CHAPTER TWO START ---
DEEPER INTO THE GALLERY YOU GO... WHAT YOU WILL FIND, NOBODY KNOWS.
------------------------------
You emerge from the other side of the hole you had made, into a room not much different then the one you were just in. Unlike the previous transitions between distinct chambers, the walls of this section were the same soft brown as the last.
To your sides are two small sections, each adorned with a few paintings, and one long hallway ahead. As they are closer, you check the paintings to your sides. To your right, there a several empty podiums, as if the art work had just got right up and walked off of them. For all you know, that may have been what happened. The only painting that was still here was of a pair of lips. A simple set of big, full, rose red lips. Nothing overly remarkable. At it's base, however, was it's plaque. It read simply Hungry, and had a piece missing from the corner like someone had taken a bite out of it.
Given that it was a mouth, it wasn't hard to figure what exactly had happened. You take a caution step back from the lips, wary of whatever they may do. Returning to where you started, there opposing side was not that dissimilar. A few empty podiums, and several paintings of nothing but white. The only painting that still had something in it was a face.
A simple red face against a black backdrop. Like many of Guertena's works, in and of itself, it didn't look overly impressive. Again, something that you could have drawn, even. What made it beyond your caliber, however, was the fact that it was spitting it's tongue out at you, and otherwise making rude faces at you. As soon as you approach it, it spits at you to, which you narrowly dodge. Just as you are about to give the rude face an earful for his poor behavior, you notice that the small puddle of spittle was steaming on the floor.
It was melting away the surface. Like acid.
You look up at the face in shocked horror, only for it to chuckle at you before fading into it's shadowy backdrop.
Things were getting dangerous, and you quickly run off in near panic. You had nearly had enough of this place. You just wanted your parents back. You wanted to go home.
You run so quickly, you don't notice a plaque that had fallen on the ground.
Just when you had forgotten.
You reach the end of the hallway, leaning over on your knees to catch your breath. Once you felt rested enough, you look to find this hall tees as well, with a path on each side.
To your right however, is a long series of dolls. Each and every one of them hung by a thin red rope, dangling from the ceiling. Some by their arms, some by their legs, and others by their necks, with fluff falling from where the stitching had come loose around their limbs. Many of them swayed in the nonexistent wind, the whole scene painted out like some kind of twisted gallows.
As sick and twisted as it may have been, this could have been another one of Guertena's work. It's no wonder that most of his pieces were sealed up.
Thoroughly disturbed by that path, you turn the other way and head down the path to your left. At the end lies a door marked The Liar's Room. Without any more thought, you push your way into the room.
On the other side, there is a simple row of paintings. Six, to be precise. Each of a silhouetted person, save for their clothes, which each stood out a different color. Beneath each of them lay some text, clumsily scrawled in yellow paint.
Green: Stand in front of the statue, go three steps north and one step south. That is the answer!
Brown: Stand in front of the statue, go four steps east, then two steps north. That is the answer!
Yellow: The one in White speaks the truth!
Blue: The truth speaker only wears Green!
White: Stand in front of the statue, go two steps east, then two steps south. That is the answer!
Red: I agree with the one in Yellow!
You analyze what the paintings say for a moment, before walking through the next door. Sure enough, on the other side lies a blank room with tiled floors, and the statue that they spoke of sitting cleanly in the middle.
The statue, a blank white mannequin, held a sign in his hands which simply read, There is an odd one out...
Looks like it's time to start looking around...
------------------------------
Please, for the love of all things good, do better this time everyone. Please? Unlike the last few 'puzzles', this one isn't luck based, and can be figured out based purely on one's ability for analytical thinking. Show me that your better then you currently have me believing. Now chose a set of directions! And best of luck to you!
Your going to need it. *Evil laugh*
Yup, we go with brown then. Lessee where that takes us...
------------------------------
You walk around the statue some, watching it cautiously. It makes no moves, and you leave to room cautiously. Once back in the Liar's room, you look back at what each one says. You pick the Brown one's set of direction, and return to the next room.
Standing in front of the pale mannequin, you count your steps out as you trail the path you had chosen. One, two, three, four... One, two.
The moment you step on the last tile, it creeks under your feet. Further inspection reveals it to be sitting loosely amongst the others. With little more then a small tug, it comes right up out of the floor.
Written underneath it in blue, are three tiny numbers. 166.
A sound echoes behind you, sounding like a cloth tearing. You quickly return to the Liar's room to find out what it was, only to be thoroughly shocked.
Shreds of paper lay on the ground, mixed with a small amount of brown paint. Five of the six paintings now had knives in their hands, the text beneath them, a single word.
LIAR
The one who showed you the way was now nothing more then tatters hanging from an empty frame, surrounded by it's own gruesome companions. You hurry out of the room, afraid that the paintings may turn on you as well.
You return to the hallway, and find that there is only one path yet to travel down. The hall of hung dolls.
You hurry down the hall as quickly as you can, trying to ignore the cloth creatures around you. At the end lay a simple door. You try the handle, only for it to click in protest. you fumble with the door a little more, before noticing a small wheel in place of a lock.
It appeared to be a simple three-digit combination lock. Having been no numbers up to this point save what you had just found, you try that, sliding each of the three wheels to where the numbers. 166.
You hear a click from behind the door, and find it push open effortlessly. On the other side, there was a small orchard of wooden trees. Upon the tree in the center hung a single wooden apple.
In the back of your head, you make a connection. Things around here like to eat wood, and the lips were hungry...
Quickly picking the apple, you make a quick jog back to where you encountered the lips, trying to pay no mind to the atmosphere around you. You make it there before long, hesitantly approaching the lips with the fake apple held out in your outstretched arm.
Sure enough, the lips practically lunge out of the wall, gulping down the wooden apple in a single gulp.
Burp... I'm full now. I'll let you through now.
You weren't sure where the voice was coming from, other then it was apparent the lips were the one who said it. A moment later, the lips parted wide. Wide enough for you to walk through, with the next room clearly on the other side. You think only for a moment were the apple went then if this room was on the other side.
With nowhere else to go but forward, you step forth.
-----------------------------
Congratulations, you got it right on your first try. No choice this time. On to the next room!~
You finish crawling through the passageway created by the lips, emerging into a new room. The first thing to catch your eyes is the glaringly red color of the walls.
Once your eyes had adjusted to the harsh color change, you find yourself in a simple hallway lined with another sequence of paintings. Similar to the green room closer to the start of this twisted place, each painting seemed to take place after the previous. They had no name printed under them, and the image was that of a guillotine slowly being raised.
By the time you make it to the end of the hallway, the painting had the blade raised to high it was no longer on the painting. Simply just the wooden structure. Beneath the painting was a staircase, though the painting was hung high enough on the wall to allow you to step under it with no problems.
As soon as you take your first step upon the staircase, a loud crash sounds right beside you, knocking you right off your feet. You fall halfway down the stairs before you can catch yourself. Upon gathering your bearings and checking to make sure your rose wasn't damaged, you look up to find a massive piece of metal smashed into the floor, tearing into the ground and completely obstructing the path backwards.
The guillotine blade. You shudder to think what could have happened if you were a half second slower.
With nowhere else to go, you finish descending the stairs. The room you come out at is a noticeable shade darker of red.
As you continue down the linier pathway, a brief flash of something catches your eye. You pay it no mind until you spot it again around the corner. Quickly pursuing whatever it was, you bend the corner just in time to see a humanoid shape dash around the next corner. You give chase, rounding the next corner. On the other side though is simply a door, with no sign of whatever it was you saw.
You try the door, to see if that is where he went, only to find it locked. Whatever it was must have locked it from the other side, you think, until you spot the door's key laying on a small table to your right. And unless there was more then one key to this door, the figure indeed hadn't escaped through it.
You turn back around, slowly checking around for something you might have missed. Surely enough, a small discolored spot is noticeable on the floor right beside the wall. You kneel down beside the spot, leaning up against the wall to get a closer look, only to fall flat on your face as your hand goes right through the wall.
You blink for a moment, trying to think about what just happened, sure enough, half your body can not be seen, still on the other side of the waterlike illusionary wall. You quickly pull your whole self through, taking a wavering deep breath. This place was wrong. Just wrong, on so many levels.
Turning around, a single painting lays up upon the wall. Several shadowy figures stand, gathered around a tree, each and every one of them looking down at you, eyes gleaming red. But rather then get a disturbing feel from the painting, it is almost comforting. Like... They are protecting you or something...
Gathering of ????
You run your hand over the painting's plaque, though you can't make out the last word. Looking up at the painting a last time, you hurry back off to the next room, unlocking it as you go.
----------------------(Forgot this part)
The next room is wide and mostly lacking of paintings. Most of the space in the room has been taken up by two large sculptures, one red and one blue, each lager then a full-grown person twice over. They themselves look like people, first made of wax then put under a heatlamp, rendering them frozen in a disfigured horror. You try to read the plaques beneath them in order to give some sense to the bizarre sculptures, but the words are again beyond your scope to read.
A door sits between the two figures, and is to no ones surprised, locked. The only other thing that sits in the room is a painting hung back in the corner. You approach it, only to find it to be one of the paintings you first saw back in the gallery when you first came here.
Lady in Red
You feel a bit more secure. If things are becoming more familiar as you go, you have to be getting closer to the exit. Right?
A small glint of light catches your eye, something that you wonder is even possible in the mysterious light of this place. As you inspect it, you find the key that is inevitably to the next room. You take it with a smile, walking briskly to the door.
A loud crash causes you to jump. You turn around to see what exactly it was, and are more then shocked to see,
The Lady in Red had torn herself clean off the wall, dragging herself, frame and all, across the floor after you.
Clutching your rose tighter to your chest, you rush off as fast as you can. For something without legs, the Lady is able to keep pace with you, maybe even gaining.
The door didn't seem nearly this far away when you weren't running away.
You hit the door running, fumbling to get the key into it's socket. As soon as you hear it click, you duck into the next room. A loud thwak sounds a moment later, followed by a grating scratch sound as the Lady tried to claw her way in.
You sit with your back to the wall, breathing deeply until the sound fades away. Not long after, you hear the Lady dragging herself away. Letting out a sigh of relief, you stand up and inspect the new room.
(End of forgotten section)--------------------------------
On the other side lay something new. This part of the gallery looked more like a library then an art museum, with several bookshelves lining the walls. In the middle of the room lay a desk, with several books already laying on it.
You browse over the titles of these books.
The Story of Carrie Careless
Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes
Tales of Nairos
A Guide to the Lifetime Works of Guertena Vol. 2
A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
After looking over the titles, you shrug your shoulders, heading to the back of the room where another door sat. Somewhere in the back of your head, you are not surprised to find that is locked.
You can't shake the feeling that those books were something mildly important, so you go back to look at them.
Which one do you read? ---- The Lifetime works of Guertena
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Placing your rose on the table, you fumble around with the books, looking for some kind of clue. As you do, you bump the pile of books, causing the one on top to fall to the ground with a thump.
After calming yourself from the sudden noise, you move to pick up the hefty tome. The page that it had opened itself as it fell catches your attention though. Across it's pages are some of the artwork you have seen up to this point around the gallery, with text beside them telling you about their stories.
With some difficulty, you place the weighty book back upon the table and begin looking through it. Most of it's contents depict the paintings you have seen so far, with the adjacent page filled with text describing the piece and the story behind it's creation. Most of these were pretty boring as far as you were concerned, and had way to many big words.
As you continue to leaf through the pages, a small slip of paper falls out to the floor. You pick it up out of curiosity.
H A V I N G F U N ?
You tear the paper in half, letting it's shards fall to the ground. No, as a matter of fact you weren't having fun. You just wanted out of here, to get back to your parents.
With nothing else found in this book, you start to close it. As the pages start to collapse down, on picture stands out. Flipping the book back open, three paintings sit on the page. The Ladies of Color. One of these was the Lady in Red you just encountered, but there was three others, one of blue, one of green, and one of yellow. On the opposite page was scrawled a tiny piece of text.
They can't open doors. Use that to your advantage.
You shut the book, it's pages making a dull thump. Maybe everything in this place isn't out to get you.
Most of the other books in the table are to complicated for you to even start reading, save for two.
Giving up on the books on the table for a moment, you give the room itself another quick look over. Just like before, nothing really stands out as helpful. The only thing that can really be noticed is that amongst the shelves, a single space is lacking it's book. This strikes you as a bit odd, as upon further investigation, reveals that all the books on the table don't have slots of the shelves, save one.
After a quick look, the only book that would fit in that section would be the Story of Carrie Careless. You pick that book up off the table to return it, and a feeling shoots through your body that can only be described as darkness.
Despite this, now holding it in your hands, the book also seems to be giving off a compelling aura. The book wants to be read.
You have no idea what would happen if you open the small book. You fidget with the book in your hands, trying to decide just what to do with it. It would be safer to just put it back. But then... What of the secret's it holds?
Your young curiosity fights with your common sense over what to do.
-----------------------------------------
OPEN AND READ OR Close and Return ----------- Open and Read
-----------------------------------------
You can't contain your curiosity, and open the loose pages of the book...
#404FileNotFound
You finish crawling through the passageway created by the lips, emerging into a new room. The first thing to catch your eyes is the glaringly red color of the walls.
Once your eyes had adjusted to the harsh color change, you find yourself in a simple hallway lined with another sequence of paintings. Similar to the green room closer to the start of this twisted place, each painting seemed to take place after the previous. They had no name printed under them, and the image was that of a guillotine slowly being raised.
By the time you make it to the end of the hallway, the painting had the blade raised to high it was no longer on the painting. Simply just the wooden structure. Beneath the painting was a staircase, though the painting was hung high enough on the wall to allow you to step under it with no problems.
As soon as you take your first step upon the staircase, a loud crash sounds right beside you, knocking you right off your feet. You fall halfway down the stairs before you can catch yourself. Upon gathering your bearings and checking to make sure your rose wasn't damaged, you look up to find a massive piece of metal smashed into the floor, tearing into the ground and completely obstructing the path backwards.
The guillotine blade. You shudder to think what could have happened if you were a half second slower.
With nowhere else to go, you finish descending the stairs. The room you come out at is a noticeable shade darker of red.
As you continue down the linier pathway, a brief flash of something catches your eye. You pay it no mind until you spot it again around the corner. Quickly pursuing whatever it was, you bend the corner just in time to see a humanoid shape dash around the next corner. You give chase, rounding the next corner. On the other side though is simply a door, with no sign of whatever it was you saw.
You try the door, to see if that is where he went, only to find it locked. Whatever it was must have locked it from the other side, you think, until you spot the door's key laying on a small table to your right. And unless there was more then one key to this door, the figure indeed hadn't escaped through it.
You turn back around, slowly checking around for something you might have missed. Surely enough, a small discolored spot is noticeable on the floor right beside the wall. You kneel down beside the spot, leaning up against the wall to get a closer look, only to fall flat on your face as your hand goes right through the wall.
You blink for a moment, trying to think about what just happened, sure enough, half your body can not be seen, still on the other side of the waterlike illusionary wall. You quickly pull your whole self through, taking a wavering deep breath. This place was wrong. Just wrong, on so many levels.
Turning around, a single painting lays up upon the wall. Several shadowy figures stand, gathered around a tree, each and every one of them looking down at you, eyes gleaming red. But rather then get a disturbing feel from the painting, it is almost comforting. Like... They are protecting you or something...
Gathering of ????
You run your hand over the painting's plaque, though you can't make out the last word. Looking up at the painting a last time, you hurry back off to the next room, unlocking it as you go.
----------------------(Forgot this part)
The next room is wide and mostly lacking of paintings. Most of the space in the room has been taken up by two large sculptures, one red and one blue, each lager then a full-grown person twice over. They themselves look like people, first made of wax then put under a heatlamp, rendering them frozen in a disfigured horror. You try to read the plaques beneath them in order to give some sense to the bizarre sculptures, but the words are again beyond your scope to read.
A door sits between the two figures, and is to no ones surprised, locked. The only other thing that sits in the room is a painting hung back in the corner. You approach it, only to find it to be one of the paintings you first saw back in the gallery when you first came here.
Lady in Red
You feel a bit more secure. If things are becoming more familiar as you go, you have to be getting closer to the exit. Right?
A small glint of light catches your eye, something that you wonder is even possible in the mysterious light of this place. As you inspect it, you find the key that is inevitably to the next room. You take it with a smile, walking briskly to the door.
A loud crash causes you to jump. You turn around to see what exactly it was, and are more then shocked to see,
The Lady in Red had torn herself clean off the wall, dragging herself, frame and all, across the floor after you.
Clutching your rose tighter to your chest, you rush off as fast as you can. For something without legs, the Lady is able to keep pace with you, maybe even gaining.
The door didn't seem nearly this far away when you weren't running away.
You hit the door running, fumbling to get the key into it's socket. As soon as you hear it click, you duck into the next room. A loud thwak sounds a moment later, followed by a grating scratch sound as the Lady tried to claw her way in.
You sit with your back to the wall, breathing deeply until the sound fades away. Not long after, you hear the Lady dragging herself away. Letting out a sigh of relief, you stand up and inspect the new room.
(End of forgotten section)--------------------------------
On the other side lay something new. This part of the gallery looked more like a library then an art museum, with several bookshelves lining the walls. In the middle of the room lay a desk, with several books already laying on it.
You browse over the titles of these books.
The Story of Carrie Careless
Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes
Tales of Nairos
A Guide to the Lifetime Works of Guertena Vol. 2
A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
After looking over the titles, you shrug your shoulders, heading to the back of the room where another door sat. Somewhere in the back of your head, you are not surprised to find that is locked.
You can't shake the feeling that those books were something mildly important, so you go back to look at them.
Which one do you read? ---- The Lifetime works of Guertena
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Placing your rose on the table, you fumble around with the books, looking for some kind of clue. As you do, you bump the pile of books, causing the one on top to fall to the ground with a thump.
After calming yourself from the sudden noise, you move to pick up the hefty tome. The page that it had opened itself as it fell catches your attention though. Across it's pages are some of the artwork you have seen up to this point around the gallery, with text beside them telling you about their stories.
With some difficulty, you place the weighty book back upon the table and begin looking through it. Most of it's contents depict the paintings you have seen so far, with the adjacent page filled with text describing the piece and the story behind it's creation. Most of these were pretty boring as far as you were concerned, and had way to many big words.
As you continue to leaf through the pages, a small slip of paper falls out to the floor. You pick it up out of curiosity.
H A V I N G F U N ?
You tear the paper in half, letting it's shards fall to the ground. No, as a matter of fact you weren't having fun. You just wanted out of here, to get back to your parents.
With nothing else found in this book, you start to close it. As the pages start to collapse down, on picture stands out. Flipping the book back open, three paintings sit on the page. The Ladies of Color. One of these was the Lady in Red you just encountered, but there was three others, one of blue, one of green, and one of yellow. On the opposite page was scrawled a tiny piece of text.
They can't open doors. Use that to your advantage.
You shut the book, it's pages making a dull thump. Maybe everything in this place isn't out to get you.
Most of the other books in the table are to complicated for you to even start reading, save for two.
Giving up on the books on the table for a moment, you give the room itself another quick look over. Just like before, nothing really stands out as helpful. The only thing that can really be noticed is that amongst the shelves, a single space is lacking it's book. This strikes you as a bit odd, as upon further investigation, reveals that all the books on the table don't have slots of the shelves, save one.
After a quick look, the only book that would fit in that section would be the Story of Carrie Careless. You pick that book up off the table to return it, and a feeling shoots through your body that can only be described as darkness.
Despite this, now holding it in your hands, the book also seems to be giving off a compelling aura. The book wants to be read.
You have no idea what would happen if you open the small book. You fidget with the book in your hands, trying to decide just what to do with it. It would be safer to just put it back. But then... What of the secret's it holds?
Your young curiosity fights with your common sense over what to do.
-----------------------------------------
OPEN AND READ OR Close and Return ----------- Open and Read
-----------------------------------------
You can't contain your curiosity, and open the loose pages of the book...
#404FileNotFound
## An unexpected error has been detected by Java Runtime Environment:## EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005) at pc=0x25252525, pid=6576, tid=3752## Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (11.3-b02 mixed mode windows-x86)# Problematic frame:# C 0x25252525## If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:# java.sun./webapps/bugreport/crash# The crash happened outside the Java Virtual Machine in native code.# See problematic frame for where to report the bug.#--------------- T H R E A D ---------------Current thread (0x0cc77c00): JavaThread "thread applet-Main.class-1" [_thread_in_native, id=3752, stack(0x0fbb0000,0x0fc00000)]siginfo: ExceptionCode=0xc0000005, reading address 0x25252525RegistersEAX=0x00000000, EBX=0x09044070, ECX=0x02838370, EDX=0x00000000ESP=0x0fbff77c, EBP=0x41585858, ESI=0x09044070, EDI=0x0cc77c00EIP=0x25252525, EFLAGS=0x00210246Top of Stack: (sp=0x0fbff77c)0x0fbff77c: 0cc6d900 0fbff780 09044070 0fbff7b40x0fbff78c: 09044738 00000000 09044070 000000000x0fbff79c: 0fbff7b0 0fbff7dc 02852e83 000000000x0fbff7ac: 02858189 04b50248 04b5c6d0 04b5c6d00x0fbff7bc: 0fbff7bc 09043fcf 0fbff7ec 090447380x0fbff7cc: 00000000 09043ff0 0fbff7b0 0fbff7e80x0fbff7dc: 0fbff810 02852da1 04b6adb0 04b502480x0fbff7ec: 04b5c6d0 0fbff7f0 09043579 0fbff828 Instructions: (pc=0x25252525)0x25252515: [error occurred during error reporting (printing registers, top of stack, instructions near pc), id 0xc0000005]Stack: [0x0fbb0000,0x0fc00000], sp=0x0fbff77c, free space=317kNative frames: (J=compiled Java code, j=interpreted, Vv=VM code, C=native code)C 0x25252525[error occurred during error reporting (printing native stack), id 0xc0000005]Java frames: (J=compiled Java code, j=interpreted, Vv=VM code)j com.sun.media.sound.HeadspaceSoundbank.nOpenResource(Ljava/lang/String;)J+0j com.sun.media.sound.HeadspaceSoundbank.initialize(Ljava/lang/String;)V+j com.sun.media.sound.HeadspaceSoundbank.<init>(Ljava/net/URL;)V+89j com.sun.media.sound.HsbParser.getSoundbank(Ljava/net/URL;)Ljavax/sound/midi/Soundbank;+5j javax.sound.midi.MidiSystem.getSoundbank(Ljava/net/URL;)Ljavax/sound/midi/Soundbank;+36J Main.init()Vj sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager$AppletExecutionRunnable.run()V+837j java.lang.Thread.run()V+11v ~StubRoutines::call_stub--------------- P R O C E S S ---------------Java Threads: ( => current thread ) 0x0cc79400 JavaThread "Thread-11" [_thread_blocked, id=3648, stack(0x0f610000,0x0f660000)] 0x0cc79000 JavaThread "Java Sound Event Dispatcher" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=664, stack(0x0f580000,0x0f5d0000)] 0x0cc78800 JavaThread "Keep-Alive-Timer" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=3784, stack(0x0f4f0000,0x0f540000)]=>0x0cc77c00 JavaThread "thread applet-Main.class-1" [_thread_in_native, id=3752, stack(0x0fbb0000,0x0fc00000)] 0x0cc77800 JavaThread "AWT-EventQueue-2" [_thread_blocked, id=7104, stack(0x0e020000,0x0e070000)] 0x0cc77000 JavaThread "Applet 1 LiveConnect Worker Thread" [_thread_blocked, id=5468, stack(0x0d020000,0x0d070000)] 0x0cc76c00 JavaThread "Image Fetcher 3" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=5252, stack(0x0d550000,0x0d5a0000)] 0x0cc76400 JavaThread "Browser Side Object Cleanup Thread" [_thread_blocked, id=5720, stack(0x0df90000,0x0dfe0000)] 0x0cc76000 JavaThread "Windows Tray Icon Thread" [_thread_in_native, id=5716, stack(0x0d920000,0x0d970000)] 0x0cc75c00 JavaThread "CacheCleanUpThread" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=7068, stack(0x0d890000,0x0d8e0000)] 0x0cc75400 JavaThread "CacheMemoryCleanUpThread" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=5088, stack(0x0d800000,0x0d850000)] 0x0cc71400 JavaThread "AWT-EventQueue-0" [_thread_blocked, id=5960, stack(0x0d770000,0x0d7c0000)] 0x0cc71000 JavaThread "Java Plug-In Heartbeat Thread" [_thread_blocked, id=3788, stack(0x0d6e0000,0x0d730000)] 0x0cc67800 JavaThread "AWT-Windows" daemon [_thread_in_native, id=3908, stack(0x0d4c0000,0x0d510000)] 0x0cc65000 JavaThread "AWT-Shutdown" [_thread_blocked, id=4820, stack(0x0d430000,0x0d480000)] 0x0cc64c00 JavaThread "Java2D Disposer" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=5444, stack(0x0d340000,0x0d390000)] 0x0cc3b400 JavaThread "Java Plug-In Pipe Worker Thread (Client-Side)" daemon [_thread_in_native, id=7156, stack(0x0d0f0000,0x0d140000)] 0x0cc35400 JavaThread "traceMsgQueueThread" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=7080, stack(0x0cf80000,0x0cfd0000)] 0x0282f400 JavaThread "Timer-0" [_thread_blocked, id=3852, stack(0x0cef0000,0x0cf40000)] 0x02829c00 JavaThread "Low Memory Detector" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=5232, stack(0x0cad0000,0x0cb20000)] 0x02825000 JavaThread "CompilerThread0" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4184, stack(0x0ca40000,0x0ca90000)] 0x02824800 JavaThread "Attach Listener" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4956, stack(0x0c9b0000,0x0ca00000)] 0x0281c000 JavaThread "Signal Dispatcher" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=5640, stack(0x0c920000,0x0c970000)] 0x02806000 JavaThread "Finalizer" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=1512, stac(0x0c890000,0x0c8e0000)] 0x02804c00 JavaThread "Reference Handler" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4108, stac
(0x026e0000,0x02730000)] 0x026d9400 JavaThread "main" [_thread_blocked, id=5652, stack(0x00390000,0x003e0000)]Other Threads: 0x027ff400 VMThread [stack: 0x024d0000,0x02520000] [id=3820] 0x0282b000 WatcherThread [stack: 0x0cb60000,0x0cbb0000] [id=4324]VM state:not at safepoint (normal execution)VM Mutex/Monitor currently owned by a thread: NoneHeap def new generation total 4544K, used 3263K [0x04850000, 0x04d30000, 0x04d30000) eden space 4096K, 79% used [0x04850000, 0x04b7ffd0, 0x04c50000) from space 448K, 0% used [0x04c50000, 0x04c50000, 0x04cc0000) to space 448K, 0% used [0x04cc0000, 0x04cc0000, 0x04d30000) tenured generation total 60544K, used 59937K [0x04d30000, 0x08850000, 0x08850000) the space 60544K, 98% used [0x04d30000, 0x087b8778, 0x087b8800, 0x08850000) compacting perm gen total 12288K, used 8340K [0x08850000, 0x09450000, 0x0c850000) the space 12288K, 67% used [0x08850000, 0x09075190, 0x09075200, 0x09450000)No shared spaces configured.Dynamic libraries:0x00400000 - 0x00424000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\java.exe0x77d30000 - 0x77e90000 C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll0x76b80000 - 0x76c90000 C:\Windows\syswow64\kernel32.dll0x778c0000 - 0x77986000 C:\Windows\syswow64\ADVAPI32.dll0x770d0000 - 0x771c0000 C:\Windows\syswow64\RPCRT4.dll0x75d10000 - 0x75d70000 C:\Windows\syswow64\Secur32.dll
0x77460000 - 0x77469000 C:\Windows\syswow64\LPK.DLL0x76970000 - 0x769ed000 C:\Windows\syswow64\USP10.dll0x74dc0000 - 0x74f5e000 C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.windows.common
controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.6001.18000_none_5cdbaa5a083979cc\comctl32.dll0x7c340000 - 0x7c396000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\msvcr71.dll0x6d800000 - 0x6da56000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\client\jvm.dll0x75770000 - 0x757a2000 C:\Windows\system32\WINMM.dll0x75730000 - 0x75769000 C:\Windows\system32\OLEACC.dll0x6d290000 - 0x6d298000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\hpi.dll
0x756e0000 - 0x756f9000 C:\Windows\system32\IPHLPAPI.DLL0x756a0000 - 0x756d5000 C:\Windows\system32\dhcpcsvc.DLL0x75670000 - 0x7569c000 C:\Windows\system32\DNSAPI.dll
0x73580000 - 0x73587000 C:\Windows\system32\midimap.dllVM Arguments:jvm_args: -D__jvm_launched=104104590225 -Xbootclasspath/a:C:\\PROGRA~2\\Java\\jre6\\lib\\deploy.jar;C:\\PROGRA~2\\Java\\jre6\\lib\\javaws.jar;C:\\PROGRA~2\\Java\\jre6\\lib\\plugin.jar -Dsun.plugin2.jvm.args=-D__jvm_launched=104104590225 "-Xbootclasspath/a:C:\\\\PROGRA~2\\\\Java\\\\jre6\\\\lib\\\\deploy.jar;C:\\\\PROGRA~2\\\\Java\\\\jre6\\\\lib\\\\javaws.jar;C:\\\\PROGRA~2\\\\Java\\\\jre6\\\\lib\\\\plugin.jar" "-Djava.class.path=C:\\\\PROGRA~2\\\\Java\\\\jre6\\\\classes" -- java_command: sun.plugin2.main.client.PluginMain write_pipe_name=jpi2_pid6064_pipe3,read_pipe_name=jpi2_pid6064_pipe2Launcher Type: SUN_STANDARDEnvironment Variables:PATH=C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer;;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Roxio Shared\DLLShared\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Roxio Shared\10.0\DLLShared\USERNAME=EdwardOS=Windows_NTPROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=Intel64 Family 6 Model 26 Stepping 4, GenuineIntel--------------- S Y S T E M ---------------OS: Windows Vista Build 6001 Service Pack 1CPU:total 8 (8 cores per cpu, 2 threads per core) family 6 model 10 stepping 4, cmov, cx8, fxsr, mmx, sse, sse2, sse3, ssse3, htMemory: 4k page, physical 4194303k(4194303k free), swap 4194303k(4194303k free)vm_info: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (11.3-b02) for windows-x86 JRE (1.6.0_13-b03), built on Mar 9 2009 01:15:24 by "java_re" with MS VC++ 7.1time: Thu May 27 11:45:47 2010elapsed time: 2 seconds
(0x026e0000,0x02730000)] 0x026d9400 JavaThread "main" [_thread_blocked, id=5652, stack(0x00390000,0x003e0000)]Other Threads: 0x027ff400 VMThread [stack: 0x024d0000,0x02520000] [id=3820] 0x0282b000 WatcherThread [stack: 0x0cb60000,0x0cbb0000] [id=4324]VM state:not at safepoint (normal execution)VM Mutex/Monitor currently owned by a thread: NoneHeap def new generation total 4544K, used 3263K [0x04850000, 0x04d30000, 0x04d30000) eden space 4096K, 79% used [0x04850000, 0x04b7ffd0, 0x04c50000) from space 448K, 0% used [0x04c50000, 0x04c50000, 0x04cc0000) to space 448K, 0% used [0x04cc0000, 0x04cc0000, 0x04d30000) tenured generation total 60544K, used 59937K [0x04d30000, 0x08850000, 0x08850000) the space 60544K, 98% used [0x04d30000, 0x087b8778, 0x087b8800, 0x08850000) compacting perm gen total 12288K, used 8340K [0x08850000, 0x09450000, 0x0c850000) the space 12288K, 67% used [0x08850000, 0x09075190, 0x09075200, 0x09450000)No shared spaces configured.Dynamic libraries:0x00400000 - 0x00424000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\java.exe0x77d30000 - 0x77e90000 C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll0x76b80000 - 0x76c90000 C:\Windows\syswow64\kernel32.dll0x778c0000 - 0x77986000 C:\Windows\syswow64\ADVAPI32.dll0x770d0000 - 0x771c0000 C:\Windows\syswow64\RPCRT4.dll0x75d10000 - 0x75d70000 C:\Windows\syswow64\Secur32.dll
0x77460000 - 0x77469000 C:\Windows\syswow64\LPK.DLL0x76970000 - 0x769ed000 C:\Windows\syswow64\USP10.dll0x74dc0000 - 0x74f5e000 C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.windows.common
controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.6001.18000_none_5cdbaa5a083979cc\comctl32.dll0x7c340000 - 0x7c396000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\msvcr71.dll0x6d800000 - 0x6da56000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\client\jvm.dll0x75770000 - 0x757a2000 C:\Windows\system32\WINMM.dll0x75730000 - 0x75769000 C:\Windows\system32\OLEACC.dll0x6d290000 - 0x6d298000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\hpi.dll
0x756e0000 - 0x756f9000 C:\Windows\system32\IPHLPAPI.DLL0x756a0000 - 0x756d5000 C:\Windows\system32\dhcpcsvc.DLL0x75670000 - 0x7569c000 C:\Windows\system32\DNSAPI.dll
0x73580000 - 0x73587000 C:\Windows\system32\midimap.dllVM Arguments:jvm_args: -D__jvm_launched=104104590225 -Xbootclasspath/a:C:\\PROGRA~2\\Java\\jre6\\lib\\deploy.jar;C:\\PROGRA~2\\Java\\jre6\\lib\\javaws.jar;C:\\PROGRA~2\\Java\\jre6\\lib\\plugin.jar -Dsun.plugin2.jvm.args=-D__jvm_launched=104104590225 "-Xbootclasspath/a:C:\\\\PROGRA~2\\\\Java\\\\jre6\\\\lib\\\\deploy.jar;C:\\\\PROGRA~2\\\\Java\\\\jre6\\\\lib\\\\javaws.jar;C:\\\\PROGRA~2\\\\Java\\\\jre6\\\\lib\\\\plugin.jar" "-Djava.class.path=C:\\\\PROGRA~2\\\\Java\\\\jre6\\\\classes" -- java_command: sun.plugin2.main.client.PluginMain write_pipe_name=jpi2_pid6064_pipe3,read_pipe_name=jpi2_pid6064_pipe2Launcher Type: SUN_STANDARDEnvironment Variables:PATH=C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer;;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Roxio Shared\DLLShared\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Roxio Shared\10.0\DLLShared\USERNAME=EdwardOS=Windows_NTPROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=Intel64 Family 6 Model 26 Stepping 4, GenuineIntel--------------- S Y S T E M ---------------OS: Windows Vista Build 6001 Service Pack 1CPU:total 8 (8 cores per cpu, 2 threads per core) family 6 model 10 stepping 4, cmov, cx8, fxsr, mmx, sse, sse2, sse3, ssse3, htMemory: 4k page, physical 4194303k(4194303k free), swap 4194303k(4194303k free)vm_info: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (11.3-b02) for windows-x86 JRE (1.6.0_13-b03), built on Mar 9 2009 01:15:24 by "java_re" with MS VC++ 7.1time: Thu May 27 11:45:47 2010elapsed time: 2 seconds
...The book falls from your hands, your mind trying to comprehend exactly what it just shone. Dark tendrils snake loosely out of the book as it hits the ground, moving towards the wall.
By the time you finally recover from the shock of whatever came out of the book, you notice a new door sitting on the opposite end of the room. Numbly, you approach it, grabbing your rose on the way. Finding it unlocked, you head through.
On the other side lies a hallway much like many that you haves seen up to this point. One path heads to your right, and the other to your left. In the center where you came out at, sits a tiny blue vase upon a table.
Eternal Blessings, reads the plaque pinned to the base of the table. The water contained within the vase practically sparkles. Looking down at your rose, you find it looking somewhat dry looking. Figuring there was no harm in it, you dip the rose in the water. Much to your surprise, it immediately looks refreshed, even going so far as to quickly regrow the petals you had lost earlier.
Feeling better already, you quickly pull your rose back out and march down the hall.
As you come to the end of the hall, it seems at first to be a dead end. No paintings or anything either. Given the selection of boxes in the area, it was most likely just a simple storage area. Looking around enough though, you find there is in fact a door in this room, though it is mostly obscured behind the room's many boxes.
Try as you might to push them aside though, each one of them is to heavy for you to lift. With a huff, you begin your trek out of the dead end room.
Before you get out though, something catches your foot, sending you tumbling to the floor. You quickly turn around to see what had got you, only to find a small twisted piece of cloth sticking out from between some boxes. You give a irritated huff. That which wasn't actively after you in this place still seemed to be tripping you up.
No pun intended.
Pulling yourself back to you feet, you follow the cloth back to it's source, only to find a ragged jacket hung over a mannequin. Curiously enough, the garb looks oddly familiar, though you can't place it.
As you more to inspect it closer, the mannequin shifts a bit, groaning as it did so. You jump back quickly, prepared to run for your life again. When it doesn't move again, something dawns upon you. You remember where you saw this before.
This wasn't a mannequin. It was another person, the young man with the odd jacket who had been looking at The Hanged Man back in the gallery.
You try to wake him up, but he doesn't move beyond an occasional grunt. Something gleaming in his hand catches your attention. A small key rests in his hands, though it is a dull grey in color, unlike all the other color-coded keys up to this point.
"I'm going to borrow this for a second, ok?" You say quietly, just in case he can hear you as you take the key from his hand, before running off in the other direction. If it was a dead end here, this key must go to something on the other end of the hallway. Or at least, that is what you manage to guess. You just hope you are correct.
It takes a moment for you to notice it despite their sharp contrast to the red floor, but blue spots beneath your feet seem to be growing in number as you continue down. They seem to come to a stop beneath a painting.
Or at least, where a painting should have been. All that sits there now is the plaque, and the loose outline of where the frame had been held against the wall.
Lady in Blue
You shudder a bit at the thought of your last encounter with one of the ladies. This feeling is only intensified as you look down to inspect the blue spots.
They were rose petals. All of them.
As the rose wilts, so to will your life rot away
To your left sits a door, to a room that oddly enough has a window. You place the key you had gotten from the young man earlier, and sure enough the lock comes undone.
Before pushing your way in, you run over to the window to peek inside, having to stand up on your tiptoes to see over the rim.
Surely enough, the woman in blue sits there, frame leaning against the wall smiling to herself. In her hands lay what was left of a blue rose, with a few petals still clinging onto the stem.
You brace yourself, walking into the room. As soon as you do, the lady seems to lose interest in the blue rose, dropping to the ground as she scuttles after you as fast as she can.
You dash around her, just barely managing to dodge her hands as she claws out at you. With as much speed as your small legs can muster, you grab the rose off the floor and make it out of the room, just barely escaping in time to shut the door behind the lady.
You breath a sigh of relief. They can't get through doors, you recall, so you should be safe now for the moment being. You look down at the wilted rose in your hand, and remember the vase from just a little while ago. Maybe it could bring this rose back to life as well.
Just as you begin to walk off, you hear a loud thump behind you. Though you think nothing of it, figuring it to be just the lady banging on the door, the window shatters only a second later, with the Lady in Blue looking thoroughly upset. She immediately gives chase, and you immediately turn to run.
You barely make it to the vase with time to do what you need. Sure enough, as you place the azure rose within, it returns to a beautiful fullness. Unfortunately, you don't have time to admire the rose with the lady right behind you. Quickly plucking the restored plant from the vase, you turn back to run.
You hear something else shatter behind you as you run, looking back just long enough to see that the perusing lady had, either intentionally or accidently, overturned the small table and shattered the vase.
Well, that would be no good to you any more. As you come back to the previously dead end room, you find that the boxes had been shifted from in front if the door just enough for it to be opened. The door cracks a second later, a hand reaching out in your direction.
"Quick, through here!" A voice yells, and you oblige. Not a second after the door slams shut behind you does the lady smash into the now closed gateway with a thud.
"Are you ok, little girl?"
You look up to the source of the voice, finding it to belong to the man from earlier.
You give a curt nod, though you have a question yourself. "Are... you?"
The man seems a bit taken off guard by your question, though it doesn't take long for him to realize what you meant. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I just all of a sudden started feeling better. It's like... Just..."
He trails off as he notices the second rose in your hand. "My rose!" He practically shouts, before calming himself. "Yes, um... Thank you, I suppose. I take it was you who got this for me?"
You nod timidly, offering the rose to him. He takes it with a smile, ruffling you hair a bit, much like he did when you first met him. "I don't get it, but it seems our life is tied up to these roses. I assume you have been taking care of yours?"
You hold your rose a bit closer to your chest as a, mayhaps misplaced, precaution. Your mom had always said not to talk to strangers, after all.
"Oh, how rude of me. I haven't even told you my name. I guess I was just distracted a bit. It's good to know I'm not alone here." He said, obviously seeing your hesitation towards him. Kneeling down to your level, he holds out his free hand towards you. "My name is Garry. How about you?"
You lightly shake his hand, trying to remain to maintain a ladylike posture. "I-Ib."
"Ib, huh? Well, it's nice to meet you, Ib. Now, how about we find a way out of here? This place isn't good for either of us."
No pun intended.
Pulling yourself back to you feet, you follow the cloth back to it's source, only to find a ragged jacket hung over a mannequin. Curiously enough, the garb looks oddly familiar, though you can't place it.
As you more to inspect it closer, the mannequin shifts a bit, groaning as it did so. You jump back quickly, prepared to run for your life again. When it doesn't move again, something dawns upon you. You remember where you saw this before.
This wasn't a mannequin. It was another person, the young man with the odd jacket who had been looking at The Hanged Man back in the gallery.
You try to wake him up, but he doesn't move beyond an occasional grunt. Something gleaming in his hand catches your attention. A small key rests in his hands, though it is a dull grey in color, unlike all the other color-coded keys up to this point.
"I'm going to borrow this for a second, ok?" You say quietly, just in case he can hear you as you take the key from his hand, before running off in the other direction. If it was a dead end here, this key must go to something on the other end of the hallway. Or at least, that is what you manage to guess. You just hope you are correct.
It takes a moment for you to notice it despite their sharp contrast to the red floor, but blue spots beneath your feet seem to be growing in number as you continue down. They seem to come to a stop beneath a painting.
Or at least, where a painting should have been. All that sits there now is the plaque, and the loose outline of where the frame had been held against the wall.
Lady in Blue
You shudder a bit at the thought of your last encounter with one of the ladies. This feeling is only intensified as you look down to inspect the blue spots.
They were rose petals. All of them.
As the rose wilts, so to will your life rot away
To your left sits a door, to a room that oddly enough has a window. You place the key you had gotten from the young man earlier, and sure enough the lock comes undone.
Before pushing your way in, you run over to the window to peek inside, having to stand up on your tiptoes to see over the rim.
Surely enough, the woman in blue sits there, frame leaning against the wall smiling to herself. In her hands lay what was left of a blue rose, with a few petals still clinging onto the stem.
You brace yourself, walking into the room. As soon as you do, the lady seems to lose interest in the blue rose, dropping to the ground as she scuttles after you as fast as she can.
You dash around her, just barely managing to dodge her hands as she claws out at you. With as much speed as your small legs can muster, you grab the rose off the floor and make it out of the room, just barely escaping in time to shut the door behind the lady.
You breath a sigh of relief. They can't get through doors, you recall, so you should be safe now for the moment being. You look down at the wilted rose in your hand, and remember the vase from just a little while ago. Maybe it could bring this rose back to life as well.
Just as you begin to walk off, you hear a loud thump behind you. Though you think nothing of it, figuring it to be just the lady banging on the door, the window shatters only a second later, with the Lady in Blue looking thoroughly upset. She immediately gives chase, and you immediately turn to run.
You barely make it to the vase with time to do what you need. Sure enough, as you place the azure rose within, it returns to a beautiful fullness. Unfortunately, you don't have time to admire the rose with the lady right behind you. Quickly plucking the restored plant from the vase, you turn back to run.
You hear something else shatter behind you as you run, looking back just long enough to see that the perusing lady had, either intentionally or accidently, overturned the small table and shattered the vase.
Well, that would be no good to you any more. As you come back to the previously dead end room, you find that the boxes had been shifted from in front if the door just enough for it to be opened. The door cracks a second later, a hand reaching out in your direction.
"Quick, through here!" A voice yells, and you oblige. Not a second after the door slams shut behind you does the lady smash into the now closed gateway with a thud.
"Are you ok, little girl?"
You look up to the source of the voice, finding it to belong to the man from earlier.
You give a curt nod, though you have a question yourself. "Are... you?"
The man seems a bit taken off guard by your question, though it doesn't take long for him to realize what you meant. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I just all of a sudden started feeling better. It's like... Just..."
He trails off as he notices the second rose in your hand. "My rose!" He practically shouts, before calming himself. "Yes, um... Thank you, I suppose. I take it was you who got this for me?"
You nod timidly, offering the rose to him. He takes it with a smile, ruffling you hair a bit, much like he did when you first met him. "I don't get it, but it seems our life is tied up to these roses. I assume you have been taking care of yours?"
You hold your rose a bit closer to your chest as a, mayhaps misplaced, precaution. Your mom had always said not to talk to strangers, after all.
"Oh, how rude of me. I haven't even told you my name. I guess I was just distracted a bit. It's good to know I'm not alone here." He said, obviously seeing your hesitation towards him. Kneeling down to your level, he holds out his free hand towards you. "My name is Garry. How about you?"
You lightly shake his hand, trying to remain to maintain a ladylike posture. "I-Ib."
"Ib, huh? Well, it's nice to meet you, Ib. Now, how about we find a way out of here? This place isn't good for either of us."
CHAPTER TWO --- END
