Fulfilling a Promise ([Ib] Garry x Reader)

Goodbye, Mary; Goodbye, Fabricated World

I slowly arise from the hard ground, head throbbing. I look around and the monsters are everywhere. The headless mannequins, the mannequin heads, the painting women, even the dolls. The floor is scribbled all over with crayon, crudely drawn roses and dolls and train tracks somewhat tracing the perimeter of the room. My first priority is to find Ib and Garry. I then hear a low groan in pain from underneath me. I look over and my face immediately flushes.
I totally just fell on top of Garry.
I scurry away from his form, and ask him if he's okay. He sluggishly lifts his head.
"Oh, (Y/N)...y-yeah, I'm fine. How about you?"
"I should be able to walk it off."
I get up from the ground and help him up. Soon after we're both to our weak feet, we notice Ib behind us, and that she seems okay from the fall. We then realize that there's a key we need to find, and after a long search, we found it next to a bright pink cat crudely drawn on the floor. Almost as soon as the key was secured in the palm of my hand, the floor starts rumbling, and before we know it, we're sprinting across the Toy Box.
We reach a long corridor, badly scribbled in roses and stars coat the walls. The floor is a dark teal color, reflecting the sounds of our footsteps abnormally loud. This hallway makes me very anxious for some reason, as if something really bad or scarring could've happened here. But alas, it was completely harmless. After ascending a small flight of stairs, we find an almost identical room to the house with the Toy Box in it, with the small change that instead of the Toy Box against the far wall, another small flight of stairs sits, blocked off by sharp looking thorns.
"Huh? D-Did this room change?"
Said Garry behind me. We check the room just in case, but find nothing of importance, but the thorns blockading the stairs. Garry examines them closely.
"Thoroughly blocked...telling us not to go up then? Gotta get through them somehow.."
After Ib and Garry argue for a bit about just tearing them down, I come up with a plan.
"Hey Garry, can't you just burn them with your lighter?"
"Burning them? ..yes, I suppose that would work. It completely slipped my mind, even though I have a lighter.."
And with a click or two from the small lighter, the vines and thorns burn away into ashes.
I wonder, why does Garry have a lighter with him? He doesn't seem like the type to smoke..maybe he just truly has it to keep it handy?
We go up the stairs and greeted with a very long room, a few dolls and small sketchbooks scattered about, along with an easel and scribbles going up the solid black walls; a re-occurring theme. On the far wall, I can see a frame, but I can't quite make out the details.
"Hey guys, see that painting on the far wall? I think I've seen it before, let's take a look."
As I take a few steps closer, I recognize the painting. Same hexagonal, wooden frame, same yellow roses scattered about it. But, it seems that the main piece was taken out, for broken off glass coats the perimeter of the frame, and also leaves an immense amount of broken glass on the floor beneath. Definitely Mary's painting. Loud, heavy footsteps from behind us interrupt my thoughts, and a coarse "Who's there?" startles us as we turn around and see her.
Speak of the devil.
"Ib...Garry...(Y/N)..y-you're all okay?"
"How did you get into this room?"
"Leave..."
We all stand there speechless. Mary's face is darkened, and she looks absolutely furious. One could even feel the burning wrath coursing through her veins, even as far away as we are. Garry fumbles with his words, but tries to talk some sense into Mary.
"M-Mary, you-"
"Don't take another step!"
"Leave, right now!"
"Now, now, NOW!"
And with a shrill and deafening scream ordering us to leave, she sprints toward us, pallete knife in hand. We have no choice but to run toward the far wall, but an idea pops into my head.
I'm sorry, Mary...but there's no other choice..
"Garry! Throw me your lighter!"
Garry chucks the lighter to me without hesitation. I immediately start flicking it. Mary stops running towards us.
"Please!! Stop!!"
We all know that there's no other choice. The wooden frame finally catches fire, and soon after, the whole painting starts to burn up, erupting the last pieces of glass right at us. Mary screams even louder than before, and as the tears pour from her blue eyes, she bursts into flames, and before long, all that remains of her is burnt ashes sitting beneath her pallete knife.
After that whole ordeal, Garry hunches over and grabs his knees, catching his breath.
"I...I have to say...girls sure can be scary..."
A small giggle emits our lips. It maybe be mildly sexist, but in this case, it was true.
"Ib, (Y/N), are you okay? The glass did shatter, after all."
After we all check each other over for any signs of external injury, Ib notices a relatively deep cut on Garry's hand. He insists it's fine, but Ib wraps her handkerchief around it. She speaks in her small voice.
"Here, use this. We can't let it get infected."
D'awwwwwwwwwww
She too sweet I swear
With a newfound unity, we exit the pink area and go through the pink building. There we find a long, narrow, dark staircase. We proceed with caution, and once we reach the bottom, the room opens up, and looks like the lobby from the original exhibit, except with black walls and floors. After minimal exploration, we stand in front of the mural from before, albeit, slightly different.
"Fabricated World"
"Once you go in, there's no going back. All your time here will be lost. Will you still jump in?"
It seems that Garry's not familiar with this painting.
"What's this big mural, 'Fabricated World'? Hey, isn't that the former gallery? Does that mean..if we jump into this, we'll go back there? But, how are we meant to jump into a painting?"
As if on cue, the painting flashes brightly, and the large golden frame is gone.
"Ib, Garry, the frame! Now might be our chance!"
Garry bravely jumps into the painting, and turns back at us. His speech is a little muffled.
"Yes, I'm really in! Hurry up guys!"
I grab Ib's small hand and head toward the painting, but Ib is reluctant. Her head is pointed down the way we came, and a single word is emitted weakly through her lips.
"Mom?"
"Ib, are you okay? What's wrong?"
No response, but now, she's looking back and forth between Garry and the hallway.
"Ib, there's nothing to be scared of, I promise! Come on!"
I start to tug on her arm a little bit. She just keeps looking back and forth, at Garry and then the dark hallway. What's gotten into her?
Is she hallucinating?
"Ib, we can finally get out of here! Let's go, we don't have much time!"
She's starting to get quite frantic, her breathing is becoming rapid and shallow. Garry extends his hand through the painting.
"Guys, I'll pull you over! Grab my hand!"
She seems to be panicking now, I can feel her hand shaking. Then all of a sudden, she looks over to me and says,
"Let's go."
I grab her tightly and sprint towards Garry, take his hand, and he pulls us into the painting. I have no idea what she could've seen, but I am so glad and relieved to see she snapped out of it. We made it. We survived. I was able to keep my promise, and as we bask in our achievements, our worlds go white.

1339 words