Chapter 7
In the next room, I saw a silly painting. It was a red smiley face with its tongue wagging back and forth. As I approached, it spit something at me. I backed away from what it spit...
Next to it was a small white painting. I looked closer and realized that there was a 9 in the center.
I moved right and saw some yellow text on the wall. It read, "BEWARE OF LIPS." I saw red lips on the wall next to it. By now, I know to listen to what the signs say.
I moved on ahead to the narrow hallway. I saw a letter on the floor. It read, "Just when you've forgotten..." I thought, Forgotten what? Remembering that shadowy arms had attacked me before in a hallway like this, I walked down the center of the aisle.
A lone arm reached out and tried to grab me, but failed. At the end of the short hallway, something greatly disturbed me.
To my right were what appeared to be children hanging from red ropes from the ceiling. I didn't want to, but I had to, so I investigated. On closer inspection, they were actually only dolls. Suddenly, one of them dropped and lay splayed on the floor.
I went to check it out. An 18 was seen on the doll's clothes. A 9 and an 18... what could this mean? As I moved on, I came upon a yellow door.
It required a password. X x X + X = ? I realized I needed a third number. I went back and saw there was another yellow room. The sign read, "The Liars' Room." I entered.
In it were 6 portraits of black silhouettes. On the left side were silhouettes wearing green, orange and yellow. On the right side were silhouettes wearing blue, white and red. There was a door in between them. As I entered, I saw a lone white statue. An inscription read, "There's an odd one out..." With this cryptic message, I headed back to the liars.
The green portrait read, "Stand in front of the statue, go west 3 steps, then south 1 step. That's the answer!"
The orange portrait read, "Stand in front of the statue, go east 4 steps, then north 2 steps. That's the answer!"
The yellow portrait read, "The one in white speaks the truth!"
The blue portrait read, "The only truth-speaker wears green!"
The white portrait read, "Stand in front of the statue, go east 2 steps, then south 2 steps. That's the answer!"
The red portrait read, "I agree with the one in yellow!"
They were all lying, except one apparently. But which one? I thought long and hard and analyzed my situation.
The answer was slowly coming to me. Since they were liars, whoever supports the other was helping build on their lie. This ruled out red, yellow and white portraits, since the white one initially lied and red and yellow being supporters. Only green, orange and blue remained. I concluded that green must be lying since blue was backing him up, leaving orange the only one telling the truth.
I followed the instructions. At the statue in the next room, I stood in front of it, went right 4 steps and up 2. There was a loose tile there, which I decided to pick up. There was a number on it: 4. With this, I was able to solve the puzzle!
The moment I read the number, I heard the sound of glass breaking, a large commotion in the other room. I quietly returned to the other room with the paintings.
All the portraits were smeared with red paint. The text inscribed on each of them except the orange one changed, and read, "Liar!"
I shuddered and ran back to the door requiring a password. 18 x 9 + 4 = ? I focused and began to write out the equation on my hand. Tracing out the multiplication, 18 x 9 = ... 162. Add 4 and that's 166! I entered the code and the door opened. I took a deep breath, and forged on.
The next room was full of tree sculptures. A lone apple lay on one of them. I took the wooden apple and thought about bringing it back to the red lips. Maybe it was hungry?
As I walked back through the narrow hallway, another black arm reached out and tried to grab me! This startled me as I thought no more would try to get me... I regained my composure and went on to the red lips.
As I approached it, it began to speak. "Hungry... Give food... That food... Give to me..."
I placed the wooden apple in its mouth, hoping some good would come out of it. The mouth began to crunch and munch the apple.
"This tasty... I let you pass now... Go through my mouth..."
The jaw stretched long enough for me to fit inside. Hesitating at first, I eventually went inside.