Chapter 18

We cheered as the blinking painting fell from the wall and got wedged between the two sides. "Ib, look!" said Mary. She pointed at the painting and said, "Now we can cross!"

The painting wasn't blinking anymore. Its eyes were shut, as if it were sleeping. I wanted to be courteous, so I asked if it was okay to cross. The painting opened its eyes, looked at me, and closed them again. "Guess so!" said Mary happily.

We walked over it and there was a bouncing sound, like a trampoline. We checked out the box but didn't open it. Something was moving around in there... "Ib... Let's not open that box..." said a worried Mary.

That weird pentagon thing had a blue triangle painted out on the top. We decided it'd be fun to kick it around, and we kicked it into the large hole in the floor. With nothing else to do in the room, we moved on.

The next area was winding like a snake. There was only a skinny path and the wall had lots of lightbulbs. As we continued down the path, Mary stopped. She asked me, "Hey, Ib... Can I ask you something?"

I turned to her and she asked, "Is Garry... your dad?" No, he wasn't my dad. My dad was somewhere out there with my mom. Garry was a random person I met in this twisted world. But I left that last part out because I felt like he was more than just a stranger. He was like a big brother. I just told her no.

"Hmm... So your dad is somebody else... I see..." said Mary, deep in thought. Then she asked, "Is your mom nice, Ib?" I thought this was kind of odd. I told her that she was. "Ah... That's good..." she said quietly.

"You want to see your parents again soon, right?" she asked. Well, I certainly did miss them right now. This was the first time I was ever really left alone, not having them by my side. "I want to get out soon, too..." I couldn't agree more.

As I turned to continue walking, Mary stopped me again. I guess she had some more on her mind. "Hey... Ib, uh..." she stuttered. "If only two of us could get out of here... then what?" I thought this was a very sad question. She was asking me to pick her or Garry.

I loved them both. Garry was a big brother to me, always watching out for me and acting so caring. Mary was the little sister I never had, so immature yet fun and cheerful. But Garry wasn't here right now. We were separated. My head hurt from thinking about this. For the time being, I just told Mary that I would leave with her.

"Really? Oh, I'm so glad!" she exclaimed with her eyes looking so full and alive. "I want to leave with you too, Ib! ...And once we get out... We'll play all sorts of stuff! And eat lots of candy, and go all these places..." she trailed off.

She hugged me and said, "Teeheehee... I can't wait! ...Let's make sure we leave together, okay? Promise!" I promised her that we would leave together. Mary was my bundle of joy and bubble of life. Together, we left the winding room.

When we entered the next room, there was a funny smell in the air. There was a red mist floating in a hall. We decided to avoid it... We went inside the room next to it. There were 3 mannequin heads and a painting titled "Lady Without Her Umbrella." There was just a black silhouette looking out into the distance.

On one of the tables, there was a key shaped like a tree. We took it. Before leaving, we thought that maybe there was something that the mannequin heads were hiding. Of the 3 heads, we went with the middle head since we were very impartial little girls.

"What's it looking at?" Mary asked. I ignored it since mannequin heads weren't supposed to be looking at anything and motioned to take it off the table. "Huh? Take it off? What if it breaks? And it's so heavy..." she complained.

I insisted in moving the head. Sensing the confidence in my voice, Mary replied, "O-Okay... If you're that sure, then I won't stop you..." We pushed and the mannequin head fell off the shelf. Surprisingly, it did not break. But a red mist began to seep out from where the head made contact with the floor. The head also appeared to be weeping red tears streamlining down its face.

"Ahhh! Look, Ib! There's cracks in the floor! And there's some weird gas coming out..." whined Mary. This room was getting a little dangerous. We decided to leave before it got to be too much.

When we left the room, we saw that there was a painting titled "Fisherman." It appeared to be a cliff by the ocean. "...There's nobody there, though," noted Mary. The door next to the painting was locked.

To the left of us were another drawing of a blue rose on the ground, a table with a vase, and a painting of lips titled "Tattletale." It wasn't the time to sit and think yet since we had more to explore.

There was a painting on the far left side of the room titled "Heavenly Thread." It just looked like a string hanging in a black and white contrast. I think I remembered seeing this painting in the actual museum.

We entered the room next to it. Immediately, Mary noticed, "What's this place...? There's no color!" True were her words. The entire room was in gray.

There was an easel with a rainbow painted on it, but there was no color. A palette and brush were suspended in midair. "It's like there's someone there..." commented Mary. There was a large gap in the floor, preventing us from exploring the other side.

I couldn't see clearly, but there appeared to be a key lying on a white table. We couldn't really do anything else in here, so we left.

We headed down from the room and saw another familiar painting. It was "Selfless Guard." The door next to it was locked, but Mary stopped me before we left. "What's this... Can we put in a name?" she pondered. There was a painting there. It looked like stars shining in the night sky. I thought I saw this painting somewhere in the real museum. I wasn't too sure. I thought for a while, then suggested "Marvelous Night." There was a sound and the lock clicked. We went inside.

It was a small room with a few bookshelves. There was a book titled "A Girl's Last Days." Intrigued, I decided to read it. "Once upon a time, there was a little girl. The girl went with her parents to an art gallery. But all of a sudden, the girl realized that she was lost... She searched through the dim gallery, but found neither her parents nor the exit... Scared, helpless, lonely, hungry, and thirsty, she fell and hurt herself, putting her body past the limit..." This was all too similar to my own life. I was scared to look at the last page. I flipped the page. It was an illustration of a collapsed girl... I hurriedly shut the book and walked away...

Hoping to find a more useful book, I checked the other side of the room. I found "Collected Works of Guertena." The drawings were in alphabetical order. The letters "L," "G," and "J" were highlighted. "Should we take a look?" inquired Mary. We decided to look at "L" first.

"'The Lady in Red' (6210) It was said that he based this on a lover he had at the time, but he has denied this claim. In truth, Guertena based it around the ? women who attempted to court him for his inheritance." I couldn't understand one of the words, but I understood enough to know that people were after Guertena for his money. We flipped to "G" next.

"'The ? Fish' (6235) Despite being grayscale, this curious piece makes clever use of shading and angles to give the impression of color. The ? depiction of even the ? evokes a wide variety of emotions in people." I didn't know a few of the words, but I guess the word in the title must start with "G." We flipped to "J."

"'Juggling' (6223) A work based on a juggler he saw at the circus with his grandchild. As it is extremely rare for Guertena to use real people as models, this piece is highly valuable."

There was a little hole in the wall next to the bookcase. Small enough for a key. We stuck our key inside. But nothing happened. "..." Mary was a little upset. With nothing else to do here, we left the room.

Since we explored as much as we could, we returned to the blue rose drawing and sat down to think for a bit.