Leah sat on her own in her room, as usual. Her parents hadn't yet come home from...whatever they were doing. It wasn't worrying her though; this happened a lot.

The house was completely silent except for the ticking of the large grandfather clock. It was very loud and Leah could still hear it from her room, even though it was a whole floor away.

The house was silent, so perhaps that was why.

Nothing happened for quite a while. Leah just sat on her bed and stared into space, thinking.

Suddenly, a pair of hands came out of a painting behind her. Leah didn't scream, though she felt a jolt of shock run up her spine.

What's going on...? Where did these hands come from?

The hands that had been squeezing her shoulders seemed to disappear, and she was falling. She fell a long, long way, and at one point it seemed she was tumbling through water.

Leah landed on a cold blue floor. She grunted, got to her feet, and took a look around. To the left there was a door. She pulled on the handle, but it was locked.

Guess I'll have to find a key...

To the right was another door, but there was a table blocking it. In the vase was a bunch of four roses.

The roses were all different colours: yellow, red, lilac and black.

Why are those roses there? What do they mean?

Before she could figure it out, Leah heard a thud behind her, back where the entrance was.

She rushed back and saw a girl lying face-first on the floor.

"Hello?" Leah said cautiously, stepping a little closer.

"Wh-what?" the girl murmured.

She sat up properly, and looked around, dazed.

"I-I'm...what...?! H-how did I get h-here?!" the girl gasped, her big blue eyes darting around, searching the area.

"Um...hi...I'm Leah," Leah said, pushing her red-brown hair behind her ear.

"Leah...? That's a pretty name. I'm Mary!" the girl-Mary-stood up and smiled at Leah. Her smile faded as she glanced around more. "Oh...I'm back here...again..."

"What do you mean by...here?" Leah tipped her head to the side.

"It's kinda hard to explain...I was here once before...then I escaped. It looks like I've been brought back though...I don't know how. I thought..."

"So...this place...what is it?"

"It's a gallery! Well...a 'haunted' gallery. Paintings by Guertena are here, and they live in this place! Cool, right? He's a really good artist!" Mary giggled.

"You mean was," Leah corrected. "He's dead now."

Mary stopped and stared at her. "He's not dead, silly! He's out in the real world! He just left this place so he could live his life!"

"No, he's definitely dead, I'm a hundred percent sure of it."

Before Mary could argue back, Leah spun on her heel and moved back towards the roses. "Anyway, if you've been to this...'gallery' before, do you know what these roses are for?"

Mary plodded along behind her, looking a little sad and disappointed. "Yeah, they're pretty much your life in this place. If a petal falls off, that means you've been injured somewhere. If all the petals are gone, then you're dead."

"So how will I know which one's mine?" Leah asked.

"Well...I know mine's yellow...Hey!" Mary exclaimed, pointing at the red and lilac roses. "I've seen those two roses before! Ib must be here! And Ellen!" Mary's face lit up again, a big smile stretched across her face.

Ib? Ellen? Who're they?

"Are they friends of yours?"

"Yeah!" Mary replied. "We were all here together last time, and it looks like those two were also dragged back down here!"

Leah blinked. So Ib and Ellen each have a lilac rose and a red rose...Mary's rose is yellow, so mine must be the black one.

As she reached for the black rose, Leah felt the air turn cold. Suddenly, on the wall, writing appeared. It was in blue paint.

'Come' was all it said.

Leah shivered and grabbed the rose.

Almost instantly, Mary moved the table aside and opened the door. Inside was a small blue room. A painting of a woman with long teal hair was stuck to the far wall.

Blonde hair whipped past Leah, and Mary stooped to pick up something on the ground.

Leah noticed the painting change a little.

...Strange...

Aki sat in a chair, bored. Mary and the other girl weren't doing much, just standing around talking.

Come on, do something! She thought impatiently, then stopped. No, I can't force them to do anything. That wouldn't be right. I can't make the same mistakes Misao and Mary made.

Sighing, Aki got to her feet. I don't know what to do now...I didn't want to bring them down here, but I had no choice. And Ib and Ellen have already gone ahead, but they're both in different areas. That other girl...Leah, I think her name is-and Mary are lucky to be together.

She cast her mind to a bird's eye view of the gallery. In on of the entrances, Mary and Leah were examining the roses, Leah looked bored and Mary excited.

In another area, the blood room, Ellen had her hand on the wall and was abviously searching for her rose.

Ib was in a dark corridor. She looked at ease, and Aki wondered if she had been there before as she let one of the hands pop out of the wall and grab her, dragging her into the pale green room.

I'm so sorry, everyone...I really am...but I have to get out of here. I have to get out and find out what happened to everyone. I can't leave them to suffer Misao's curse without me.

Before Aki had been captured by Mary, her class at school had spread rumours about Misao cursing the school, as she had gone missing a while before. Aki had heard about someone going to the bathroom, and not coming back. And she herself had thought she'd heard the giggle of a little girl one day as she was rushing to class.

Misao must have cursed the school...Mary would've tricked her into killing herself so she could stay as a painting down in this gallery.

Aki gave another small sigh and leaned against the wall. At least Viola and Ellen can be together again. Where is Viola, though? Oh, she could be anywhere.

Straightening up, Aki went to search for the other 'girl'.

I'm sorry...