks over to Garry and watches him read for a few minutes. It's a nice break from being constantly terrified. She's a good girl though. She doesn't show fear. At least not often. A few more page flips and she can't hold the question back. "What are you reading?"
"Hm? Ah, a compendium of sorts."
"A what?"
A light chuckle. He sometimes forgets she's only nine. So brave and mature for her age. "It's a collection of Guertena's most famous art."
"They can't come out of a book, right? Just paintings?"
"No, I think we're safe. It's a very interesting book, however."
Rocking back and forth on her heels, she quickly throws several more questions at him. His responses are similarly confusing but he corrects them all for her. He's out of candy now, apparently his coat is torn on purpose, and he's thirsty too. Good thing he stops himself after joking about drinking from the vase. It might not be normal water.
Being in the room is calming, but at the same time the longer she relaxes with him the more anxiety builds. She steels herself and tugs on Garry's coat to get his attention. "I'm ready to leave now."
He nods and takes Ib by the hand. "All right. Stay close and let me check outside first." Leading her to the door, he drops her hand and uses his entire body to push the bookcase aside. Retaking her hand, his other is used to turn the doorknob and open the door just far enough to peer into the hall beyond. The dark is haunting, but no artwork is present. "We're safe. Let's continue on."
They leave the room together, hand in hand down the barely lit hall. For quite a while nothing appears to harm them, and though he wants to be relieved he can't keep away the fear eating away at his psyche. His grip on Ib's hand tightens, a way to reassure himself that she's still there. So far she has been his anchor to reality. Not only had she saved his life by healing and returning his rose, but her continued presence might just be the only thing keeping his sanity intact. And that in itself is a terrifying thought.
Nearly there. Or so they hope. The crayon-drawn walls had faded to colored plaster, a sign that although they are still in the gallery, at least they had escaped from the sketchbook. A childish fantasy drawn by a young girl with an obsessive streak. Neither of them truly wanted to burn Mary, but after stalking them, pushing them into the toybox of horrors, and coming after Ib with intent to kill, setting fire to the painting was their only option.
Ib has hidden her fear well, but she knows fatigue is beginning to show. She's tired, and isn't running as fast when they need to. She wants to go home. Back where the only scary thing is her mother getting angry. She'll take that over this nightmare. Please. She just wants to go home.
Garry is exhausted as well, and his sanity is slipping. It's not the first time he's almost fallen asleep, or started talking to himself. But he keeps going for Ib's sake. Even if the shadows seem to follow them, and he can't shake the feeling he's being watched, and sometimes he swears the dolls are still leaving him messages on the walls, but then he blinks and the plaster is unmarred.
A crash from around the corner sends both of them scrambling backward as a lady of color drags herself into view, nails clawing at the carpet. Green. The fastest kind. "Be ready to run." His voice is steady but his hands are shaking as he leads her further back, then drags her along when he breaks out into a mad dash past the lady. She's holding his injured hand and it hurts when she tightens her grip, but he won't voice the pain. She needs to stay close.
The painting claws at their ankles, tugging on clothing, but can do no more damage with the duo's roses out of reach. The one advantage that they have over the ladies of color; the ladies are embedded in their frames from the waist down.
Sprinting around the corner leads them to a thinner hall blocked by a headless statue. They can hear the lady scratching at the carpet behind them, coming up fast. Artwork on both sides, one of them closing in. Blood thumps in his ears as Garry tries to calm his racing heart and Ib's hand tightens around his. Another wince and the handkerchief soaks up more blood. Not much time. They can skirt past the lady in green, but that would be backtracking. Again. They've done enough of that.
"Hide your rose. We'll maneuver around the statue." he whispers, lifting her small frame into his arms. She buries her face and hands into his chest, and he can barely make out red petals between the folds of hair and fabric. Perfect.
Her weight slows him down but it keeps her out of reach when he backs into the statue. Keeping his back to it he pushes it against the wall to squeeze past it, when a sudden burst of pain flares through his chest.
Ib gasps and looks up when he screams, but by then he's already past the statue, continuing down the hall. He uses his back to push open the door ahead, sets her down on the other side, then shuts the door and collapses against it.
She sits next to him and tugs on his coat. "Are you okay?" He's breathing wrong, like when she first found him. Lying on the ground, breathing wrong; he was hurting. Because... Oh! Because the lady in blue! "Is your rose okay?!" She hopes it's not like last time, but she'll go back for his rose again if she has to. Anything to keep him safe.
This time he can move though, if slowly. He sweeps his coat aside, reaches into his pocket with his uninjured hand, and pulls out a blue rose. Most of the petals are missing. The statue must have ripped them off. "Is... Is there a vase...?" he asks between ragged breaths.
She shoots up and looks around the immediate area. Part of her wants to get excited at the familiar location, but worry and panic drown that feeling thoroughly. Crimson eyes dart around for anything to help Garry. Those stairs weren't there last time. "There are stairs! I'll check there!"
He shakes his head. "Not... Not alone." He won't let her explore an unknown area alone. She might end up in just as bad a situation as him.
And she's staring at him. Eyes wide. Or does it just look that way because his vision is fading? "You need a vase." she insists. "I've been alone in here before. I'll be okay. Please, Garry..."
He tries to stand up to insist he follow, but he only makes it to his knees. Then she grabs his rose and runs. "Ib!"
She bolts down the staircase and rounds the first corner she sees, and miraculously there is a vase of water on a table. She puts the blue rose in the water and while it soaks up the life-saving liquid she spares a look at the wall. The paint is faded in a square spot and there's a sign near the vase. 'When your rose ? so too will you ? away.' It's familiar and she still doesn't understand that strange word.
When the water is gone and the rose at full bloom, footsteps thump down the stairs and a weary Garry grabs her by the shoulders. "Don't you ever..." he trails off, taking a probably needed deep breath. Healing a rose takes a minute to kick in. "Please don't run off on your own like that again!" He drags her into another hug. "I'm sorry. Thank you so much. I just..."
Ib smiles and returns the hug, using the opportunity and her height to slip his rose back into the proper pocket. "You get worried? My parents are like that. But it's okay. I was alone until I found you."
"That is true. You handled yourself remarkably well. You're very brave, do you know that, Ib?" He smiles and she thinks it's like the sun. "This is the second time you've saved my life."
And not the first time he's risked his life for hers. She clutches his coat, thankful to still have him. She needs him. And he needs her.
Releasing the hug, he checks his pocket and confirms the rose is there. Then a 360 around the room has him staring at the wall behind the vase. "This room is where I started."
"It is?"
"Yes, almost. After the gallery went dark I tried the front doors. When they wouldn't open I saw a wall had opened up so I followed the stairs down. They led to this room and here I found my rose. Then the lady in blue attacked me. Although the passage was red last time."
"Oh, so I was right! Upstairs is the main gallery. That means we're close, right?"
A hand to his lips in thought. "Ah, what doors did I fall against?"
"The front doors. Oh... So we came in from outside?"
"The entire gallery must be one large loop, then. Have you been down this staircase before?"
She shakes her head. "No, my rose place was blue, not black."
"I wandered from here and soon collapsed. I don't recall much of the area. There might be a new hall here, possibly with an exit. Let's go look."
Ib's grin at the mention of an exit nearly takes up her entire face. She takes Garry's hand as they walk down the hall.
And suddenly stop at a very surprising sound. Voices.
"They have to be this way!" A girl.
"How can you be certain?" A man.
"After finding enough people in Tartarus I've gotten pretty good at pinpointing voices."
Ib squeezes his hand and again he winces, then removes her to switch sides and retakes her hand. Blue eyes stare down the hall, and though half his vision is blurry and obscured by lavender hair, he sees no-one. An auditory hallucination? This place is slowly destroying his sanity.
"Garry, there are people!" So she hears them too...
"Stay quiet." he warns. "They might be paintings like Mary."
That hushes her quickly. The duo back into the stairwell, Garry peering around the corner. Another duo comes into view, presumably the owners of the voices. A red-haired girl of high-school age and a young man dressed in an unusual blue suit jacket.
He pulls back and looks down at Ib. "It's two people like us."
"We should say hi." she suggests, at which Garry's eyes widen, so she explains. "Mary was nice when we met. She acted real. You don't know if they're paintings until you talk to them. They might be real people..."
"And if they're paintings it's bound to end like Mary."
"They might be nice paintings."
Garry sighs but concedes. She has a very good point about the possibility of people like them, and right now they could use help. If the two wish to attack, the area up the stairs should provide enough room to escape. He takes her hand and they step down into the hall and into view of the strangers.
Said strangers stop and the girl's face lights up. "See, Theo? People!"
Ib gives them a meek wave. "Hi."
Garry follows suit.