Chapter 16

The room was a pretty cramped space. It looked like a closet. Several headless statues were in here, but they didn't move. When we investigated a statue, Mary commented on its strength. "Looks like this would break if you hit it..." she noted. She tried moving it but gave up. "...Way too heavy to move, though."

Along with the statues were tons of cardboard boxes. One of them was filled with yellowed paper, another with various kinds of paint, yet another filled with worn paintbrushes.

Mary saw a stool and sat down for a little bit. I guess she was a bit tired. "I'd like to take this stool, but..." she started. She tugged at it, but it wouldn't budge. "It looks like it's stuck to the ground." She shrugged and we moved on.

There was an easel with a sketch of some strange drawing, but we couldn't make out what it was. Around the back of the room, Mary was going through a box. "Hmm... Is there anything useful in here?" she muttered. "...Ah!" she exclaimed. It was a palette knife.

She turned to me and asked, "Maybe this can cut those vines?!" Those vines were hard as stone, so I told her that I doubted that it would work. "You're right... Nah, it wouldn't work..." she said. Still clutching the palette knife, she stared at it and said, "But I think I'll hold on to this..."

Mary turned to me and said in a mysterious manner, "You know, just in case..." I was a little weirded out, but if it made her feel safer, I'd be fine with it.

After we searched for a while, Mary said, "Hmm... I don't really see anything useful. Should we just go back to Garry for now?" As I was about to answer, the light started to flicker. "Wahhh! Huh?!" yelled Mary.

The lights flickered on and off again, and then stopped. "That scared me..." whined Mary. The lights flickering didn't really scare me. What really bothered me was the statue where we came in was now moved and blocked the entrance. I pointed it out to Mary, and she said, "Huh? The exit... Wh-When did that move? Wasn't it just against the wall?" With a scared tone in her voice, she commanded, "Move it, Ib!"

We walked up to it and got ready to move it. "Ready? Heeeave...!" Even with our combined strength, it was too heavy to move. Panting, Mary turned to me and said, "... no good... It won't even budge..." I hate when these kinds of things happen to me.

"What do we do, Ib...? We can't get out..." asked Mary. The best thing to do was to look for clues. When I checked out the box with yellowing paper, it was wet for some reason... The box with the various art tools smelled moldy... The box with the brushes looked different. The brushes were made with real hair. When I checked the last box filled with paint, the red paint was gone...

Having done as much as we could in this room, we were ready to move on. "Not much else we can do but go this way, Ib!" said Mary, pointing at the door. We headed on through.

The lights were already flashing on and off in this hallway... A steady rhythm of light and darkness. As we walked up, we heard something falling. It sounded like it was slowly rolling down some steps. Then a splatter.

We moved up and saw 2 windows. Someone walked by... We tried to look through and see who it was, but they were gone. As we walked away, they came back and banged on the window. This was enough to get us moving out of there.

At the end of the second set of stairs, there was something red splattered on the ground. We walked up another set of stairs. Waiting for us at the end was a single painting. It was "Clown." It appeared to be the face of a clown, accessorized with white makeup and a single tear.

Walking down the final path, we heard a splashing sound on the wall. Looking back, there were 4 messages written in brown paint. They read, "I want you to have fun, Ib. Come to a fun world without any adults. We'll be together. You, me, and our friends." Who kept writing these messages... Mary held my hand. It was... a little cold.

In silence, we looked at each other and went through the next door. In the next room, there was a large gap in the floor. We couldn't cross it. On the other side were a box and a weird pentagon shape. Looking at the wall, there were 5 cords. A blinking green painting was under the 4th cord... There was a blue rose drawing on the floor near where we came in. We went over and sat down to think for a little while. "I wonder what Garry's doing? We kind of left him behind..." whispered Mary. I sighed. I wondered too...