'Kumi' - Chapter 1

Fabricated World

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It was an early afternoon. The sky was grey. A storm was growing close, but it wouldn't hit for awhile yet. A little 15 year old girl named Kumi stared out her car window as she and her parents were on their way to the museum, not just a museum, an art gallery. They arrived to the art gallery and were merely walking into the building.

 

"Kumi dear, do you have your handkerchief? I would hope so. I got it for your birthday." Kumi's mother, Draculaura asked

 

"Yes Mother" Kumi nod.

 

"Good. This is your first visit here, right?" her mother asked her.

 

"Yes", she replied.

 

"We're here to see an artist by the name of Frankie Stein." Kumi's father, Deuce said

 

"Yes. An artist named Frankie. There are several works of her art here, from paintings to sculptures. I'm sure you will love it Kumi." Draculaura smiled

 

Kumi only nodded in return.

 

As they walked through the lobby of the crowded art gallery, they made their way to the reception desk. The man with a name tag read Clawd noticed them and greeted them.

 

"Can we have a few pamphlets to look at?" Kumi's father asked.

 

"Of course." Clawd shifted around the desk before grabbing two pamphlets, one for Draculaura and one for Deuce. "Here you two are."

 

At that moment, Kumi tugged on her mother's dress.

 

"Mother, may I go look at the exhibits?"

 

Draculaura nodded. "Alright, but don't make any noise that causes trouble for the visitors around here, Okay?"

 

Kumi promised and walked off.

 

People were blocking most of the paintings though, which only left a few sculptures in the area for Kumi to see. Though, she really didn't care about the art. She thought every single piece of art was neat and continued to walk around the bottom floor and second floor of the art gallery, exploring the artwork of Frankie Stein until she got to one particular painting. It seemed different than the others and it gave an ominous feeling to it.

 

Kumi read the painting. The title of the painting said, 'Fabricated World'.

 

"It looks like a dark version of the gallery…" Kumi said while looking at the artwork.

 

Suddenly, The lights flickered for a moment before turning back on. Eyes widened, Kumi looked around to see what the problem was. Maybe a problem with the lights' fixture?

 

"I wonder what that was....." She sighed before heading back to meet up with his parents.

 

However, as she continued to walk down the halls, it dawned on her that there was nobody around.

 

"Everyone is gone."

 

Kumi grew a bit panicked as she made her way down the stairs to the main lobby of the gallery until she stopped dead in her tracks and noticed just how empty the main lobby was.

 

Quickly, she sped over to the entrance door and tried to push the door open. The door didn't bulge after several pushes. It was locked.

 

"How did this happened?" She began to wonder as the lights began to flicker once more until they went out completely, causing the museum to go dark. Now she was stuck in the museum with the lights off.

 

The windows! The windows would let her out. She scrambled the few steps it took to get to the window that was closest to the door. It was unlocked, but it wouldn't open, and Kumi wouldn't be able to break it. She shakily made her way to the window to the left. This one had to let her out.

 

However, as soon as Kumi touched the window, it started to leak a red liquid. Kumi immediately jumped back! She then examined the red liquid. The liquid smelt like blood.

 

"B-blood…"

 

It was blood. The window was bleeding. Kumi didn't even think before she fled back up the stairs to the second floor of the art gallery. At the top of the stairs leading the second floor, she saw a figure walk past the window.

 

"This is the second floor…" She quietly said to herself.

 

Forgetting her fear from the bleeding window, Kumi approached the window, but wasn't closed to it, maybe like 10 feet away from it. As soon as she stopped where she was, the figure came back.

 

BANG! BANG! BANG!

 

The figure or shadow banged on the window, cracking it before it disappeared.

 

Kumi gulped lightly. "I-I don't like this. At all." She glanced around. There really wasn't a soul around.

 

Kumi started to wander around the floors. Some of the painting startled her, like items falling out of their painting onto the ground or sound being emitted from their painting. But she continued to use her strength to walk around until she came back to the huge painting labeled, "The Fabricated World".

 

There was something different about the painting. There was a bit of blue paint dripping from it. Not thinking, Kumi walked up to the paint to examine it when suddenly, there were eight distinct sounding thumps behind her.

 

Turning, Kumi saw letters on the ground. 'c-o-m-e-k-u-m-i'. "Come Kumi…" She repeated the word, Turning back towards the painting, there was now a message replacing the spilled paint.

 

"Come down below Kumi, I'll show you someplace secret."

 

"Below… Below for what?" Maybe, maybe it'd bring her back to the other people? It was the only hope she had. Slowly, she made her way back down the stairs to the first floor, and made her way to the main floor where the 'Abyss of the Deep' artwork laid.

 

It wasn't contained all the way. Part of the rope was missing. It was missing and paint was splattered where the rope once were. Kumi stepped over to it to examine it until she tripped, and instead of falling onto the painting, she fell into it.

 

Kumi realized something, it wasn't actually water, her clothes didn't feel wet after she fell into the art. But she soon landed on her feet on a hard floor.

 

Now, she was in a strange place. The hallways of the place was blue. Where she had fallen from was nothing but a blank wall. There were two corridor on either side to go to from where she was standing. First, she wandered to her left where she noticed a blue door at the end of the hall. When she tried to turn the knob, it was locked.

 

"Damn!"

 

Frowning, Kumi turned and made her way to the opposite end of the blue hallway where she came to another blue door at the end of the hallway. Only this time there was a table in front of the door with vase holding a single rose. The rose was of a zaffre blue color. It had three petals on it, but it was still beautiful, alive and well. Without hesitation, she took the rose. It felt like she needed to. She carefully held the rose as she pushed the table away from the door. She tried to turn the doorknob and felt it turning before pushing inward.

 

"It's unlocked…" Kumi thought, she felt relieved. A bit hesitant, she made her way into the room.

 

In it, there was a paper mounted on the wall with a giant painting above that depicted a beautiful lady (Jade). It seemed like her hair was 3D with it falling out of the portrait and onto the floor. She was smiling, with her eyes closed. In the middle of the floor was a blue key. Before grabbing the key, Kumi made her way to the paper to read it.

 

'When the rose wilts, so too will you wilt away.' Kumi clutched her rose to her chest.

 

"Does that mean… when the rose dies… I die?" In any case she didn't want to risk it. She'd keep the rose safe.

 

There was only one door that the key could go to and it was the one locked at the opposite end of the hallway outside of the room Kumi was in. Kumi inhaled before picking the key up.

 

As soon as she did, the painting's face contorted into a sinister artwork. A twisted smile and cat-like brown slitted eyes was shown on the former beautiful lady's face. Kumi didn't even have to think before fleeing the room.

 

When Kumi finally exited the room, she was breathing heavily but was able to regain herself slowly.

 

When she got up, the first thing she noticed was a new paper hanging on the wall beside the door. It wasn't there before she took the key.

 

Still clutching the rose tightly, Kumi walked to the paper, and read it out loud. "You and the rose are connected. Know the weight of your own life."

 

Kumi frowned as she reread the words. "This does mean that if the rose dies, I die." Without giving it a second thought, Kumi turned back around, facing the table that held a vase on top of it. It still had some water in it, so she placed the rose in the vase.

 

The teen's eyes shined with wonder as she watched the rose grow full, gaining two more petals, bringing it to a full five. "Five petals is full… I have to be very careful. It wouldn't do to die in a place like this. Or this young." She clutched the stalk of the rose a bit tighter.

 

"I have to get out. Get out and get back to mom and dad." The only way was forward. She had to keep walking and, eventually, there'd be a way out. At least, she hoped so.

 

She was about to start forward towards the locked door at the opposite end of the blue hallway when she noticed red writing on the blue wall. "THIEF" was what was said on the blue wall repeatedly.

 

"That's right... I just stole this key. That makes me a thief." Kumi frowned as she stared at the blue key in her hand. She needed this key though. If she hadn't, she wouldn't have taken it. As Kumi continued halfway down the hall, several loud thumps echoed through the teen's ear, causing her to subconsciously take a few steps back.

 

It was a good thing she did, because on the floor, where she had just been standing, was another word written in red paint. Again, it was thief.

 

Kumi groaned as she stared at the bright letters. They seemed to be mocking her. Staring at her. Reaching deep into her mind to pull out all her guilt of stealing the key.

 

She couldn't let this get to her.

 

She shook her head before stepping over the red paint on the floor and towards the locked door at the end of the opposite hallway.

 

It was just one section now until she could get to the locked door, but Kumi stopped. There were two paintings on the wall. She wanted to look at them. Observe them. Really, it was scenery. One was blue tinted, the other red.

 

There were no other differences between the works. "I wonder why these are here… Maybe decoration? It's unsettling having them here and not knowing why…" Kumi shook her head.

 

Useless speculation. She had to get going. Before something bad happened. Because… it felt like it would.

 

Quickly, Kumi moved toward the end of the opposite hallway to the blue door. The blue door she had a blue key for. Inhaling as to prepare herself for whatever may be on the other side, Kumi stuck the key into the lock, slowly turning it before she heard a 'click', signifying that it was unlocked.

 

Kumi grabbed the doorknob and slowly turned the door as it opened, she took her final breath and stepped into the door, for whatever reason she was going to be heading off to...

 

TO BE CONTINUED!

 

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How was it? Was it alright? I tried my best. I also wanted to use the other characters for the story so why not. They will have a specific role on what their paintings will do to Kumi and I'm just super excited to do that XD Next chapter will be up soon :)

 

 

SPOILER FOR NEXT CHAPTER - Kumi heads off to the next room of this world, How will it go when she rans away from horror

Done