WHAT THE HEI BAI!? UNWHOLLY IS SO CLOSE TO COMING OUT WHY DOESN'T IT JUST COME OUT ALREADY!? I'M ABOUT TO HAVE A CORONARY. I'M SERIOUS. I MIGHT JUST DIE, RIGHT NOW, WITH ONLY MY CAT AS A WITNESS. IF I DON'T GET THIS BOOK IN THE NEXT WEEK, I MIGHT GO INSANE AND GROW OLD AND UNMARRIED WITH LOTS AND LOTS OF CATS. Six cats in fact, named Arthur, Galahad, Lancelot, Robin, Chairman Meow, and Church.
So… I'm psyched that Unwholly is coming out in about a week. As you can see, I get a bit enthusiastic about books. Oh, and the phrase "What the Hei Bai?" is copyright all rights reserved by moi. Thank you very much (even though the rights to Hei Bai go to the creators of Avatar).
Review please!
"Holly!" Cassia gasped as she sat bolt upright on her blanket, her breath coming in gulps. She looked around, but despite her outburst, no one had woken up.
She scrambled up and over to where Toby and Holly were sleeping, but something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong. Toby no longer had his arm around Holly; it was laying limb beside him, and the only evidence that Holly had been there were bunches of the blanket where she used to be. Cassia put a hand on Toby and shook him awake. His eyes fluttered open and he stretched.
He looked around and said, "Holly?"
"Holly's gone," Cassia said. "And we have to go get her back, or she's going to die."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"Okay, so let me get this straight," Adrian said after Toby and Cassia had awakened everybody. Garry's mind was still a little groggy when he awoke from a dream he could hardly remember and saw that Cassia was looking down on him with her concerned ruby eyes. She had said that Holly had been kidnapped by Mary, and that's all he needed to hear. "Cassia, you had a dream about Belle and figured out why Mary wants her so badly and how they got into the paintings in the first place. You also found out why Mary is, well, insane, and that she wants Holly to become human again. Belle also wants to make herself human, but can't because she fears for her life."
"Yep. That's about right," Cassia confirmed.
"I still don't understand how she was able to get in here," Ib said. "The writing on Reyna Weiss' picture said this was a safe place."
"Maybe she meant from monsters, not Mary," Cassia provided.
"Or maybe Mary is getting stronger," Garry said.
"We have to get her back," Toby demanded. "If she dies… I don't know what I'll do. I'm already pretty sure my mom's gone, considering that Ib never found her parents after she got out. Holly needs me, and I need her."
"Trust me, Toby, we'll get her back," Cassia said. "I made her a promise that she'll make it out of here."
"The gallery has changed in the years since we've been here," Garry said. "It seemed to learn how to change itself. Make doors and hallways shift, make things disappear and reappear, things like that. The trials are different, maybe because we didn't come in through Abyss of the Deep. Also, Mary said she changed her hiding place, which means she isn't hiding in that sketchbook world anymore… not that we know how to get there anyway."
"So we have no leads?"
"Except for this," Toby lifted up Holly's blanket and took something out from underneath of it. It was a leaf of paper, burnt at the edges, and it was written on in orange crayon:
Belle can't help me
But I still want her
And you need to find her
To find me
"This is definitely from Mary," Garry said, taking the note from Toby. The page was brittle to the touch and the burned edges flaked off when he ran his hand over them. "The handwriting is the same. She defiantly found out she can't use Belle for this, but why does she still want her?"
Suddenly, there was a sound like claws scratching, or maybe like a pencil on granite. Everyone looked around, but it was Toby who finally pointed to the wall and said, "Look."
They flocked to the wall and leaned over to see what it said. It was written lightly in pencil and it was clearly from Belle:
I know what she wants
Cassia, keep it hidden from sight
And meet me in the split room
"Split room?" Adrian asked. "Where is that?"
"I have a feeling we're going to find out," Cassia said. "And judging from her ability to communicate with us, it must be close. Ib, do you still have that key?"
"Yeah," Ib pulled it out.
"Good, because we're leaving now," Cassia folded her blanket up and put it back, and the others followed her lead. "Everyone has all their petals on their roses? Everyone used the save station?"
"Yes and yes," Toby said, and everyone else nodded in agreement.
"Then we leave," Garry said, taking the key from Ib. The metal was cool in his hands as he stuck it into the lock and turned it. The lock clicked, and he pulled on the gilded doorknob to open it. The hallway led in two directions, and there was a painting in front of them as they filed out into the corridor.
"Look at what the plaque says," Ib went up to it and said, "It says, 'Left for decisions, right for the end'."
"I think we should go right," said Adrian. "It says 'for the end'. Maybe that means the end of the line. The exit. The way out of here."
"Or it means the 'end' as in 'dead'. Or as in 'trapped'," Ib retorted.
"I think we need to go left because it says 'left for decisions'," Cassia said.
"And?" Adrian asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"We need to go to the split room to find Belle," Cassia said. "Maybe 'split' and 'decisions' are the same thing."
"But this could be our chance to get us out," Adrian said, looking sternly at Cassia.
"Or we could get killed," Cassia said, looking sternly back.
"Are you implying that I'm trying to get us killed?" Adrian looked angry, but Toby pushed him back from Cassia.
"Whoa, Adrian," he said. "Cool down. Stop being such a Conspiracy Keanu."
"What does that even mean?"
"You people are technologically hopeless."
"I say," Ib said, "we go left."
"I agree with Ib," Garry said.
"I do as well," Cassia said.
"I still think we should go right," Adrian said.
"Well, you're overruled, because I'd rather be stuck in here with a psycho for all eternity then lose Holly," Toby said. "So left it is."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
They walked along the left side of the hallway and soon they came up to the end of it. At the end of the hallway was a huge set of stain glass doors with an ornate swirling design embedded in it. The doorknobs were glowing bronze and the frame was deep red wood. The air shimmered in front of them and the spirit form of Belle appeared in front of the doors.
"Belle!" Cassia exclaimed. "How are you able to be here?"
"I'm really not, which is why we don't have much time," She looked concerned. "When you go inside this room, you will be split. It will teleport you in two groups to different parts of the museum. There's no way around it, and you cannot communicate with each other besides big buttons that look like this," Her palm faced upwards and a projection flashed above it. It was a large circular button with a strange design on it. "This will randomly switch people around on your teams."
"Well this is a disaster," Adrian muttered.
"Is he constantly this negative?" Belle asked.
"Generally."
She shook her head. "Anyway, once you enter, you won't be able to choose who you're stuck with or where you go, so prepare yourselves."
Cassia nodded. "We will."
"Then I will let you go," Belle said. "Cassia, may I see my necklace?"
Cassia took the pendant out from inside her shirt. When she touched it, it glowed, but it seemed to glow brighter in the presence of its previous owner. "Here, I have it."
"Good. Do you know why I gave that to you, Cassia?"
"You told me to keep it safe," She absentmindedly fiddled with the snowflake's delicate contours.
"Yes, because I foresaw that Mary would want it," Belle said. "For her plan B, she needs Holly, but to bind herself to Holly, she needs and article from a pure spirit. A lock of hair, a ring… a necklace."
"So Mary won't possess Holly until she has this?" Cassia asked, holding up the pendant for emphasis.
"Which is why she still wants me," Belle said. "But she still doesn't know where I am or that you have it. She will be looking for me, so you have to get as far away from her as possible."
"What about our roses?" Garry asked, his hands stuck in his coat pockets.
"Mary has no need for them anymore," Belle said. "So you can be sure they are safe. She has hidden them somewhere – that much I could see," Her form began to flicker. "I have to go now. Be safe, everyone. You're on your own now."
And with that, she disappeared.
They stayed stationary, awestruck for a moment, then Toby spoke up and said, "Do you think we should go in now?"
"Yeah, Toby," Garry said. "We should."
He went up to the door, gripped the handles in his palms, and pulled both doors open. The room inside was pitch black as they walked in, and as soon as Cassia was engulfed in the darkness, the doors slammed shut behind her and cut of all light. Her sensory organs – her eyes, her ears – screamed for light or some kind of sound. There was a roaring around her and the floor fell out from under her. The room swirled and the darkness consumed her as she fell. She couldn't hear the others scream. She couldn't hear anything…
Until the lights slowly came back into view and Cassia felt her feet hit the floor. The new room was unfamiliar and suddenly her head spun and the floor rushed up to meet her and she blacked out.