11)

A/N: Thanks Number III for shaking me awake, so I can redo this chapter! Sorry for the (was it 8?) people who read the whole crap. The first part is still the same. I'll mark the new content with a lot of X.

After I entered the room, I heard a *click* sound. I turned around and tried the door. It was locked. "Seriously, we already had that too. Twice." By now I wasn't even scared anymore being locked away. It was harmless compared to other stuff.

Aside from that, this room had something, I don't know. It didn't feel dangerous at all. I might have to explain a little. This room here mostly looked like any other storage room I've been in. Of course a little difference was always there, but here was a significant difference: there was dust all over.

What's so significant about dust, you may ask.

Well, the gallery was spotless, no matter which room you enter. But this had dust all over, like it hadn't been used in ages. Plus it almost felt like I was back in the real world, in one of Guertenas storage rooms, wherever he lived.

The room was dimly lighted by a single bulb. There were shelves, paper stacks and most of all paintings. All over paintings. Yet none of them was complete, like the sign at the door said. Let me give you a few examples.

There was one painting called "Illusion". It looked like a firework rocket exploding in the night sky. Every light was one color of the rainbow. Red was missing though. The basic outlines were there, so I could have completed the painting by just filling the space. I didn't do it because of two reasons. One: Guertena painted oil paintings. I'm not good in art. Two: the painting was called "Illusion". Gamers should get alarmed just by the name.

I found some sketches of paintings I already saw. "In this one Mary looks way better." I mused. She had longer hair, was surrounded by roses and there was a note about the dress being yellow.

There was a picture of a group of people, drawn with a pencil. It didn't have a name.

I found an incomplete statue of a green stickman.

A statue of whatever the hell it should resemble. It was a mess.

That one painting hanging in a frame intrigued me. It reminded me of a crime show. A room was shown, with a little blood on the ground. There was the shape of someone lying against the wall. Shape wasn't the right word. There was simply no color in it. It was white.

The colors were orange, beginning around the white shape, turning brown and at the end it was black. The only thing missing was the corpse. The painting was called "Evidence".

"That guy had some serious issues." I deadpanned.

I found a painting of showing a grass field. The upper half were the sky was supposed to be, was white. There was a complete white picture called "Instinct." It looked like the guy never came to start it in the first place.

"Lady in Black." How he never finished that one, I'll never know.

A picture showing a bottle of wine being thrown over and the liquid was floating down a table. It missed a name.

I could now go on and on and on. There were a lot of pictures I could have finished with a simple careful swing of the brush. The tools were all here.

I decided to look away from the paintings and look for a way out. I even tried the green key, but it didn't fit. I looked around the stash, but only found painting tools and more drawings and paintings. The answer to this puzzle had to be in one of the paintings.

"Oh boy, this is gonna take a while." I faced reality. Ib and Mary or one of them were in the outside world and I needed to find a way back to my world. Too much time passed already and I'm sure Mary somehow convinced Ib in jumping through the painting.

A painting of a hallway...

A painting of a book...

"The five stages of grief". Even the first one wasn't completed.

I walked to the very end of the room, where a towel was wrapped over a painting. This might be what I am looking for. Unwrapping the towel I found the most awesome painting I've ever seen.

Let's go there step by step.

In the front left, you could see a girl, around Ib's and Mary's age, wearing a blue kimono, eyes closed and a freaking katana leaning against her. She took the most part of the left picture. She also had blue hair, just for the record. But hell there was more.

In the background of the right, lying in the grass was a freaking dragon! Blue scales. Rose petals came out of his neck. It seemed to sleep. Next to him was a cherry tree, with cherry blossoms flying away in the wind. In the front was a grass field, in the back an Asian styled wall, Bottom white and top red. The sky was clear with a full yellow moon and stars everywhere. It was painted in a darker blue, than the girl's hair.

The painting was called "Guardian". It looked like it should be originally called silent guardian, but the silent had an X over it.

All in all the painting looked completed, but there was one detail I didn't mention so far: the girl's hair. There was one spot which was white. It wasn't even a spot; it had the shape of a rose. A rose was missing.

I unplugged my rose and looked down at it.

"Seb, this is way crazier than the time you drank coke, milk and apple juice at the same time."

This was crazy! The alternative was way saver, simply painting the rose. The outlines were already there in black, so even if I painted over, no one would notice! The hair had the same blue color as my rose and that blue was lying on a table right next to me. So why was I standing there, ready to plug my rose in?!

I'd never know. Call it instinct, but in the end I did it.

"YOLO!" I plugged the rose in. A split second later there was a blue light, blinding me. When it was gone, the painting was finished. The 'silent' was gone. The girl had her eyes half open. Her pupils had the shape of a lizard like creature AKA dragon! The dragon was now briefing and the rose petals were flying in the wind, like in the painting "Fleeting thoughts on a moonlit night". Were the two paintings related?

And I was dead.

..

...

...

JOKE!

...

Come on, cut me some slack!

Anyways, for some reason I was still alive, at least I felt like it. To top it all, I felt like my stamina was back and my injuries were all healed up. There was this *click* again and the door was unlocked.

"I'm so gonna regret this." I laughed nervously. I took another look around and left the room. I felt the pressure of being watched once again I was outside.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Here starts the rewriting!

So what now? I just gave away my rose in order to get out of the room. I feel pretty much alive, as alive as someone can be. I pinched myself and it hurt. I needed to breath and all over I still was the same as I always was.

Now where to next? I had plenty of doors left as a option, so I chose the next best one, since that freaking statue called up some friends and they all were running to my position. "Oh man, so much for the game theory they're just after your roses." I mumbled.

Looking around, this room had a vase in filled with water. Too bad, so sad, I don't have a rose anymore.

?

There was something under that vase. A small paper.

"Look up."

"HOLY!" I exclaimed, before an entire labyrinth fell from the ceiling, almost turning me into a pool of blood and meat. I breathed several times, calming myself down. "This gotta be a joke." I muttered and cursed along the way.

I heard some strange noises, like someone scratching the surface with something. Around the corner appeared the Lady in Green. Oh it's just Green.

...

...

...

"OH SHIT!"

I moved the other, being chased by Green. The thing was this was another amazing maze. Yeah, we had that pun already. Blame the author.

I ended up at a dead end. Really, no pun intended.

When I turned around, the Lady was already blocking my way. "Fuck." What now?

Jumping? You know what?

"Yolo!" I growled, yes growled. I waited a little for the Lady to come. I was shivering and actually missed the perfect timing. When I jumped she was way too close to her and she managed to grab my leg, making me hit the ground. Out of instinct, I held my arms up, keeping my face save. The landing still hurt, though.

Panicking I shook my leg, trying to shake of the Lady, but she crawled up on my back, her frame hitting the back of my legs and my actual back. That girl was heavy for a painting, plus it was not comfortable. The Lady laughed and secured me, holding the back of my neck. I think she actually wanted to strangle me. Someone wasn't listening during biology lesson.

We were in this position for a minute. I thought about playing dead, but she didn't leave my back.

I had another idea. I rolled to the side, hitting the wall in the process with my head. Of course the lady hit the wall too, so she let go of me. I instantly stood up and ran...

...into another dead end. Panicking I turned around and ran to a spot where I had ways to retreat. It looked like I lost the Lady. Great, we were back to psycho play.

I walked carefully and looked around every edge, looking out for the Lady in Green. After 5 minutes I spotted her crawling around the corner. Now I knew where NOT to go. But I already lost every sense of direction.

I wanted to go to the opposite side, when suddenly my leg was pulled and I fell to the ground. I heard the familiar maniacal laugh of one of the ladies.

From the outside I was: "SHIT!" Total panic.

Inside: You gotta be shitting me... deadpan.

Did you ever notice, that when something is happening to you (it doesn't have to be life threatening), you have two different reactions? Outside and Inside? From the inside you're mostly calm. Mostly. Spend 5 days in this gallery and you're calm on the inside no matter the situation. And from the outside you panic. Yeah, I'm getting off topic.

I managed to get rid of the Lady in Red the same way I did with Green. The downside was, Green already heard me and was now to coming from where I saw her going. I ran into a random direction, changing the direction (and hitting a bunch of walls) as often as possible, until I arrived at a dead end. Well, I lost the Ladies. Not good there was the picture of Brown right in front of me, jumping out.

I bit in my arm (suppressing a scream with that method) and ran away. Now I had three Ladies chasing me in this maze. I was sure I missed the exit about three times or so. I was leaning against a wall, panting and trying to listen to hear anything that sounded like a picture frame being shoved over the ground.

I couldn't really determine the direction, because it all echoed around, creeping me out. I already left a bunch of marks on my arms and the fourth was about to come, as I walked through the maze, suppressing every kind of fear/frustrating sound that could come out.

Something grabbed my vest and just started running, not even caring what color this Lady had. Why? I hit my head enough :(

My fucked up luck struck again as I ran past the door. When I turned around, the Lady in Yellow already was halfway to the door. I ran to the door, got grabbed by my vest again, but slammed the door against the Lady (and my leg) and got finally out.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" I needed to let it out.

I collapsed to the ground, laughing in that maniacal way Mary normally laughed. I coughed at the end, which is the way I normally laugh. This isn't a joke.

I stayed on my knees for a couple of minutes, until I heard footsteps.

"Shit! I forgot the statues!" I whispered to myself and ran behind a wall. Great, no matter where I would run from there the statues would notice me. I needed to time this perfectly. Since my method was proven successful, I bit my arm again, leaving the tenth mark. I was biting through my vest or else I'd be bleeding. I'm not going to make a vampire joke now.

I heard a door being opened. It was the door, where I had been before. The Ladies could use doors? Who the hell increased the difficulty? What I saw next was disturbing. Like unnerving. Like what the fuck was going on? Okay, I should tell you guys.

There was Mary talking to the three Ladies. I didn't understand a word, but from the looks of it, she was angry, because she was stomping her food to the ground. I briefly wondered why she wasn't screaming.

"Seb?! Where are you?"

I have a bad feeling about this. Where the heck was Ib? Was she dead? Did she leave? Wait, in case of the latter Mary should have left already, so Ib was...dead?

I had a hard time swallowing the information. It was the only thing that made sense, but I didn't want to belief it. However, my brain kept reminding me of how Mary could have lost it and killed Ib by accident. As much as I wanted to help her, I just couldn't let go of the fact she killed Ib. Well it wasn't a fact, but it was highly likely.

She looked around a little and then gave up, going back. Suddenly she stopped and turned to one of the paintings. "Find him!" she shouted and left. The paintings ran away, like their lives were depending on finding me. I couldn't help, but sweatdrop.

"Wow...okay. Now I have to look out for Mary too. Should I go out? Or should I try to find out what happened?"

There had to be a way out since Mary was here. And hopefully it wouldn't include another slide. Having no other choice, I walked after Mary. The paintings and statues seemed to avoid her and I hardly could blame them. She was whistling a tune that sent shivers down my spine.

I wasn't exactly sneaky or anything, but Mary wasn't quite too. She was jumping the entire time and whistling as I already said it. At one point she changed from whistling to humming yet another tune. Did she think of them all herself?

After some more time she entered the dining room and closed the door behind her. At least I now knew where not to go. Oh the irony in this sentence.

You see, fate must be trolling with me. There was at least one painting or statue in front of every door, looking around with the exception of the room with the unfinished paintings. The mannequins in front of that room were gone all of the sudden. Seeing as I had no other option, I went inside.

"Pheeeeeeew...~. What now?" I asked in a desperate tone. Keeping calm was getting harder and harder. I found myself looking around the room, searching for anything useful. Heck, haven't seen one of those in a while.

The similarities between those killings followed to the speculation of the murders being a 'family tradition'. The police declined this being a family business. They speculate the killer has some personal issues and might think he is the same who did the killings a century ago.

"W-w-w-w-whaaaaaaaaat?! A century ago!?"

Now that was reassuring. A killer copying another killer. Personal issues?

Shoving the paper to the rest, I looked around and something caught my eye. The painting "Guardian" was gone. The entire picture, gone, just like this. It looked like I wouldn't get my rose back soon, if ever. Wait was that the trick? Was that the trick so we all could get out, like some kind of identification system wouldn't detect me, because I had no rose?

I know I'm grasping but maybe this was the whole trick: don't take your rose with you.

The door opened. "Found you~!"

I froze in my tracks and turned around really slowly.

"H-hey Mary..." I waved nervously with my hand.

She either didn't notice me being nervous or ignored it. She approached me and took my hand. "Come on! Ib is waiting already!"

"Ib?! She's-"

I almost asked whether Ib was alive or not, which would have been a bad move. A really bad move.

She dragged me outside with inhuman strength and we walked back to the dining room. On the way I asked her: "Mary, why are you not with Ib right now?" I asked.

"We split up."

"Isn't that a little bit too dangerous?" I asked.

"None of the paintings will do anything to her. I told them so."

"W-w-wait! YOU told THEM?!"

We were already at the door and Mary opened it. "Ib! I found him!"

I was barely inside, when I got hugged by Ib. "Whoa there! Easy Ib, I'm alright." I ruffled her hair. She was alive. Wait, that meant the two must have been looking for me, instead of going out.

"So uh...I hate to ruin the mood, but there's something I need to tell you."

Here goes nothing.

"Oh you mean in your world this is all a video game? We already know!" Mary cheered.

"You WHAT?!" That gave me the rest. I landed on my ass and leaned against the door. "That's it, I'm done for."

I banged my head on the door behind me a few times and would have done that for the rest of the day, if Ib wouldn't have slapped me.

"Ow..."

Another one.

"OW! I got it, I got it! You can stop now!" I shouted. She was ready to give me another slap.

I rubbed my face. That girl, I swear. "So...uhh, I guess we should tell each other what happened."

So they told me their part of the story. The puzzles they solved, how they found out about the books and about me. To top it all, they kissed.

My head hit the table. Yeah we actually placed ourselves on the table, because it was more comfortable. A really comfortable table. Insanity is getting through me.

"What's wrong?" Mary asked.

"That's...forget it. Just don't do it when we're outside and someone is looking."

They finished their part and I had a brief grasp of the situation at hand. "You found another paper? Can I see it?" I asked.

I looked at it and read through the lines.

...

"Seb? Your face is white." Mary pointed out.

"Heilige Scheisse!" I needed to let out some curses. Since the two were present, I let them all out in German.

"What are you talking about?" Mary asked. "You're not making any sense."

"I spoke German and you don't want to know what I said. You especially don't want to know what is written in here!"

"Huh? Why?" Mary asked.

"Because" I looked down at the paper "here's a very detailed description of what the killer did to the children BEFORE he actually killed them. And...oh gross..." I averted my eyes.

You remember I said Guertena was a little insane? Well I don't think so anymore.

THAT bastard here was sick! Sex abuse, cutting of limps, taking of fingernails, starving, whipping, burning, hell even medieval types of 'interrogation' methods! That all was done to the kids!

At first it was simple killing from what I can get. But then all of the sudden he or she started torturing the children!

I looked around and finished the next best coke bottle in one try, without even breathing. I've never seen such a detailed description in any newspaper.

A/N: God damnit, I need a break after this. So I hope this is better and more interacting between the characters will come next chapter.