Chapter 15

~Terra~

I kept running until I reached the door. I wouldn't let her kill Garry. Tears streamed down my face, but I didn't care. I opened the door and looked around. There she was, plucking the petals on Garry's rose off one by one.

It had five left. "Loves me not…"

I couldn't force my legs to move.

"Loves me…"

She was killing him. Killing Garry, the only man that ever really understood me. I cared about him more than he could ever imagine, and here I was, watching as Mary killed him. I could practically feel his pain. I could almost hear the groans that escaped his lips from outside where I left him, Kasey, and Ib.

What the hell was I doing?! I was not going to just stand around and watch this. I took a deep breath and whispered, "Garry... Garry, please be okay..."

Then I ran toward Mary and pounced on her.

~Ib~

Garry was breathing heavily and his eyes were shut. I closed my own eyes and wished that he was going to be all right. Kasey was tearing up a bit herself.

Then she whispered, "Garry…?" I opened my eyes. Garry stopped breathing. No. No… Anything but that. I started sobbing, and Kasey squeezed my shoulder.

Then his eyes flew open. Kasey and I gasped. "G–Garry?" Kasey blurted.

He looked at us, as if he recognized us but he couldn't quite place who we were.

"Garry?" Kasey said again, her eyes starting to water.

"Kasey…" he muttered. He looked lost in thought. "Ib…" His eyes widened and he jolted up. "Kasey! Ib!"

"You're… You're okay," Kasey breathed. I simply stared.

Garry looked himself over. "Well, I have a few bruises, but I think I'll manage. What about you two? How are you?"

"We're all right. We thought… you were…"

Garry stared at the ground. He sighed and placed a gentle hand on Kasey's shoulder. "Well, I don't know how, but I'm fine. Now... we should probably get going."

~Terra~

Mary turned around and quickly took out her palette knife, but not fast enough. I bashed her head against the wall, and she dropped Garry's rose – it had three petals left. I wrapped my fingers around her neck and tightened them as much as I could, listening as Mary gasped for breath. But I didn't care, couldn't care… I tugged on her neck and then my eyes landed on the palette knife in her hands. I snatched it and pressed it against her neck.

"Ter… Terra… stop," she gasped.

I pushed the knife slightly into her neck, making blood bloom from the cut. Or was it just red paint? But at this point, what did it matter? As long as I was hurting her… making her suffer for all the pain she caused Garry…

"You're not… going to be able… to kill me like this…"

I stopped for a moment and thought about what she said. I couldn't kill her like this? What was that supposed to mean?

Then I realized: She was a painting. I couldn't kill her unless…

An evil look crossed my face. I let her go and she fell to the floor, gasping for air and clutching her throat. I grabbed Garry's rose from the ground and stuffed it in my pocket, next to mine. I glanced at Mary one more time. Her wounds were slowly starting to heal. I rushed to the door across from us. There were vines covering it. They weren't made of stone, like the last time. I swung the palette knife and sliced through them. I opened the door and slipped inside.

~Ib~

Garry, Kasey, and I were walking over to the door. Then Kasey stopped.

"What's wrong, Kasey?" Garry asked.

"I just…" Kasey looked a bit worried. "Do you remember what happened before you blacked out?"

Garry looked thoughtful for a moment. "I just remember being in a lot of pain. And Terra… Oh my, she was really upset, wasn't she?"

"I think she temporarily lost her mind," Kasey replied. "So I'm not sure if we should all risk going in."

"Well, whatever Terra did, she must have stopped Mary, yes?" Garry said. When we stared at him blankly, he said, "Mary was… well, she was trying to… to harm me, it seems. And Terra had to have stopped her, because the pain is mostly gone."

"Oh." Kasey paused. "Well… I'll go check it out, okay?"

Garry shook his head. "You're not going there alone. Not with the possibly of Mary still being there," he said firmly.

"I'm going, Garry," she told him. "And you're not changing my mind."

He hesitated. "Fine. But if anything happens, scream as loud as you can, all right? Ib and I will come and help."

Kasey nodded and turned toward the door, but Garry stopped her. "Oh, and one more thing?"

She looked at him.

"Take this," he said, holding out his lighter. The corners of his mouth curved up. "You know, just in case."

Kasey smiled wistfully and took the lighter. "Thanks, Garry." Then she opened the door and went inside.

~Kasey~

My eyes fell on the blue petals on the ground. Mary really was trying to hurt Garry... I exhaled and shakily gripped onto Garry's lighter in my pocket.

"Kasey..."

I whipped around. My eyes connected with her blue ones. Her blonde hair looked tangled and matted. What had she been doing? I swallowed and forced myself to speak. "Hi, Mary."

Mary was silent for a moment. She stared at the ground. "...Why, Kasey?"

I shook my head. "Why what?"

"Why'd you do it?"

I lowered my gaze, unable to look at her. "...I could ask you the same thing. Why'd you try to hurt Ib?"

"She was going to take you away from me."

I was utterly shocked by her words. "You... She..." I shook my head. "No, she wasn't."

"You're my friend, not hers," she growled.

"She's my sister!"

"I wasn't going to hurt her."

"You could have killed her!" I retorted.

"Look." Mary sighed. "I was... scared, okay? I didn't want Ib to take you away from me... I mean, you two are already so close... But you're very protective of your sisters, like you said when I asked you what if we can't all leave. So I thought that if it came down to it, you'd choose Ib over me. And I didn't want that. I couldn't let that happen."

"So your brilliant plan was to try and kill her?" I said in disbelief.

"...I just wanted her out of the way."

"So what you're saying is, you tried to get rid of Ib so you could have me all to yourself."

She didn't respond.

I narrowed my eyes. "And what about Garry?"

"You never said anything about him."

"Yes, I did. I told you that I wanted him to stay safe, too."

"But it's not like you care about him as much as Ib and Terra," she said. I opened my mouth to argue, but then she started talking again. "Terra... I don't even know why she likes him so much. Why does she care what happens to him?"

I stared at the blue petals littering the floor. "You tried to kill him."

"But I didn't," she responded. "Isn't that what's important? Your little friend is fine."

Anger bubbled up inside of me. "Only because Terra stopped you. If she hadn't, you would've just gone through with it, wouldn't you?"

She gingerly lifted her hands to her neck, as if she was remembering something. "It doesn't matter. Because she did stop me. She practically killed me — but have you ever stopped to think about that?" Then her eyes went wide. "She's in my room..."

"What?" I blurted.

In a flash, Mary grabbed me and pulled me into a headlock. I gasped and struggled to get free, but she had an iron grip.

"I'm sorry, Kasey..." she whispered. "For everything..."

Then she ran into the room across from us, taking me along with her.

~Terra~

It was just as I thought. Random objects – drawings, notes, decorated mannequin heads, creepy blue dolls – were splattered across the floor. Hanging on the wall was a painting. It was cracked in the center, as if someone had jumped through it. I could see yellow roses on the bottom of the painting, where it was wasn't shattered. It was definitely Mary's painting, where she came from.

I ran toward it. I heard footsteps behind me. Mary slammed the door open, and I gasped. She had Kasey wrapped in a headlock. "Get out of here!" Mary shrieked. She tugged on Kasey, who yelped. "Or else…" she growled.

I froze. "Kasey, did you follow me?"

"I… I'm sorry!" Kasey cried out. "I wanted to see…"

"Get away from the painting!" Mary shouted, droning Kasey out. "Leave! Now! LLLEEEEEAAAAAVVVEEEEE!"

She dropped Kasey and started running towards me. I readied the knife, and then glanced at the painting. The knife wouldn't be enough to destroy the painting. My pulse quickened as I looked back at Mary. She was almost near me, a dangerous look in her eye…

"Terra!" Kasey yelled. I looked at her. Mary was just inches away. "CATCH!"

She threw something across the room. I caught it and looked to see what it was. A lighter! Garry's lighter! With this, I could…

I turned the lighter on and held it in front of Mary's painting. Mary froze. "Terra… Please, don't…"

I pressed the lighter on the edge of the painting and it ignited, bursting into flames. The remainder of the glass shattered and shot out from the frame. As the painting burned away, Mary stumbled back. She said one final whisper, "No…" before she crumpled to the floor in a pile of ash.

Kasey and I stared at the ashes. In a small voice, Kasey asked, "Is she… dead?"

I sighed. "I think so."

We stood there in silence for a few moments. Finally, I turned to Kasey. I raised my eye brows. "So what happened?"

"What happened?" she repeated. "I should be asking you that! What exactly happened here, Terra?"

"You saw what happened."

"I mean, before I got here."

I stared at my shoes. "I took care of it. Garry… he's okay, right?"

Kasey nodded, and relief flooded over me. "He's kind of bruised, but yeah, he's fine."

I closed my eyes and exhaled, not realizing until now how much I wanted him to be okay. I opened my eyes and said, "So… what happened while you guys were outside? Why'd you come here? And where are Garry and Ib?"

"They should be outside," she replied. "They're probably worried. We should go."

"Good idea." I trailed behind Kasey. When she walked out of the room, I slowed my steps. I turned around and looked through the room a bit more. I found what looked like a diary entry. It was written in crayon. It said, "I like the visitors coming in to live with me, but... I want to leave this place myself and live outside! But unless I take the place of someone from outside, it seems I can't do that... Won't somebody come soon? Won't somebody come soon..."

I took out Mary's palette knife and looked at it for a moment. I glanced at the pile of ashes. Then I looked back at the knife. "Just in case…" I whispered.