A/N: OTL. I'm so sorry guys. I said I might upload before July 6, but vacation. OTL I'm sorry. But on the bright side, my beta is back XD Enjoy!~
Zach made quite an entry as he splashed through the painting and tumbled onto a set of jet black stairs. Rather than flipping onto his feet, he was dumped unceremoniously on his rear end, his glasses clattering of somewhere in the distance. Rubbing his sore bottom, Zach slowly picked himself up and dusted off his pants and coat before reaching for his flashlight. Even though the place he found himself in was already dimly lit, he could only barely make out that the whole entire place was decorated in a drab black color. Black walls, ceiling and floor. Unfortunately for him, his glasses had a black frame and the dim lighting did nothing to help him find it. Yet when Zach made a move to turn on his trusty dusty flashlight, he found out that it wasn't as trusty as he had originally thought. Despite his frantic clicking, the flashlight wouldn't turn on.
Zach could feel the panic begin to rise as he inspected every electronic he had on him only to find that everything else wasn't working, just as the flashlight. Even though Zach had emerged completely dry, all the electronics he had with him were as good as dead, as if by water damage or something of the like. Zach gave up trying to make anything work and waited instead for his eyes to adjust to the dim place. After it did, Zach squinted to try and actually see where he was. He noticed that the stairs he'd landed on led back up into the gallery above, but he didn't want to take his chances with that painting again. He's had enough of being tossed around in the unrelenting water. After having dully noted his surroundings, Zach began the search for his glasses. After a typical episode of groping around and treading lightly on the ground, Zach found his elusive glasses and gratefully straightened them on his face.
Looking up, he realized that he had stumbled down the other end of the hallway. The walls bled the words "COME" in a bright green paint as the hallway progressed to the end. At the end, there was a vase on a table in front of the door. When Zach reached the table, he noticed that there was a rose of the same green color as the words adorning the wall sitting in the vase. He decided to leave the rose there, but was curious as to what resided in the room behind the table. Using all his strength, Zach tried in vain to push the table out of the way, but it must've been super glued to the floor or something because it wouldn't budge at all. Then, looking up, he realized that on the other side of the table there was a sign on the wall.
"You and the rose are united,
know the weight of your own life."
Zach read the sign and glanced down at the rose once more. He wondered if there was more to it than its misleading appearance let on. Suddenly, a specific work of art flashed through his head: the sculpture "Embodiment of the Spirit" back in the gallery.
Could this rose be the embodiment of my spirit? I would need to keep it healthy then and make sure nothing happens to it. Zach took the rose out of the vase and placed it carefully in the pocket on the outside of his coat. He didn't want to squish it on the inside. And just like that, when Zach tried to push the table again, it moved easily, as if a heavy burden has been lifted. Zach sighed at his earlier wasted efforts and opened the door.
Zach entered a small room and, inside, there was a painting of a smiling lady with long, blue hair flowing out of the frame around the side and onto the floor. Underneath the center of the canvas, was another sign.
"When the rose wilts,
so too will you rot away."
The small sign confirmed his theory. Zach pulled out his rose and carefully inspected it. Whatever happens to this rose will happen to me. So if the rose withers, then so do I. That wasn't very optimistic, but nevertheless, Zach could only accept it and vowed to guard the rose with his life because, well, it was his life. Then, his eyes refocused on a glinting black key on the ground. Zach pocketed his rose again and leaned down to pick it up. When he straightened up and readjusted his glasses, he watched in horror as the lady's amicable expression quickly changed to one that was downright horrifying.
Zach took a shaky step backwards, but nonetheless pocketed the key. He had played enough video games to know a dungeon when he saw one. Zach spared a glance down at the rose sticking out of his pocket. Sure enough, he counted exactly eleven petals on there. That was not a coincidence. The rose was obviously his life points and this key would get him from one place to another. Quickly looking up again, Zach began to back out of the room slowly, never taking his eyes off of the creepy portrait. Only when he was completely out of the room and out of its sight did he allow himself to relax.
However, his relaxed moment was short-lived as he took in his surroundings once more. The words on the wall had changed into a glistening crimson color, spelling a different word. Zach couldn't decipher what it was saying, but that predicament was resolved rather quickly as Zach kept walking away from the door. The crimson paint abruptly seeped up from the ground forming the word "THIEF". Zach backed away from the paint and walked around it. He wasn't going to let this dungeon trick him into returning the key, or the rose. He couldn't even begin to think of the consequences of leaving his rose behind for any and all things to harm it. The rose was the embodiment of his spirit and he wasn't about to give his soul away. That would be a noob move.
Zach continued walking down the hallway, but when he got to the place where he'd made his shabby entrance, he realized that the stairs between the two paintings had disappeared. Vanished, poof, gone. Zach supposed it wouldn't be a dungeon if the easy way out wasn't somehow mysteriously blocked by some magical force or something. Zach muttered to himself about how unlucky he was to be stuck here and trudged on. At the other end of the hall, there was a black door and a writing desk near it. Zach tried the door, but it was locked. Zach grinned knowingly and fished the black key out of his front pocket then put it through the lock. The key disappeared and melted into the lock making it appear as if there was never a keyhole to begin with. Before Zach could open the door, he heard a scribble on the writing desk next to him. Looking over at the small book that resided on the desk, Zach could make out two lines written on it. The first one looked like this,
Raven, Linda 003et2: Survived Trial One.
And the second line looked like this,
Strider, Zachariah 006kh7: Survived Trial One.
Zach had no idea what it was saying, but he did recognize that the second word on the second line was his name. He'd gone through this phase where he wanted to learn how to write his name in as many languages as he could and he recognized this language as Greek. Yet, even so, he couldn't really decipher everything else. Quite frankly, he didn't want to waste the time doing so either. Zach just ignored the journal and moved onto the next room.
A/N: Yup! Zach's last name is Strider! :D (And psh. It has nothing to do with Homestuck at all...)
But as you guys can see, Zach is a gamer XD And despite how unlucky he thinks he has it, he's actually pretty lucky! XD
But as I said before, my Jar B Kat is home! lessthan3! (She's actually coming over today :3) So my chapters will have significantly less mistakes! XD ahaha ^^; Woo! :D And if any of you guys out there are Yu Yu Hakusho fans, check out her HieixOC fanfic! I just finished reading it and it's so good and worth your time XD
Well, thank you guys for reading and reviewing and I just love you guys! :D Also, leaving more reviews won't hurt XD Thanks for reading!~
KC-Z out!