Ib One-Shots

Hide and Seek

POV: Ib

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"IB! WHERE ARE YOU?" Gary called. It had been a year since that crazy adventure in Guerterna's gallery. Believe it or not, I miss Mary. She was my age. Sure, she was just a painting with no real age, but she was painted to be my age. All she wanted was to be a real girl, live in the real world, but she went to extreme measures to get what she wanted, and me and Gary had to burn her. I still feel terrible, though. I push it to the back of my mind most of the time, but every now and then, it resurfaces.

I giggled, knowing Gary would find me eventually, but it would take awhile. It was mid-fall, and I was hiding in the park in a leaf pile the park caretakers made. Gary and I made plans to meet at the park every other Saturday and we stayed all day. Mom always helped me pack a picnic lunch and snacks for me and Gary so we wouldn't have to leave or stop playing.

Gary pulled me from my thoughts when he threw away the leaves in front of my face and yelled, "I FOUND YOU!" I burst into a fit of giggles and ran from the leaf pile, roaring like a lion! I barreled straight into Gary and we both toppled over into another leaf pile. Leaves flew all around us. Gary looked at me and a worried look crossed his face. "Are you okay, Ib? You look like you were thinking about something," he said. "I was just thinking about Mary," I said. "She wasn't that bad you know. She just wanted to be a real girl like me. She just went to far to try to get it. I can't help but feel that there might have been something more we could have done, and we could have all come back to the real world and live peacefully."

Gary sighed and pulled me up. "I'm sure that there was something we could have done, Ib," he said, "but what's done is done and there's nothing we can do about it."

I sighed and asked, "Wanna go back today?" You see, me and Gary, we can still go back to Guerterna's gallery, now whenever we want. We're friends with the art there now, and without everything trying to kill us, it's actually pretty fun. Gary made peace with the dolls, and I made peace with everything else. There are everlasting health restoration points everywhere, and sometimes, when the plan is for me to sleep over at Gary's house, we play the maze we first went through, though now they only get me and Gary down to one petal and are really careful about not killing us. It's really fun.

Gary looked at me and said, "Okay."