Ib ~Starshipping Version~

A Chef's Talent

As soon as Jaden stepped into the next room, he met with a wall...that was suspiciously shaped like a cat. It even had eyes on it.

Where the mouth would have been, a fish shape was etched into the surface of the wall. Of course, seeing that this wacky gallery had already thrown a lot of crap at him, Jaden wasn’t really fazed. He was more curious than anything.

Yet again, the boy was met with a predicament. Should he go down the left hallway, or the right hallway? After some debating, Jaden decided he would go down the right hallway.

Lucky for him, the colour scheme of the room hadn’t changed. His chocolate eyes were not harmed in any way, but what he did see was quite unsettling.

Down the end of the right hallway lay a room filled with statues. Statues of heads, statues of men, and even that “Death of the Individual” sculpture– but this time it was in blue, and it had a male counterpart. The male version of the sculpture was just a black model with a blue tie.

As soon as Jaden took a few steps into the room, the lights dimmed, and he could hardly see.

“Hey, who turned off the lights?!” He grumbled. Just as he had said so, the lights flickered on and off, as if it was responding to his outburst. “...Creepy.”

He walked down the room to the other end, which was filled with boxes. On one of the boxes lay a grey vase that had a good amount of water in it. Without really thinking, Jaden took out his rose from his pocket and looked at it.

I wonder... And so the curious boy placed the rose in the vase.

Magically, the rose regained the petal that was lost, and Jaden no longer felt that sense of fatigue that he had before when the rose was plucked. It was just sheer magic. At least, that’s what Jaden thought.

As Jaden was testing out this vase, and wondering where the water had gone when he placed the rose in the object, one of the stone statues began to slowly creep towards him.

Closer...closer....closer...

Crash!

“AH!”

Jaden jumped and turned around to see that the statue had fallen over and smashed everywhere on the ground. His eyes almost gleamed a little when he realised there was something amongst the shattered pottery.

Being extremely careful, Jaden picked up the small blue object. It turned out to be a fish tail. His mind instantly thought of where it would go, but then he realised he may need the whole fish for it to fit.

Letting out a puzzled sigh, and taking his rose from the vase, Jaden walked around the statue and went to leave. On his way, he passed a painting of a red rose that he hadn’t noticed before. But of course, since it wasn’t labelled, he took no heed to it – or what was stained above it. Yellow paint had began to drip from the ceiling, just a couple of centimetres away and above from the rose painting.

Since Jaden didn’t notice it, he just went on walking down the hallway and to the left side. He was again, grateful for the fact that there was no change in colour scheme.

On the left side was a room filled with blocks everywhere. Upon stumbling to the very first, yellow writing appeared underneath a black stick figure that was painted on the block.

Play hide and seek?  Was what it read.

As soon as Jaden had registered it, the writing disappeared and then yellow dots appeared on all of the other blocks. When Jaden went to look, it turned out that the blocks had red curtains on them and the yellow dot was actually a button.

“Oh, so you like to play? I guess I’ll have to find you then!” Jaden grinned wildly – he did love to play games.

He thought for a moment before going to the far end block on the first row, and hesitantly pressing the button. When the curtains pulled back, it revealed a picture of a moon. Suddenly, the whole room became darker.

“...Okay then that isn’t you!” Jaden turned swiftly on his heel and went one block under the one he had just been.

When he pressed the button, a painting of a blade appeared and chopped off a petal from his rose.

“Ow!” The Slifer frowned – that hurt.

Lastly, he went to the button on the far end of that row. Once he got there and pushed the button, the curtains pulled back and revealed the stick figure.

“HELL YEAH! I FOUND YOU!” Jaden shouted in glee, and then read the writing that appeared next to the painting.

Found me, you get prize.

A gentle thump echoed throughout the room, and Jaden instantly went to the part where he hadn’t studied.

When he got there, he saw a fish head underneath a painting of a knife in front of a fish tail. Paying no attention to the painting, Jaden picked up the fish head and combined it with the fish tail to make the key.

Without another thought, Jaden ran off to the cat-shaped wall and slammed the fish key into the hole. He had to cover his ears and a screech of meows came as the wall parted slightly to make a path way.

“Sweet!” Jaden stopped covering his ears and ran off down the hallway. He was determined to move on.

At the end of the hallway was even more hallways. Jaden groaned and had to restrain himself from hitting his head against a wall.

“So...many...damn...HALLWAYS!”

But, Jaden knew he had to press on, so he did. He first went to his left to a completely white painting.

“...What’s so special about thi- wait a minute...”

Jaden took a closer look at the painting, and found a tiny, tiny, tiny, red nine in the centre.

“...I’m gonna need to remember this, aren’t I?” The boy spoke to no-one in particular, and he picked up on this. “Great, now I’m talking to myself!”

Sighing in frustration, the Slifer walked down to the very far right end of the hallway, ignoring the fact that there was a random puddle of spit that wasn’t there before that lay directly below a painting. This particular painting just had a black canvas with a red face painted on it, and its tongue was waggling out rapidly.

Around halfway down the corridor, Jaden found some yellow text on the wall.

What is it with people and yellow text? Jaden thought as he read it aloud.

“Beware of lips...Hmmm...Wonder what that could mean.”

Jaden walked down to the very end and found a large pair of lips staring at him.

“Oh, THESE lips!” He said, putting two and two together.

Being curious, the boy went over to the lips and inspected them. Without warning, the lips spoke.

“Hungry...give...food...” And then they took a bite out of his rose.

“OW!” Jaden flinched and stumbled back. He frowned and looked down at his rose.

Three petals left... He decided it would be best not to converse with these lips for longer, so he immediately turned and went to the spot he hadn’t ventured to.

A note was right at the edge, and Jaden picked it up. “Just when you’ve forgotten...”

His chocolate eyes scanned the area in front of him. A very large corridor...with nothing at the sides...

“Oh...oh...HELL...no...” Jaden gripped the note tightly and positioned himself in the middle of the corridor.

“One...two...THREE!” On three, the Slifer ran down the corridor.

Just as he had predicted, black hands came from the wall in attempt to grab him. Well, one hand. Once at the end, he was so relieved.

“...I really hope I don’t have to deal with these hands again...” He whispered before turning to his right to be met with hanging dolls.

As soon as his eyes met contact with what he saw, he let out a scream.