41.

The world inside the painting was different from how it was viewed from outside. Lotte was in a type of jungle where nothing was the colour or shape it should be. The trees were cubes, or perfect pyramids in vibrant patterns of pink, blue and purple. A yellow and turquoise long-bodied fish with the face of a cat swam through the air right in front of Lotte's face as something that resembled a moose with dozens of tails and the head of a crocodile leapt overhead from treetop to treetop.

Lotte brushed aside the thick foliage of orange and purple leaves shaped like perfectly round discs, trying to trudge forward.

"Blue!" she cried, running down a path between plants that looked like red five-pointed stars that were stuck into the powdery bottle-green sand.

"Blue!" she called again. The trees on her right formed a wall, upon which crawled many strange reptilian owls. "Where are you, Blue?"

She ran ahead, trying to find a path amidst dizzying zigzag trees. Above the squawking, skittering and meowing of the animals around her, she thought she could hear something in the distance.

"Blue! Answer me!"

The noise she thought she heard turned out to be a stream of pure gold liquid. But when she came closer, her heart dropped. It was blood, elven blood. And right beyond it was another stream, this one flowing red.

Both streams flowed on, until they met into one. Lotte could feel the volatile energy coming from the point where both streams met, but somehow, instead of the explosion that should occur, they mixed together and continued to flow onward, in a mad rush.

"Blue?" she tried again, uncertain. Was he even here?

She stepped over the gold stream, and then the red, when suddenly she heard voices up ahead.

She ran, stumbling over low bushes shaped like paintbrushes, moving aside massive rainbow-coloured leaves that seemed to be growing out of the very sky.

She came upon a clearing teaming with triangular bright green flowers. Featureless children who looked like paper cut-outs were dancing in circles, holding hands and singing.

They were all shaped the same, each one a different colour.

When Lotte approached, they all scattered, shrieking with laughter. Several fell over in their rush to escape. A beige girl toppled over a pink one who was helped up by an aqua child.

"Blue?" Lotte asked.

A blue girl froze and turned around. Despite having no face, she stared to Lotte inquiringly and pointed at herself.

"Please, can you help me? I'm looking for my friend."

The blue girl rushed up to Lotte and offered her a hand. She had no fingers. Her arm ended in a type of circular palm.

Lotte took the offered hand, and the circular palm folded over her own when she did.

The blue girl led her through the jungle of dreams, down a field that grew bubbles filled with musical notes, into a dark mass of dense growth, where the colours became darker and greyer, until Lotte recognised where they stood in the painting.

This was the border between the inside and outside. Nightmares lurked beyond. "Her's out there? Are you sure?" she asked, looking down at her guide.

Instead of the blue girl, her guide had changed into a real girl. She had a pale face and large brown eyes. She seemed gaunt and disheveled, but nonetheless, she was luminous. There was something about her eyes, as if she knew things she shouldn't know.

Lotte crouched down to speak to her at face level, just as Poe had done. "You don't have to come with me if it scares you," she said.

The girl's grip on Lotte's hand tightened.

Lotte nodded and continued ahead. The girl walked closely at her side.

The Outside was empty and barren. The nightmares wandered to the sides, emitting hissing and clicking sounds. They had white sinister eyes that glared at them from all directions, but none came too close.

In fact, it seemed like these shadowy monsters fled from them, as if scared. Lotte's steps became firmer, surer. The little girl pointed forward.

Ahead was a desk, and behind the desk sat House Mistress, smacking her cane into her palm. The girl at Lotte's side shivered and shook her head furiously from side to side.
"You don't have to worry about her anymore," Lotte said softly. "Our Poe gave her an earful."

"An earful!" wailed House Mistress. "He tore my office into shreds. The dirty elf. Wretched demon."

"You should look in the mirror before you call anyone else dirty," Lotte countered, making her young companion smile.

They walked on with growing confidence. Her new friend was a little taller now, but her hair was matted and she wore a shabby oversized coat. They both froze in fear as a crouched figure dragged its feet towards them. It was moaning softly, shaking its head from side to side.

The figure proved to be a small old woman in rags with cobweb grey hair hanging limply around her toad-like face. "Look what you did to old Loureen!" she lamented in a creaking voice, coming right at the little girl. "Look at what you did!"

As she came nearer, the skin of her face began melting off like candle wax.

Lotte pushed the little girl behind her. "What did you expect?" she said. "If you corner a tiger, you shouldn't be surprise if it pounces."

Loureen hovered uncertainly in front of Lotte and shrunk away into the shadows.

She looked back at the girl, whose dirt-covered face had been scrubbed and her hair arranged into perfect brown ringlets. The girl smiled up at Lotte, exposing pointed teeth. In her hand, she held a paintbrush.

"What next, Lotte?" Lotte asked the girl. "Who will we meet now? Wysley?"

The girl pointed towards the side at a young man sitting on the ground, his face in his hands. "He was just a poor soul, you know," Lotte said. "He made bad choices, but I never resented him."

The little girl dragged Lotte forward. They passed a Nahilan cult laughing at human death, a group of soldiers bearing rifles, shooting every Lotte that remained in Sullivan tower. The girl didn't linger over these, neither one of them wanted to face that.

They were on a straight path that sloped downwards, into the deeper darkness.

"What else do you expect me to do?" A woman's voice rang out of the darkness. She was speaking in elvish. "I've cut it out of me, and here it is."

"It's not right for a mother to kill her own child, dion," said Poe's familiar voice.

Lotte and the girl both froze. It wasn't Poe. He wasn't really here. She knew he was somewhere else, safe, for now. It was the strange enchantment of the painting.

"This thing isn't a child and I'm not its mother," the elven woman screamed.

"She survived, dion. She is alive and outside of you. Killing her now is too cruel."

"This thing cannot be allowed to live."

A little wail coming from the shadows made Lotte shudder.

"No! Stop!" Poe cried. "You can't!"

"Give her back to me," snarled the woman. "Give her here, Vanshu."

"I will do it," said Poe. "Leave it to me. I will kill her...for you, dion."

"You would do this, Vanshu? Really?"

"I will," he replied. "But do not expect to see me for some time. I have not forgiven you, Jiumma."

"Let's get out of here," Lotte said, her voice choked. "I've heard enough."

She hurried on, but a new voice stopped them both in their tracks.
"This seal, she cannot know about it," it was a woman, another one. "If you tell her, it will fade."

"I understand..."

"This is unlike you, Vanshu."

"Keep my secrets, Simmidel, please."

"Of course I will." Lotte liked this woman's voice. She instantly knew she was Yomi. "But why are you doing this?"

"Love," Poe answered.

"For Jiumma?"

"Jiumma deserves no love," he replied. "But her child has my whole heart."

Lotte hurried on. She needed to find Blue, not get lost inside her own subconscious. She quickened her steps. "How do we get out of here?"

Her little companion matched her pace, giving her hand an encouraging squeeze.

Just a little bit farther.

The darkness brightened a fraction. The landscape was still barren, though it became hilly and there was ashen grass beneath their feet. The air changed significantly. A strong wind howled around them, picking up with it the sound of someone weeping.

"Blue!" Lotte cried.

She made to run forward, but the little girl let go of her hand and stayed put. Lotte turned to face her.

"Every broken heart heals in its own way," the girl said, handing Lotte the paintbrush she held. "But I think time and love are part of the antidote."

Lotte took the brush and looked at it. It was a very large, thick round brush with a pointed end. The bristles were silky but firm. "Thank you," she said, looking back toward the girl.

But she was gone.

There was no time to waste. She hurried on following the sound of Blue's weeping until she stopped before a black pit.

A spiralling staircase twisted down and down into the darkness. Lotte swallowed hard and took the first step.

"Blue?"

She continued on, listening to the sniffles and sobs.

"They killed her, they killed her, they killed her."

"Blue, I'm coming."

"They killed Sia," he wept. There was a voice inside his voice, as if the present Blue was speaking with the child Blue inside him. "They strapped me to an altar and slit her throat. They washed my whole body with her blood."

He dissolved into sobs again, Lotte ran down three stairs at a time, but the staircase continued to spiral deeper and deeper into the belly of the earth.

"My screaming didn't help," he continued. "Nothing helped. She was dead. She'll never be alive again. It's all my fault. It's all because of me."

Lotte's heart felt heavy, her breaths were shallow. She ran down as fast as she could. But the pit had no end in sight. Just more weeping.

"If it weren't for me, they wouldn't have killed her. They killed her, because of me."

"No, Blue, it's not your fault!" Lotte cried.

"They slit her throat and washed me in her blood."

"Blue, Blue, let me reach you. It's me. It's Lotte. Where are you?" She was breathless, but the stairs just didn't want to end.

"They forced me to watch. They held my eyes open so I can't blink. Every time I close my eyes, I see her."

Lotte stopped running and looked up. She was still near the top of the stairs, as if she hadn't moved.

She looked at the empty black hole in the centre of the spiral. She moved to the edge of the stairs, took a deep breath...

And jumped.