"Mary loved bright colours. She loved the colour red, and she liked yellow just as much, but she liked blue even more."

I - Abyss of the Deep

"ITALY!"Germany yelled at a sleeping Italy. Italy's head snapped upwards, his eyes wide with terror as he bounced onto his feet, his brunette hair slightly on end and his signature curl crooked. He hoped that it wasn't Britain; his cooking was terrifying enough on its own, and Britain's magic could be a bit fearful at times when Britain felt like it! But then there was Russia, and he was just scary. He pulled out his spare white flag and waved it in front of his face quickly, his eyes squinted.

"Aaah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I swear I won't put up a struggle, I surrender quietly I swear, and … oh, it's you Germany!"Italy said cheerily, smiling at his neat, blonde haired companion. Germany sighed at him heavily.

"I said we could take a break today, I didn't say you could fall asleep!"Germany snapped, his blue eyes glaring at the ditzy Italian. Why was Italy being nothing but hassle for him today? And he thought he was doing a nice thing, taking Italy and Japan to see the Guertana exhibition at the art museum.

"S-Sorry, Germany, I'm just so sleepy. And some of these pictures are really strange." Italy added fearfully, jumping at the sight of a man hanging upside down from his leg. Japan looked at Italy curiously, his jet black hair also neat and tidy, his dark brown eyes looking confused.

"Itary-san, I thought you wourd be interested in this type of art, seeing that you rike to do artwork. It is very unique as werr."Japan said in quiet awe, taking a photo of a painting of a woman in a pretty red dress. Italy-san would usually talk about his love for art, so his fearful expression towards some of the artwork here was quite unusual for the Japanese man.

"B-But, I like happy pictures. Some of these artworks are too scary…"Italy whimpered, looking at some melted figure. Germany rolled his eyes at Italy pathetically. Must he be such an easily scared, half-wit imbecile?

"What's so scary about this?"Germany asked in slight frustration, pointing in a random direction. Italy's gaze followed the direction where Germany was pointing.

"It has no head."Italy murmured fearfully at the headless mannequin. Germany sighed tiredly.

"Well, we could go back to training if you-"Germany started looking. He felt his temper rise as he noticed that there was a missing Italy.

"Italia!"Germany snarled acidly. Japan shook his head whilst chuckling softly.

"Germany-san, it wourd be best to let Itary-san wark around on his own for a few moments. He might find something that he might rike."Japan said in a hopeful tone, fingering a rose sculpture lightly.

"Ja, I supposed you are right, Japan."Germany said in defeat. He might as well leave that pasta loving freak on his own for a while.

Italy slowed down as he looked behind him to see that Germany wasn't chasing after him thankfully. Yes, some of the artwork was a little unorthodox, there was no way he was going to go back Germany's place to do training. Besides, some of the stuff there wasn't that bad.

"Hmm? What is this?"Italy asked to himself, looking at the picture. The picture had a sleeping man with pale violet hair with a few dark roots wearing a tatty coat leaning back against a black canvas. The man looked peaceful, but Italy couldn't help but think that he must have been in great pain before he fell asleep. It was a beautiful painting though. It looked so realistic.

"Forgotten Portrait… mm, this makes me feel really sad now."Italy said softly, tilting his head sideways. He walked away from the depressing painting and found himself bumping into a young lady.

"Eek! I'm sorry mia bella!" Italy said frantically. He saw that the lady had long pretty brown hair like Miss. Hungary and shiny red eyes which reminded him of Prussia, wearing a long sleeved shirt and a red skirt that reached her knees. She looked at him apologetically as she shook her head at him.

"No, it was my fault."The girl said softly, bowing slightly. Her gaze travelled upwards as she looked at the Forgotten Portrait art piece.

"I never thought I'd come back here again."The girl said in a hushed voice.

"Hmm?" Italy asked. The girl didn't reply, her eyes on the painting.

"Ib! Where are you?"Mary yelled. Ib looked up to see her sister, Mary, running towards her in her favourite green dress with her blonde curls and bright blue eyes. It was weird, they were twins yet they didn't look alike. And Mary didn't look like mother or father. It was bizarre. Perhaps they had blonde haired, blue eyed relatives somewhere in the family, yes that must be it.

"Ib, I told you not to run off, mother and father want us to go out to get a drink."Mary said in a nagging tone. Ib looked down onto her feet sheepishly, cheeks slightly pink.

"I'm sorry, Mary. I was just…"Ib murmured. Mary looked at the painting and wrinkled her nose at it disapprovingly. There was something about that painting that she despised, yet she didn't really understand why she hated the painting so much. It was probably because the colours were too dark; Mary loved bright colours. She loved the colour red, and she liked yellow just as much, but she liked blue even more.

"I don't like this painting. It's ugly."The blonde lady said harshly. Italy looked at the lady with a frown. He didn't really like her attitude, and he thought that she was being a bit harsh calling an impressive looking painting ugly.

"I like it…" The brunette muttered to herself quietly. The blonde lady grabbed her hand and tugged at her arm lightly. The lights started to flicker suddenly, causing Italy to look around fearfully.

"V-Veh? W-What's going on?"Italy asked out loud in a scared voice. He didn't like this kind of thing; likes flickering on and off uncontrollably. It gave him the Heebie-jeebies. As Italy cowered in the nearest corner, he saw the brown haired girl stare at the painting with a shocked look on her face. She reached out towards the painting slowly, and Italy thought that for a split second that the painting was reaching out towards her-

"IB, DON'T!" The blonde girl yelled.

The lights went out like a flame being put out from candle. There were a few shocked gasps, one or two screams, sounds of shattering glass, rushing footsteps.

"J-Japan! Where are you? Germany! "Italy wailed fearfully, running around in the pitch black dark. OK, Italy had enough; he wanted to go home now. He had a wonderful time and all, but he didn't want to die just yet. Italy carried on running and realised that it was deadly silent.

"W-Where is everyone?" Italy asked, glancing at a window that he was walking past.

BANG BANG BANG

Italy shrieked slightly as he fell onto the floor, breathing heavily. There was a hand imprint on the glass as Italy looked closer at the window.

"Eek! S-Someone's behind the window!"Italy stammered, placing his hand over the imprint. There was something there a few seconds ago, but now it seemed as if there wasn't a living soul behind the glass.

"O-Oh, I think I have my phone in my pocket. I could use it as a flashlight…" Italy said in a strained voice, turning his phone on. The screen lit up suddenly as a safe glow engulfed Italy's face, his auburn eyes glittering. Italy crept along the corridors slowly as he passed a painting that was entitled The Coughing Man. There was a sudden sound of coughing, making Italy jump suddenly. The coughing stopped as Italy moved away from the painting.

"Hmm? D-Did that painting just…?"Italy questioned in awe, walking towards the painting. The painting didn't respond.

'I must be seeing things…' Italy thought to himself tiredly. He carried on walking until he realised that he stepped in something. Italy looked down slowly and screamed as the red liquid dripped from his shoes.

"AAAAHHH! B-Blood!" Italy screamed. He started running towards the exit and tripped over his shoelaces.

"Hehehe, I-I think I'll leave now! Yes, I'll leave and tell Germany and Japan that I was seeing things because I'm so tired!" Italy laughed madly, rushing towards the door. He was obviously tired, that was why he was seeing those crazy things around him. Italy grabbed the door handle and pushed the door. Or, he tried to push the door open. He tried pushing the door again. Nothing happened. He tried to turn the doorknob frantically. Only to find out that…

"It's locked…" Italy said in defeat. He stared at the door with a terrified expression on his face. What was he going to do? He couldn't get out, and Germany and Japan were still in the museum somewhere.

"Over here…"

"H-Huh? Who's there?" Italy asked with a squeak.

"Come play with us, Italia… you know you want to…"A voice rung out softly. Italy froze up on the spot, terrified and somewhat curious. No one in the museum knew that he was a country, so the only other people who would know that he was a country would be another country.

"A-Are you another country…?" Italy asked fearfully. Pranks were more of America to be honest, and Russia would be doing the scary stuff. And then there were the other Allies in on it. Yes, that was it! This must be a prank by the Allied Forces on the Axis Powers! It had to be.

"Hehe, this isn't funny anymore!" Italy laughed nervously, backing away from the door.

"Come play, Veneziano… join us…" The voice cooed. Now that Italy thought about it, the voice didn't sound as if it belonged to anyone in the Allied Forces. And the only one who called him Veneziano was Romano, and he was at Spain's house for the day.

"I-I can make you p-p-pasta if you want! Just don't hurt me!" Italy cried, waving his white flag wildly in case any monsters suddenly jumped out at him from nowhere and tried to eat him.

"Your friends are waiting… Japan… and Germany…" The voice cooed. Italy stooped waving his white flag suddenly as the words rung through his ears. Germany… Japan… they were still there somewhere where Italy didn't look.

"G-Germany's still here? And Japan too? Where are they?" Italy asked more boldly. There were several letters being stamped onto the floor, forming two things: a path, and three words. Italy followed the letters as he was able to piece together what they were trying to spell.

C...O...M...E...P...L...A...Y...I...T...A...L...Y...

"Where are you guys? I want to go back home and make some pasta!" Italy called out. He found himself back where he was before everything went strange looking at Forgotten Portrait. But the painting looked different. It was as if someone tore at the painting slightly.

Italy turned his head to see the painting on the floor (he remembered it being called Abyss of the Deep) make ripples and saw the water flow freely. The water looked so lifelike; even the fish under the water were swimming around dreamily. Italy leaned forwards to stare in awe as the painting was brought to life.

"I wonder if that's really water-" Italy pondered to himself.

"Wanna see?"

Italy felt something collide into his back sharply, possibly a pair of hands, and felt himself falling in a downwards direction. He fell through the water even though he wasn't getting wet. But he knew one thing: he was falling down the hole at a fast rate.

"Geeeerrrrmmmaaaaannnnnnyyyy!"Italy screamed at the top of his lungs as he fell deeper into the abyss. When would the falling stop? Maybe this was just a nasty nightmare, maybe Italy would wake up soon. He wanted Germany to come and save him, he'd even go to training if he had to! He just wanted all of this to stop!

As the young man fell through the hole in the ground a figure appeared in front of the red velvet rope, holding a lovely grassy green rose in his hands, alongside a black rose and white rose. The figure smiled to themselves widely as they heard the young man scream. This particular person wasn't as human as any other person the figure had seen. This person was quite extraordinary. And he wasn't the only unusual person in this world. Oh no, the roses proved it. Three of them were very special people.

"This will be very… interesting." The figure chuckled to themselves, throwing the green rose down the hole. The young gentleman would be able to find the rose as soon as he landed in the Frabricated World. As long as the women didn't find the rose before him, the young man would be fine.

The women there loved playing 'Loves Me, Loves Me Not.'

And so, the story begins.

I'll be updating every Sunday, just not this Sunday. Check out my other fanfictions and play the game, I promise you, you won't regret it.

Oh, and I don't own Hetalia or Ib.