Upon the Walls is a Powerful Rage: Part Three

      "Jay, cut it out!" she yelled.

      When she got no reply, Ginger began banging on the door with her hooves. "Open!" she exclaimed.

      "Why did you get rid of it?" whispered a soft, female voice.

      Ginger spun around, her eyes wide. She could have sworn the voice had come from behind her. Yet, there was no one there.

      "Jay! Open the door! Now!" Ginger wanted out of the bathroom desperately.

      And that's when it happened. Ginger suddenly heard what seemed like razor sharp nails scratching a chalkboard. She dropped the paintbrush and covered her ears, wincing in pain. Ginger quickly opened her eyes to find that the pipe under the sink was developing a large gash. Soon, the pipe had been sliced right in half. The sound had stopped.

      "What in the world…?" Ginger slowly crawled over to the rusty pipe. She touched it with her right hoof, and then brought her face close to it.

      "Could the metal really have been so weak that it was able to split in two?" Ginger said to herself.

      And that's when tons of high-pressured water began to spurt out of the lower half of the pipe. Ginger flung herself backward against the door, watching as the bathroom began to flood with tap water.

      "Oh no! Help! Someone please help!" Ginger turned and began beating ferociously on the door. She kicked and turned the knob as much as she could, but the door did not budge an inch.

      For some reason, the water failed to seep through the crack under the door. Soon enough, the water level had reached Ginger knees. Thinking fast, Ginger collapsed in the water and began feeling around the floor for the paintbrush.

      "It's got to be around here somewhere," she whispered.

      Finally, she found the paint brush. She quickly ripped it off the tiled floor of the bathroom and waded over to the pipe under the sink. She jammed the bristled part of the brush into the lower half of the pipe, hoping to stop it up, but unfortunately, the paintbrush shot out of the pipe and landed in the water near the toilet.

      "Help! I can't swim!" Ginger screamed at the top of her lungs.

      She knew Mad and Jay couldn't hear her. They were in the front yard, most likely, with the front door shut. They were probably laughing and joking, happily painting the house. She had yelled at them and told them to go paint the house, and this is what she got for it. Ginger knew it.

      Pretty soon, the water level was up to Ginger's neck. She was going to drown in a bathroom. Not exactly how she had planned to spend her life. But then, a few air bubbles floated to the top of the water surface. The sink had stopped spurting out water. More and more bubbles arrived.

      Ginger gasped in fear when she saw a dark figure approach the surface of the water. The top of the figure rose out of the freezing cold water, and Ginger saw it to be the head of a Pink Kyrii. Terrified, the Blue Uni splashed backwards and slammed against the door, not taking her eyes off the Kyrii.

      The Kyrii itself looked pretty battered up. Its fur was an extremely faded pink, and had several bald patches. Its mane, however, was a very dark shade of pink, and fell over the Kyrii's pale blue eyes. She had a blank expression on her face, and stared intently at Ginger.

      "I found it," the Kyrii whispered. "Now get out."

      Suddenly, the bathroom door swung open. The water poured out of the bathroom in a tidal wave, sucking Ginger into the hallway. Tap water rushed through the hall and down the stairs, washing up all the dust as it did so. Ginger lay on the hard, wooden floor, coughing and hacking up water. She turned her head to look inside the bathroom. There was no Pink Kyrii.

      The front door blasted open, and Ginger stomped onto the porch. Mad and Jay were sitting on the porch steps, talking, when Ginger arrived. Mad noticed she was soaking wet, and spoke.

      "Ginger, what happened?"

      "Stay here," Ginger sniffled. "Paint the house. I'm going somewhere."

      She hopped on her bike and rode around to the backyard. From there, she sped down the dirt path leading to Ms. Maggi's home. Not once, did she look back at her house.

      It only took Ginger about five minutes to reach a small neighborhood consisting of about five homes. The dirt path formed a cul-de-sac, and at the very end of the path was a one-story, pale yellow house. Ms. Maggi was in the front yard with a wicker basket in hand and straw hat atop her head. Ginger rode her bike up to Ms. Maggi's yard and dismounted, allowing her bicycle to fall to the ground.

      "Ms. Maggi," Ginger walked up to the small JubJub.

      "Oh, hello, Ginger!" Ms. Maggi happily greeted her. "I was just about to go picking strawberries. Would you like to-"

      "We need to talk," Ginger interrupted. "I need to know what happened in that house 50 years ago."

      Ms. Maggi stared at Ginger, her mouth halfway open and her eyes squinted due to the glare of the sun. "Well… all right."

      In the kitchen of Ms. Maggi, the two pets sat at a small, round table made of driftwood. A cup of tea had been placed in front of Ginger and Ms. Maggi.

      "I still can't believe you haven't heard this story," said the JubJub.

      "Just… tell me… what happened?" Ginger was rather eager to know.

      "Well, listen closely. About 50 years ago, a family of two had a house built just down the dirt path from mine. It was a family of Red Kyriis. The older Kyrii was named Bart. I was a good friend of his. He had a daughter named Ida. They both lived very happily in the home for some time. But then, this one day, Ida literally found a Grey Paint Brush. No joke! It was lying on the cobblestone path that led to her school. And she did what anyone on this planet would do. She took it. And after school, she walked miles and miles to Neopia Central's very own Rainbow Pool. Ida painted herself Grey. For the first few days, Ida remained the happy-go-lucky Kyrii she had always been. And then… the paint brush took effect. Ida became extremely depressed. Soon, she stopped eating. Her father tried everything he could to get her to eat. But nothing worked. Why, Bart even painted her pink, thinking it would make her giddy again! Soon, Ida came down with a bad case of Neomonia. Unfortunately, 50 years ago, Neomonia was an incurable disease. Somehow, Ida got hold of yet another Grey Paintbrush. So her father wouldn't catch her, Ida stumbled down the stairs into the basement. She wanted to paint herself Grey then and there, but she couldn't. Ida cried and cried and cried down in that basement, until she passed away minutes later. Days after Ida died… her father, Bart, disappeared. The Chia Police found pink paint splashed all over his bedroom walls. To this day, no one knows what happened to him."

      As Ms. Maggi wrapped up her story, Ginger dropped her cup of tea in shock. The glass cup shattered as it hit the linoleum floor, sending tea everywhere.

      "Ginger, are you all right?" Ms. Maggi got out of her chair and stared at her.

      "Oh my gosh…" she said, simply.

      "Oh, don't worry about the tea, dear," Ms. Maggi smiled. "It is a rather shocking story. I actually expected a more drastic reaction than spilt tea. Excuse me as I go get some paper napkins."

      Ms. Maggi disappeared around the corner.

      "I-I left Jay and Mad alone at that house," Ginger whispered.

      She then flung herself out of the driftwood chair, knocking it over. Ginger bolted out the front door and onto her bike. She zoomed out of Ms. Maggi's neighborhood and down the dirt path leading towards her own home.

      A Doglefox ran past her bicycle in the opposite direction she was heading. Ginger turned around to look at the Doglefox for just a second, and then turned forward. Dead ahead of Ginger was a mangled, Pink Kyrii. Ida. Ginger screamed and swerved out of the way, crashing and sliding across the dirt path into the grass that surrounded it. She quickly picked her head up to view her surroundings. Ida was nowhere to be seen.

      "Leave me alone!" Ginger cried. "Why are you trying to hurt me?! Why?!"

      Of course, Ginger received only silence. She quickly mounted her bike and rode down to her front yard. She saw no paint cans, no brushes, no bicycles, and no Jay or Mad.

      "Jay! Mad! Where are you?!" Ginger screamed at the top of her lungs. She was desperate to find her friends and get away from the house as quickly as possible.

      That's when she noticed tire marks heading towards the neighborhood where Gloria lived.

      "They've gone back home," Ginger sighed a sigh of relief.

     ***

      "Gloria, are you home?!" Ginger called to her sister. She had rode her bike all the way back to Gloria's small home.

      The house was silent… a little too silent, at that.

      "Gloria?" Ginger said softer.

      She stepped into the hallway that led you to all the rooms in the house. Every single door was shut. Ginger approached the door to Gloria's bedroom and pushed it open. Gloria was nowhere to be seen.

      "Hmm… that's odd. Maybe she's out with her friends, or something," Ginger shrugged.

      Ginger exited Gloria's room, shutting the door behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, Ginger saw something run down the hallway. She spun around, but no one was there.

      "Gloria, is that you?"

      Ginger looked down the hallway, and shrugged once more. And that's when she noticed it. A paw print had been left on Gloria's doorknob. The print was made… with pink paint.

      "No… no… no!" Ginger screamed in horror. She backed away from her sister's bedroom door, and then bolted out of the small house.

      "Mad and Jay didn't go home," Ginger hopped onto her bike. "They're trapped in Ida's house."

      And out of Gloria's neighborhood, through the forest, down the dirt path, and into Ida's front yard she went. There they were: Mad and Jay's bicycles could be seen under the porch. Ginger closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. She took a few seconds to look at the wall of the house she had painted. Bits and pieces of it had been clawed off, and flakes of white paint were in the grass below it.

      And then, Ginger knew just why Ida was attacking her loved ones. Ida was the one who took the paint off the wall! And she didn't take the white paint; she took the small amount of grey paint that showed up on the wall when Ginger used the old Grey Paintbrush. She left all the white paint behind.

      There was also the issue in the bathroom, where the pipe was sliced in half and the bathroom was flooded. Ida did that. She cut the pipe open and went inside, looking for the grey paint that Ginger had washed down the drain. That's what Ida meant when she said "Why did you get rid of it?" and "I found it!"

      And as for Gloria, Ginger must have gotten some Grey paint in her fur or something. When she slept in Gloria's bed, she got grey paint all over the sheets and pillow. Gloria must have been lying in bed when Ida arrived at her home.

      All Ida wanted was to be Grey! She no longer wanted to be Pink!

      "That's it!" Ginger exclaimed, rushing inside Ida's house.

      She stood in the living room and looked up at the ceiling. "Ida! Ida, you've got your Grey paint! You're grey now! You're not pink! Now give me back my friends! Give me back Jay and Mad!"

      In reply to that, Ginger received the faint noise of a little girl crying. It was the same crying noises she had heard when she first entered Ida's home. The crying seemed as if it were coming from the basement.

      Ginger suspiciously approached the door-less doorway that led down into the dark basement. The crying got louder as she approached.

      "Ida?" Ginger whispered.

      The crying stopped completely.

      Ginger slowly placed her right hoof down on the first stair. She took a deep breath, and walked down the flight of stairs and into the dark and dusky basement. Ginger spotted the Pink Kyrii immediately. She was hunched up in a corner.

      "Ida," Ginger glared at the Kyrii, angrily. "Where are Jay and Mad?"

      "Under the covers of their warm beds," Ida shakily replied in that soft whisper of hers.

      Ginger swallowed. "You mean, they're not here?"

      Ida didn't reply.

      "If they're not here, then why are their bikes under the porches?" Ginger questioned the Kyrii.

      "Mine," Ida snapped.

      "They're… yours?" Ginger raised an eyebrow.

      "Your mane is pretty," Ida whispered.

      Ginger didn't know what to say. Had she heard the ghost correctly? Had Ida just commented on her mane?

      "What?" Ginger was thoroughly confused by now.

      Ida, who had been staring at the floor the entire time, lifted her head to look into Ginger's eyes. Ida's eyes were not pale blue. They were bright red. Ida snarled in anger.

      Ginger took a step back, gaping at the Kyrii. She reached up her hoof to touch her mane, and felt something hard. Ginger easily pulled a tiny piece of whatever it was out of her mane. She brought her hoof to her face so she could see what it was. It was hardened grey paint. And now she remembered getting a bit of grey paint in her mane when she had washed the Grey Paintbrush off for the first time.

      She gasped slightly, and let the paint fall from her hoof. Ginger looked up at Ida, who was still sitting in the corner, glaring at her. Then, the Kyrii shot up faster than Ginger had ever seen anyone stand before. The hardened paint slid across the basement floor and ended in Ida's paw. The paint disappeared into Ida's pink fur, and the pink began to darken.

      Soon, the fur had darkened so much, that it was Grey. Ida had got what she wanted. She was Grey. But now, she wanted more. The basement door that had been ripped off its hinges by Ginger was flung out from behind a stack of crates beside Ginger. Ginger quickly ducked, and the door zoomed right over her head. It flew right up the staircase and latched onto its hinges.

      The door slammed shut. Ginger was alone in a pitch-black room with Ida. And all Ginger could do was close her eyes and listen to the wet and aggressive footsteps approaching her.

      All that was left of poor Ginger by then was her shrill scream that echoed into the night sky for all to hear… for all to ponder over… for all to approach the home of Ida and investigate… for all to be killed.

The End