Chapter 19

As I was sitting on the red rose drawing on the floor, a strange pentagon shape fell from the ceiling. It had a blue triangle on top of it. Coincidentally, it matched the triangle on the floor near me. I decided why not and pushed the pentagon on top of it. It sunk right in and the door to my left opened with a clink. Yes, now I can finally move on. I went through the door.

I walked forward a few steps and noticed one of those creepy dolls lying in front of me. There was some text above it. It read, "Hello there, Garry... I don't like being alone... Take me with you...!" No way... I'm leaving you behind. Goodbye.

I turned, and continued down the hall. There, I saw another doll, another message. This time, it read, "Hey, why aren't you taking me?" No... This couldn't be... I walked back to see if the doll was still there. It wasn't...

Disgusted, I turned to walk away again. I walked down the hall some more and made a turn. Waiting for me there was the doll and more writing. "Why are you ignoring me? Do you hate me?" This was unbelievable. How was the doll following me? I hated the fact that it kept following me. Shaking my head, I proceeded down the hallway.

The persistent doll was waiting. "Hey, play with me! I know lots of fun things to do..." I couldn't imagine what kind of sick things this doll or whoever kept writing the messages considered "fun." I walked away. And saw the doll again.

It continued where it left off. "I've got lots of friends, too... I'll introduce you!" Sick. This was just sick. I turned away and continued my trek.

The next doll and next message was not as spooky. It simply read, "Be here forever..." I disregarded it and followed the path all the way to the end, where I was greeted by the doll one final time.

By this time, I was losing it. "...How long are you going to keep following me?" Could it even follow me into the next room? I wanted this to be over.

"Enough of this! I'm busy here, and I'm not going to be your buddy!" I shouted. I was about to kick it when I remembered Ib's face. Her soft, gentle face implored me to stop and reconsider. I thought about how she stopped me from kicking that mannequin head in the room with the mirror. No, Ib wouldn't want this. If I was to find my way back to her, I'd have to be rational and cool-headed.

I proceeded to gently move the doll out of the way. "It would be best not to get involved here..." I muttered. With the doll out of the way, I reached for the doorknob. It was stuck. The door was locked.

The instant I removed my hand from the knob, there was a cracking, splashing sound to my left. There was now writing embedded in the wall. It read, " E." Then the door clicked and it was unlocked. I left, leaving the doll behind. Hopefully, I'd never see it again.

In the next room, I approached the first door I saw. It was locked, and the doorknob was unusually cold. I ignored it and noticed to the right a drawing of a red rose similar to the one I saw before. Noting this, I headed up the room. There, I saw it. The doll. Just sitting there in its stupid pink clothing, smiling at me. The text above it read, "I'll always be with you... My home is just nearby..." What a terrible place to be near. I went inside the room next to it, hoping to god it was not its "home."

It didn't appear to be its home. All I saw were 7 pedestals and a lone pallet in the back of the room. The notice below it read, "Collect the seven balls of paint... Then the room will be colored, and your bridge will be made." I had no idea what it was referring to, but I guess my goal now was to collect balls of paint.

"Balls of paint...? I wonder where those are..." I said to myself. I left the room. On the right side of the door were 2 paintings. The first was "Depths." It appeared to be red lines intersecting with each other in a white background. Abstract art I assumed. The latter was titled "Marvelous Night." It was a painting of stars shining in the night sky. I felt like I saw it somewhere before.

I continued my exploration of the room. The door next to it was locked. I noticed an odd green tree sprouting from the top of the door. Odd... To the right of it, a turquoise vase. It was "Eternal Blessings." I smiled and thought of the time Ib placed my rose in the vase and saved my life. Now, I could save my own life. I decided to check inside the room.

A notice on the wall read, "No checking out books." Sorry, but that was not likely. Especially since there were tons of books here. The shelves on the right were obstructing the path, so I tried to move them. "Hrm... I should be able to move it, but I can't." They didn't look that heavy. How odd...

The middle bookcase contained a book titled "Theories of the World." It read, "More valuable than sharing existence is making fantasies into reality." "I'm not sure what that means..." I said to myself. Since there was nothing else to be done on this side of the room, I checked the left side.

A book titled "Conquer the Unknown and Know No Fear." I closed it, thinking it would try to convince me to do crazy stuff to confront fear. I headed up the room.

Another book on the case was titled "Terror." "Being alone is fearful. A group of two can have relief. A group of three..." The rest of the page was ripped. I put the book down and thought aloud, "...I hope Ib and Mary are okay... Well, as long as there are two of them, I guess..."

The painting in the middle of the wall was one of the paintings I saw in the museum. It was "Enlightenment," an eye looking to the right side. I moved on to the next bookcase. There was a book titled "The Essentials of Color," going into depth about techniques artists employed.

Suddenly, I heard a noise to my left. "Hm?" I gasped. It was a green orb. "What's this now... It's soft, but I feel I could break it..." I muttered. "Perhaps this is a ball of paint?" As if I said a magic word, it disappeared.

"Hm... it vanished," I noted.

I went on to the next door. It was locked. To the right of it was a painting. It was called, "Fishing Hook," yet I saw nothing but the ocean. "...?" I mumbled, a quizzical expression plastered on my face. I left to see another room on the bottom side of the room.

When I entered the room, a red mist fogged up my vision. "Oof..." I grunted. "What's with this room...?! Don't want to stay here too long..." I promptly left.

When I exited, I saw 2 paintings. One was "Worry," a painting I had seen in the real museum. The other was "Juggling," a moving picture of a jester juggling 4 balls. A voice came from the painting, and asked me, "What year was I born?"

I was stumped. I didn't know when the juggler was born. I thought back to when I last saw the painting. It was... back in the museum. Before the weird things started to occur. I tried to remember what I learned from it. I remember reading something about Guertena visiting the circus with his grandchild... Gah what else?! Wait. I recalled it started with a "6." Yes, the number was... "6223." I was sure of it. I entered it.

"C-o-r-r-e-c-t!" spelled out the juggler. I felt like I won a shoddy prize at some rigged carnival attraction. Then I heard a soft noise on the ground. It was a blue ball of paint. I picked it up and it promptly vanished.

I left the area and walked around for a little. About the exact area where I walked in, there was a yellow ball of paint. I picked it up, and again it vanished. I headed back to the room with the pedestals. Sure enough, the balls I collected were there.

I suddenly remembered. The red mist room. I thought I saw a ball in there. Before I ventured inside, I made sure my rose was in tip-top condition. After I refreshed it, I went inside.

The gas was toxic. With every step I took, petals fell off my rose. I carefully planned my route to the ball. It was violet. When I picked it up, it disappeared. With my mission accomplished, I proceeded to leave the room. Before I left, I noticed 2 things. There was a table at the other end of the room with a vase on it. And I also thought I saw something to my right. It was an umbrella. Running out of time, I finally left the room.

I was gasping for breath. That room was incredibly dangerous. Right away, I went over to "Eternal Blessings" and replenished the rose. Taking a deep breath, I returned to the hazardous room.

I shuffled over to where the umbrella was, hacking and coughing with every step. I finally reached it, grabbed it, and got out of there. I rushed back to "Eternal Blessings."

As I healed the rose, I noticed something... different. It was the doll. It moved. It was now right next to me. The inscription in the wall read, "Hey, what're you doing? I wanna play too..." What a pest. I returned to the room to investigate the vase.

I entered and made my way through. Hoping to see water in the vase at the end, my hopes were crushed when it was disappointingly empty. I ran back out, clutching my chest with every step. This wasn't good for my health...

I returned to "Eternal Blessings" and healed up. Then I walked around a bit more. I revisited the "Fishing Hook" painting. This time, the hook was in 3D. "...What's up with this? It's coming out of the painting..." I noted. "Could it be, well... a hook?" I surmised.

I suddenly had the most brilliant idea. I decided to hook the umbrella to the hook. "I wonder, if I put this umbrella on it..." I whispered as I placed the umbrella on the hook. The line connected to the hook tugged up and the umbrella was pulled up. "Huh... It went into the painting..." I observed.

"There sure are a lot of inexplicable things going on..." I mused. With not much else left to do, I went back to the red rose drawing on the floor and thought out what I should do next.