Chapter 3

The room was a dark blue color. As we came in, we noticed right away that there were two paintings on either side of the entrance. The paintings were basically the same, except that the one on the right was blue, and the one of the left was red. Apart from that, they looked like mirror images.

"Where are we?" Kasey asked, nervously glancing around.

"There must be some way out," Terra said. "Until we find it, stay close to me, okay?"

Then there was the matter of which way to go. I looked at the paintings. The one on the right reminded me of the ocean. The one on the left reminded me of… a pool of blood. It made me uneasy.

"Why don't we go that way?" Kasey suggested, pointing to the way with the blue painting. I guess she was thinking the same thing.

Terra and I nodded, and the three of us went to the right. The walls, the floor… The room was entirely blue. There were even blue letters splattered on the wall, spelling out, "COME COME COME."

Down the hall, we came across a blue door. But we couldn't get past because there were three vases in the way. They stood in front of the door, lined up, as if they were guarding it.

"What are those?" Kasey asked, curiously looking at the roses.

There was a pink rose, a red rose, and a white rose. Without realizing what I was doing, I reached out towards the red rose. I felt like it was calling me. I had the sudden urgent need to take it and keep it safe from harm, but I had no idea why.

"Uh… Ib? What are you doing?" My sisters regarded me skeptically. I quickly snapped out of it and took a small step back.

"Maybe we should just move the vases and go check out the room behind them," Terra suggested. She pulled on one of the vases, but it wouldn't budge. "Huh, how strange…"

"Can we… take them?" Kasey murmured. Though she said it quietly, Terra and I still heard her.

"Take them?" Terra repeated. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Kasey. We're lost in who knows where, and the last thing we need is someone coming after us because we stole their things." She glanced at the other side of the hallway. "Maybe we should just go the other way and see what's there."

Kasey twirled a strand of dark brown hair on her finger and didn't say anything. I stared at the round. Terra sighed. "Come on, girls. Maybe there will be a way out!"

She started walking away. Reluctantly, Kasey and I decided to follow her. When we passed by the place where we had entered, the exit was gone. We were officially stuck here and now there was no going back. I swallowed down the lump in my throat. If anything, I should be grateful that I had my two sisters here with me, and that I was not alone.

We went in the direction of the room near the red painting. The room was blue too. There was another painting titled, "The ? Fish." There was a door in the room as well, but it was locked. My heart sank. Now what?

"Maybe there's a key somewhere," Kasey said. She looked shaken. "We could've missed it. Should we go back?"

"I suppose we don't have a choice." Terra sighed, and the three of us went back to the first room. The three roses were still there.

"What if the key's in that room?" Kasey asked. "Maybe we can get in… if we take these roses."

Terra bit her bottom lip. "I guess it's worth a shot. If anything, we can always just put the roses back, right…?"

We stood there for a moment, not entirely sure if we should do it. But finally, we each took a rose – I took the red one, Terra took the white one, and Kasey took the pink one.

I clutched my rose in my hands, feeling energy course through me. Somehow, just holding the rose made me feel better. I felt safer.

"I love pink," Kasey said happily.

Terra examined her rose. It looked like a perfect match for her. She was wearing a black tank top, a light gray hoodie, white jeans, and black boots. She put her rose in her hoodie and smiled.

Kasey's rose seemed to fit her, as well. Her soft, light brown curls were placed in two bouncy pony tails. She was wearing a lilac blouse with cherry pink shorts and silver leggings underneath. She wore pink flats and her signature gray-and-pink scarf that our mother had gotten her for her tenth birthday. Just like I always took my handkerchief everywhere, she took her scarf, and Terra took her white pearl bracelet. It always hung around one of her wrists, and on the other, she usually had a few scrunchies, just in case.

I myself was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt with a red band, a matching red skirt, dark blue stockings, and red Mary Janes. My brown hair hung loose around my shoulders.

After we all put our roses away in a safe place where they hopefully wouldn't fall out, Terra attempted to move the vases again. Surprisingly, this time, it worked.

"Well, I – I guess it wasn't all for nothing, then," Terra said, looking a bit startled.

Before we went inside, we read a notice on the wall. I couldn't make out one of the words, but it read, "You and the roses are ? Know the weight of your own life."

We went into the room. There was a portrait of a woman with teal blue hair that seemed to hang out of the frame. Her eyes were closed, but she looked bright and cheerful. There was a notice underneath her. It said, "When the rose ?s, so too will you ? away." Even with the words I did know, I couldn't understand what the message meant.

"Hey, look!" Kasey suddenly exclaimed. "A key!"

We followed her gaze and saw a blue key lying on the ground. We picked it up, and then my eyes traveled toward the painting again. The woman's eyes were now open, and she was staring off to her right, into the distance. Her mouth was open in a wide smile. The fact that the painting somehow changed was disturbing enough, but that creepy look sent shivers down my spine.

We hurriedly stepped out of the room. Right away, I noticed something wasn't right. On the wall, where the previously blue letters used to be, the letters changed to a dark red color and spelled out the word "THEIVES" over and over.

As we made our way down the hall, the blood-red word "THEIVES" splattered out on the floor before us. Kasey yelped and fell backward. Out of the three of us, she was definitely the most jumpy. But I didn't blame her. This place was really scary.

Terra and I helped her up. Then Terra said, "M–Maybe we should put the roses back in the vases?"

I didn't know if that was such a good idea, but it seemed to calm Kasey down a little bit, so we went back to the three vases to see if we could place the roses back in them. We noticed that there was still water left in each vase. When we put our roses in there, petals regrew on the stem, looking as fresh and lively as ever.

I examined my crimson rose again. It had three petals before, and now it had five.

"Hmm," Terra said, inspecting her white rose. She seemed to be thinking the same thing. "That's odd… I had five petals on my rose before. Now it's up to eight."

"I had four," Kasey said. "Now I have six."

"Strange…" Terra frowned slightly. Then she shrugged. "Well, whatever. Hopefully, the more petals, the better. I think we should hold on to the roses for now… I don't know why, but I feel like leaving the roses would lead to some serious issues."

"Yeah, I feel it, too," Kasey agreed. I nodded.

"Let's get going." Terra grabbed our hands and we walked toward the formerly locked door. Terra turned the key in the lock. I held my breath. When it clicked, I sighed of relief. We could move forward. I wasn't so sure that I wanted to continue walking around in a creepy place like this, but I knew I definitely didn't want to just sit around in one room.

We turned the knob, and the door opened with ease. We walked in, and I immediately noticed the sudden change in color. The room was now green.

"Hey… what's that on the ground?" Kasey asked, pointing. I followed her gaze and saw a tiny bug crawling around. We decided to check it out further, and we had to kneel down to get a good look at it. Then, somehow, it started talking to us.

"i'm an ant," it told us. "i love paintings. my painting is especially cool. i'd like to see it again, but it's kind of far away…"

"Aww," Kasey said. "We gotta get its painting and bring it to him!"

I nodded in agreement. Terra was about to protest, I could tell, but then she saw the looks on our faces. She sighed heavily and said, "Oh, all right. But this better not cause any more trouble!"

Four paintings hung on the wall near us. There was a painting of a ladybug, a bee, a butterfly, and a spider, but not an ant. When we moved on right, there were four more paintings lined up. The first one was called "Prologue," the second was "Chapter 1," the third one was "Chapter 2," and the fourth one was "Last Chapter." When I looked at the paintings more closely, I saw that they were showing the phases of a butterfly.

There was a door near the "Last Chapter" painting. We went in, but there was a large gap in the floor that we couldn't cross. We backtracked and went back to the room with the ant. This time, we were going to head north from the door. But first, we read a notice that warned, "Beware the edges."

Kasey dismissed it and started heading up, but Terra pulled her back. "Whoa. Didn't you read the note? Stay in the center."

Kasey and I followed Terra's instructions, and the three of us proceeded down the narrow hallway in the center. As we walked, an arm shot out of the wall and tried to grab my rose. We jumped but continued on, making sure not to go near the edges. More arms shot out, but we managed to avoid them until one arm that was awaiting us at the end of the hallway jumped out and hit Kasey. One of the petals on her pink rose fell out, and I saw small wounds start to appear on her body. Terra noticed too, and she put the pieces together quickly.

"The roses… they're…" She paused. "The roses represent our life. If we get hit, the rose will lose a petal. If the rose gets hit…" Her voice trailed off. She doesn't finish her sentence, but she doesn't have to. We understood. But she went on to say, "Keep it safe, all right, girls? Don't drop it, and try not to let any of these things grab it."

We turned right. There was a door there, but it was locked. Then I saw the ant painting hanging on the wall. I walked over to get a better look at it. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it could be taken off the wall. I removed it and showed it to Kasey and Terra.

"Hmm?" said Terra. She swiveled her eyes toward me. "Oh, the ant painting. Nice job, Ib."

"Yay! Now we can show the ant!" Kasey squealed. Her cheery attitude slowly seemed to be returning, and I was glad.

We walked back down to where the ant was, careful to avoid the hands.

"oh. that's my painting," the ant said. "it's just as cool as i remember it." He looked very intrigued in the artwork, but he didn't say anything about wanting it back, so we kept it and moved on.

We entered the room that had the large hole in the floor. A thought crossed my mind. What if we laid down the ant painting on the gap? I shared my idea with Kasey and Terra, who nodded enthusiastically.

"Brilliant!" Terra declared. "Good idea, Ib."

I blushed and watched as Terra laid the ant painting down. "There, now we can get across." Then she paused and frowned a little. "Hmm…"

"What's wrong?" Kasey asked her.

"We're all much too heavy to cross," Terra replied. "Only one of us can go."

"Well, Ib's the lightest…"

"And the youngest!" Terra snapped.

"All right, all right…" Kasey put her hands up in defeat, and then lowered them. "I'll go."

"N–No, I wouldn't want either of you to have to do this alone."

"Well, sheesh, Terra, if you wanted to go, you could've just said so."

Terra bit her lip.

"I don't know… You're the heaviest out of us," Kasey pointed out. "It should be either me or Ib. You can choose. I don't mind." She looked at me. "Do you mind, Ib?"

Honestly, I didn't want to cross the painting by myself and go to the next room alone, even if it would just be for a second. But I didn't want to tell them how nervous I was, so I just shook my head in response to Kasey's question.

Terra glanced from me to Kasey. After what seemed like forever, her bright crimson eyes finally settled on me. "Ib… If you're up for it… Can you go? Kasey's right about one thing; you're the lightest."

I inhaled deeply, trying to gather all my courage. I nodded and slowly crept over the painting. It ripped a little, but there was no major damage.

In the next room, I saw a painting titled "Epilogue." It showed a spider eating the butterfly. I thought that was a bit sad, but I was more focused on the other objects in the room right now.

There was a green key lying on the ground. Behind the key stood one of the headless mannequins I saw in the art gallery earlier. It was wearing a red dress. Something about it was making me suddenly nervous. I edged closer and, after a moment's hesitation, grabbed the key.

The mannequin took a step toward me. I backed away, my heart pounding in my chest. The mannequin roared and dashed after me. I hurried out of the room and quickly crossed over the ant painting, ignoring the skeptical glances from my sisters. The ant painting ripped open. I was shocked to see the mannequin open the door and enter the room across from us. But despite the loud thudding of my heart, I felt much safer now. Terra and Kasey were with me, and the headless mannequin couldn't reach us.

"Let's get out of here," Terra said quietly, looking pale.

The three of us left the room. We heard the loud sound of the mannequin clattering down the hole behind us, but we didn't turn back.