Hello people! This is my second fanfic and my first Ib fanfic! If you see a spelling error or something else of the sort, don't be scared to tell me. I don't bite^^ I would be happy if you took your time and reviewed^^

Thank you SYKgarden from DevianART for letting me use your wonderful drawing for this fanfic.

Edit/20-01-2013/: I made some minor changes in some sentences, put itallics on one and fat text on another. I also made a slight change in here. Can you guess what?

I do not own Ib or any characters from the game, I only own Lily. Enjoy.

The Forgotten Portrait

"Hey, Ib! Do you hear me?"

"Huh?" Ib turned her head. Lily was looking at her with a slightly irritated face.

"Why don't you me answer when I call your name?"

"Did you call my name many times?" Ib asked a little confused. Lily crossed her arms and looked at Ib seriously.

"I called you exactly five times, miss Air head! But you were just starring at this painting!" Ib looked down a bit embarrassed and felt bad for having ignored her.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that, Lily." Lily let out a sigh and shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, I can't be angry at you. You starred at this painting as if you were hypnotised. Was this here the time you were at the gallery with your parents?"

"Yeah, it was." Ib turned to the portrait again. It pictured a sleeping man with purple hair and a torn coat, slumped down against a wall. Lily looked at the painting and then leaned closer to see the name of it.

"Forgotten Portrait. Hmm. That's a strange name. I don't see how it is forgotten."

"Maybe it is the man that has been forgotten and not the painting." Ib said.

"Huh. What makes you think that?" Ib furrowed her eyebrows.

"I don't know." she answered. Ib starred at the painting again.

"…Ib?"

"…"

"…Well, if you're not done looking at this portrait I will continue to the next artwork, okay?"

"Sure." Lily sighted and went to the three sculptures behind them, her long black hair and purple skirt trailing behind. Ib knew she was being rude to her friend, but it was something about this portrait that made it hard for her to leave it. As she was looking at it, she started to fumble around a lighter in her pocket. She did not know were she had gotten it, it was just lying in her pocket after her last visit here, two years ago. Ib had kept it in her room since then. Why she had taken it with her to the gallery, she didn't know.

After a while Ib decided to go after Lily. Tearing herself from the portrait, she went to go looking for her friend. Ib could not see her at the headless statues or by the red and white couch, but when she turned the corner she saw her friend standing in front of a blue melting sculpture. She was just about to call Lily's name when she noticed the big painting to her left. It was full of dark colours and had an ominous feeling to it. Ib stood in front of the nametag and read "Fabricated World". The lights flickered for a moment, but Ib took no notice about it. She looked at the mural a little longer and then turned to join Lily at the blue melting sculpture.

" Huh?" She was not there. Ib walked around the corner, but couldn't see her. After looking on the entire floor, Ib noticed that no one else was around. The music was gone too, she realized. Ib had a sinking felling in her stomach. She walked down the stairs and as she suspected no one was on the first floor either. Did they all leave? But mom and Lily would not leave with out me. Ib walked to the entrance, gript the door handle and pulled. It was locked. Odd. The sound of heavy footsteps came from above. Is there someone here? Walking in a fast pace, hoping someone else was here, Ib was on the second floor searching for the source of the footsteps. She found no one but a smear of blue paint that was leaking from behind the big mural she had looked at earlier. On a vim, Ib touched the paint and jumped high when several loud thumping noises sounded behind her. Covering the floor were big red letters.

WELCOME BACK IB

Ib starred at the letters. She turned back to the blue paint and saw that the paint had formed words on the wall.

Welcome back Ib. Come down below and visit us again.

Ib was very confused. She knew she had been her before, but nothing like this ever happened, right? And who was welcoming her back? Not finding any answers she decided to go down stairs. Ib didn't have to search for anything strange for long. A part of the rope around the big fish painting on the first floor was gone and there were blue shoe prints in front of the painting. No. Not in front of it. The shoe prints lead out from the painting! With cautious steps, Ib walked to the opening and stood right on top of the blue prints. They really were coming out of the painting.

Ib was not sure what to do now. Starring at the painting, trying to figure out what to do, she suddenly saw something move in the painting. Leaning forward to see better, she realized it was light being reflected by the moving waves. Wait. Moving waves?! Ib's eyes went big when she realized that not only were the waves moving, the scary fish was gone. Taking a step back in fear of the fish jumping up and eat her, she back into something behind her. Before Ib could see what it was, she was pushed forward and fell right into the painting.

The water swallowed her and she sank. Ib first reaction was to panic. She tried to swim upwards, but she kept sinking no matter what she did. I'm going to drown! But the suffocating feeling of drowning never came. Ib stopped panicking. Sinking even further down, Ib could see very clearly around her. The light she had seen was coming closer and there were stairs in that spot of light.

Ib landed on the first step of the stairs softly on her feet and stood there having the strangest sensation. She was standing firmly on the step as if she would be on ground, but her hair and clothes were floating in the water and moving with the currents. She stood there deciding if it was a good or bad sensation, when she saw something move in the corner of her eye. Ib ran down the stairs as fast as she could. The anglerfish swam past the stairs and saw them disappear but did not care for them or the girl that had been there on them. It kept on swimming, guarding the entrance as it had been told to.

Ib was down on her knees at the end of the stairs, panting. How was all this possible? She wasn't even wet or cold from the water.