Alice reached into her pocket and miraculously took out the handkerchief that Runo gave her from a long time ago. Another strange incident. How does all of this happen? So much logic is being defied...

She handed the handkerchief to Fabia and said, "Here, wipe your tears. Ren's attempt to make you cry didn't work, and it's quite a paradox seeing how you're crying now but not before. What happened during the fire?"

Fabia stopped crying and spoke up. "One day, Ren came back with a worried expression and kept mumbling, 'Everything's okay, everything's okay.' He downstairs here for a moment but later called out for help. The entire studio was burning, and the fire spread throughout the house."

"Did it ever occur to you that Ren never came back with any earnings? That man didn't pay him at all and asked for money in return for wasting his time."

"No way...maybe that's why Ren was acting all weird. Anyway, the neighbors helped out with the fire, but the entire house burned down anyway. Ren couldn't be saved, and the falling debris caused my left leg to become disabled. I was alone, crippled, and couldn't earn money anyhow."

"So...you...just...?"

"Without anyone to rely on, of course I couldn't survive. I would rather get hit by a car than steal from someone. I miss my old life."

"I see. Your parents and sister had money and gave you a good life, but they passed away. There was no way of living like that anymore, right?"

"Exactly! What's worse is that I can't find Ren anywhere at all. I can vaguely sense his presence but can't tell where he is. I've searched around town but ended up here since he was killed in the fire."

Ren was killed in the fire right after he came back from seeing that mysterious man. "Fabia, do you remember what else Ren did when she came back?"

"He was carrying something in his hand when he came back, but that's all I know. Ren told me that he hid a 'last resort' kit in that handle-less cabinet. Maybe that will help you." Fabia walked away in despair before Alice could ask anything else.

"Handle-less cabinet...there it is! What does Ren mean by a 'last resort' kit?" wondered Alice as she pried the cabinet open. Luckily, with her long sharp nails, opening the cabinet door was pretty easy. "Let's see what kind of stuff Ren stored in here."

Alice pulled out a small metal box and opened the lid. Inside the box was a tiny, cork-plugged bottle of a clear liquid. The words on the label was still legible. "WARNING: Flammable. Will ignite immediately in contact with tempera. What an odd substance. Tempera is a type of paint...probably the same paint used in both paintings of Fabia. Wait, there's something else."

Alice pulled out another identically-shaped bottle and read the label. "WARNING: Corrosive. Will eat away any paint that this comes in contact with. This actually makes more sense. Sounds like your typical paint solvent to me. That reminds me. The crying painting still seems a little off to me."

After grabbing the crying painting in the upstairs studio, Alice ran upstairs again back to Shona's studio to retrieve the smiling painting. By a split second, Alice noticed something shiny on the painting but missed it. Alice walked slowly this time, and the short flash of light caught her eyes. What was that? Something reflected the light from the window, but where is it? After a few moments of awkward standing, Alice found the source of the reflection.

"A painting...reflecting light? This looks too dry and old to be shiny." Alice tilted her and saw the cause for it. "Oh! It's a watermark! I wonder how someone can actually apply a watermark onto a tempera painting. I should learn that." She gently touched the painting and felt that the paint was thicker around the watermark and thinner at the sides. "Strange...it's like there's another layer of paint here. Layer of paint..."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Shun combined some fragrant liquid hand soap and black paint in a plastic cup to make a weird concoction. The aroma happened to catch Alice's attention and brought her over to him. "Shun, what is this?!"

"You'll see soon enough." He mixed the bubbly paint and looked over at Alice's desk. "How is your coloring doing? Did you color every box with a different color?"

"Yes, with every single color available in the deluxe edition kit of Crayola crayons. It's really sticky, though. Why can't I use color pencils?"

"Because color pencils are going to ruin this project." Shun took a paintbrush and his bucket of bubbly paint over to the table. After placing Alice's 'drawing" on top of sheets of paper towels, he dipped the paintbrush and spread the black paint over the crayon squares. "Looking good so far."

"What are you doing?!" Alice panicked. "That looks so disgusting."

"Relax, I know what I'm doing. How finished are you with that pencil art?"

Alice sighed and replied. "No matter how much I hate you now for ruining my hard work, here's the decorative pencil art of the words 'Love You Lots' that I made. Now what?"

Shun took one look at the drawing and shook his head. "That's a lot of empty spaces there. How about this? I'll help you add more details in the blank spaces while we wait for the paint to dry."

"Sure. What are you planning to do?"

"You'll see soon enough."

After almost an hour of decorating, the coat of paint on top of Alice's sheet of crayon squares dried. Shun took the completed pencil art, placed it over the painted sheet, and used his pencil to make depressions in order to transfer the design on the pencil art onto the black paint. "All done. Alice, grab that twisted paper clip and scratch away all the parts that are depressed on the black paper."

"Um...okay." Alice scratched the outline of the pencil art Shun transferred onto the painted paper. Later, bits of black paint chipped off, and in its place were the colors of the crayon squares popping out. "Oh my heavens...this is beautiful! Shun, look at this!"

The majority of the paper was black, but the words appeared and stood out with vibrant colors that Alice colored with the crayons. "See? I told you it'd be okay. Since you worked very hard on coloring the paper and making the pencil art, consider it my present to you. Love you lots." he added with a kiss on her cheek.

"Shun, you didn't have to go through all that trouble..." Alice replied, gently rubbing her face with her hand.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Alice took the cork off the bottle of solvent and poured on the watermark area. The painting fizzed as paint ran down to and stained the bottom frame. Once the foam ceased, it was clear that the painting on the easel now was of a totally different person.

"This isn't Fabia smiling anymore. She's crying, just like the one in the double underground studio. Why would Ren paint two? Or did Fabia paint one of them seeing that she had no choice? If only Shun was here to help me decide..." She placed the paintings together side by side, and every aspect of both crying paintings were identical except for the signature. "Ren signed the painting I found downstairs but not the one I just cleaned. This is scaring me. I should burn them. Outside."

With the art fair still going on, Alice went downstairs. Maybe a starting a new fire in the studio will destroy the curse that locked Ren away. But Alice changed the idea because she'd have no space to escape. The second underground studio, like the first, also had a door hidden under the stairs. What's here?

She opened the door to see a backyard, but by all means bizarre. "This is insane! How would the negative second floor of a building lead to a garden parallel to the first floor?" Alice looked back to see Shona's building in the distance about many feet high from where she stood. "Now it makes sense. Shona's building rests on top of a hill."

In the garden, trees grew lusciously, flowers bloomed vibrantly, and vines twisted artistically around the bars of the metal fences. Sunlight shone brightly through the sky, bringing warmth and light to the plants.

"This is beautiful. I always wanted a garden like this." Alice's nose caught the scent of something that didn't belong. She followed the trail of a weird scent and discovered a translucent glass room with the roof off and door open. Alice walked inside to find a small barbecue pit with a few live embers. This is the perfect place to burn the paintings.

She placed both paintings inside the pit. The corners turned black in contact with the embers, and Alice poured the entire bottle of flammable liquid. I hope the paint is really tempera...

The entire barbecue pit lit up and exploded into flames, forcing Alice outside onto the grass. The door closed instantaneously, and debris knocked the latch down. Alice pushed herself onto the glass door and looked inside. "Oh no! What have I done?" Alice noticed a black-haired person inside with the flames. "Wait a minute...somebody's in there!"