Chapter 13
We were greeted by a long, narrow pink stairway. It looked as if we were walking across the dark night sky. We had to walk one after the other to be able to fit. As we were going down, a white shooting star zoomed past us. Then a blue one.
At the bottom of the stairs, there was a crudely drawn path. We were able to walk on it, so we proceeded across. The path looked like it was drawn in crayon. As we were walking, what looked like a drop of water with a clown face on it flew down, but we hurried past it. Then an anvil came hurling down, but we avoided it as well. We went into the area labeled "Sketchbook."
"What the...?" Terra said, looking at our new surroundings. Everything was drawn and colored in crayon.
"Well, now... This is a significant change in atmosphere," Garry said. "But nothing we can't handle."
"If you say so..." Kasey muttered. "But this is really weird..."
There were a few tulips near a white house. One of the tulips didn't bloom yet. After noting this, we went into the white house. Inside, there was a round table, two chairs, a bookcase, a crudely drawn painting on the wall, and a clock. We inspected the bookcase and found that it was filled with storybooks. Since there was nothing else there, we exited the house.
We decided to travel up. We came into a forest. We passed by the bare trees and continued upwards. In this area, there was a blue lake. I saw some fish swimming around. Kasey felt the water. She said it was lukewarm.
We went straight. There was a field of flowers and a large white house. Unfortunately, it was locked. We continued on. We found a blue building, but the door was froze in ice. There was also a drawing of a white snake. Since we couldn't access the blue building, we went ahead. There was another white house in this area, along with three yellow butterflies that were fluttering around harmlessly. We went into the house. There was a coat rack, a bowl of red fruit, a stuffed rabbit, and a bucket. We decided to take the bucket. Just as we were about to exit the room, the door opened. A familiar voice rang out. "Kasey... Ib..."
My stomach turned ice-cold. It was Mary.
The four of us hid behind the rabbit, hoping she wouldn't find us.
"Terra... Garry..." Mary called. She checked under the table with the red fruit. Coming up empty-handed, she sighed and paused for a moment before leaving the room.
"...Don't tell me... that was..." Garry breathed.
"She's after us..." Terra said quietly.
Kasey stared at the ground silently.
We waited a few more minutes before we were sure it was safe. Then we left the house and continued down. In the next area, there was a sign that read, "Down to Gallery." There was also a white building with a picture of a blue doll over the door. It was locked. We kept going. The other side of the white building was in the next area. The door was locked as well. A canvas was drawn on top of the door. There were some flowers and a bulletin board. We moved on and entered the area where we had first been in.
We realized that we had went around in a circle (or was it a square?) and we had not seen the middle area yet, so we traversed there. There was a pink building and a vase. The building was locked, but there was a message written next to the door. It said, "The Pink Key is always kept in the toy box."
"The toy box...?" Kasey repeated.
"I guess there's a key there," Garry said.
"Then we'd better find it," Terra said.
We walked around a bit more. When we came to the area with the lake, Kasey suggested that we fill the bucket with water. Once we did that, she led us back to the first area. I couldn't help but notice that the path we used to get here was now gone. We were trapped in the crayon world.
Kasey poured the water on the tulip bud. The tulip instantly bloomed. "There's something in the tulip," Kasey said, pulling an object out. "It's a gallery key."
"I think I know what door it opens," Terra proclaimed.
We followed her to the white building with the canvas. Sure enough, the gallery key opened the door. We ventured inside. On the wall, there was a drawing of me, Terra, and Garry holding our roses. Red, blue, and white petals littered the floor. On the other side of the room, there was a drawing of Mary and Kasey holding each other's roses. There was also a small blue doll next to Mary.
In the middle of the room, there was a box labeled "Pandora's Box." I remembered hearing a story about a girl that opened the box, releasing all the evil of the world, leaving hope shut inside.
" 'Pandora's Box,' huh..." Garry mumbled.
"We might as well open it," Kasey said. Without waiting for a reply, she pulled the box open. A bunch of colorful symbols came out and formed a circle. Then they flew away into the distance.
"Kasey..." Terra shook her head. "Did I ever tell you that 'curiosity killed the cat'?"
Kasey giggled. "Um, no."
"Nevertheless, I wonder what all that was..." Garry said. He peered inside the box. "...Ah? There's something left in the box." He pulled out a little mirror.
"A mirror...?" Kasey said.
"Well, let's just hope it's hope," Terra said. She must've remembered the story, too.
We exited the gallery through another door in the room. It was the door with the doll drawing over it. As we were walking around, we discovered that a lot of things had changed. The sign that said "Down to Gallery" had a cat drawing on the back of it. In the butterfly park, a new butterfly had joined the other three. It had an eye pattern on it. There was a sun in the area with the frozen door. The locked white building had a heart symbol on the door. When we stared at the blue lake, a crescent moon suddenly appeared. Maybe it was a reflection?
The trees in the forest had many different fruits on them. There was a single apple in an orange tree. There was also a disturbing drawing of a person hanging from one of the trees.
The storybooks in the first white house had a star symbol on the cover. They were filled with starts on the inside, too. And lastly, the bulletin board near the gallery had a green spiral on it. I wondered what it all meant...
The four of us went back to the place with the sun. It was actually quite warm in the sunlight, so we stopped and sat down for a bit, basking in the warmth.
"Ah, it's warm..." Garry said. "But this is a fake sun, isn't it? I hope we get to see a real sky again soon..."
"Me too," Kasey said.
Terra and I nodded in agreement.
"You know, after seeing all the moving paintings and things jumping out... I'm hardly even surprised to see a moving painting now," said Garry. "Crazy, isn't it?"
Terra chuckled. "Not really. This place has that effect."
Garry grinned. "Trick art is nothing special, huh?"
"No kidding," Kasey said.
We were all quiet for a moment. Then Garry said, "I have to say, we've come a long way, us four... I wonder when we'll get out? My feet are starting to get sore..." He sighed.
"It better be soon," Terra said. "I don't want to be here any minute longer than I have to."
"Agreed." Garry looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, as far as we've managed to come... Aren't we heading down? All the stairs go down... Is this a good way to go...?" Then he seemed to notice the panicked look on Kasey's face, because he quickly said, "...Sorry. I didn't mean to make you anxious... Forget I said it, okay?"
After a moment, Terra spoke up. "You all saw that stuff flying out of 'Pandora's Box' earlier, right?" After we nodded, she said, "I wonder what it was?"
"Probably not anything good," Kasey replied.
"That would figure." Garry chuckled.
Kasey sighed. "Ugh, this place is making my ears ring."
"Mine too," Terra said.
"Plus... is it just me? Or does it smell like crayons?" Garry asked.
"Well, duh." Kasey regarded him oddly. "After all, this whole area is drawn in crayon. What do you expect it to smell like? Roses?"
"Speaking of roses, you're all holding onto your own, right?" Garry said. "Make sure you don't lose it. And don't let anyone else have it!"
"We know, Garry." Terra raised her eye brows.
"I was just making sure," he said sheepishly. "Anyway... I still wonder, why do we have these roses?"
"Don't they represent our life?" Kasey asked.
"Yes, but... Why?" Garry said. "...Well, I recall there was a rose sculpture in the gallery called 'Embodiment of Spirit'... I wonder if there's a connection there?"
"Maybe," Terra said thoughtfully. None of us said anything for a moment. Garry looked a bit distant. Terra clearly noticed this, because she said, "Hey, Garry? Are you okay?"
He glanced at her. "I was just thinking... Why did Mary come with us? To make fun of us?"
Terra furrowed her brow. " 'Make fun'? I doubt it."
He sighed. "...The more I think about it, the less likely that seems. We don't know very well what she's after... Of course, she may not even have a goal." He paused. "First things first, I want her to stop chasing us with a palette knife..."
Kasey frowned. She opened her mouth to say something, but then she seemed to change her mind.
"Say... Have any of you heard of macarons?" Garry asked suddenly.
We shook our heads.
"They're these candies shaped like hamburgers," he explained. "And just the other day, I had one at a cafe, and it was sooo tasty! It was really, really good! Even the cream wasn't too sweet! So, uh..." He glanced at Terra for a second, but then spoke to all of us. "If we get out of here, could we go there together?"
Terra blushed. Kasey giggled. But before any of us could say something, Garry started talking again. "...No, wait. We WILL be going there! And we will get out! I promise!"
Terra grinned. "That sounds nice."
Kasey nodded enthusiastically. "I wanna try the macarons!"
I smiled and nodded in agreement. While we were chatting, I started playing with the little mirror in my hands. Then, all of a sudden, there was a flash of light, and ice on the door melted.
"Whoa!" Kasey said in awe. "That was cool!"
"I see now..." Garry said. "You reflected the sunlight. Not too shabbyyy!" He grinned.
Terra squeezed my shoulder. "Nice job, Ib."
I beamed.
Now that the door wasn't frozen over, we went inside. There was a drawing of a square on the floor. There were eight buttons on different parts of the square. I thought it sort of resembled the whole crayon area.
"Hey... Doesn't this look like the crayon world we're in right now?" Terra said, echoing my thoughts.
"But what are the buttons for?" Garry asked.
"And what's that thing?" Kasey pointed to something in the back of the room.
The symbols from "Pandora's Box" were there. The word "start" was drawn next to the symbols, followed by a particular order: heart, eye, moon, sun, star, spiral, apple, and cat.
"This is a puzzle based on the crayon world," Terra stated. "The buttons represent each area. Remember the things that changed after we opened 'Pandora's Box'? Well, now we have to remember the area these symbols were in... in this specific order."
Easy enough. The heart symbol was on the door of the locked white building, which was in the area next to us. One of the butterflies had an eye pattern on it. It was in the area under us. The moon was a reflection in the lake, which was the area on the other side of the white building. The sun was in the area we were in right now. The stars were in the storybooks, back in the first area. The spiral was on the bulletin board, next to the gallery. The apple was in the forest, under the lake area. And finally, there was a cat drawing on the back of the "Down to Gallery" sign, which was underneath the butterfly park area.
After we pressed all the buttons in the correct order, a key appeared in the center of the square. It was a plastic key. We all grinned at each other. We managed to solve that puzzle without even going back to double check our memory.
We took the key and used it to open the door to the white building; the one with the heart symbol on it. The room was white and empty except for one thing: a blue toy box.
"This is the toy box...?" Garry asked. "It's rather big. But at any rate..."
We peered inside. I couldn't see anything.
"It said there was a key in there..." Terra said.
"I can't see the bottom." Kasey frowned.
"Is there really a key in there, I wonder...?" Garry said.
A voice appeared from behind us. "Wanna see?"
I felt a hand press down on my back. I barely had time to register that it was Mary's voice before I fell into the dark abyss of the toy box.