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‘Demon…and Angel?’
Henry looked at the two signs with a somewhat dumbfounded expression, he knew there were many winding paths in the now enlarged studio, but this was just…strangely overboard. What even was this, some sort of riddle?
‘Joey always did like to think he was a mysterious man.’ Henry bitterly recalled.
Or perhaps it was that disfigured woman from before, she did say something about him being…worthy. Maybe it was a test of sorts.
Either way, standing and staring wasn’t going to help.
“Well…suppose we should make a choice.” Henry stated with a small frown. “What do you think, bud?” He asked, hoping that Bendy would be a little more decisive than him. He wasn’t exactly the best at making any kind of decisions and had always looked to his sister, June, for advice.
Henry cracked a small smile at the bittersweet thought. God, he missed her.
“Um…” The toon drawled out as he glanced between them both, rubbing his chin in deep thought, “How about….” After a few indecisive moments, he finally pointed with a grin.
“Demon?” Henry was surprised, to say the least. After his constant talking of Alice, he really thought ‘Angel’ was going to be his pick.
“Yeah. Feels like…there’s something important in there. Plus…I’m a demon too! Makes sense, right?” He asked with a cheery tone.
“You know what else is a demon…?” The older man nervously asked as he eyed the ink covered path.
“C’mon, we ain’t even seen that guy in a while.” Bendy said dismissively. “He’s probably wandering about somewhere on the upper floors.”
…He had a fair point.
They hadn’t even encountered the other ‘Bendy’ for quite some time now, so surely it must have given up? Although in hindsight he wasn’t so sure. But he couldn’t afford to dwindle on the matter any longer, all he could do was hope and pray that it wouldn’t show up.
As Henry cautiously stepped into the ink filled room, a booming metal slam echoed from what sounded like the other path, jarring him from taking another step forward. He shared a slightly worried glance with his toon companion before stepping back to investigate, only to find that the shutters had now closed off the ‘Angel’ route completely.
“Well…looks like we have no other option now.” Henry bluntly commented before continuing forward.
The first thing he noticed was the immediate dip and the wet sensation of liquid soaking through the ankles of his trousers, the older man cringed slightly at the feeling, but at this point he couldn’t have cared less about his clothes anymore.
His real fear was the fact that the entire room was absolutely oozingof ink, the floor was covered, the walls were leaking and a huge, bulging pillar of the ebony liquid connected itself from the ceiling to the ground.
He only hoped that there wasn’t anything lurking amongst the black fluids.
“Hey Henry, it’s another one a’ those machines!” Bendy pointed out, directing Henry’s attention to a nearby table which held a tape, the table itself seemed a little lopsided due to the uneven surface it was stuck in.
“Huh.” The human hummed as he slowly made his way over to it. “Wonder who this could belong to.”
‘Who would have even come into this room?’
His finger hovered over the play button in hesitation, he was almost afraid of what the answer could be.
Henry’s eyes widened ever so slightly as a loud, jolly and very familiar voice filled the room, confirming his fears. He felt numb.
“There’s nothing wrong with dreaming. Wishing for the impossible is just human nature! That’s how I got it started. Just a… pencil and a dream. We all want everything without even having to lift a finger. They say…you just have to believe.”
He could feel a lump lodge itself into his throat.
“Belief can make you succeed. Belief can make you rich. Belief can make you powerful.”
“…Henry?” Bendy’s voice called out in quiet concern.
“Why with enough belief, you can even cheat death itself! “
His slowly fist tightened.
“Now that… is a beautiful… and positively silly thought. ”
As the tape rolled out, deafening silence followed as Henry stared at it with an unreadable expression. He knew that he should have felt…anger, hurt, hate, just…. something.
But there was nothing.
“H…Henry.” Bendy tried to prod again, this time with a little more volume. The demon was more than a little concerned at the human’s sudden mood drop.
Although he couldn’t say he blamed the poor man. Joey had a lot to answer for…
The toon flinched slightly when he felt a strong surge of anger and… guilt, Henry’s face slowly and subtly twisted into a look of remorse. Bendy, with a nervous grin, tried his best to calm his friend down.
“It’s…It’s alright, Henry. You just gotta take a breather, yeah? We got time…” The demon softly said with a reassuring tone, which thankfully seemed to work as the older man closed his eyes and took the advice by breathing slowly and deeply, unclenching his fist as he did so. His knuckles had turned a deathly white due to how tight they were, Bendy frowned but decided not to remark on the matter.
Henry silently moved away from the tape recorder, and retreated to a nearby table to lean upon, not even bothering with the fact that he was right in the line of sight of a cardboard cut-out, it’s malicious grin seemed to grow wider as he solemnly stared into the pool of ink, his reflection stared back with a look of disapproval.
“…Put me down.” Bendy gently demanded, Henry glanced at the paper and raised an eyebrow.
“…Please.” The toon corrected himself sheepishly.
The human smiled and shook his head slightly at the polite request and decided not to question it as he lightly set the paper down to float in the ink and watched as bubbles formed and popped around it, before a familiar shape formed and moulded itself out of the rising liquid.
Henry didn’t even bother looking at the demon, choosing instead to go back to blankly gazing back down to his own reflection. Maybe…if he hadn’t left when he did…none of this would have…none of those poor employees wouldn’t have…
Joey wouldn’t have…
A sudden heavy weight laid itself upon his shoulder, nearly setting him completely off balance. The ex-animator looked up in surprise at Bendy, who was giving him a firm look.
“Not…your fault…”
Henry stared at him wordlessly for a moment before slowly setting his sight to the side with a furrowed brow, swallowing as his thoughts conflicted with each other. He would have liked to think that Bendy was right, but there was a part of him that just…felt incredibly guilty.
He tried to open his mouth to retort, “But…if I hadn’t- “
Bendy’s grip tensed up on his shoulder and upper back, forcing him to shut up as the demon gave him yet another firm gaze. Slowly, it melted into a sombre grin.
“Not…your…fault.” He said with much more emphasis to get his point across.
Henry let out a deep sigh but gave his friend a small look of gratitude, ‘You’re not gonna let this go until I agree, are you?’ He asked through the connection.
Bendy silently shook his head with a widening grin, his grip loosened slightly on the human’s shoulder, which he was grateful for. As much as Henry liked Bendy, that strength of his could still be damn terrifying sometimes.
“Alright, fine.” Henry conceded, he wasn’t about to about to start a long back and forth argument with the large demon, they were both as stubborn as each other and they couldn’t afford to waste that kind of time, not when they still had to find Boris.
Still didn’t mean he completely agreed though.
Bendy nodded and grinned proudly at what he had managed to achieve, before finally lowering his hand and backed away slightly to give Henry a little more space.
“Do you want to go back onto the page?” Henry asked as he looked around for the way forward, the demon shook his head once again, indicating that he wanted to stay out for a bit longer.
‘Might be danger ahead.’
“Fair enough. You watch my back then, yeah?” He said with a smile as he headed towards the door that lead to the next area. With a small nod, Bendy kept close behind as they traversed silently through the halls. Little droplets of ink fell from the ceiling, making Henry a little nervous that something might just drop down from above at any given moment.
Both human and demon made the unanimous decision to ignore the Miracle Station they passed along the way.
Their short trip was a silent one that lacked much of…anything really, and it actually unnerved Henry quite a bit. The corridors were unnaturally still, nothing jumped out to attack or moaned at them from a distance to catch their attention. The fact that he still had no weapon didn’t help either, but the constant looming presence of Bendy did put his mind a little more at ease.
That peace of mind didn’t last long however, as the ever familiar and mundane grin of a Bendy cut-out suddenly peeked around the corner, making the older man jumped back slightly, clutching his chest as he felt his heart falter slightly at the sudden scare.
Bendy immediately took the initiative and moved himself in front, snarling lowly at the possible threat, the rising droplets from his back flared up in an attempt to fend it away.
The display seemed to work as the grinning cut-out disappeared back around the corner as quickly as it had come, earning confused looks from both of them. Everything in this place usually came charging at them, not away. Unless…
Henry slowly turned the corner himself with Bendy in tow, and both let out a sigh as a wave of relief washed over them. A familiar canine leaned the cut-out against the wall and turned to them with a sheepish look.
“Boris. Oh, you scared us to death…” Henry said with a half-hearted chuckle, Bendy simply narrowed his eye as he gave the wolf a less than amused look, said wolf rubbed the back of his neck and gave a small, nervous grin in return.
“Don’t suppose you’ve found anything to protect ourselves with?” Henry asked with a half desperate tone, the fact that he’d been attacked twice since they left the safehouse made him feel incredibly vulnerable and without a weapon, he wasn’t going to last much longer on the road ahead.
Thankfully Boris nodded his head vigorously and quietly held up what seemed to be some sort of broken pipe. It wasn’t the sort of thing he was hoping for, but at this point he was just grateful to have anything at all.
“This will do.” He said as he took the make-shift weapon from the toon, who looked pleased with himself, but the canine’s expression soon turned into one of concern as he silently pointed out Henry’s bandaged eye.
“Ah…we uh…” His hand automatically went to touch the ripped portion of the shirt that held his small wound, “…ran into some trouble, that’s all.” He said, not really wanting to explain the whole situation regarding the strange woman from before.
He couldn’t help but wince when the wolf’s ears drooped a little in an almost guilty way.
“Don’t worry!” Henry quickly added. “It’s nothing too serious, just a little cut above the eye, I’ll be fine.” To his relief, Boris seemed to perk up at this, even if only a little.
“But are you alright? We were pretty worried back there, you just vanished on us.”
Boris gestured to his body and gave a thumbs up, as if to say, “Still in one piece!”
A gravelled growl suddenly interrupted the duo and caught both of their attention, Bendy paused for a moment as he prepared to talk. Henry frowned at the sight of the demon scrunching up his eye in discomfort, he always had a tough time speaking, which made their mental connection all the more useful.
“We…stick together…now…” Bendy’s gurgled voice managed to get out, “…Safer…”
“Yeah. Safety in numbers and all that. Who knows what’s waiting for us out there.” Henry stated as he nodded and made a move to open the door that would lead to the next area. “Just stay close to us, ok Boris?” The pooch nervously nodded and followed the instruction to the letter as he kept himself in between Henry and Bendy.
The door creaked open to reveal a room that could only be described as complete chaos.
Splintered wooden cabinets with dislodged shelves crammed the small space, which looked as though it had been wrecked by a wave of ink as the black liquid was splattered all over the walls and floor. Begrudgingly, he also noticed a group of Bendy clocks that were lined along the wall, ticking loudly in unison, jarring the quiet atmosphere. But the most noticeable detail was the whole array of aged Alice dolls scattered about, covered with dust and silky cobwebs.
‘That Shawn guy wasn’t kidding, Alice really wasn’t popular at all.’ Henry observed as he quickly passed them by.
He felt a slight twinge.
‘Ah…sorry, bud.’
Bendy simply replied with a small huff.
The group soon found themselves in front of a doorway that was blocked off by yet another pair of rusted metal shutters, Henry’s face scrunched up into a frown as he examined it, before looking around for some way to get past it. He could have asked Bendy just to smash the wall to get through, but the noise would probably attract some less than desirable company.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned his head to see Boris pointing at a lever that was attached to a nearby wall.
“Ah, good work Boris.” He said with a smile, but it soon disappeared when the toon attempted to push the lever down, only for nothing to happen.
“Look.” Bendy nodded to the cables that ran along from door, through the narrow passageway and cut around a nearby corner,“There…must be another.”
“Huh..” Henry mused. “Looks like to open this, we’re going to need throw two levers at once”
‘Go figure.’ He bitterly thought, before looking to Boris.
“You get this one. I’ll find the other.”
Bendy made a move to follow but Henry put his hand up to stop the demon in his tracks.
'Stay with Boris, I’ll be back in a moment.’
Bendy frowned down at the human, 'But-’
'He’s defenceless. I have this.’ He gave the unsure looking demon a reassuring smile and nod as he held up his pipe. 'I’ll just be around the corner.’
Henry could still feel Bendy’s uncertainty of the situation, but he backed off nonetheless.
“Be… careful.”
Satisfied, the older man followed the thick cables that snaked around the corner and led to the other lever, which sat at the end of a thin hallway, next to it was a poster illuminated by a flickering light from below.
“The Butcher Gang…” Henry mused. “Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while.”
The poster was comprised of a trio of side characters that would pop up every now and then in the show to cause all sorts of mischief and trouble; There was Charley, a human-like toon with a bald head, side burns and beard, he was the tallest and most dapper of the bunch, wearing a tail-coat and vest. To the right of him was Barley, a pirate with a large white beard, a patch on his right eye, a small sailor hat and a corn-cob pipe between his clenched teeth.
“Heh…all I need is the hat and pipe and I’ll look just like him.” Henry joked to himself as he touched his own make-shift eye patch, wincing as the wound still stung a tad bit.
Lastly there was Edgar, who contrasted in design compared to the other two. With a spider-like appearance and large lips that held two pointed fangs, this toon stood on four legs instead of two. Although Henry always wondered why they didn’t just give him eight like all normal arachnids had, maybe it was too frightening for the children?
Although due to their mean spirited looks and personalities, they weren’t supposed to be kid-friendly.
Henry couldn’t help but smile as a sense of nostalgia washed over him, it reminded him of the fun aspects of his old job. He and his colleagues could work for hours on end on the show, a lot of the time they would just…joke around and have a great time doing what they love.
There was even a time when Joey himself was the biggest joker. Laughter would fill the studio walls as he told the group of animators the latest gags that they would be working on. The old director really was passionate about his work.
Henry’s smile faltered ever so slightly.
Getting back into the reality of the current situation, he made a move for the lever. As he rested his hand on the rusted contraption, he readied himself to call out for Boris.
His voice was drowned out by a sickening crack as something suddenly tore itself through the wall and ripped through the poster, Henry didn’t even get the chance to react as the small figure collided into his side, sending him tumbling to the ground.
The older man’s limited vision blurred for a bit, but he could feel something loosely grab onto his upper torso before a blunt object whacked into his hip, hard.
Henry gritted his teeth in response to the searing pain, and kicked out at his surprise attacker, with a successful hit, the assailant hit the ground with a thud, and moaned as it attempted to get back up.
'Fuck…what the hell was…?’
As he managed to scrape himself up from the ground, he leaned his body against the wall for support, and as his vision slowly returned to normal, he could finally see the creature that still struggled to get itself up. It was smaller than the other monsters that resided in the studio, but that didn’t make it any less terrifying.
In fact, it almost looked like…
“…C-Charley?” Henry barely managed to whisper the name out before the monster finally managed to get up and stumble around, looking as though it was completely lost.
Which wasn’t surprising, seeing as it lacked any eyes.
Rough gargling came from the mis-matched toon’s open maw, which was stretched to a horrific length, almost taking up its entire face. It’s right arm and left leg seemed to be the only normal parts of the creature, as the other two limbs were merely a wooden stick for it’s left arm and a plunger for it’s right leg. Henry wasn’t even sure how this thing was even still functional.
But the more pressing issue was the weapon it held.
Henry’s hand immediately went to his probably bruised side as he eyed the monster’s wrench, it didn’t seem to notice as it wildly gazed around with it’s empty eye socket.
'Henry? I felt pain. Are you alright?’ Henry didn’t even get a chance to answer. 'I’m coming over, hold on…’
'No! Just…stay where you are.’ The older man mentally communicated back as he kept deathly still, 'I’m alright, just dealing with something.’
'You’re in danger.’ He could feel a pang of fear start to trickle through. 'Let me help you.’
'This thing’s blind, it can’t see me.’ Henry mentioned to put Bendy more at ease. 'But you’ll make noise if you come over, let me handle it. Alright?’
There was a beat of silence.
'If you get hurt again, I’m coming over.’
With a mental sigh of relief, Henry kept a close eye on Charley as he swung his wrench in a poor attempt to hit his target. Despite being attacked, he felt sorry for the toon.
He frowned slightly as he was hit with a dilemma. He could just sneak around him, hit the lever and sneak back, but there was no doubt he was probably going to be in for some kind of fight regardless. Besides, it was probably best just…to put him out of his misery from a doomed life of endless bloodlust and blind wandering.
With slow, steady steps, Henry snuck up behind the still grunting monster and, with a grimace, raised his pipe.
“…Sorry.”
Before the toon could even react, the pipe smashed into his head, resulting in a sickening crack. With a few well aimed hits, his body hit the floor and went limp. Ink oozed from the open wound, creating a small pool beneath his head.
Henry took a shuddering breath as he stepped over the body and leaned a heavy hand against the lever.
'Tell Boris to push in 3, 2, 1…’
A sharp click sounded out through the halls, indicating that the shutters had lifted.
With a sigh, Henry made his way back to the two toons that awaited him, both perked up immediately upon seeing him. Bendy was the first to eagerly approach him with a wide grin.
“Henry!” The demon’s grin quickly dropped to a frown. “Are you ok? What happened?”
“Ah…just run into something, I’m alright.” Henry tried to wave the concern off, but to no avail.
“You’re still hurting.” Bendy stated as he checked the human over, his single eye scrunched up a tad as he gave Henry a sombre look.“…You’re always getting hurt.”
“It’s just a bruise, honestly-”
“W-we should go back, I can take us-.”
“Bendy.”
The sharp tone of Henry’s voice stopped Bendy in his tracks, the toon looked perturbed but kept silent. The older man reached up and gave the large monster a small pat on the cheek, and with a smile, he said,
“We can’t.”
Henry didn’t elaborate but Bendy knew exactly what he meant, and didn’t argue. Instead he simply closed his eye and leaned into the touch before pulling away in silent agreement. They had come too far just to go back now, and he knew that.
Boris timidly came up from behind Bendy and twiddled his thumbs with a guilt-ridden expression, Henry gave the wolf a sympathetic smile before ruffling the top of the toon’s furred head, resulting in a surprised reaction.
“You don’t have to fight to be useful, Boris. See this?” He held up the now ink-stained pipe. “You just saved my life with this. So, thank you.”
Boris’s flattened ears immediately pricked up before the tall canine practically flung himself at the man, happily embracing him.
“A-alright…” Henry stuttered with a small but pained laugh. “I know I said I was fine but you’re kinda hugging my sore side…”
Boris quickly let go and made sure to check on him, making sure he didn’t hurt him too much.
After taking a moment to recover, Henry turned to Bendy and gave him a small nod. The demon silently nodded back with a knowing grin before dissolving into a black puddle, the liquid pooled around them, carrying a small white page to Henry’s feet. Once he retrieved it, he led the way through the shutters, Boris following close behind.
A large room with a staircase opened up to them, leading down to what seemed to be…an elevator?
'Oh…Oh my God.’ Henry stared at the rusty contraption with a raised eyebrow. 'When…when did…How big is this place?’
'Too big.’ Bendy mentally replied.
“Well…guess we should just… go in.” Henry said while sharing a nervous look with Boris.
Once inside, Henry squinted at the panel of buttons that were presented in quite an unusual way. There was five overall, which must have meant there were five floors, but he had no idea which one was which.
All he knew was that he wanted to go up.
His finger hovered over a button, deciding to choose at random, “Guess we’ll pick-”
Henry was cut off by a sudden vibration as the elevator’s gates slowly closed with an ear deafening screech. He felt something grab his arm and glanced to his left to see Boris clutching on for dear life, the poor pup looked deathly scared. A pang of distress came through from Bendy’s end of the connection as well, which mixed in with his own panic.
With a shudder, the cage slowly started to move down.
Henry could feel his blood go cold as a familiar, silky smooth voice sounded out over the speakers, echoing throughout the entire studio.
“You’re so interesting…so…. different.”