Greetings everyone! Sorry if this chapter took this long to come out. I was almost hit by procrastination again, threatening me to stop writing it. Fortunately, I soldiered on and get to finish the seventh chapter!
Well here's the chapter everyone! Hope you enjoy!
Five minutes had passed after Mary encountered Shadow around the corner of the small hallway leading to a room she visited and came out from, wherein she immediately seek comfort in his arms and hugged him moments after stumbling across him, not caring if he was taken by surprise again and overall doesn't like it. Thankfully, he heard her cries indicating she must have had a rough time long before he encountered her so he didn't complain and let him and his shoulder be hugged and sobbed on by her.
Stroking her hair for more comfort after Mary crouched down to his height, Shadow is equal parts relieved and worried; relieved that he's not alone stuck in this creepy location but worried she is here to witness and endure anything this place can throw to horrify them and fill their minds with dread.
After for what seemed like eternity, Mary stops hugging Shadow and detaches herself off him. Wiping her tears with her sleeves while standing up properly, she looks to his eyes with a strained smile, stating, "Um, s-aorry for hugging you so suddenly again. I was… I was soooo, so scared because of the… artworks that attacked or chased me and how creepier this place is than the last time I was here. I just… I didn't restrained myself when my body acted to clung onto you."
Though actually bothered she hugged him without his permission again, Shadow didn't mind it, shaking his head to let her know she didn't do anything bad just because she hugged him suddenly. "Don't be sorry. Even before hearing your terrified crying, I can tell that you must have been in… whatever this place is long before I got here many rooms away from here."
"You're… You're not mad?" she asked him with hopeful teary eyes.
"Why would I be?" he raised an eyebrow.
"…I don't know. Because you said you don't like anyone touching you. So I thought… you will scold me again."
Shadow lets out a sigh. "I'm not mad. Do I have the nerve to be mad at you when we're in this predicament?"
Mary is relieved to hear he's not angry at her. She rubs her head, replying, "I guess not. I'm just… nervous and worried."
"Well, I can't fault you for feeling that," shrugged Shadow. Wanting to get straight to the point, he decides to ask Mary what's going on while she was alone possibly exploring the haunted halls before encountering him. "Anyway, I believe you must tell me what were you doing before we ran into each other. Is that fine?"
Her anxious expression indicates she doesn't like reminding herself of the terrifying things she saw or encountered. But since he's curious and needed a lot of context so he understands what this place is, of which she has an inkling based on what she saw, she swallows her fear before she replies to Shadow. "Alright."
"Good. Start Mary. I'm listening." He folds his arms, his index finger tapping his arm as a verbal tic. "And try keeping it short. We don't have time standing idly."
"I'll try."
Doing her best summarizing what she was up to while making it short, Mary reveals that after she closed her eyes and slept, she wakes up so suddenly, founding herself standing in a small room where the corners of the black, cold walls and ceilings look like it's made out of pink crayon. There was no furniture or other objects in the room except for a palette knife and a vase containing a yellow rose on a small table situated in the center. The moment she laid eyes on the rose, she realized that, some way or another, she's back in the Fabricated World.
"What? The Fabricated World?"
Mary nods seriously. "Yes… It sounds hard to believe, which I can relate since I was hoping I wouldn't visit my former home again by myself once I'm in the real world, but…" She lets out a sigh. "It didn't take long for me to see the inhabitants I encountered as I got out of the room in a daze."
Continuing her story, she stated how she was in disbelief that she's somehow back in the accursed world, hoping and insisting that she must be in a nightmare, which is not an inaccurate statement considering she must be sleeping in the real world. But it was soon after picking up the rose and palette knife and going out of the room that the 'nightmare' might be real when she sees a small ink-like monster idling a meter away from the doorway in the melting hallways dripping or splattered with dark-colored paint, of which it was too dim enough she can barely see. When the monster saw her, they let out a shriek before it charged towards her and clawed her right hand, causing one petal to fall from her rose she thought is a fake. Realizing the yellow rose is indeed the real deal instead of fake, she acted quickly to kill the monster using the palette knife.
Mary became distressed at that point, and it didn't entirely left her as she moved forward through the many hallways filled with the same monsters and creepy hazards like disembodied hands coming out from the wall to claw at her and parts of the cracked ceiling falling to the floor to crush her little body. Also, there are headless statues chasing after her too, which she can't hope to attack them with the palette knife or push them hard in time to shatter them on the floor. By the time she managed to escape the monsters and hazards and found a safe room (marked by a white door with a rose insignia, she added), so she can rest briefly and heal herself, she lost four out of five petals. Any more damage to her and she can kiss the last petal, and her life, goodbye.
"…And… that's everything." Mary concluded.
After she's done summarizing what she was up to before they happen upon each other, Shadow wonders if he must have went through the same twisting and turning hallways the painting girl traveled through when he was chased by the painting monster. Her mentioning the disembodied hands and headless statues he may have passed by during the chase are enough hints that tells him he did go through the same hallways Mary did. The only thing he's sure didn't saw during the chase are the paint monsters.
"I see. So we went through the same path, but in different intervals," guessed Shadow, putting his finger on his forehead. "We must have appeared at the same time, but in different parts of this… world which you believe might be actually the Fabricated World."
"We're in the Fabricated World again. That I'm sure of," asserted Mary, brandishing the palette knife while looking left and right to make sure they are the only ones here and no monsters are in sight. "I recognized the headless statues, the structure and appearance of the hallway, the smell of the oozing paint on the ceiling, walls, or floors, and most of all, the slashed and blank paintings scattered around in certain parts of the walls during my escape."
Unable to deny they are truly in the cursed gallery again, Shadow clicked his tongue in displeasure. "Hmph. To think we're back in this world again… And it just have to happen when we are sleeping," he put his hands down, clenching his fist in enmity. "The way I'm seeing this, we won't be able to wake ourselves out of this nightmare of a place. We might have to explore around and witness the dangers and its ghastly monsters, whether we like it or not."
"Guess you're right," she sighed, not at all pleased that not only she's and the hedgehog are back in the world she dreaded to call her home, but also having to encounter all manners of danger and monsters during their exploration of the Fabricated World. While its better to be traveling with him whose looks can surely kill than having to travel alone armed with only a puny knife that can kill small monsters and damage bigger ones, it doesn't change the fact they are stuck here for the foreseeable time. If they are to find an exit hopefully, they must swallow their fear and explore the dim hallways appearing to be withering due to the presence of dripping paint and clammy noises it is making teeming with hostile art monsters both weak and strong.
Speaking of art monsters, she wonder where did Shadow came from, being the only one who has yet to tell her what manner of fright he encountered. "Say Shadow, you haven't told me what you were doing before we meet here yet. Can you tell me, please? I told you what was I doing, so it should be fair you have to do the same, right?"
Shadow shrugs, seeing no harm in it. "Guess I should."
"Oh wait. We should not linger in this small hallway. It's not an appropriate place to be retelling me your part of the story," Mary stops him from starting. "I think we should go to the safe room located around this corner first."
"Safe room, huh?" repeated Shadow.
"Yes! That is where I stopped to rest after escaping the paint monsters with only one petal left," she explained. "Luckily, there are two vases full of water inside, which means I get to replenish my yellow rose so it has five full petals again! Oh! Speaking of which, your rose Shadow…" She takes a look to his black rose. "Hmm... It looks like… it has only four petals left. I think you had went through enough pain, huh?"
Hearing her say the part about the rose being replenished by putting it in the vase full of water made him realize he must keep the rose, and by extension himself, alive due to the vases Mary saw in the safe room. Eyeing the black rose, he decides to wait no longer and starts walking around the corner with the intent of restoring the petals back. "You're right. Let's not linger here any longer Mary."
The girl followed him hurriedly and clumsily, feeling a bit miffed he chose to go around the corner and enter the Safe Room instead of replying to her. "H-Hey wait! Can you please wait for me? I know we're in a hurry, but still...!"
After Shadow put his rose in the vase and saw the petals bloom as the stem empties the vase fully, restoring his energy back, he tells Mary about where he found the black rose (which she adored and liked not because of its unique color, but also the black petals with red tips noted to be similar to Shadow's fur color. Mary joked that the rose truly is made for him, which he didn't dare deny), the encounter with the long-haired paint woman who attempted to pluck all the petals and kill him and how she chased after him after forcing her to give his rose back, ending with her leaping towards him and making a strong impact upon landing that causes the entire hallway to collapse above her, killing her and the other art monsters lingering around. He quickly evaded the collapsing halls by charging through the door with enough strength to knock it off its hinge.
Mary looked at him with wide eyes out of surprise not because of the collateral damage he caused (that he insists is unintentional), but the fact the long-haired woman she might have recognize made the act of chasing after Shadow as if she's one of the Lady paintings because he interrupted the 'Loves Me, Loves Me Not' game. The hedgehog has no sympathy for the woman since she waa set on ending his life, leaving him no choice but to attack her and get his rose back.
"Wow. Guess that explains the loud sound I heard when I was here." Mary opined.
"Lucky for you, you didn't get to hear the very loud collapse like I did after knocking the door off its hinges," he sarcastically said. "Not that it bothered me."
"Are you sure? Maybe… you were almost deafened Shadow," she replied with concern. "Are your ears fine? Can you hear me clearly Shadow? Just tell me if you don't!" She get near him in order to check his ears by touching or holding them. Shadoe denied her the chance to feel his ears with a glare.
"I am hearing you clearly before we entered here," he reminded her, feeling insulted she made that assumption without remembering they were engaged in a conversation two minutes ago. "And I'm fine, so don't go worrying about my health, okay?"
"Well alright," smiled Mary. "But please tell me if you're not fine Shadow. I don't want to see you hurt under my watch."
"Funny. I can say the same to you."
After Shadow has enough rest, he and Mary exit the room and proceed out of the small hallway toward the big wall with distinctive cat eyes and ears. Seeing the empty fish-shaped hole in the center, the two assumes that they need to find the fish-shaped object and insert it in the hole. That way, a new path will emerge and they can proceed forward.
"…You know, it is weird this wall is in this area." Mary told Shadow, tracing the hole with one finger.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Shadow asked.
"I'm pretty sure this wall with cat eyes and ears are in the Yellow Area," she answered. "But we are in the Blue Area, or at least I thought it is the Blue Area except it must havd expanded from its original short form."
"…You seem to know the colored areas the Fabricated World contains and what they looked like, which is not surprising considering you used to live here," he surmised. "Based on what you're saying, you find it odd that this Blue Area, which you said used to be short or small, got expanded to encompass many hallways that are now inaccessible and this part?"
"That's… what I'm thinking."
"Hmm… maybe the Fabricated World you knew so much might have possibly changed by combining with the other parts of the area into one or have original sections you didn't came across," he guessed. "Not quite sure if it helps us in any way or not."
"Regardless of that though, I think I have no one else to blame but myself," she guiltily admitted. "I never thought my escape could cause the entire Fabricated World to change, meaning the areas we will come across will be entirely new and original."
"Well even if I agree with you, don't be distressed about it," he reassured her. "You didn't know our escape would cause it to happen. Understand?"
Though Mary nodded, she still sees herself at fault for causing the art world to change in a bad way… and because of that, it is likely she and Shadow are in for a hard time in this nightmare, even if it (hopefully) only lasts until they wake up.
They just have to keep their sanity at normal level then and withstand just standing in one spot.
With Mary guessing they have to find an object that can fit in this hole, the two goes to the rightmost hallway where a door lies in wait that they entered. Mary suggested they split up so they each go to the rooms and speed up the search for the object but Shadow shot it down, knowing well how splitting up in horror movies tend to not go well which will end with one character dead.
Inside the room, many statues stand in various spots, almost filling up the room and leaving no space to move around. They are the only features present, and since most of them are either headless bodies or existing as a disembodied head, it serves to royally unnerve them.
"L-Let's find the item quickly Shadow. I-I don't want to stay in this room for longer than necessary…" Mary told him, staying close to him.
"Agreed. Haven't stepped further in this room and I want to move out." Shadow said, not minding her scooping up close to him.
When they got near to one head statue, said statue turned to them and stared blankly. That's little unnerving, but that changes to fear when red paint (hopefully it's not blood) leaks out from its eyes and open mouth, giving it the expression that it's crying and screaming. Silently.
Then the statue glares daggers at them, becoming angry before it makes a move, intending to harm the two.
Mary backs away a little after being freaked out at the head statue, gripping the palette knife with the intent of stabbing it many times to stop. But Shadow, with a deadpan look, raised his fist before delivering a punch to the statue, shattering it to pieces. When it did though, red paint spills out from the remains, creating a grotesque sight of a shattered head leaking blood from its injury.
"..." The two went silent, their eyes widening in shock and fear. They turn to each other, undeniably shaken over seeing it spill 'blood'.
"I think you killed it," Mary states his thought, feeling more distraught and hoping she doesn't get near it.
"But it's just a statue, and I want to shatter it to ger it out of the way," Shadow defended his action. "And besides, it doesn't look too friendly to us when it tried advancing to us."
"W-Well in any case, please push it out of the way Shadow! I feel queasy looking at the red... paint leaking out from it."
Shadow went on to do it, pushing it back to the spot where it was standing on. The paint and stones clatter to the floor but he chooses to ignore them.
Moving around the statue maze (and hoping it's only their imagination that the head statues are watching them with their cold eyes), the two reaches the far end of the room after coming up to a dead end three times (and getting almost attacked by the head statues that Shadow took care of) to find a small table with a wet cloth covering it sitting against the wall. On top of it is a wooden object shaped like a fish's tail.
The two instantly recognize that it is one part of a whole object, with Mary saying, "Ah! A fish tail! Guess it was split into two. Come on, let's grab it!"
She reaches her left hand to grab the tail. Her hand is close within the grabbing range when something unexpected and horrifying happened.
CHOMP!
"EYAAAAAH! ! !"
"MARY!"
Screaming in surprise, Mary quickly retracted her hand before backing away from the set of sharp teeth that emerged within the rippling wall. She stumbled backwards as a result and would certainly fall to the floor if Shadow hadn't caught her.
Sensing the… creature with a sharp teeth didn't chomp off someone's hand, it disappeared within the walls like it's sinking in water. Ripples disappear around it once it left.
If Mary can feel her heart beating, then it may have thumped against her chest rapidly due to the immense fear and shock she felt when she's almost become meal for the creature. Even then, a heavy weight settled on her chest to imitate it. She even clutched her hand on it, breathing heavily to calm herself down.
"U-Uh… That… T-That was close…" squeaked Mary, getting herself off Shadow to steady herself. "If I haven't got away quickly…"
"Don't say it," advised Shadow, similarly surprised but on a milder level. "No need to imagine it."
"R-Right… At least it knocked the table and the tail to the floor," she reached down to grab the tail, feeling relieved it didn't occur again when she's going to grab it. "It could have eaten it and deprive us one part short."
"Tch. We better keep our guard up more so we won't experience a nasty surprise again. Come on, let's leave rhis room so I don't have to look behind me and see if the head statues are watching us as we speak."
"Okay."
After going over the set path backwards, the two proceeded next to the leftmost room, expecting to find the head part of the wooden fish to complete the item.
Entering it, the room contains eight rectangular pillars with wide front and back and thin sides where maroon curtains cover the rectangle objects, most likely paintings going by the frame shapes. Behind the pillars, hanging in a concave part of the room is a horizontal painting showing a wavy, dark blue art that appears to be leaking to the bottom corners. It seems to be the same fluid the two is seeing on any walls and ceilings since it has the same viscosity as the dripping paint.
They would have go near it to study it up close, but they are planning to not stay here as long as they need to. They're in a hurry, so to speak.
Moving to the center of the room, Shadow and Mary look at the covered paintings warily. Recognizing this room to be where she play hide and seek with a stick figure except it had changed with the stick figure nowhere to be found, Mary says, "Should we… open the curtains Shadow? The way they cover what I believe to be paintings indicate we should pry them open."
"It's obvious we must," complied Shadow. "We're here to find the second part of this item, which is missing a head," he brings up the wooden tail for emphasis. "I believe it must be hiding in any of these curtains."
"And there are eight of them," she noted. "We might open all the curtains as we search for the head part, narrowing it down to one painting that could have it."
"Guess we must," he responded. "However, it is likely most of the paintings are hostile and attack us, costing us one petal. We better be careful we do not open a curtain to find an artwork."
"Let's hope we are lucky."
With Mary's uneasy remark, the two begins choosing what curtain they must open. Considering the malicious artworks they encountered, they are hesitant to pry open even one curtain and hope they are rewarded with a fish's head. They can live with a wound as long as it's not painful but they must not sustain more wounds than they can take. This what worries Mary because compared to Shadow's fifteen petals, hers have only five petals. She speculated that she's a little kid compared to the adult(?) hedgehog, so the rose might have adjusted the petal count based on age. As a result, Mary will be prone to losing her petals quickly if she make one slip up, costing her life. To counteract this, Shadow will shield her from any harm, and that's not even mentioning his combat prowess that he's itching to show to any monsters that dare get their way.
After much consideration and inspection of every curtains, the two chooses the sixth curtain, that being the second bottommost right curtain. Shadow did most of the observation by sensing what curtain has a malicious aura that indicates a painting that could harm him and Mary. This intrigues Shadow because the aura he's sensing from the painting, which he believes to be dense enough to create a detectable aura, can be felt around him, albeit faintly. It feels similar to the negative energy of a Chaos Emerald which he absorbed and used before. With this connection, he suspects that the Fabricated World is flowing with Chaos Energy somehow.
For now though, he push the observation aside as he opens the curtain, but not after he told Mary to back off so she wouldn't get harmed in case this curtain contains a hostile painting after all. Fortunately, there is not such artwork when the curtain was separated. Instead, a wooden fish head is behind it, embedded in the surface.
Glad he chose the correct curtain, Shadow declares, "Perfect. We found the fish head part."
"Really? Then what are you waiting for? Take it!" Mary exclaimed, moving up close to the pillar as Shadow pulls the head, which emits a clicking sound when it came off.
Now that they got both the wooden fish head and tail needed to combine them into one object, Mary puts the pieces together after saying she should be the one to do it. With a satisfying click, the head and tail becomes a wooden fish key.
Smiling in joy, Mary hops triumphantly as she exclaims, "Yay! We got the fish we can put it to the cat wall!"
"Hmph, that didn't take long." Similarly remarked Shadow with an expressionless frown.
SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
"Huh?!" Jolting in surprise, Mary stops her brief excitement to look below her. Her breath hitched and eyes widen in fear when she reads the words written in red color.
THIEF. RETURN THE FISH WHERE IT BELONGS. IF NOT, FACE THE CONSEQUENCES
"Consequences?" quoted Shadow, feeling a little intimidated by the hostile message.
SCRAAAAAAAAASH!
Heads whipping to the sound of shattering glass, Shadow and Mary sees the painting hanging in the concave part of the room has its glass cover shattered into pieces on the ground below it. With the fragile cover gone, paint-like creatures came out crawling out of the canvas, emitting creepy groans. Once four creatures plop to the floor, they rise up, revealing sinister faces with angular eyes and jagged, sharp mouth seemingly stuck smiling and thin arms with sharp claws that are slightly longer than they are. Their skin appears to be dribbling or trickling from the top of their head, sliding down until it reached the bottom, of which the paint smudges the floor they're standing on. When their eyes on the duo, they moaned in unison before moving via crawling.
Naturally, the two is disturbed at the sight of the sinister-faced monsters crawling after them to claim their lives by either smothering them with ink or tearing their bodies apart. Then, they got more terrified when the unopened curtains are cut in half, revealing the same paint monsters except their left arm were replaced with a sharp, long red knife. They didn't wait before they lumbered to the two, knives ready to be swung to slash their bodies in half.
Seeing this is the 'consequences' the message is talking about, Mary, who is scared out of her mind, turns to Shadow glaring at every monsters with determination. Hoping he's about to do what she thinks he will do when encountering a threat, she asks, "S-Shadow? Are… Are you going to-?"
"Stay behind me," he urged her without turning his eyes to her. His hand crackles with Chaos Energy as he finishes his words to her. "I'll take care of these freaks."
Even with the fear in her mind, Mary forms a small smile in response to his words that more or less indicates he's gonna do some… cleaning up. She felt she didn't need to say any response as Shadow gets to work.
A minute later, the room is doused with the remains of the paint monsters, all of which have been eliminated. Even with the canvas producing more creatures to replace the defeated ones, possibly churning out more of them to overwhelm the hedgehog, they are no match for Shadow's abilities and combat skills as he kicked, punched and threw Chaos Spears against the hapless monsters without mercy. After figuring out the painting will continue creating more paint monsters, he proceeds to destroy it, ending the threat without much fanfare.
While the two are relieved the enemies are gone, their bodies and clothes got splattered by splotches of the monsters' remains, which has become just paint staining their fur, hair, skin or clothes. Not only that, they can smell the paint fumes covering their body.
After taking a sniff and reeling from the strong smell, Mary complains, "Ugh, we reeked with the smell of a paint! Why do they have to explode after they got hit by your spears, Shadow? Couldn't they just melt in defeat?"
"Don't ask me," replied Shadow, shaking his hands and legs and dusting his body to try get the excess paint off him. Unfortunately, they have stained the fabric and his fur, including the chuff of white fur on his chest even though only a small stain is present. "You should blame the monsters for being made out of paint. A shame they were gone too quickly as they have appeared."
"Mmmmm…" bemoaned Mary with a pouting face. "Maybe if I have joined fighting those monsters with you, perhaps we could have avoid their paint latching to our bodies."
"You sure? You are at risk of getting hurt." He asked.
"Duh! I mean, I am holding a palette knife!" She insisted with arms folded. "And I used it to slay small monsters before I found a Safe Room and you!"
"Hmm… You could prove it to me after we encountered another set of enemies on our way, not that I want it to…" Shadow appears interested of the painting girl's fighting skills.
"I would like to, buuuuut… Yeah. Let's hope we don't encounter a second group of monsters." She shrugged, deciding not to get her hopes up to show her knife skills.
"I believe that's a wishful thinking at this point."
After saying his remark, the two leave the drenched and empty room, preferring to ignore the splattered paint on their bodies and the smell they like to get it off sooner than later. If only there was some water that does not belong to a vase required to replenish their roses.
Arriving again to the cat-like wall, the two look to the hole that the fish key will be inserted in. Giving each other affirmative nods, Mary does the honor of inserting the fish. To her satisfaction and delight, it fits perfectly and produced an audible click.
"There. The puzzle is done." Mary stated, backing up two steps and wait for the wall to respond.
MEEEEEEOOOOOOOWWWW! ! !
"Eek!" She shrieked in fright, quickly hiding behind Shadow who is not immune to the ear-splitting cry of an angry cat.
"Ugh! Why is it loud?!" Shadow groused, covering his ears. Mary does the same too which is a good move because part of the wall disappears to create a hallway, causing four more deafening meows to blare and worse, echo in the room with each part of the wall and shaking for some reason vanishing to form a path.
Also of note, the cat's eyes slanted inward, making it appear angry as the irises went cross-eyed to stare the opened hallway. Or, hopefully unlikely, the two.
Uncovering their ears once the meow stops, the two takes a moment to get their hearing back to normal, which was ringing somewhat thanks to the unexpected first meow.
"…Hope no more loud noises startle us," grumbled Shadow, rubbing his ears. "It sounds rather unpleasant in an environment where the only sound are our footsteps."
"Y-Yeah. I don't want to get deaf," Mary sympathized, feeling a little unsteady. She quickly gathers her bearings because she will not getting dizzy due to being almost deafened affect her onward to the new area. "Right then! The new hallway stands before us! We must make haste Shadow!"
"Right," nodded Shadow as he starts walking ahead. "I'll take the lead Mary. If you don't want to get injured, move behind me at all times."
"Hey, I can handle myself just fine," protested Mary, walking by his side to defy his useful advice. "And besides, I think it's enough for me to stay with you at all times instead of behind since you will protect me."
"I'm telling you that for your safety," he insisted. "You will have no one to blame but yourself when you got injured because you didn't got behind me."
"Ugh, fiiiiiine… I'll heed your advice." She relented with a sigh. She may not like being directly behind him but she do agree that it's best a battle-hardened Shadow is in the front. All Mary have when it comes to fending off monsters is the palette knife, which is small enough that it could not deal major damage to anything that isn't a small or medium-sized enemy.
After going through the narrow hallway, the two emerges to the end of it into another area. As soon as they step out of the corridor, a splashing sound is heard under their feet.
"Huh? Was that a splash?" Mary looks down to see what she stepped on, but because it became so dark she can't almost see anything, she's unable to determine what's below her feet. She comments this trait as a complaint next, "And why did it got so dark? I can't see anything!"
Dealing with the dark surroundings first, Shadow transfers Chaos Energy to his right hand, condensing the gathered energy onto his fingers as crackles of bolts dancing between his fingers and palms. The energy is bright enough to illuminate the space around them in approximately three meters.
"Here's our light," he announced nonchalantly. "Can you see now?"
Mary recognizes his illuminating hands he did back when they first met. Giving him thanks for lighting their surroundings, she looks down below her feet.
In that moment, she can feel her wet socks and shoes bedewing her feet, which she didn't realize until now. "Huh? Hey, my shoes!" She raised her left feet to shake off the dripping liquid, but she lost her balance and would have fell to the floor if Shadow hadn't caught her with one hand. "Whoa!"
"Mind your footing," he told her, steadying her back. "I may not catch you properly because I'm one hand short. I think you won't like getting most of your body wet if you fell."
"What? Getting myself wet? What do you mean by… Ah!" A drop of liquid fell on her head, prompting her to look up and around in irritation. "Oh now what?"
With Shadow's hand lamp's light being reflected on all the surfaces, Mary realizes the walls, floors and ceiling look like it's either rippling and making miniature waves or dripping across the wall's surface. She's confused at first, until she made a connection through her wet shoes and socks and the splash-like sound she and Shadow made when they first stepped in here that this area's corridors are covered in dark-colored water. The floor's water is shallow, reaching up half their feet while the water on the walls and ceiling are spilling along the surface or dripping from wherever the water came from. Related to the last part, the water drops only fall at irregular intervals, soaking their heads. It certainly looks odd that it's dropping ever so slowly despite the smooth and wavy flow of the surface. Could the ceiling's water too viscous that it sprinkles few drops in a minute? It very well appears to be.
Now seeing what had dropped on her head, Mary lowers her face to prevent her eyes from getting hit by the drops, which landed on her hair instead. Shadow speaks up about the area's gimmick, walking forward as he did so. "Water… So this area we're in appears to have flooded. All that's left pertaining to the possible flooding is the shallow stream we're standing on."
"If it is water, it sure looks so weird," remarked Mary, lightly lifting her skirt to prevent the hem from getting wet after her shoes and socks got soaked. She tries not to wince in disgust and dismay over her feet getting wet. "I can understand a shallow flood, but the walls being dampened and ceiling spilling drops of water onto us? I… I'm not sure how to… say about it."
"Chalk it up as the Fabricated World's gimmick," Shadow stated, checking his Air Shoes if the viscous-looking water isn't sticking on it. "I have a feeling that what we will see as we go further, as much as we don't want to, may become too surreal for us. We did go through a short corridor of the cat's wall after all."
"Cat's wall…" A thought occurred to her, which causes her to feel more disgusted and nervous. "Wait, are we… inside a cat's… body?"
"Body?"
"I mean, you do know the wall we entered in has a cat's eyes and ears, right?" She reminded him. "And since this area is filled with water…"
He guesses what the implication is. Like her, he feels repulsed, leading him to stop her from completing her statement. "Let's not think too hard. As I said, chalk it all up as the trick the Fabricated World likes to show and scare us."
"Er… Right!" Mary agreed, preferring his hunch over the fact she brought up. She regretted putting attention to the implied hint of being in the cat's 'body'. "Shall we proceed?"
With Shadow's nodding, the two continue their sojourn in the moist and humid corridors, trying to ignore themselves getting gradually soaked from head to toe. Or from toe to head. Well, either phrase arrive to the same conclusion, something they have to endure if they want to find an exit out of this nightmare world.
However, under the water's surface, there seems to be something stalking them. Whatever it is, it had decided that it will ambush them when they arrive to the Blue Area's endpoint. Disposing the artwork who had made a grievous sin of escaping the world of Guertena shall be its main priority, but eliminating her benefactor is a must too because he dared aided her in escaping the world she only belongs to.
In the meantime, the water creature intentionally stays behind the two, monitoring them as it swims in the deep dark waters, illuminated by its fin ray dangling on its forehead…
Chapter seven finished!
As you had read from above, it continues shortly right after Shadow and Mary stumbled upon each other, their shock and surprise turning immediately into relief and delight because they won't explore the Fabricated World's deteriorating and unstable hallways and rooms alone, with only their yellow and black roses as their only company. This doesn't change that they're still stuck in this world in their dreams however, and so with reluctance and worry, they must continue exploring.
Collecting two wooden fish parts needed to insert it to a hole in the cat wall in order to unlock a new path, the two did just that, and after getting deafened by the loud angry meows, they proceed forward into a all-new area where the floor is flooded with shallow water coming from the walls and ceiling, of which they are dripping with the same water but as a viscid fluid. It is viscous enough that they didn't notice something swimming under the water's surface. What could that be?
Here's a hint: It's one of Guertena's artwork.
The next chapter will see Shadow and Mary endure the new areas' obstacles and enemies in hopes of finding the exit. It obviously won't be easy even with Shadow being able to eliminate all enemies that dare come in his way, but will he be able to placate Mary as her mental instability comes back to possibly impedes their progress due to her anxiety and apprehension over being back to her original home that doesn't look the same as she remembers it? Of which she believes to be at fault for? You will have to wait for the next chapter to find out!
Thank you all for reading! Don't forget to leave a review and please stay safe and healthy, everyone!
See you next chapter!
Review Response:
Shadow8Phantom: Our protagonists will be trapped within the walls of Fabricated World during their sleep for most of the run, but they will later find out that being awake will not spare them from the world's attempt to kill them when it 'spilled out' to the real world. And yes, the Fabricated World is deteriorating, causing it to change for a worse.
You will see Shadow fight against the monsters without remorse, but that doesn't mean Mary will be left out as she has a palette knife. But we should hope she doesn't lose it when the Fabricated World's ambience gets through her and her instability returns...