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"All aboard!"
The cry from the train conductor was followed by a loud, shrill toot emitted from the train whistle. Puffy clouds of white steam rolled up from the whistle and disappeared into the light grey sky.
A long passenger train sat on top of the tracks. About ten feet away from it stood two cartoons, the taller covering the other's eyes with their gloved hands. It was none other than Alice Angel and Bendy.
"Ready? One, two, three," a sing-song voice counted. Alice's hands were lifted away from Bendy's eyes.
"A train?" He deadpanned as the angel granted him his sight back.
He glanced up at Alice, who was clothed in a black dress. She was wearing a giddy smile as she looked from Bendy and back at the train in front of them.
"Ya brought me all the way out here for a train?" he asked incredulously.
Earlier that day Alice had claimed that she had a 'surprise adventure' for the two of them and had dragged, for the lack of a better term, Bendy along. She had hidden the locomotive from his sight with her hands to keep it a surprise until they were close enough to reveal it. It was just the two of them there from the trio because Boris had claimed he was unable to come along due to it being prime time to go blackberry picking.
Alice slightly frowned at Bendy's disbelief. "Yes! I've never been on one and I've always wanted to." She sighed wistfully and clasped her hands in front of her. "Most of the things I've done with you and Boris has been brand new for me. Up above . . ." She cast a glance to the light grey sky dotted with puffy, white clouds. "I could never truly witness the beauty down here." Alice Angel gestured at the sweeping hills and grey scaled prairieland surrounding them. Behind the cartoons was the town from where they had come from.
Bendy tapped his foot and rubbed his chin with his forefinger and thumb as he thought it over. As he watched her hopeful countenance he suddenly realized that doing this with Alice would make her day. Therefore, he nodded and released any of his previous reluctance. "Okay, okay. I'll ride the train with ya." He hopped onto the steps of the first train car and extended his gloved hand to help Alice up. "Though don't blame me when this thing goes off the rails, darlin'," he added and flashed his iconic, mischievous grin.
Alice simply shook her head with a smile and took his hand for a brief moment as she stepped up beside him. He turned, entered the space, and took in the sight of the passenger car. It was lined with four seats facing forward across each row and there was an aisle that split them in half. This train car was the first car out of a long line of them and was the closest to the conductor's car. It was nearly filled with a wide variety of other cartoons - ranging from a pair of felines to a giraffe, whose neck was stretched forward to avoid bumping the ceiling.
Alice walked past Bendy and squeezed into a pair of empty seats close to the front. She took the one closest to the window. The demon perched beside her, his feet not quite touching the ground. A desire to do something other than sit was already consuming him - preferably something that would cause a bit of trouble, too.
He was broken out of his thoughts as the train lurched forward once, then again as it slowly began to chug forward and pick up speed. Bendy gripped the bottom of the seat to steady himself as his body swayed forwards, then backwards at the sudden movement.
"Oh, look at the trees! Isn't this beautiful?" Alice gushed, her nose only a centimeter away from the glass-paned window as she peered out.
Bendy glanced at the scenic view. He had to agree with her - the expanse of trees were colored a lush, dark grey and the rolling hills were certainly a nice change of view than the city scene that they were accustomed to. He found his black eyes traveling to the enraptured angel's face.
"I could say the same thing about the view right beside me," Bendy said and cocked a brow. He smothered a grin as Alice turned her widened eyes to him, her cheeks, framed by wavy, black hair, dusted a light grey from a blush.
Not giving her a chance to respond, he tilted his head to indicate a female cartoon sitting on the opposite side of their aisle. It was a cow, who was dabbing on lipstick with one hand while the other was balancing a pocket mirror - though she hardly caught his eye, as he had said.
His reward from Alice was a good-natured slap on his arm. "Cut it out, you little devil!" A smug grin spread onto Bendy's face as he chuckled; he was happy at the first response that he had elicited from her.
Bendy held up his pointer finger. "First of all, darlin', not a chance. Second of all," he paused and raised a second finger, "I am not little." Alice's response was a pointed look directed at his feet dangling above the floor and a mutter beneath her breath that sounded something like, "Keep telling yourself that."
By now the train wheels were rolling steadily beneath them, causing the countryside to pass by in a partial blur. Bendy could hear Alice begin to hum as she looked back to the window.
A crease appeared on Bendy's forehead as he easily recognized what was soon to happen - at any given moment, Alice would break into song. Bendy had quickly learned after meeting the angel that a song was almost always able to spring from her heart. At first it had annoyed the demon, who, at the time, did not have much of a tolerance for music. But as time passed it had eventually become an endearing aspect of who his friend was.
Though at this particular moment, his tolerance for her soaring soprano was quite low.
Sure enough, a word spoken in song escaped Alice's mouth, but she was quickly cut short by Bendy.
"Look, ya got a great voice, really. . . I'm just not in the mood. See ya later, Alice. I'm gonna go look around."
In his peripheral vision Bendy could spot Alice's jaw dropping open as she watched him hop off of the seat and move down the aisle, his fingers twitching in an anticipation to move - even though they had sat down only a few minutes ago.
Of course he didn't disappear anywhere else than the conductor's cabin, the black curtain swaying in his wake. Entering this area of the train was not allowed.
All the more reason to explore it and see what mischief he could find.
Sure enough, behind Bendy came the sound of a melody. Though he was too far away to hear the words, he was certain that the song belonged to a certain angel.
Bendy ducked down as the sight of the conductor sitting in a seat appeared, causing him to break out of his thoughts. It was a large grizzly bear who had a white, striped with black, capped hat perched atop of his head. The toon swept a glance over the train car, which had a relatively simple layout.
The seat where the conductor was located was in front of him to the left and behind it was a tall, rectangular, boxlike structure that towered above the seat - but it didn't quite reach the roof. A panel of buttons and switches laid in front of the conductor's seat as well as a tassel dangling from the ceiling. Smack in the middle of the train car was a large, rather unsightly pipe that hung from the ceiling and ran horizontally back to the cab that Bendy had come from, its purpose unknown to him. Two open windows, one to the left and the other on the right, were allowing gusts of wind to blow inside of the space.
A mischievous glint entered Bendy's black, pie cut eyes as he stared at the conductor's hat. How would that lumbering bear like it if his hat was stolen?
Deciding to find the answer to that question, Bendy adjusted his white bow tie and stealthily began to creep so he could edge along the tall box. He crouched down and sprung up, scrabbling to take a hold on the side of the box. The cartoon succeeded and hauled himself up to the top, then stood up. Bendy was standing above and just behind the bear's head and, therefore, the desired hat.
Holding his breath, he snatched the cap up, but the result of him leaning forward was a tumble off of the box. Bendy impacted the floor with a grunt, the hat tight in his fist. Rubbing his head, he looked up to see the bear looming above him, lips curled up in the beginning of a snarl. He raised a hand to tentatively wave at the conductor but was greeted by a loud growl and a puff of unpleasant breath.
The chase was on. Heart racing, the demon scrambled to his feet, stuck the hat on his head, and began to scamper to the other side of the car and torwards the exit. He ran straight into a pair of thick, furry legs that belonged to the apparently fast-moving bear with a squeak. Skidding, Bendy turned and dashed to hop up onto the conductor's chair. An unexpected noise sounded behind him.
Thunk.
Bendy turned and watched as the tall bear reeled away from the pipe hanging from the ceiling. The large cartoon appeared to have hit his head on it. Stars swirled above the conductor's bare head as he swayed back and forth. He then crumpled to the floor with a loud thud.
Bendy froze and stared down at the unconscious bear in shock, his mouth forming a small 'o' as he came to realize what that meant for the passengers on the train. He looked at the control panel, then beneath him at the floor where the wheels could be heard speeding along.
The curtains parted and Alice Angel hurried in, heels clicking. She barely managed to catch herself from tripping over the bear's head, and once balanced she shot a wide-eyed stare to Bendy who was standing in the conductor's seat.
"Bendy! What in the world did you do?" her voice rose in pitch. The female cartoon crouched next to the unconscious conductor and shook his shoulders gently, but there was no response other than his head lolling to the side.
"Uh, look, I can explain -" Bendy began to stammer, but Alice interrupted him as she stood up.
"No, no. Not now. The train! How can it . . ?"
She didn't have to finish her sentence for Bendy to understand what she meant. With no conductor, how would the train and its passengers be safely stopped at the train station?
Bendy puffed out his chest and turned to the controls. "As a matter of fact, I've had experience conductin' a train before. Don'tcha worry." He folded his arms and gave a self-assured nod.
He didn't have to look back to know that Alice was wearing a small, worried frown as she spoke. "All right, then. I won't say anything to the passengers back there. They were wondering what the noise was all about. I don't think panic would be good . . ."
As Bendy was peering down at the buttons and levers, a shriek split the air. He whipped his head to the side to see Alice across from him at the other window and pulling her head back inside of the train car. She began to smooth down her windswept hair and straighten her halo that had gone askance as she turned wide eyes to Bendy.
"L-Look out your window!"
Bendy did just that and his own eyes stretched wide. In the distance the train track was broken and the remains were dangling ominously above a cliffside. Slowing down in time was impossible, as the train was far too close for the brakes to work quickly enough.
Thankfully, though, another train track swept off to the side in a curve, but it was clear that the train was heading straight torwards the plummeting drop. It would not change its course unless a certain lever was pulled. If it was done correctly then something would be extended from the train's side and activate the tracks they were beneath to switch the train's course to the second track.
That Bendy all understood. The problem was, which lever or button had to be activated that could save them all?
Bendy pulled his head back inside and stared at the panel of controls laid in front of him. A moment of silence stretched between the two cartoons as he didn't make any move to do anything.
"Bendy?" Alice asked, her voice trembling.
"Ya see, we can't slow down in time. There's somethin' that can make us switch to that other track, but . . . I don't, uh, exactly know what that somethin' looks like?" he awkwardly said and tugged at his bowtie with a single finger.
"What?!" Steam might as well have been pouring out of Alice's ears as Bendy shrank away from her shouts. "You told me you could drive this thing!"
"Well, I may have exaggerated a bit. I, um, once watched Boris conduct a train," he said, all the while scanning the panel he was standing in front of to see if he could pinpoint the correct control to push or pull. He pressed one button, then another, but neither did anything.
Alice peered out of the window beside Bendy, panic now clear in her gaze. They were nearly upon the track that would save them from hurtling off of the broken rails. She turned back to the demon, watching from his right side.
"Bendy, you need to fix this now!"
"I'm tryin'!"
"Try harder!"
There was a sudden yank of a lever to the right of Bendy, and the toon found his weight being thrown to the right. He clung to Alice's arms to stay upright, and she returned his grip in a similar effect. The pair hugged each other with eyes squeezed shut as they awaited a sudden plummet.
But there wasn't anything except for a continued, steady movement.
Bendy cracked an eye open a sliver. He looked out of the window, laughter bubbling up his throat as he saw the countryside sweep past. They had been sent on the correct train track, thanks to the lever Alice had randomly, and quite miraculously, pulled at the last moment!
"Ya did it, Alice! We're homebound!" Bendy yipped in glee as he shook her arms gently. Wrapped up in his excitement, he rose to his tiptoes and brushed a kiss on Alice's snowy white cheek. As soon as his lips brushed her soft skin an immediate tension spread through the air and Bendy dropped back down. He bashfully looked down at the floor and scuffed it with his shoe.
Clearing his throat, Bendy turned his eyes to the window again so he would not have to look Alice in the eyes, but he chanced a glance in her direction. He saw her hand pressed against her cheek, which was dusted grey in a blush. He quickly looked back at the window and broke the silence by announcing, "I do happen to know how to start and stop this thing. I'd better get goin', since we're nearly there."
With that he began to flip a few switches and press a couple of buttons, and before they knew it they were slowing down to a stop at the train station that they had originally boarded the train on. When it finally lurched to a complete stop, Bendy reached up to the tassel and pulled it.
In reaction the whistle above the train blared and steam rolled up like white waves into the sky. Shortly after a groan sounded from the floor. Bendy jumped in fright at the unexpected noise and turned to see the bear on the floor beginning to wake up, though not yet fully awake.
Bendy patted his head to confirm that the hat was still on his head, and seeing that it was he grabbed Alice's hand and began to trot out of the conductor's car. "C'mon, let's get outta here!"
Alice and Bendy slipped in between passengers exiting the train and jumped off hand in hand. They began to run away from the train cars, hearing an angry bellow, which belonged to the now awake conductor, sound behind them as they quickly left.
"Next time you lie to me like that Bendy, I'm going to wring your neck!" Alice said breathlessly as they ran together across the expanse of grass. Eventually the two cartoons slowed to a quick walking pace.
"Good thing I don't have a neck," Bendy chortled and released her hand. "It ain't like you to threaten me after you've cooled down. 'Sides, next time we're in train trouble I can just call Boris to help out."
"Let's hope there won't be a next time."
"Nah, that was pretty fun! We should do it again sometime." He adjusted his bowtie and threw a wink in Alice's direction. "You and me. Careenin' off of the train tracks into the sunset."
Their combined laughter floated up to the clouds drifting overhead. The pair continued to chatter as they walked along, the noise fading into the distance.
THE END.