PSYC Ward: Explorer

World 9, Part D: The First Floor

The arrived up an entrance to the east of the fountain they had seen upon first arriving. Kyle fell silent as soon as they entered the room.

"The Cloth isn't here."

Her observation was instant. Rachel scanned the room quickly and realized she was right.

"So it isn't. Where do you think it went?" Rachel asked.

Kyle just shrugged. Rachel examined the room around them - there was that dual staircase leading to the overviewing second floor, and below that four doors into further parts of the gallery. Each door was labeled - Sculpture, Painting, Clothing, and Commissions.

She pointed to the Painting corridor and Kyle nodded in response. The two went inside, and saw, unsurprisingly a long hallway full of paintings. Most of them were on black pieces of paper with red 'paint' that Rachel's nose assured her was long dried human blood. They passed a painting of a burning house called "Goodbye Innocence", a painting of a stylized heart inside an actual heart titled "Beating For You", a painting of a bunch of eggs called "Birth" and one made of blue and yellow diamonds that looked familiar to Rachel but she couldn't remember where she'd seen it. It was labeled "Self Portrait 1". Immediately beyond that was another painting that caught Rachel's attention. In the center was a phoenix, rising from the ashes with an infinity symbol in one eye and a yin-yang in the other. The entire thing was encircled by the skeleton of a snake - given how long and thin it was, Rachel was almost willing to bet it was multiple skeletons put together - that was eating its own tail. It was at about that point that Rachel realized she was getting dizzy.

"What's this?" Kyle asked.

"It's making me dizzy, is what it is."

Kyle pinched her nose and nodded.

"Y-yeah, me too."

She went to the placard and read it aloud.

"Taste of Infinity."

It would explain the dizziness, if Rachel understood this place correctly. Their attention was suddenly brought to a nearby banging sound. Both girls whipped towards it and saw on the opposite side a painted man, in a beautiful glass frame, pounding on it.

"Help! Help!" He called out.

Rachel paled. The man was crying, his face red from sobbing. Even though he was painted with acrylic, she could smell blood on him. He wore a red robe and his blue eyes looked over the scene.

"Please, you must help!"

Rachel narrowed her eyes as he continued pounding on the glass of the frame he was stuck in.

"Why? How do we know you don't want to kill us?" Kyle asked.

"Kill you?"

His jaw dropped and his eyes went wide as he heard this, and he clutched his hands in front of his heart.

"Why would I do such a thing?!"

"Everyone else in here has tried!" Rachel reminded.

He relaxed a bit, his eyes going soft.

"Ah. Yes, yes, that makes sense. I am quite sorry. Truly, truly sorry. They all want to leave the gallery. Many of them have gotten bored. But I, I have not. There is only one thing in my life, and that is my love Yuliana. Mother painted us together, and yet she constantly separates us."

Rachel looked at Kyle, asking her if this guy could be trusted, but received only a shrug in response - right, Kyle couldn't read the minds of paintings. She looked at the plaque beneath the painting read it.