Ib stared at Ellen. What had she seen?
"So should we go out the door and see what the shadow was?" Aya asked.
"I'll go with Viola. You guys stay here." Ib offered, leading Viola out of the room.
They exited the room.
Ib turned left. Just as she turned, she saw the tiniest flash of blonde hair and a green dress.
Mary.
Ib ran around the corner, but just came to one of the Ladies in Red trying to open a door.
Ib tip-toed away past the Lady in Green and the Lady in Yellow, who were still stuck on the wall, and back to the entrance of the room.
Then she saw that Viola was lying on the ground, blood running from a wound in her head.
"Uh...Ib...help me..." She gasped.
"VIOLA!"
Ib heard a scream from the room as Ellen crashed out the door.
"It's okay, she'll be fine," Ib told her.
"No, she's not fine! We need to get her rose to a vase!" Ellen's voice was high with fear.
"It's her that's injured, her rose is fine," Aki picked up Viola's grass-green rose.
"No, it's not." Madotsuki whispered. "It's covered in blood."
"Is it? I can't see anything." Aki muttered.
"Put it in the vase!" Aya urged.
"There's no water left though." Ib remembered.
"Yes there is. I didn't use all of it for my rose." Madotsuki told them.
"Put it in the vase then!" Ellen shouted.
Aki ran inside the room.
A few moments later, she came out.
The rose was no longer covered in blood. It was glowing softly.
"Viola?" Ellen murmured. "Viola, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Viola's eyelids flickered.
Ib let out a breath of relief.
"So should we go through the door now?" She asked the others.
"Yeah, oka-" Madotsuki began, but she was cut off by Ellen.
"No. I'm not going. You're plan nearly got my best friend killed by a crazy painting with a knife!"
"How do you know she's a painting?" Aya asked.
"What else would she be, a pig?" Ellen snapped.
"Look, how about Aki, Aya and I go and explore the next area, and you and Viola stay here?" Ib said gently.
"No!" Ellen said fiercely.
Aki opened the door to the room. Everyone went inside.
"Why not?" Aya said curiously.
"Because I don't want to go through with Ib's plans!" She yelled.
"Fine then, leave!" Ib shouted back.
"Okay then, I will!" Ellen yanked the door open and stalked out, her light purple hair nearly whipping Aki in the face.
"Viola, are you going?" Madotsuki asked her.
"Well...Ellen is my best friend..." She looked nervously around at everyone. "So...yes. I'll go. I hope we'll see you later on, once Ellen's calmed down." Viola smiled at the rest of them before exiting after her friend.
Madotsuki didn't know what to do.
She wanted to go with Ellen, because she seemed powerful, but Ib knew her way around the haunted gallery, and Aki and Aya would be going with her.
"Madotsuki, will you come with us?" Aya asked.
"Um...okay." Madotsuki decided, nodding.
"Then let's go." Ib found the other door and pulled it open.
Madotsuki walked silently behind the others, who were chatting away about Ellen and Viola.
Will they be okay, with all of those Ladies paintings? Madotsuki wondered.
The group came to a long, green hallway.
"What is this place?" Aki said.
"It's a hallway...but it might be loaded with traps, so be careful." Ib said.
Madotsuki stepped in front of the others. "I'll go first," She said. "I'm not being brave, I just don't want you all to risk your lives for me again."
"Again?" Aya frowned "When did we save you in the first place?"
"You helped me out of the blood room." Madotsuki told them.
"You're welcome, Mado!" Aki grinned at her.
Great. That nickname.
Madotsuki smiled back and wandered down the long hallway.
"Be careful!" Aya called.
Madotsuki nodded and continued down the hallway.
She didn't notice any traps, but she saw a dark figure pass outside a window.
She looked again and it was pitch-black outside.
That's not good.
Then Madotsuki spotted something at the end of the hallway. It was a table, on which a book sat. A dark blue book with a quill next to it.
"Huh?" She murmured, running down the hallway to get to it.
She looked right and left and saw only a passageway to the right. It lead to a staircase.
"GUYS!" Madotsuki yelled down the hallway. "I found something!"
The others raced down the hallway, not noticing the window, and over to where Madotsuki stood by the book and quill.
"What's this?" Aya picked it up and opened it to the first page.
"It's...someone else's account of what happened here..." Ib realized, watching them read it.
Madotsuki leaned over Aya's shoulder to read the book, while Aki and Ib watched them.
Aya began to read aloud:
"This place...has many many secrets. It's so wonderful! Sometimes I walk down one hallway expecting to find a certain room, but instead I find another!
Sometimes I play "Loves me, loves me not" with the Ladies and Mary. It's such fun! But it does get lonely, even with Mary, who looks the most human of all of us.
And then the dolls play with us too, but they don't do much.
I made up a story today. It was about a girl who got lost in here and was unable to find her way out, so she stayed with us. Forever! I can only wish it would come true, though...won't somebody come? Please..."
Aya stopped reading and closed the book. "That's all there is. I think the person who wrote in this might be nearby. Let's be careful."
"So, should we go up those stairs?" Aki asked.
"Yes. It might be another way out of here." Madotsuki decided, ascending the stairs.
They walked in silence, until they reached the top, where they came to a grey passageway.
"This is it!" Ib said excitedly. "This is another way past the Ladies room!"
"What about Viola and Ellen...?" Aki whispered.
"They...I don't know...they could be anywhere." Ib admitted.
"They could be trapped, or lost!" Madotsuki didn't finish the sentence. The fact that they could be dead was too horrible to imagine.
"Let's go in here," Aki indicated a dark grey door above a set of stairs.
They all crowded inside the room, and got such a shock when they saw Viola and Ellen standing at the back of it.
"Ellen! Viola!" Aki exclaimed, running up to them and hugging them.
"We were so worried about you!" Ib had forgotten all about her argument with Ellen.
Aki pulled back and stared around the room.
"It seems safe in here," Ellen said.
"For now." Aya added darkly.
"Oh, when we went through that door, we found this," Aki showed Viola and Ellen the book.
"Who wrote it?" Viola asked.
"We don't know. It's definitely a painting, and a painting like Mary, at that." Ib told them.
"Who's Mary?" Asked Madotsuki.
"A painting of a lifelike girl who wants to trap us here so we can be her friends. I though I burnt her but...obviously not." Ib sounded puzzled.
"Why would you burn someone?!" Asked Viola in shock.
"She was a threat. She would've killed me if I didn't."
"So...are any of you injured?" Aya asked Ellen and Viola.
"Only Ellen," Viola said. "A headless mannequin ripped a few petals off her rose. But she's already used the vase. There's no water left in it."
Aki glanced at Ellen's rose. It was lilac, like her hair.
"I've never seen any roses coloured like that before," Aki pointed to the rose.
"I haven't seen any silver roses, either." Ellen retorted, obviously still a bit rattled from her and Ib's fight.
"Has anyone ever seen a blue rose before?" Asked Aya.
"I have," Ib replied. "When I was trapped here before I was with a man called Garry. He had a blue rose, and he escaped with me."
"So where is he now?" Madotsuki asked.
Ib shrugged. "Somewhere in the real world. I was at a cafe with him when I was suddenly transported to Aya's room. That was how we got here." She told them all.
"The same thing happened to me and Viola," Ellen began. "She was over at my house, then suddenly, she toppled backwards into one of the paintings in my hallway."
"So all of our paintings are connected...?" Madotsuki wondered.
"Not mine. I went to a gallery with my class." Aki said.
"But they're still linked," Viola said.
"Yeah, they must all be by Weiss Guertena." Said Ib.
"Hey...what's that painting of?" Aki pointed to the painting behind Viola called "Couple".
Ib walked forward to stand by it. "That painting is of my parents." She said.