Deranged Flowers

A DDR x Ib Crossover Fanfiction

By Zelosahiko

A/N: Hi! We meet again! Sorry for the late update since school is getting on my way, plus I had to replay Ib from the beginning for this story's sake. Because of that, I will probably update this fanfiction on regular monthly basis. And also, I'd really like to thank Papersak for following my story and the anon Otoha Mitsugi for the great review! Shall we continue, then?

Disclaimers: Ib and every of its properties is Kouri's, DDR and its characters are Konami's. Henceforth, none of them belong to me.

Chapter 2 – The White Rose's Terror

Her blue orbs fluttered open as she was taken to the whole new, twisted world, which could be considered as the deepest heart of this gallery. She sat up and shook her head to make her blurry vision go away. The first thing she did was to look around the dark themed gallery. She observed her surroundings only to find a hallway endorsed in dark violet. She sat in front of a staircase that she did not know where it led to.

After regaining her full consciousness, she stood up and walked around the strange gallery. The very first things she encountered were two paintings, each located on the left and the right side next to the stairs. The painting on the left was dominated by red, while the other was full of blue. When she was still busy looking at the two paintings, she suddenly felt uneasy. It was as if someone had been watching her from the moment she hadn't opened her eyes.

The feeling gave Alice chills running down her spine, thus resulting her limbs trembling like there was no tomorrow. Even time was something foreign and unknown to this gallery. The small red orbs were still watching her. She turned around to look for the cause—the one who had been looking at her.

She found nothing. The bloody red orbs had gone away, as if they had never existed. Alice didn't know how she should react now. The young celebrity could only let out a sigh of relief, and that was when she decided to venture around the dark gallery, hoping that she could meet her friends, or even better, find an escape to this lunatic world.

Alice noticed there were two pathways. One led her to the right, and one led her to the other side. This got Alice for a while, but she trusted her timid instinct. She slowly walked to the right and the blue-haired girl was welcomed with a plain long hallway. She hoped the path she chose was the right one, even though without anything to appear, she already felt scared because the hallway was already just like that. For every step she took, Alice felt somebody would attack her right here and right now, especially with all of the small writings in blue that said 'come' on the wall.

It took her a while, but she finally reached the end of the hallway. There, she found a small wooden table with a crystal vase sitting on the top of it. Her orbs spotted a white rose inside the vase. From the moment she set her eyes on the said rose, she was struck with awe.

"My, this rose seems too beautiful to be real," she muttered.

With no more hesitation, she took the white rose which had eight petals and after that, she saw a door which was behind the table with the vase. At first, she thought it was impossible for her to open it because she guessed she won't be able to push that table away. As a result, Alice turned around and left that hallway.

A new twisted surprise awaited her.

She was shocked to see the wall she had encountered beforehand was full of crayon writing which looked like only a child or deranged adult who could do that. The handwriting set Alice's fear ablaze. She knew they were just a mere handwriting, but it felt like as if the writing was screaming inside Alice's mind, blaming her for taking the white rose. All of the writing said 'THIEF'.

"You're a thief! You're a thief! YOU'RE A SICK THIEF!"

She quickly ran away, wishing the screaming and the terror would cease right away. But when she got back to the blue and red paintings, she was both scared and shocked to see the staircase had vanished. She could safely assume that starting from now, there was no escape. Then, she chose the left path. The left path contained nothing too scary. There was only a simple painting of a fish and another blue door just like Alice had encountered before. She approached the door, but it was locked.

"Looks like I need to find the key… I wonder where it is, though," she said to herself.

She didn't want to do this again, but she had to go back to the right hallway which had the accusing handwritings. She stepped away from the door and went back to the corridor with the vase.

She reached the end of the corridor, but the small table was still on her way to the door. Alice tried moving the table. Much to her shock, she could actually do it.

"I guess I have to stop being so pessimistic," she murmured under her breath and pushed the table aside adamantly.

After that, she opened the blue door only to find a small room in it. The room only had a painting of a smiling lady who had tanned skin and straight long black hair. Below it was a note and a pretty small blue key with detailed design. Alice decided to read the small note first.

When the rose wilts away, so too will you wilt away…

She gulped after finished reading it. She couldn't understand the full meaning of it, but still, that sounded scary to her. She ignored the note and picked up the small key instead, before she stuffed it into her skirt's pocket. Suddenly, something from inside her shocked her a little, urging her to look behind her. A small squeak escaped from her lips as she witnessed the tanned woman on the painting's gentle demeanor to a total psycho. She looked like she was ready to jump out from the painting to murder Alice brutally.

The seventeen year old girl quickly retreated from the room, although she was actually tired of everything in this crazy world. She went back to the hallway on the left and approached the door with fear consuming her mind and feeling. She used the key she had taken before, and just as she expected, the door swung open.

Unlike the first room where it was full of dark purple, this time Alice was welcomed by the color green surrounding the room, and a line of insect paintings which looked very realistic. On the right side, she saw a painting of a ladybug, a bee, a butterfly, and a spider. The Chinese lass observed all of them and she was totally surprised about Guertena's artistic skill.

"He must be a very talented artist, yes? How could he paint these insects realistically?" Alice wondered to herself. And then, she reached the other side of the hallway where there are four simple paintings with white as their background colors. Each of them are named from chronologic order of stories, respectively.

Alice admired all of the paintings as she kept on walking until she met a green door. The door was not locked, so it was easy for her to enter. But what was inside that room hindered her journey because in the middle of the room, there was a large gap which would be risky to step on. She deduced that the hole could not be passed unless there was something else she could use as a bridge.

She quickly went out and passed each of the paintings. When she walked in front of the ladybug painting, she saw something small walking near her, and she decided to see what it was. It was just a normal ant, but it could talk.

"I'm an ant! My painting is especially the coolest!"

"You can talk?" Alice asked the ant with surprise after followed by a gasp.

"Yeah! I'd like to see my painting, but it's so far away..."

Alice chuckled a little about the ant's narcissistic remark about his own painting. She let the ant walked around to see his insect friends on the painting. That was when Alice saw another notice on the beginning of the other path on the left.

"Beware of edges?" She read the note out loud.

She couldn't comprehend its meaning, but she decided to pass anyways. She screamed a little when a dark, shadowy hand tried to grab her from the edge of the wall. Now, she completely understood the notice's meaning. She moved a little more so she was walking on the center of the floor, keeping herself as far as she could from the wall.

Another hand appeared followed by a scary groan, but Alice had tried her best to keep herself strong. When she had almost reached the end of the hallways of ends, two hands appeared at the same time from the walls near her. The space was narrow now, but Alice made it. She found another green door and a painting of an ant. The door was locked, so Alice inspected the ant painting instead.

"Hm? This can be taken off the wall."

She slightly hesitated before she touched the ant painting. But she quickly took off the painting and brought it with her to the room with large hole on its floor. On her way, she met the ant again, but it didn't sound like a narcissist would like the last time she talked to it.

"Huh? Where did my painting go?"

Deep inside her heart, Alice felt sorry for the little ant, but she should march on if she wanted to escape. She passed the four paintings which were named from the order of chapters, and she finally saw the door. She entered and the big hole was still there. The girl put the ant painting on the hole, and used it as a bridge.

When Alice stepped on the ant painting, a red fluid which she assumed was paint seeped out of the ant's body on the painting. She stared at it wide-eyed, and she was surely shocked with what had just happened. She muttered the word 'sorry' under her breath for several times when passing the hole. She finally reached the end of the room, and she found another door.

The next room behind the new door was empty, save for the small green key on the floor and a black headless statue with red knee-length dress standing on the edge of the room. She squatted and picked up the green key. When she stood up to stuff the key into her pocket, the statue suddenly walked by itself. Alice gulped her saliva then took a step back, but the statue adamantly approached Alice again.

She ran away quickly from the statue to escape, but the headless mannequin kept on chasing her as fast as it could to prevent Alice from escaping. The shy dancer kept running away, although she almost ran out of breath. She encountered the large hole again, and without thinking twice, she stepped on the painting and it made another brand new large gap on it, rendering the bridge impossible to pass. She left the room to make it to the other side, which meant she must pass the hands again. She sighed in defeat and walked to the locked door, ignoring the little ant. As soon as she arrived in front of the green door, she used the key and finally opened the door.

Upon entering the new room, she saw a portal—or rather a door that looked like a cat's head. The eyes unsettled her off a bit, and there was a fish-shaped hole acting as the cat's nose and the key. She approached the hole and observed it thoroughly.

"Time to find another key, I think…"

She stepped back only to find two pathways, each on the left and right side. First, she took the left side and many paintings on each pillars in that room welcomed her. All of the paintings which were hung on the pillar were covered by red curtains, except for the painting of a black stickman which was shown.

"Huh? What's this yellow liquid?"

Play hide and seek?

After she read that writing, she noticed all of the covered paintings have small yellow button under it, including the opened curtain beforehand which had closed by now. Alice slowly walked around the pillars to look for the small man, holding her white rose's stalk tightly. She kept on walking until she found a pillar that she deemed the man might be there.

The button flashed rapidly from yellow to green, asking Alice to press it to reveal what was behind the curtain. She slowly reached out the button to press it, and…

What could possibly happen now?

A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger! Now, will Alice lose a petal of her rose or not? Stay tuned in chapter 3! I'm also sorry for every mistake I made in this story, and how I really suck at writing descriptions in English. Well… English isn't my mother language, so, yeah… But still, I'll try my best to write in appropriate grammar and vocabulary! And I truly apologize that I still can't introduce the main pairing now, but I'll do that in chapter 3 or 4, perhaps. Oh yes, and if you notice, I changed the genre to Horror/Romance because I feel the story will just be like that.

Ah yes, I have another surprise upcoming in the next chapter! You better cross your fingers for now. I'd be grateful if you could take a moment to review this fanfic! I hope you like this chapter! By the way, you can always talk to me via Tumblr (link is in my profile) or PM. Do not worry! I won't bite you, only if you're friendly to me :3

~Zelosahiko