A/N: -rises from fanfiction tomb, shakes off cobwebs-

Yeah, let's get to it!


The quiet hall that enveloped them seemed unending, both sides with empty, bare walls. All that accompanied them was the lights hanging over them, swinging minimally with some uneasy breeze. Dust danced around the sources of dim light, leaving Ib to wonder how long it had really been since this place had been in decent condition, if it ever was to begin with.

Beside her, an arm behind her to push her forward in case of emergency, was Garry. Ever faithful to protect her, the palette knife in his other hand was pointed back behind them as well. The young man was ready to turn and swing, to protect what was most precious to him.

For a while, it had been quiet. That peace left Garry and Ib to believe if they didn't talk for a short bit, at least until they got to another secure room, they'd be fine. Whatever reason they believed they were alone, they accepted it happily and went on their way.
Senses peaked, Ib followed Garry's lead, but continued to trail behind farther to pick up on any noise. Any signs that would point to disturbance would mean they had to hurry, and was what she wanted least of all.

What seemed like hours continued on as their walking slowed. Yawning, Garry stretched an arm up and looked back again.
"This is really bothersome. Where the hell is the door?" He whispered, finally breaking their silence.

Ib, facing the young man, scoffed lightly at his unsettling nerves. "I thought you knew where you were going Garry.." The young woman chuckling at his distraught had leaned closer to him, measuring his anxiety as it grew. Apparently, after all these years of roaming this gallery and what she thought would be knowledge gained, turned out to be false.

"Hey, I thought I knew everything about this place. I guess..." Sighing, Garry felt a heavy pressure on his chest. "I guess I was wrong. I can't believe it."

Ib gave a small smile in return as her faith was beginning to falter in him. "We'll find a way to someplace you recognize, okay?"

Deep down he could pick up on the unwavering in her tone, and it only helped to shake his small bit of courage that had been building as they walked together. He was trying, harder than he had for many things in his early life so far, but he hadn't accomplished anything here and it continued to shake him. Questions began to spiral in his head, attacking his mind constantly in a barrage of uncertainty. What if he really couldn't get her out of this crazy world? She was still alive, and he was nothing more than a piece in the gallery now. Ib would face hunger, exhaustion, thirst, and that would make things even harder than they were now if the two couldn't get anywhere.

Garry's mouth went dry quickly at the thought of the young woman suffering here, because of him. Watching her grow and become such a beautiful young woman had brought him to the conclusion that he had to be her shield. To protect her from afar, and now he had his chance to truly be her shield, and he was failing miserably.

Thoughts spinning at every turn had left him feeling some mix of dizziness and nausea. How this had culminated so quickly had truly surprised him. Racing around in circles in his head, Garry's thoughts were stopped when he felt a weight on his shoulder.

"...Garry?" Ib's voice was a soft whisper, her hand pressing gently into his shoulder blade underneath the thick material of his coat. "Are you there Garry?"

Peering up from his train wreck of a conscious, Garry's eyes widened at Ib before he began to process her moving lips. She was saying something, and he wanted to hear it.

Shaking his head, lilac locks flew around his face before he slowed to a halt, catching her wide eyes and confused expression. He had noticed as her hand slowly edged away. The poor thing was frightened, of him of all things around them.

'I have to stop this.' If he could talk to Ib about it, he would, but this was something he had to handle, and quickly.

"My apologies Ib." He whispered, clutching the palette knife in his hand he moved to put it in his pocket. "I...it seems I'm letting this place get the best of me again."

Because of her.

All the years he had spent here alone, he had grown accustomed to the same old. Running from the same monsters, dodging the same nuisances, it was a routine he had taken to quite easy.

But in her glory, in her simple presence, with that ugly doll and her beautiful rose clutched to her side, she had quickly crumbled all of what he thought was now normal.

"Garry, we need to find somewhere to rest if you're not feeling well."

Staggering to his feet, Garry had found himself leaning slightly on the short girl as she brought her arm up to balance his back. "I'm fine...just needed a second to clear my mind..." Turning to Ib he gave an easy smile. "I'll be fine, I promise okay?"

With an uneasy nod Ib walked with Garry slowly, waiting for his arm to slide away and his posture to return to it's original form from earlier. Their long walk continued again as the hallway seemed endless.
Breaking the silence, Ib spoke up. "So you don't know when this hall ends? It's been forever since we entered the door to come in here. I don't even see it anymore. This makes no sense..."

The two stopped as Garry's face twisted in deep thought. "I didn't think to look back and see how far we've come along..."

Turning around to peek over their shoulders, they were astonished at the sight before them. Rose and doll falling to the ground with a quiet thud, Garry could see Ib's shock as he walked to the door.

"Are you kidding me? This is insane." Ib shook her head, quickly squatting down to pick up what she had bundled before following Garry to the door.

"Ib, if there is one thing I can empower you with to understand, it's this...nothing here is sane."

"Including you?" Ib giggled, pointing at the young man and his disheveled presence.

Garry pouted, unable to really glare or get angry at Ib. "Why aren't you as pleasant as you used to be?"

"When I was a quiet child?"

Snapping his fingers together, he pointed to Ib before he cracked a grin. "Exactly haha!" An arm behind his head he dropped it as her eyebrow rose. When Ib had become so spunky flew over his head. All the times he had seen her at the gallery, and walked alongside her from where he dwelt, she was just as quiet and patient as she had been as a child.

She had really grown up after all.

He would have time to think about that later on. At the moment, they needed to get out of that accursed hallway. "Well if we go back I guess we can look for another way, we were running with those damn women on our heels."

Twisting the doorknob he opened it, but was as shocked as Ib to find something completely different. Instead of an openly lit hallway, they were met with their reflection, and that reflection spanning in different angles.
Stepping into the room the two were shocked to find their reflections dancing all around them.


"A hall...of mirrors?" Ib whispered, holding on to Garry's sleeve with a firm grip.

In return Garry had readied the palette knife in his pocket. "I didn't know Guertena had a kick for fun houses. This is new. Ib come on, hold on to m-" Walking into a mirror, Garry let out a yelp as he stumbled back into Ib and another mirror. "I've been here for almost a decade and I've never seen this in the gallery!"

Eyes traveled around until Ib pointed to the ceiling, only to find a starry night sky. "We can't even see the way out by peeking at mirrors or shadows on the ceiling, how horrible."

The two began to walk when Ib stopped him. "I got some string in my pocket, it was loose from my coat. Hold on." Pulling it out she tied it around their wrists. "Now we're together!"

Garry began to snicker at the sight in front of him as he raised his thin wrist. "Well isn't this interesting..."

Ib questioned his sudden interest, the surprise and sudden smirk on his face different than the emotions that she had seen written on his face. "Garry?"

The thin string dangled between them as he dropped his arm to his side before he flashed a small smile and a curt hod to the young woman. "It's nothing Ib, I had just thought of something really funny, you wouldn't understand."

In a matter of seconds her face had turned a warm pink. That warm blush had covered her face as she turned away. How he could be so charming and yet inadvertently dim left her speechless. Garry, of all people, had left her a grumbling mess.

No one at her school had done that, and she usually didn't find herself lost for words if it was something she was interested in.

"You're very peculiar Garry..." She whispered, trying to ignore her reflection bathing in embarrassment as it danced all around her. "Let's get out of here, I'll go mad..."
Glancing at each other, Ib quickly narrowed her eyes. "Don't even think about it."

Before he could even speak, Garry had been hushed by the student standing beside him. Gently, while holding the knots together, Ib tugged Garry along. Above all else, he enjoyed seeing her smack into the mirrors as they continued on. Knees knocked into corners, elbows lifted up to smack into her reflection with a strong thud. He was waiting, more like biding his time, to see her walk forcefully enough into a mirror just enough to break it. Maybe it would open spaces to jump through, and get them to the eventual exit.

If there was an exit...

In the back of his mind, Garry knew that there could possibly not be an exit, and they'd be stuck wandering until insanity took the best of them. It was a reoccurring theme of Guertena, to mentally obliterate and intrigue those viewing his pieces. To do both at once would divulge what the artist's twisted mind had been producing for such a long time.
Apparently Mary just wasn't the cherry on top.

Dark humor had overcome Garry throughout the years, and it had washed away quite a bit of the simplistic happiness and ignorance he had grown up with. Garry was a product of Guertena now, and took that on in every sense of the word. How he had gotten to that point didn't make much sense to him. Maybe it was instant, or a culmination of events that had lead to this point of no return. Talking to stuffed creatures, studying headless mannequins chase shadows and other innocent portraits in the gallery.

Garry had no choice but to take on enough courage and edge to stand his ground in this new home, where the weak were swallowed up by the strong. It was a colder, yet more honest world than the one he had been born into.
A decade in Guertena's world was a lifetime on the other side of the Fabricated World. That world where time was moving in an unrelenting fashion, and sought to deliver no mercy to those not standing at the top of the mountain.

When he had woken up as a portrait, he found something to be strange. He was in the dark hallway, and the lights had dimmed all around him. The gentle melody that once filled the horrid world Mary created had dissipated in his wake. Following a trail of blue rose petals, the crushing reality he was afraid of had come along after storming up a flight of stairs.

Smoke hung in the air, and the smell of burnt trash had taken over his senses as it stung his eyes. On his left was a doorway that was surrounded by burnt vines. Before he walked in Garry took another glance around and pushed through the dead plants.

A dark room that had been colored to the limits was filled with smoke, and at the other side of the room sat a charred golden frame with singed paper in the corners. Beneath it was an all too familiar lighter that had a charcoal covered thumbprint on the side. Bringing his thumb up, Garry came to the cold realization of who had used it.

Ib. But why she had used it didn't occur to him until he looked at the picture frame. The golden frame, with glass scattered around it, had a dusty nameplate underneath.

"Mary" in a rich cursive sat cold and alone, just as the young girl had for all those years. Now there was nothing left to it but dark memories and an entry in a book that no one would really ever see besides him.

Garry had collected himself and turned to climb out of the room to reach the other side. There was a shattered vase, with blue petals and a still green stem on the carpeted floor.

Reaching down Garry hesitated before the reality of his fate came undone at the sight of a red ribbon lying a few feet away towards a jarred door.

His fingers brushed the smooth silk before instinct kicked in. Sprinting out the door Garry climbed the steps to find where he really was. Black walls and black floors with red trim had revealed to be Guertena's 'other' gallery. He passed the exhibits that he had seen, and on the top floor he stood shocked at a picture that shook him to his core.

What was once 'The Hanged Man' had turned into something completely different.

'The Forgotten Portrait.'

"No...no no no!" Garry shook his head, trying to figure out what to do. "Ib? Ib! Are you there? Ib!" Screaming at the top of his lungs he ran around in a blind fury until he reached what had gotten them into all this trouble in the first place. Staring into the abyss of 'Fabricated World' he had found something that it wasn't before.
He could see where they had come from before, and all the people that passed by. A short brunette girl had walked by, the collar of her shirt open she frowned and fiddled to button it. "Ib! I have your ribbon!" Reaching to push through he felt the world drop around him as his fist connected to the canvas. So close, and now he couldn't go home. There was no more college, no more friends, no more parents and family and opportunities. He had to watch Ib leave, without hearing his screams, which turned to a flood of tears as he continued to hit the painting.

On his knees, Garry continued to sob. The young man was sure that something could have been done, and now he sat alone. In the dark, the cold, isolated, dark world that he was forced to stay in, he saw everything fade away. All the hopes and dreams he had before were diminished in no time at all. There wouldn't even be a chance to do good or fail.

A fate worse than death had befallen him, when he had thought he truly hadn't done anything to deserve it. Garry had always tried to be a decent person. Polite to ladies, respecting his elders, and helping children and his teachers when they needed help.

It didn't take much time for Garry to stop crying, because he knew crying would truly do nothing to help him. There was no miracle tears, no angel to save him. Hell, even Mary wasn't going to show up and show him any hints to escape from this horrid world that she had inhabited for so long.
He felt Mary's pain now, and he understood wholeheartedly.

This isolation would drive even the most patient and kind man sane, and it ate away at his being until there wasn't anything left.
At least until he saw a familiar face and sweet voice through the rose-colored lens of the fabricated world. In all her kindness and composure, Ib stood with classmates, a couple years older as she gripped a notebook with a pen in one hand and a camera in the other.

"Yes, for our art class we're allowed to pick out a favorite picture here, and we're supposed to draw it again. We have to show our own style and understanding of what it means..." Ib's voice was quiet and sweet, yet determined and anxious to get to work.

The young woman would continue to be the star Garry followed through the gallery. She illuminated the works as she took the time to study them. Something about his world felt peaceful as he watched the little doll that he had made sure to keep safe and sound before matured into an intelligent and empowered woman.


C/N:
Yeah uh...hi! This is a two parter chapter. The first half covered Garry, the next one will cover Ib. Hope y'all enjoy. Leave a review, favorite and follow. They are much appreciated!