Chapter Duo whilst watching Avatar: The Last Airbender.
R&R, please!
Cassia flew through the gallery, but all of a sudden nothing looked the same. Ugh! Of course I went and got myself lost! She thought angrily as she speed walked through the Cafouré exhibit. What had the principal said about what to do when lost? Was it to meet in the Asian Primitive Art section or the Italian Sculptures exhibit? Why can't I ever remember anything when it's important?
Soon, she had to stop, panting, and realized that she had stopped in front of a huge, wall-long painting. It was very abstract, with many colorful splatters and lines. It was charred at the edges and in some middle places, though, which nearly ruined the entire viewing experience. She went to the plaque and began to read it:
Guertena'sWhimsyWorld
This painting was salvaged from the fire that burned down the Guertena Gallery
It was the only thing saved when the workers rummaged through the ruins of the old building
Central Art Museum was built on top of it therefore this is symbolic of the galleries' similarities
She looked closely at it and saw that there were no security sensors on it or anything. She thought that if this painting was so important like they said, they would protect it better. Or maybe they thought no one would want to steal a half burned painting from a dead gallery. She looked closer and saw that the canvas was very, very thin, almost translucent. It could never withstand the weight of all the paint covering it.
She looked around making sure no one was able to see her. She cautiously took a step forward, as if compelled by some unknown force. She reached out, and touched the thin paper surface of the painting.
The lights began to flicker and she stepped swiftly back from the painting. The lights flickered once again, and suddenly the entire galley's lights went black.
Cassia groped around for something to hang onto, and as she stumbled backwards she felt thin paper on her skin. With a delicate r-r-iii-ii-ip, she fell down.
The lights soon flickered back on, but something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Underneath of her, she was sitting on the thin paper of the painting. She had fallen… through? Through the painting? Yes. She had. For a moment, she was mortified as she stood up and looked down at the sheet of torn paper she had been sprawled on. To her surprise, the shard was blank. She picked it up and turned it over, but that side was blank too. She turned around, and the painting in front of her was unscathed. But something was strange. If she had fallen through the painting, she would have hit a wall. Now, though, it seemed like she had fallen through a two-sided painting with no wall in the middle.
This is too weird, Cassia thought as she turned around.
There were no people as she walked down the hall. I just fell through a painting, she thought. Shouldn't security come running? She ran around the corner, but that side of the gallery too was deserted. She was beginning to get scared, so she gripped her bag tightly and ran again back up the hall and down the set of large marble stairs into the tapestry section.
She had remembered studying a tapestry depiction of Julius Caesar and another of the goddess Minerva earlier in this same section, but those were both replaced by new works, but these were different. One depicted a roaring lion that shot bees from its gullet and the other depicted a table with bread and wine set out. She skipped the last few steps on her way down and ran up to the plaque on the bread and wine tapestry. She read:
Guertena'sPumpernickelandSauvignon
But under the title, instead of a description of its symbolism or its time period, it had a few words that seemed to be scrawled out in scratched handwriting:
You fell through.
What to do? What to do?
Her heart nearly stopped in her chest, and just as she was about to ponder the question, she heard footsteps coming from behind her. She froze as the slow steps came closer. Suddenly, the steps stopped, and turned around.
Was that there before? She thought as she rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
In the center of the large room was a figure, almost humanlike in structure. She couldn't see it well, but the moonlight that shined through the skylight at the stop of the steep walls of the room showed that it was a sculpture of a person that had no head.
It took a step forward, then another. Cassia was sure she was hallucinating when the arms began to move as well and it was clear that the statue was heading straight for Cassia. She backed up a few paces, then turned and ran for the door. She hit it hard and jiggled the doorknob, but it wouldn't open. She looked out and saw that the statue was getting closer, and in a split second decision fled in the other direction. Cassia was the best runner in her class, which came in handy when the statue kicked its speed up a notch and began briskly walking.
She darted to the other door and to her surprise it actually opened. She slammed the door shut behind her and braced her shoulder up against the cold wood. She could hear it banging over the sound of her racing heart and the roar of blood in her ears as she stepped back and the banging ceased. Apparently that thing wasn't smart enough to open doors. Duh, she thought. It doesn't even have a head.
She turned around and saw that the room she had entered had one lone table in the center. On top of it sat an ornate vase filled with crystal clear water. Inside the vase was the most beautiful blooming rose Cassia had ever seen. It looked well and healthy, practically glowing. It was a rich red color, like the color of her shirt, and it seemed to glow a bit brighter as she approached. Slowly, she reached out, and plucked the rose from the vase. It had thorns, but she couldn't feel them as she ran her fingers down the stem. She felt a strange connection to it, and curiously, she pinched a petal and plucked it off. She almost dropped the rose in surprise when she felt a searing pinch in her own side. She let the petal fall to the floor and discovered that she had six petals left. The rose lost a bit of its luster and seemed a little less red. Curiously, she replaced it in the vase, and it glowed instantly. The petal grew back before her very eyes and as she plucked it back out, she felt her own strength replenishing.
I better keep this in a safe place, she thought. She opened the flap of her bag and put it in a pocket, protected from anything that could damage it. She looked up and saw that there was another door, leading away from the walking statue. Away is good, she thought again as she opened the door.