Ib shuffled along the corridor, her eyes darting from side to side looking for the one painting that she desperately wanted to see. Eventually she saw it and she sighed in relief, her eyes lighting up as she grinned and slowly sat down on the bench beside it.
"Hello Gary" she murmured "Sorry I haven't come to see you recently, but I've been…..busy recently"
She looked at the man in the painting's face and sighed again, but this time the sigh was sad as if something inside her had broken and small tears plopped onto the bench she was sitting on.
"It's been 10 years since then Gary and I miss you like never before, but now I might be able to join your dreams"
Ib pulled a letter out of her pocket and looked at it, it was a diagnoses and the news it brought was anything but welcome to the mind of the 19 year old girl.
"I have a tumour Gary, I….I probably have less than a month left, but I don't want to die yet"
She scrunched the letter into her face as she began to cry harder
"I don't want to waste the life you gave me Gary! I want to live for both of us!"
She continued to cry and then she felt something brush against her cheek, and she looked up and she swore for a moment she saw Gary standing in front of her motioning for her to smile, but then she blinked and he was gone. Ib then slowly wiped her tears and smiled sadly,
"You're right Gary, I shouldn't be mourning the life I didn't have I should be celebrating the one I did"
Ib leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes as she allowed her memories to come flooding back. She remembered her first day of elementary school and how nervous she felt, she remembered how in the 8th grade one of her classmates confessed to her, she remembered her 18th birthday party and how she spent the day with her friends messing about and having fun and finally she allowed herself to remember her first trip to the gallery and the horrors she saw. She remembered Mary, she remembered solving all those strange puzzles, she remembered the cute bunny statues, she remembered everything and most of all she remembered Gary. She remembered how he laughed even in that kind of horrific situation, she remembered how he was so gentle and kind, she remembered how he was her lifeline in that god forsaken place, she remembered him sacrificing himself to protect her and she remembered falling in love. She opened her eyes and looked at the title of the portrait and she straightened up and whispered
"Forgotten by everyone but me"
Ib smiled sadly at the portrait once again and tried to stand up so she could return home, but her legs weren't responding. She tried once again but she still couldn't move. She felt her head start to pound and her heart sped up, but still she couldn't move. Then she realised what was happening, the end was nearing. Her vision began to blur and a something seemed to have muffled her hearing. She could only just make out a young boy standing in front of her. She could see he was speaking and she strained to hear him.
"Are you okay?" He asked his head tilted slightly to the side. Ib forced herself to smile and said
"I'm fine; I'm just going to have a little nap"
This answer seemed to satisfy the boy and he grinned at her
"Okay then, have sweet dreams!" and he bounced off to go look at the other art works. Ib leaned back against the wall once more and allowed her eyes to droop shut and she smiled for real and just before she was completely embraced by darkness she muttered
"I'm sure I will"
…...
Ib's mother walked down the corridor of the art gallery her eyes darting from side to side looking for the one painting she desperately wanted to see. Eventually she saw it and sighed in relief. She stood directly in front of it and looked sadly at the bench sitting beside it and she whispered
"I wonder why this painting was so important to her that she came here even though she was so unwell"
She sighed and diverted her gaze back to the painting and she scrutinized it, trying to see why her daughter idolised it. It was a beautiful painting depicting a man and a woman sleeping beside each other with their foreheads pressed together and their fingers intertwined, they were fairly young probably only 19 or 20 and they were surrounded by blue and red roses and they were smiling. She scrutinized the painting further and realised something.
"That's unusual" she thought "That girl looks just like Ib"
She glanced down at the title and smiled sadly
"Sweet Dreams? Maybe Ib's having them too"
