Jealousy
The Scream
Yixing follows Kris out of the room. It seems that theirs is the only door around, however there’s a narrow corridor off to the left, and a set of stairs leading to a lower floor on the right.
“That was the corridor we came from,” Kris says. Yixing nods. The portraits are familiar.
“I suppose we take the steps then?”
Yixing leads the way, running his red rose through his fingers. Hopefully, nothing will attack them in the next part of the gallery, but Yixing knows that this is just that. Hope. They find themselves in a new gallery, one with dark purple walls and purple doors. There’s a passage, and Yixing points out a door to the left.
“How about there?” he asks.
The door is locked, but there is a small peeping hole. Yixing takes a look, but there is nothing to see.
“What is it?” Kris asks.
“Nothing.”
There’s a pathway, and Kris follows it along, leading Yixing. He finds a barrier that’s left open, a small walkway to other portraiture that hangs on the wall.
“I suppose we should look there,” Kris says. Yixing nods.
As Kris and Yixing cross the barrier, they hear an all too familiar sound.
THUD!
Yixing lets out a loud shriek, wrapping his arms around Kris’ neck. There are statues, and they begin to move, walking towards them with their arms outstretched. Yixing tries to turn, but the path they came from is blocked, as if someone’s elongated the barrier out to prevent their escape.
“Kris!”
“Quick!” Kris shouts, dragging Yixing to the side. Banisters block their path, so they weave their way around, dodging the movements of the statues. Yixing is almost hit, but Kris stands between Yixing and the statue, losing a petal of his own.
“Under the paintings, there’s switches,” Kris tells Yixing, breathing heavily.
“Right!”
Yixing runs to the nearest painting and presses a green switch underneath it.
“Wrong one!” Kris shrieks.
A statue beside Yixing begins to whir to life, arching its back in a contorted way, far from a position that humans can bend.
“Xing!”
The statue’s arm comes crashing down onto Yixing’s head, skewing his vision. Yixing falls, noticing a stray red rose petal on the ground.
“Xing! Run!”
Yixing gathers as much strength as he can muster and makes his way back to Kris, catching hold of Kris’ jumper. He drags the taller male across to a second portrait, hoping that this is the right one. It’s a blue button.
“Just press it!” Kris screams, once again standing between Yixing and a statue.
But Yixing is hardly thinking straight. There’s a large gush in his head, and his vision is starting to blur.
“Xing!”
Kris picks Yixing up, even though his left arm looks broken, and pushes the button. It’s right, and the barrier that stood trapping them recedes into the tiles below. Kris is uncertain he will make it back through the maze.
“Xing, you need to help me!”
Yixing groans, holding his head. He manages to concentrate enough to follow Kris out of the maze and away from the statues, but he is quick to collapse.
“Xing!”
Yixing blinks a couple of times, opening his eyes a fraction. He sees that the arm Kris is holding his weight with is in tatters.
“I… I can walk by myself,” Yixing mutters, pushing himself away.
Yixing drags himself across to the wall, using the wall as balance as he leads the way, traversing the next corridor. He almost shrieks aloud as he notices an all too familiar sight. There’s a white statue head, the same as before. It just sits at the end of the hallway, the black of its eyes seemingly burning their way into Yixing.
“Ignore it,” Kris tells him.
Kris finds a vase on a small table in the middle of the wing, between a white jigsaw puzzle that has been completed and framed, and a dark looking portrait entitled ‘Love in Dusk’.
“There’s only room for one rose,” Kris breathes out.
“Xing, give me your rose.”
“No!" Yixing snaps.
Yixing can see the pain that Kris is trying to hide; it’s written in his all-too expressive eyes. Yixing's eyes soften.
“No. You take it, Kris.”
But Kris ignores him and rips the red rose from Yixing’s fingers, placing it in the vase before them. Yixing sighs as a feeling of relief floods his body. His thoughts become more understandable, and his head stops throbbing.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Yixing points out to Kris, who is holding his arm loosely.
“I didn’t,” Kris agrees.
“But I wanted to.”
Kris leads Yixing to the next part of the gallery, scanning the walls. There’s a mirror off to the side, and Kris decides it is best to ignore it. He doesn’t want things to creep up on them again.
“Let’s try this door.”
There’s a small door to the left, unlocked. Kris pushes the door forward with his uninjured arm and jumps.
“Sheesh, this statue... It’s blocking the way.”
Kris stares it down for a few minutes and sighs in relief, convinced it won’t start moving. He presses his palm against it and pushes. But, he needs more than one arm to push the weight of the statue aside to reveal yet another door, and Yixing looks on in horror as he uses both arms. He can hear the strain in Kris's breathing and he shoves the taller away, letting him sink to the floor.
“Kris stop! You’re hurting yourself!” Yixing cries, taking his hand in his. Kris lets out a strangled cry, pushing Yixing away.
Blood seems to be dripping down his arm and to his fingernails, leaving a light pitter patter sound as it hits the tiled floor. Kris is more injured than Yixing realised.
“It’s OK!” he groans out.
Kris is doing this for him. Yixing scowls at the taller, concern in his eyes. But Kris continues on, unabated. Once the statue is pushed aside, the pair enters the other door.
“We’re going round in circles,” Kris sighs in defeat. They’re back in the previous corridor.
“Let’s try another door,” Yixing says.
They make their way back around to the passage with the mirror. There’s another door to the left of it, but it’s bolted up. But there’s a lock right next to it, with a riddle written in red ink.
“What is the title of the large floor painting in Guertena’s exhibition?”
Yixing thinks of the answer straight away.
“It’s the one I jumped in to get to this horrible place,” he tells Kris. Kris has a similar story.
“It was… Something of the Deep,” Kris agrees.
“Abyss of the Deep,” Yixing agrees. “I think that was it.”
Yixing punches the title into the door, laughing in delight as it swings open. His laugh, however, is cut short as he hears a low groan from Kris.
“Kris?”
“I… I’m fine.”
“You’re not. We have to find you a vase.”
Kris shakes his head. The pair enters a large room, lined with bookshelves. A single, red painting sits on the wall, and the head of a white statue sits directly underneath it.
“What’s the painting called?” Kris asks from behind Yixing. Yixing reads the inscription aloud.
“Separation.”
Kris looks over Yixing’s shoulder at the painting.
“What an off-putting painting…” he breathes.
The lights cut out, and Kris lets out a strangled cry. Yixing blinks a couple of times to coax his eyes to adjust to the new level of light, but it’s too dark to see.
“Kris? Kris, are you still there?”
THUD!
“Kris!” Yixing shrieks.
“Shhh, it’s OK. I’m here!” Kris responds quickly. Yixing could have sworn he felt something brush up against him.
“Xing, hang on! I’m just looking for my lighter, OK?”
Mere seconds later, the room is once again illuminated by a pale glow.
But it’s changed.
HELP
STOP
DON’T KILL ME
Letters are etched into the wall, on the tiled floor, and Yixing finds himself screaming in fear as the white statue head, though still sitting in exactly the same spot, begins crying tears of blood.
“What is this?” Kris shrieks. Yixing shakes his head, clasping onto the blonde’s arm.
“I… I don’t think this is good for my mental health,” Yixing murmurs to himself, letting his eyes trace the walls.
“Let’s get out of here,” Kris agrees.
There is a strict ban on fire-starting implements in the gallery.
We request that you please report the use of any matches, lighters, or the like.
The use of such implements should be reported to staff.
These words are written in fluorescent red paint, creating a stark contrast against the purple of the walls. Kris holds his lighter perhaps even tighter than before.
“I’m not getting rid of this,” he whispers to Yixing.
“Not after everything.”
Yixing walks over to the mirror, staring into it. There’s graffiti, everywhere. The lights are still off, but Yixing can see himself clearly in the mirror. He gasps at the sight. His eyes have been scratched out. Yixing presses a finger to his cheeks, running them up and down. His eyes are still there, he tells himself. He can still see. But Yixing doesn’t know how much longer he wants to see.
The pair follows the path backwards, treading carefully on the tiled ground. There are footsteps, like the soles of shoes, trailing around in thick, red paint. Yixing decides to follow them, leading Kris. For all he knows, it could be a way out.
Yixing finds himself standing in front of a wall, the footsteps ending right in front of it. He’s about to give up, but Kris inhales sharply.
“There’s a secret passage,” he breathes.
“Huh?”
Yixing turns around and looks to Kris. Kris nods, and he presses his hand against the wall. Surely enough, the wall can be pushed forward, just like a door.
“Ahh!”
Yixing screams and falls backwards, cursing himself. He’d almost run into someone. Yixing wasn’t sure if they were real or just a figment of his imagination. This person had darkened eyes with thick black rings around them. Black hair was swept into a long side fringe, and piercings lined their ears. The boy couldn’t be too much older than Yixing. He is taller than him, and Yixing felt small in comparison. Small and defenseless.
“Sorry!” Kris exclaims, rushing forward.
The figure looks up, a yellow rose between his fingers.
“Are you OK?”
The dark haired boy does not utter a word, instead backing away slightly.
“Hey, we’re not going to hurt you,” Kris continues. “Hey, are you… Could you be one of the visitors to the gallery?”
The boy blinks, and Yixing realises he must be younger than he first realised.
“Ah,” the boy gives a nod.
“I’m Kris, this is Yixing,” Kris holds out a hand. The boy stares at it blankly.
“We were in the art gallery, but then somehow found ourselves lost in this place… so now we’re both trying to find a way out. Presumably, you’re doing the same?”
The boy nods.
“I… I was looking to see if there was anyone else too…” he says softly. What a shy boy, Yixing thinks to himself.
“Would you like to come with us?” Kris asks.
“Huh?”
“It’s dangerous to be alone here. There are lots of strange creatures around,” Kris explains.
“So will you come with us? I think it would be best if we all stay together.”
The boy thinks for a minute.
“Yes. I’ll come with you.”
Kris gives him a heart warming smile, and Yixing wraps an arm around him.
“What’s your name?” Yixing asks quietly.
“Tao…”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Tao.” Kris says.
“…Yeah.”
The three continue down the corridor. There’s a painting to the left, and Yixing reads its title.
“The Force of Quarrel.”
There are three men fighting. One, a sword in his hand, another, a shield. One is left weaponless. The painting begins to move and Yixing watches on in horror. The man with the sword and the man with the shield work together and murder the defenseless man, the shield-wielder hitting him on the head before the sword-wielder delivers the final blow. Later, the two remaining men fight, and of course, the one with the shield easily overpowers the one with the sword, bashing him across the head, causing him to fall unconscious. The shield-wielder takes the sword and stabs him in the heart, until blood pools around at the bottom of the painting.
Yixing lets out a shriek as it begins seeping out of the frame and down the wall.
“Come on, Xing,” Kris calls.
He and Tao are leading, and the pair stumble across a lone vase, sitting in the corner of the corridor.
“Can I use it?” Tao asks. Yixing looks him up and down. He is nowhere near as injured as Kris.
“Let Kris use it!” Yixing exclaims, taking Kris’ blue rose.
Tao pouts, and Kris glances over at Yixing, judging him for his rashness.
“Xing, it’s OK. Tao must have been pretty scared all by himself. Let him have the water.”
“No, Yixing is right,” Tao says, stealing the blue rose.
“You look more hurt than me. Sorry, I was being selfish,” he runs a hand through his hair sheepishly.
“It won’t happen again.”
Yixing stares at Tao’s back as they continue on their way. Something is off about him, but Yixing can’t place it. Maybe he’s just being paranoid, he concludes. He also doesn't like the way Kris is holding onto Tao’s hand…
The trio travel through the corridors, heading north. Yixing points out a note on the wall, walking over to it.
“Which one could it be?” he reads.
“What?” Kris asks.
“I don’t know, that’s all it says,” Yixing responds.
There is a bench and two doorways, down two separate corridors. Both doors look the same, and Yixing imagines that this must be what the note was talking about. There’s a lone portrait between the doors.
Flowers of Jealousy.
“Which door do we take?” Kris asks.
Yixing shrugs.
“Why don’t we try the left first?”
Tao nods and gestures to the door.
“I agree with Yixing.”
They all enter the room, only to find that lining the side is oddly coloured rabbit ornaments. There seems to be a pattern to them, one pink, one white, pink, white, and so on, stretching on until they hit the opposite wall. A painting sits on the centre wall, in between the rows of ornaments.
“Red Eyes,” Kris reads.
The rabbit’s eyes are indeed red, and they stare out at the group as they circle the room. The eyes seem to move, so it appears the rabbit is always watching them. Yixing looks down, his eyes scanning the ornaments. They make him nervous. Yixing realises just how much he hates rabbits.
“Why is this place so unsettling?” Kris asks, taking Yixing’s hand.
“Huh?” Tao asks aloud. “I think it’s cute…”
Yixing tries to prevent his distaste from writing itself on his face, but he fails miserably.
“Nothing about this is cute,” Kris tells Tao.
At least Kris agrees with him, Yixing thinks.
“What about you, Yixing? Do you think it’s cute?” Tao asks.
Yixing shakes his head.
“I don’t know.”
Yixing finds a small bookshelf at the other end of the room. He pulls out a book, opening it and reading it aloud.
“’Bridge of the Heart’. If your spirit suffers too much, you will soon start to hallucinate… And in the end, you will be destroyed.” Yixing slams the cover shut.
“Charming,” Kris shivers.
“!” Yixing shrieks.
One of the rabbit ornaments beside him shuffles out and smashes all over the floor at his feet, scattering small pieces of china throughout the room. Yixing sifts through it, kicking until he sees a familiar metallic gleam out of the corner of his eyes.
“It’s a violet key,” he breathes.
The trio exit the room, walking back out to the passage that forks off in different directions.
“Wait!” Tao exclaims.
“Hear that?”
Yixing strains his ears to listen. Surely enough, there is a strange shuffling sound. It’s coming from the painting.
“Flowers of Jealousy?” he asks. Tao nods.
The three glance at the painting. Like so many others in this strange place, the painting is moving. Yixing screams as vines up from the floor, pushing and pulling apart the tiles in its wake. He thinks that they will strangle him, as one wraps its way around his ankle, trying to drag him below the surface.
“Quick!” Tao yells, taking Yixing in his arms. He pulls Yixing out of the vine’s grasp, setting him on the floor.
Yixing’s legs are covered in blood, and he’s lost a petal, but he reasons it could have been a lot worse.
“Are you OK, Xing?”
Kris sounds so distant.
“Kris?” Yixing yells. “Where are you?”
Yixing glances towards the vines. They’ve stopped sprouting, however they’ve covered a good portion of the corridor, so that there is no way anyone can pass by them. Kris is on the other side.
“Xing? Are you hurt?” Kris shouts.
“No. That was scary!”
Kris shouts back an agreement.
“I’ll try cutting my way through, just hang on!”
To Yixing’s horror, the vines begin to solidify, becoming a strange blend of mortar and stone.
“Kris?”
“I can’t get through!” Kris shouts. “You’ll have to go on without me.”
“Yixing. You still have the violet key, right?” Tao cuts in.
“We can go ahead and try to find something. A sledge hammer? Anything. We might find something to break this. What do you think?” Yixing lets his eyes wander to the rocky vines, and nods. He won’t leave Kris behind.
“We’ll be fine, Kris!” Tao shouts across the gap.
“Right Yixing?”
Yixing shakes his head. Tao is staring at him intently, and his eyes scare Yixing. There’s something hard about them. Yixing doesn’t trust them.
“I’d… I’d rather not split up,” he finally chokes out.
“It’s the only thing I can think of,” Tao announces.
“Yixing, go with Tao. I’ll be fine, OK?” Kris calls back.
Yixing pushes the violet key into the door handle, throwing one last glance at Kris. The door opens out onto a brown walled room filled with boxes. Cardboard boxes, to be exact. They seem to be in every shape and size, big on small, small on big, stacked like gravity is in reversal. A small easel sits in the right hand corner of the room, with a strange sketch on it.
“We should check the boxes for something,” Tao says.
Yixing nods. Yixing ruffles his way through boxes. There’s nothing that could break the stone vines, as far as he can see.
“Look at this,” Tao calls across the room.
“What is it?”
There’s a small palette knife deep within one of the larger boxes.
“We could use it to cut through the vines,” Tao explains. Yixing gives him an odd look.
“What? It was a joke!” Tao exclaims, hurt. Yixing doesn’t think this is a time to be joking around.
“I think I’ll hold on to this,” Tao says. “You know… just in case.”
Yixing rummages through the cardboard boxes for the next few minutes, but Tao grows impatient.
“Let’s just go back to Kris,” he says. Yixing lets out a sigh of defeat, nodding his head.
“Alright.”
A light flickers.
“Hang on!” Yixing shouts.
Once the lights restore to normal, the pair find they cannot go backwards. A headless statue draped in red is blocking the door, standing right in front of it. Yixing could have sworn there was not a single statue in the room before. There’s a new door, on the opposite side of the room to where Yixing and Tao entered from.
“We should try this door,” Tao tells Yixing.
“It might double back, and we can meet Kris.” Yixing highly doubts it, but he follows Tao anyway. Why couldn’t he have been caught on the side with Kris?
“Can’t we try moving the statue first?” Yixing asks. Tao shrugs.
“Fine.”
He presses his body against the statue, attempting to move it. Despite the fact Tao looks like he has amazing upper body strength, the statue doesn’t budge. Yixing doesn’t think he’s trying hard enough.
“Fine, we’ll try the other door,” he finally concedes.
“Good.”
The pair enters a new room, a snaking path that seems to wind on forever. There are two observation rooms on one of the walls.
“Don’t stand too close,” Yixing warns Tao.
“Why?”
Yixing gasps as he sees a shadow pass through on the other side, first in the one on the left, then across to the one on the right. It looks like a human, but he can’t be sure.
“What’s going on?” Tao asks, knocking on the window.
“Let us out of here!”
Yixing backs away, as Tao repeatedly pushes himself against the glass, trying to crack it. The figure is long gone now, but Yixing, unlike Tao, has little hopes of escape. He doesn’t want to leave here without Kris. There’s a staircase, and Yixing pulls against Tao’s arm.
“That’s enough. Let’s just go.” Tao sighs in defeat.
They venture up the stairs, only to be met face-to-face with a horrible, lone portrait. It’s a clown, it’s eyes sunken. The clown’s face is painted white, it’s hair a fluorescent orange. He has on a fake nose, but where the rubber meets skin there are scorch marks, like the clown has tried to melt the fake nose into his own. It wears heavy eyeliner, which makes its flashing purple eyes more prominent. It’s too realistic, but the colour scheme is off. There’s something about it that sends shivers down Yixing’s spine. Yixing has always had an aversion to clowns.
“It’s cute, don’t you think?” Tao breathes.
THUD THUD THUD!
Paint splatters scar the wall next to the clown portrait, and Yixing can’t help but let out a shrill scream.
“You’d think you’d be used to it by now,” Tao chuckles.
Yixing knows the younger is mocking him, but he’s got nothing to say. The pair enters another door, to find the room is split by a large gaping hole. There’s no vase in sight, however there’s a strange puddle on the floor. It seems like a dead end.
“They’re taking their time… I wonder if something happened?” Kris asks himself. He backs away from the vines, heading back to the door with the rabbit room. It seems this is the only place to go, and standing in an eerie corridor does nothing to calm his nerves.
“They’ll come back,” he whispers.
“I know they will.”
He thinks of Yixing, about how he had breathed Kris’ name in lovemaking. Yixing was soft and mellow, with expressive eyes and a soothing personality. Kris was always a harsh and self-centered person, but that was before he’d met Yixing. The younger teen had changed him in ways Kris never expected him to. Kris had become softer, kinder, and more caring towards others. Perhaps it was a combination of the oddity of this art gallery, or it was just simply Kris falling in love that changed his ways.
Yixing.
Kris knew in his heart that Yixing would never leave him behind.
“He’ll come back,” he repeats to himseld, “Xing will come back.”
The rabbit room has changed. The portrait of the rabbit with red eyes is gone, instead replaced with a strange looking woman with a mass of curly black hair and dark skin. She still has red eyes. The ornaments have changed, too, instead replaced with freaky looking dolls. They line the floor, each dressed in a different colour, but they all have one thing in common.
Red eyes.
Kris looks up, inhaling loudly as he notes that some of the unfortunate ones have become suspended up by their legs. They’re dripping red paint all over the floor; it seems to be seeping from their eye sockets. Kris involuntarily shivers, making his way across the room to a bookshelf.
“Ah!” he gasps.
The bookshelf slides to the right, revealing a small passage. Kris will have to crawl through if he wants to progress.
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