Hey guys! This idea came to me from the movie prisoner, so um... I hope it won't turn out too similar. But it's going to be a thrill ride. Hope you enjoy! This takes place after the true ending of Ib, and there is no Ib POV. Alex Kouri and Lisa Kouri are Ib's parents. Just so you know.
-Garry- Age 21-
I turn around, and see a small girl with long, brown hair and crimson eyes standing behind me in a red uniform. She's not looking at me, but kind of looking past me at the statue I was looking at.
"Hello, young lady. What do you need?" I asked her. Her eyes glimmered in the lighting and went off the statue to my face.
"What's this statue?" She asked quietly.
"Hm, it's called 'Embodiment of Spirit", apparently..." I said, looking back to the statue. It depicted a large red rose in bloom, with its stem curling around kind of like a snake. There were petals on the ground by the rose. For some reason, there was a feeling of sorrow in my chest.
"For some reason, this piece gives me a strange feeling of sorrow..." I said, and immediately knew I said too much. This little girl didn't care, did she? I heard no reply, so I turned around, wondering if she had walked away, but she was still standing there, crimson eyes gleaming.
"Oh... I'm sorry if I said anything to trouble you, Ib..." I said, not thinking about what I was saying. "Wait... who's Ib?"
"Ib's my name," she said. How did I know her name?
"Is your name really Ib? Wow... must be a coincidence," I said, looking back at her large crimson eyes.
"Well, um... bye," I said, as I began to walk away. I put my hand in my pocket, and there was a soft fabric inside. I don't remember putting something soft in my coat pocket... I grabbed the soft item and took it out.
"Hm, what's this?" I said to myself, and took looked at the lace handkerchief in my hand. My eyes darted to the corner, and there were two letters engraved on the corner. I looked at it, and it read "Ib". I noticed the girl was standing beside me now, looking at the handkerchief.
"My mom gave that to me..." she said.
"What? Why is there blood on it then, and why is it in my pocket?" I asked...
"Wow... it burned up pretty violently... are you okay, Ib?" Garry asked Ib, who eyed the wound on his hand. Garry looked to where her eyes were, and saw the bloody wound.
"Are you okay?" she asked quietly. Garry smiled and cupped his hand over it.
"I'll be fine, Ib," he said. Ib looked at him for a minute, then reached into her back pocket and took out her lace handkerchief that her mother had given to her, and handed it to Garry.
"Oh, a handkerchief. May I use it?" Garry asked, and she lifted it up to him. He took it in his hand, and pressed it on his wound, and noticed the fine quality lace.
"Is this real lace? I don't particularly want to tarnish this... Too late now... Thanks, Ib," he said.
The flashback hit me and I blinked at the small girl. Her eyes were still focused on mine, and her stare felt like it was piercing into my soul. I could barely speak, as each memory of Ib slowly made its way back into my head.
"I was... wounded on the hand... and a girl, gave me her handkerchief..." I said, slowly, "And that girl... was you Ib! We made it Ib! We made our way through that crazy place... and Mary too, right? How could I have forgotten, it was so important! Do you remember Ib?" She looked at me with a face full of doubt, and shook her head. It felt like something had come and crushed my chest, but I gave another whack at it.
"Remember when you fainted, Ib? I gave you a piece of candy!" I said. Ib blinked, and put her hand in her pocket, and took out a small piece of lemon candy and looked at it in surprise. I immediately felt better and knew it was for real. She paused for a minute, staring into space, then blinked again.
"I...remember..." she said and looked at the candy again. A small smile formed on her face, and she dove into my arms. I put my arms around her, and felt like crying. We actually made it out of that twisted place! She had saved me, and we traveled together. Mary's portrait was gone, and we had made it back! Then, I remembered I had to get going. I wanted to keep the moment a bit longer, but today was my mother's birthday and I had to go visit her for that.
"Ib... I have to get going now," I said, and her face fell, but there was still hope in her eyes. "Do you mind if I keep your handkerchief a bit longer? I just have to... make it clean, then give it back, okay?" She nodded hopefully.
"Because... we will see each other again?" she asked. I gave a warm smile and put the handkerchief back in my pocket.
"We will see each other again!" I said.
-Lisa- Age 46-
Ib is such a curious girl! I could see she'd have a positive future... she even was excited to go to a museum, which is pretty rare for kids her age. But Ib didn't really have many friends over at our house, and always stayed at home. I'm starting to worry about her social life, but she jumped at the chance to go to a museum. Even when we went to the museum, she wanted to go on ahead and explore by herself! Such a curious child.
My husband, Alex, and I went around, seeing Ib a few times, but she mainly wanted to pick up the pace and go around quite quickly, which I thought was a good thing. Alex and I approached a large painting called, "Well Meaning Hell," and looked at that for a while. Alex looked as if he was trying to contemplate something, and I turned around to look at the large canvas on the ground called, "Abyss of the Deep,".
"Honey, what do you think this painting resembles?" Alex asked, and I went over to him and looked back at the painting. It depicted a child playing piano and a parent scolding them. I didn't even quite understand why it was called "Well Meaning Hell,".
"I'm... not too sure," I said.
"This is why I love Guertena... so many works you can just sit and think about," he said, and continued to look at the painting. I looked around for who knows how long, and I figured it had been a few hours. Was Ib still looking at pieces? I figured she'd get a bit bored by now. I looked around and found Alex, now inspecting "Abyss of the Deep,".
"Have you seen Ib, honey?" I asked, joining him.
"Nope, but I bet she's fine." he said, and I took his arm.
"Let's go find her. For all we know she could be asleep on one of the benches," I said. He eventually found another piece to look at, and I continued by myself to find her. I looked all around the top floor, and she wasn't there. I started to panic when I saw she wasn't on the bottom floor either, and I told Alex.
"Alex, I can't find Ib!," I exclaimed, and he blinked.
"Really?" He asked, "Look again," I took Alex's hand and we looked around the whole museum again, but Ib was nowhere to be found. Where was she?
"Let's go to the front desk," Alex said, and we hurried over there.
"Our little girl's missing," I said, and he took up the mic.
"What's her name?" He asked.
"Ib," Alex replied, and he spoke into the mic.
"A small child has been reported missing. Her name is Ib," he said into the loud speaker.
"Brown hair," I said.
"Red eyes," Alex said.
"She has brown hair and red eyes. If you are her or see her, then come to the front desk," he said. There was a pause, and Alex and I waited, worried, and no one came. I gripped Alex's hand tighter when she still didn't come.
"Do we call the police?" I said in a rush.
"I guess so... no one has come up here..." he said. I whipped my phone out of my purse and dialed 9-1-1.
"Police? I'm at Guertena's art museum and my daughter has gone missing," I said.
"We'll be right there," a deep voice said, and they hung up. Ten minutes later, there were sirens wailing outside, and a few policemen came in and asked us some questions. They began the search, and after a few minutes, the policeman came and she was there, her large red eyes glimmering.
"Ib!" I said, and hugged her.
"Where have you been?" Alex said, and Ib shook her head.
"Around here," she said quietly. Then, a slim and tall man with purple hair brushed passed, and Ib waved to him. He smiled and waved back, and I shook my head in confusion.
"Ib! Who was that?" I asked.
"That was my friend," she said quietly.
"What friend? A nine year girl old shouldn't be talking to a twenty year old man!" I exclaimed, and she looked down at the ground.
"It's different," she said.
"Let's go," I said firmly, and thanked the police. We went out to the parking lot and into the car and Alex was just as confused and worried as I was.
"Ib, did that man touch you at all?" Alex asked. Ib was quiet and stared out the window.
"Ib," I said, "Did he do anything... strange to you?" She looked back at me with her large eyes.
"No," she said, and looked back out the window. "He was nice to me... and he helped me read words," I began to relax, but was still kind of worried.
"Did you ask him to read some words for you?" Alex asked.
"Yeah... I didn't know a lot of them," she said. I breathed a sigh of relief, as he didn't come to her. We reached the driveway to our house, and parked into the garage. We opened the car doors and got out, and I opened the door for Ib. She climbed out silently, and entered the house.
"I feel like he did something else than help her read words..." I whispered to Alex, but he looked somewhat relaxed.
"It's fine. He was probably just a kind gentleman that helped out a young girl who didn't know how to read some tough words," he said. I wish I could be that confident.
We went back to the house, had some dinner, and when I tucked Ib in bed she put a small yellow candy on her nightstand before I turned the lights off. I don't remember giving yellow candy to her...
"Where'd you get that from?" I asked. She looked at me and blinked, then spoke.
"Garry gave it to me," she said, a small smile on her face. Extremely worried this time, I took the candy and her face fell.
"Remember, Ib. Don't take candy from strangers," I said, although she was sad.
"Garry's not a stranger... he's my friend," she said.
-Garry- Age 21-
"Garry?" Mother said, and rushed up to hug me. I put my arms around her, finally able to see her after three years.
"I've missed you so much!" she said.
"What's the racket up here?" Father said, entering the door, paused, and hugged me as well. After we finished with the reunion, Mother and Father talked about how lonely it was around the house without me. I smiled and said how much I missed them, and I had made a cake for my Mother's birthday.
"Happy birthday, Mom," I said, and placed the handmade cake in the middle of the table.
"Garry... you remembered!" she said, and hugged me again, about to cry. We split the cake after she blew out the candles and made a wish. I really didn't know I could bake this good! My father told me how delicious the cake was, especially the icing. After that, we just watched some comedy television the rest of the night. Not the most amazing thing, but it was fun getting to laugh with my parents again.
The next day we hugged each other goodbye, and I made my way back to my small apartment. The first thing I did when I got there was think about Ib. I slapped myself for not getting a phone number or an e-mail address, so I just searched "Ib" on the internet. There couldn't be that many people named Ib, right? I clicked a facebook page of a woman named Lisa Kouri. Hm, this must be her mother. There were pictures of Ib when she was younger, and I decided I'd give her a call. I picked up the phone and called the phone number that was on the page.
"Hello?" A voice said.
"Hi, this is Garry, and I wanted to ask if your daughter can spend time with a friend today," I said. There was no reply, and then a click. Okay... so her mother hung up on me. Great. I looked back on facebook and found her father's phone number, and tried that one. It rung a few times, and then someone picked up.
"Hello?" A male voice said.
"Hi. This is a friend of Ib's," I said.
"Ib did mention someone that she became friends with at the museum... I believe his name was Garry, right?" he said.
"That's me," I said, "I'd like to take her to the park or something today,"
"Do you mind if me or my wife accompanies her?" he asked.
"Not at all! Come join us, if you'd like," I said.
"Sure, then. She seems enthusiastic at the mention of your name," he said, and I couldn't help but smile.
"Alright, I'll be over in an hour or so," I said.
"Okay, nice talking with you, Garry," he said.
"You too," I said, then hung up. Well, looks like we'd see each other again today. I went to the sink and began to scrub the lace handkerchief to return to her. I couldn't keep it too long, could I? I brushed it until it was clean, and put some smelly stuff on it so it smelled like cookies. After that, I folded it up then placed it on the table for me to take later.
I went and took a shower, then got dressed. I went to the closet and took my coat, somewhat excited for this. I went down the stairs and got into my car, and took out some maps so I could find out where to go. I eventually found their house, and drove there slowly. It made me happy to think that Ib was excited to see me as well.
I approached their house, and looked at how big it was. It wasn't quite a mansion, but it was vast and had at least three floors. I parked on the curb and went to the door and knocked.
"Oh, hello Garry!" a man a few inches shorter than me said. I could hear someone quickly descending the stairs, and there was Ib in her uniform, and she ran up to me.
"Garry!" she said, and I kneeled down to her.
"We're going to have some fun today, alright?" I said to her. I heard a shriek, and a woman with deep red eyes wearing a red dress came to me. Ib's father turned to her and whispered a few things in her ear, and she whispered fiercely back to him. Ib's father put on a crooked smile, and the three followed me back to my car.
-Alex- Age 47-
I thought it was good for Ib, getting out of the house for once, but my wife didn't quite trust Garry.
"Who knows what he could've done to her at the museum?" she said.
"He seems friendly... and Ib jumps at the mention of his name. It's like she's finally found a friend after these years," I said. Lisa's expression didn't change.
"Alex, he could be-" I didn't let her finish.
"Lisa, we're going to find out today. He said we were welcome to come. So we'll see what kind of guy he is today," I said, but he seemed friendly after the talk on the phone. When the doorbell rang, I made sure to get there before Lisa did. I opened the door, and there was a tall man with violet hair covering one of his eyes.
"Oh, hello Garry!" I said, figuring that this was Garry. Then, I heard Ib flying down the stairs, and she smiled. It was the first time I'd really seen her smile...
"Garry!" she said, excitedly, and Garry kneeled down to her.
"We're going to have some fun today, alright?" he said, and Ib couldn't get rid of the smile until I heard Lisa come over.
"What are you doing? What if..." she said.
"We're going with him. It'll be okay," I whispered to her, and that shut her up. We followed him to his car, and I sat in the front with Garry, and Lisa sat in the back with Ib. Lisa whispered some stuff to Ib, and I didn't know why she wouldn't just relax and feel happy that Ib had made a friend. We made it to a large park full of flowers and grass, and I got out of the car. Before Lisa could object, I took her hand and we sat down at a bench and watched Ib and Garry. Garry went over to a patch of flowers, and said some stuff to Ib. She pointed to one, and he picked that one and put it into her hair. Ib smiled, and I didn't think I've ever seen Ib so happy. She leaned over and took a flower and put it in Garry's hair, and they laughed together.
"See, Lisa? They're perfectly fine!" I said. She was still, and kept looking to them. Then after that, Ib saw a butterfly, and Garry smiled.
"I loved to catch butterflies when I was a kid," Garry said, and Ib ran after it. Garry walked forward and caught it before it flew any higher, and kneeled down to Ib and opened his hands. The butterfly flew out, and Ib watched it, and jumped up to catch it once more. Garry talked to her for a bit, and she jumped up and let the butterfly fly freely through the air.
UUUPPDATE! Yeah... I thought Ib would be gone a little longer than a few hours... so... yeah. Hope you enjoyed, and next chapter will come soon!