A/N: Ok, I said I wasn't going to put any more A/N's but the first chapter accidentally contained the entire second chapter so that was a thing I needed to fix, and wanted to let people know. My apologies for the mix up and any inconvenience!
The original plot, characters, and other content of the Ib game do not belong to me.
By the end of the stairs the walls had changed color to red, and there wasn't yet any sign of the halls widening into rooms. She couldn't help but wonder what was happening to her now. She knew all of this should be impossible, but she had seen everything so quickly it was impossible to deny it. The dream she'd had of returning quickly was long gone.
There was only one hope left, and that was to find the end of this place at all. How could he do this to me? Mary wondered. Yes, her 'friend,' and what of him? She hadn't seen a single sign of life, 'friend' or otherwise, unless she counted the specter like movements or lips jutting out of walls, and Mary as a matter of fact did not. Even her fear was running out now, perhaps what she felt was emptiness.
She nearly laughed thinking that. That emptiness wouldn't last when her next horrible surprise decided to spring up. There was no 'if' another surprise happened. Until she got out of this place Mary was filled with certainty that more awaited her.
A painting she passed was called 'Breath', but Mary hardly spared it a glance. She had come here to look at her friend's works, true, after hearing so much good about them but she had grown tired. She was sure there would be plenty more ahead to look at, ones that would probably present more puzzles and riddles that got in her way.
Another small table by a red door marked the end of the hall. Mary took the chance to make sure her quill was still writing ready, and her paper was plenty. Perhaps she needed to be making more notes, with everything that had happened. The room behind the door quite resembled a gallery or a showcase of some sort.
In addition to the paintings, there were even some sculptures. Mary would have been wary of them, but the way they were displayed she thought perhaps she didn't need to fear them. That said, she was keeping a weary eye out. A large blue statue was on the left, a red on the front; a painting hung in the center of them. Behind that painting there was a door, although were it would lead Mary wasn't certain.
On the left of the door were two more paintings, a gentleman and some kind of device. It pulsed when it had Mary's attention. Clever, she thought sourly, seeing the name. On the other side were two more paintings, one called heart wounds and one of a lady in red.
"The Lady in Red," it was fittingly called. No sooner than Mary had noticed its title did it begin to move. This was not like the 'Heartbeat' at all. Mary screamed shortly as its torso came clear out of it's frame, and hands thrust out in front of her. She fled away from the terrible painting, but with an animalistic screech the thing began to use it's hands to pull itself closer to her.
In a panic once again, Mary stayed out of its grasp, but struggled to find where to run. She remembered the door, and begged that it would not be locked. The Lady in Red drew closer to her, dragging along the floor. Mary turned and turned and rattled the door, but it would not open. Finally she turned her head just in time to see the painting reach out and grab her.
Mary pulled away from it, but it had grabbed her hair and dress. She thought she was done for, but somehow kicked and hit her way out of it's grasp so she was free to run again. She had no time to catch her breath and began searching for her key to safety. It was hard with the painting in pursuit, but Mary found she was indeed the faster of the two.
The painting held no help, although to their credit they also did not start moving like their other had done. The statues were her only hope. Mary needed to wait for her chance to get past the ropes when the statue was hanging around them. She needed to pick one to start with, and remembered the door was red.
When she saw her chance Mary dove for the red statue, hoping she was right and found a red key camouflaged in the color and gently leaning against it. It was a bit of a roundabout path getting to the door because of her predator, but she was able to reach the door again, and hurriedly turned the key in the lock.
On the other side there were shelves of books. Mary waited a moment more of fear to see if the painting followed her to the other side, but somehow the door kept her safe. She needed this time to regain her calm, if that was possible, and temporarily turned her attention to the books. The banging on the door was unsettling, but it assured her she could not be reached.
One of the books seemed to be jutting out, Mary noticed so she pushed it back into place. A click told her the other door had opened, and she took it as a sign it was time to press on. Just like a game, she told herself. There's no need to be frightened, if I just pretend it's a game.
She had wondered if perhaps that's what her friend thought this was like for some time now. If it was meant to be fun, Guertena had failed long ago. That didn't mean Mary wouldn't pretend, if it meant giving her the strength to go on. On the other side there were two hallways leading left and right, and a little nook with a couple small tables and a portrait of a vase near a real vase as well as more ink and paper. It really would be a nice place to keep flowers.
On the right there was a hall with another, non-threatening painting, as well as another one waggling it's tongue. Mary moved around it carefully, but it made no attempts to spit at her. She nodded in approval, and reached a door with a statue of what looked to be a knight blocking the way. Mary tried to move it over so she could get through, but her efforts were in vain. She was had no choice but to turn back, and try the other side of the hall.
On the left the room had another vase placed on a table. After that there was a door, with a window beside it this time. Mary attempted to open it, but it was locked. She went to the end of the hallway where there was another painting, and a key lying underneath it. Mary excitedly reached down to grab it, not noticing the signs of danger until it was too late, and she heard the terrible snarling.
She should have seen the title, for now the Lady in Blue was on top of her, hurting her and pulling at her again. Mary held the key in her hand when she struck, creating a hard enough blow to make her escape. She turned to the room, swiftly unlocking it in enough time to close it on the Lady. She panted as she looked around the new room. It was small and empty, except for a stool with another key resting on top of it. Mary hastily grabbed it and wondered how she would make her escape with the Lady in Blue behind the door.
That was when she saw through the glass of the window, and realized what the feral painting would try to do. Mary took that chance to charge out of the room again, only narrowly avoiding the Lady as she reached the safety of the other side of the door once again. This time there were no windows to escape from, so she knew she must have been safe. Or maybe that was praying?
This time when she returned to the door, Mary found the knight was out of her way. She was swept with relief, although it occurred to her later that a moving statue should not be a relief to her. After all the things that had happened, Mary was glad to believe this statue was her ally.
"Thank you," she said, while she opened the door. It fortunately gave her no trouble and she was on the other side. The walls had changed to gray, and Mary was startled to see two hands sticking out of the ground, wiggling their fingers slightly as though they were indeed alive. The titles told Mary they were the 'Blessed Brides' left and right hands. Continuing the theme were portraits of a blessed bride and groom. She found it made her recall her own mother again, who always wore her wedding ring proudly.
"Congratulations," she found herself saying.
The room the hall led to was large. In the right corner Mary found more paper and ink and another small painting. Next to those was a door she entered and found filled with more statues. One was a wineglass made into some kind of seat; another was a large bust of a head. The lights began to flicker, putting her on edge, so she pushed past the strangely painted skeleton and finally reached the tree at the very end. Seeing nothing of value, she made her exit before the lights could play tricks on her.
Across a hall was a door she ventured in. She only stayed a moment as she saw not only was the inside mazelike, but there were red knight like statues moving around inside. If they were anything like the Lady paintings, she didn't want to think what they would do if they got their hands on her.
On the other side of the maze room Mary had to stop. Eyes were somehow starring out of the floor. They looked far to real to be works of art; but then again that wasn't the first problem Mary had encountered.
She picked up the ends of her dress and made note of where she stepped. Nearing the end of that corridor she began to see more small paintings lining the next wall, when something else drew her attention. All of the eyes were starring off except for this one, which was clearly eyeing a place in the wall before it formed a corner.
Mary tried to take a closer look, but the eye was in her way. She tried to lean past it, but managed instead to lose her footing. The 'oops' she uttered was probably not enough apology for the eye she stepped on, which slithered away across the floor. She had to repeat to herself to treat this like it was a game, like she was playing pretend.
Upon examining the wall, it gave way to a hidden passage of sorts, where Mary spotted something in the back. It was blue in color and had ragged black hair atop its head. Its eyes were a deep red color.
"It's cute," Mary made herself say. Dolls were cute.
Behind the doll, there was writing in red on the wall.
"Play with me?" it read. Mary was hesitant, but nodded before reading on. "Take these eye drops."
Mary approached the doll, and picked up the eye drops it mentioned. She thought they must have been for the eye she had just stepped on, an awfully kind gesture albeit suspicious the doll knew about it. The writing she found after told her she was wrong.
"Hide them!"
Mary felt bad for the eye, but nodded. She did not want to underestimate the doll. The fact that the it knew what had happened, part of her explained it could have been set up appear this way, but the rest of her believed it meant the doll was aware. In fact, it was sort of the only other 'living' thing she had encountered so far. It was the first one that hadn't attacked her, to say the least.
Almost like… my only… friend, she thought. How she could think such a thing she immediately chastised herself for. The regret didn't stop the hope from forming in her heart. She was all alone in this place beside that. Even though her Friend was supposed to be here, she didn't know if Guertena would appear or not and honestly doubted it.
Mary continued the way she had been going before, turning the corner to see the wall covered with more small paintings, and one bigger one of a snake with a gleaming red eye. Beside it was a painting that was knocked over. It made her pause to consider picking it up, but she told herself to do so later.
The hall winded around the maze room, branching off to a dead end with only an eerie looking painting of some kind of blue face hanging on the wall. That wouldn't be a good place to hide something. She did notice however there was a door at the beginning, and since she did not want to return to the maze room if possible, she decided to take her chance there.
There were a number of stools and canvases, the latter of which she found she could not move. All the canvases had the same picture on it, which Mary saw resembled the eye drops. This must have been her place. She moved the stools out of the way as best she could, making use of the cluttered space to bring difficulty to anyone who might try and reach them.
Exiting the door Mary was greeted with a startling sight, as the reddish eye stared at her accusingly. She clutched her hand over her heart out of surprise, but all the eye did was slither across the floor, presumably back to the other eyes.
"Haha! Not much an eye can do," she realized.
Past the dead end hall was the corner where Mary had found the ink, so she returned to the doll to see what would happen now. It shouldn't have surprised her, to see the writing had changed. Evidently she needed to 'play' some more.
"That was great! Hide the ring," she read. Mary frowned slightly. What would her mother think if she knew what she was going to do, taking a wife's ring. It was a shame, but… Mother wasn't here right now. Mary smiled as she nodded in agreement, and returned to the portraits of the bride and groom.
She hesitated before her theft. She had smiled, but didn't really want to take the treasure. She had simply wanted the doll to know she would do it. Taking a quick breath, Mary reached for the ring, and slid it off the incompliant finger.
There was a distressed shriek that filled the room, causing her hands to fly to her ears, and Mary to scurry out of that room as quickly as possible. She would certainly not be returning there any time soon. A fearful laughter bubbled out of her chest, but the sound had faded once in the large room, and the ring was still in her grasp. Mary clutched it tightly; knowing how precious it was.
Now where to hide it? she pondered. Her thoughts turned to the room with the statues. Certainly the lights had flickered in there, but that was still better than the maze room. Once there, she became weary of the lights again, but ended up in the back without trouble. She stuck her hand in the tree and made sure the ring was securely hidden. Mary hoped that was the end of playtime as she returned to the doll, becoming restless to move on.
"Did you hide the door?" greeted her when she returned.
Mary wondered how on earth she should do that. As if reading her thought the next section read,
"Try the switch in the maze."
She did not want to return to the maze room, but there wasn't much choice. She had already seen the doll's requests this far, and there wasn't much else left. Hoping against hope, she turned to the painting at the dead end hall. This one began to speak.
"Ehehe, hehehehehe… Flowers… flowers're nice… ehehe…"
"Yes, they are," Mary replied, unsure of herself but managing a cheerful demeanor.
Unfortunately that left the maze… Whatever this doll wanted, it was her only hope of progressing, and not getting stuck. There had to be an end. Bracing herself, she entered the maze like room again with a smile forced on her face. This was all part of the game she decided, and began her search.
She looked at all the corners, every inch she could find, but there was no sign the switch. Quite a few times she became backed into a corner by one of the statues, which showed no sign of stopping before they reached her, but somehow she maneuvered her way around them. This would have been the place to leave notes if she ever needed them, but she hardly had time being chased like this!
She grew tired of searching, but the doll wouldn't lie to her. There was no other hint at how to progress. Mary pushed herself to continue and almost came to regret her decision when she was cornered by two of the statues again, this time with no sign of how she would escape. She pressed herself against a wall where by chance she finally found it.
After she had pressed it, Mary pushed her way past one of the statues, earning scratches and possibly a good bruise where it grabbed her. She was still able to get past and made her way out of the maze as quickly as she could. Relief flooded her body when she saw the door was in fact gone, not bothering to question how.
Even if the doll were her real friend, she wasn't sure she could do much more of this. It had worn down on her, along with the rest of this cursed place. She had been motivated by her desire to quickly return home, but now that that had faded, Mary really wanted to rest. How can I in a place like this? she realized. It would be much too dangerous.
Having her hopes of rest dashed, Mary went back to the doll once again. There was more writing for her, but she didn't let her will falter. This was an easy task.
"Hang the picture back up?"
Mary smiled again.
"Sure," she replied. She had wanted to do that anyway, and it was a harmless enough task. She went back to the small painting next to the snake, and held it for a moment. The ring incident began to bother her again, so she took her quill in hand.
"Behind the big tree…"
Now that it held her secret message, Mary placed the painting back cheerfully. A small tap noise caught her attention, alerting her the snake's beautiful eye had fallen. She swept it up quickly, concerned for the poor snake, and meant to put it back in its place. It occurred to Mary then, that this might be what the doll had intended.
Every other 'game' had been harmful to someone else. She didn't get how it worked, but… Just to see, Mary tried fitting the eye back in place, and found the painting fell of the wall instead. Sorry, she silently apologized as she returned the painting to the wall, and picked the snake's eye up after it popped out again.
She thought that perhaps she should bring it with her when she rejoined the doll. Mary noticed a flower by its little arms. Where did that come from? She had been thinking about how nice flowers would look around this place, although it probably wouldn't help.
"That's pretty!" was written. "Want to trade?"
"Oh, yes," Mary accepted, handing over the snakes eye and taking the flower. She continued to read what was left.
"Thanks for playing!"
Mary smiled despite herself.
"Your welcome."
She wondered where she should put the flower. Maybe she should just take it with her; she really did like it! It was the only thing normal here beside her. It reminded her a bit of home. Only… she was still at a dead end. Which meant she needed to go to that painting? It had said it liked flowers… The grinning blue face greeted her again.
"Ehehe, hehehehehe… Flowers… flowers're nice… ehehe… Give me that there flower and I'll let you through… ehehe…"
Mary paused a moment. This was the right path, which meant she had to part with her flower.
"Ehehe… your flower, pretty please?"
She sadly handed it over.
"Ehehehe, thanks… It smells niiice… eheheh."
Mary smiled for a moment, before it spoke again.
"Well, chow time!"
She couldn't help but laugh uncomfortably as it devoured the nice flower.
"Ahhh, that was good… eheheh. Thank you, thanks so much… As promised, you can go through."
The painting began to transform into some kind of door.
"Just take this door in… Well, see ya… eheheheh!"
Mary did not speak to it again as she opened the strange door, and briefly entered a short hallway before passing through another door. The creepy sight that greeted her was another unpleasant surprise. All the manikin heads lining the hall and the large glaring paintings of what again seemed to be manikin heads were not a comforting sight. She grabbed the ink and paper waiting on the table for her before hurriedly moving towards the exit.
She couldn't help but notice how the center painting's eyes followed her as she went, but a burst of laughter escaped her when the last painting had no eyes at all. Serves you right! she thought angrily. It was hard to remain kind all the time, especially when most things around the area only wanted to do her harm.
The rooms had become much larger than compared to when Mary had first entered the building, or wherever this was. This one almost had a maze like quality to it because of all the walls separating the room. At the bottom Mary found a colorful array of those knight like statues. She first bolted past them despite their lack of movement.
She stopped in front of a door beside a window and table having realized she was in no danger. That was when she saw them, and her eyes began to widen. That can't be what I think it is… but it was. A roaring deranged laughter sounded throughout the room. Who would have thought such a laugh could come from a young girl?
