Painting the Roses Red (An Ib AU)

Chapter 3: Puzzles

Ocean's Point of View

I pulled a shaking Jack into a large room, adoor in the center surrounded by six paintings of figures in colored clothing.

"Well, ****." Jack sighed.

"At least they're quitefashionable." He joked as he smiled at me and I let out a giggle.

"Someone callVogue." I said reading the descriptions beneath each painting.

"****, which one do we follow?" I groaned, seeing as there werethree different instructions. I looked at Nicholas, who was in deep thought. Ithought about him; I'd found him just a little while ago; maybe he could be aclue?

I looked at him; what color was he wearing the most? He wore mainly blackclothing, but there was no dark-clothed person. But his hair... brown or green!I went with a guess.

"Hey, uh..., you stay here, okay?" I asked.

"Sure." He said as I read the brown-clothed description again.

'Go east foursteps, and then up two!' I stepped into the next room and followed thedirections. I pulled up the tile at my feet and saw a number behind it-4.

"I did it!" I said in joy, only to hear a familiar scream and glassshattering.

"Jack?!" I called out as I I sprinted out of there, seeing Jack curled up on the floor, panic in his eyes, red stained his face.

"Jack,are you- oh no..." I started as I noticed the paintings; knives in their hands and redpaint on the canvas. The brown painting was torn into pieces, red nearlycovering the entire canvas as I looked disgusted and worried.

'Liar!' The yellow description below the paintingssaid. I crawled over to Jack, who was in fear, his teeth chattering.

"Are you alright? What happened?" I asked in concern.

"Iblinked, and then there were screams and the canvas ripping and tearing itself,and the red..." Jack whimpered.

"Let's get out of here." Iwhispered, Jack nodded and zoomed right out. Jack split away from me toinspect a door behind all the hanging dolls.

"Uh... Ocean? There's somekind of code here..." He called as I inspected the red ropes that thedolls hung from.

"Really? What does it say?" I asked him.

"Green X times Red Xplus Blue X equals..." Nicholas groaned.

"I was never good atmath..." He added.

"Don't worry, I'm okay at it. Plus, I have my phone." Ipulled out my phone only to see the screen dimmed to the point where I couldn'tsee a thing on it. Then I signed.

"What time is it...?" I muttered. A dollfell from its rope prison, a blue number on it.

'18...' It says I rememberedthe white painting, and sprinted over to it. Looking closer, I saw a reallysmall number in its center.

"9! Uhm..."I scratched my head, my mathwork into the yellow wall.

"Try 166!" I called out.

"Okay!" Jack yelled. A clicking noise was heard, along with an opened door.

"Did it! Yay!" Jack says as I ran over to him, who came out with a woodenapple.

"The lips!" I said with Jack tossing the apple to me as Isprinted over to throw it into the lips.

"Hungry... give food... thatfood...! Give it to me...!" The lips rasped.

"This tasty! I'll letyou through, pumpkin." The lips, not quite as raspy said. The mouth openedwide, showing a dark passageway. I looked at Jack with uncertainty as usboth passed through. Jack and I entered a hallway with large pictures alongthe walls of stuff. I sighed, seeing the shine of tone of the paintings andremembering how Maya liked to use shiny, metallic markers. Jack noticed mymoment of sadness, and he pats my shoulder encouragingly, his purple/black rosewas in his front pocket.

I smiled at him softly, suddenly I noticed we werenearing the last painting; an empty place stands. As we passed the painting, ahuge blade came down after us, only missing Jack and I. He jumped a bit,but calmed down. I caught a flash of a mannequin before I blinked and it wasgone, Jack paled a bit.

"How did you get here?" I asked while looking for anothersign of escaping.

"It was me and somefriends, right? We walked in here before the big opening, and saw the rosepetals, and everything after was a blur. I need to find them!" Jack looked determinedly.

"I...I was with my sister, and saw myself in apainting and then everything went south." I smiled as Nicholas laughed.

"Amazing explanation 10 out of 10." He said as he clapped. I spotted a paintingof a woman with brown hair in a red dress. I inspected it before she clawed outat me, falling off the wall and crawling for Jack and I.

"****, ****,run, ****-" Jack yelped. I looked back, running through the room.

"There's a key!" I dived over the women, growling and screaming. Thewomen turned back to look at me before I saw Jack waving his arms.

"Hey!" Jack screamed. The woman turned around to look at him,kneeling down in front of her. He laughed, leaning close to her distractedface.

"IT AIN"T OVER YET 'TIL YOU"RE DEAD." Jack stated as he pickedup the canvas and threw it across the room, while the women laid there stunned. I lostit in a ton of giggled while both pf us sprinted through the door, unlocking itand shutting it after we got through.

"That was amazing!" I laughedas thuds are coming from the door; Nicholas laughed like a hyena.

"I have no idea where that came from." He answered honestly as I looked to theother side of the room, where another red door sat, I jiggled the handle...Locked. Jack picked up a bright red book, standing out from the other ones.

"Hey Ocean, look at this!" He looked up; I sat next to him as the storybegan to move, drawn in crayon.