12) The Lady's confession

A/N: Now how do I continue this? I absolutely have no idea...

I am not sure whether to come to the murder mystery conclusion in this story or the sequel (not the crossover one) I'm planning. In the sequel I'd have way more opportunities and no limits.

I'm taking suggestions.

"YOU WHAT?!" Mary exclaimed and I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. "Well, I'm still alive, right? I mean, I didn't commit suicide to die."

...

What?

...

...

Oh god, it happened again.

"Forget I just said that. Sometimes it just goes through with me."

Now the two girls looked at me like I was the crazy painting here. I and my death jokes, plus everything that's happening around, it looked like I was over my melancholy. Yeah, that just was a piece of my original personality.

I assume out of good manners the two slapped me really hard. Mary's slap especially hurt and for a second I thought my leg was broken. At least it was proven with that slap, that I was human and not a painting, else it wouldn't have hurt.

We just finished exchanging what happened to each of us individually so far. "So we're safe now?" I asked Mary, who got a thoughtful expression. "Well, as long as you don't hurt yourself or activate a trap, sure you're." she smiled. "But I don't know about you."

"You mean, whether I'm dead after ten injuries or not."

She nodded. "Well my Rose only had five petals left. But after I put it into the painting, I kind of feel normal again, like when my rose had ten petals." I explained to them.

Mary frowned and Ib looked at me worried. I swear that girl calls up emotions I never thought I'd have for anyone. Not love, I call that hormone malfunctioning. If a six year old would cause my hormones to react, oh boy. It just the wish to protect her, because she cares about me, even though she doesn't know me. If she'd really know me, I was sure she wouldn't feel that way.

"Hey, you think the painting might be alive now, since, I mean first she's complete now and second I gave her my rose."

Mary thought about it for a moment and then she grinned. "That means you can come out with us and we'll-"

"Mary." Ib and I said at the same time. I crossed my arms and sighed. "I'd that thought of that already and we're not pulling that one off." Oh man, I could tell Mary was desperate. She didn't belief there was another way. Speaking off...

"Hey Mary. How do you know one has to be left behind? I mean, did someone tell you this or something?"

Ib curiously looked over to Mary. "I just know."

I fell over. Like really, I really managed to fall over in anime style. Try that out in our world. I kind of expected that answer, but still, it wasn't helping. "Alright, let's try another approach."

"A what?"

"Another way on taking this on. How about we look for the painting I mentioned?" I asked.

"But that will take a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time." Mary said time really quick, after stretching long for like 30 seconds. "Do you know how big this gallery is? You've only seen ummm one finger out of ten."

"10 percent...really? It is that big?" I asked. Mary nodded.

At least you won't get bored so quick.

I rubbed my temples with two of my fingers. "This is not helping. Okay, last lead we have is kind of freaking me out. And in more than one way."

"The murderer!" Mary exclaimed happily.

You just earned yourself two more points on the creepy scale.

"I don't know how we're supposed this little mystery with newspapers. To top it all, I think this thing is talking about me."

The two girls gasped.

"What? Why?"

I crossed my arms and shook my head clear. "It is kind of obvious. Those things only started to appear when I got here. Plus the Gallery itself called me murderer. Remember the room, where the lights went out?" I asked. The two shivered, which was answer enough.

This whole mystery gave me a headache. "I don't really see how solving this is going to help us anyways. I don't know why the gallery is accusing me of being a murderer, but it explains why some of the people outside looked at me, like I was a monster."

I pulled a chair next to me and sat down. Oh man, it made too much sense for my taste. Ib walked next to me and put a hand on my arm. When I looked at her, I saw her smiling reassuringly. "Thanks Ib." I ruffled her hair. Mary immediately came and pulled Ib's arm, obviously jealous. I laughed and ruffled her hair too.

"Don't worry girl, I'm not gonna steal her away from you or anything." Mary pulled Ib closer, making me laugh really hard. It was just hilarious.

"Do you have someone?" asked Ib all of the sudden. I put my hands behind my head and leaned back on my chair. "Uff, nope. Never actually felt that way to anyone." I said, looking up at the ceiling.

"Really?" Ib sounded sad.

"I never felt the need of a girlfriend. Sure I got jealous when I was younger and all the others had their dates 'n' all, but in the end I realized I'm not the guy who wants someone at his side. I get along with the little (I almost said shitty) life I have. Sure it's not the best, hell, most of the time I spent in front of my PC, but it was a life I could live. A job, a home, that's all I ever wanted."

"Don't you have friends?" asked Mary. I shrugged.

"Haven't talked with 'em in years. I guess I'm not really someone who holds up a lot of social contact. I've always been this way, maybe because of how some other kids treated me. One day I snapped and beat one up, who was even weaker than me and I was the one in trouble afterwards. I think because I have more bad memories with others, than good ones I turned out the way I am. Heck, sometimes I even wished I was in your place Mary."

"What?! But why?!" she exclaimed pretty dramatically. "You gotta see for yourself, but let's hope you won't be treated the way I've been treated." I stood up and stretched myself. "Enough about me. We'll never find a way out, unless we actually start looking. My vote goes to the sketchbook area, the one of two places we have yet to visit from the actual story."

The others looked at each other before Ib nodded. "Okay, follow me."

I could wander around for a few hours, if it was at a steady speed. But walking up all those stairs, oh god, why didn't anyone put an elevator there?!

Mary was right, this place was huge. On plus we now met the other paintings on regular bases. The first time we met one of the Ladies I jumped, grabbed the girls' hands and was ready to take off. As it turned out, the Ladies were only looking for me to bring me to Mary.

"You know, maniacal laughter isn't really the way to ask someone to come along." I said with a deadpan face. Green shrugged and walked her way. The dolls, statues and all the other paintings were now walking around, holding conversations and simply waving to each other.

"How come you feel lonely? There're a lot of people here to talk to." I talked to Mary. She frowned. "The others don't like me."

"Why?"

"They always run away."

"...? How so?"

"I don't know!" she shouted, making the few strolling paintings and statues running away. I sweatdropped at the empty sight. "Wow."

Apparently Mary didn't support my opinion and started crying, like really hard. She collapsed into Ib's arms, who sat down on the floor and silently comforted her. I placed myself next to them and stroke through her hair.

A 'psst' took my attention and I found Brown a little way, motioning me to follow. Now I was still wary of the paintings around, but if I want to find out stuff, I gotta overcome my newfound paranoia rather sooner, than later. Okay paranoia was overdoing it, but you get the idea.

"Take care of her. I'll be back in a minute." I whispered into Ib's ear. She nodded. Mary looked up to me, as I stood up. I bent down again and gave both a good hug. "I'll be back in no time. Okay?" Mary nodded between sobs and placed her head on Ib's chest. I gave a reassuring smile and followed Brown into an empty room.

I placed myself on the ground, so she didn't have to look up.

"So...what's up with her? Why are you all avoiding her?" I asked. Brown sighed.

"Mary was never taught right or wrong. When father was still alive, he used to spent a lot of time with her." she explained. "Guertena? So much for my theory he died in this world."

"He's dead? Well that explains why he wasn't coming anymore."

"You didn't know?" She shook her head. "Time doesn't run normally in this place. A few seconds outside, are a few days in this place. How long is he dead?" she asked.

"Oh shit. Well, he died just recently actually, from what I heard. But if he was so sick he couldn't come anymore, oh well. But wait, you said time doesn't flow normally here. So there must have been very long periods between his visits." I concluded.

Again she shook her head. "Father was an exception. I didn't know how he did it, but he managed to come and go. He was the one who had the most power over this world, when he was alive. He sometimes manipulated things, even time and we had a lot of fun back then." She looked like she was caught in a memory.

"Wait, there's a painting of him somewhere in this gallery. What about it?" I asked. She looked genuinely surprised. "There is?"

"Oh right." I slapped my head. "It's another puzzle. It's put into pieces, but if we put them together-"

"-father could be reborn." Brown finished eyes wide. "We're getting off topic." she realized. "Father may be able to help you, but you need to know about Mary." she explained.

"You said no one ever taught her right and wrong."

"Yes, she was still young when father didn't come back, like an infant. You have to know she is the strongest painting here. Although you gave birth to Guardian, she's not as strong as Mary, because you're not father."

"About that" I scratched the back of my head "where's she and...what's gonna happen to me?"

She looked to the side. "I don't know. Neither the first, nor the second."

Oh well, then...

"Do you know how I got here?" At this question she looked a little uncomfortable to the side. "It was me and my sisters."

"What?! And how?" I asked.

"It would take too long to explain it to you. I also wanted to apologies. Me and my sisters have been too reckless."

"Reckless?" Why do I have the feeling I don't like where this is going?

"You see, the new traps, the messages and the newspapers...it had been all our doing."

...

"We all did it for Mary. Despite her hurting us a lot...we love her. She's our little sister. And so you were going to be-"

"-trapped in here." I finished. "The papers?" I asked in a neutral tone.

She shook her head. "You'll have to find out by yourself."

Before I could press on, the door behind me opened. I looked over my shoulder and found Mary, her eyes being shadowed by her messy hair. This conversation was over, I could tell. Brown was shivering and I had a bad feeling about this. Ib was behind Mary, holding her hand. She walked into the room with Mary and Brown backed away.

"What have you done?" Mary asked Brown.

"M-Mary I-"

"You tried to steal my friend, right?"

Definitely a bad feeling. I stood up. Brown was already at the end of the room and Mary walked straight passed me. "You...made me angry sister."

"Mary, please listen!"

"Mary!"

She didn't listen to me. I quickly walked over and recovered the few things I knew about children from my memory. Truth to be told, what I was doing next, I knew from looking south park, as I bent down to her level. Yeah, I tend to catch up the best things from the worst sources.

"Mary" I put both hands on her shoulders "she didn't try to 'steal me away' or anything. She just told me some things and we had a little talk."

Okay, not the best choice of words, but at least she stopped. Ib put a hand on Mary's back and smiled at the girl. Mary put both hands on my shoulders and put a lot of pressure on them. I hissed. "Mary, just because something is not going the way you want it, it is no reason to get angry. Hsss, Mary, the reason is everyone is avoiding you is because you're hurting them when you're angry. Nnnrrgh, how'll you feel if I rip off your painting just because you ate more sweets than I did?"

I couldn't come up with anything better, but that did the job. She released the pressure and was just touching my shoulders. "How would you feel?" I asked.

She looked down. "I would be...hurt."

"See? You can't just hurt anyone, because you feel like it. You have to see it how others feel and think how you would feel if they would do this to you."

She started crying again. Ib and I took her in our arms. "Shh, shh, it's alright." We leaned against a wall and Ib and Mary were on my lap, not really comfortable, but this wasn't the time to complain. I expected Brown to use the opportunity to slowly leave this place, but instead, she kept staring at us, like we just build a rocket in front of her eyes. She crawled over to us. Mary turned her head around.

"I'm sorry." she choked out. Brown came into the hug and whispered. "Don't worry, everything is fine." she whispered. She then looked over to me and came close to my ear. "The gallery you're going to is still dangerous. Since we don't know about you, be extra careful." She left afterwards.

And I thought things were about to get finally boring.

Mary fell asleep after some more crying. "I know where a bed is." Ib whispered. "I'm gonna carry her. Ummph, oh god, I think I gave her a little too many sweets." I groaned. Ib slapped me in response. It turns out there was a bed in another room and I put Mary in there. Ib climbed in there too and snuggled under the blanket.

I walked outside and let out a frustrated sigh. If it wouldn't have been for Mary, I'd have gotten some good amount of information. Brown was nowhere in sight and I didn't know this part of the gallery. I yawned. This would close up day six in the gallery. Good thing I have the habit of turning off my cell phone, since well, no one really calls me except my boss.

"Seb?" the door behind me opened. There were Ib and Mary, peeking from behind the door. "Aren't you tired?"

"To be honest...yeah, guess so."

So in the end all three of us got under bed, the two covering the one side and I covered the other. My feet did hurt a lot and so I fell asleep pretty fast.

XXX

Ib POV

I woke up, seeing Mary was already awake. I looked into her blue eyes. I never grew tired in seeing them. Behind me I heard Seb briefing, but it was almost as if he wasn't there. I just looked into Mary's eyes. She blinked, but I didn't look away.

"Ib?" she asked. I touched her face and kept my hand there. She took me and pressed me against her. I could feel how strong she pressed only to press less strong in the next moment and ever so on. She handled me like a flower. I remembered how I once collected flowers, but held them too strong, so they got broken.

"Do I hurt you?" she asked. I shook my head and gave her a small kiss. Suddenly we heard a thud and the blanket was gone.

"Ow..."

Seb fell out of the bed. Mary burst into laughter and I giggled. Seb rubbed his head and looked at us.

"Yeah, funny." he said, rubbing his right arm. "Why do I always land on this arm? That's the one I broke four times." he groaned.

Mary was back to her usual self and jumped up and down on the bed. She pulled me up and the two of us were jumping on the bed, laughing.

"Alright guys. Let's go." Seb even made the bed before we walked outside. Mary and I jumped up and down. She took my hand and now the two of us were jumping up and down. I never had so much fun in my life. If only mom and dad would be hear.

"Hey Seb, what's that?!" Mary cheered all of the sudden. I looked over and found Seb looking at something. "Oh this?" he showed it to us. It was a green key. "I found it, even before I found my rose and I never got to use it. Mary any ideas?"

"A green door!"

He bent over and let his arms hung. "Well THAT'S helpful -.-"

He put the key away and we went on, following Mary, who jumped every now and then to us, especially me and jumping circles around us.

We made a break, when we were almost back to the violet gallery.

"Who designed this place? Did anyone ever heard of the word elevator?" Seb exclaimed. He took out some newspaper pieces and read them to himself. "A copycat...torture...serial...that doesn't help. Considering it really wasn't 'me', who did this all? And how the hell is this supposed to help to get out?" He didn't notice I was listening.

He kept mumbling to himself, but I didn't understand a thing he said. I looked over to Mary, who looked over to me and then she came over to me.

"Oh man, get a room you two." He left us.

"Ignore him Ib." Mary and I started kissing, but then all of the sudden she started tickling me. I tried to tickle back, but she was better and in the end I was lying on the floor with Mary lying on me.

"I win!" she shouted.