A/N: Okay, I'm just going to say this right now so that you guys don't get confused. I am for sure now. Zach is 21 and Linda is 19. For sure. And that's why I made Zach's rose have 11 petals, so don't get confused if you're wondering why he suddenly has 11 petals XD I'll explain the reasoning later, or rather, Zach will explain XD

Well, all explanations aside, enjoy!~

There was definitely a change of atmosphere in this room. The walls, ceilings, floor were all green now. Zach walked over to the right of the room and admired the random assortment of insect paintings. Oh, and one arachnid. Zach went to the end and entered through the door that was there. However, his advances were terminated when he perceived the gaping chasm that ran straight across the middle of the floor. The room was long and narrow, and the hole ran perpendicular along the length of the room. From where he was standing, he could see another door at the other end.

Zach paused to consider all possible consequences and decided that he could probably make the distance and the gains of an attempt outweighed the risk. Zach backed up to the wall trying to get as far from the hole as he could. When he felt like he could go no further, he decided at the last minute to take off his coat; he laid it on the floor and wrapped it protectively around his rose. He took off his glasses too and placed them there as well. No point in using them if he might just end up losing them. Besides, his vision wasn't too bad.

Then Zach broke off into a run. At the very edge of the chasm, he jumped.

Moving his arms and legs around in such a fashion as if to prolong his air time, Zach somehow managed and barely cleared the hole in the ground as he landed on the other side. He tucked and rolled safely and stood up to dust himself off.

Hm, TV can actually teach me a thing or two, Zach beamed at his accomplishment. He walked over to the door at the end and opened it. Inside, there was a headless statue awaiting him. The statue was situated at the end of the room and he even recognized it as the one in the real gallery. "Death of the Individual". Then he saw, a few paces in front of the statue, a green key.

Maybe this key opens a door somewhere in the other room, Zach thought. He cautiously picked up the key and pocketed it, all the while keeping a wary eye on the statue. Suddenly, the statue released a roar and threw up its arms. He was startled and even more so when it began running towards him. Zach quickly regained his senses and bolted out of the door. Slamming it shut, he backed up into the wall near the door. Not taking any chances, Zach sprinted towards the chasm in the ground just as the statue broke through the door and began chasing him. However, Zach had the lead and he jumped over the chasm but when he landed, to his horror, his foot slipped and he started falling.

By some glorious, last minute sense of common sense, Zach was able to grab hold of something. Normally, he wouldn't have had the strength to pull himself up, because it's a lot harder in real life than movies would like to portray, but the adrenaline rushing through him and the imminence of danger looming right behind him gave Zach just enough strength to pull himself up and barely scramble onto the other side right as the statue lunged. Zach let out a manly scream -let it be known that the scream was VERY manly and not at all girlish in any way- as the statue was practically upon him. He didn't even have time to get up and run. All he was able to do was flip over and sort of crab walk backwards.

However, it turned out he hadn't really needed to because, luckily for him, the statue followed his path and slipped into the gaping hole, but unluckily for him, the statue copied exactly what he had done and was able to grab hold of the floor as well.

Zach saw it climbing up and timed a kick, lashing out when he anticipated the head to appear. What he'd forgotten was that it didn't actually have a head and when his right leg lashed out, it hit nothing. Quickly reformulating his plan, he brought his leg down on the smooth surface of the neck. The statue lost its firm grip on the floor, but it clearly wasn't going down without a fight. The headless, but apparently not brainless, statue reached up at the last minute and managed to get a hand to latch onto Zach's ankle. He screamed out in pain as the sharp fingertips dug into his skin and tried to shake off his pursuer as fast as he could. Of course, the harder he shook, the more it gripped, and the more pain he felt in his ankle.

However, his efforts weren't entirely vain because the statue's iron grip finally began to loosen. Its hand slowly slid off of his ankle, but seeing as how the tips of its finger had already dug into his skin, as it went down, long, raw lines were carved down his ankle. He winced at the pain, but withstood it until at last, the hand finally fell completely off and the statue plummeted to its death below.

Only when the sound of shattering glass resonated from the hole did he let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Zach gazed down at his leg that was still hanging over the chasm and grimaced as he inspected the damage. The cursed statue had left him a souvenir of four long gashes, and the pain was nothing to laugh at either; it was pretty bad. Zach scooted, unable to stand, over to where his jacket resided. Immediately, he sought out his small 'medical kit' and pulled out the few alcohol swabs he had. He had never thought he would live to see the day when he would actually need them for himself. It was always everybody else around him who would need the medical treatment. When Zach finished disinfecting his wound, he looked for his meager amount of band aids and noticed with alarm that not one, but two petals had fallen off of his rose.

Wait, what?! Nothing should've touched this flower! How did a petal fall off? Zach then remembered the gashes on his ankle. Could it be that because I got injured, the rose did too? Man, I really am connected to this. Okay, I definitely need to be more careful. There are nine petals left. After a moment, Zach smiled bemusedly despite his situation. Nine lives left. I'm kind of like a cat. Then, he located the band aids and pretty much used up his whole supply trying to pitifully patch up his injury. He only had about one or two left when he was done.

Zach sighed and wrapped the blood soaked alcohol swabs in the band aid wrappers and threw everything in the pocket designated for trash. Picking up his glasses, he put them back on and tried to stand. Leaning on his left leg wasn't too bad, but Zach wanted to see how much it would hurt if he tried putting weight on his right leg. He didn't have to put much pressure because if the pain that shot up his leg wasn't evident, he didn't know what was. Zach cursed his luck again and limped out of the room. Zach hobbled back towards the door where he entered this place and was mildly surprised to see an ant speak up and talk to him. After what had just happened, a talking ant wasn't very high on his list of surprises.

"Hi! I'm an ant. That was a nice jump you made there mister, but you know, you could've used my painting. Ants are pretty strong you know?" Then the little ant went back about his business, scurrying around. To say Zach was perplexed would be an understatement. One, an ant was talking to him. If he wouldn't have been able to feel the very real pain in his leg, he might've thought he was dreaming. Two, there were paintings of insects and one arachnid on this wall, but there wasn't one of an ant. Zach shook his head and continued on his journey. The left end of the room turned right into a hallway. However, there was a pillar in the middle in front of the hallway with a plaque that read,

"Beware the edges".

Zach had no idea what it meant by edges, but he figured the edges of this pillar would technically be the same as the walls of this pillar. He walked around the pillar and took extra precaution to not touch the edges. When he got to the hallway, he froze. The hallway gave off a very ominous air and Zach decided that he would just play it safe and avoid all walls.

Zach stood in the absolute center and began his timid trek, well, limp down the hallway. One third of the way there, there was a resounding roar. Zach stood rooted in place and braced himself for the impact. He had a feeling that if he moved, something worse could happen. A shadowy arm shot out from the wall to his right and came alarmingly close, but then stopped abruptly, centimeters away from his arm. Despite the fact that it couldn't reach him, Zach was still pretty disturbed by the writhing, wriggling arm sticking out of the wall. The grabby hand wasn't much of a help for his nerves either.

Nevertheless, Zach continued on and when the second roar resounded, Zach still held his place. It was a good thing he ignored his impulse to jump the opposite way because this time, the arm shot out of the opposite wall. But because he was in the middle, it didn't reach him. Zach pushed up his slipping glasses and steeled his resolve to keep going.

The third time, the arms came from both sides of the wall. Zach was startled, yes, but he didn't move a muscle, he didn't dare. After he cleared the hallway, he relaxed and continued limping when, without warning, as if the gallery had a sick sense of humor, another arm shot out from the wall in front of him. Startled, Zach jumped back a few paces and landed painfully on his right leg. He buckled a bit but then remembered the arms behind him and he forced his body to stop abruptly, sucking in the pain.

The arm, about the same length as the ones in the hallway, couldn't quite reach him. Zach let out a slow breath and slowly inched sideways out of the arm's reach.

Well, I'll sure remember to stay away from all walls. Zach turned away with a sigh; then his eyes widened, noticing another painting on the wall next to the wriggling arm. Zach limped up to the painting and examined it. He couldn't believe it. There really had been an ant painting. It was a little wider and about the same length as the hole he crossed. He reached up and found that it even came right off of the wall. He could've used this to cross the chasm!

Zach rolled his eyes but then after a beat thought that if he had used it, then the statue could've crossed it too. That made him glad he didn't. Zach rested the ant painting against the wall and pushed up his glasses again before making his way to the door. The writing desk next to the door made its scribbling noise again, but Zach was beyond caring. Pushing the key into the lock, he turned it and opened the door to continue onto the next room.

A/N: So sorry it's so late, but it's getting closer and closer to college DX I'm not looking forward to it at all... I hope I can still update 'regularly', which is not much I guess. But I will try!

Big thanks to InuChimera7410! She's the bestest Jar B Kat (beta) a person could ask for! Thank you so much!

Well, here's a usual sign off, please review if you guys can, it would mean so much to me! It really does means a lot to me when you guys take your time to write a small review. Thank you so much for your continued support!

KC-Z out!~