Ib woke up in a dark, damp room. It smelled of rotting flowers, and Ib shivered, soaked to the bone. Hugging herself, she searched the room for a door or key, which was difficult seeing she could barely see more than a foot in front of her. She saw a slight of light coming from the far side of the room, piquing her interest. She shuffled her feet over, almost collapsing on the way there. Going through the painting seemed to have drained her of her energy, and she feared what would happen if she encountered a hostile work of art.
Sliding her trembling hand down the wooden frame of the door, she found the handle and grasped it, hoping it wasn't locked. She sighed in relief as the door glided open. As she limped down the hallway, she wondered were Garry and Mary where. She hoped they were safe, wherever they were. But soon she realized she should worry more about herself. She had never seen this part of the gallery, thought the geography of the place seem familiar. As she turned to see stairs, she pondered if she could even make it down the stairs without falling. One step at a time, she descended down the pale blue stairs, watching as an array of multi-colored roses slithered across the wallpaper.
There had to be thousands, each an individual color and size, traveling across the walls, ceiling, and floor. She eventually spotted their red, blue and yellow roses clumped together. She dragged one hand across the smooth surface of the wall, while the other gripped onto the railing for support. Suddenly, one of the roses wilted. And another. One after another the roses wilted, then where replaced by a new rose, sometimes the same color, sometimes different. It was then Ib realized what they meant.
"Everyone in our town must have a rose…" Ib said in awe. She knew there were too little roses to equal the world, or even the county. But their small city had a rather small population, no more than a one or two thousand people. She then glued her eyes to the three unmoving roses in the corner. Her eyes widened as the yellow rose wilted away, not replaced by another flower. Tear stung her eyes as she stared at the spot where the rose had been.
"No…" She cried, sitting down on one of the stairs, weeping into her hands. She bit her lip, stood, shaking, and once again traversing down the stairs. I…I have to find Garry… I hate not knowing where Mary is, or I she's all right. But I have to keep moving…I have to escape…
Garry stared, wide-eyed, at Mary's rotting corpse. When the rose wilts, you to will rot away. Bunny sprinkled the rose petals over her as she laughed manically. Garry collapsed.
"I was simply following your orders, king." She smiled.
"I…I killed…You killed…" He trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.
"Ok, now go find Ib before she finds out. It would be messy if she did. You should be thanking me. I not only followed your orders, but I am willing to take the blame for your actions so you can leave."
"I didn't kill her! You did!" Garry said, finally regaining his voice.
"I was following your orders. Your desire was to kill her."
"But you don't actually kill her!"
"So you admit you wanted to kill her."
"Wha, NO! I didn't want me to kill her or you to kill her! She was a nice girl and- Wait, did you say find Ib?" Garry asked.
"I was wondering when you would catch on to that. You didn't think she was really dead, did you?" the doll laughed.
"But Mary said-"
"Mary found the ash of Ib's socks and shoes. We had to give you a motive for wanting to kill her."
"But the candy?" Garry questioned
"I found the lemon candy in her pocket. Thought it would be a nice touch." The doll clapped her hands. "Now get moving! You're not off the hook yet! We can't rest until you're in the real world, which means You can't rest until you're in the new world!"
"What's the point of this?" Garry asked. "Why are you helping the people in this hell get out?"
The doll gave him a grin. "That's what Father told us to do."