Forgotten Portrait

The Safe Room

                                                                ~~~Ibara~~~

    Whenever I returned to the other world, I found myself waking up on a white couch covered in thorns and red rose petals. Guertena must have had a fetish with roses or something... they're everywhere in this gallery. I thought, sitting up and looking around. I remember this room. This is where the portrait of my parents used to be... and this is also where Garry and I got attacked by a ton of painted ladies.

    "Ah! Garry! I have to break the glass!" I remembered, shooting up off of the couch. "But where is the painting!?" I looked around, seeing the place where my parent's portrait had once been. That's where I found the Forgotten Portrait... in the same place where my parent's painting had once been. But... Garry wasn't in the portrait. It was just the rose garden I had just been in.

    "I guess he's off doing something." I mumbled, groggily trudging over to the wall. "So, I'm just supposed to break the glass in the frame?" I sighed, leaning heavily against the wall. "I guess my mind is still trying to wake up."

    I shook my head, trying to clear the fog from my mind. "No matter what, I need to break the glass." I lifted my hand, balling it up into a fist. "I hope this works." I smashed my fist into the glass, sending shards flying all about.

    Generally, punching the glass may not have been the best idea on my part, but I didn't see anything else around to break it. The result of punching the glass was a bloody fist with a few shards of glass sticking out of the skin. Please work... I walked back over to the couch. I sat down and started to pick the glass from my hand. Garry...

                                                                ~~~Garry~~~

    Come on, Ib. Break the glass so that I can join you on the outside world. Just as I finished my thought, I heard the sound of glass shattering. Go Ib! You did it! Wait... I looked up at the sky, seeing that a crack was beginning to form there.

    "Hehe... That can't be good." I mumbled to myself, chuckling nervously. "I'd better get out of here before this entire realm falls down on top of me!" I glanced back up at the crack in the sky before running towards the exit.

    To bad for the painting of Mary and Mary... I was hoping that this wouldn't happen so that I could study it more, but I guess that it's going to fall apart with the rest of this realm. I was soon jerked from my thoughts, having to abruptly slide to a stop just as a piece of the sky came crashing down in front of me. This is bad! The realm's degeneration is speeding up! I thought, putting my arm over my eyes to shield them from the dust.

    "I have to get out of here.... I can finally escape this damn place, and I refuse to let it take me with it!" I ran around the piece of fallen sky, and continued on my way to the painted exit. Whenever I saw the portrait, I noticed that cracks were beginning to form on that to.

    "Even the exit is falling apart!? Geez...!" I picked up the pace and just dove through the painting, smashing through what was left of the glass. On the other side of the portrait, I went crashing face-first into the back of a white couch.

                                                             ~~~Ibara~~~

    It wasn't long before I heard the sound of breaking glass behind me, and I jumped up to see what was happening. I smiled whenever I saw that it was just Garry, but I winced whenever I saw him crash into the back of the couch. I ran around the couch and to kneel beside him, putting my hands on his back and shaking him. "Garry!"