Fabricated Reality

Fabricated World

"Fabricated World"

Daniel looked at the painting, wondering at all of its bold colours and how they formed a new reality. He wished that he had the creativity to create something as beautiful. Lost in his own thoughts, he was only slightly aware of the lights in the gallery that began to flicker around him. Thinking nothing of it, Dan walked along the corridor, pausing to read the names of the other paintings and statues. He couldn't help but feel as though some of them were watching him, but he knew that was absurd.

Something's different he thought, but he couldn't place the ever-growing feeling that something in the museum wasn't right. He walked through a few more corridors, and eventually made his way back to the lobby area. The receptionist was nowhere to be seen. No one was anywhere to be seen.

The people are gone he realized. All of the sounds of slight chatter and discussion had died down, and the only noise he could hear was the sound of his own breathing. That, and his heartbeat, which was steadily picking up pace as he began to panic. He paced up and down the hallway, muttering to himself. "I'm not going crazy. This is all just some prank, or a dream, or maybe a hallucination, but I am not going crazy."

But what if you are? his mind whispered to him. "No, I am not going crazy. First things first, I need to look around some more. Maybe there are people here that I just didn't see at first." He quit pacing for a moment, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, letting all of the air out slowly to calm down his racing heart. Actually, first thing to do is probably to stop talking aloud to yourself he mind reasonably stated, just, you know, in case someone actually is here.

Once he had calmed his nerves, Dan turned around and started walking. He waked straight since he had just walked down the steps on his left, and he was greeted by the sight of an eerie painting of a fish, appropriately titled "Abyss of the Deep". The painting was roped off for the most part, with the exception of the northern portion, which had a message scribbled in what looked like blue ink: "come down below, Daniel". Genuinely terrified, Dan could see that the painting indeed descended into the ground, and in horror, he stuck one leg through the painting, and found that nothing was restricting his advances.

He walked completely through the painting and found himself in a new place, blue in colour. He was in a corridor, and at the end, he took a right. Seeing a red door at the end of this room, he ran toward it, turning the knob only to find it was locked. He spun around and ran the other way, where along the wall he could just make out a few words written in the same blue ink: C O M E C O M E C O M E C O M E over and over and over, and at the end of this room sat a table blocking a blue door. Atop the table was a vase with a single red rose inside. As if by instinct, Dan grabbed the rose and tucked it safely into his jacket pocket, where surely no harm could come to it. He carefully slid the table out of the way, and he tried the knob, the door creaking as it slowly opened.

"OH MY GOD!" Dan yelled, leaping back in fright.

A large painting was the only thing in the room that Dan could see, and it was incredibly lifelike. The painting was of just a woman's head, her eyes closed with a gentle smile on her face. Her long hair was coloured a soft grey, and the ends appeared to flow outside of the painting's frame. Upon closer inspection, Dan could see that it actually was outside of the frame, and that the lady was breathing lightly. Backing slowly away, he could hear a tinkling sound behind him. He looked down and was surprised to find a blue key beneath his foot. This must be the key to that other door he thought, and then felt stupid because no shit, what other door was there Dan, that was the only locked door in here. He grabbed it, and was met by a sudden burst of air as the painting-lady opened her eyes and smiled maniacally at him.

A plaque suddenly appeared under the woman, and Dan read the words out loud, his face growing paler with every syllable. "When the rose wilts, so too will you fade away." Nu-uh, forget this, I'm leaving. He left the room and ran as fast as he could to the opposite door, ignoring as best he could the new message on the walls, this time in bloodred ink: t h i e f t h i e f t h i e f t h i e f and trying to ignore the walkway he had originally come down, which was now nowhere in sight.

Back at the other door now, Dan fumbled for the key he had picked up, and he opened the door slowly, trying to catch his breath. Jade green greeted his eyes, and he was faced with an option. North of him was a hallway with a warning that read "Beware of Edges" and to his right was another door and a tiny ant, who introduced himself as an ant who really loved paintings. Oh kay, I have officially lost my mind. Ants can't talk, I know for a fact that ants do not and cannot talk and yet here was one, right in front of him, voice clear as day. "You know what," he said to himself, "I'll take talking ants over cryptic warnings any day, and he walked over to the door, opening it to find a small little room. Right in the center of this area was a hole. A giant hole in the floor. He would have to find another way to get to the other side.

That can wait his brain murmured. You need rest. Dan was just beginning to realize how tired he was. There was a table in the room with him, so he dragged that in front of the door, feeling assured that nothing would make it over the abyss or through the door. He took his coat off and lay it in the corner. Using it as a makeshift pillow, he lied down on his side, waiting for sleep to come, and hoping that all of this would be over in the morning.