A/N: I'm still beta-less, so sorry for any and all mistakes ^^; ehehe. Anyways, Read, review, and enjoy!~

EDIT: Hey anon, my reply to you is below!

PART 2

In the early afternoon under a gray sky, a young man stuffed his hands into his coat pockets and rushed into the art gallery. Up ahead he could see people idling about, enjoying the various paintings and sculptures Guertena had to offer. Eager to join the idling crowd, Zach took off his hat and put it in the large pocket of his long coat. The hat fit perfectly in his pocket because his aunt had made the coat specifically for him. She even added many more pockets for various items because she knew that Zach likes to carry a lot of items 'just in case' everywhere he goes. Zach looked up from his pocket just in time to see a young boy dash though the gallery. He pushed up his slipping glasses and got in line. Up at the reception's desk, Zach pulled out a twenty dollar bill and turned to the receptionist. He put the bill in the outstretched palm of the receptionist, held up one finger, and said,

"One adult ticket, please." The gray-haired receptionist smiled knowingly and pulled out a small pin and a ten dollar bill.

"Your change, sir." The receptionist put the money in Zach's hand and promptly dropped the pin on top of the change. "This pin is your ticket. Please keep it where I can see it and be sure to return it when your personal tour of the gallery is complete." The receptionist gave another knowing smile before turning to address the next set of customers. Zach couldn't help but overhear the receptionist giving the couple behind him wristbands as opposed pins.

Maybe they ran out of pins? Zach thought as he fastened the pin to the top of his coat. Walking towards the open gallery in front of him, Zach noticed some stairs to his left and made a mental note to explore there later. He continued forward into the main gallery. Once inside, there was a small message on the wall that introduced him to the gallery.

"Welcome to the World of Guertena"

We truly thank you for attending today.
We're currently holding an exhibition
for the great artist Weiss Guertena.
We hope you deeply enjoy the art of
the late Guertena, whose creations
carry such mystery and beauty both.

Next to the sign, was a painting of a child sitting by the piano being yelled at by his mother, or well that's what it looked like that to Zach. "A Well Meaning Hell" was carved into the plaque underneath the painting. Zach glanced down and saw the young boy from earlier staring intensely at the title. The kid had one hand propping up his other elbow and the other hand was wrapped around his chin as his brow furrowed in concentration. Then the boy seemed to give up and proceeded to look furtively around the room, before noticing Zach.

"Hey, mister?" The boy turned to Zach and bounced politely on his heels, his hands held behind his back. "What's 'hell' mean?" he asked innocently. Zach let out a small laugh and crouched down to look the boy in the face.

"That is a bad word," Zach pointed at the boy, "but the technical meaning is the underworld, or a tough trial to be faced."

"But my sister says it all the time, does that mean she's bad?" the boy looked at Zach with wide eyes. Zach bit his lip and thought a bit before replying with,

"Well, yes, and no. Your sister shouldn't be saying those words on a daily basis, yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she is a bad person, no."

"Oh, okay." The boy looked back to the painting. "So why is this called 'A Well Meaning Hell?'" He questioned again. Boy, this kid was a curious one. Zach smiled. It was nice seeing little kids interested in art. Zach pushed up his glasses before continuing.

"Well, I think that even though it seems like the kid is going through a tough time, the mother has good intentions in disciplining her son." The boy lit up and beamed at Zach.

"Oh! I see! Can you help me with this one?" The boy pointed to the large painting in the middle of the floor behind Zach. "What's it called?" he asked, peering over the velvet ropes blocking the painting. Zach grinned at the boy before replying,

"Sure I'll help you." Walking around to the stand where the title resided, Zach read aloud, "'Abyss of the Deep' is the title. The rest says, 'A world where man will never stand… To realize that world, I decided that I would engrave it within the canvas.' You got that?" The boy nodded and pretended to take a picture for future references.

"Yup! No. A little? Wait. What does abyss mean? And engrave?"

"It's basically like an endless void, or hole. Engrave means to carve into something."

"Ohh!" The boy's eyes lit up before he turned away from Zach and began to talk to himself. "I get it! This is good! If I can't read, I can just ask him to read for me! And he's smart too! It has to be the glasses." The kid emphasized his realization by pounding his fist into his open palm. Zach suppressed a smile. That kid needed to work on his whispering. Once the boy was done, he turned back to Zach and struck a dignified pose. "I have made a decision! I'm going to interstate you as my cabin boy!" The boy's face spread into a goofy grin.

"Instate you mean?" Zach corrected the boy. He couldn't help but break out into a grin as well. The kid's smile was infectious.

"Yea," the boy smiled sheepishly, breaking his form ever so slightly. Then he regained his regal pose and jabbed a thumb at his chest. "I'm Leo! But you can call me Captain Leo! And you are now a part of Leo's crew of report making!"

"Aye, aye captain," Zach saluted, "but whatever do you mean by report making?"

"I have to make a good report of this downstairs gallery, but I can't see or read or understand a lot of the words, so I'm interstating – uhh I mean intrastating you as my cabin boy! Because you can help me!" Zach let out a chuckle and corrected Leo before making a serious face again.

"Instating. And are you sure you want to do this, boy? You just met me, how can you be so sure I won't be a mutinous cabin boy?" He pushed up his glasses, letting the convenient light glare and block out his eyes, and then cackled evilly for effect.

"Because you're playing along with me! And I don't know what mutinous means!" Leo beamed and stuck out his hand. Zach realized Leo was right. He had just played right into Leo's hands. Letting out a surprised laugh, Zach took the boy's hand and shook it.

"Alright Captain Leo, color me impressed! You're smarter than you look. I'm Zach, pleased to make your acquaintance." Zach flourished his statement with an exaggerated bow. After he came back up, Zach asked abruptly, "Wait, why do you have to do this again?"

"Because my sister is upstairs making a report from up there! I have to make my own report and she makes hers and we'll meet by the stairs to swap reports. But I have to make sure my report is top notch or else she'll sever my head!" Leo grasped his neck like he was afraid of his head falling off by the mere utterance of those words.

"Your sister sounds like a handful." Zach laughed. "Alright, I'll help you out. So where to first, Captain?"

"Wait." Leo looked up at Zach. "What's mutinous mean?"

And with that, the duo began their adventure throughout the gallery. After satisfying his curiosity of the word 'mutinous', Leo would run from painting to painting, or sculpture to sculpture, with Zach following closely behind. Zach would read and explain all the words Leo didn't understand. He also made sure to keep the boy's voice down when people began glaring at the two. Zach found out that Leo could get very loud when he was excited.

Near the end of their adventure around the downstairs gallery, Leo and Zach stopped at the last sculpture fenced behind velvet ropes. It was a sculpture of a red rose standing on its stem which was wrapped around to form a circular base. Thorns dotted along the stem and rose petals were littered around the base. It seemed to be made of a sort of smooth clay but it still looked very real. There was also a small sign on the side and Zach read it out loud for Leo because Leo wasn't tall enough to see it.

"'Embodiment of Spirit'. Beautiful at a glance, but if you get too close, it will induce pain. It can only bloom in wholesome bodies."

"Zach, what does emboodeemenent mean?"

"Embodiment," Zach corrected, "and it kind of means to give a form to. Like the title, 'Embodiment of the Spirit' means to give a form to the spirit. This rose, for example, could represent a spirit, possibly the spirit of its creator. Make sense?"

"Uh, a little." Leo shrugged. "But it's okay, I think I have enough information for it to be a top notch report! I won't lose my head." Leo beamed up at Zach. "Hey Zach? Can you come with me to find my sister? We could find her quicker if we split up upstairs." The boy gave Zach such a hopeful look that he couldn't possibly refuse. Besides, he was planning on exploring the upstairs gallery anyways.

"Sure thing Captain." Zach saluted the boy. "What does she look like?"

"Long black hair and green eyes. Thank you!" Leo smiled. Then Leo ran off towards the stairs before Zach could even caution him to slow down for the umpteenth time. He couldn't help but laugh as Leo sped off like a bullet. Suddenly, a paper fluttered down from behind the sign he had just read a while ago. The paper contained a small message.

"Seek out my fabricated world."

Zach eyed the paper suspiciously, but decided to pocket the paper anyways. He then continued upstairs to help find this 'Linda' person. Leo was at the top of the stairs waiting for him. When Zach reached Leo, Leo pointed the path they should take and sped straight off to look for Linda.

The upstairs gallery had even more great art to marvel at. Zach took a right turn and admired all the art. He made a mental note to come back and view it in more detail once he found Linda because a cabin boy does not simply disobey orders. Zach passed three, primary color colored, headless sculptures ("Death of the Individual"), a large, white and red, veiny sofa ("Reserved Seat"), a small painting ("Still Life on Table") and a large painting ("Fabricated World"). Zach stopped in his tracks. Pulling out the paper he had received earlier, Zach reread it and sure enough, this was it. But what was so special about it? Suddenly, the lights flickered a little, as if to give him a sign, but stayed on.

A coincidence? Zach shook his head and shoved the paper back in his pocket. He refused to believe it was a coincidence. The lights flickering right as he thought that must've meant something. Zach walked back out to the rest of the gallery only to find out that he was, unfortunately, dead right. There was not a soul in sight. No sound of chit chat, movement, laughter… Anything! The atmosphere itself felt more like a void than anything. Instead of providing Zach with breath, it felt like his breath was being taken away, and Zach didn't like this one bit. He ran downstairs in hopes that everybody had just simply moved downstairs all at once, but there was no such luck. Instead, he was even more unlucky for the lights flickered a second time, but it couldn't hold on and the gallery was plunged into darkness.

"Frick!" Zach lamented his luck and fumbled around in the pockets of his coat pulling out a flashlight. Zach searched everywhere downstairs for Leo or for anyone, but everybody was gone. The doors were locked too. With no other place left to go, Zach made his way back up the stairs and walked to the painting that started it all. He inspected it carefully and, even though it was abstract, he didn't like what he could decipher.

The path looked dreary and there were red splashes of color –he could only hope it wasn't blood– everywhere. There was a lady or something in pink obstructing the path he could see and there was a red rose in the corner of the painting. On the other side was a lady in red in a frame floating on a red colored background. As Zach was inspecting the painting, he happened to shine his flashlight near the bottom of the frame and the reflection of the light beam caught his eye. The flashlight was reflecting on green paint seeping out of the frame onto the floor. The paint sank into the wall but left behind enough to show Zach a small message.

"come down below zachariah
ill show you someplace secret"

The paint that seeped into the wall seemed to bubble up and rise out of the ground behind Zach. The paint formed a string of letters that spelled "COME ZACH".

Zach was a little more concerned that the gallery knew his name than to worry about the beckoning paint. But even if he did worry about the paint, he had no idea what 'down below' meant or where it would be. I guess the most logical approach would be to go downstairs. Zach thought as he maneuvered his way downstairs. Right when he entered the gallery downstairs, he knew something was amiss right away.

The velvet rope that fenced off the "Abyss of the Deep" painting on the ground was opened at one point. There were also black foot prints leading into the painting itself. Zach walked over to where the footprints were and peered into the painting on the floor. The dark waters seemed to swirl around and glisten like it was actually made of water. Curious, Zach knelt down and reached out to feel the painting to see if it really was water. He drew back his hand almost immediately when the icy water licked his fingertips. The a few drops of water drew back with him and landed on his clothes, but his clothes didn't retain the ghostly drops. It just passed through his clothes without leaving the wet stain water would normally leave. Zach was thoroughly freaked out and he tried to stand up to leave, but the painting seemed to have different plans for him. It already had a taste of him and it didn't seem like it was going to give him up so easily. Zach found that he couldn't move away. What more, the painting began to suck him in and Zach was flipped into the icy waters of the deep abyss.

A/N: Woah! Who is this Zachariah fellow?! hehe so there you have it! Linda's supposed salvation! :D Let's see if he can live up to it XD

I miss my Jar B Kat OTL She won't be back until the 6th of July! So if I update anytime before (which I might :D), I'll be beta-less TT^TT

Also, shout out to coleypepwars3679 for giving me my 10th review! :D (OTL I'm so pathetic)

To all my readers (I lah you!), all of your reviews really do mean a lot to me though, so thanks for that! It's what keeps me going! :D

Thanks! KC-Z out~

EDIT: To anon, hopefully you see this, but no, you didn't miss anything about Zach XD All the information will be revealed at a really later time, but I can tell you that Zach has brown hair and blue eyes :D As for their age, well, I haven't really set it down in stone yet ^^; I'm kind of winging it as I go and hoping people don't ask/notice haha XD but I've been leaning towards Linda - 18 and Zach - 19... maybe.. Hopefully this answers your questions and if you have more, feel free to ask! XD