Chapter 6

The four of us started walking into the next room when the tongue painting spat at us again. Garry jumped back and fell to the floor screaming, "HYEEEEEK!"

Kasey burst out laughing. I giggled a bit, too. Terra held out her hand to help him up. She looked sincere, but she couldn't suppress her smile.

Garry looked up at her. His face reddened and he sheepishly took her hand. When she pulled him up, he quickly said, "I... I was just a bit startled! R-Really, that's all it was!" He wiped the dirt off his coat. "Anywayyy... Let's keep going, and watch out for such bizarre things as that!"

Before we went into the next room, we looked at the "? Art" painting again. Now that Garry was here, I figured Terra was in a better mood, so I gathered my courage and asked them what the first word of the title was.

"...Hm? You don't know that word?" Garry asked me.

Terra swiveled her eyes from me to Garry to the painting. Then she said, "You want to know the title? It's 'Abstract Art.'"

Garry smiled and nodded. "...Will that be all?"

I glanced at the painting again and asked what "abstract art" meant.

"Er... what's it mean? Hmm... well, basically..." Garry's eyes darted over to Terra.

Terra blushed a little. "It means... art... that is... abstract."

"Yeah, well... anyway!" Garry said, looking slightly embarrassed. "I'll gladly help you with anything you can't read."

"I will, too," Terra chimed in, giving Garry a small smile.

"Hey, in that case, can we go back?" Kasey asked. "There were some words from a few stuff we read that I didn't know, either."

"Uh... When you say 'back,' where do you mean, exactly?" Terra prompted.

"The room we got stuck in," she replied. "The one that had the moving story book, remember?"

"Oh," Terra said. "Well... If Garry doesn't mind."

"No, of course I don't," Garry assured. "Let's go."

We went back to read "The Girls in the Canvas." With Garry and Terra now filling me in, I was able to read the whole thing: "The women here become very troublesome once they acquire a desire for humans. They'll always stubbornly chase things until they're satisfied, it seems... Anywhere, everywhere, to the ends of the earth... But if they have one weakness, it's that they can't open doors on their own."

We also checked the two notices in the room where The Lady in Blue was still crawling around. Garry became very pale when he saw her, and Terra told him to stay behind while she read what the notices said. He did so and Terra quickly read them to me and Kasey: "You and the rose are unified. Know the weight of your own life" and "When the rose rots, so too will you rot away." Then we hurried out of the room and back to Garry.

The four of us traversed to the room with the headless statue. "What a lousy place for this thing..." Garry remarked.

"No kidding," Terra agreed. "Can you three step back so I can move it?"

"You can move it?" Garry raised an eye brow.

She put her hands on her hips. "What, are girls not allowed to move heavy objects?"

Garry held his hands up in defeat. "No, they most certainly are. I was just a bit surprised, that's all. Are you sure you don't want me to help?"

"I can do it myself," she said stubbornly. Then she hesitated. "Unless... you want to move it together...?"

Kasey giggled, but only loud enough for me to hear.

"If that's what you prefer," Garry replied. He and Terra moved the headless statue out of the way, and I thought I saw their hands touching for a moment, but I couldn't be sure. "All right, now we can proceed," he said.

We went inside. The room was now gray. There was a very narrow hallway in the center of the room, two paintings on both sides, and two... hands? They reminded me of the hands that shot out from the walls; they seemed to be desperately grasping the air, as if they wanted something. Just the sight of them made the color drain from Kasey's face. She clearly did not get over the hand experience she had yet.

The painting on the left was called "Grieving Bride." The one on the left was called "Grieving Groom." The paintings did resemble a bride and groom, but they appeared to be upset for some reason. The hands had titles on them, too. They were called "Sorrowful Bride's Left Hand" and "Sorrowful Bride's Right Hand." There was nothing else in the room, so we proceeded down the hallway.

The room was large and had many turns, hallways, and doors. None of the paintings had titles, but I could tell what they were a painting of. The one closest to us was a painting of coffee and cake. It made me feel a bit hungry.

We went left and saw some marks on the ground. When we came closer, the marks transformed into eyes. They didn't chase us or anything, but they still made me feel uneasy. "Yaaaah!" Garry exclaimed. "What is THAT?! Gross is what! Why are there EYES on the FLOOR...?!"

here were nine eyes altogether. Eight of them were darting back and forth. One of them appeared to be pink and swollen. When we looked closer, Garry said, "D... Does this lone eye have a congestion problem?"

"It looks like it," Terra said.

We went down the rest of the hall. I half expected the eyes to chase after us, but they stayed in place, simply looking back and forth continuously. When we turned right, I saw paintings of a girl, some large ice, a white snake, and some scenery. The white snake seemed to have a hole where its eye should have been. Was it missing its eye...?

There was a door near the eye hallway. The room appeared to be a maze. There was a label on the wall that said "Labyrinth." There were three splotches of red paint in the room, along with three headless statues wearing red dresses walking around. We went to the top right corner of the room. There was a note that said, "Check directly south from the red paint."

"But there's more than one..." Kasey muttered.

"I guess we'll have to check all of them," Terra said.

We went to the top left corner of the room. There was another notice. It said, "There's a trick to solving mazes... Hug the right hang side and you'll reach the end eventually."

"Not a bad trick... But that doesn't help the ceiling being far too low for comfort," Garry said, sighing.

"No kidding," Terra agreed. The two of them were too tall for the room (especially Garry), and they clearly weren't enjoying having to lean their heads down so they could fit.

"Not to mention those weird things loitering around... gives me the creeps," Garry went on. "Be careful not to get trapped between them, okay, you three?"

We nodded and continued searching around. On the left side, there was a message splattered on the wall. It read, "Do you like mazes?"

"No," Terra grumbled.

We checked south from the red splotch of paint nearest to the message and found a lever. We tugged on it and heard a sound. Nothing seemed to be different in the room, so we decided to leave.

On the right side of the room, there was a narrow hallway. At the end of it, there was a painting. It had a black background wit a strange blue face imprinted on it. It was smiling wickedly and its eyes darted around the room. When we got near it, it spoke to us. "Ehehehe, hehehehehe... Flowers... flowers're nice... Give me that there flower and I'll let you through... ehehe..."

I couldn't be sure who it was talking to, but Terra stepped in front of me and Kasey and said, "No way."

"Aw, I'm begging you... I just wanna have a snifffff..."

"No," Terra said again.

"I just want it for a li'l bit... Ehehe, hehehehe, hehehehehe... Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" It continued to laugh madly and the four of us quickly moved away.

We went to the room near the creepy painting. It was filled with a bunch of stools and canvases. The stools could be moved. In the back of the room, one of the stools had something on it.

"Do we have to push all these stools to get there?" Garry asked.

Kasey glanced around the room. "Nope. Watch this." She hopped on one of the stools and jumped onto another. She followed this cycle, jumping from stool to stool, until she reached the one with the object on it. She grabbed it and came back to us, beaming.

"Er... Nice job, Kasey," Terra told her.

"Yes, it definitely saved time," Garry said.

"Thanks!" Kasey chirped. She looked at the item in her hands. "These are eye drops."

"Oh!" Terra suddenly exclaimed. "Do we give these to the congested eye?"

We went back to the pink eye and applied the eye drops to it. The eye sparkled with gratitude. Then it moved to a wall and gazed intently at it. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that the wall was a slightly different color and found a secret passage. The room was empty except for a small red object in the back. We picked it up. It was a red glass ball. Something clicked in my head. Maybe the glass ball belonged in the snake painting? I shared my idea with my sisters and Garry. They nodded in agreement and we went back to the snake painting, carefully placing the red glass ball inside the hole for its eye.

As soon as we put it in, the painting of scenery dropped to the floor. There was writing on the back of the frame. It read, "Behind the big tree..."

We continued to walk around until we came across a door we didn't see before. Maybe that was what the lever we pulled had triggered? We ventured inside. The lights in the room were flickering, but I didn't feel so scared with my sisters and Garry around.

The room had four sculptures. The first one was a giant wine glass cut diagonally with a red cushion inside. It was titled "Wine Sofa."

"That doesn't look like very comfortable sitting..." Garry commented.

The next display was a statue of a head of a person. The expression on the person was upset and sullen. I couldn't read the title of it, but Terra said it was "Melancholy."

"Melancholy, huh," Garry said. "Well really, who wouldn't be in this place?"

We moved on to the next sculpture, which was a skeleton painted in all kinds of different colors. It was called "Puzzle."

"I assume this is fake?" Garry said.

The last display was called "Feeling." It was a tree sculpture that vaguely resembled a person.

"You got to be pretty clever to come up with this stuff," said Garry.

"Hey... isn't this the big tree the message was talking about?" Terra asked.

"You're right!" Garry blurted, checking behind the sculpture. He pulled out something shiny. "It's a... wedding ring. Now what would this be doing here?"

"Maybe this is for the hands we saw before?" Terra suggested.

"Good idea," Garry said. "Let's go check it out."

We walked back to the first room we were in. I noticed how Kasey was lingering behind. Terra said, "Okay... So we place the wedding ring on the ring finger of the left hand..." As she spoke, Garry followed her instructions. Suddenly, the hands stopped moving, and the paintings of the bride and groom changed. They were both smiling now, and the bride flung her bouquet in the air. It landed on the ground before us. We picked it up. I noticed how the titles now said "Blessed" where it used to say "Grieving" and "Sorrowful."

As we exited the room, Kasey spoke up. "Do we give the bouquet to that weird painting?"

"That makes sense." Terra nodded. "I guess it's worth a shot."

We went back to the painting and offered it the bouquet. "Ehehe, thanks... It smells niiice... eheheh," the painting said. "Well, chow time!" The painting flashed a menacing red and chomped on the bouquet until there were no more flowers left. Kasey shuddered, and I felt shaky when I thought about what would have happened to my rose if I'd handed it over.

"Ahhh, that was good... eheheh," the painting said after it was done. "Thank you, thanks so much... As promised, you can go through..." The face of the painting went away and in its place was a blue handle. "Just take this door in... Well, see ya... eheheheh!"

We reluctantly went through the door. We were now in a very narrow hallway and we had to walk one person after the other to be able to fit. There was another door. We opened it and entered.

As soon as we came in, the back hairs on my neck stood up in fear. This room scared me a little. It was a long hallway, and on both sides of the hall, there was a row of dozens of mannequin heads lined up. Hanging on the wall were three paintings, each displaying what appeared to be a mannequin head. The first one had a light blue background and the mannequin head seemed to be smiling. The second picture had a faded red background and the mannequin head was expressionless. As we walked past it, its eyes followed us. The third painting had a green background and the mannequin head no longer had pupils. We hurried out of the room.

The next room was huge and was filled with with paintings of Ladies, a couple of headless statues, and five doors. All of the doors were locked. We avoided the Ladies and decided to take our chances with the headless statues. We walked past them, but they didn't spring to life or try to attack us. I sighed of relief.

Two of the doors were next to each other. They both required a pass code. The message on the left door said, "How many paintings of women are in this room?" The right door simply asked for a four-digit number.

We counted fourteen paintings of women. While we were searching around, we came across one painting that was not of a Lady. It was called "The Hanged Man."

"Ah. This was one of the paintings in the gallery," Garry said.

"Now that you mention it, I do recall seeing that painting... and there was a man who looked a lot like you observing it..." Terra said, looking thoughtful. Then she blushed. "Not that I was staring or anything. You were just... in the way of the painting. I couldn't even get a good look at it!"

Garry's eyes met hers. He smiled. "I apologize if I was hogging the painting. Here, you can look at it now, if you'd like."

"Um, sure," Terra stammered. She peered at the picture. "The man has numbers on his shirt."

"What are they?" Kasey asked curiously.

"5629."

"Wouldn't that work for the pass code on the door?" Kasey mused.

"I... I suppose," Terra said uncertainly.

We went back to try it out, but the door still didn't open. "What? But if that isn't the pass code, then what is?" Kasey demanded.

"Hmm..." Garry mumbled. "We're missing something important."

Terra's face suddenly lit up. "Oh yeah! The man's upside down!"

"You're right!" Garry exclaimed. "So that means the code is... 6259."

We typed the number in and the door clicked open. We ventured inside. The room was small and had few objects in it. There was a canvas and a stool, and it was almost as if someone was there. There was also an empty vase in the room. Kasey pushed it around, looking bored. Terra didn't stop her, but she looked a bit worried. "Don't break it!" she warned Kasey.

After Kasey moved it around for a bit, the vase suddenly locked in place and something in the distance clicked. Terra sheepishly told Kasey "Good job" and the four of us exited the room. A mannequin head was suddenly there, in between the two doors. Garry nervously asked us, "...Was this thing here earlier? I... don't think it was..."

We entered the number "14" into the other door and went inside. The room was also small and mostly empty. It had a half-full vase, but none of us needed to heal our rose at the moment. There was a notice on the wall that said, "Please do not touch the displays. If by any chance you damage any exhibits, you wil b comp sat n." Some of the letters were missing.

There was a small bookcase in the corner of the room. We pulled out a book that was titled "Wonderful Days." It read, "The gallery is like a spooky amusement park with lots of strange things! It's so much fun playing here, the day was over before I knew it! Isn't it a fantastic place? Why don't you join me here? You'll be fine with all this company..."

We quietly put the book back and and left the room. After checking around a little bit more, we discovered that one of the doors was now unlocked. The room was completely empty except for a mirror hanging on the wall in the back. We slowly walked over to it and stared at our reflections. I wondered if Garry noticed how tattered his coat was. Other than that, all of us still looked tidy, despite the events that occurred today. Terra took this as an opportunity to tie her long hair into a messy pony tail.

We turned to leave, but there was a mannequin head blocking the door. Garry said, "What the... When did that thing get into the room...?"

After a moment's hesitation, we turned back to the mirror. Nothing seemed different about me, Kasey, or Terra... My gaze traveled up to Garry's reflection, and my throat turned dry. There was a mannequin head next to his head, staring right at him.

"...Hm?" Garry murmured. He noticed his reflection and gasped. He whipped around and flew backward, yelling, "EEEEEK! W-Wh-WHAT is THAT?!" He abruptly stood up, narrowing his eyes at the mannequin head. "Y... Why, you...!"

I was so shocked that I couldn't move. Kasey opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. It was Terra who grabbed Garry's hand and pulled him away. Garry looked at her, and his anger melted away. He sighed. "...R-Right, Terra. My, that was immature of me... Well... let's go."

Terra smiled. Then she remembered their hand contact, and she quickly pulled away, turning a little red.

The four of us left the room. Some of the Ladies had come off the walls and were crawling around. In the distance, I saw a gray key lying on the ground, but The Lady in Green was guarding it. She was much faster than the other Ladies. Kasey distracted her by taunting her to come over, and while the Lady quickly crawled toward her, we got the key. The Lady in Red jumped from the wall and scratched Terra. We ran away from her and Kasey hurried over to us, narrowly avoiding The Lady in Green. Garry lead us to the room with the small bookcase and told Terra to replenish her rose. After she did, we ran around to find the door that the key opened, avoiding the Ladies as they jumped from the walls. Finally, we found the room, unlocked the door, and hurried inside.

The room had two stools that were affixed to the floor and four different bookcases. There was a window near them. Two of the bookcases were large and two of them were small. One of the large ones was mostly empty and didn't have a lot of books. There was a notice on one side of the room and a white couch that I recognized from the gallery. I couldn't remember what it was called. Then my eyes fell on a painting in the back of the room. It was called "Couple." I blinked back tears as I stared at the familiar man and woman in the picture.

"Oh... my..." Terra breathed.

"What is it?" Garry asked, looking concerned.

"These are... our parents..." Kasey said quietly.

"Huh?! The people in this painting are your dad and mom?" he exclaimed. "Aha... They do resemble you each a bit..." Then, when he saw that his observation wasn't helping, he said, "But why would such a painting be down here? Where are they?"

The three of us shook our heads, showing him that we didn't know.

"Hmm... Well, I can't say that I know either." Then he noticed how upset we looked and quickly added, "D-Don't worry! They must be somewhere!"

We nodded. I tried to cling on to the hope that they were out there somewhere, safe and away from all of this.

We looked around the room a bit more. The notice said, "If you're tired, why not rest? You'll never be hurt again..."

When we inspected the almost-empty large bookcase, Garry said, "Ah. It seems this can be moved."

"Can you move it to the right, please?" Kasey asked him.

"Okay! Step back a bit, girls." He pushed it to the right. "It's covering the window... Oh well."

There was nothing else in the room, so we turned the knob to leave. It didn't budge. "Wh... Are you kidding me?" Garry exclaimed. "The door was wide open..."

Then a loud knock came from the door, and we stepped back. "T-That sound... is that coming from outside?" Garry asked.

"Something's at the door," Terra said. "Be careful, guys."

The loud banging kept coming. Then a Lady in Yellow burst through the wall and left a large hole. Seeing our exit, we raced past The Lady in Yellow and into the hole. There were Ladies and headless statues walking around, trying to get out roses. I thought it was one of the scariest things I'd seen in my whole life. We ran away from the evil artwork, narrowly escaping their clutches, searching for another exit. Finally, we spotted the last of the five doors; it was the only room we hadn't been in yet. The door was now wide open, and we dashed inside, slamming it shut behind us.

There were five five paintings hanging on the wall, and they were once again all paintings of a mannequin head. The first picture was normal; the second picture showed the head smiling and it had a red substance coming from its eyes; the third picture showed the head smiling even more and the substance was a little lower on its face; the fourth picture showed the head grinning and the substance was now leaking down its face; and the final picture was identical to the first one.

The four of us continued running until Garry stopped in front of the fourth painting. He was panting. "Th... That should be... far enough... I think..." He smiled victoriously. "We certainly showed THEM!"

Terra and Kasey were still trying to catch their breath. A wave of dizziness hit me. I dropped to my knees. My head was spinning. The last thing I saw was Garry and my sisters kneeling down next to me, shouting, "IB!" My ears were ringing, but I could still hear the faint echoes of them yelling my name.

Then it all went black.