~0~

"Of course that's not what I want!" Ib cried out, completely distraught at the question.

Garry cracked up to the point when he had to double over and gasp for oxygen.

"W-What's so funny?"

Garry wiped a tear in his eye and succeeded (partially) at composing himself. "Look, it's just that I'm happy at the sudden growth of our relationship. I've locked myself here for 8 years and I thought things would remain stagnant—nothing new ever happens when you lock yourself up y'know. Who would have known that when I woke up you'd just fall in love with me without me actually doing anything?" He smiled warmly at her and affectionately rubbed her hair, "It's really cute."

Ib lightly brushed off Garry's hand, "I'm not nine years old anymore."

Garry chuckled at Ib's response, "I can see that, but you're still cute."

Ib turned away from him, "I wonder how much of that clone was real. Obviously it was still just a clone, but some of the things he said—well they felt very real to me."

It almost broke her heart to hear that it hadn't been the real Garry. She risked everything to be here and rescue him…only to find out that what she'd been chasing was the mere shadow.

"Did he really love you that much?" The tone of his voice was that of plain curiosity.

Ib dropped her gaze to the ground. She was losing control again, the tears were welling up inside.

"I couldn't tell you for sure, but from what I could tell you; he did."

Now at this moment she started remembering the stupidest thing: their proposal. Her immediate instinct was to look down on the ring on her finger…the engagement ring composed of a simple metal band and small circular diamond. It sparkled brightly in every angle, like a small drop of tear was encased inside. This much had been real at least.

Foolish of me, had I just ignored the random phone call that night none of this would be happening. I would still be at home, not caring for anyone else. Would that have been better than all of these feelings?

"I'm really sorry Ib. I didn't know—"

"Well it doesn't really matter anymore. At least I knew the truth sooner."

What would he have done had we continued our plans? Had I figured out the truth? Would he have killed me then?

The thought troubled her.

"By the way… I'm sorry I forced you to kiss me. It was completely rude of me to have you do that when I was vulnerable. I'm feeling a bit better now, thank you."

The only thing keeping her from completely losing it was the fact that the real Garry was here. No matter how her feelings contradicted, she still felt safe around him.

Ib brushed her skirt and rolled up her cuffs, "Well, shall we move on then?"

Focusing on the here-and-now is the most important thing. If I can't pull it together, everything else would fall apart.

Garry nodded firmly, following Ib. "There's the door over there that should open up to a hallway. I don't know if he's changed anything since then but the next couple of rooms should be relatively safe."

"Hmm, do you know where the Lady in Red is? We should head there."

"You mean that crazy painting that tries to eat you? Why?"

Well supposedly she's the one that's keeping you trapped here, but that's not the case anymore…

"We could get some leads from her." It wasn't a complete lie, and she's their only lead so far.

Garry was reluctant of Ib's awry decision, but decided to go along with it. "Well ok boss, we'll head to her direction then."

~1~

As they walked further back in the fabricated art gallery, Ib experienced the bittersweet case of nostalgia.

Nothing had changed at all; everything was exactly as they had left it from 8 years ago. The only thing missing were the monsters that roamed some of the sections (much to their relief). This had been her childhood, and within it were a plethora of memories that she uncovered each step that they took.

"Do you still have some of that candy?" Ib suddenly asked.

"Yeah I think so." Garry reached from one of his pockets and took out a kiwi-flavored one. "Careful though, these candies are 8 years old."

Ib eagerly unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth. "Very nice," she enjoyed her sweets as much as the next kid. The candy was ice cool and hard in her mouth, and the kiwi flavor had a slight musty taste to it.

Garry smiled. "Glad to see you actually eating it. You didn't eat the one I gave you last time."

"I forgot about it until I came out of the painting. I ate it then—and it calmed me down." Events after the first game were pretty much hazy and distorted to her, but the candy one persisted within the years.

"I'm glad to hear that Ib."

They were passing through the hallway where she saw Garry for the first time—almost dead. She remembered how she saved him and the feeling of relief once he was okay. They were strangers, but they had the advantage of being the only one there so they already had a mutual connection. She often wondered what her journey would have been like without him…awful, terrible, not possible, to name a few.

"We're here…" Garry announced.

The room that they entered was the most unrecognizable thus far. She could vaguely remember it as the place where the Lady in Red popped out for the first time.

Every painting on the room had been torn down and was lying on the ground in ripped pieces. All the walls had been scratched up grotesquely; some even had blood splattered over them...they looked quite fresh.

The blood splatters all lead to one point in the center of the room: The Lady in Red.

"My, my...I didn't expect guests! Come a little closer my darlings, its dark in here and I have poor eyesight."

"Not a chance! Ib, stay behind me!" Garry rushed in front of Ib, protecting her.

The Lady in Red cackled, "You think me the threat? In fact it's quite the opposite my darling. Had I been your enemy I could have easily killed you in your little room already. I kept you safe by dealing with the rest of those pests myself—as you can see it's a little bit bloody in here… You have me to thank for, so how about it?"

Ib replied first, "Then who is our threat, if not you?"

The Lady in Red smiled widely, "If it isn't the little miss heroine. My, you've grown into quite the fair young woman over the years haven't you? Came back to have a small visit in the ol' art gallery have you? Nothing has changed really. I hope you're having fun, because I'm not."

"Cut the crap! Tell us how to get out of here and you'll be spared." Garry didn't want to believe any of what comes out of that woman's mouth.

"Patience, patience, my darling...you've had safe 8 years in here, just give me 8 more minutes to explain to you the situation. Here's the real deal: I'm not your enemy. As much as you two would want to kill me, doing that would give you nothing, and certainly not the way out of here."

Ib lowered down Garry's defenses, "We should listen to her. We're running out of options and allies. I think she was telling the truth about her protecting you. For now, we'll just listen."

The Lady in Red coughed slightly, "Have we gotten over our trust issues now?"

Garry breathed out slowly, "Alright, 8 minutes for you to talk start now. Whatever you say will be taken into consideration."

"Goody! Where should I start: the part where my husband stabs me to death or the part where he's completely hell-bent on becoming a god?" Her smile was based purely on derision.

Ib felt sick to the stomach at the revelation, "I—I'm sorry, Akane."

The Lady in Red's eyes widened for a second; a window to her true emotions opened up briefly, and it showed clearly that it was glistening sorrow.

The name Akane was from a long time ago—a time when she was still human.

"Akane…yes that was my name, it's been quite a while since anyone called me by that. If you know it then my husband must have told you. From now on throw away anything that he has told you because they are lies. As you know this world was made by him. Well, he got carried away to say the least and my 'interfering' resulted to my untimely death. This painting world—as it stands—is a portal for spirits, but he wanted it to be more than that…he wanted the spirits to overtake the living, and him the god of that new underworld."

The Lady in Red dramatically sighed, clutching her hands near her chest. "It all sounds so ridiculous now that I think about it, but that's the grim reality."

"Artists are crazy like that, but most of us don't descend to that level of insane." Ib couldn't believe that all the truths had been buried down to this place of horror, and that all the lies had been in the real world. It was irony at its best.

"We believe you. Would you happen to know our way out of here—or better yet—a solution to end all this madness?" Garry sought to end all this nonsense. Hearing all this just gave him more ammunition against Guertena, which means the more he wanted to wring his neck.

"I hate to put this kind of burden into young children such as yourselves…but there are two options that could finally conclude this tragic tale. What happens next would depend upon your choice. The first choice would be to free my spirit. After Weiss killed me I came back as a spirit to go to his painting in order to impede his deranged plans; my own spirit protects this portal. Although he can control the art gallery himself, he can't touch the portal because of me. Freeing my spirit would finally destroy this painting world and my protection on the portal would still be in place. Second choice would be to simply kill my spirit. Doing this option would result to what my husband wanted. The portal would tear up, thus releasing the spirits into the real world."

"The hell! Of course we'd pick the first choice!" Garry cried out immediately. Not many things were black and white to him, but the choices that were presented before him were.

"There's something you're not telling us. What are the consequences?" Ib interceded.

Where's the grey spot in this moral compass?

The Lady in Red's expression deepened for the first time, "You will die on the first choice and you will get to live on the second."

~X~

a/n: This one was a quick update because my mind has been racing with a lot of ideas for this story. It's good to feel like I have an idea for the ending, but I've decided to let you guys decide! Yay! I'll open up a poll with the two choices you guys just read. The choice with the most votes would obviously be their decision. The poll would be open up now but I'm not going to force you guys to start voting immediately-in fact the next chapter would probably be another "breather" chapter and should shed some more light on the "consequences". How the story "ends" would be up to you guys.

I'm a big fan of video games that gave players the freedom of giving them multiple choices that would lead to a specific ending. As you can see I was inspired by that.

Anyway, thank you for reading yet another chapter of Corpse Bride, I hope you enjoyed it—if not…then thanks for reading this far at least… :/