A/N: This chapter introduces MY OC! :) read & review.


"Wow, it's very red..." Lavender says. She looked around the sculptures and the pictures. She was drawn to the lady in red painting. She gasped as suddenly the picture came to life and started to chase them. She shrieked slightly and ran out of range with Ib. She didn't notice the picture had dropped a red key.

Ib ran with Lavender. She hid in the corner by an unlocked door as the painting was coming for them. It looked as though they had nothing to defeat it. As the painting was going for the older girl, Ib picked up the red key and saw an unlocked door in front of her. "Lavvie! Come in here!" she cried as she used the key to unlock the door.

Lavender jumped over the picture in fear and ran into the room where Ib now was. She gasped out of breath. The picture lady in red was trying to come for them, but as they got the door open, they managed to escape. Ib and Lavender were now in a room filled with books on shelves, looking like a miniature library. Of course, being from an art gallery, Ib noticed that many of these books involved drawings and paintings by their artist.

Some of the books on one shelf were just hanging out and weren't pushed in like the others. Lavender took a looked at one and blinked. It was on about the ladies who would chase until they were satisfied but they couldn't open doors themselves. She examined some of the other shelves too. Ib decided to push the books back which made a strange noise come out. She looked at the new door in the room with Lavender and wondered if it would be safe to go in through that.

Lavender saw a note that asked if they were having fun. She then joined Ib. "I'll go in first to check," she says. She opened the door and looked into the corridor. It was safe and there was a rose vase and two ways. "It's safe." she tells Ib walking in.

Ib came in after and saw it was indeed safe. The Lady in Red was in a different part and had no way of reaching them. Ib noticed her rose was running out of petals fast and decided to restore it in the water and allowed Lavender to do the same before the water would run out. There was even a painting of a vase right by them. "Now, where to go from here?" she asked in her very quiet voice as gentle as the autumn wind.

Lavender found it strange the water didn't disappear. She chose to go left first and they found a locked door with blue petals scattered about and an empty space where a picture used to be. 'The Lady in Blue' the plaque read. Ib shrieked as the painting was now coming after them and the blue rose was in the corner. She wanted to get the rose, it might be important for later, but the painting was too scary for her. These art pieces were really frightening when they would come out to life and come after them. After they had ended up passing a purple haired man, when they found nothing, but a blocked door. Lavender gently had plucked the key from the man's hand. They went to the locked door and used the small key. Lavender distracted the woman painting so Ib could pick up the rose on the floor.


After they had ended up passing a purple haired man, when they found nothing, but a blocked door. Lavender gently had plucked the key from the man's hand. They went to the locked door and used the small key. Lavender distracted the woman painting so Ib could pick up the rose on the floor.

"What's this...?" the man breathed, slowly coming up and finally responding. "The pain's gone..." he then noticeably shrieked at Ib and stood up, back from her, looking angered. "Wh-What is it now!? T-There's nothing left for you to take, I tell you!"

Lavender ran out of the room, shutting the lady in. She headed back to the man and Ib and frowned as he shouted angrily. "Don't shout at her, we helped you..." she scolds. Obviously she was protective of Ib. Her arms pulled the girl gently into a hug.

Ib was startled by the man's threats toward her.

The man looked at Ib long and clearly mistook her for someone else. "Wait... Dear me, could you be someone from the gallery?" he came closer toward Ib and Lavender.

"Yes, we are." Lavender says, still hugging Ib and looked warily at the man.

"So you are, thank heavens, there is someone here besides me and my friend," the man sounded relaxed now.

Ib had a small smile at the man, he now seemed friendly and warm towards them both.

Lavender smiled too. "Friend?" She asks then. She looked around to see if anyone else was there.

"Yes, come out, dear." the man nodded and turned to what appeared to be a shadowed spot.

There came out a young woman with long ebony hair that looked a tad frizzy. She also had torn grayish-whitish clothes with white socks and black shoes. She had blue eyes that seemed to stare off into space.

Ib looked at the friend of their new friend, curiously.

Lavender gave a small smile. "Oh, hello." she says softly.

The young woman looked back at Ib and merely blinked, then looked at Lavender. "Hi..." she said in a very shy tone of voice.

"She's been here longer than I have..." the man explained. "I take it you two just got here?"

Ib nodded at him, but not really saying anything.

Lavender nodded "Yes," she agrees. She then went on to explain how they got here but weren't sure about how they got to this world properly. Her instinctual reaction at the other girl's part made her hug the younger woman gently.

"So I see..." the man was understanding their situation, sounding very familiar with it. "You don't have any clue how things got to this point either. It would seem we wound up in very similar situations I have to say." He looked at the blue rose with him and explained to the girls how important and valuable the roses would be to their lives now. If the rose would lose its petals, it would endanger them, if all the petals were faded, they would fade as well, in a sense, they could die in the gallery. "I thought I was a goner, thank you for bringing it back..." he told the girls.

The woman with them showed that she had a rose as well, but it was black.

Lavender nodded gravely. "We know now..." she says softly. She let the other girl go and smiled slightly. "You're welcome." she smiles at the man. She found herself intrigued by him.

The man put his rose back in his pocket for safe keeping and smiled at the girls. "Now, first thing's first, we better find a way out. I think I'll go mad if I stay in this dreadful place for too long," he then turned to the girls. "Ah, I haven't asked for your names. My, that was rude of me. Well my name's Garry, we call her 'Whisper'." he pointed to the young woman.

She nodded, though that was possibly not her real name.

Lavender smiled gently. "This is Ib," she says placing her hands gently on Ib's shoulders. "And my name's Lavender." she introduces.

Whisper noticeably had a twinkle in her eye around Ib. "It's nice to meet you, child..."

"Ib and Lavender you say," Garry smiled at their names. "I can't very well leave two girls to wander into danger, no, no, so we'll go with you, okay?"

Ib smiled a little that Garry and Whisper were going to help them.

"Okay," Lavender agrees smiling. She held out a hand to be shook. "Nice to meet you." she says softly smiling.

Garry smiled and took them to a new part. However, before they could get any far, he jumped back, startled as another wagging tongue picture had a blob of spit jump out, making him shriek. Ib stared at him for reacting like that. Whisper glanced at him.

Lavender helped him up and giggled slightly. "Oh dear, I'm sorry we should have warned you about those paintings..." she says softly.

Garry stood up, glancing at the girls. "I... I was just startled, r-really, that's all it was!"

"Sure, Garry..." Whisper teased a little. Over the time she's spent with him, he's felt like a brother to her. "Watch out for these paintings. They can be quite dangerous."

Ib nodded, being familiar.

"I believe you," Lavender says with a smile. She then smiled "We should all continue on." she says then.

Garry and Whisper followed Ib and Lavender as they came into a different room. There was a black headless statue with some blue marks on it, but the others held still. Ib was worried that if they moved it would make the statue move and try to kill them. It didn't seem to be doing anything though.

"What a lousy place for this thing, step aside, would you girls?" Garry stated before he would find a way to get rid of it himself.

Lavender stepped back a little and brought both younger ones back too. She found herself smiling almost goofily at Garry's strength and chivalry.

Garry heaved and pushed the statue to the side to show a door for the girls. "Ta-da, now we can proceed!"

"Come along then." Whisper told Ib and Lavender.


Ib opened the door and they all walked into a dully colored room with a portrait of a bride on one side and a portrait of a groom on the other. Both had wriggling fingered grieving hands of the bride in the left painting, but they didn't seem to jump out and come at them.

Lavender read the plaques. "Grieving Bride's left hand, and right hand," she says as she looked on both sides. She stood next to Ib and Garry and looked at both pictures of a sad-looking bride and a sad-looking groom. "How awful..." she says softly.

Ib nodded in agreement. Whisper glanced at the bride and groom and kept walking with the others. As they got to the end of one hallway, a bunch of eye balls popped out and blinked, which freaked and grossed Garry out.

Lavender looked at the eyes and then noticed one was red and bloodshot. "Aww, it has something wrong with it..." she says sadly, starting to sound a little childish.

"I have red eyes..." Ib looked up at Lavender.

"You're not sick are you, though?" Whisper asked gently.

Lavender looked at Ib. "I have red eyes too, but the white of it is red and bloodshot..." she says sadly but still childishly.

"But seriously, why are there eyes on the floor!?" Garry was still disgusted slightly.

"Oh, ew..." Ib cringed, backing away once she saw the sick eye.

Garry looked a bit sick, but he tried his best to be mature about this, being the oldest.

"No use going through there." Whisper said, seeing that the eyes were blocking entrance to the hall and didn't want to risk any of her black petals going through it.

Lavender sighed slightly, and gently. "Okay, you guys stay here." she says. She then went to see if she could find some eyedrops for the eye. Even skipping a little.

Garry and Whisper nodded, deciding to keep a close eye on Ib while Lavender would do this.

"Does that lone eye have a congestion problem?" Garry wondered.


There were paintings on the other side of a little girl, some ice, a white snake, and some scenery and there was a door that led to a room with a bunch of stools and easels that had blobs of blue paint on the paper. Lavender noticed the puzzle and managed to solve it. She got the eye drops and smiled. She came out the room not noticing it felt a little weirder to her. She came up to the poorly eye and gave it the eye drops. The eye stared at her until the drops came in and soothed it. It then disappeared a second and blinked normally. The congestion was cleared. Garry, Ib, and Whisper were a bit relieved and the eyes all were calm. One of them appeared to be looking at something oddly colored in the wall it was looking at.

"Hey, there's a secret passage." Ib told her friends.

Lavender smiled slightly. She followed to the secret passageway. "Ooh!" she gasps happily.

Ib came in and something grabbed her attention that was on the floor. She walked further and picked it up. It was a red glass ball.

"That might come in handy later." Whisper advised the younger girl.

Lavender smiled and walked out of the passage. "This is exciting a little... I mean we're going to help that bride and groom" she says.

Ib came with the ball in her pocket.

"I hope they're friendly." Garry said, a bit nervous.

Lavender started to lead the party and held Ib's hand. She noticed the white snake picture has something missing.

"There's a hole in the eye." Whisper observed.

Ib looked down at her glass red ball and put it inside the hole, thinking it could be the snake's missing eye. As she did that, a painting fell in the middle of the floor with writing on the back of the frame. 'Behind the big tree.'

"Big tree..." Lavender repeats. She then smiled slightly. "Well, let's go explore." she says happily.

The others nodded and they went exploring. There was an open door which led to a piece called 'Labyrinth' and there were some of the statues walking around in the maze with some red splatters leftover. Garry was having another one of his episodes due to the statues in red which is why he nearly yelled at Ib when they first met.

Lavender hugged Garry. "Don't worry, Garry everything will be okay." she says.

There was a hidden trick to solve the maze that was among the artwork. Hug the right hand side and you'll reach the end eventually.

"Not a bad trick," Garry lowered his head, gently touching Lavender's hand. "But that doesn't help the ceiling being far too low for comfort. Not to mention those weird things loitering around give me the creeps. Be careful not to get trapped between them, girls."

"Agreed." Whisper added.

Lavender nodded agreeing. She smiled a small smile to Garry. Garry smiled back gently at her. The group followed each other and went south of the red paint, it wasn't blood after all, at least hopefully. The statues were slowly coming for them. They found a switch at the end of one of the paint splatters. Lavender grinned and pushed it. There was a sound outside.

"What was that?" Whisper asked, her voice in the way of her namesake.

"Probably a way out of here." Garry suspected, hoping he would be right.

Lavender headed towards the door again holding Garry and Ib's hands. Ib squeezed Lavender's hand and Garry's hand was a bit warm in Lavender's other one. Whisper seemed to be deathly calm, but she didn't say anything. She really wanted to get out of here, she had been nearly trapped for too long. Lavender headed to lead them out. She looked around when they got out of the room.


The coast was clear and they ended up in a room with strange sculptures. One was called 'Wine Sofa' which Garry thought appeared to be very uncomfortable, 'Melancholy' had an unusual face formed into it, 'Puzzle' was a skeleton painted into all sorts of different colors, 'Feeling' was a tree sculpture that nearly resembled a person. Ib was a little nervous about the skeleton, but Garry told her that the bones weren't real and she was curious about the world 'melancholy'. She had not heard that word before, but luckily now she had Whisper and Garry to help explain some new words to her due to her young age.

Lavender went to the tree, whimpering as the lights were flashing, but then dug through the tree's leaves and found a silver ring. "Found a ring!" She exclaims.

Garry looked astonished. "Isn't this... A wedding ring? Now, what would this be doing here?"

"I bet this goes to the grieving bride's hand outside." Whisper suggested.

Ib looked at the gleaming ring and smiled, it was quite pretty.

Lavender nodded. "Come on, let's go and put the ring on." she says with a smile. She couldn't wait for helping the bride and groom.

The girls and one guy came to the bride's left hand. Lavender had a choice of either putting the ring on the index finger, the ring finger, the pinky, or the middle finger. It was plainly obvious though which finger she would choose to help the grieving bride. Lavender smiled and placed it on the ring finger. She looked at the picture and saw the bride smile and throw the bouquet. She caught it and blushed as a sudden thought entered her mind. According to tradition she would be the next to get married.

"Those smell very pretty, Lavvie." Ib smiled at her neighbor.

"I think the bride and groom are going to be okay now." Garry smiled as the Grieving Bride and Groom were now the 'Blessed Bride' and the 'Blessed Groom'. He took one of the flowers out and put it in Lavender's hair, smiling.

Lavender blushed more but smiled. Her rose was still in the other side of her hair. She didn't notice that the bride winked. "Let's see where we can use the rest of these..." she says sweetly.

Whisper nodded, agreeing to that. They were beautiful flowers, but it was probably a good idea to use them for something else that may be important later. There was a blue painting that looked hungry for flowers. Lavender had a choice since she had her white rose and her new bridal bouquet of flowers. On one hand, she couldn't use this bouquet if she sacrificed it to the painting instead of for her future wedding, but on the other hand, if she gave her white rose, she could die.

Lavender bit her lip and handed the bouquet to the painting, rather live to see it than die before she helped everyone escape. The painting enjoyed the taste and smell of the flowers and let them go into the frame as promised.

Garry helped Ib through while Whisper helped Lavender and now they were in a dark room with more paintings. These paintings seemed to have a trap theme due to a box in one and a heart in custody in the other. Lavender shuddered a little at the heart picture. She however smiled at Whisper and then Garry.

"There are heads in here." Ib said as she opened the other door in the room.

"Better not be human." Whisper cringed.


Garry smiled back sheepishly at Lavender. She blushed and then went with them along the room. The middle painting's eyes followed them as they passed.

"Ib, do you have any idea where your parents may be?" Whisper asked the youngest girl.

"No, I hope we find them... I really miss them." Ib sighed. "Do you remember anything about your family?"

Whisper sighed drearily. "No, I don't... I've been here too long, I can't really remember anything. You remind me of someone I once knew though..."

Garry was calm as they came to yet another maze, but cried out as the Lady in Red was chasing after them again and they all ran away into a new room with some other ladies in paintings that weren't moving, but one of these things wasn't like the others. It was 'The Hanging Man'.