Ib ~Starshipping Version~

Blessed Bride and Groom

Jaden went into the passage without thinking, and was immediately disappointed.

“Awww it’s just a red stone...” He pouted, picking up the gem and fondling it in his fingers. It seemed to be something of a red glass ball.

“Hey, Jaden,” Yusei said from the place they had entered, “Is the stone round?”

“Yeah, why?” Jaden walked back over to Yusei, placing the glass ball in his jacket pocket.

“Do you think it could fit in the hole for the snake’s eye?”

Jaden gasped, “Oh yeah! I completely forgot about that!”

Yusei let out a small smile and laughed a little, shaking his head at the boy, “Come on...let’s see if it fits.”

Jaden nodded, walking out of the passage and over to the snake picture in quick steps. Once he got there, he took out the stone and carefully placed it in the hole where the eye should be – it fit perfectly.

Jaden jumped when the painting beside the snake fell down, revealing writing on the back of it. Yusei went over to it and read what was on it.

“’Behind the big tree’...I don’t remember seeing any trees...” He mumbled to himself.

“Remember the place next to the coffee painting? We didn’t check there, did we?” Jaden pointed out.

“Hm, I suppose we didn’t.”

Jaden grinned and waited for Yusei to get up before going back over to the coffee painting. He realised he was doing a heck of a lot of backtracking, but he would do anything if it meant to escape this place.

They both entered the room and were met with a long corridor, filled with four statues. The lights seemed to flicker on and off at will, giving an overall creepy feeling. Jaden couldn’t help but shiver.

Yusei, however, didn’t seem as scared as Jaden was. He went over to the first statue and began to look at it. It was a giant wine glass that was cut diagonally, and a large red cushion was placed inside to make it look like wine was pouring out.

“Wine Cushion, huh...?” Jaden murmured.

 “That doesn’t look like a very comfortable sitting...” Yusei observed.

The second statue was made of basic stone. It had a face carefully carved into it and it looked as if it was screaming.

Yusei read out the word, “Melancholy, huh? Well really, who wouldn’t be in this place?”

Jaden nodded along like he knew what the word meant. He honestly didn’t understand, but he was too curious about a multi-coloured skeleton sculpture to actually remember to ask.

It was painted in different colours, and Jaden was really fond of it. The name struck him as odd, though. It was called Puzzle.

Maybe it’s called that because it was hard to put together... Jaden thought, nodding slightly while facing a wall.

The final sculpture was of a tree. It vaguely resembled a person and was called Feeling.

“You’ve got to be pretty clever to come up with this stuff,” Yusei breathed, impressed by everything.

Jaden then realised there was something shiny glimmering amid the leaves of the tree. He reached out and grabbed the shiny thing, bringing it out and examining it.

“This must be the tree that that painting was talking about...It looks like a ring...”

“That isn’t just any ring, Jaden.” Yusei plucked the ring from Jaden’s fingers and got a closer look, “It’s a wedding ring. Now what would a wedding ring be doing in a tree...?”

“Hell if I knew,” Jaden shrugged, “But if it’s a wedding ring...maybe it belongs to bride and groom painting.”

“I was thinking that myself,” Yusei smiled, “I bet they’re grieving because they lost the ring.”

Jaden nodded in agreement, Yusei sure was smart!

He then led the way out of the room and to the grieving groom and bride. With the way things were going, they wouldn’t be grieving for much longer. Once there, they saw that the hands still wanted to grab onto something.

“I think we place the ring on the hand...” Jaden said.

“Do you know what hand it goes on, Jaden?” Yusei looked down at the boy.

“Nope!” He grinned.

Yusei sighed and went over to the left hand, placing the ring on the ring finger. “Good thing you have me here...”

“Haha, yeah...”

The bride and groom painting soon became happy and the bride threw her bouquet of flowers away, and they landed on the ground with a soft thump. Jaden picked them up and wondered what they would need them for.

“I suppose she was so happy that she threw her bouquet...She found the ring and now she’s married. That’s probably it.”

“What do we do with these?” Jaden said, examining the bouquet.

“I think it’s some sort of exchange. Something might want our roses...and we give it this instead.”

“Damn,” Jaden sighed, walking onwards to the small corridor that was left untouched, “A lot of things are out for these roses, huh?”

“Yes, that does seem to be the case...” Yusei followed Jaden, “We can’t let them have our roses, though. We would probably die, like the thing said.”

“What did it say?”

“We’d wither away along with our roses.”

“Oh right...the letters were smudged for me, and I couldn’t read them.”

At the end of the corridor was a large, blue painting with a moving face. It spoke weirdly once it saw the bouquet of flowers that Jaden was closely holding.

“Ehehehe, ehehehe... flowers...flowers’re nice...”

Jaden was more creeped out than Yusei.

“Give me that there flower and I’ll let you through...ehehehe...Ehehehe, your flower...pretty please?”

Jaden looked down at the bouquet before slowly handing it to the painting.

“Ehehehe...thanks...It smells nice, ehehehe... Well, chow time!” For around five seconds, the painting turned red and evil as it devoured the bouquet in quick time.

“Ahh, that was good...ehehehe. Thank you, thanks so much...as promised, you can go through.”

The face suddenly vanished and was replaced with a door handle, “Just take the door in. Well, see ya...ehehehe...!”

Jaden and Yusei both gave each other a wary glance before nodding and opening the door, stepping out and into a different area.

It was just another room with two paintings that linked to another corridor. The paintings were of a misshapen box and some hands holding something. The pair moved on into the other corridor.

It was lined with doll skulls, the walls of the place had faces that depicted the skulls. The skulls seemed to stare at Jaden and Yusei, and so did the paintings.

Jaden and Yusei rushed to the end of the corridor, not waiting another moment to get to the other side and into what seemed to be a maze.

“Well...” Jaden coughed, “I guess...we have to solve everything here...haha...ha...”

“It could be worse,” Yusei pointed out, “I mean those statues aren’t chasing us anymore.”

Jaden nodded with a heavy sigh, “I guess so...I’m just...tired of being chased.”

“You’re not alone there, but we have to get out of here. Don’t worry, I’m with you, so you’re not alone. We will get through it, don’t worry.”

The brunette took a deep breath before regaining what little strength he had left. Jaden was tired, and he wanted to stop and rest – but he couldn’t now. Surely the exit wasn’t that far from their sights, right?