Chapter 12
The next room was kind of cramped. We saw the next door immediately and went through. We were completely unprepared for the next room.
2 rows of mannequin heads filled up the entire hallway. If that weren't disturbing enough, there were 3 portraits of a vampire-like man hanging on the wall. The first portrait was a light blue and the eyes were staring straight out. The second was red and the eyes were following us... The third one was green and the eyes had no pupils at all...
The next room was terrifying. As we walked up the room, we saw 4 portraits. All Ladies in Red, Green, Yellow and Blue. We did not dare go near them... Taking a few steps back, we headed down the room instead. There were 4 headless statues but they didn't move. One of the doors was locked, so we checked out more of the room.
We peered through the window and thought we saw a frog-like shadow swim by. The door next to it was locked as well.
To the right of them were 3 more portraits of Ladies in Blue, Red and Green. We avoided them, of course... Heading up from there were 3 more portraits of Ladies in Yellow, Green and Blue. This was bad... I could sense something bad was going to happen soon.
To the right of the lady in blue was a familiar painting. It was "The Hanged Man." It was a man hanging upside-down from his feet with a red rope.
"Ah. This was one of the paintings in the gallery," noted Garry. I was a little scared of it, so Garry offered to investigate it.
He inspected the man's clothing. "5629" it read. Perhaps he was a convict on death row...
To the left of the lady in yellow was a headless statue, but it didn't move.
Above them were 2 more portraits of Ladies in Red and Yellow as well as another headless statue. Finally, the last 2 portraits in the room were Ladies in Red and Blue.
2 doors to the left of us were locked and required passwords. The one to the right asked, "How many paintings of women are there in this room?" We counted... 14. The lock clicked, and the door was open. We entered.
We saw a vase, a notice on the wall and a bookshelf. As we walked forward, we heard a crash of glass outside the room. One of the ladies must have broken loose...
The notice on the wall read, "Please do not touch the displays. If by any chance you damage any exhibits, you will b comp sat n." Some of the letters were missing.
The bookshelf had a book named titled, "Wonderful Days." "The gallery is like an spooky amusement park with lots of strange things! It's so much fun playing here, the day was over before I knew it! Isn't it a fantastic place? Why don't you join me here? You'll be fine with all this company..."
We had enough of this room, and left to see the other room.
One of the ladies in red was crawling around, madly searching for us. We hurried over to the room to the left of us. It simply said, "Enter password." It was a 4 digit code. It must've been the numbers on "The Hanged Man." We entered "5629" but nothing happened...
The lady was getting closer to us. Then we remembered that the convict was hanging upside-down! We then entered "6295" and the lock clicked. We ventured inside.
Like the other room, it was simple. An easel with canvas, a stool and a table with a vase. We decided to push the table around a bit and ended up pushing it to the left side of the room when we heard a click. Perhaps a door unlocked outside of the room? We left hurriedly to investigate.
To our surprise, there was a mannequin head outside waiting for us. "... Was this thing here earlier? I... don't think it was..." wondered a nervous Garry.
We headed to the right side of the room, dodging the lady who was crawling after us. The door was unlocked so we went inside. The only thing in there was a mirror at the end of the room.
We looked at it, and stared at our reflections. Garry's jacket looked like a shadowy cloak. He was a phantom. I looked at my uniform, still tidy even after our rigorous encounters.
We stepped away and began to make our exit when we saw something strange... It was a mannequin head. It blocked our way out. "What the... When did this get in the room?" asked Garry. We went back to the mirror to see if maybe there was another way out.
When we looked at our reflections, there was... something different. I looked at my body. Nothing seemed different. I looked at Garry and my eyes widened. There was a white head behind Garry's shoulder, staring at him. The hairs on my back shot straight up.
"...Hm?" pondered a clueless Garry. Finally noticing the apparition, he shrieked, "EEEEEK!" and he fell backwards. The mannequin head lay on the floor behind us.
"W-Wh-WHAT is THAT?!" yelled Garry. "Y... Why, you...!" he angrily said, as he prepared to kick it.
I rushed over to him, and hugged him. "... ...R-Right, Ib. My, that was immature of me..." muttered Garry.
He turned to me and gave me a quick smile. "Well... let's go." With bravery, valor and courage, we left the room.
We headed down the room and noticed that there was a key on the ground. We picked it up and walked forward. Without warning, a lady in red burst from the wall and went after us! Luckily, we were able to run from it.
Yet another lady burst from where she was affixed, this time a lady in blue. I noticed there was something crawling around much faster... The lady in green was a speed demon, angrily propelling herself forward with astonishing speed. We fit the key into the room with the window next to it and escaped...
In the next room, there was a familiar site. It was "Reserved Seat," the comfortable couch. An easel to the right of it read, "If you're tired, why not rest? You'll never be hurt again..." We sat in it for a bit, but decided to move on.
There was a window in the back. I was scared and feared something would jump through the window at us. I asked Garry if he could do something about it, but didn't tell him my reason. He tested the large bookcase near it. "Ah. It seems this can be moved. Okay! Step back a bit, Ib." He heaved the bookcase.
"Heave ho... ho!" And with that, he moved it to cover the window. He was a little disappointed, maybe because there might've been something on the other side that could help us. "It's covering the window... Oh well."
With that out of the way, we looked at a large painting hanging on the wall. It was named, "Couple." The depicted people looked strangely familiar...
"What is it, Ib?" asked a concerned Garry. I told him who the people really resembled...
"Huh?! The people in this painting are your dad and mom?" asked Garry with a slight sense of bewilderment. He looked at them, then back at me.
"Aha... They do resemble you a bit, Ib..." he said with a chuckle. "But why would such a painting be down here?"
I asked him if he knew their whereabouts. "Ah? Where are they? Hmm... Well, I can't say that I know either." He saw the look of disappointment in my face and quickly reassured me, "D-Don't worry. They must be somewhere!"
"..." He thought to himself for a few seconds. (I thought she was a tough kid, but this is even getting to her...) After this, we tried to leave the room. But the door was locked...
"Wh... Are you kidding me? The door was wide open..." said Garry.
There was a sudden banging on the door. "T-That sound... is that coming from outside?" asked a stupefied Garry.
Whoever, or whatever it was, banged some more. "Something's at the door... be careful, Ib," cautioned Garry.
We desperately tried to look for a way out... All of a sudden, the wall in the back of the room exploded. A lady in yellow came through and started coming after us. We saw our exit point. Evading her attacks, we crawled through the hole in the wall.
To our horror, nearly all the portraits and statues in the room were mobile. They were all seeking us, searching for us. We saw a nearby door that was open and ran to it. We slammed the door shut and kept running through the hall...
Panting and trying to catch our breath, we stopped for a bit. "... ... Th... That should be... far enough... I think..." said a fatigued Garry.
He stood up and proudly said, "We certainly showed THEM!" I plopped down on the floor and just sat there.
"My... well then..." said Garry, still trying to catch his breath. "Let's keep go... ...Ib?"
He came to me and knelt down with me. "Oh my, what is it? Are you okay?" he asked with concern in his voice.
I collapsed, utterly exhausted. I faintly heard the sound of his voice as I fell asleep.
"I-Ib?! Stay with me, now! Ib! IB!