Chapter Text
Joey stayed in the workshop a few days. Just to keep an eye on the situation.
Not that it bothered any workers. The slight pressure to try harder with their work was there, but Joey couldn’t care less about the company’s progression. Alice was getting worse. One night she didn’t even sleep; she just wandered around her room, stared at herself in her mirror or did some other peculiar thing like sorting socks.
But not once did a word come from her mouth. Not once did her black lips curl up into even a slight smile. When she walked the halls she walked slow, looking down. When she was hugged she never hugged back. And rarely could she keep eye contact.
Her performance was worsening with each passing minute, and anyone could guess how infuriating this was to Bendy.
“She ain’t even trying!” He storms around his room. Boris is sitting on Bendy’s bed with his head in his paw, listening with a bored look.
“I mean! Boris, dude,” Bendy looks at him. “Did you even COUNT how many times she tripped during the dance scene today?!”
“Ah…. um…. No…. I wasn’t paying attention...” Boredom floods Boris’s voice.
“Like! Probably a hundred times! It was ridiculous and it was EMBARRASSING!”
Boris raises a brow. “Did you actually take the time to count 100 mistakes?”
Bendy pulls at his bow. “Well…. No. But it was close! So close to just…. Like it was a show about failing or something! That ‘angel’ is ruining everything! I thought angels were graceful! She’s just a dimwit dumbo with two left feet! She doesn’t belong here!”
Finally Boris sighs with aggravation. He stands. “Alright buddy, you listen to me now.”
Bendy blinks with surprise. Boris looks him right in his eyes and even points a claw at him. “Alice didn’t trip a hundred times. She tripped three. Three. And if anything, she’s a better dancer than you. She actually cares about getting it right.”
Bendy looked dumbfounded.
“Also,” Boris continues, “you treating her like sh*t needs to stop right now. She did nothing to you to deserve what you do to her. What if she left?”
“She DOES deserve it Boris! And the cartoon would probably lose popularity. Probably. But I’m enough of a star to keep it goi-”
Boris grabs Bendy’s shoulders firmly, scaring him into silence. “She DOESN’T deserve it Bendy!! And yeah! The cartoon would lose popularity! Because of YOU! You are the most disrespectful person I have ever met! You make me regret knowing you! Hell, you even make me regret being made! What the hell is wrong with you?!”
“How dare you say that to your own brother, Boris!”
“You aren’t my brother,” Boris shakes his head. “No way. You aren’t even worth being my acquaintance.”
Bendy’s eyes flare up again. “What the hell Boris?!”
Boris shoves him. Not hard, but still enough to make Bendy stumble backwards. “Until you learn to treat that poor angel with respect, I want nothing to do with you. I don’t care if you’re choking or your leg is broken or WHATEVER! I’m not gonna look your way. You can live without one pair of eyes on you.” He starts to the door. Bendy furrows his brows and brushes his body off.
“Yeah whatever Boris...” Bendy scoffs as the wolf leaves. He looks to the door long after Boris had made his exit and he just stared.
“Alice is nothing…. She is not anything… this show could do without her,” Bendy says to himself as he walks to his vanity to tidy up for the recording on the next episode. He smiles lavishly at himself in the mirror as he fixes his bow, which was off center because of Boris. “This little demon’s got the whole show covered~”
After lots of unnecessary adjusting to himself and his accessories, Bendy goes out into the hall and to the recording room. He is surprised when no one smiles at him or greets him when he enters. In fact, they all frown, or scowl, or even look the other way. Some wince. Bendy blinks with obvious confusion, but he shakes his head and makes his way to the stage. The show must go on!
Joey watches Bendy with his arms crossed. “When Henry created that devil character he did not mean for him to turn out as an actual devil.”
“None of us did...” Sammy frowns and hugs Joey’s arm. “What… do you think we should do?”
Joey sighs deeply as his look stays fixed on Bendy running around the stage. “If I witness him hurting her I will intervene. I will not stand by and let him hurt our daughter anymore.”
Sammy blushes and looks up at Joey. “Our…?”
Joey looks down at him. “Well, you’re my husband aren’t you?”
Sammy smiles shyly and looks down. “Yeah...”
For once, Joey smiles and ruffles Sammy’s hair, but quickly his stern look returns to Bendy. “I will not let him hurt her again.”
Everyone looks to the door at the clock’s stroke of 10. Bendy confused, follows their gaze and also stares.
Alice stands at the door. Her hair is done a little neater than as of late, and she is dressed nicer. Her black eyeshadow and matching eyeliner are a little over-done, casting a shadow over her empty eyes, but it hides the bags that were usually under them. She looks cleaned up. And now she’s sporting a new accessory- long, black arm gloves. Everyone smiles slightly, relieved to see her awake and on time for the first time in a while. Bendy doesn’t smile, as he still appears shocked to see her looking… presentable.
“So she finally decided to get her act together...” Bendy mumbles in wonder, then he snickers. “She’s a goth!”
Silently and with her head held up, Alice climbs the four steps to the stage. Steadily, she advances to her spot. She turns to the audience and opens her eyes. Softly, you could hear her little voice: “... I’m ready.”
“‘Bout time!” Bendy laughs. Everyone glares at him, especially Joey, who shoots him a sharp warning look. Bendy clears his throat. “Start the music Lawrence! Lights camera action!”
Norman rolls his eyes and aims his projector. Sammy orchestrates. Joey watches. Bendy steps here and there, a tap of his left shoe and a tap of his right. His tail waves this way and then that way. The smile on his face is bold and permanent. He appeared to be having a wonderful time.
Alice takes it nice and easy. She hadn’t eaten that day and she didn’t sleep at all the night before. She steps here with her left foot and then there with her right. One graceful spin, outstretching her arms…. For once, she seems to be with it.
Then came the part where Bendy was to pick her up by her waist and spin her around… a part that everyone was scared to see.
He turns to her.
She turns to him.
For a second, time seemed to stop as they locked their gazes on each other. The world stopped moving. In that moment, it was just the two of them.
In the one second when this happened, Bendy suddenly had a thought to really look at her. And so he did. He observed her eyes, her lips, everything on her face. And as he watched her, he noticed some things he had never seen before- her eyes had no light or sign of life in them; her lips were not smiling as they should have been; she seemed… dead. Gone. Disconnected from reality.
And somehow, Bendy found himself not thinking that she was purposely putting on that look to embarrass him. She didn’t look like how she usually did in the posters.
Something was off.
Alice did not have a clue that he was thinking these things. All she saw was the face of someone who would never think of her as good enough.
All she saw was the devil that he wasn’t made to be.
Suddenly she trips. In the trip, her heel breaks and she falls forward, right as Bendy goes to grab her hips. He falls back to avoid being crushed, and Alice lands on her face. Everyone gasps and the music cuts immediately. Having the wind knocked out of her, Alice coughs and attempts to push herself up. Her arms shake, and she pants softly. Bendy watches with shock, and of course, concern leaves to make room for anger.
“D*ammit Alice! You were supposed to rehearse!”
Alice looks up at him, but for once…. She isn’t wincing. “My heel broke.”
Bendy looks at her with disgust. Joey starts up there but Sammy gently holds his arm. “Joey… Alice is handling it.”
Joey winces at Sammy, then looks back to them. The angel and the demon stare each other down in silence, Bendy with his arms crossed and Alice with her brows slightly furrowed. Bendy quietly growls.
“Well? Get up!”
Alice stands.
“Take off the heels! We’ll do it barefoot.”
Alice removes her heels.
Again, silence falls as they stare at each other again.
Bendy sighs and looks to Sammy. “Start the music again. Alice, get back to starting.”
“....No.”
Everyone is startled as they look to Alice. Her response again made time stop.
Bendy blinks. “Pardon me?”
Alice blinks once slowly. “No.”
“And why not?”
Alice says nothing. She looks away. Bendy’s eyes flare.
“Alice!! Go! To! STARTING! POSITION!”
Alice glares at him… but there’s sadness in her eyes. She says nothing.
“AGH! THAT’S IT YOU USELESS-!!” Bendy leaps at her with his hands out, but just as quickly as he jumps, Joey is up there. He grabs Bendy and pushes him down, hard into the floor of the stage. Everyone gasps. Bendy looks up at him with fear in his eyes.
Joey’s eyes could have been on fire, he was so angry. “I’M SICK OF YOU BEING A BULLY TO MY DAUGHTER!!”
Bendy couldn’t speak. He couldn’t breathe.
Joey points at him. “You will not be in any episodes until you learn to treat her with respect, you got that? And If I find out you’re hurting her again, I’ll put you back in the Ink Machine where you came from.”
Bendy winces slightly. Everyone stands in shock, even Alice. Joey turns on his heel and scoops up his daughter gently, saying softly to her, “I have you, pumpkin,” and he carries her out of the stage room to her bedroom. Everyone looks at Bendy for his response, but he just lay there, holding himself up on his elbows, looking down in silent shock.