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The air was thick with the poisonous stench of the ink that surrounded them.
Henry felt beads of sweat run down his face as he kept swinging his axe at a group of small, crawling ink monsters. Each and every one that he managed to hit dissolved and melted into a black inky puddle, the floor was absolutely covered in the gooey liquid at this point. But it seemed as though that with every Searcher that was defeated, another one took it’s place fairly quickly.
The wooden room was filled with the sounds of the low moans, groans and hisses of the monsters, it started to make Henry wonder if there was just an unlimited number of these grotesque creatures, there always seemed to be more and more of them the further into the studio he went.
He struck another one on the head with his axe before looking over at the huge pack that blocked the path, some of the monsters had even started to meld their bodies against each other, forming huge black abominations of faces, arms and legs, it was honestly hard to tell which part was which.
Henry took a small moment to stand back and catch his breath, he had been fighting for a solid twenty minutes so far, and it was starting to take it’s toll.
Luckily, a large black hand swiped at the Searcher fusions before they could reach and attack Henry again, instantly smashing them into a puddle of ink stains across the floor, saving him the trouble of fighting them himself. He tiredly grinned up at his large, inky saviour and gave him a thumbs up.
“Thanks bud, I owe you one…yet again.” Henry half joked. It was true, he owed Bendy so many times now that he had pretty much lost count.
The large demon simply grunted and grinned back in response before getting back into the thick of the fight as Henry simply watched in mild bemusement. Once Bendy got started, there was no stopping him until he knew for certain that there was absolutely nothing left to endanger them, especially Henry.
The devil kept the large group of Searchers at bay for a few minutes while the older man caught his breath and tested out his injured leg. It was pretty much healed up now but he would have to change the bandages soon if he wanted to keep the wound from getting infected.
He sighed and pushed that thought to the back of his mind, tending to himself would have to wait. There were more pressing issues to deal with, like getting rid of these monsters so that he and Bendy could move forward. Henry took a deep breath and raised his axe, moving to join the fight once again.
A smooth, whispering voice stopped him dead in his tracks.
“Sheep, sheep, sheep…” The terribly quiet voice teased, Henry spun around to locate the source of the whisper. It couldn’t be, it just couldn’t be…
His eyes widened as he spotted a dark but very familiar shape in the far corner of the room. The studio was dimly lit but that was definitely Sammy standing there, and just like in his dream, the musician’s limbs were twisted out of shape, his crooked neck barely supported his horrifying masked face. The whole room went deathly silent, Henry couldn’t hear or see anything else in that still moment of time, not the Searchers, not even Bendy. Just the cold, blank stare of Sammy’s grinning mask.
Henry could barely breathe.
“S-Sammy…?” Was all he managed to get out before something tripped him up from behind and sent reality crashing back down onto him.
He hit the floor with a loud thud, the impact knocking the air right out of him. The man grimaced as he felt something cold and wet strongly tug at his ankle and lifted his head to see a Searcher hissing at him, hoping to finally claim it’s prize.
But it’s glory was short lived as a large inky fist splattered it into nothing. Henry managed to pull his leg back before looking up at Bendy sheepishly, the demon had a brow raised and whined in a questioning manner as he leaned down to check if the human was injured.
“I’m fine, bud. I just…” He paused as he got up from the floor. “…lost focus there for a moment, that’s all. Won’t happen again.” Henry said with a reassuring smile as he brushed himself off.
Bendy frowned but didn’t get the opportunity to question it any further as the Searchers were gaining in numbers again, forcing the demon to begrudgingly drop the matter and get back to the fight. Henry sighed in relief and quickly glanced back over to the corner, only to find that it was completely empty. The older man frowned, was it just a hallucination maybe? But he seemed so real…
‘Figures.’ Henry bitterly thought. 'Lack of sleep at my age, it’s probably playing tricks on my eyes…’ It was much easier to blame it on sleep deprivation, rather than anything else that might have caused it.
God, it was getting harder to breathe in this place…
After what seemed like an eternity of mindless fighting, the Searchers were finally gone once more. Although it probably wouldn’t be long before more cropped up, it was like an endless loop of fighting, walking and running around in this damn building, and it was getting pretty exhausting. Henry sighed and rubbed his temples, his headache was coming back again…
He honestly felt like they were getting nowhere with this journey, with every step forward there was always two steps back. He shook his head in disapproval, he had to stop thinking like that, he didn’t want Bendy to catch on to these negative thoughts and become disheartened, the demon deserved better than that. So yet again, he just pushed the thought to the back of his mind and turned to talk to Bendy, who had been pretty quiet for the past few minutes.
“Alright bud, you ready to keep moving-“ Henry stopped and flinched when he looked up at the large inky demon.
‘What…? What is…? Bendy?!’ Henry felt himself internally scream at the sight before him.
Bendy seemed much bigger than before somehow, his grin was filled with sharp fangs and his hands were clawed, when did he…? But that wasn’t the worst part, no, the most terrifying thing was the fact that his eye was no longer visible, it was completely smothered and covered in ink, and that shape coming out of his shoulder…was it a searcher? No…it had horns…crooked, uneven horns…
The all too familiar shape grinned and waved a clawed gloved hand at Henry in a menacing manner, when did that thing get here…?
‘No…what…what the Hell…this can’t be happening…?’ Henry internally questioned himself in disbelief. Was this real? Was Sammy real? Maybe it was just another dream? God, please just let it be a dream…
Bendy’s usually goofy and joyful grin looked extortionately painful and…almost blank, like he couldn’t express himself in any way, shape or form. ‘Bendy’ on the other hand looked like it was having the time of it’s life as it laughed at Henry’s expression, the sound came out deep and gargled, making the human flinch.
The smaller, lanky monster looked as though it had perched and melted itself into Bendy’s right shoulder, controlling him like a parasitic mushroom would control a lifeless ant, completely gaining hold over his mind and movement.
“Bendy…” Henry tentatively coaxed. “Come on…you have to fight it. Please!” He begged, but to no avail. ‘Bendy’ whispered into his friend’s ear, forcing the larger demon to start moving forward towards the older man in a slow, threatening manner.
“No…please…” Tears threatened to escape Henry’s eyes, but he tried to hold them back as he begrudgingly held up his axe. “I don’t want to fight you, bud…”
Both Bendy’s hissed and growled at him as they got closer to him, moving swiftly together as one entity. Henry felt a quick surge of panic overcome him and swung his axe, forcing the creatures to recoil back slightly, although it didn’t deter them in the slightest as they moved in for the kill again and again, making the poor man swing his axe repeatedly.
“Back off! I’m warning you…!” Henry tried to threaten, but his cracked voice gave away his underlying fear. This seemed to please ‘Bendy’ even more as it’s grin was getting wider and more maniacal by the second, a large hand suddenly swiped at him, the impact knocked the axe out of his hand, sending it clanging to the floor.
‘Shit…!’ Henry tried to quell the panic that was rising within him, but it proved difficult.
However, everything suddenly halted when the lanky creature suddenly held up a clawed hand, signalling Bendy to stop. What was…?
It tilted it’s head to the side and started cackling as it pointed at Henry, who was now completely confused. He didn’t dare let his guard down though, and kept his arms up in defence in case both monsters decided to suddenly try and go for him again.
His stoic expression quickly melted into one of grief though as he looked at Bendy’s still blank and expressionless face, there had to be a way to snap him out of it…
“Look at you, Henry.” A familiar voice suddenly sounded out, surprising the older man.
“Thirty years and you’re still exactly the same, time sure is a funny thing, ain’t it?” Henry looked around, his grief stricken expression was soon replaced with one of sheer anger.
“Joey! You son of a bitch…where the Hell are you?!” Henry grimaced as the sound of laughter echoed throughout the room. “Come out and show yourself, you God damn coward!” He shouted out, gritting his teeth. That bastard had a lot of nerve…
“Only thing about time though…” Joey’s voice sounded out from above, right where the two Bendys were. Henry squinted, how was that even possible…?
‘Bendy’ shrugged.
“It waits for no one, Henry.” It said with a grin.
Henry stared with wide eyes as he couldn’t even begin to comprehend the situation he was in anymore, his mind just took a complete and utter blank.
‘Bendy’ took this cue to continue, “But no matter, soon you will join me, old pal. Us.” It said, still using Joey’s voice as it beckoned for Bendy to move forward. "The transformation has even already started to take place, you lucky thing.”
“The fuck are you talking about…?” Henry questioned in a disgusted tone. “Look at what you’ve done to this place! To Bendy! For God’s sake, you’re torturing him! You have to stop-!”
He stopped mid-sentence as his arms started to feel very bizarre, they felt…cold, wet and…heavy. His instincts screamed at him to not look down, but his fear and confusion overpowered, forcing his line of sight to slowly trace down.
He silently fell to his knees as he stared at his hands in pure horror, he barely managed to resist the urge to suddenly gag and throw up at the sight.
Ink was seeping and bubbling through his skin, and was starting to completely cover and mutate his arm. His hands were growing larger and his fingers lengthened in size as well, forming what could only be described as a complete inky mess of anatomy. Henry wheezed and tried to shake the ink away, desperately thinking that somehow it would just fall off and everything would be normal again.
‘This isn’t happening, this ISN’T happening…!’ The older man tried to internally reassure himself. His panic stricken eyes snapped up when ‘Bendy’ or…Joey…or…whatever the Hell this thing was, chuckled warmly.
“Oh but this IS happening, Henry old boy…” The lanky monster teased as it started to nonchalantly pet Bendy’s horned head with it’s claws. “Just relax and let it happen. You’re going to be a part of something absolutely remarkable, I promise you.”
Henry backed himself into a corner, with no means of escape now. He could feel the ink slowly slither up his arms and onto his shoulders as if it was trying to devour his body, it felt so unbelievably heavy and freezing cold. The two Bendys were getting closer and closer, Henry’s breathing became choppy and shuddered as he felt his fear completely take over both his mind and body, rendering him immobile.
The two monsters grabbed a hold of him and crushed him up against their melting bodies, he made a weak attempt to fight them off, but the air was getting heavier by the second and he could feel his body start to sink in to Bendy’s torso.
He had let Bendy down, yet again. He had promised his friend that they were both going to make it, he had promised him that they were going to enjoy the outside world together. God, he couldn’t have been more wrong, because now they were both going to suffer in this Hell…with that thing…forever…
“I’m so sorry, buddy…” Henry barely managed to whisper as he felt the heavy black liquid envelop him completely.
The sudden silence was a welcome bliss.
Bendy had absolutely no clue how to handle this situation.
The large ink demon stared in bewilderment as Henry suddenly started acting incredibly strange, the human seemed a little stressed out at times in the past but…never like this.
The way he looked up at him with that petrified glint in his eyes made Bendy panic slightly himself, the man seemed to be zoned in on his shoulder, but when the devil turned his head to look, there was nothing there. He checked his hands just to make sure he wasn’t turning into that crazy form either but no, everything seemed pretty normal. What was up with the human?
“Bendy…” This caught the demon’s attention as he gave Henry an eager look, grinning enthusiastically to try and put the older man at ease.
“Come on…you have to fight it. Please!” Henry seemed to say in an almost begging manner, making Bendy even more confused as he looked around for any danger. Fight what? The other monsters in the studio? But there was nothing left!
“No…please…” Bendy looked back down to Henry and whined in a concerned tone, trying his absolute best to decipher what was going on.
“I don’t want to fight you, bud…” The older man pleaded while slowly raising his axe while backing away. This immediately rang alarm bells for Bendy, there was something definitely wrong here. What was Henry seeing that he couldn’t?
The large demon could feel waves of raw panic and fear go through his mind that was certainly not his own. He didn’t know why but something was terrorising Henry right now, something that wasn’t even there, and it was up to him now to calm the human down, just like he had calmed him down so many times before. But he was going to have to be careful about doing it, he didn’t want the man to injure himself with the axe that he still had in his possession.
Bendy slowly made his way over to Henry and whined in a reassuring manner, as to not spook him any further, but the fear that radiated from the human was so powerful, it almost made the devil himself scared, but he pushed it to the side, helping his friend was his top priority.
When he managed to get close enough, Bendy lifted a hand to try and gently take the axe away from Henry, but unfortunately it sparked off a snap reaction from the older man as he suddenly swung his axe at the demon, forcing him to move back.
“Back off! I’m warning you…!” Henry’s voice cracked, making Bendy frown in a saddened manner, it was heartwrenching seeing the usually calm human like this.
His frown turned into a determined look however, as he suddenly swiped an inky hand at Henry’s axe-wielding arm, knocking the weapon away from him before he could cause any real harm to himself. The impact nearly sent the man sprawling to the ground, which Bendy immediately reacted to by reaching out to catch him.
Henry’s eyes widened at the touch, and he tried to scramble away, but Bendy held on tightly by wrapping his large, inky arms around him. The demon closed his eye and whined as he tried to send comforting thoughts to the trembling human, to let him know that everything was going to be alright. He could only desperately hope that it would be enough to snap his friend out of whatever horrible trance he was in.
Henry woke up to the sensation of being shook around slightly, and the familiar sound of a low whine, although it seemed a little…deeper than usual. He took a deep breath but didn’t have the strength nor the willpower to get up, for once he felt at peace and by God he wanted it to last as long as possible. But still the light jostling persisted, forcing him to crack open one heavy eyelid.
What he saw nearly made him leap out of his skin.
“Holy shit!” Henry exclaimed, immediately sitting up. “It’s…It’s you…”
He found himself sitting in a familiar clawed hand and staring into the enormous demonic face of the Bendy from his dream, the nightmare. Which must have meant…
“Ah…I must have passed out back there…” Henry muttered to himself as he rubbed the back of his neck, earning an unamused look from the monster.
Henry felt himself get nervous at the glare that he was getting from Bendy, he knew that the demon was still friendly but…those huge fangs didn’t help at all. Plus the fact that he could probably crush him like an ant if he had really wanted to. Wait. What if ‘Bendy’ was here as well? Oh God, if it had gained control here then…not even his God damn consciousness was safe from that thing.
Henry fearfully looked around for any signs of the lanky monster, while Bendy’s unamused look quickly turned into one of sympathy.
“Where is it?” The human questioned, scrambling back, although of course he didn’t get far at all as Bendy’s clawed fingers prevented him from falling off. He could feel the panic starting to take hold of him again. “Did it take control over you too?! Shit, I have to-“
A light slap to the face cut him off mid-sentence.
Henry put a hand to his stinging cheek and looked up to Bendy, who had flicked the human with his index finger. The devil frowned, sighed and shook his head, as if in both disappointment and empathy.
The man suddenly felt a defensive pang in his heart as realisation slowly dawned on him: None of what he had just experienced was real.
The other ‘Bendy’, Joey’s voice, Sammy appearing in that corner, his hands and arms turning into ink, they were all just… hallucinations. Christ, had he finally lost his mind? Was it due to the lack of sleep? The lack of clean oxygen in the studio? Both?
“Bendy, I…” He felt like he had to explain himself, to come up with some sort of logical reasoning for acting the way that he had, but the words were struggling to form out of his mouth. “I…”
Bendy let out a small, quiet growl to interrupt the stuttering Henry, who looked up with a nervous glint in his eyes. The demon didn’t say or do anything further but the older man’s eyes widened ever so slightly, his breathing became quicker as he slowly put a hand to his head and looked down. He could feel something, was he having some sort of panic attack again?
His breaths slowed down as a wave of calm and understanding washed over him, it felt like a huge weight was being lifted off, assuring him that everything was going to be alright, making him smile and sigh in relief.
This bond thing was still very hard to comprehend, but he was more thankful than ever that it even existed. He looked back up to Bendy and gave him a grateful look.
“Thanks, bud.” Bendy reacted with a big toothy grin and leaned his head down to gently nuzzle him.
As soon as they made contact, Henry was back in the studio.
He slowly woke up to a wet rubbing sensation on his head, and looked up to see Bendy’s grinning face, it was more rounded and simply shaped than the one he had just seen, meaning that he must have been back in reality again.
The demon’s eye widened when he realised that the human was starting to stir, and nuzzled him a little more enthusiastically while whining happily, making Henry chuckle slightly.
“Whoa there…” He tiredly said, while putting a hand on the devil’s head, before gently moving it away to give him a bit of space. “It’s good to see you too pal…just give me a minute, alright?”
Bendy happily obliged and lifted his head to allow Henry to sit up. As the older man did, he noticed that something heavy was draped around him and looked around, only to notice that Bendy had his arms wrapped around him, almost in a cradling manner. The devil must have tried to make him more comfortable while he was passed out, Henry smiled at the thought.
A soft whine caught his attention, and he glanced up to see that Bendy was watching him intently, the look of worry in his single eye was so obvious that it made the older man cringe slightly. How the Hell was he going to explain what had happened? What was he even supposed to say?
‘Sorry bud, just had a bit of a mental breakdown, no biggie.’ He sarcastically thought, sighing. One way or another, he was going to have to say something.
“Just had a senior moment, bud. It’s…a human thing.” Henry knew that this was probably something that he shouldn’t be joking about, but he just couldn’t bring himself to explain that he had a moment of weakness. Bendy was already sensitive enough, it was supposed to be his job to be strong willed for the both of them. He had to-
He felt himself be pulled in and enveloped gently, Bendy’s head rested on top of his in a silent understanding. Henry just sat there and leaned against the inky monster, he couldn’t even come up with any kind of defensive retort.
After a moment or so, Henry noticed that the air seemed a little lighter and fresher in here than anywhere else they had been so far, and looked around in a quizzical manner, it seemed as though they were in a different room from before.
“Bendy, where are we exactly?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at the demon.
Bendy answered by growling enthusiastically and pointed happily upwards towards the ceiling, which just made Henry even more confused. What could possibly be so fascinating about the ceiling? Intriguingly, he looked up.
What he saw was possibly one of the most glorious sights he had ever laid his eyes on.
It was an air vent, the first one that he had ever seen in the studio, and it was working. It was actually blowing fresh oxygen from outside. Henry felt something take over him, an almost primal instinct, he had to get up to it, his lungs were practically burning due to the constant poisonous stench of ink that he had been inhaling during his prolonged stay in the studio.
Bendy saw the desperation in the man’s eyes, and quickly held out a hand for him to stand upon, Henry all but clambered up onto the demon’s hand and was raised up to the level of the air vent. Bendy used his other hand to support the human as he greedily inhaled the air in large gulps, the sudden freshness of the clean oxygen made him cough a little, but by God that didn’t stop him from continuing to breathe it in.
His head suddenly felt very light and clear, he had never felt so damn happy just to be able to breathe properly, he had never felt so grateful to be able to feel such a gentle breeze on his face.
Tears streamed down his cheeks as he felt something just suddenly…snap within him.
He put a hand to his head and let loose all of the emotions that he had been confining in small, silent sobs. Bendy lowered him down and wrapped his large arms around him tightly, not making a single sound as Henry practically clung to him while he wept. Calm, comforting thoughts were sent both ways through the mental connection of their bond.
It was a rare, blissful moment for the both of them.