Work Text:
Bein’ a janitor at one Joey Drew Studios was an odd job.
It wasn’t a simple job. Manageable, but it’s more like four jobs in one! Ya clean, ya run around letting people into rooms (he did that less nowadays; he convinced the carnival crew to rig those games to open their backdoor), ya kinda act like a security guard, and ya have to be a handyman.
He got this job thinkin’ he’d only be cleanin’. Now he was some sorta “Ink Machine Attendant” and people push their jobs onto him!
It was annoying, but Wally Franks always managed. Even if he wanted to fight his co-workers now and then.
His paycheck arrived on time. He could afford to take care of himself and his dogs, and that’s all that mattered! Nothin’ more, nothin’ less.
But it was still an odd job.
Every single one of his co-workers was always in a bad mood, actin’ like grandma just died. People were angry, people were mad. Snapped at the drop of a hat!
He’d hear whispers and groans during the night, nearly snapping his neck every time he looked behind him. There was never anythin’ there, except a leakin’ pipe.
The ink on the ground moved, dodged his mop like it had smarts or somethin’! Like it was sentient! He’d always got it in the end. He started pouring a bit of bleach on it just to shock it into stopping, but it was nuts!
At first, those moving puddles were only in Mr. Connor’s “laboratory”, but they’ve been spreadin’ around the studio nowadays. Every question he asked about it led to not a single answer. Sounded insane, Mr. Connor told him.
None of that was the weirdest thing, though. The oddest stuff in the studio.
Oh no, not even a bit!
Ya see, he’d been sweeping up the Music Department hallway around 11 PM. Whistling a little tune he’d heard being played in the Music Department earlier.
A dirty washcloth stuck out of his overalls. There was a spray bottle attached to his belt. A mop bucket was right against the wall, a damp mop leaning right against it.
Ink stained his overalls, an absolute pain in the ass that he stopped trying to get out forever ago. They’d get stained the next time he wore them at the studio anyway!
Any noise had faded away. He focused on his task, sweepin’ anyway.
Until he wasn’t.
There was a thump.
And it wasn’t like the thumps from the pipes, no. And Wally knew well that everyone else would’ve gone home by now.
He lifted his head, looked away from the pile he was makin’ on the floor—
“Hey!”
It snapped its body around to stare at him.
It? They? He? She?
Wally didn’t have a clue!
But whatever the creature was, they were big.
So big they had to crouch down!
They faced him, and even though they didn’t have eyes he could see, Wally felt like they were staring into his soul.
They had horns. Those might’ve been twitching. They were too far away for him to tell.
Their fingers were long. Four on each hand, each one almost touchin’ the floor!
They were all ink and bone. Really, just lookin’ at them, they seemed malnourished to him.
“Do ya want some soup? There’s probably some in that hall closet down there. I didn’t lock it!”
They looked away from him, turnin’ to the left.
Well, he supposed it’d be their right. His left, their right!
Ink dripped from their body as they…rumbled? There was a weird noise that came along with the drip, drip, drip, drip.
Just another mess for him to clean up.
Great, he’d just finished mopping up all the ink in this hallway earlier!
Not even supernatural ink entities respected his work!
He blinked, eyes tired from staring at the thing at the end of the hallway.
They were gone. Just a puddle left behind.
Now that just didn’t make sense.
He would’ve heard them walkin’!
He walked down to the end of the hallway, broom being dragged along.
They were well and truly gone.
All that was left behind was a puddle of ink that politely moved out of the way when he almost stepped in it (huh, that’s the farthest one of those has moved before), and a giant splatter of ink that covered the entire hall closet door. Even the wall surrounding it!
They had to be real. He’d cleaned down here minutes ago, and there’s no way ink would get like that unless it was on purpose!
But where did they go?
How did they go?
And most importantly…
Did they really need to leave behind such a mess? He wouldn’t get out of here until 12 at this rate!