A/N: Hello! This is a story I've been thinking about writing for a while and I'm not too sure how it came out, but I will share it none the less!
It's quite a bit longer than I intended, but most of that is because I literally transcribed the content of the Ib game into the story (or at least did my best to). That said, of course I can't take credit for that part of the content, which belongs to the original makers of the Ib game. (Aren't they wonderful?) So, if you are fairly familiar with the game you may want to do a lot of skimming while reading this story.
My contribution was put simply changing the perspective and adding or altering the details that make it 'Mary's Story'. I hope you like the concept as much as I do. c: I also hope it won't be too hard for you to follow along, and pick out the parts that are new and not just repeat of the Ib game.
I did my best to rid typos, but my apologies for any that escape my notice, and there are a couple rough patches in this story where I had to really wrestle with the plot to make it fit, but I hope you can all enjoy it regardless of it's flaws! It will be about five chapters I believe, and I'll be releasing them pretty rapidly (since everything is already typed out. Basically it will just take me some time to do a final read through of the chapter before I post it.) I might add one more A/N at the end, but that will be all. Oh look, I always make these too long!
Ib does not belong to me, nor do any of the characters, nor the original plot of the game!
The sun cast a warmly glowing light on the green leaves of trees and short bundles of bushes. The short blades of grass were also peacefully cast under this light, until the girl's black shoes stormed past at a brisk pace.
She was on her way to see her friend. It got lonely now and then out here, although she always had her family. Town was not too far away either, but it wasn't the same. Perhaps the same serenity and potential of the wide valley that made her love it was also what made this friend so special to her.
He lived so close to her amongst the plants and the earth. She went to visit him every day, ever since she had found him out here. A shallow body of water she liked to call a lake was in sight, their special place to meet.
She continued at her excited pace until she reached the edge of the water, and dropped down to her knees in front of it. She was careful with her green dress, not to get it muddy or dirty or her mother would complain. Her faint blonde curls reflected in the water as she leaned forward.
"I'm here… will you tell me about another one today?"
He always described such wonderful images for her. She loved to hear him gush about his work, even though normally a child might be bored with such things.
"I wish I could see them…"
It wasn't an impossible wish, was it? They way he talked, she felt like she could already see them. In fact it seemed to her like his promise to her that she could see them someday. It was the silly fantasy of a child, but it was her dream. On that day, she would be able to meet him too. I can't wait to meet you… Guertena.
She hadn't visited today, and it was getting late, but she had to go. The light wasn't that bad. It was the time of the year when the sunlight lasted for longer in the day. It would be safe to go and have a quick visit. She was in a rush, so she had to run.
"Mary! Dinner will be ready soon!"
She turned back towards the house to call back,
"I'll be back soon!"
She quickened her pace until she reached the lake, careful not to slide to a stop and get mud on her shoes, and lifting up her dress a little. It wasn't very wet this close to the lake, but she wanted to be safe. It would be less for her mother to worry about.
Mary walked closer and saw something written in her spot near the edge. Come in? she repeated, and leaned a little closer over the water. In there?
The water seemed strange today. There was a shadow near the bottom in some kind of shape. Mary turned her head a bit trying to figure out what it might be, but she wasn't sure she had seen anything exactly like it. Perhaps it was a fish?
She didn't want to get wet and dirty, and she needed to hurry, but if her friend wanted her to…
Mary squinted her eyes a bit, and cautiously took her first steps. The water wasn't deep, so it couldn't be dangerous. She went farther into the water, but it began to feel strange. She quickly began to fear she had lost her footing, but she hadn't fallen.
She must have slipped underground somehow, because this was much deeper than the lake appeared from the surface. As it became clearer around her, she could see it didn't look like a lake at all. How curious she was not wet and there was no more water around.
"Guertena?" she called out, at the top of the steps.
The hallway was a bit dark, but it had a blue color to it. Mary climbed down the steps and saw there were two directions she could go. She hoped perhaps she would finally see her friend, and he would help to guide her, but after waiting a moment there was no sign of him and it was getting creepy. Besides, she still needed to hurry.
On each side of the stairs, there was a painting of what Mary thought looked like floating rocks. They were identical to each other, except that the background in one was blue and the other was red. She went down the blue painting side first.
It was just a dead end. There was a door, but it was blocked by a small table with a vase on top. That would be a good place for a flower, she thought. Maybe next time she could bring one, and brighten up this place.
Mary tried to move the table out of the way, and found it wasn't that heavy. Inside was a key on the floor, and another paining. It was a gently smiling lady, but her hair looked like it came off the canvas! It was very realistic. So this is your work, Guertena?
She got closer to see how it worked, but couldn't understand how it was painted so cleverly. She took the key on the way out, getting a strange chill down her spine. Thinking about her mother waiting, she started to think it would be good to come back and explore another time.
When Mary reached the two paintings again, she was shocked. The staircase had disappeared! How was she going to get back now? She looked down the remaining hallway. It was all that was left now. There must have been another exit somewhere.
Feeling a bit more cautious now, Mary pressed on. She reached another room that was a pretty shade of green. There were pictures of different insects adorning the wall, and a small ant on the ground. Mary had almost not seen it, and nearly stepped on it by mistake.
"Oh, sorry."
"It's ok. I'm an ant. I love paintings. My painting is especially cool." She was surprised it talked, but continued on. Other paintings depicted a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Mary liked that set a lot. She found another door, but the room was impassable because of a hole in the floor.
She had no choice but to go the other way. There she found some paper and a quill scattered on the floor. Mary picked it up on her way, thinking it might be good if she got lost and needed to make a map, or needed to remember something important.
She took her step around a support column, and barely made it through the hall. A hand jumped out at her, causing her to shriek and shrink to the other side. She edged a bit farther down, only for another hand to grab out at her. Mary dropped the pencil and paper, but snatched them up again before running back to safety.
For a long time Mary was frozen, and wanted to cry. She ran back the way she had come and tried to look for the stairs again, but they were still gone. Eventually she returned to the green colored room. She swallowed nervously, and made her first important note.
"Beware the edges."
After that she couldn't put it off any longer, and hoped she was right. Mary ran screaming down the hallway as even more hands sprouted out and grabbed for her, but she was right and they could not reach her from the center.
Once she was safe again, she stared back at the hands for a long time. Mr. Guertena, is this also… your art? She couldn't wrap her head around it. It was hard to move forward again, but she had to. There was no place else to go.
The green door was locked, but luckily Mary found the key by another table. She turned the lock and let the door slowly open, sticking her head out warily to see what was ahead. The sight made the tension in her heart ease, when she saw the wall oddly resembled a cat.
How cute, she thought and stepped the rest of the way into the room. There was no more turning back now. Mary couldn't bear to run though those hands again. She shivered just thinking about it. Instead she approached the cat like wall, and placed a hand on the spot that was shaped rather like a fish.
She sucked in a deep breathe, already uncertain of the path ahead of her again, and looked left and right for some sign of which was the correct path to take. She fearfully decided on left, and found this room was filled with sections of walls.
All of them had curtains on them, except for one with a black stick figure sketched on it. Mary paused to look at it before trying to walk past, only to jump when something in the corner of her eyes changed. Her head whipped back and she saw writing had appeared from no where. Guertena? She hoped, and moved closer to read it.
'Play hide and seek?' Mary had barely finished reading when the stick figure vanished, to where Mary could only guess. She felt relieved somehow, surely that wouldn't be so bad. She took a long time to make her choice, and finally pulled back the curtains to see if what hung behind them. She smiled for the first time, having found the stick figure in a real picture on her first try.
She jumped for the second time when the new writing appeared beside it, but only took a moment to calm her heart again.
'Found me, you get prize.' She read it before she heard a thump. She slowly made her way to the north end of the room, where another picture of a knife chopping a fish was placed. Below it a wooden fish head had appeared. Mary smiled, feeling clever that she could figure out what she needed to move forward.
The room on the right was next. Mary sneaked into it and found it was full of manikins, suits of armors, statues of heads, and several boxes. She was already creeped out, but when the lights flickered she found it was still possible to increase her fear. I want to get out of here, she thought, dreadfully heading towards the other side.
That was when the trembling noise caught her attention, and Mary slowly turned to face the source of it. It was moving. One of the statue heads was moving! Not only shaking, but now coming closer! No, no, no, no, no! Mary backed herself into one of the boxes, putting all her will into silently begging it to stay away. She let out a short scream when it had finally come to close, and she toppled back into one of the boxes.
That was when the statue stopped and fell over, cracking open. Mary's lower lip quivered, and there was something hard under her butt in the box she had ended up in. She stood up again, and pulled out a wooden fish tail. It went together with the wooden fish head perfectly. After one more untrusting glance at the statue head, Mary tore out of the room. She couldn't stand to look at anything else, for fear it might begin to move and chase after her.
She took a moment to recollect her thoughts, and clutched the wooden fish in her hand determinedly. Mary assured herself she would get out of here soon, and her mother would be waiting for her. She would be getting worried soon, and Mary couldn't wait to be back in her arms.
With that in mind, she pushed the wooden fish into its place, and watched with awe as the cat wall's eyes changed. There was a chorus of cat noises, and a path steadily opened up in front of Mary. How…? she wondered in bewilderment this time, instead of fear. Mary even laughed, and clapped for Guertena. This is the kind of thing you make, isn't it? she thought to her friend. It troubled her too much to think how all the rest fit in.
Entering the next room, Mary was immediately drawn to yet another moving painting. She still didn't understand how it worked, but found it fascinating. As she grew closer to the painting with the waggling tongue, she was appalled to be suddenly spat at. She avoided its saliva by reflexively taking a step to the side, but was offended by the gesture.
She regarded it coldly, and she moved to a table holding more ink and paper for her to take. Mary was pleased with her find, and very briefly considered the painting that seemed to be blank. It had been framed, but it did not look finished, or even started yet. There was a hallway, but first Mary continued down the other side of it.
There she found a pair of lips jutting out from the wall. Mary was yet again taken by the strange and unknown feat, but this time felt unsettled by the sight. She returned to the hallway again, instead of investigating it. She could see something on the other end of the hallway, and hurried to find what it was.
She could nearly see past the corner, when another hand flew out from the wall and grasped out towards her. Mary screamed bloody murder, and shrunk to the other wall. She breathed heavily and stayed there clutching the wallpaper for quite a while before she shakily took the pen and paper in hand.
'Just when you've forgotten…' She wrote, laughing in a way that sounded more like sobs. It was almost like she was scolding herself. She had nearly started to enjoy this cursed place. It was good this had been a reminder to her, or she might have let down her guard. She turned back and set the paper down at the beginning of the hall, then sprinted past the hand again.
She was met with more shock as Mary saw that what she'd spotted past the hall before were shapes of bodies hanging from above. Those are dolls, right? They were tied around there ankles by red string
Only when she saw she was safe did she approach it, before moving on to the door. There was a strange green tint around it, and some kind of code. There weren't any numbers, but there were symbols like Mary needed arithmetic. She hoped she could figure it out, but without numbers there wasn't anything for her to do.
She did finally notice that the X's where the numbers should be were all different colors, and hoped this would be of some help. She decided she needed to look around, although she wasn't looking forward to it. Mary tried to think of all the places the numbers could be hiding.
The second number she needed turned out to be with the blank painting, which actually bore the number nine on it in red. With some difficulty, Mary eventually made out the last number eighteen shaded purple on one of the dolls. She still needed the first number, which would be green, and would be found in the other room on the other side of the hall.
'The Liars Room' was the title next to the door. Mary was unsure of what it entailed. It couldn't be that there were actually people in this room. She had given up hope that she would find anyone. Even meeting her friend was beginning to become a fantasy more than the expectation she'd had when she entered this warped place.
Inside Mary found several paintings of silhouetted women, or at least Mary thought they appeared feminine, and they were wearing dresses. The color of those dresses was in fact the most noticeable difference between the paintings, aside from their poses. But how could paintings lie? Looking closer there seemed to be writing beneath the portraits.
Mary approached them, and read the various messages. 'I agree with the one in yellow.' 'The only truth speaker wears green!' 'It's dangerous in there.' 'The one in white speaks the truth.' 'The statue lies! Don't be fooled!' 'It moves if you look away. Don't be fooled!'
Some of the messages frightened Mary. She had already seen one statue move, and she would not be ready to see another any time soon. Taking a deep breath, and holding it in her chest, Mary gripped the knob and gave it a twist.
She pushed the door open and entered the room, ready to bolt out at any sign of trouble. Inside the room was empty except for the statue. Mary gulped and approached it cautiously. There were many tiles, but only one the statue appeared to be staring at directly. She drew closer and bent over slowly, not taking her eyes off the thing for a second.
Her whole body was trembling and she felt faint, but as soon as she had looked down and seen the number she darted back out. It hadn't budged an inch, but Mary quickly closed the door to prevent being chased, and let her mind catch up with her surroundings. She heard no noise, nor any signal she was being pursued.
Taking a risk and opening the door again, Mary saw the statue was immobile, as it should be. Letting her pride well up in her body, Mary turned her head up and briskly turned away from the door and the silhouettes.
"That was awfully rude of you all," she dared to inform them, "lying to me like that! I was scared to death."
She had already been so scared before entering the room, but she needed to make her point as she made her exit. Once she returned to the coded door, Mary needed to make some calculations. She remembered each of the number, and after a moment she had her answer. She found it quite fortunate she had been taught how to do these sorts of problems already, even if it was a difficult one.
Inside Mary became quite confused. There were trees all around. Had Guertena crafted these as well, or was he perhaps interested in gardening? An apple grew on one tree in particular, in front of the picture of an apple on an otherwise bare branch. Mary took it in her hands, and felt it's wooden texture.
The trees must have been sculptures than, very good ones in fact. She still felt lost seeing that this was a dead end, but took the apple with her and left the room. There must have been some trick to it. She regarded the apple as she scratched her head. It really looked realistic, good enough to eat!
Oh! She realized, and made her way back to the peculiar pair of lips. She ignored the hand sticking out of the hallway, knowing it couldn't reach her for the center, and then shrieked when a second one appeared. This is not funny! She shouted to herself. Mary had dropped the apple in her fright, and fortunately retrieved it before it rolled too far away.
She made it back to the lips, and held out the hand with the apple in it as far as she could. Steadily she made her approach, and nearly lost her grip again when the lips spoke to her.
"Hungry… You give food?"
Mary nodded. Beginning her approach yet again, and letting the lips take the wooden apple in the place of grasp of its mouth. It really sounded as though it ate it, and she even saw what looked like its teeth.
"This tasty… I let you pass… Go through my mouth…" it spoke again.
Mary was slightly taken aback at the suggestion. It had opened it's lips wide enough for her to pass, and it's tongue was even laid out like a carpet on the floor, but surely it didn't expect her to fall for such a trick. She couldn't go through there! However… she couldn't go back either. There was no other path for her to take.
So, with uncertainty clear in her heart, Mary closed her eyes for a silent moment before she trudged into the mouth's depths. The new hall she entered was a relief from what she had feared would be behind the lips. There seemed to be another series of paintings on the wall. This device was called a guillotine if memory served something from the Middle Ages perhaps.
She watched the blade rise up and up and up, and then it had gone. Mary stopped. It couldn't possibly be… There was no painting of it coming down, so what did that mean? She looked at the stairs in front of her. That was absurd, dangerous, probably deadly. Even that surpassed the expectations she had formed of this situation.
Everything else that had happened hadn't been this terrible, but… Mary couldn't be too careful, that was for sure. She slipped off her shoes, the easiest thing she had to toss with her, and tossed them away in front of her. Nothing happened. Mary clutched on to the quill and paper she had been carrying, and then threw those in front of her as well.
Again nothing had happened. Could she have been imagining it? Was it really not what it seemed. Mary was doubtful, but pressed on, and nearly froze with fear when she realized this time something was indeed falling. There was no way she would get out of the way now, but as luck would have it her footing went wrong. She slipped on some of the paper she had tossed, and began to slide down the stairs.
It hurt to fall like that, and continue sliding down quite a few steps, but when she had stopped Mary was grateful. It had probably saved her life. The blade began to draw back up, so Mary quickly gathered her things so she could move forward again before it had a chance to try it's descent another time.