"I've seen dreams that move the mountains, hope that doesn't ever end, even when the sky is falling, I've seen miracles just happen, silent prayers get answered, broken hearts become brand new. That's what faith can do," -What faith can do, Kutless
-Garry- Age 30-
I closed my eyes as a bright flash lead us to the Fabricated World. I opened my eyes, we were in front of a giant painting of a girl sleeping on the moon, titled, "Aspiration," In the corner there was a purple rose in a vase.
"Looks like deja vu..." Ib said, picking up the rose. There was a long staircase going downward, and Garry let out a sigh.
"We don't know where Leo could be, but I think he knows we went in after him," Garry said. Silently, we descended the strange pink stairs, and suddenly there was a strong smell of crayons. There was a scribbly pink road, and a large sign sketched in crayon that said, "Sketchbook," We kept moving forward, and there was a house drawn out of crayons, and I looked at it curiously.
"Ib... you remember this?" Garry asked.
"Not really..." I said. Huh, so maybe I didn't recover all of my memory. We entered the strange crayon house, and there was a dining table and a clock. There was also a large picture of a man, but nothing of note. We left the house, and continued down the road, when there was a large building.
"Oh yes, the key to this is in that one house..." Garry said. "Follow me, Ib," I followed Garry down the road, to a pink house. There was writing by the door, and I read it aloud.
"The pink key is always kept in the toybox," I read. "I wonder where that is..." I followed Garry and looked to the next house, and we entered. There was a dining room, and there was a pink bunny, a blue bucket, and a bookshelf.
"Let's take this..." Garry said, grabbing the bucket. I looked at the bookshelf, and all the books were storybooks. That was a bit strange. We left the house, and I followed Garry to the lake. He filled up the bucket with water, and I dipped my hand in the water. It was lukewarm, about. Our rose slipped out of my hand, and fell into the water. There was a sharp pain as the petals started to come off.
"-Ib!" Garry said, and I quickly grabbed the rose and shook it off. Both Garry and I hurt all over, and I tried to dry it off.
"Sorry..." I said.
"That's fine, accidents happen," he said, and we went down the path.
"Now, we put this water here," he said, and dumped it out on one of the tulip buds. It bloomed, and there was something inside. I reached in and took it out.
"What's this?" I asked.
"I think that key opens the gallery," Garry said, and we walked to the gallery and tried the key, and it opened easily. There were scribbly drawings on the walls, and a box in the middle of the room. It was labeled, "Pandora's box" and I looked at it curiously. Garry bent down to open it, and then I stopped him.
"Garry, what if something bad happens?" I asked, " It is called 'Pandora's Box,'..."
"It'll be okay..." he said, and he almost sounded too confident. He opened the box, and some strange symbols flew out.
"What was that?" I asked, startled.
"You'll see," he said, and picked up the small hand mirror. We went around, identifying strange symbols, and made our way to this strange house and Garry put down the hand mirror. It melted the ice on the door, and we entered easily. There were nine switches, and a strange board in front.
"Leave it to me, Ib," Garry said, and I stepped back as he pressed the switches in a certain order, and a key appeared in the middle. He took it, then smiled.
"Ib, we'll be out of here in no time, and we'll find a way," Garry assured, and we opened one of the houses with the key. There was a blue bin, which was supposedly the "toy box".
"Ready? Jump!" Garry said, and not knowing what to do I just jumped into the bin, and it was a long drop. Garry was next to me, and we got up at the same time.
"Oogh... my head," I said, clutching my head.
"Alright, the pink key should be here somewhere..." Garry said, looking around. I looked around as well, looking for a key. I looked under one of the dolls, and there was a pink key sitting under there.
"Garry! I found it!" I said, and he walked over.
"Oh, okay," he said, and took it. Garry waited for a minute, like he was expecting something to happen, but nothing did.
"...? Why isn't..." he said.
"What?" I asked.
"Oh, um.. normally all these toys spring to life and try to kill us..." Garry said.
"Oh really? Well, let's be happy they're not," I said. Garry smiled at me, and we quickly made our way up the stairs. There was a long hallway, and a we entered a room with a staircase. I went up the stairs, and I looked behind me, and Garry was standing there.
"Garry? Come on," I said. He shook his head and followed me, and at the top of the stairs there were three hallways, one left, one right, and one forward. I looked to the left, and there was a white painting and a painting of a face.
"Wha-?" Garry said, confused.
"What?" I asked.
"Um... this was Mary's room... why is it like this now?" he asked.
"I don't know... maybe she's gone, so it doesn't exist anymore," I suggested.
"Maybe..." Garry said. We went to the left, and observed the strange blank painting. I looked closer, and there was actually a small number in the center, and it was a red number nine.
"Hm, red nine, I think we might need that," I said. We looked to the other side, and there was some text on the wall.
"BEWARE OF LIPS" It read, and there was a pair of lips at the end of the hall.
"Give...food." it said, and bit a petal off the rose.
"Ow..." Garry said.
"I guess we need to give him food..." I said.
-Sakura- Age 20-
I guess they really liked the game. They played it for a while, then got bored.
"Sakura! I'm bored!" Maria said.
"Ah, I can teach you another game," I said, "It's called the scribble game,"
"Is it fun?" Vivian asked.
"I guess so..." I said.
"How do you play?" Maria asked.
"I'm getting there," I said, "So, I make a scribble," I made a random scribble on the paper.
"And then, you make it into something! Like this," I looked at my scribble, and I turned it into a witch riding a broom stick.
"Wow! Cool!" Vivian said.
"Can I go first?" Maria asked.
"Sure!" I said, and she scribbled on the paper. She gave it to me, and I looked at it and tried to think of what it could be. I traced around it and made a dragon.
"What's that?" Maria asked.
"It's a dragon," I told her.
"Oh! That's cool!" Maria said.
"Thanks!" I said.
"My turn!" Vivian said and grabbed her pad. She scribbled on it, and Maria took a look at it.
"It's... a flower!" Maria said, drawing five petals with the scribble Vivian had made. I took one of the pads and scribbled wildly on it and gave it to Vivian.
"Um... I don't know..." she said, and looked at it from upside down.
"Oh! It's a dinosaur upside down!" Vivian said, tracing a messy dinosaur.
"Nice! Looking at the scribbles in different ways helps, too!" I said.
"Sakura..." A familiar voice said, and I turned around, and froze. Slowly, I stood up.
"Leo...?"
-Ib- Age 19-
We looked in another room called, "Liar's room,". There were many paintings with strange text under them to what was the answer, and I didn't really know what that meant. Some of the other ones said that they agreed to other ones.
"What are they talking about?" I asked.
"I'm not too sure... let's look in the next room," Garry said, and we went into the next room ahead. There were many tiles and a statue in the middle of the room.
"These tiles are loose..." Garry said, stepping on a tile.
"Maybe we pull them up?" I asked. Garry shrugged and pulled up one of the tiles, and acid came out and wilted a petal of our rose.
"Maybe there's one specific one we need to pull up, as the paintings said," I said, and Garry followed me to the room with the paintings.
"Wait..." Garry said. "Isn't this the liar's room? So all of these guys are lying?"
"One must be telling the truth..." I said, "Because there must be an answer..."
"Well, everyone agrees to everyone but the brown guy," Garry said, looking at the text.
"Then maybe he's right...?" I said.
"Don't know, but I guess we can try." We followed what he said, and pulled up the tile, and no acid came up. There was a small number on the tile that read, "4" in violet print.
"I guess we remember that... red nine and violet four," I didn't know how long we'd be here until we'd find Leo, but we'd have to find a way to get all of us out...
-Sakura- Age 20-
"Sakura..." he said, and there was a girl who looked just like Maria, but older.
"Leo..." I said, and ran up and threw my arms around him. This had to be a dream... but then the thought hit me.
"Why'd you come back?" I asked.
"That's not where I belong... I belong here Sakura. You have to go back to the real world..." he said.
"No Leo... you deserve to live. Your an amazing person... I just..." I said, trying to say what I wanted to, but it wouldn't come out properly.
"Hush... Sakura, I need you to leave. For me... it's just I don't belong there," he said. I shook my head.
"Leo! You do belong there! Even if you father created this world for you, you should get a proper chance to live in the real world!" I cried.
"Please Sakura..." he said. I wouldn't let him convince me...
"Is there a way we both can get out?" I asked.
"No... there is no way. If there was I would have taken it long ago..." he said, with sadness in his eyes. Suddenly, I heard a door slam, and Leo froze. I turned, and there was a woman with platinum blond hair and a long red dress. Her eyes were hazed, and she had a lot of makeup on. She looked like a supermodel from medieval times. She looked startled, and an angry look started coming onto her face.
"Leo...?" she said.
"M.." was all he could stutter. There was a black rose in her hand with many petals. She let out a scream and dashed towards Leo. He quickly grabbed my hand and ran. I ran behind him, trying to keep up.
"Leo!" She screamed. "Don't run from your Mother!"
"Don't look back.. just run!" Leo panted. We ran wherever there was to run, and I was scared at what his Mom would do to him. Beat him? Kill him? I didn't even want to think about it. We ran into a random room where there was a long staircase, and we flew down the stairs as fast as possible. We slipped off the pink staircase and found a strange place that smelled strangely of crayons. Leo came to an abrupt stop, and he looked back. I looked hesitantly, and there was no one there. Leo took a deep breath.
"I guess we lost her," Leo said, panting. We looked around, and Leo blinked.
"Whoops... I left Mary there..." he said.
"Vivian and Maria are there too... they'll be okay, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, they'll be fine," Leo said.
"Anyways... where is this place?" I asked. We walked forward for a bit, and there was a big sign that read, "The Sketchbook,"
"The Sketchbook, I guess..." Leo said, and we advanced forward. There were strange houses, and we entered one of them. There was nothing but a dining table and a painting. It was kind of strange though... something seemed a little... off about it.
"For any reason do you sense something weird about this?" Leo asked.
"Definitely," I said. There was nothing in that house, so we moved on and saw a tall building. We tried the door, but it was locked.
"Where do you think the key is?" I asked Leo.
"Dunno... could be anywhere," he said, moving on and there was a large butterfly field.
"Butterflies!" Leo said, and caught one. I smiled, and caught one also. They were strangely easy to catch, and just didn't seem real.
"I've always liked butterflies..." Leo said, letting out the one in his hands. I let mine go, and it fluttered off. I wandered to the house nearby, and there was some text on it.
"To unlock this house, read the instructions on the pink house..." Leo read.
"Hm, that sounds almost too easy..." I said, and we went to the pink house in the middle. By the door it read: "The pink key is always kept in the toy box,"
"I wonder where the toy box is..." Leo said. "We can find it, no problem," he sounded almost too confident. We made our way over to the other house, and we entered the house. There was a dining table with a bowl full of apples, and we looked in another room with a bucket, a pink stuffed bunny and a few bookshelves. I looked on the shelves, and there were all story books. Maria would like these... suddenly, the door opened.
"Leo, where are you?" a sharp voice said. Leo pulled me back, and we kneeled. There were some footsteps, and we held our breath, and then the door slammed again.
"That was close," Leo said. "I don't think there's anything of use here... let's keep going..." he said, and we left that house. We made our way back to the front, and there were several tulips in bloom. I tried to smell one, but all I inhaled was a strong scent of crayons, and I coughed.
"Wait, there's something in this one..." Leo said, reaching into one. He took the key out of the tulip.
"Oh wow... who knew..." I said. We tried the key on the gallery, and it opened. There were strange scribbly drawings on the walls, and a box in the middle labeled, "Pandora's box,".
"We don't have much choice but to open it..." he said. I opened the box, and strange symbols came out and flew away.
"What was that?!" I asked.
"I don't quite know..." Leo said. "Let's just hope it's not bad..."
-Garry- Age 30-
After we put the tile back down, we heard a ruckus of ripping and tearing from the other room. Quickly, we went to the next room and all the paintings were ripped up and were dripping with red paint.
"What happened?" I asked, getting a bit scared and startled.
"I'm not sure..." Ib said. The text under each painting read, "LIAR!" Except for the one that told the truth. That one was ripped to shreds and had red paint all over it.
"This doesn't make me feel safe..." I said.
"I think it'll be okay..." Ib said, nervously. We exited the room, and looked to the left. There were many strange dolls hanging from ropes, and thank goodness they weren't blue and disturbing...
"These dolls... I feel something's weird about them..." Ib said, observing them. It was kind of creepy how happy they were, although they were being hung from rope. Ib looked closer at one, and one fell on my head.
"EEEEK!" I screamed, and flung it against the wall. I quickly turned around.
"Garry are you okay?" she said quickly.
"S-Sorry Ib... that caught me off guard.." I said. She looked to the doll I flung to the wall, and now it was dripping with a red substance. There was red text on the wall: "THAT HURT", it read. Oh no... no dolls...
"Hey, there's a small number here..." Ib said, looking at its clothes. I peered over her shoulder, and there was a small green "18" on the clothes.
"Strange... so we have a violet four, a red nine, and a green eighteen..." I said. "Where does that door go to?"
"Let's see..." Ib said, and went to the door and there was a number panel. There was a green "X" * a red "X" + a violet "X"
"I'm not too great at math..." Ib said.
"Okay, so we just substitute these numbers... 18*9+4" I said, trying to do the math in my head. "Um... eighteen times nine is one hundred sixty two, and plus four is one hundred sixty six."
"I told you I suck at math..." Ib said, and I entered 166 into the code panel. The door unlocked, and we entered and there were trees scattered everywhere, and a single wooden apple on one of them. There was a large painting at the back called, "Apple Born of Tree,"
"Maybe we can feed this to the lips?" Ib asked, and I shrugged.
"It's wooden... but I guess it'll work," I said, and we made our way back to the lips. I smelled the wooden apple, and for some reason it smelled slightly sweet... hopefully it would work.
"Hungry... give food" the lips said, "That food... give it to me..." Ib placed the wooden apple in it's mouth, and it chewed happily.
"This tasty..." it said, "I let you pass now. Go through my mouth." the mouth opened, and there was a hole.
"Ew..." I said, climbing over it's tongue. There was a long hall with pictures of an axe, and I stared at them curiously as we walked down the hall. Who would paint so many pictures of the same thing? Not me... When we reached the end of the hall, an axe dropped, and I pulled Ib right when the axe crunched the ground.
"Whew Ib... be careful," I said, although I almost got smushed.
Haha, I keep saying I'll post two chapters in one day but I never do it... either procrastination, or I don't get the time. There is a slim chance I'll upload again today, and for sure tomorrow. I will finish by at most next Tuesday, and it is possible I might finish Friday. But after I finish there's A LOT I have to edit, so when I finish editing, please take the time to read the whole thing again, as it will make a lot more sense and it will overall just be better. Thanks for reading this somewhat long author's note. Remember again, favorite, follow, and review!