Painting the Roses Red (An Ib AU)

Chapter 8: Separated

Ocean's Point of View

"Uh..." Toby mumbled.

"Let's go left!" Mark suggested. We all reached the left door and pushed through. The room has fluffy bunny dolls; rather strange. Toby walked up to the large doll painting and read.

"Red eyes..." He muttered. I didn't feel comfortable with the room, soon I ran out of the room saying.

"NOPE; NOT GOING IN THERE ANY MORE!" I yelled out in fear.

"..Oh..!" Jack said as he stepped inside, looking around, looked like he had a heart attack, and stepped back out. Barry pushed his friends and cooed at the bunnies.

"Aww!" Barry cooed.

"What the **** is this room?!" Tommy took a sharp breath as Rick stepped in.

"Gentlemen and ladies'." He said as he shook before stepping back out. Mark stuck his tongue out playfully at Tommy, Rick, Jack, and I. I may not be in the room, but I could tell that he did it.

"Scardey-cats!" I hear him tease.

"Hey, **** off man!" Jack gave a playful smile.

"Mark, you only have a fear of oceans and mannequins so... SHUT UP!!!!" I yelled from outside  the room.

"Barry, how the **** about this room is CUTE?" Jack said as he coughed. I went back in, looked around; getting what was unsettling to the boys except Barry and Toby, then I picked up a book.

'The more your spirit suffers, you will hallucinate... blah, blah, blah... and you won't be conscious of that fact.' I read as I wondered if it meant to me and this room. I stepped away silently as a bunny crashed to the ground, shattering as Toby jumped.

"******* ****..!" He mumbled before narrowing his eyes at the shattered bunny ornament.

"I'M NOT STAYING IN THIS ROOM!!" I yelled as I left the room again. Then I was told that Toby dug through it and found a key.

"Let's go get the other door!" I heard him say and I could tell that he smiled. They walked out, some faster than others, and suddenly froze as a crushing sound erupted from the painting in between the halls.

'Flowers of Jealousy.' I managed to read before the rose vines shot out of the ground where I stood, the others on either side.

"OCEAN!" Amy cried out, spinning around to face me on my right side. Mark stood by her, his eyes wide in surprise.

"Oh ****!" Toby and Rick said as they rushed forwards to help me.

"Ocean, we can't reach you!" Tommy said as him and Jack stretched out for me.

"You have to go with them." Tommy's voice dropped a bit when his eyes landed on Mark and Amy. I looked from both sides and leaped over to Toby, Rick, Mark, and Amy. The vines shot up more, creating what would have been my death. Tommy, Jack, and Barry ran over to the wall.

"Are you okay?!" Barry asked in a worried voice.

"Yeah!" Mark said.

"Ocean, are you okay?" Jack asked.

"I'm alive! So, yeah." I said as I semi-smiled.

"These vines... they're stone?" Tommy said as he stepped back.

"We can't cut these!" He said as Jack looked at me. He tossed the key towards my group with Toby catching it.

"We'll find some way to get back to your group." Rick said as Barry looked at all of us.

"Okay. Stay safe, alright?" Tommy says as Amy and I nodded. My group hurried towards the door in front of us, Mark pushing it open. The room was filled with boxes and statues, walls and floor like cardboard. Amy dug through the boxes, looking for anything to cut stone.

"Hey!" Mark said as he dug out a palette and painting knife. Amy picked out the painting knife.

"Maybe we could cut the vines with this!" Mark said as he gasped.

"Dude." Rick said as he crossed his arms.

"Sorry, mom! I see you can't take a joke." Mark said as he chuckled.

"I will hold onto this. Right, Amy?" Mark asked as he looked at his girlfriend. Amy smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. Just in case..." She said as she trailed off, while Toby dug through more boxes.

"There's nothing else in here we can use... let's just go back to the others." He said, leaning back. But the dim lights suddenly flickered in and out before finally darkness overcame.

"Hey!" Rick said as he groaned.

"What the-" Amy said as she stood up as the lights turned on again.

"Jeez. They really need to fix the lights in this place." Toby mumbled. I shrugged, walking back to the door; wait! A red statue blocked the door.

"Wait... Wasn't that against the wall a minute ago?" I asked as I walked up to it.

"Hey, guys, can you please give me a hand?" I asked as Toby, Rick, Mark, and Amy all came over to me.

"One, two, three-!" I said as we started pushing, but even with our combined weight, we couldn't push it. I sat back sighing, what are the other boys doing right now?

"Not much we could do but go this way." Amy muttered, opening a brown door. It led us through a long hallway. We made the way in silence before a red ball bounced down the steps. We walked past a painting before words became that is on the brown wall, directed to me.

'Come on, Ocean!' I read as I ignored it.

'I want to have fun in a world without stubborn little children, or fans to mess up everything.' I read as felt my fists clench in anger at those words.

'We'll have fun; you, me, and our friends.' It said as I once again ignored it with a bit of anger.

I pushed past the writings, disagreeing with those words completely. I pushed the door open and stepped into a room, a huge void cutting what would have been a large room in half. "What is are the others doing? We kind of left them behind..." Mark sighed, sitting against the wall, seeing there was nothing much to do.

"Yeah. I hope they're okay..." Amy shrugged. Rick, Barry, and I sat up against the void, waiting for our friends sadly.