It all started the day my parents decided to take me to the museum shortly after my tenth birthday. Something about wanting me to be "cultured" and "educated". It may have been since I liked to doodle a lot and there was an art exhibit in town by some famous artist (I think his name was Guertena?) that my parents thought would be an inspiration. It was an average trip that started like most outings with my parents did.
"Do you have everything, Keith?"
"You do have that bandanna you go for your birthday, right?"
"Don't lose it! Put it in your pocket for safekeeping!"
It was my first time in an art gallery, and so far, it wasn't too thrilling. There were two windows, a front desk with a worker behind it, and a big poster behind him advertising the exhibit we were there to see. The room was completely white, so the only pops of color came from the people and accessories to the room.
"Guertena was an extremely talented artist. He wasn't only skilled at painting, but he would sculpt, too, and make many other creations," my mother said excitedly, "now, you're allowed to go off into the gallery. Just don't be a bother and make too much noise, okay?"
I nodded, and then I was off to the upstairs portion of the museum. Paintings lined the wall and across from them was a roped off exhibit with three headless mannequins: one red, one yellow, and one blue. I tried reading the information cards beneath the paintings, but I didn't recognize all the words. I looked at one of the paintings; it was of a woman. They said that Guertena never painted real people, but the woman in this painting seemed so lifelike… like I could see the life put into the canvas. Continuing, there were several bizarre sculptures; one was a ball with swords piercing it, another looked like rainbow wind chimes, and the last looked like a blue version of what happened to my little green army men when I forgot to take them back inside on a hot summer's day.
The strangest piece though took up the entire wall; it was a mess of scribbles and I couldn't read the entire name of it. As I looked at the piece, the lights began to flicker. For some reason, the gallery didn't have the same feel to it as before. I had thought that this was some sort of prank; when I walked around to find anyone else, it was like they had all vanished, not a trace of anyone even being there. I kept exploring, hoping to find my parents or really anyone in the gallery, and saw many interesting pieces. One that caught my attention was a giant rose; its stem was thorny and the petals were falling. I remember some of what I could read at the time: "'? of Spirit' Beautiful at a glance, but if you get too close, it will ? pain. It can only bloom in ? bodies." I tried everywhere to find someone, but it was as empty as rain collector in the desert. "Hello? Is anyone there?" I called out, "Hello?! Anyone?!" I was confused. How could a whole gallery of people have disappeared? It was impossible.
I went back to the large scribble painting and saw some blue liquid now dripping from it. As soon as I took a closer look, letters appeared on the floor: " H". "Come?" Come where? I went back to the reception area and tried to see if the I could leave, but the door was locked and the windows wouldn't open. A red liquid dripped from behind one. Weird things were starting to happen and I couldn't understand why or how.
Not knowing where else to turn, I retraced my steps to a painting I had see before painted on the floor. It was an ocean scene with a menacing eel in the foreground, however, the velvet rope that had been around the piece had been moved and there was now a blue footprint leading into it. Confused, I took a step forward only to fall into the painting and end up in a different gallery. The walls were no longer white; instead, they were deep purples and blues with paintings I didn't recognize. I kept walking, hoping maybe someone else had been here due to the footprint leading into here.
The walls in the next hall were covered with the word "COME" with a light blue door at the end blocked by a rose on a desk. It had to have been put there for a reason, so I took it before moving the desk from in front of the door. In the next room, there was a painting of a woman on the wall that had her eyes closed and was smiling happily; she seemed peaceful. There was a plaque under her: "When the rose ?s, so too will you ? away." I didn't know some of the words, but I had a feeling that it was most likely something negative. Turning to leave, I noticed a blue key on the floor. Was that there when I walked in? I picked it up and had the strangest feeling someone was watching me. When I turned around, the woman's eyes were open and the pupils were slits like a snake's eyes and a creepy grin was on her face. I remember screaming and scrambling to leave the room.
Out in the hall, the letters had turned from a cool blue "COME" to a blood red "THIEF". There was now a note on the wall:
"You and the rose are ?
Know the weight of your own life."
I saw the desk with the vase on it again and put the rose back in the vase. Maybe if I just put it back all this creepy stuff would stop? And I can go home? I felt better, stronger when the rose hit the water. I had a bad feeling about all this.