The cat room leads me to another large hall with three ways I can go—left, right, or forward. Going to the left only leads to a dead end, though, so I go forward, finding a note on the floor. I pick it up, read the message, and then place it back on the ground.
"Just when you've forgotten."
"Just when I've forgotten what—Hey!" When I reach the end of the hall, arms reach out from the wall and one grabs me, pulling at my leg. I jump away, watching in horror as another petal falls to the ground. Oh, great.
The hall leads to two other directions, a yellow door on each end. The right half of the hall is filled with rag dolls hanging from the ceiling by their feet, and I go the other way without hesitation. Dolls are not my thing. There's a message written on the wall next to the yellow door on the left— "The Liars Room."
Sounds fun.
The room I enter has six portraits of women, all wearing a different color. Each woman speaks as I walk past it, so I take my time to listen to each one. The woman in green gives me directions, saying the answer is three steps west and one step south of the statue. I nod and go to the woman in brown next to her.
"Stand in front of the statue," she whispers to me. "Go east four steps, then north two steps. That's the answer!"
"Thank you," I reply back, head reeling. Already, the two women are telling me different things. It is called the Liars' Room, after all. But one of them must be right… Next to her, the woman in yellow points over to her left, insisting, "The one in white speaks the truth!"
I grin at her loyalty and go to speak with the woman in blue, who tells me, "The only truth-speaker wears green!" This hint is obvious; she clearly isn't telling the truth if she's saying only the woman in green is being truthful.
Shaking my head, I listen to the one in white, who had been praised earlier by the woman in yellow. "Stand in front of the statue," she tells me, pointing to the yellow door in the middle of the wall. "Go east two steps, then south two steps. That's the answer!"
Finally, I walk to the one in red, who tells me with crossed arms, "I agree with the one in yellow!"
Taking a step back and analyzing the scene before me, I replay each woman's message in my mind. After a few moments of consideration, I nod at my final answer and walk through the yellow door, thanking the different women as I leave.
This room is almost empty, with only one white statue in the very middle of the small area. "There's an odd one out…" he mutters, speaking about the different squares that make up the floor. I take a deep breath and stand directly in front of him, going four steps to the east, and two steps to the north. There's a loose tile at my feet, so I pull it up, slightly worried.
Thankfully, there's a number on the back of the tile, a purple four. I sigh with relief. I trusted the woman in brown, and she didn't disappoint me.
Placing the tile back on the ground, I exit the room and go back to the Liars. Except this time, the room is different. All of the portrait women now have a knife in their possession, dripping with something red. "Liar!" they scream over and over again. Gasping, I back out of the room slowly, stealing a glance at where the woman in brown once was. Except there's something wrong; her frame is broken, and the painting is dripping with red paint.
At least, I hope it's red paint…
With shaky breaths, I go back out into the hallway. I don't want to go down the hall with the hanging dolls but I know I have to, so I gather up any courage I have and go. As I walk, one of the dolls drops from the ceiling and falls to the floor. I take a moment to make sure it doesn't start to move, and then I notice a small number on its clothes: a green eighteen.
Purple four… green eighteen… What does this mean?
I walk around the doll to the other yellow door, but it's locked and asks me for a password. "Green X times pink X plus purple X equals…?" The answer asks for a three-digit number.
Suddenly the numbers make sense. I'm going to need them to solve the equation that unlocks the door. I have the green eighteen and the purple four, but no pink number yet. So I go back down the hall to where I first entered, going to the left. I know it's a dead end, but there are two pictures hanging on the walls. Maybe there's a hint on one of them?
One painting keeps wiggling its tongue, occasionally spitting on one spot on the floor. I steer clear of that one and instead look at the completely white painting next to it. Except… looking closer, there's actually a small number in the center. A pink nine.
I have all the numbers! I run through the hallway again, past the outstretched arms and hanging dolls, and plug the three numbers into the equation.
Green times pink plus purple… Eighteen times nine is one hundred sixty-two, plus four is one hundred sixty-six… Holding my breath, I enter 1-6-6. After a few seconds, there's a sound and the door unlocks. I start to breathe again and head through the yellow door.
I enter probably the strangest room yet. It's a small area filled with tree sculptures growing from the ground, and one tree in the center has a wooden apple on it. There's nothing else in the room, so clearly the apple must be important. I grab it and head out.
Once at the beginning of the hall again, I know the only direction to go now is right. So I head that way, pausing to read a message on the wall: "BEWARE OF LIPS." At first, this message seems entirely ridiculous to me—why should I be afraid of some lips? But as I move farther down, the message becomes clearer. On the wall is a huge mouth—or lips, you could say. "Hungry…" it moans out. "Give food… That food…" After a moment, I realize it's talking about the wooden apple in my hand. "Give it to me…"
I place the apple in the mouth and it immediately chomps it down. "This tasty…" it praises. "I let you pass now… Go through my mouth…" The mouth suddenly opens wide, much wide enough for me to climb through it. I've been to every other room and know there's no other way out, so I just climb through the giant mouth on the wall.
The mouth leads me to a hall with pictures of a guillotine. As the hall continues, the guillotine in the picture is slowly raised. I walk forward with caution, before stepping on one panel on the floor and hearing a whining sound. I'm hit with a sudden understanding, darting forward toward stairs leading down before looking back. An actual guillotine blade had fallen right where I had been standing only moments before.
Taking a moment to catch my breath, I continue down the stairs and walk through the new red hallways until I find a door. I pause, hoping it's not locked and finding that it isn't. Relieved, I go through the door and see what puzzles await me next.
I'm brought to a large room with multiple exhibits and paintings, and only one red door on the far wall. I try to get through it, but it's locked—of course. I groan and look around, not seeing anything that can help me. So far, the keys have always been the same color as the door, so I look for hints near the red paintings and sculptures. There's one red sculpture, entitled "Ah," but there's no key or even any hints as to where the key could be located. So I go over to the only other red piece of art in the room—a painting of a woman wearing red.
As I approach the painting, something strange happens. I hear a growl, and soon the picture frame is off of the wall, and the Lady in Red is clawing her way around the floor, coming after me. I begin to run, but when I glance back at her I see she's dropped a red key. Of course, the key I need is going to put me in danger.
I take a moment to close my eyes and control my breathing before I lead her down to the other side of the room, then escaping back to her original spot and snatching the key up. I don't hesitate; as soon as I grab it, I dart to the red door and unlock it, hiding in the new room and locking the door behind me.
How many women are gonna try to hurt me?! First the headless statues, then the Liars, and now this! I suppose Guertena wasn't exactly lucky with the ladies…
Finally looking up, I notice I'm now standing in a miniature library, with two rows of bookshelves on either side of me. And naturally, there's a door on the other side. I'm not an idiot—well, not that much of one—and I know the door will be locked. So I start looking at the books on the shelves, hoping for some kind of hint.
Nothing happens until I pick up one book, called "Carrie Careless and the Galette des Rois." It seems to be a storybook drawn in crayon. Not interested, I put the book back on the shelf—and notice another book jutting out from its place on the shelf. I'm really not in the mood to read any more books, so I push it back into its place, and I hear a clicking sound. Like… a door unlocking!
I excitedly check to see if the door has unlocked and sure enough, it has. I grin and walk through to the new room.
