Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Henry released a heavy breath as he raced towards the throne in the Ink Demon’s lair, the reel in his hands and the demon hot on his tail. His legs carried him, his heart pounding as he got closer and closer. The beast let out a massive roar just as Henry reached the throne and placed the reel in. It played eerily as the man slumped down in the broken throne. Looking up, he saw the demon approach him; the same story, the same script. Henry soon looked away.

 A heavy sigh escaped Henry as he watched the end reel consume the Ink Demon, sending him to the start once again. He trudged down the same hallway, looking at posters of the many Bendy cartoons. He pushed his silver hair back as he walked forward, soon pausing at one of the posters. Henry growled as he grabbed the poster and ripped it off the wall before crumpling it up and tossing it into a bin. He knew it would appear on the wall again, unlike much-needed supplies. With bacon soup becoming much more scarce, even close to nonexistent, Henry was running out of options for food and water.

 As he made his way to the Ink Machine, Henry passed the giant ink writing on the wall falsely insisting that 

‘dreams come true!’  

As if to mock him, ink dripped out of a pipe and onto Henry's head. He wiped off the ink and grumbled under his breath,

 “ Yeah, I wish all dreams came true. Then I wouldn't be in this endless loop, starving and thirsty.”

 He kept pushing forward and jumped over the pipe lying on the floor. He knew the task that he had to do; install the two batteries, pull the lever, and marvel at the ink machine when it showed up. He would’ve been more impressed by the machine if it wasn’t his hundredth time seeing it. 

“ All part of your story, Joey; a story of horrors that you crafted. ” 

The old man was quick to move on, going to the flow control room to trigger the next part of the script. He began to collect the ‘offerings’ and bring them to the pedestals, taking his time collecting the objects. He soon walked up to Boris—poor Boris—strapped to the table, organs gone and a wrench stuffed and half sticking out in their place.  The old man had already seen this so many times before, but it still pained him every time. Henry reached up and gently rubbed his thumb on the deceased Boris.
“You shouldn’t be in this hell, Boris. You never deserved this fate.”   

Henry said in a somber tone. He let go and pulled the wrench out, before leaving the room. He turned around to face Boris one last time before exiting the room to continue collecting the offerings. He had to do a few back and forths due to the fact that he couldn’t carry all the objects like a cartoon, as much as that would make the task easier. The old man had the wrench, got the inkwell and the bendy doll, and a few lightweight objects to carry back.  He waited for Sammy to turn off the light in his office so he could collect the recording and take it back. The next offering, the ink machine's gear, Henry had to pick up with both hands. He grunted as he carried the heavy object back slowly. Several times, Henry nearly fell over backwards due to how heavy the gear was, but he still managed to get it on the pillar.

The ex-animator watched as the gear fell down on it with a loud
‘Thud!!!’
He started to walk towards the break room, cracking his back. His hand wrapped around the door handle but rather than walking into an open room he ended up walking into the door. This caught Henry off guard and he glared at the door like it insulted him. Henry tried the door knob once again, but it didn’t budge an inch. The ex-animator took a few steps back and muttered,
“Well this is a new development. Did Joey get bored and change the script up a bit? Guess I need to find a key.” 

Henry soon went to find the key, a near impossible feat due to the size of the first level. He looked just about everywhere for a key or something , but the more he searched the more frustrated he became. He finally yelled at the top of his lungs,
“WHERE THE FUCK IS THE KEY JOEY!? DID YOU FORGET TO PUT IT IN?!”
Henry punched the wall, breaking the fragile wood. Henry sighed deeply, readjusted his glasses, and pushed his hand through his hair.
“Maybe I need a break; calm myself down before I go insane and join the other crazies down here.”

Henry mumbled as he sat down. His eyes soon fell upon the Bendy drawing that was left on the desk. He ran his hand over the drawing and stared at it for god knows how long before a distorted voice spoke up, startling Henry out of his seat;
“There you are! You’re Henry right?” 

Henry scanned the room, but couldn’t find the source of the voice. The ‘thing’ laughed at the ex-animator’s fearful confusion and spoke again.

“Look at your shadow, you fool!” 

Henry sawa shadow wolf sitting in place of his shadow, its eyes glowing red as it gave a toothy grin. The old man screamed and fell backwards as he tried to scramble away from it. The thing laughed more, entertained by Henry’s terror and his poor attempt to flee from it. The shadow wolf walked towards Henry, and spoke again.
“Now then, let me introduce myself. Everyone calls me Heart. I have noticed your struggles for food and water, am I correct to assume this is an issue?”
Such a calm tone in such a chaotic place gave Henry the impression that it was trying to lure him into a trap. He shakily asked the thing,
“What are you?”
Heart chuckled and said in a much more sinister tone,
“A demon, and one that will make life infinitely easier for you, my dear friend. All it will take is a deal.”
Henry hurriedly replied,
“No! I don't want to make a deal, especially not from a demon!”
The old man quickly stood and grabbed the chair, readying it as a weapon. Heart watched, amused, and summoned a book in front of him and said to Henry before leaving,
“I’m not your enemy, Henry Ross, but I know you will eventually buckle under your natural needs for sustenance. We both know they don’t replenish when the loop resets.”
The demon soon vanished, leaving the old man alone with his racing thoughts. He stared at the book before picking it up and standing silently. He kept staring where the demon had stood before commenting only to himself,
“I’ll get myself out of this hellhole and burn the studio to the ground before I take a deal from a fucking devil.”
Henry soon walked towards the offering room and placed the book on the pillar. The light flashed for the ink to flow.

Henry took his time to get to the flow control room, unphased as the Bendy cutout popped out around the corner before vanishing behind it again. Bored by this same foolery, the old man rounded the corner, grabbed the cutout, and threw it down the hallway. It broke on impact. Henry sighed like it lifted some weight off his shoulders. As he entered the room, the projector turned on and played Bendy jumping up and down on loop. Henry stared at the screen before turning off the projector. He then went to the side and turned on the ink flow which caused the pipe above Henry to break and pour ink on him. Unimpressed, he scooted out of the way and left the room. The pipe groaned as it pumped ink throughout the whole studio.

When Henry got to the offering room, he walked to the end, grabbed the lever and pushed it down with a click . All the lights in the building flickered off and something in the pipes began clunking and banging loudly. Henry heard his heart beating in his ears as he slowly approached the Ink Machine. He stepped over the pipe to the boarded up room, preparing for the Ink Demon to show up. Like clockwork, large hands reached through the boards. Henry just barely dodged the demon’s hands and made a break for the exit. Far too early, Henry fell through the ink-weakened boards with a scream. His back hit one of the pipes sticking out the sides of the wall with an audible ‘CRACK.’ His mind began to race as he finally fell into the pool of ink. However, Henry couldn’t surface, unable to move his limbs in any motion.
‘This is where I'm going to die, isn’t it? I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!’

Henry’s thoughts raced as he struggled to surface or even get his face above the ink. He felt like he was running out of oxygen and accidentally took mouthfuls of ink until Heart showed up, pulled him out of the ink and wiped his face off. Henry vomited out as much ink as possible and coughed The demon chuckled as he said to the old man,
“Are you reconsidering the deal? I will even sweeten the offer too, not only will you get food and water, but I can set you free, and you will no longer be paralyzed.”
Henry peered at the demon to see his toothy grin. Maybe, just maybe, if he dealt with the demon, he might finally beat Joey. Henry finally relented.
“Fine, you win.”
Joyful, Heart pulled out a contract and a pen.
“You won’t regret it, Mister Ross.”
Henry grabbed the pen and signed the contract. Once it was done, the demon took it and left. Only a few hours passed before the old man was able to move his legs again. He hopped off the box and headed to the ink valve, draining the room full of ink. He walked down the stairwell and repeated this process a few more times before entering a room. He searched for an axe and finally found it behind the crates. After reaching down and standing back up, he saw the boards had been already dealt with.

Henry entirely expected the satanic circle at the end of the hall, but all he saw in that room was fresh ’fruit’ and water. He quickly dove in and gorged himself like he hadn’t been fed in months

The demon offered a twisted grin as he watched his new little pet eat…..

Chapter Text

Henry slowly stood up and wiped his mouth, full of all of the ‘fruit’ and water that was left on a plate for him.  Henry fixed his shirt, pausing to see the ink had stained his clothing black instead of its usual green colour. Disappointing, but not the worst. He approached the coffin where he left the axe leaning, then used the axe to take down the wooden planks. When he tried to open the door, it barely budged.

Henry grumbled and rubbed his temples before kicking the door open at which point the handle smashed a hole in the wall. The old animator smirked at his luck as he made his way downstairs.

“It seems like that demon kept his word. He didn’t just leave me high and dry.”

He paused and pressed his hand on his chest, feeling that he could have a pulse.
“Gotta admit, it feels strange. I feel so.. hollow, so empty inside...”

Henry chuckled and added to his running commentary,

“Look at me, talking to myself. If I keep this up I might end up with the others; insane, babbling to myself, killing anything that moves!”

The old man hummed, trying to remember those old Halloween stories his pa used to tell him; the ones about a flesh-eating monster.

“Damn... I can’t remember.”

He froze in the entryway, thinking of all the mornings when he and Sammy complained about bad drivers or the weather over coffee... Those days before he left were the best.

Henry realised he was in front of the ‘Amen’ tape. On impulse, he picked up the tape, slammed it on the floor, and watched it shatter completely. He could not fathom how strong he had gotten. He didn’t expect to break the tape that easily. He stared at the remains of it and started to laugh in disbelief, which slowly turned into the laugher of a madman. He kept laughing and laughing, calming down only to hear a very upset prophet warn him through the wall.

“How dare you break my tape? My word of the lord! You will pay for this; you're no sheep, you're a wolf, and you will pay greatly for this!”

Soon silence fell upon the room and Henry muddled through the ink. He cursed and grumbled as he made his way to the other side of the hallway. Henry expected to trigger the next part so he could move on, except the shutter door had been ripped to shreds and held a small message from the demon.

‘No backtracking through that thick ink :)’ 

He chuckled, ran his fingers through his hair then walked forward.

 “Thanks for dealing with the door problem. Shaved off a few minutes.”

He hoped the demon would hear him. His shoes clicked loudly against the wooden floorboards, breaking the silence. Henry skipped over the tape that he remembered by memory; he could just hear Sammy's voice bitching about the ink machine, the pipes bursting and flooding his office with ink, Joey installing the ink lever in his office. As Henry turned on the lights, the searchers attacked on cue. The man felt joyful as he readied his axe and yelled at them, his eyes glowing crimson red.

Each swing of the axe brought more and more happiness to his heart; almost like he was freeing them! Freeing them all!

When his axe hit the wall, Henry snapped out of it. Slowly looking around at the dormant puddles of ink, he pulled the axe out of the wall and stumbled back. The realisation hit him as he stared at the mess, his eyes slowly fading back to blue.

The old animator hurried away from the massacre of searchers to collect Wally's keys before Sammy came in. The prophet scanned the room, staring silently at the ungodly sight. He knelt down and gently pet the inky remains and muttered in a sombre tone,

“Don’t worry, I will make sure this wolf pays for slaughtering all of you and take pleasure in doing so, but I need to transport as many of my flock away from this savage.”

Sammy stood up once again, grabbed the spare keys and vanished. Hopefully, he could delay further murder or, better yet, kill the ‘thing’ before it became a bigger issue.

Humming, Henry muttered the code; “Violin, drum, drum, banjo” as he turned the corner and went up into the projectionist booth. He fiddled with the projector until it made an audible click. On the wall, it played the unfinished episode, one of many the animator had worked on. Henry recalled the times he worked at the studio, drawing his little devil darling. Oh, how he wished that he could just be so full of energy like him. He descended to the band room and played the instruments in the order he memorised. The projector turned off as the shield doors screeched, the old gears pleading for an end. Henry entered the Prophet's sanctuary, seeing instruments scattered around—even broken—the deeper he went into the lair. Henry found the desk where Sammy composed so many songs, but he wasn’t interested in the songs anymore. He rotated the valve which squealed in protest of being moved, but it wasn’t hard; especially since he got these gifts from the Shadow Demon.

Henry exited the sanctuary, expecting to see the Bendy cutout pop around the corner. It never came. When he entered the band room, the searchers didn’t attack, but the prophet was in Norman’s projectionist booth. Otherwise, everything was normal, at least until Henry went to open the door. The doorknob refused to turn, and that's when ink splashed and groaned behind him. Sharp claws dragged down Henry’s back, but he still managed to whirl around and wildly swing his axe. Each time he killed one, two more appeared, overwhelming him by a long shot. As he half-assedly defended himself, Henry dug through his pockets. He managed to get Wally Franks’s keys out and unlocked the door without taking too much more damage. Once he was out of the band room, he slammed the door shut and breathed heavily.

Henry took a moment to recover, then removed his hand to inspect the claw marks and torn shirt. The fabric soaked up most of the blood from his wounds. He called out for his demonic friend, Heart, who showed up and gave a half-assed sympathetic “aww..” He hated it. He didn’t need pity from anyone, especially one from a demon. This frustration prompted him to grab the demon by the fur and pull him up to his height.

“I don’t need your fucking pity. Can’t you heal me or anything? Or are you just a useless piece of shit?!”
Henry snapped. This caught the demon off guard, at which point he showed off his fangs menacingly.

“Yes, I can heal you, but I suggest reconsidering manhandling me, Henry Ross; After all, my fangs ain’t for show, and neither are my claws. Direct that anger towards the prophet; after all, that coward didn’t even bother to fight you! He just sent his minions down and they jumped you like the cowards they are!”
Henry sighed and calmed down before setting the demon down.

“Right, sorry. But.. Could you please heal me?”

“Not until you kill that coward.”

“You are refusing to heal me because I need to kill it?!”

“I know you can do it, Ross. You just need to get your timing perfect. You might get a reward.”
Heart teased with a smirk. He disappeared in a thick black smoke which left Henry near breathless and wheezing.
“Fucking stupid… If I didn’t need you to live I would have strangled you…”

He used the wall to support his weight as he trudged forward. Each step shot pains through his body, lengthening his bloody trail. He managed to get to the medical bay and, after dealing with the one guard searcher, started to hunt for bandages in the drawers. Unbeknownst to Henry, a certain music conductor stalked him from the stairwell.


The prophet watched Henry long enough to know he would be there when he returned. He silently ascended the stairs back into the hallways, then picked up the metal dustpan from the supply closet. This plan to deal with the wolf that entered his flock was perfect . Sammy let out a breathless chuckle and mumbled,

“A simple plan, Sammy; just h-hit the wolf over the head with the dustpan. Wait for the perfect moment.”

It wasn’t long before Sammy grabbed his arm tightly and growled in frustration.
“Why am I sha-shaking?! I shouldn’t be scared! The ink demon, my lord, is protecting me! But yet….”

He slowly let go of his arm.
“Why do I feel like there's something so wrong with that wolf? So… wrong like he is supposed to be… No, Sammy, that isn’t p-possible. It’s just your imagination… Maybe it would be best if I knock out the wolf and flee, I need to warn the rest of my flock about him…”

With that, Sammy finally made up his mind and slipped through the cracks in the walls to set up his trap. All Sammy could do was pray to Bendy that Jack, his best friend, would be safe from the wolf. Unfortunately, those prayers would never be answered.

When Henry found the bandages, he patched himself up to the best of his ability; he even tore off half of his sleeve to wipe up some of the blood, noticing how a bit of ink got into his wounds. It made it seem like he was bleeding ink rather than blood. He sighed and cursed under his breath about the searchers getting him good. Once he wasn’t entirely shredded, he wiped most of the ink out of his wounds and hopped off the bed. He approached where the lever should have been, only to see that it was missing too. The old man was about to burst into a fiery rage before remembering one thing that the cocky demon said; he will help him. It wasn’t like that demon had a choice, it was part of the deal! When he headed to the sewers he saw the heavy metal doors were ripped off their hinges like they weighed nothing.

Jack saw Henry enter the sewers and gripped onto the lever and valve tightly; his and others’ lives depended on him. He couldn’t let this murderer proceed. If he did, how many more people would he hurt? Jack scrambled away as Henry chopped down the wooden planks that stood between them .

Henry tried to catch up to the beast wearing the yellow bowler hat. He wasn't going to let anything get in his way. He screamed in pain as more searchers chased him and clawed at his back. He stumbled before spinning on his heel, mustering all of his strength to lift his axe, and bringing it down onto the searchers’ heads to send them back.
“I SWEAR TO GOD YOU WILL NEVER GET ME!”

He kept pushing forward, limping as he defended himself from waves and waves of searchers. It was almost like they tried to stop him from slaying that beast! From freeing himself from this! Henry finally got into the main sewer system, but Jack stood ready. Jack used the lever and slammed it down on Henry's left arm which made an audible snap . Henry let out a blood-curdling scream as Jack fleed. The ex-animator dropped his axe and panted heavily, holding his broken arm. The two sat in silence, and this was the moment Jack tried to snag Henry's axe and take him out. If only it was that easy. Just as Jack reached out, Henry slammed his foot on Jack’s neck, making him stop just shy of the axe. He tried smashing Henry's ankles with the lever; such a weak attempt as Jack’s demise got closer. When Jack looked at Henry, all he saw was a monster with a twisted smile and dim red eyes.

Henry picked up his axe with his good arm and looked at the beast writhing under his foot which made disgusting gurgled pleads. He rolled his eyes and said sadistically,

“You know, I was going to give you a quick and easy death, you disgusting beast; a show of mercy. But since you broke my fucking arm, I'm going to take.. My. Time!”
Henry raised his axe above his head and slammed it onto the ink monster’s chest, earning him a gurgling screech of pain. He kept going and going until the ink monster writhed no more, dead. Henry took his axe from the slug’s corpse and backed off. As he did, he stumbled and spun around when ink sloshed behind him. There stood the demonic wolf, again.

“Wow! I didn’t think you had it in you to be that brutal!”
The demon exclaimed with a massive grin stretching from ear to ear. The way his head tilted was wrong… so unsettling to Henry. It continued.

“How could you give him such a long and painful death? It was only trying to defend itself, Henry~”

“I don’t care if that thing was ‘defending’ itself, it got in my way! I had to get rid of the roadblock.”
Henry’s reply was dark, causing the demon to laugh. He approached Henry, then spoke once again.

“Give me your arm. Let me heal it so you can go kill that cowardly prophet.”
And he complied. Once Henry’s arm functioned again, he took the valve and headed back to the medical ward.

Once Henry turned the valve to stop the inkflow, he climbed the staircase towards Sammy's office. He forced the door open and pulled the lever, draining the ink that blocked the stairs to freedom. Henry knew he couldn’t let his guard down yet, though; Sammy was still lurking around somewhere. As he got closer and closer to freedom, to the staircase, the less attention he took. He chalked it up to the prophet running away like the coward he was. THUNK.

Henry fell like a sack of potatoes and Sammy breathed heavily, the dustpan shaking in his grip. The adrenaline pumped through him after a few seconds Sammy collapsed on his hands and knees, dropping his dustpan. He was still trying to process what he did, what he saw… Hearing the screams of his best friend, he felt so nauseous. After a few moments passed, he stood back up and ran downstairs, past his ritual room, ran as far as his legs would take him. Once he made it through the door he slammed and barricaded it. Once he came to his senses, Sammy made his way toward the elevator. A can of bacon soup rolled out of the darkness and, already being on edge, he yelled;

“SHOW YOURSELF, SHEEP! THIS INSTANT!”
After a tense few seconds, Boris walked out, shaking in his boots. Sammy felt a little bad for coming off so harshly now; it was just a Boris clone that couldn’t do any harm. He approached, gently pet Boris’s head and soothed him.
“I am sorry my sheep, I didn’t mean to scare you, but… we are not safe here, not with a monster roaming these halls…he—it—killed my best friend.”
Boris whined and pulled Sammy into a hug, which Sammy reluctantly returned, then rubbed his back. The two broke apart and headed to Boris’s safehouse.



The shadow demon showed up and looked at his pet, lights knocked out by the cowardly prophet. Oh well…



“Such a shame. Yet again, I have been neglecting my pet lately. I think it might be feeding time for him… Now, where did I put that juice of heart-throbbing fruits? And the water?”