The girls soon stumbled into a dark world which was far from what they had known before. It was as though they weren't in the art gallery anymore, especially since Philip, Nanny, and Ib's parents were nowhere to be seen. On opposite sides of the walls were two identical-looking paintings, though one had dark blue colored water and the other had crimson water which almost looked like blood. At least, that's how Giselle saw it, she didn't say that on account of looking after a six-year-old and a nine-year-old.
They walked down the hallway and saw various letters scattered on the wall. The girls soon stumbled in front of a desk that had three vases with three flowers in them. Roses to be exact as one was as red as Ib's eyes, another one was a bright pink like a peony, and the final one was a dark royal purple color.
"There are roses sitting in those vases." Eloise observed.
"Should we take them?" Giselle asked the girls to see what they thought might be right, though she hoped it wouldn't be a horrible consequence behind in accepting the roses.
The girls soon agreed and they obtained the roses. As they took the roses, the desk moved away from the door, allowing them to go through the door. The three looked at each other, but they stayed close together as they came through the door. The three girls stumbled upon a painting of a girl with flowing hair which had a blue key in front of the frame.
"Is that lady's hair coming out of the painting?" Eloise asked Giselle.
"It sure looks like it, Ellie." Giselle had to agree.
"There's something on the ground." Ib said to the others before she bent down and picked up the blue key.
As Ib took the key, the painting came to life with wild eyes and a snake-like tongue drawing out which was a bit frightening to see. There was a warning about the roses, but Ib didn't know some of the words. Giselle knew them, and it looked very important to remember that as she looked at her rose while Eloise wore her rose in her hair and Ib also carried her rose.
As they came back out through the door, the letters changed which seemed to spell out "THIEVES". They were also red as blood which made Giselle feel more and more frightened for their lives. There was another warning about the roses, telling them that they were the weights of their own lives.
"Thief? Thief?!" Eloise gasped at the words. "We're not thieves!"
They rushed back into the next hallway and the door and stairs they came down in were no longer there. They then saw another hallway with another door and another painting which almost resembled a fish. They soon used the blue key and came into a mostly green room that had paintings of various insects.
"This almost reminds me of The Queen of Hearts' garden from Alice in Wonderland." Giselle remarked.
"Gissy?" Eloise pouted.
"What is it, Ellie?" Giselle asked.
"I wish Nanny were here," Eloise frowned. "Nanny's not scared of anything, but I am."
"Oh, Eloise," Giselle soothed as she hugged her little sister. "I'm sure we can get through this. I wish Nanny were here too, believe you, me."
A dot seemed to follow them around which made them come over. Ib came a bit closer to see that it was just a bug, putting their fears to rest a little.
"I love paintings," The bug spoke to them. "My painting is especially cool. I'd like to see it again, but it's kinda far away..."
"Erm... Okay... Mr. Bug...?" Eloise blinked.
"I'm an ant." The bug replied.
"Well, uh, it's nice to meet you, Mr. Ant," Giselle then said, a bit warily. "I hope you don't bother a picnic that we happen to have some time in Central Park."
"'Beware of edges'." Ib read a sign aloud.
The girls soon came to take a look at the walls to see the paintings. There was a ladybug, a bee, a butterfly, and a spider which startled Giselle as she was not very fond of spiders herself. They walked down more to see other paintings a caterpillar becoming a butterfly with four stages: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and the Last Chapter.
"That's the metamorphosis," Giselle said to the girls. "Can you say 'metamorphosis'?"
Eloise and Ib tried to do that, but they stumbled over the word a bit, as they were only children.
"Yes, it's a 'rawther' difficult word to say," Giselle replied. "It's the process that makes a caterpillar into a butterfly. Or like how a baby becomes a child and then an adult."
"We 'metamorize' too?" Eloise asked.
"Yes, you could say that," Giselle smiled softly. "Like when I was a baby."
"You were a baby?" Eloise asked like that was unheard of.
"Yes, Ellie, we were all babies once," Giselle chuckled. "Even dear old Nanny was a baby once."
They came through another door before they were stopped by a giant hole in the floor.
"We better not cross that," Giselle suggested. "I doubt we would be able to make it."
"Maybe we should find something to pass through it?" Ib piped up.
Giselle and Eloise looked thoughtful from that as they left the room. However, Giselle touched the edge which made a hand reach out and grab her which made her yell out.
"That hurt!" The teenage girl cried out as she grabbed her shoulder.
"Gissy!" Eloise cried out. "Gissy, are you okay?"
"Y-Yes, I think so..." Giselle said softly. "That just really hurt."
"I guess that's what the sign meant." Ib replied.
Giselle checked her rose which seemed to be missing a petal. That also seemed to be what the warning was about from earlier after they had obtained the roses. Giselle held Eloise and Ib closely to protect them from the grabbing hands as that could lead to a premature death before they made it to the other side to see the ant painting.
"A painting of an ant," Giselle remarked. "...It looks like it can be taken off the wall..."
"Should we take it for that hole we saw earlier?" Ib asked.
"Yes, I think that we should," Giselle replied. "We might not be able to find a way out of here soon, but it should help us in our journey."
They soon took the painting with them while being very, very, very careful from the edges as the hands wanted to grab them and possibly kill them.
"Oh, that's my painting," The ant said as it spotted the painting with them. "It's just as cool as I remember it." it then stared at the painting before walking off which left Giselle a bit perplexed.
They came back to the door and laid down the ant painting to use as a bridge to cross the hole in the floor. Ib and Eloise came first before Giselle followed after them, though the painting was a little ruined from their footsteps. They came through the other side to see a green key with a new painting and a headless mannequin like the ladies in their yellow, red, and blue dresses from earlier.
As soon as the girls collected the key, that made the mannequin step out at them which made the girls scream out. They rushed through the door, passing through the painting again which made a big hole appear through the painting which made the mannequin follow them right through it and fall right through the pit. Eloise and Ib panted a bit as Giselle took a look through the painting before she followed the younger girls out to keep on going.
"I bet we could use that green key right about now," Giselle suggested as they came through the path again, avoiding the grabbing arms. "Come on, girls."
Eloise and Ib squeezed Giselle's free hands as they carefully walked down the path together while avoiding the edges as carefully as possible. They used the green key and came into yet another room which seemed to have eyes following them.
"There's a fish-shaped hole in the wall." Eloise soon pointed out.
"We'll probably worry about that later." Giselle suggested.
They soon came in through a door. It was a bit haunting with red curtains everywhere and a few stick figures. It was a bit disturbing to say the least.
"Play hide and seek?" A voice asked them which felt a bit chilling.
Dots splattered all over the various walls from that.
"I normally play hide and seek in the lobby, but I'm not sure about this game." Eloise gulped a little.
"These dots... They are buttons..." Ib said to her friends. "Should we press one of them?"
"I-I don't know..." Giselle said as she stepped back before seeing another button and pressed it. "I'm not sure what to do."
A painting was shown to Giselle which seemed to be the girls lying on the floor, dead. It was a very sinister painting. Ib pressed another button which seemed to have a musical note that said "OUT" on it. Eloise pressed another button which showed the painting of a stick figure and it asked them if they wanted to find the prize as they found the stick figure. Luckily, the buttons didn't seem to hurt them, so they kept as calm as they could from the freaky atmosphere.
Giselle pressed another button which made her flinch as a red handprint slapped out onto her. That seemed like it would be bad, but luckily, it didn't seem to be that much. Ib wandered farther from the group before she found a wooden fish-head as she decided to pick it up. Giselle found another painting which seemed to be a naked woman which then screamed and slapped her, hurting her a bit. Finally, there was a painting of a crescent moon which made the lights go very dim.
They soon left the room as Ib carried the wooden fish-head.
"Where did you find that?" Eloise asked Ib.
"It was in the other room," Ib replied. "I have a hopeful feeling about this."
They came into the next room which seemed to be for storage of some sorts. There were headless mannequins everywhere with some statues and head busts as well as assorted boxes. Giselle looked inside a box and found a notepad with blank pages and found a pen to go with it, she then scribbled a bit on the cover with the pen and saw that it still had ink that worked, so she decided to collect them as a handy dandy notebook. You never know when this might come in handy later. The lights dimmed in there as well before it was a bit dark for them, but not too terribly dark. After one box was touched, a head seemed to move before it fell to the floor, shattering as the lights flickered on and off. It was like they were in a horror movie, only there was no Orson Welles.
The rose petals soon seemed to bloom into extra petals somehow. Giselle looked curious, but as Nanny always told her "Never look a gift horse in the mouth", so she shrugged it off for the time being as she wandered off more with Eloise and Ib. They soon found a fish key which seemed important before they came back over to the fish-shaped hole, so they used the fish key as Ib suggested it would be a good idea. The eyes grew wide as the room shook with a deep mew that sounded like it came from a grumpy cat. The door also opened for them with some cat meows.
"Do you like cats, Eloise?" Ib asked.
"Not so much," Eloise shrugged. "We have a dog back home though that looks like a cat."
"Yes, his name is Weenie." Giselle added from that.
"I wish I had a pet." Ib said from that.
"I also have a turtle named Skipperdee." Eloise then said.
"A turtle?" Ib asked.
"Yes," Eloise smiled. "The Plaza is the only hotel in the world that will allow you to have a turtle. Our mother said so." she then added.
The sight of the door was both adorable and terrifying at the same time. They came down to the path which was yet another room with other sights to see.
"You should not stick your tongue out like that," Eloise told one painting that had its tongue out. "That's rude, rude, rude."
The painting then shot out some spit at Eloise which made her yelp out.
"Did that hurt?" Giselle asked Eloise.
"Yes, it did a little," Eloise pouted. "I'm not sure why though."
"Let's just try to be careful around this place, okay, Ellie?" Giselle reminded her little sister.
"Okay, Gissy." Eloise said softly.
The tongue kept wiggling as they passed through, avoiding the spit as best as they could while in this strange, fabricated world. There was a sign that told them "Beware of lips". That would had been a lot more helpful just a few seconds ago... However, they saw a pair of lips on the other side.
"Hungry... Give food..." The lips growled at them.
Giselle pulled Eloise and Ib out of the way because it was likely that that could hurt them somehow.
"There's a totally white painting over here." Ib pointed out.
Eloise scrunched up her eyes. "Actually, if you look closer, there's a small number in the center." she then said.
"What is it, Eloise?" Giselle then asked.
"It seems to be the number 9." Eloise replied.
"Like my age." Ib piped up from that.
"I wonder what that could mean?" Giselle pondered as they wandered away from the strange painting.
There was also a note that said "Just when you've forgotten". However, that seemed to be a warning about the edges as a hand popped out to grab them before they found a series of dolls hanging upside down from the ceiling in the next section. Giselle advised Eloise and Ib not to take any of the dolls as they passed through, though one doll fell onto the floor.
"Don't grab that doll," Giselle suggested before she took a closer look for herself. "Oh, the doll's clothes have a small number on them." she the observed.
"What is it?" Ib asked.
"18." Giselle replied.
"Giselle, you are almost 18," Eloise replied. "Does that seem important?"
"I don't know if it's about my age, but we better remember that for later," Giselle suggested. "Yes?"
Ib nodded as that sounded like a good idea.
"Yes, yes, yes." Eloise added.
"I better use this," Giselle said as she took out the notepad she acquired earlier as she wrote down the numbers they had encountered so far, using the pen. "9... 18..."
"There's a code on this door that has to be solved," Ib said as she came to the end of the hall to find a yellow door. "X x X + X =?"
"That must be what the numbers are for," Giselle said. "It's some sort of Math puzzle we have to solve."
"I do not like Math." Eloise pouted.
"I know you don't, Ellie, but don't worry," Giselle replied. "I'll take care of the Math problem whenever the time comes. I'm the head of my class back in school, among other subjects."
They soon came away from that door briefly before they came to the other yellow door, passing through the dolls carefully. That door was unlocked, but it was also called "The Liars' Room". They saw a series of portraits hung up on the walls with some clues underneath their frames.
"'Stand in front of the statue, Go West three steps, then South one step'," Giselle read aloud. "'That's the answer'?"
"What does that mean?" Eloise asked.
"I'm afraid I don't know," Giselle sighed before they came to the next portrait. "'Stand in front of the statue, Go East four steps, Then North two steps, That's the answer'."
"'The one in white speaks the truth'." Eloise read the other.
"'The only truth-speaker wears green'." Ib read the next.
"'Stand in front of the statue, Go East two steps, Then South two steps, that's the answer'." Giselle read the next.
"'I agree with the one in yellow'." Eloise and Ib read the final one together.
"What could it all mean?" Giselle wondered. "One of them has to at least be telling the truth."
"You think that they are all lying?" Eloise asked.
"Well, maybe not all of them, but this is called The Liars' Room," Giselle reminded her sister. "They could be trying to trick us."
Eloise paused thoughtfully, as much as her six-year-old mind could. "...You could be right..." she then said.
They soon came in through the other door to find the white statue as Giselle looked over her notes so far that the portraits had told them and tried to follow the instructions. She advised Eloise and Ib to stay out of this in case she might get seriously hurt. Giselle picked up the loose tile that was under her feet after she took the steps and found another number: 4.
"Giselle, you did it!" Eloise cheered.
They soon heard a glass-shattering sound which felt chilling to all three girls. What happened? They soon came back into the other room, only to find a red substance splattered everywhere. Giselle didn't mean to feel or come off as graphic, but based on what they had been through so far, she assumed that the red substance was blood and not paint. Of course, she didn't tell Eloise or Ib that out loud. It didn't help that the portraits all suddenly had knives in their possession during their absence.
"LIAR!" The portraits all screamed.
They soon left the room and went to solve the puzzle with the numbers they had in order to advance to the next room. They came to the password on the door and filled in the numbers to solve the puzzle which would then unlock the door. Luckily, Giselle could solve the puzzle due to her high school education. After all, Eloise and Ib were only six and nine.
There was a sound, so the girls made it into a room filled with trees with the portrait of a high tree branch with an apple that matched the apple in one of the center trees. An apple on a tree sculpture seemed useful, so they obtained the wooden apple. Another doll fell from the ceiling as they left the room, but it didn't have anything imporrtant on it, so they ignored it.
They soon came to the lips that were down up front and they remembered that they had to beware of the lips. Eloise took out the apple and decided to feed it to the lips to see what would happen.
"This tasty..." The lips said as they seemed to like the apple. "I let you pass now... Go through my mouth..." The lips then opened wide which felt a bit like a startling sight as Giselle took the girls' hands before they stepped in through the mouth.
They then made it into the next room which had portraits of a guillotine which made Giselle feel pale. The girls passed through the various shots, but then Giselle made the girls stop moving as a sharp blade shot right down and hit the floor, cracking it slightly. The girls screamed a bit as that scared them worse than anything that ever could before, such as trick-or-treating on the fifth floor back at the hotel. Luckily, the blade moved, so they took that time to pass through down the stairs.
"Oh... So much, much, much red..." Eloise said as they came to the next room. "Leon would probably like it here."
"Who is Leon?" Ib asked.
"A very good friend of mine who is more than he appears to be." Eloise hinted, though Giselle knew very exactly what her little sister meant.
Some time ago, the Plaza Hotel had a Debutante Ball with a special guest also arriving: The Prince of Kushin, Kentaro. Though they knew him as Leon as he wanted to be a normal boy and have fun and he became Eloise's date to the ball. Eloise insisted that she didn't like-like Leon, though Giselle thought otherwise, especially with how much he treated her like a lady and she showed him a very good time during his visit to New York City.
As they came around the room, Giselle saw something running off from the corner of her eye which made her yelp slightly. They passed by a portrait which looked like a pigeon blowing a horn on the beach. They came in through a red door next which showed them a blue sculpture of a young woman which didn't have much to it. Opposite of it, there was a red sculpture of a young woman. There was a portrait of a lady in red who almost resembled an older looking Ib. At least, that's how Giselle saw it.
However, after looking at her, the Lady in Red soon sprung to life and began to chase them.
"RUN!" Giselle told the girls. "Hurry, hurry, hurry!"
The girls yelped as they ran off together to avoid The Lady in Red which seemed dangerous. There was another door, but it was locked as Giselle tried to figure out what to do for the girls as she felt her heartbeat. The Lady in Red followed them wherever they went, but they soon found a red key from where she once was before they used it to the other door and rushed inside as they all hyperventilated and felt scared to death.
The next room appeared to be a library as there were several bookshelves shown. Eloise and Ib looked curious of the books, but of course, they couldn't understand most of the words, and Ib didn't seem to even know them. A scrap of paper was shown between a couple of books and it read: HAVING FUN?
A storybook was also shown, mostly drawn in crayon.
"A coloring book!" Ib piped up.
The book seemed to be a play as red curtains were shown. Carrie Careless and the Galette des Rois. A group of four was shown as the curtains drew back to show a cake in the center.
"Happy Birthday!" The group cheered.
"Thanks, guys!" The blue person beamed.
"For your special day, we made a Galette des Rois!" The pink person announced.
"What's that?" The blue person asked.
"There's a coin in this pie... And if you eat the slice with the coin in it... Then you'll be a happy person!" The pink person replied.
"That sounds like fun!" The blue person remarked.
"Doesn't it?" The pink person cooed before taking out a knife. "Okay, let's divide it up!"
The curtains moved before the cake was divided into four slices for each of them.
"Now pick the slice you want!" The pink person told the blue person.
"Let's eat!" The blue person suggested as the other two people hopped around happily.
The curtains moved again as the group began to eat the cake together.
"Aah!" The blue person yelped.
"What is it?" The pink person asked.
"I think I just swallowed something hard!" The blue person cried out.
"Ahaha! Oh, Carrie!" The pink person laughed.
"It must've been the coin!" The yellow person piped up.
"What do I do...?" Carrie asked, a bit worriedly.
"It's fine!" The pink person told her. "The coin's small! Well, I'll clean this up now!"
The curtains moved to show an older pink person as the smaller pink person came by.
"What's wrong, Mom?" The young pink person asked.
"Have you seen the key to the study?" 'Mom' asked with concern in her voice.
"To the study?" The pink person repeated. "It's always right here on this table-" They then took a look to see something gold and shiny on the table which appeared to be a coin. "...Huh? It's the coin! The coin that should've been put in the pie... Could it be that...?"
"Where could it have gone?" 'Mom' pondered. "Oh, my dear will be so upset..."
"What do I... Do...?" The pink person asked with concern as the plate was lowered which made the knife hit the floor.
The curtains then moved as the pink person ran with the knife. Giselle told Eloise to never, never, never do such a thing.
"Looks like I was just as careless as Carrie." The pink person then said.
The curtains moved and Giselle's chocolate-brown eyes widened with a very large jaw drop as the pink person was covered in blood now and had found the key somehow. As the pink person decided to unlock the door after finding the key, the girls all suddenly heard a real door opening.
"Th-The door!" Ib cried out as they put the storybook away.
They came in through the door after it had unlocked for them. There were blue petals and blood on the floor which left the three girls all very curious as there was a missing painting of The Lady in Blue.
"More petals..." Ib said as they followed the trail. "I don't know why, but I know these flowers are important."
"I think so too, Ib." Giselle replied.
"Me too." Eloise added.
They soon came into the next hallway which had a fallen young man in the middle of the floor. He looked slightly older than Giselle with a bushel of purple hair and a torn blue coat. The young man grunted, but he was holding on tightly to a small key before Ib looked too curious to ignore it, so she decided to collect it. The young man was also in pain which worried the girls about him.
They came back to another door that was locked before. They then used the small key to unlock it. Giselle just hoped that whoever that young man was wasn't dead. They found the missing Lady in Blue as she appeared to be eating blue petals and Giselle found a bare blue rose. The blue rose only had a few petals left, so Giselle risked getting hurt a little as she grabbed the blue rose and ran as fast as she could with Eloise and Ib away from The Lady in Blue as the ladies seemed to like rose petals.
The Lady in Blue broke through the window out the door they came from and she continued to chase them. Giselle whimpered as she tried very hard not to cry as she really wished that Nanny was there with them right now as she tried to be brave for Eloise and Ib, but it felt impossible when she felt scared to death herself. How do grown-ups do this all the time?
They soon found a vase full of water and decided to put all of the roses inside, including the blue rose they just found. They soon restored the roses with petals and since the young man they found before was surrounded by blue rose petals, Giselle thought that maybe that rose belonged to the young man. Giselle held out the blue rose as soon as they came back to the young man and that seemed to be enough to wake him up.
"...What's this? The pain is gone?" The young man mumbled to himself before he shrieked at the girls with a glare. "Wh-What is it now?! T-There's nothing left for you to take, I tell you!"
"Whoa, ease up there, buddy!" Giselle cried out. "We're not going to hurt you!"
The young man looked at them, pausing briefly as he took a closer look. "W-Wait... Dear me... Could you all be someone from the gallery?" he then asked softly once he calmed himself down.
"Um... Yes, we are..." Giselle replied.
"So you are! Oh, thank heavens!" The young man smiled in relief. "There's someone here besides me!"
"Yes, this rose is yours, right?" Ib asked as she held out the blue rose.
"Yes..." The young man said as he accepted the rose. "Thank you very much. Who are you?"
"I am Eloise," The blonde girl spoke up. "I am six."
"My name is Ib." The brown-haired girl added.
"I'm Giselle and I am 17." Giselle concluded.
"Lovely names, all of you," The young man replied. "I'm Garry and I'm 21."
They all shared a quick introduction with each other about how they all got to where they are now in this "rawther" unusual adventure.