Ib: Crumbling Gallery
(Two years after the ending A Promise of Reunion, Ib and Gary meet back up at the art gallery- but they get trapped yet again! However, without Mary, the art gallery has gone to shambles, making it even more dangerous. Along the way, they meet new people, barely escape death, and find a new monster haunting the gallery...)
Ib is waiting in the empty art gallery. She hears footsteps echo across the floor. "Gary? Are you there? It's me, Ib, remember?" Ib calls out. Gary walks up to her. "Ib! There you are, I've been looking all over the place for you!" Gary smiled. Ib beamed back. "Yep, it's me! I hope you remembered to wash my handkerchief! Mother's been frantic looking for it." "Yeah, about that..." Gary laughed nervously. Ib sighed then smiled.
Just then, the power went out, and everything was dark. "W-What? A power outage?! Oh no, not again!" shrieked Ib. Don't worry, we just need to find the exit." Gary said gently.
Ib ran to the door. "... It's locked!" Ib shouted. BAM! All the glass- the windows, the exit signs, the mirrors- shattered, spraying Gary and Ib in millions of shards of glass. Ib screamed, terrified, and Gary was knocked to the ground. Small cuts littered his and Ib's face, and he was breathing heavily. "Gary... I'm scared..." Ib murmured. "Oh come on Ib, that wasn't th-that sc-scary." Gary tried to reassure her, but in truth he was shaking. "I'm a coward." He thought to himself. "But I can't let Ib know that."
Plip. A black drop of liquid fell at Ib's feet. She looked up, and the ceiling was dripping with thick, oozy black liquid. Gary looked at Ib. Her eyes had gone glassy. "It's happening again... it's calling to us... it's our only escape..." she said in a trance. Gary grabbed her hand and pulled her along. "RUN!" he yelled. They stopped at the portal, 'Abyss of the Deep'. The black liquid was closing in, and it was already nearly up to ankle-length. "We'll have to jump! There's no other way! This stuff is like tar!" Ib shouted. "Okay! One, two, thr-three!" Holding hands, they both jumped down into the portal as if it were a large rabbit hole, falling down, down, down, deeper into the water...
Ib landed with a thump on the hard floor. Gary lay a few feet away from her, rubbing his head and mumbling. Ib looked around. She was in the same room she had first landed in, yet it was quite different. Slash, burn, and claw marks adorned the walls. The floor was stained with blood.
"... What happened here?" she asked, trembling. Gary sat up, looked around then shouted "My coat! My coat! Where's my coat?!" Ib looked down the hall, where a trail of fabric led off into the darkness. "Hey look a trail! Should we follow it?" Ib asked Gary hesitantly. Gary smiled. "We have no where else to be, so let's follow the fabric to get some tea! Hahahaha!" He laughed. Ib stared him, turned around and walked down the hall. It led to a dead end, where leaning against the walls sat a realistic, familiar looking doll. She had blonde hair, big blue eyes, and wore a green frock and blue ribbon. "I didn't know Guertena made a Mary doll." Gary speculated. "Let's turn around, that doll is creeping me out."
"Gary... Ib... you came back for me... I'm so happy... it's a shame I have to kill you." the doll said in Mary's voice. In a flash, Gary whirled around, and picked up the doll by it's small neck. "I'm tired of this bullcrap." Thunk. He drove a knife deep into the doll's chest. A long scream rang out, but Gary kept stabbing the doll over and over again. Ib stepped back, shaking in fear. "Gary would never... he wouldn't do such a thing... would he...?" Ib thought. Gary turned around and smiled at Ib. "Don't worry Ib! The monsters are all gone now!" he said cheerfully. "Now where to next?"
"We should find our roses." Ib said. "Of course! Hey, Ib, look! It's a red daisy!" Gary held up a red rose-Ib's rose, to be precise. "... Gary, that's my rose. Can't you tell them apart?" "No... Well kinda. Don't worry, Ib!" Gary half-heartedly smiled and ruffled Ib's hair. "... Maybe it was just the fall..." Ib speculated to herself.
A few hallways down, Gary stopped Ib. "Hey Ib. I don't trust that tree." "Huh? What tree?" said the confused Ib. "There's nothing there." Gary picked up a ball from of the ground and flung it at the empty wall. He smiled proudly. "See look Ib! There's blue paint dripping off it." Ib felt fear creeping into her heart. She backed up slowly. "Gary... this isn't funny! Stop it...!" Ib mumbled. "It's whispering to me... like a wind god... telling me to come here..." Ib covered her eyes, her hands trembling. "Gary... you're scaring me..." Ib shouted. She tripped and fell down, looking up at Gary in fear. "Heh. Ib, I'm scaring myself. This tree... it's so cold." He touched the wall momentarily, and pulled back his fingers, which were now covered in paint. He turned around to face Ib. Ib screamed "Stop it! Get away from me!". Gary's eyebrows pushed together, full of concern. "Ib wait-" Then he fell to the floor coughing, doubled over wheezing. Gack! Cough cough! Wheeze.
A small doll sat in front of Gary, a message hastily scrawled out in blood. "HEY ARE YOU OKAY GARY?" Gary scrambled against a wall, his hair covering his eyes and casting a long shadow upon his face. "I-I-I..." Gary raised his head. Three black marks covered his nose, and blue dots had appeared underneath his eyes. His eyes had gone a strange shade of red. "GET AWAY YOU DOLL!" Gary roared. He threw the doll down the hallway. "Gary...! Your face...! There's marks... and your eyes...!" screamed Ib. Gary rubbed his face furiously. "It burns! It burns!" he bellowed. "G-Gary! You...You...You're turning into a monster!" Ib screamed at the the top of her lungs, then ran away into the darkness.