Chapter 11

In the next room, we were met with 2 sculptures and 2 portraits. To the left were a portrait, "Grieving Bride," and a sculpture of a wicked black hand reaching from the floor, "Sorrowful Bride's Left Hand." To the right were, similarly, "Grieving Groom" and "Sorrowful Bride's Right Hand." The portraits were certainly sorrowful, with very sad expressions painted on their faces. The bride was holding a bouquet of pink flowers. The hands were desperately searching, grasping the air above them. These must have been those arms reaching out to attack me...

We went to the next room. To our right, we saw a picture of coffee and cake. Not too important, but we were kind of hungry right now...

We entered a room on the left side. It was a maze-like structure. A notice on the wall confirmed this, with the word "Labyrinth." To our dismay, there were 3 headless statues walking around in red dresses. Luckily, they weren't too fast as we made our way to the back of the room. A sign read, "Check directly south from the red paint." Unfortunately, there were 3 red splotches of paint on the floor, so we had to check more than one. As we weaved through the labyrinth, we came across another sign that read, "There's a trick to solving mazes... Hug the right hand side and you'll reach the end eventually."

"Not a bad trick... But that doesn't help the ceiling being far too low for comfort," complained Garry, apparently being too tall for this room. "Not to mention those weird things loitering around... gives me the creeps. Be careful not to get trapped between them, okay, Ib?" he cautioned.

I reassured him that I wouldn't, and we went on.

Another message left on the wall read, "Do you like mazes?" Obviously Garry didn't. We checked south of the red splotch of paint near that message. Luckily, this was the right one to check. We found a switch in the wall. We pressed it and ran from the room.

We went through a hall on the left side of the labyrinth room, noticing some markings on the floor. As we approached, they turned into eyes. 9 eyes were on the floor, darting back and forth. One of those was pink and swollen.

"Yaaaah! What is THAT?! Gross is what!" exclaimed a disgusted Garry, obviously not well adjusted to our environment. "Why are there EYES on the FLOOR...?!"

"D... Does this lone eye have a congestion problem?" pondered Garry as we observed the swollen eye.

We walked past the eyes and came upon some paintings. A painting of a girl, some ice, a white snake and some scenery. On closer inspection, there's a hole in the snake's eye...

We went through the door next to the paintings. Inside, we found a cluttered mess. Stools and easels were everywhere. On a lone stool, on the far side of the room, was a blue bottle. We didn't know what it was, but it looked important.

We made our way through the left side of the room, pushing stools aside. We finally reached the bottle. It was a bottle of eyedrops...

We left the room and returned to the congested eye. It turned its gaze toward us, pleadingly. I applied the eyedrops to it and its congestion was cured. Suddenly, it moved up to a wall and stared intensely at it, in contrast to the other eyes darting back and forth.

As it turned out, the wall was a different color than the rest of it, and it was actually a secret passage! At the end of the passage was a red glass ball. This must be what was missing from the snake painting.

We left the passage and returned to the snake painting. We placed the ball in the snake's eye socket, and the painting of the scenery fell down. There was writing on the back of the frame, which read, "Behind the big tree..."

I remembered that there was a room near the coffee and cake picture. We hadn't explored in there yet. But fear gripped me. What was behind the big tree? Well, I had Garry with me. He may not be the bravest man out there, but he's my knight in ragged armor.

As we entered the room, the lights began to flicker. It was a bit scary, especially with the weird sculptures in here. To the far left was "Wine Sofa," a sofa inside a wine glass.

"That doesn't look like very comfortable sitting..." criticized Garry. I had to agree with him.

The next bust I couldn't read, but Garry could. It read, "Melancholy." It was a head with curled hair and sunken eyes.

"Melancholy, huh. Well really, who wouldn't be in this place?" said Garry.

The next piece was "Puzzle." It appeared to be a multicolored skeleton. Garry shot me a nervous look and said, "I assume this is fake?"

The last sculpture was "Feeling." It was a tree sculpture... vaguely resembling a person. "You gotta be pretty clever to come up with this stuff..." noted Garry.

There was something shiny behind the tree. It was a silver ring. "Isn't this... a wedding ring? Now what would this be doing here?" said Garry with a surprised look. This must have been what the bride's hands were searching for.

We returned to the marriage room. The hands were still desperately grasping at the air. I remembered that the left hand was where the ring went. I placed the ring on the ring finger. Suddenly the hands stopped moving. The bride and groom smiled. The bride flung her bouquet out of the portrait, onto the floor.

The names of the portraits and sculptures had changed as well. Where it once said "Grieving" or "Sorrowful," now says "Blessed."

We picked up the bouquet and left the room. At the far right side of the next room was a narrow corridor. There was a ghastly portrait, a blue spirit haunting the painting. It had a jagged smile and wandering eyes.

We approached it, and it said, "Ehehehe, hehehehehe... Flowers... flowers're nice... Give me that there flower and I'll let you through... ehehe... Ehehe... your flower, pretty please?"

I couldn't give him my rose. It was my life. As much as I liked the pretty pink flowers, I relinquished the bouquet.

"Ehehehe, thanks... It smells niiice... eheheh," it said as it smelled it. "Well, chowtime!"

It turned red and violently mashed down its jaws on the bouquet. I shuddered as I thought what would have become of me if I gave it my rose.

"Ahhh, that was good... eheheh. Thank you, thanks so much..." it gratefully told me. "As promised, you can go through."

The frame swung open and the painting vanished. "Just take this door in... Well, see ya... eheheheh!" said the painting as he let us in.

I looked at Garry and he looked at me. We took a breath, and stepped through.