Ib ~Starshipping Version~

The Lady in Red

Jaden paled at all of the hanging dolls. Damn, they were freaky as hell, and they made him scream. He wasn’t telling that fact to anyone, especially Chazz.

He made his way to the other side of the corridor and to a room called “The Liar’s Room”. When he walked in, he was met with paintings and a puzzle. He read all of the descriptions, and came up with this.

Green – “Stand in front of the statue, go west three steps, then south one step. That’s the answer!”

Brown – “Stand in front of the statue, go east four steps, then north two steps. That’s the answer!”

Yellow – “The one in white speaks the truth!”

Blue – “The only truth-speaker wears green!”

White – “Stand in front of the statue, go east two steps, then south two steps. That’s the answer!”

Red – “I agree with the one in yellow!”

Jaden was, to say the least, confused at every statement. What did confuse him, though, was the fact that none of the paintings spoke of the brown painting. He felt sorry for the painting, but only a little bit. He decided to go with the brown one’s advice.

He went through the door to see the statue that the paintings had mentioned. He quickly stood in front of it, and there was writing on it.

“There’s an odd one out...Ah, so the brown one must be it!” Jaden beamed, “I knew he was a fishy guy.”

Jaden then did what the brown painting had said. Once he got to the said tile, he noticed it was loose. He lifted it up and found a purple four under it. Just as he discovered the number, he heard what seemed like a knife cutting through paper.

He quickly dashed to the Liar’s Room to find that the brown painting had three giant slashes in it, red paint oozing from each individual slash.

All of the other paintings were holding knives, and they all had red splotches on them. They all said LIAR on them.

Jaden gasped, running out of the room. In his rush, he tripped over the hanging dolls and fell over one.

On its foot, he noticed a green eighteen. Still in a rush, he made a dash for the door. He was scared.

“What do I need to do to unlock this thing? It’s some kind of code...” He mumbled, looking at it.

“Green X multiplied by red X, added by purple X equals...um...Substitute...?” Jaden groaned. He was terrible at maths. “So...eighteen...times...nine...add four! Eighteen and nine...is...one hundred and sixty two. And then add four...one hundred and sixty six!”

Jaden hastily entered the number, and to his surprise, it worked. “Guess I’m not that bad at maths after all!” He cheered, walking through.

When Jaden walked in, he saw plastic trees and a wooden apple was perched on the middle one. Jaden went over to the apple and took it, stuffing it in his jacket pocket. A painting of an apple on a tree was behind it, too.

He thought for a moment before having a moment of genius. He could feed those lips this apple!

Jaden walked happily down the corridor. That was, until another one of those hands made a grab at him. He didn’t even try to keep calm; he shrieked and backed up against the wall. He was angry at the hand, and at himself.

“Dammit!” He cursed, walking down the corridor once again and to those lips.

“Hungry...give...food...” The lips murmured. “That food...give it to me...”

Jaden placed the wooden apple in the mouth and the lips ate it.

“This tasty...I let you pass now. Go through my mouth.”

The lips widened and so did Jaden’s eyes. He could fit perfectly through them. He gulped and walked through the mouth, despite how disgusting it was.

He found himself walking through a corridor. There were paintings of a guillotine rising up, and when Jaden got to the end he realised that the end painting was blank.

Before he was crushed to death, he quickly dashed out of the way as a huge blade fell. His eyes were wide, and he was panting heavily in fear. Jaden wondered if he could actually go on.

He realised that he was so scared, he couldn’t even move. It would take a while for him to realise that this was probably the closest he had ever gotten to death, and this time not from a Shadow Duel.

For the first time, Jaden found himself scared of dying.

He slowly made his way past the blade and down the stairs. His eyes were clouded with fear of what was going to happen next. He was truly frightened.

He got to a red corridor and he thought he saw somebody moving.

“...Hello...?” He murmured, making his way down to the end and following the road. Along the way he saw a painting of a bird that seemed to be playing an instrument. It was called Breath.

He ignored it however and made his way to the door.

Jaden knew that he wouldn’t be prepared for what was on the other side. But he had to go on. Slowly, he opened the door.

He found himself in a room with two large, almost identical statues. The only difference was their colour schemes. One was blue, while the other was red. The red statue was called Ah, while the blue one was called Uh.

He found a painting in the middle of the statues that was called ___ Pattern. He couldn’t read the other word.

Jaden wandered around and found another painting. Its name was ___ Smoking. Yet again another word he couldn’t read. It had a picture of a man in it holding a cigarette. Beside that painting was one of a green line.

“Heartbeat...” Jaden read aloud, and then a small beat came onto the painting – as if it was a heart monitor.

It didn’t faze Jaden.

On the other side of the room was a painting of a heart with an arrow in it. Jaden didn’t really care for this painting; he cared for the painting on the other side of it. The Lady in Red.

He smiled slightly. Red was one of Jaden’s favourite colours, after all. He went to touch the painting but then decided against it. What if something happened? He had been in so many scenarios before...there was a large possibility of something happening.

And he was right. As soon as he stepped away from the painting, it smashed, and Jaden made a run for it.