There were two exhibits down the hall. They were both in a roped-in area, standing in the middle of the hallway. The first one displayed three headless mannequins with blue, red, and yellow dresses. The title read, "Death of the Individual." There was a man who looked very intrigued in the exhibit, and he started to talk to Terra. They chatted for a moment before the three of us moved down to view the next exhibit.
It looked like a white couch. It was fancier than most couches, and the back of it was white with a little bit of red on it. It was called "Reserved Seat."
There was a painting near it. The title read, "? On Table." It sort of looked like chopsticks and sushi.
I was about to go to the next room when Kasey called out, "Ib! This way!" She and Terra were heading back up. I guess they wanted to check out all the displays there first, so I shrugged and went off to join them.
We walked past the open exhibits and the row of paintings and turned. There were another four paintings on the wall. The first one was called "? Diamond." I sighed, really wishing I knew more words.
The portrait next to it caught my eye. It was titled, "The Lady in Red." It reminded me a bit of Terra. When Terra saw the painting, she stared at it for a few moments, and then shook her head and moved onto the next painting, which was called "Bitter Fruit."
I couldn't see the title of the next artwork because an old couple was observing it. I smiled at the elderly couple and moved on.
The next sculpture looked like a pink ball with swords in it. I couldn't read the title of it. The next one was called "Taste-Cleansing Tree." To me, it didn't look like a tree at all. But I liked the pretty colors.
The next one appeared to be a blue woman melting. I couldn't read the title of this one either. I sighed and turned left, where I saw two more paintings. The first painting was a black cat. A mother and daughter were looking at that one, so I couldn't read the title. The mother was scolding her daughter because she kept squealing about how it was such a cute kitty. I giggled. They reminded me of my mother and Kasey.
The painting next to the cat was called "Enlightenment." It showed a close-up of an eye staring to the right. It had a gray background.
Terra, Kasey, and I walked on. The next room displayed a huge mural. It was very colorful and I could vaguely make out a few of the paintings/sculptures I saw in the gallery, such as "The Lady in Red."
"Ooh! That one's so pretty!" Kasey squealed, running up to get a better look at it.
Unlike the other rooms, this room was empty except for me, Kasey, and Terra. I glanced at the title of the mural, but I couldn't read the first word: "? World." I was about to ask Terra what the first word was when the lights started to flicker. The music I heard when we first entered the gallery suddenly faded out.
"What was that?" Kasey asked, looking a bit scared.
"I don't know…" Terra frowned. Then she grabbed mine and Kasey's hand. "Let's go find Mom and Dad, okay?" She lead us out of the room and towards the reception desk. But they weren't there. Neither was the receptionist.
The lights flickered again, and the gallery darkened. I swallowed. Kasey started whimpering. Terra tightened her grip on us.
"Let's get out of here," Terra said. We walked to the exit and pulled on the handle, but it wouldn't budge. The door was locked. We were trapped here.
"M–Maybe we can unlock one of these windows and escape," Kasey stammered. She walked up to one of them and started tugging on it, but nothing happened. Then I red liquid poured down onto the glass. Kasey fell backward and screamed.
Terra rushed over to her and asked if she was okay. Kasey was obviously still shaky, but she nodded and said that she was fine.
"Let's go upstairs," Terra said. "Maybe someone's there."
We walked up the stairs, and I something caught my eye. The window that was across from us… I saw a person walk by! I hurried over and tried to see if someone was there, but no one reappeared. Finally, as I started to walk away, someone banged loudly on the glass. I gaped, my heart hammering in my chest.
Terra, Kasey, and I began to run. We searched around, hoping to find someone. But no one was around. As we passed by "Bitter Fruit," the fruit peeled away from the painting. We stared at it in shock and then continued running.
We ran past the cat painting the mother and daughter were looking at it. As we were about to leave the room, I heard a soft "Meow!" We whipped around. Did the cat just meow at us? We backed away from it.
That's when we noticed that we were back at the large mural. Upon closer observation, I saw that there was blue liquid leaking from the frame. As we examined at it, there was a loud sound behind us. We turned around and saw that letters had been spattered on the floor. It said, "COME."
With a few shaky breaths, we turned back around to view the mural more closely. The blue liquid had a message written out on it now. It read, "come down below ill show you someplace secret."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Terra demanded. "Where are we supposed to go? And who is this person?"
Kasey and I shook our heads, telling her that we didn't know. The three of us searched around the gallery a bit more. When we came across "The Coughing Man," I could've sworn I heard him cough. Based on the looks on their faces, I could tell that Terra and Kasey heard it, too.
When we reached the room with the big fish, I saw that there were a set of blue footprints leading into the painting. The three of us stood in front of the footprints and stared at the painting. We didn't know if we should or not. We stood there for a while before Terra grabbed our hands again and lead us into the deep.