This is the first alternate POV I'm doing, and it won't be the last. This is three POV's, just in case some people get confused, and one is FINALLY a recurring character from Ib! Who, though? Hope you liked the last chapter, because I did. I love writing for Holly, she's just so darn cute! But how long will the cuteness last when faced with the terrors in the gallery? This chapter also includes the first of many choices that will get a good or bad ending in the end. Will their decisions be correct?

Oh, and thanks a whole lot to Ami Izune for being the first reviewer! (I couldn't put in the whole name because the site wouldn't let me.) Your gift will be a goblin to be your personal slave, as soon as I can gather up enough stamps to send him.

Keep Rating and Reviewing!

Toby ran as fast as he could, but his muscles ached and his brain wasn't functioning right. His breath barely escaped his lungs and barely entered. The statues were faster than he thought. The yellow ones were quickest. Or was it the red ones? He couldn't tell, and he didn't care. Soon, he found a door, and he bashed through it. He shoved it closed behind him and stumbled forwards.

I can't… Can't hang on… Toby's world rocked under his feet and he slid to the ground, his knees banging to the floor. He watched in terror as the last blue petal of his rose fell withered to the ground. Holly got away… Good… She's safe… She's…

His vision flickered, and the world swam with black.

Safe…

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Cassia went over to the second door for the millionth time and jiggled the locked knob. She'd done and repeated that action for two minutes straight. "Ugh! There has to be a way out of here!"

"We can't go through that one," Holly pointed to the first door. "That one might still have monsters behind it."

"Well we have to try," Cassia said. She went up to the door and braced her shoulder against it. She pulled Holly behind her and said, "On three."

Holly nodded, a terrified look on her face. "One..."

"Two…"

"Three!" They said together, and Cassia yanked the door open.

They waited a few seconds behind the door, and nothing happened. Holly opened up her eyes and went out from behind Cassia. She looked out and said with a tiny smile, "Clear!" Cassia let out a sigh of relief and went out. In front of them was another hall.

Cassia was about to step out, when looked down and shrieked, pulling Cassia back. Cassia opened her mouth to ask her what was wrong, when she too looked down and her words caught in her throat. At their feet was a porcelain mannequin head, and it was crying red paint. Its eyes were beady and fixated on them, and Holly moved closer to Cassia.

Written across its face in red paint were words. Cassia looked closer and saw that they read, in dripping letters:

I'm in your way

Smash me?

Move me away?

Cassia moved forward and was about to smash it, when Holly held her back and said, "Wait!" She looked up at Cassia and continued, "I think this is some kind of test."

"So what do you think we should do?" Cassia contemplated stepping over it, but then she thought, what if it comes to life? "I think we should smash it."

Holly wasn't listening, though. She had gone forward, and before Cassia could stop her, she pushed the head aside and the red paint vanished from its eyes and face.

"I hope that was the right decision," Cassia said as they moved on ahead.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

She's missing. She's missing, and so is her rose.

Ib frantically picked up the phone and dialed Holly's house, but she didn't pick up. She nervously glanced over to her empty vase and listened as the phone rang forever, then repeated to her for the thousandth time, "Hi, you've reached Marcie, Toby, and Holly Markham. Leave a message!" She slammed the phone down and rushed over to her vase.

How could this happen? How could I lose it? Ib turned around, panicked, and picked up a picture of her and Holly on the first day of school that year. After the ordeal in the gallery, Holly and her had become close to best friends and was like a sister to her after she lost her parents and moved in with Garry, who was like a brother to her.

Garry was out, which made Ib more terrified. Was his rose gone too? If he was out when it happened, and someone came up behind him… Ib didn't want to think about that.

It had been nearly a year after the scarring adventure through the maze of the gallery. A year after Garry almost couldn't remember her. A year after her parents vanished. She thought she would never have to even set foot in that gallery again.

She dialed Garry's cell phone, which he'd gotten after he became her legal guardian. He was only sixteen, but he lied about his age on almost every occasion. The phone rang for a painstaking minute, then shot straight to voicemail. "Hey. You've reached Garry. Leave a message."

She almost cried, she was so worried. She was only eleven, and already she saw her life flashing before her eyes. How did this happen? She was sure she'd left it in the vase, where it always was, but when she woke up that morning to water it like she did every day, it was simply… gone. Vanished. Nonexistent.

Suddenly, her house phone rang and she scrambled to pick up the phone. It was Garry! Finally!

"Ib?" He sounded worried. "Ib? What's wrong?"

"Oh Garry!" she sobbed. "My rose is gone! It's gone, and I think Holly is in trouble!"