"What's taking so long? You promised you'd watch me battle the last Gym Leader!" Oh, darn it! I jumped and quickly paced over to my little brother Charlie. He was playing a Pokemon game. He had been ever since we got to this gallery.

Today was a special case for this museum. The only paintings they were showing were by this artist whose name I forgot. Whatever, that doesn't matter. I huffed in disappointment when I saw that Charlie had been lying. I stalked off to another painting.

"Lady in Red," I murmured. The name had a nice ring to it. I really did enjoy art. "The Hanged Man..." I found this painting extremely unsettling. It struck me as being one of the more realistically styled pieces that this artist painted. Interesting...

As I studied the piece, a tall man brushed against me. His long coat felt fluffy, like a fleece, but not quite. I immediately apologized and moved out of the way. The man smiled down at me, though he only had to tilt his head barely. He was a handsome young man with lavender hair hiding one eye. "No need to apologize, miss." I found myself blushing.

"Um, uh, please enjoy the picture," I mumbled, swiftly turning and hurrying away. Once the man was out of sight, I let out a huge sigh. Why did I have to be so socially inept?

I looked over at a sculpture. It was titled, 'Embodiment of Spirit'. I stood there for a while, trying to figure it out, until I felt too awkward and walked away. Again, social ineptitude. I walked over to my left.

My eyes met with a peculiar painting. 'Fabricated World.' The picture was wild, swirling and twisting in all directions to form an abstract monstrosity. I marveled at its sheer size alone; it stretched across nearly the entire wall. I tried to follow through the whole thing, but my vision was suddenly obscured. The lights went dead, flickering barely as I made my way to the first floor.

I looked back at the counter. There was a pen and a notebook. Just for fun, I drew a little portrait. It was of the man I saw.

The gallery was completely silent, save for eerie footsteps echoing through the building wherever I went. I shuddered and trekked on.

After a long exploration through the whole building, I wound up right back in front of Fabricated World. I looked back at the painting. Nothing. Then, I noticed the blue liquid dripping down from under the frame. It suddenly formed words. "HAVING FUN?"

I turned away in fear. Immediately after taking a step away from the painting, letters stamped on to the ground. I shrieked a little bit. I leaned down to read the words. "FOLLOW THE GIRL"

I saw a little girl in the halls. She was twelve at most. Her blond hair bounced as she skipped through the gallery. I silently followed her.

The little girl leaped into a painting titled 'Abyss of the Deep'. The huge angler fish was rather unnerving. I stood in front of where the girl once stood, weighing the possibilities. I could possibly die, or I could definitely die in fear and solitude. Hm...

I jumped into the painting.

"Woah, what is this place?" I said aloud to myself. The long room was black and looked as if drawn with a crayon. I walked to the end of the room and was about to open the door.

"Hey, where are you going?"

It was the girl. She wore a frown on her face. I frowned as well; it was a shame to see that adorable little face frown. "Nowhere," I answered, making my way over to her. "I was just looking for someone." I smiled down at her. She smiled back.

"Hey!" she suddenly cried, a joyous grin on her face. "Let's go play Hide and Seek! You're it!" she giggled, poking me. Her vibrant blue eyes glimmered with happiness and excitement. She dashed out of the room, and I had no choice but to follow.

I exited the room and met with a strange sight. A world, seemingly made out of crayons like the room, was where I had wound up. "Weird," I muttered as I ventured through the colored world.

I looked inside a house on the left side of the pathway. I opened the door and looked under the table. Nothing. I looked in a huge bucket next to a large bookcase, and met with the girl's smiling face.

"Found you!" I laughed, pulling her up out of the bucket. She giggled and embraced me. 'I have a feeling she likes me,' I thought with a smile. "Oh, by the way, what's your name?" I asked the girl. I wanted to be able to address her properly if we would be here in this weird world for a while.

"My name's Mary." I smiled. Mary; what a pretty name. I smiled at her and followed her outside.

"So... Are we gonna head out of here?" I asked. She nodded her head and jumped.

"Now that you've seen my room, we can go." She giggled and took my hand. She skipped down the path, with me following. She certainly was a fun girl. Mary seemed like a great person to be around. Yes, I know I'm sixteen and she's twelve. We'll still be friends!

We left the crayon place and ended up in a brown hallway. We walked through, paintings and sculptures staring at us. I pushed a few statues when I had to, and we soon reached a dead end. Confused, I looked through the room. Mary did as well, but found something. "Look! It's a hole in the wall!" Sure enough, there was a crack large enough for me to get through. I crawled in and found myself facing the back of a bookcase. I kicked it, making it topple over. Taking Mary's hand, I made my way through.

When I entered the room, I shrieked. The room was filled with dolls. Their distorted faces were grinning creepily. The real thing that shocked me, however, was the painting.

Its face was grotesque. The eyeballs were blood red, and the hair was sticking straight from its head. The worst part was the huge grin.

"What's wrong?" Mary inquired. I just stood up and took her hand.

"Let's get out of here, Mary." As I was walking out with Mary, a doll toppled over. I shrieked again. Mary walked over to it. Seeing there was a key in it, she took it out and placed the doll back on the shelf. We left the disturbing room.

When we walked outside, I was shocked to see two other people standing there. One was a little girl with brown hair. The other was...that man I saw in the gallery! They were standing in front of a painting. Mary and I dashed over there to see what they were looking at.

The painting was completely brown. Suddenly, a little speck of pink showed up on the painting. Then more, and more, until he whole thing was covered by the blossom. Then, vines sprouted up out of the ground behind me.

I screamed. The girl stood in shock, eyes wide. Mary grabbed her and dragged her away from the vines. The man grabbed my waist and pulled me out of the vines' direction. The vines froze. They were blocking off the only person I was comfortable with in this place.

The man let go of me and ran to the vines. I followed suit. "Ib? Are you hurt?" he yelled over the vines.

"No," she replied, sounding shaken. "What should we do?"

Mary's chipper little voice piped up. "I have a key to the door over there. Maybe we should look in there?" she suggested. The man sighed.

"Ib, what do you say?"

"I'd rather not split up, but if it's our only choice..." she said, her sentence trailing off.

"Okay, Ib. You and her should head out." Their footsteps faded slowly as they retreated. I sighed and leaned on the wall.

"So, what's your name?" I asked him.

"Garry," he answered. I nodded. I like the name Garry.

"What's yours?" he inquired.

"My name's Rose."

A/N: Yay! My first 1,000 word Ib chapter! :D Anyways, this Rose person is not a self-insert. You'll see in the end... *coughs nervously* ANYways, I hope you enjoy, and more is on the way!

Rose :)