Painting the Roses Red (An Ib AU)

Chapter 6: Nightmares

Ocean's Point of View

The four of us tumbled into a room as the painting closed up. A long hallway lined with mannequin heads stood in front of us, paintings on the wall to that of Voldemort or perhaps, a mannequin, adding to the weirdness. Rick dusted himself off and looked at the hall.

"**** this room and everything it stands for." I muttered, causing Jack and Rick to laugh, while Tommy looked up.

"Here goes my nightmares now !" I stated as more laughs heard from those three. We hurried past the paintings and mannequins, into a long and narrow hall, two paths were there now.

"You guys go that way, we'll go this way." I suggested, Jack and Tommy nodded, walking to the left. Rick and I went to the right, then I realized we all end up in the same room. Suddenly Jack yelped in fear as a painting fell to the ground; another Lady in Red. Jack and Tommy caught up to us.

"Run!" Tommy yelled at us to sprint away and we all started to do that. But I caught a sight of a painting; a hanging man. He was upside down, but the numbers I saw upside down said '6295.' I made a mental note as I slowed down.

"I think she's too far away to see us." Rick stated.

"Okay. But there's a door near there and I don't wanna-" Tommy started.

"What? Where?" I asked. Tommy and Jack took my hand, while Rick stayed behind us. They led me to two doors, the Lady in Red far away.

'How many pictures of women are in this room?' One thing said. The other had a lock combination. I entered '6295' and opened the door, where a stool, painting of a vase, and a vase welcomed us. Jack shrugged and Rick walked up to me.

"What's up? I got bored." He states.

"How many ladies are in this room?" Jack asked in curiosity, already knowing how observant Rick was.

"Well... I already see three... try sixteen." Rick says as Tommy puts in sixteen and nothing happened.

"Fifteen." Jack says as Tommy puts in fifteen, and nothing happened again.

"Well, I mean, unless they think Jack as a woman..." Rick said as he shrugged as Jack looked at him with wide eyes filled with playful anger.

"I MEAN THE PAINTINGS. THE PAINTINGS OF WOMEN." Tommy said jokingly.

"Oh. Fourteen. I thought you meant Ocean too." Rick smiled innocently.

"I'm flattered!" I said flatly, causing the others to laugh. I stepped in a bookshelf, vase, and sign.

"Please do not destroy the exhibits. Well, ****!" Jack mumbled.

"Dunked!" Tommy said as both him and Rick both dunked their roses into the vase. Then I picked out a book from the shelf.

"The gallery is like a spooky amusement park with loss of strange things! It's so much fun playing here, the day was over before I even knew it! Isn't it a fantastic place? Why don't you join me here? You'll be fine with all this company..." I said as I shut the book.

"That's enough of that." I said as I stepped back outside, yet a mannequin head in front of the door causing me to jump.

"That wasn't there before..!" Tommy whispered as the group quietly walked around it and ducked into the halls, where I found an unlocked room. Nothing was there expect for a single mirror. Then the boys and I walked up to it, wanting to see if anything strange about it.

I saw Jack, chocolate brown/green fringe slightly messed up but still kind of neat. His now blue eyes held playfulness and sarcasm in them.

I saw Rick, hood on, his green eyes contain mystery and seemed to glow behind his blue hood. He took it off and showed his olive colored face and rather sweet smile, messy brown hair on top of his head.