Ib felt her feet, as heavy as lead, drag against the floor. She could see the Lady, the woman pursuing her, who was clad in red chasing her frantically. Ib felt her feet fall form beneath her and she fell heavily, skidding slightly onto the ground. She felt her precious rose, her life, fly from her hand and it dropped back to the ground, rolling away. It only had one petal left. She saw a figure approach as she lifted her head to make it out. Long, blonde hair and piercing blue eyes met her, a hand stretched out to the side, holding a palette knife. The young girl had a sadistic smile etched on her face.
Mary.
But wait, the image flickered. The hair grew shorter, the eyes grew duller. The dress dissolved into that of a suit. Kane brought his other hand form behind his back, wielding a blue rose. Ib's eyes widened in fear.
Kane brought the palette knife to the rose, slicing off a petal. Ib heard a scream.
"He loves you."
Another petal. Another scream.
"He loves you not."
Yet again. One more petal left the rose, and another scream tore through clenched lips. Ib turned to see Garry at the other end of the room, his face scrunched up in agony.
"No…"
"He loves you."
"STOP IT!"
"He loves you not!"
"Ib...run..." A scream follows this.
"PLEASE, NO!"
"Guess what?" Kane asked, the sadistic smile widening. "He loves you!"
A scream left Ib's lips as the last petal left it's stalk. There was no agonized scream in response this time. Just silence.
Dead silence.
Kane advanced, his palette knife now gleaming in the dark, his steps walking towards her, unfaltering.
"GARRY!"
"IB!"
The knife slashed down…
"IB!"
Ib jolted up, her heart racing and tears in her eyes. She'd been asleep on the sofa. She realized she must have fallen asleep after the incident.
"Ib!"
"G-Garry…" She said, her voice shaking.
"You had a nightmare, didn't you? You screamed out in your sleep. Like the time in the gallery."
Ib nodded at the portrait, positive Garry could see this. She got up, feeling her hair plastered to her forehead in sweat. She looked at the clock,
4:07am
She sighed, figuring it would just as well that she gets ready for school now. She took a shower, cleaning herself up before she dressed herself. She grabbed the locket yet again, securing it around her neck, before tying up her hair. She organised her files, realizing Garry was silent. She walked to the kitchen, sliding bread into the toaster. She was relieved to hear his voice,
"Try not to burn down the apartment again."
She giggled, smiling, brushing back a few stray hairs behind her ears before buttering her toast. She munched on it appreciatively.
"Is it nice?"
"Yeah!"
"You have toast the same way I used to. Nearly burnt to death, but without that taste."
Ib grinned, walking to the living room and nodding at the portrait in response. She wiped some crumbs from the edges of her mouth.
She and Garry sat there, watching television, until it came to eight O'clock. She yet again kissed her hand, stroking the frame before exiting the apartment, leaving Garry blushing bright red again.
Ib dashed down the apartment steps, hurrying to the car park. She unlocked her car door from the passenger side, placing in her satchel and files before shutting it and walking around. As she opened the driver's door, she heard the passenger one click open again. As she sat down, fear paralyzing her, she was half relieved and half petrified that it was Kane who had climbed into the car.
"Do you mind if I hitch a lift? My car is running low on fuel; I'll pick some up on the walk home from school."
"Oh, eh, ehm…"
"Say no, Ib," Garry urged her.
"…Sure."
"Damnit. You're too damn nice for your own good."
"Thanks!" Kane replied to Ib, settling her satchel between his knees, placing his rucksack onto his lap.
"No problem," Ib said, her voice still shaking from the events that had occurred last night. Kane seemed to pick up on this.
"You know I was just testing you last night, right?"
"Yeah, I bet you were," Garry commented sarcastically.
"Of course," Ib said, her voice a little less timid as she glanced a smile towards Kane. He grinned in response,
"ah, I'm glad. If I scared you, I'm sorry. I just wanted to answer your question, it was the only way I could think of doing that…"
Ib prayed Garry hadn't heard the conversation and didn't know the question. Garry didn't ask her about this, so she feared he had heard, "haha, yeah. Don't worry. I wasn't scared. Just a little startled!"
"Ah, I'm glad. Sorry."
"Apology accepted!"
They drive the rest of the way to school while discussing the days topics they were studying. Ib had Double period Art History and then Art itself, followed by English and then Music. Kane responded with his timetable of Double English, French, Mathematics and then, lastly, Music also. Ib smiled as he said this,
"So are we in the same music class, then?"
"I guess so! Do you play anything?"
"I guess I'm alright at the piano and violin."
"Wow, me too."
"Well, we were brought up in wealthy families," she noted. "Most probably it is to their expectations."
"I suppose so."
They drove into the school parking lot in silence. Just to have an egg pelt into her car window. She sighed, grabbing her files and satchels before walking out, an egg whizzing past her ear. She locked the car door after Kane stepped out. Many of the girls stared at him, his good lucks and charms leaving a notable impression in their eyes, and Ib noted no more eggs were thrown towards their direction. Kane then glanced at his new fans, raising an eyebrow, before grabbing Ib's satchel for her. "Let me carry that, M'lady."
The rest of the day passed with Ib staring out of the windows, watching the rain and speaking to Garry. She talked to him throughout Art History (Today's topic was of an artist inspired by Guertena; the next big assignment was Guertena himself, and she had studied him thoroughly. She couldn't wait to see her full mark written on paper) and through Art she doodled in her sketchbook dreamily, drawing a red and blue rose entwined while her peers through scrunched up paper at her head. It rocketed off of her head constantly, and she fought off Garry's complaints that she didn't fight back. In English she studied hard, Garry enlightening her on several tips for her coursework, and on her way to music, she bumped into Kane. She could tell Garry was unhappy about this, as he turned silent.
"Hey, let's walk to lesson together!"
"Mhm."
Ib arrived back home, placing her files neatly upon the desk in the living room and sitting herself down next to Garry. It was Friday tomorrow, and she was already dreading Saturday. What if he tried to kiss her again? Garry kept pestering her to either not go or take some pepper spray, or something. She refused each one due to the promise she made him and the fact that she was very sensitive to peppers, and so she'd probably knock herself out, giving him an advantage. Garry mumbled at both of these points, but did not press the topic further. She was glad.
Yet again, she fell asleep on the frame after watching reading with Garry. He smiled at her from the twisted gallery, wishing the moment would never end.
Kane paced the steps to his father's office, knocking sincerely before entering, walking proud and stood up straight. His father greeted him with a nod.
"Is it arranged?"
"I'm afraid to say not. Her father has declined the match-making session."
"Then bust out his company."
"I have threatened to do so. He laughed back in my face, assuring me that two things would interfere with this. One, he could take my company to court for breaching the contract we agreed upon. Two, our rival company would just seize this opportunity to hire him and out match us."
Kane slammed his hand on the table forcefully, before nodding to his father in respect, "alright Father. I shall be excused."
He strode out, his features dark. He walked to his room before kicking over his armchair and sitting on the edge of his bed,
"If she won't marry me through arrangements or love," he said to himself, his tone dark and sadistic. "I'll just have to use force."
