Hello! It's Netsunii again. I realized that since the last chapter was quite short and now that my wifi is back, I decided to write more.
Regretfully, I have decided to discontinue Roses of Death in Chapter 4. Quite frankly, I didn't think this whole thing through and now that I finished the journey of Mary through B4, I have no idea how to continue on from this point forward lol ;w;
You can adopt the story, however, and continue it. Apologies for this, but school is starting in a few days and I want to focus on Uncomprehendable.
As you could probably tell, I lost motivation near the end of the chapter and rushed it, sorry.
Oh, and because I was dumb, I forgot to include this important piece of information in the last chapter. I'm far too lazy to update the chapter to add this info though, so here it is, in Chapter Four's author's note:
Mary knows what burlap masks and jumpsuits/jumper suits are and what they look like, thanks to Gray. The reason for this is because he wanted Mary to know what the floor master looked like, so she wouldn't assume that they were an enemy.
Also, since Mary is a painting, I decided that when she bleeds, she bleeds quicker than humans, meaning that she loses blood a lot faster and could die in a matter of minutes. Dark, I know.
Thank you all for the support on this story, i'm actually quite surprised that people like this story ^^;; Anyways, on with the chapter!
Chapter 4
Mary sighed as she dropped the note, a faint reddish hue dusting her cheeks. She simply walked forward, stepping onto the indented switch. The switch vibrated beneath her feet, and the door swung open, thankfully inward instead of outward. It wouldn't do her any good to have any broken bones or bruises.
Mary walked into the doorway, looking around. In front of her was a hallway. She sighed and began to walk forward, feeling quite cold. Suddenly, the flashlight began to flicker, the dim light turning on and off.
She froze in place, eyes widening. She looked at the large rectangle at it's side, confused. To her absolute horror, the three bars were no longer filled with green, but two of them were completely empty. The very bottom bar was filled with a red that was steadily depleting. "I-I have to hurry...!" She mumbled, immediately getting back to walking. Her steps were the only sound in the vicinity, besides her breathing and the water droplets.
She stopped walking immediately as the flashlight flickered again. "There it goes again..." The light continued to flicker, as Mary waited for it to stop. And then, she saw it.
In front of her, Mary saw a person. They were about her height, and for some strange reason, their head was either replaced or covered by a burlap mask with a red scarf wrapped around their neck. They wore a white shirt with a jumpsuit, brown gloves and brown boots.
The person tilted their head at her, and Mary could've sworn that the "mouth" on the mask turned into a smile just as she yelped and jumped back, with the light flickering to black. When the light stopped flickering, Mary looked in front of her with shock.
The person (Or perhaps the floor master?) was gone.
She shivered, but pressed on. Occasionally, she would move the flashlight around to ensure that there was no one else around to hurt her or spook her enough to give her a nasty heart attack. Fortunately, she found no one following her with the intent of murdering her. However, the random flickering from the flashlight was enough to keep her on her toes.
Mary soon stood at the end of the hallway, which branched out into a room. She let the dim, dying rays of light from her flashlight hit the closest items in the room, moving the flashlight around to ensure that there was no one there. Once she was sure, Mary prepared to take a step forward.
Her flashlight flickered uncontrollably, and then the light was no more.
Mary's eyes widened as she began to slowly panic. "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no—!" She shook the flashlight a few times, hoping, praying that for once, her luck would work in her favor and cause the flashlight to turn back on. Alas, all it did was cause her arm to be tired. Mary growled with frustration and dropped the flashlight, watching it roll away. She was left to ponder why her flashlight was drained of power so quickly,
Her heart stopped for a second as she realized: she forgot to turn off the flashlight when she ran off to activate the switch in the water.
Mary groaned in frustration, cursing herself. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" She cried out, kicking the ground and grabbing at her hair. Mary bit down on her lip, shaking with anger. She sighed in frustration and stood up straight, attempting to calm herself down. Standing around and cursing herself would do nothing but waste time. Mary opened her mouth to sigh, but froze when she felt a liquid quickly running down her chin.
Oh no. Did she bite down too hard?
Mary ran forward, squinting as her eyes got used to the dark. It was extremely dim, but she could make out a water source at her right, with a bridge on top of it.. She stumbled over to it, panicking as each second ticked by. She fell to the ground, sitting on her legs, digging in her bag for her rose. Her hand brushed against something thin and rough. With no time to waste, Mary tightly gripped the stem of the rose and pulled it out. She watched as the rose petals slowly began to wilt, her head felt lighter, her vision began to darken and black spots were gathering in the corners of her eyes, she could barely lift her arm, she couldn't feel her legs, there was something wet gathering on her dress—
Her upper body fell onto the bridge as her fingers slowly uncurled, her eyes slowly closing. The rose fell from her grasp and into the water.
Mary's eyes snapped open as she gasped, coughing. She looked around for her rose and spotted it, fully intact with it's 6 petals...sinking into the water. Panicking at the thought of losing her rose, Mary jumped into the water with no hesitation. It took her a few moments to adjust to the bitter cold, but she blindly swam around in the water, groping at the air. Her hand grasped around a thin, rough cylinder. Mary gripped the rose stem tightly and began to swim up.
Instead of hitting the air, her head hit a hard surface. Mary realized with a jolt that she was underneath the bridge. Panicking, she swam forward as her lungs screamed for air. She felt herself begin to weaken. No, no, not yet, please, not yet, I have to-to get out of the water! The-the cold water, it's cold, so cold, so cold, so cold, so cold, so cold, so—
Mary burst out of the water, coughing as she tried to empty her throat of water. She breathed into the air, sweet, sweet air, before realizing how cold she was. She swam to the bridge, before climbing it, still having a deathly grip onto her rose. Mary collapsed onto the bridge, shivering. Her wet clothes and hair weren't helping her case. Still, she opened her eyes and slowly sat up. She opened her satchel and felt her breath hitch. Lady Luck finally seemed to favor her, as her palette knife was intact and inside the very bag.
Mentally thanking her luck, she stuffed the rose inside of the bag before closing it. She stood up, still shivering. She squeezed her hair, making a bunch of water fall onto the bridge. "O-oops..." She mumbled, before breathing in and out. She smelled...like chemicals? Mary felt her bottom lip, and smiled as her finger ran across a smooth surface. Fully healed. Mary coughed a bit more, before deciding that she was ready to explore again. She took a few shaky steps, and upon realizing that she could walk with no problems, well, walked forward.
Her eye caught the big machine in front of her, and soon she found herself examining it, looking at all of the handles and bits and bobs and arrows and other things she had never seen before. Mary looked at the water temperature. "It's so low...Maybe if I raise the temperature up a bit, the water won't be so cold when I need to go into the water again." She walked over to the temperature controlling device and reached for the bar that would change the temperature.
"Mary, no!"
Mary stumbled back, startled by the voice of a boy that appeared out of nowhere. "H-Huh?!" She stuttered, already reaching for her palette knife. A bright light filled her eyes, causing her to stop reaching for her knife. She shielded her eyes from the light, as she slowly adjusted her vision to it. Once she was done, she looked up and yelped, stumbling backwards.
The burlap mask person was in front of her, holding a lantern. His burlap mask smiled at her.
"Don't act so surprised!" He said, moving forward towards her. Mary froze to the spot, blinking with fear as he approached her. "The one talking to you this whole time is none other than me!" He cheerfully said. Mary slowly inched backwards a few steps. She froze in her spot again as the boy tilted his head and inched towards her again. "There's no need to run! I won't hurt you, promise!" Mary found her voice again and quietly asked. "U-uhm...who...who are you?" He tilted his head as his mask smiled widely at her. "I'm Eddie!" He cheerfully answered. "The master of this floor!"
Mary's eyes widened.
Was this the very person that wrote the notes and the letters?
Oh.
Oh.
A red began to dust her cheeks.
"Anyways," Eddie continued. "What are you doing here?" She blinked, and laughed nervously. "Well...Do you want the full version or the short version?" Mary asked. "Full version, please." He requested. She sighed and grabbed her hand, tugging him along with her to the pipes. "You're gonna need to sit down, it's a bit of a long story..." They sat down, leaning against the pipes.
"...And that's how he found me in the woods and took me in, before sending me here for exploration." Mary cheerfully finished. "Wow." Eddie said. "Wait, why were you in the woods?" Immediately, a lump began to form in her throat. "I don't remember." She lied, her thoughts flashing back to them. Suddenly, she yawned. "Oh, I guess that took a lot out of me..." She drowsily said. Eddie chuckled. "No problem, Mary. I guess i'm tired too. We can just sleep here." She made a noise of approval, and soon, she was asleep. Eddie leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He, too, fell asleep.
They leaned against each other, resting after a long day.