In the early afternoon, under a dreary, grey sky...
Ib and her parents were on their way to an art gallery...
"Did you remember everything, Ib?" Ib's mother had asked her in the car. "Do you have your handkerchief? The one you got for your birthday?" The girl looked into her skirt pocket, nodding when she saw the folded fabric of the handkerchiefnestled inside. "Keep it safe in your pocket, okay? Don't lose it!" Her mother said as she smiled and turned back around in her seat.
Ib and her parents, walking hand-in-hand, opened the grand doors of the art gallery and entered. They stopped in the entrance, doors slowly closing behind them, to take in their surroundings. The sound of soft classical music greeted their ears. "Ah, we're here!" Ib's mother said, excitement sparkling in her eyes. She turned to Ib and said, "This is your first time in an art gallery, right, Ib?" Ib nodded. "We're here today to see an exhibition of works done by an artist named Guertena," her mother continued, turning her head to look into part of the gallery ahead of them. "They don't just have paintings here, but also sculptures! And all kinds of other creations!" Ib's mother turned back. "I don't doubt that even you'll enjoy it, Ib." She smiled. "Should we get to the reception desk?" Her father asked. Ib's mother turned her head and nodded. "Ah, yes. Let's get some pamphlets as well." With that, they walked together a short ways over to a dark, mahogany desk. A large ledger and feather pen was sitting in front of a man who motioned for them to sign as the family approached. Next to the ledger and pen were two thick stacks of pamphlets with a picture of a deep sea fish on the cover, matching the poster of the same deep sea fish on the wall behind the man.
After a minute or two, Ib became impatient and tugged on her mother's sleeve. "Can I go on ahead?" She asked quietly. Her mother turned her head and looked at her. "You want to go on ahead? Really, Ib.." Her parents exchanged a look before her mother looked back. She hesitated before saying, "Oh, all right." Ib smiled and was about to walk off when her mother continued. "Just make sure you're quiet in the gallery, alright? Don't make a ruckus!" Her mother paused. "..Not that there's any reason to worry about you, I suppose. Just don't go causing the other visitors any trouble, now!" Ib nodded and walked over to the stairs leading up to the top floor part of the gallery. Ib looked up the rather long staircase, becoming a little uneasy for some reason. She looked back at her parents, who had already picked up some pamphlets and were looking through them while talking to each other. Ib's mother noticed Ib at the bottom of the stairs and motioned for her to go on ahead, smiling. Ib looked at her and then back at the stairs, walking up them after another few moments of hesitation, despite her uneasiness remaining.
As she arrived on the second floor, she looked around at all the people studying the works of art they were looking at. Ib's anxiousness grew a little from being alone in the crowd of people, but she pushed on, knowing that she couldn't turn back now. As Ib walked down the corridor, she browsed the art on the walls. The majority of the paintings were abstract while a few of them more realistic paintings of people or animals. There was one man looking at a rather realistic painting of a woman in a red dress, saying to no one in particular, "Wow, what a beautiful woman. I wonder if she's real? I've heard that Guertena never really did paintings of real people, but there could be a chance she's out there, y'know?" He smiled to himself as Ib walked by, a little weirded out. As she reached the end of the corridor, she turned to her right and continued down a shorter hallway, filled with really huge sculptures. One was a pink ball with swords sticking out of it, while another one was something completely different and what looked to be a melting woman. A lot of the words in the gallery were ones she didn't know yet, so a lot of the artworks she couldn't figure out what they were supposed to mean.
At the end of this hallway, she turned to her right again and found more paintings. A very realistic one of a cat, another of an eye, and- "Whoa," Ib said, stopping in her tracks. She'd stopped in front of the biggest painting she's ever seen. It was at least 20 feet in length. The painting itself was mostly black with splotches of colors like electric blue, crimson, and dark green. In the corner was what seemed to be a crudely draw version of the painting of the woman in the red dress Ib had seen earlier. Ib read the plaque under the painting. '- World' She sighed. She had no idea what the first word was. As Ib was about to move on, the lights flickered around her. She looked around as they turned back on, and noticed the people she'd seen in the hallway a few minutes ago weren't there anymore. Maybe they just went to go see another art piece? Ib thought to herself, trying to comfort her growing uneasiness.
She walked to her right, away from the big painting and peeked around the corner into the next hallway that connected to the one that Ib had come from. No one was there, either. It was incredibly quiet; the classical music that had been playing through the gallery was now gone as well. Ib walked back to the corridor she had gone through first. "..H-Hello?" She called out. Deathly silence answered. Quickly, she went down the stairs into the reception area. As she did so, the lights flickered and went out. It was light enough where she could still see, but it still startled her. She rushed over to the doors and tried to open them, but they seemed to be locked. The outside world through the glass doors seemed to have changed to a dark grey nothingness. She rushed over to the windows, but it was all the same; locked and grey nothingness. As she tried the second window, red crimson paint dripped down from the top of the window. Ib screamed and ran down the corridor that was to the right of the staircase. She stopped to catch her breath when she got to the edge of the featured artwork, which was a painting of the big deep sea fish she had seen on the posters and pamphlets.
She looked around as best as she could, but no one was in this part of the gallery either. "Where did everybody go..?" She asked aloud, worry lacing her voice. She read the plaque in front if the deep sea fish painting: '- of the Deep', a world where man will never stand... To - that world, I decided that I would - it within the canvas. She didn't know some of those words, so she moved on. She went through the hallways the same as she had done on the first floor. As she passed some of them, though, she could swear that some of them were making noise and moving. She passed one painting named 'The Coughing Man' and the clear sound of a cough came from it. She looked back, but no one was around her to pin it on. She squinted, walked back to the reception area and went back upstairs to double check if there were any people around.
As she passed by a window in front of the staircase, she had a double-take as she swore she saw the shadow of someone walk by from the outside. Isn't this the second floor? Ib asked herself, having trouble remembering if the building was sunken into the ground or not. She moved over to the window and hit her hands on it, trying to get the person's attention, but it didn't seem to work, for the person didn't return. Ib put her hands down and walked away, but when she was about to turn the corner, the shadow came back and banged on the window, mimicking what Ib had just done. Ib gasped, causing her to slip and fall. "Ow.." She said quietly, before she got up and rubbed the back of her head. As she continued down the hallway with the cat painting, it meowed at her as she walked up. She looked at it as she walked by, but it didn't move, so she decided not to dwell it.
As Ib approached the huge painting again, she noticed that there was some blue liquid leaking out from behind the frame. She reached out her hand to touch it, but it disappeared into thin air. Startled, Ib turned around quickly to see that on the wall behind her was the words 'Come Ib'. Some text was written below it that read, 'come down below ib, i'll show you someplace secret'. Ib shuddered, unsure if she should follow the strange instructions. She stayed stationary for a few minutes, before going back downstairs. If I'm going to get any lead on where everyone went, then this would be it. She decided. As she got closer to the deep sea fish painting, she noticed that some of the rope barricades around it had been removed and that there were some blue footprints leading into the painting. Ib stood in front of the opening to the artwork, a little unsure what the footprints meant. She began to follow them slowly.
Just as she touched the outside edge of the painting with her foot, an unknown force pushed her. She yelped and shut her eyes as she braced herself for the impact onto the hard floor. No impact was to be had, however, and she heard the sound of splashing water. I don't feel any water, though... She thought. After a second, she opened her eyes to find herself sitting on a blue carpeted staircase. Ib looked behind her and saw that the staircase lead to black. She swiveled her head back forwards. ..I guess I should move on.