13) Mary's present

A/N: Man, it's been a while and I'm still not sure how to end this story, xd.

I took a little stroll around, waiting for Ib and Mary to remember that we still didn't know how to get out. I had an idea, but it was a little risky. It worked in the fanfics, so hell it would be worth a try. I found a nearby chair and placed myself on it. I looked at my cell phone and decided to give the two 15 minutes of alone time.

Staring into the darkness, I wondered what happened to the painting I finished earlier. Considering one had to stay behind my plan could work better than I wanted it to plan. Then she would be the one trapped here, but did she want to get out? Maybe she'd get along better with the other paintings, than Mary, who was a little bit insane.

A statue was passing by and it casually waved its hand. I waved back, even if this all still felt weird. Red was passing by after 7 minutes and stopped in front of me.

"Shouldn't you be with Ib and Mary?" she asked. "They're getting all lovely again." I rolled my eyes.

Red giggled. "Aw, are we jealous?" she teased. "Gotta admit, a little. But I never was the kind of guy for relationships." I said. "Isn't that a little uncomfortable? Your...frame?" I asked.

Red shrugged. "I've been always like this, so I guess you could say I don't know how it is to have legs." she answered. "You really haven't thought of having someone special?" she asked. "There was this one girl..." I admitted, looking to the side.

"Ooooh! Tell me, tell me!" her eyes seemed to glitter.

"Don't get all worked up, there's nothing romantic. I confessed, she refused, we stayed friends. End of story."

Red let out a disappointed sigh. "Well, tell me about her."

"Hmm, can't say much. Most stuff I know about her is private and something you don't just tell anyone. And even that is totally vague. Well what I can tell...she isn't beautiful or anything with perfect curves. I just liked her personality. She was always funny to have around, we had a similar humor, except I was the only one with the death jokes. We both liked video games and she helped me a lot when I was still in school. I dunno, maybe it wasn't love what I felt and only my hormones were overreacting."

Man that was a long talk.

"I'm sure you love her." she said totally convinced. "I doubt it..." I replied. I looked at my cell phone and back at Red. "Do you know by any chance why Mary wants to go out? I mean she got plenty of company here."

Red frowned. "It's not like we don't like her, it's just she always hurts us, when nothing goes her way. That's why we avoid her." she briefly explained.

"Hmm...Brown said something similar. Well, now I got a picture of everything. By the way, have you seen the painting 'Guardian'?" I asked. Red shook her head. "No, I'm actually looking for her right now. Shouldn't you go back to them?"

"I guess." I stood up. "Well, in case we won't get out, see you later."

"Bye!"

Red crawled off and I walked back to Ib and Mary and found them wrestling on the ground with Mary being on top. Ib tried to turn things around, but Mary being a painting was just too strong.

"Hate to interrupt, but shouldn't we get going?" I asked amused.

"Aw..." Mary got up and helped Ib. Now that I took a closer look at them, I could clearly see that Mary was totally obsessed with Ib. Hopefully there wouldn't come some kind of misunderstanding between the two, because I was sure Mary wouldn't take it lightly.

20 minutes later we were finally back in the purple gallery. There had been a door which was now visible. Were there more of them? I got a little nervous. Brown warned me that in the extra dungeon we'd still be in danger and now that Mary's rose was real was she in danger as well?

We walked up the stairs and to the room with the statue blocking the way.

"Could you please step aside? We need to get through." Mary asked the statue politely. A few seconds later it stepped aside and we could pass without any trouble.

"The sketchbook area." I said more to myself as we walked down the path. I almost fell not being able to see the stairs. Badly painted shooting stars flew above our heads and Ib looked after them dreamingly.

"So pretty..." she whispered.

"You wouldn't say that if you'd know the background music playing in this area. But I like the contrast to the rest of the gallery. Planning on become an artist Mary?" I asked.

"Yup, like my daddy! Hey Seb, do you know where my daddy is?"

I cringed visibly. From the looks of it Ib knew it too. "Ib? Seb?"

I sighed. "I don't know any details, but it seemed he died just recently."

"H-huh?" Mary stood there in shock. She definitely didn't expect to hear that.

"Th-that's...YOU'RE LYING!" she shouted on top of her lungs. Ib and I pulled the poor girl into a hug. "We can bring him back, you know?" Better to tell it now, before she went mad and did something she'd regret later.

"Huh?"

"There's a painting of Guertena."

"R-really?"

"It's in pieces and I don't exactly remember the puzzles we need to solve to get them all, but I can lead us to the area. Hard to miss actually."

Mary buried her face into my chest and started crying. I could see Ib's jealous face and immediately included her into the hug.

We continued walking and came to the sketchbook area. Mary created the puzzles around here. Gotta give her credit for creativity.

"Umm..." she suddenly stopped as we were next to one of the houses. "Something wrong?" I asked, inwardly preparing for her to lose it again. When we get out of here, she'd need to see a therapist for sure.

"Can you two wait here?" Mary asked. Ib and I looked at her confused. She'd been all sticky this whole time and now she wanted to head off somewhere?

"What is it?" I asked. "Umm...Ib, it is your birthday, right?"

Ib nodded. I grinned. "You wanna give her a present? Good idea, I should get one for Ib too. Mind if I tag along?" I asked.

"No, no, it-it's a surprise! You already gave us a sweet, that's enough!" she almost shouted. Now I got a little worried. "Okay and thank you." Ib gave Mary a hug. I guess that's that then. "Wait there" she pointed at the building "I'll be right back!" And she was off.

"I guess I'm getting paranoid."

"Para-what?" Ib asked. "It's when you have the feeling you're watched the entire time and expect something bad to happen and you're afraid at the same time." I explained. "Let's go in."

Aside from being badly drawn, it still felt like a normal door and opened like one. There was a table with two chairs on each side, in the middle some red fruits on a plate. A clock was hanging on the wall, but it wasn't ticking.

"If I was Mary, I'd have probably grabbed you and headed straight for the exit." I said looking around. We walked over to the table and picked up one of the fruits. "An apple, maybe?" I wondered throwing it a little up and catching it again.

"Wanna try?" I held it to Ib. She just gave me her signature stare. I sweatdropped and put the fruit away from where I got it. We placed ourselves on each side of the table, with Ib waving her legs up and down the whole time we waited.

I got bored, so I placed my arms on the table and my head on top looking in direction of the door. Ib was practically doing the same, only she had way more patients than I did. I would hum a tune, whistle or tap my fingers on the table. Eventually I got so bored, my brain started actually working and I noticed several things I totally overlooked and might help us. But there was one question that was on my mind.

"You're actually pretty calm about this, you know, me coming from a world where you're a mere video game character, suffering to other people's amusement."

I quickly explained amusement to her. Sometimes I forget how old she is, because she's coping pretty well with the entire situation.

Ib shrugged. "It's like in a fairy tale."

[Insert music suddenly stopping]

I fell off my chair. If someone would tell me that my world is a mere video game and present solid proof to that, I'd totally freak out. I slowly used my arms to support myself on the table and got back on my chair.

I'll never understand that girl. I may be a self proclaimed expert on crazy minds, but Ib was one tough customer. She looked at me innocently. Before those eyes did something bad to my psyche, I looked over to the door again. "What's taking her so long? Is she making a painting of you?"

I ended up walking around in the room endlessly until we heard Mary's voice from outside. "I'm back~!" she shouted. Ib got up with an excited look on her face. Mary entered the house and ran straight to Ib, grabbing her hand. "Come on, go look!"

Curiously I followed the two girls outside. I couldn't help but wonder. The time Mary had been away was not enough to get to the lower levels and get something from down there. Maybe she ran into the room with her painting where all the chalk was scattered around. Boy I couldn't have been any more wrong.

I counted at 4 gasps (myself included). You know what that means right?

Yeah.

Mary 'invited' more people to join our little party.

And I don't mean ANY people.

Already figured it out?

Right in front of the three of us stood Ib's parents totally shocked. And honestly, who could blame them? The mother had a red-brown rose in her hair and the father a completely brown one tugged on his suit, like I have done before on my vest.

I was the first one to recover from his stupor and facepalmed. "Mary, tell me I'm imagining things." I said in a deadpan voice, while looking to her from between my fingers.

She looked at me smiling brightly. "Nope. These are Ib's parents!"

"I know you only mean this good, but...uhh...forget it. It may be for the better." Or the worse for me. If they heard about me, chances were pretty good I was the one to stay behind. I was getting pretty selfish there.

"MOMMY! DADDY!" I almost covered my ears. Ib had never been this loud and boy, you won't belief me, but that girl was capable of breaking the sound barrier.

"IB!" Her parents exclaimed and Mary and I got to witness a really heartbreaking family scene. "Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea." I mused as I saw how much Ib really missed her parents. I didn't spend a lot of time with her, but I already developed a protection instinct over her, kind of like a big brother.

Ib was the one to break up to the surprise of her parents. She walked over to Mary and hugged her. "Thank you, Mary."

She's kind of reason you're in this mess. I didn't say it out loud, but a big bead of sweat rolled down the back of my head.

"I hate to interrupt you two, but I think we SHOULD explain to them what is actually going on, wouldn't you agree?" I asked.

"And you're?" Ib's father asked, looking at me suspiciously. Oh joy...

"Sebastian. Nice to meet you Mr..."

"Kouri."

I almost had a breakdown when I heard that particular name. Kouri, huh? Isn't the universe a funny place?

Ib and Mary had still an arm around each other's waist. "Well, let's start off. Do you two know where we're?" I asked.

Ib's parents looked around a little. "Not really." Ib's mother admitted. "It is so...strange? What is this place?" she asked.

I looked over to Mary. She nodded slowly and I continued.

"This may sound crazy, but we're inside the painting called 'Fabricated World'."

"That's right!" Mr. Kouri exclaimed. "Now I remember. We were looking for Ib and when we were in front of that painting the lights began to flicker. Then a yellow writing appeared telling us to jump through if we wanted to find our daughter." he finished. So that's how Mary got them here.

"So that's why we couldn't find our daughter. Oh Ib, you must have been so scarred. And I see you made a friend!" Ms. Kouri bent down to Ib's level and then looked over to Mary who blushed a little.

What about me?

Okay, they believed the crazy part, now to the hard part.

"Ms. and Mr. Kouri" with my serious tone I got their attention back "What I'm about to tell you, may make you angry towards Mary. But I want you to look at it from her perspective and how she felt all those who knows how many years." Wow, can you actually say that? "I want you to let me finish first and then make your final judgment. Can I ask this of you?"

...

"I admit, I don't like the sound of your tone, but we'll do as you please. Right hone'?"

"Right."

I took in a deep breath and started.

I didn't tell them about me being from yet another world and I kept Ib's and Mary's relationship a secret. But that was all I held back.

I told them about this gallery. About my theory how the artist managed to bring life to this world, by putting a lot of effort into it. I remembered the one diary entry. I told them about Mary. Who and what she really was.

"From the moment we met, I knew she was a painting. I've seen her picture in a magazine before and asked one of the employees about the whereabouts of her picture."

I told them how dangerous this gallery COULD BE. I didn't hide the fact I almost died on multiple occasions.

"About your rose" Mr. Kouri interrupted in a neutral tone "Where is it?"

I scratched the back of my head. "I'll come to that. Thinking back now, it could have been a really stupid move. But this is not a video game where you can just reload and try again."

I came to the part of the separation. My little trials and tribulations in the downer parts of the gallery. And how I came to that room.

"You don't come to have seen a girl with blue hair?" I asked. They shook their heads. So much for getting my rose back.

I told them about our reunion. And finally, the one condition of leaving this gallery and how we tried looking for a way out for all of us.

Then came the moment of silence. The three of us looked uncomfortable to the two. Ib took Mary in both arms and gave her parents the puppy dog eyes. I prepared myself for the worst. In case of a 'no' Mary would lose it. I knew her that well. And when she lost it, anything could happen.

I felt Mary grabbing my hand. She trusted me too. I pressed her hand firmly. I knew what it meant to be alone. I may have chosen that kind of life, but not from the beginning. Plus I can't stand it if anyone suffers. Nothing against killing someone for something likes revenge or anything, but nah, not torture. And Mary had enough of that.

Eventually it looked like they had decided. All of us tensed up and couldn't wait for their decision, yet at the same time we were totally afraid of it. It was easier to go through that by sharing it. Now I knew what all those books and movies talked about.

Ms. Kouri stepped forward, bent down and hugged Mary. "You poor thing."

Ib and I let out a deep breath we've been holding. I smiled wryly while Ib joined the hug. Mary muttered something, probably a 'thank you' and started crying again. I walked over to Mr. Kouri.

"Are you surprised?" he asked.

"A little, gotta admit. I thought after you heard your daughter went through hell with a stranger and a painting with psychological issues." I replied.

"One has to stay behind?" Mr. Kouri asked.

I shrugged. "I have a few ideas, but I don't know if it'll work. Mary told us we're near the exit, but one of the paintings gave me a warning. In the last gallery we'll be still in danger. We can avoid that gallery, but we might miss useful clues on if there's a way out for all of us. Oh and I heard the painting of Guertena is in there in pieces. If we put it back together, he might come to live again and tell us about this place."

Mr. Kouri shook his head. "This is crazy."

"You'll get used to it. Gotta warn you, Ib and Mary cured me from my melancholy. I just started with my sick death jokes again."

He gave me a weird look that said: "Are you kidding me?"

Mary eventually calmed down and took Ib's hand again. I shook my head, smiling.

"Sorry guys, but I have to break the good mood again." I got everyone's attention. I let out a sigh. "In case, IN CASE there is no way out: one of us needs to stay behind." I looked around at everyone, having a serious face. I took out the green key and looked at it for several seconds, before putting it away.

"In that case" hands shaking...voice breaking...sweating bullets..."I'm gonna stay behind." I said really quickly.

"NO!" Ib shouted. She ran over to me and tried to pull me down with both hands on my arms. I broke free and ruffled her hair. "Hey Ib, forgotten? The ladies brought me here. Now you've been proven to be the best puzzle solver out of all of us. So solve me this? Where exactly do I come from?"

Ib thought for a moment and then her eyes widened. "This might be my ticket to get home. I'll just have to ask how they pulled me in and more importantly where. Then they simply can (might be able) to push me back the other way around."

Ib knew it wasn't a guarantee. But I had some other ideas. I thought a lot ever since we got back together.

"Excuse me, what are you talking about?" Mr. Kouri asked. I shook my head and waved off. "You wouldn't belief me. Shall we go? I'm about to forget how the sun looks like."