Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

 "Opposites." That's the first word most people use to describe Henry Stein's and Joey Drew's friendship. "They're opposites of each other. Henry is quiet and kind, Joey is loud and obnoxious. Yet somehow, they're perfect friends."

 "Skilled." That's the second word people use to describe them. "Those two can bring any drawing they make to life. You'd almost expect them to get up and start to dance, like a cartoon! They're always fighting for the best grades, each one is always grappling for the number one spot of their department. Of course they are!"

 "Clever." It's mostly teachers who say that, talking about their drawings and animations. Most people think the two act like fools, messing around and, in Joey's case, making people mad. But it's the people who'd crossed the two, who'd tried to pull something, who call them clever the most. "Joey stalls when in trouble, and when Henry gets there, he throws the first punch. Those two are clever when they work like that, and I'd say, slightly insane, too."

 Now, if there's anything you haven't heard, it's when they argue. God, they make the walls shake. Those two don't get violent with each other, but they scream and they yell until one of them storms out. Then, a day later, they're back to being best friends. It's a bit strange watching it happen, but I suppose being friends since childhood gives you that sort of friendship.

 Now, the first year of their college year, someone got tired of them fighting so much and so loudly, only to be best buds the next day. So they got yelled at, and eventually figured out a different way to argue. It was through what they did best: Art. 

 It started with Joey drawing Henry's favorite mug breaking. Then Henry drew Joey's car getting a flat tire. It went on from there. While it was still easy to tell when they were angry, as it'd usually be the only time either was alone and looking pissed off, they were quiet. It also gave them inspiration for their own comics.

 While Joey may draw whatever interests him at the moment, Henry has always had one character he's been coming back to. A little rubberhose-styled character named Bendy the Dancing Demon, Bendy for short.. Henry loves this little guy to death, apparently he'd come up with the idea as a kid. There had to be thousands of comic strips of Bendy nowadays, ranging from the corner of scrap paper to the front page of our school newspaper.

 Once, Henry and Joey got into a terrible argument. I will admit, that argument was over me. Both of them wanted to ask me, a music major, on a date in our second year of college. Truthfully, the attention felt a bit nice, so I didn't stop them. It was a good thing Henry asked me out first though, because I always knew that between the two of them, he was the one I liked the most.

 Joey is nice and all, and he's not as obnoxious as people say. Heck, Henry isn't the "sweet, innocent shy animator" that people seem to think he is. Still, I just think I prefer Henry's personality over Joey's.

 Things got real bad after that. They did end up in a screaming match for a bit, which ended up with Joey storming off. Thank god it was a weekend Henry was visiting home, because those two share a dorm. Joey drew hah! something for Henry and left it for him to find. You wanna know what it was?

 A corrupted, twisted version of Bendy. A monstrous beast, the direct opposite of the lovable Bendy that Henry loved. He did it to upset Henry, to twist his creation into something terrible and ugly, but to also really show how upset and angry he was in the best way he knew how. It was a better reaction than most thought was coming, and pretty reasonable, too.

 Henry found it when he got back, and after a bit of thinking, he didn't go straight to his drawing desk to retaliate. Instead, he and Joey talked about the drawing, about Joey's crush on me, and they both came to a conclusion. They couldn't do anything about what I had felt, even though they both liked me. And they decided that the drawing, which was brilliant, should not go to waste. There was a new project coming up for their class, a horror animation, and they decided to use Joey's drawing.

 Then, Bendy and the Ink Machine was born. The BATIM Project, I remember Henry texting me. The music classes and the art classes were doing joint projects at the time, and those two convinced me, Sammy Lawrence, and Jack Fain to do our music projects with their animations. We all agreed, even though Sammy Lawrence is a prick on his best days, and soon chapter one was completed. In spirit of the drawing, Henry was placed as the protagonist and Joey, while less relevant, an antagonist.

 Joey was still mad at Henry during this, reasonably so, but they did make up along the way. Eventually they decided to continue the project past the first chapter, and after getting the acting classes in on it, they began to put real people into the story.

 It's our third year of college now. Henry still draws his little cartoon Bendy, but they both love the BATIM Project. They even have the workings of a sequel going, Bendy and the Dark Revival, though I haven't heard much about that one yet.

 I'm not sure what to think about it. But knowing them, they'll put all they've got into making sure that dream comes to life.

 -Linda W.

Chapter Text

Henry taps his feet against the ground of the lecture hall, wringing his hands together as he watches the other students filter in. His teacher was struggling setting up the projector for Henry's project. The wait is going to kill him.

 It was his cartoon Bendy that he'd decided to animate for this, which really didn't come as a shock to anyone. The teacher had been vague with the instructions, encouraging the students to make something entertaining. Henry was sure he'd drank more coffee in the past month than he had in the past year staying up to make sure every last detail was perfect. He'd actually been excited to show it off, but now that he was forced to wait, he felt his stomach flip.

 Luckily, he wasn't entirely alone. Lost in his own nervousness, he didn't notice Joey coming up next to him until his hand landed on Henry's shoulder. Henry startles, and Joey laughs.

 "Aren't you supposed to be in class right now?" Henry asks, and while his tone is annoyed, he's glad to see his friend here. By the big grin on Joey's face, he can tell.

 "I figured you'd be nervous!" The other Animator says cheerfully. "So I figured I'd arrive as emotional support. If this doesn't suck, I'll treat you to coffee after."

 "You're doing a wonderful job at that emotional support thing," Henry says dryly. Joey laughs again. "Thank you though. God, I feel like I'm gonna be sick.."

 "Hey, that's my thing! Anyways, don't worry, you've kept both yourself and me awake for this for ages, I'm sure it'll be great. I'll be in the audience, alright?"

 Henry nods, and the teacher has finally gotten the projector to work. She calls for all the students to sit down, and Joey goes off to find an empty seat. Henry takes the cue to start the animation, which is quickly flashed upon the big screen.

 He steps out of the way to watch his classmates reaction, Bendy and the Nightmare Run! appearing as the title card. The animation is short, only about three minutes long, featuring Bendy being chased around by an enormous car and fighting it off with various conveniently placed objects. To Henry's immense relief, his classmates seem entertained, laughing at the funny bits and looking invested in the overall story. They clap when The End! flashes on the screen.

 Henry goes back to his seat, finding Joey sitting right next to it. He's got another grin on his face, bigger than before, as Henry sits down. "You did great!" He whispers excitedly. "That was brilliant!"

  "God, that never gets any less nerve-wracking," Henry mutters, Joey suppressing a chuckle.

 "Well, it was great. I gotta actually go to class now, but I'll see you for that coffee later?" Joey whispers, and Henry nods.

 He watches as Joey grabs his bag and ducks out of the classroom, smiling slightly as he does. He looks back at the next animation now playing, a grin on his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Joey is already sitting in the cafe when Henry arrives, looking up from his phone when Henry tosses his bag onto the ground next to him. He sits, grabbing the coffee that Joey ordered for him, and taking a long sip.

 "Oh my god, I felt like I was going to die up there," He says, Joey rolling his eyes in response.

 "How are you gonna be some great animator if you can't even bear people watching your animations?" Joey teases. It's Henry's turn to roll his eyes.

 "Oh please, you know as much as I do that a solo animation is so much different than a group project. Oh, out of curiosity, you've got that same project in Professor Piedmonts class, right? How'd sneaking back in go for you?"

  "He noticed I was gone and gave me an earful about being on time and how it matters with deadlines and a bunch of bullshit." Joey lets out a dramatic sign. "I think he's hated me ever since the story."

 "I think he's hated you long before that," Henry hums, ignoring Joey's scathing look of utter betrayal. "Though the story definitely didn't help."

 It was Joey's idea to put the great Bertrum Piedmont into the story as a living theme park ride. He had a habit of butting heads with the teacher and figured it'd be a perfect way to mess with him. Henry would never forget how Piedmont's face had gone red with anger at the storyboards. It was hilarious.

"If he doesn't like it, he can go screw himself," Joey deadpans. A waitress brings over what he'd apparently ordered along with the coffee, a plate of chocolate chip cookies, and wastes no time in grabbing one to eat. "God, I love this place."

 Henry grabs one as well, taking another sip of his coffee before biting into it. "By the way, I'm going out tonight, so if you wanna continue storyboarding and stuff tomorrow, we could do that. It's gonna rain anyway."

 "Going out with Linda?" Joey asks, wiping some crumbs off his face. Henry nods. "Oooooo~"

 "Shut up."

 "Ohhh you're in looooove!"

 "You also had a crush on her, what are you on about-"

 The two went back and forth for a bit, before Henry finally shut him up by throwing a half eaten cookie at his head. Joey threw it back, but they were stopped by the warning glare of one of the staff members.

 "Alright, alright, whatever," Joey says, grabbing the cookie they'd been throwing and finishing it off. With his mouth full, he says, "I'll probably take a nap and then be awake around the time you get back."

 "Sounds good."

 There's a lull in the conversation, a calm silence falling between them, before Joey adds, "So don't bring her back to the apartment because I don't wanna hear you-"

 "Oh my god, shut up."

Chapter Text

The floorboards creak underneath his feet as he walks, the sound of the ink flowing through the pipes audible through the walls. Joey walks quickly, leaving footprints of ink behind. This place was a damned maze, one that he had no idea how to navigate.

 He speeds up some more, opening door after door, every corner turned causing new panic to jump into his throat. He should recognize this, he knows he should, but he's got no clue where he is. Everything looks the same to him. He turns down a different hall, and stops dead in his tracks.

 He will set us free.

Those words sat scrawled on the wall in the same black, drippy ink that ran like water through the studio. A frown tugs at his lips as he stares at it, only causing the panic in his heart to grow. He steps away from the walls. He's got to get out of here, quickly. How does he get out of here? God, he doesn't know.

 He does mean to keep moving, but he finds himself stopping again. This time, it's because of the little, nearly inaudible noise that's just barely registering in his head. He strains his ears to listen, and finds that it sounds almost like whispers. He begins to follow it.

 "Hello?" He calls out. The whispers disappear for a single moment, before picking up again, harsher than before. He can't actually hear what they're saying, just the frantic tone they seem to hold. "Who's there?"

 He still can't hear a coherent response, so he presses on. Eventually, he comes across a room that's absolutely covered in ink. It crawls across the walls as thick globs of it pile in the floor. Despite the fact that it's probably about an inch thick, it doesn't seem to spill out of the room.

 What's even odder is that the whispers seem to be coming from it.

 He crouches down, leaning forward and scooping a bit of it up in his head. He tries to listen in, but can't make sense of it.

 "I can't understand you," He mutters. "What are you saying…?"

 He stares at the ink for a moment before the whispers stop. The silence is deafening, and he looks up for a moment. He goes still when he sees it, a strangled cry barely leaving his throat.

 There's something pulling itself out of the ink on the wall. Joey stays frozen as a gloved hand appears, and then horns, and then a long, twisted body. The creature turns its head towards him, a sickening wide smile plastered onto its lips. Bendy.

  They both remain still for a few, terribly long seconds. Bendy tilts his head to the side, ever so slightly. Then he lunges. Joey screams, scrambling to his feet and sprinting down the hallway. The ink screams along with him in its whispery voice, trailing along the walls, following him.

 He slips over ink and slams into walls in his haste to get away, but he does manage to get slightly ahead of Bendy. By the time his luck runs out and he reaches a dead end, his lungs are burning with effort. Despair only gets to him for a second before he sees the Miracle Station in front of him, and he wastes no time in getting inside.

 His whole body shakes as he watches the ink crawl towards him, slowly climbing up his hiding spot. The demon limps his way into the room as Joey watches with bated breath, trying to keep his breathing under control.

 Bendy walks over to the station, leaning down to get a better look at it. Joey can't help but close his eyes, silently begging the universe to let Bendy leave him be. After a few moments, nothing happens, and he opens his eyes to find the demon gone. Quietly, he lets out a breath he didn't even know he was holding.

 And then the door is ripped off its hinges, Joey screaming as he's pulled from the Miracle Station. His screams are just as quickly cut off as he's dragged into a puddle.

 Ink fills his mouth and lungs, cutting off his air as he tries to kick his way back to the surface. Something hangs into his leg, pulling him deeper, a claw digging into his skin and creating a burning wound. His eyes sting and his chest heaves as he coughs up ink, only for more of it to fill his lungs.

 He can't breathe, he can't breathe, he's going to die here and he can't find his way out, he-

  He-

  He wakes up in his bed, sitting up with a start. His lungs have, but instead of ink, there's only air. Joey quickly clicks on the light next to him, finding himself not in the studio, but in his dorm room. Right. Right. Okay.

 Just a nightmare. It was just a nightmare. He glances at the bed on the opposite side of the room, finding it empty. A quick look at his phone told him that it was 8pm. He almost considers calling Henry, wanting some way to calm his nerves, but remembers he's still out with Linda. Fine, not that then.

 He didn't feel like telling Henry anyway, it wasn't the first time he'd gotten one of these nightmares. At least once a week, he'd dream about the studio from the story. Sometimes he'd find himself as an employee, or as some random person who'd wandered inside. It always seemed to end with his lungs filling with ink, his vision fading out as he died.

 In a word: Awful.

He rolls out of bed, landing on the ground with a quiet thump! before standing up. He knows these dreams don't mean much, even if he was also the first to say he believed in the occult. They were probably just a mix of playing too many horror games and thinking too much about the project. It was nothing that he needed to get himself, or anyone else for that matter, worked up about.

Usually drawing was his go-to for getting his mind off of things, but right now, he didn't really feel like it. He finds himself sitting on the couch, staring blankly at the TV and playing some random comedy sketch. The laughter and jokes don't really register in his mind as he listens.

It's a stupid thing to get worked up so much over a dream, he knows that. Still, the uneasiness that seems to cling to his skin, the memory of cold ink in his lungs, is enough to make him doubt himself sometimes. Just sometimes, though.

 He knows there's nothing to worry about.

Chapter Text

 Henry and Linda walked through the city, back to the college campus. They'd gone downtown to watch some movies and go a place to eat. Henry was having a great night. Going out with Linda, no matter how many times he did it, was always amazing.

 "So Henry, I forgot to ask earlier, but you had a big assignment coming up for one of your classes, right?" Linda asked with a slight southern drawl, breaking the silence. "How'd you do?"

 "Everyone loved it. The teacher did too," Henry said, grinning wide. "I was super nervous at first, since it's the new Bendy skit I made. Then I saw Joey, who'd snuck into the class. I seriously thought he was kidding when he said he'd do that, but he did and it helped calm my nerves."

 "You did the same for him, right? Does that mean I'd be able to get you to come to my performance, too?"

 Linda had signed up to join a concert of solo players in the school. Henry grinned wide. "Of course Linda, I wouldn't miss it for the world."

 "Just making sure, Henry, just making sure." Linda smiled at him, and he felt his face flush. "Aw look at you, your blushing!"

 "No, I'm not," Henry halfheartedly denied. Linda only laughed. "Hey, how've things with Sammy been going? I heard you got paired up with each other?"

 Linda sighed. "Sammy Lawrence is a musical genius, but a fucking nightmare to deal with. He's a perfectionist and has to much of an ego. I don't know how Jack Fain works with him most days."

 "Your amazing with music, Linda. If you just get through this assignment, Jack will be the only one dealing with him again."

 While they worked to create music for Bendy's story, it wasn't that uncommon for Linda and Sammy to get so frustrated with each other, that'd they'd start screaming matches. Most of the time, either Jack had to break it up the best he could or a teacher had to yell at them both to be quiet. Sometimes they'd start in front of Henry and Joey, and Joey was surprisingly good at getting people to calm down enough not to yell. For the most part. He had managed to break up a couple of fights, though. 

 Henry was smart enough to stay out of their arguments. Either he'd get Sammy mad by siding with his girlfriend, or make Linda mad for siding with Sammy. He wasn't that good with words in situations like that either.

 "It's insufferable to work with him, but your words are much appreciated. It must be nice to have a friend with you here, right? I mean a long time friend, who you can bother because you've been doing it for years."

 "Yeah, it's nice. But it's also nice teeming up with people like Nathan Arch, seeing people's skills who you aren't used too."

 Linda nodded. "I guess that's a good point. Even though new skills are nice, it'd be cool if we managed to work at the same place after this. One of us for animation and the other for music, right?"

 "That'd be great, actually." Henry paused in his thinking. "God, graduation is so close when you actually think about it. It's kinda scary, really."

 "Don't worry, it's still a year and a half away," Linda said, and she let out a noncommittal hum. "Y'know, you should open a studio for your cartoon, for Bendy. I've heard people are really getting into that style lately. Ever heard of electro swing?"

 "Open a studio? I'm not sure, I think I'd only end up working someone else's."

 "Who knows? You and Joey could work together, although careful not to turn out like in that story! And then hire me instead of Sammy Lawrence, because I could write you your music and he sucks."

 "That'd be a dream come true, really. Not sure if it could happen, but I'm sure we could try."

 Soon, the duo arrived back at their dorms. They said their good nights, Henry walking Linda back to hers, before he walked through the empty halls to his. He was still a bit giddy from the date, walking into his dorm and turning on the light.

 He was slightly surprised to see Joey awake. 

 "Hey Joey," He said, closing the door behind him. He glanced at the clock. 11:30. "What're you still doing up? You were pretty tired when I left."

 "Fell asleep for a bit. Woke up and couldn't go back to sleep," Joey replied, not looking up from his phone. Henry could tell what that meant. Something had happened, a nightmare most likely, and Joey hadn't wanted to go back to sleep. Henry could read him better than he knew, especially since he could tell bad dreams were keeping Joey awake lately. However, Joey didn't want to talk about it, and Henry didn't want to force him. 

 "You okay?" He asked, throwing his coat on a chair.

 "Yep, I'm fine."

 Huh. Henry wanted to, but he knew better not to press. Hopefully it wasn't anything serious.

Chapter Text

Henry and Joey sat on opposite sides of their apartment, each bent over a piece of paper at their drawing desks. While Joey was working on concept art for the sequel story, Bendy and the Dark Revival, Henry was drawing the final scenes of the first story. Rain poured outside the windows, the only noise in the room other than pencil on paper and the occasional muttering.

When they first came up with the idea, they decided they'd put themselves into the story. Henry was the protagonist, up against the ink residents of the studio. While Joey was going to be a good guy, Joey himself had said it'd be better if he was the villain, so they just went with the idea.

From behind him, Henry heard frustrated grumbling, and wasn't surprised that, when he turned around, Joey was flinging his pencil into the wall.

"I hate concept drawing," Joey muttered. "This is so frustrating."

Henry pushed off the ground with his feet, sending his rolling chair to Joey's desk and peering at what he was doing. It the design for Audrey.

"You'd think this would be easier! But she just never seems right," Joey snapped. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "God, I need more sleep."

"I know you don't want me to ask, but it's nightmares keeping you up, isn't it?" Henry asked, peering at the paper Joey was drawing on. He'd had drawn quite a few concepts of Audrey on the paper.

"Yeah, I don't want you to ask about it," Joey replied back. He sounded like he wanted to kill Henry, but he always sounded like that when he was tired. "But yes, nightmares. Nightmares suck. Ugh."

He kicked his feet off the desk, making his chair fall back, flat on the ground. He didn't even get up right away. Henry only stared at him for a moment before rolling his chair back to his own desk. "That's all fun and games till you break your back."

"I haven't yet," Joey replied back, rolling off the fallen chair and getting up to grab his pencil. "How's the comic going?"

"Good. We should get started on turning this part into an animation. Beast Bendy is quite a character to draw."

"Rather be drawing him than trying to draw her," Joey muttered, picking his chair back up. He walked over to Henry's desk to look. "That's pretty good though!"

"Thanks," Henry said, watching as Joey sat back down in his chair. "Oh, y'know what Linda mentioned to me last night? She said we should try to make our own studio after graduation."

"That sounds...really cool actually! I swear I won't trap you in it," Joey said, grinning. "Hypothetically, if we did, would we cartoon Bendy or beast Bendy?"

Henry shrugged. "The style is kinda outdated, but I'd kill to get cartoon Bendy on a screen. He's just...I've been drawing him for awhile, y'know? I love this Bendy, but I really wish I could get cartoon Bendy out there."

Joey hummed. "It'd be a shame to get rid of Beast Bendy, but getting your cartoon out there would really be something."

"It would be nice. Especially since you did help, remember that. You helped with Boris and Alice, so it's not like it's only my thing getting somewhere," Henry told him. He looked at his paper. "It'd be a dream coming to life."

Joey paused for a minute, before giving Henry a grin. Henry didn't like that grin. It meant that Joey was planning something. "I've got an idea."

"Oh Lord."

"Hey now, it's a grand idea!"

"Joey-"

"And it involves just a teeny tiny ritual."

"No."

"No?!"

"Hell no."

"Okay, okay, c'mon, it's not that bad!"

Henry groaned, putting his head in his hands. Joey stifled a laugh seeing him do it. "Joseph Drew, you are going to be the death of me."

"It's a tiny little thing! Ever heard of manifesting? It's like a good luck ritual! Good luck to our studio!"

"Go get Susie to help you!"

"No no no, I want to do it with you, c'mon Henry, my best pal, my bestest friend-"

"Oh shut up!"

10 minutes later, Joey had managed to talk Henry into the ritual. Henry had no idea how, but he found himself setting up a circle of black candles in the living room with Joey.

"Why do you have so many black candles anyway?"

"I like the occult, sue me," Joey said. "It won't take long! We can go back to drawing after we're done, I swear."

"Yeah, yeah okay," Henry muttered, not saying that if Joey decided to do something dumb, he was going to get strangled.

Once they were done, Joey lit the candles and Henry closed the curtains and turned off the lights. The candles, other than the small bit of light that peeked in through the curtains and under the door, were the only light in the room.

"Look, I'm safe with fire," Joey said, once he had filled a pitcher with water and placed it outside the circle.

"Isn't there supposed to be a pentagram or something?" Henry asked. He knew that Joey kept a little charm on him when he did this stuff, a little metal pentagram on a chain.

"Pentagrams are used for protection," Joey replied, sitting down inside the circle. He waved Henry over, making him sit by him. "We shouldn't need it."

"Whatever you say. So, what is this for?"

"Good luck! Manifesting! Think about what we want and putting it in the world, letting our dreams come true. Of course we still need to work for it, but still!"

"Watch out Joey, your sounding a bit like your counterpart. Except of course, mentions you've gotta help work as well."

Joey rolled his eyes. "Whatever, whatever. But c'mon, just say something you want to happen!"

Henry paused, mind going over how dumb this whole thing was, before speaking. "...I want my dreams to come to life. I want to see Bendy out in the world, and his friends, too. I want there to be a studio for us, like in our cartoon but obviously different." He wasn't that good at putting these words together, but Joey seemed happy.

"Agreed!" He said cheerfully. "I agree with you wholeheartedly. I'd do whatever it takes to see our creations come to life."

Henry opened his mouth to respond, before a noise cut him off. A dripping noise. Consistent dripping. He stood up. "Oh God, I think we've got a leak or something," He said, stepping out of the circle.

"Shit, collect up the drawings, I don't want them to get wet," Joey said, scrambling to his feet. Henry put the candles out as Joey went to open turn on the lights. The light switch clicked. The room stayed in darkness.

"Is this thing broken?" Joey muttered, flicking the light switch a couple of times. Nothing happened. "I think the power went out."

"Where's my phone?" Henry asked, but he quickly found it, grabbing it and turning the flashlight on. He shone it around the room, before stopping in his tracks. "Joey."

"Hm?"

"J-Joey, what...what is that?"

Joey looked at where Henry was shining his flashlight. He froze. Dripping from the ceiling, ever so slowly, was what looked like black water. A sick feeling filled his stomach as the dripping sped up, until it was a steady stream of flow onto their carpet.

"H-Henry, let's go. Let's go," Joey said, having to force his words past a lump in his throat. He tried the door. It wouldn't open. "Henry, Henry the door won't open!"

"Here, here," Henry said quickly, handing his flashlight to Joey. He tried the door, pulled as hard as he could. It wouldn't open. "What the fuck, it's not locked!"

A light flicked on in the room. The...candles? A groaning noise filled the room. The animators stared at each other in horror, and each one let out a scream as something burst. A pipe, but instead of water, it filled the room with a black substance.

Henry slammed his shoulder against the door. It shuddered in it's frame, but didn't move.

"Is this-is this ink?!" Joey yelled, as it slowly filled the room. The ink rose and rose, soaking their shoes and clothes. The two were panicked, trying their best to get the door open. It wouldn't.

Suddenly, something went over the two animators. A sick feeling in their heads, like barbed wire wrapped around their brains. Their throats closed, like something was blocking the way. And then they fell, down, down, down into the ink.

Chapter Text

 "Who are you? A new member, two new inhabitants, but who, who? You're familiar..."

 He didn't know who was speaking. He couldn't see anything. Who was speaking to him?

 "Oh, oh. I know who you are. But I also don't. You're new but you aren't...your intentions are in the studio, but they aren't..."

 He tried to speak, but his throat was clogged. He couldn't see, he couldn't speak. He could only hear whatever voice was speaking to him.

 "Oh, Mister Drew...we all know you, but not you. You drew a key to this world, didn't you? But you came with him this time. Oh, oh, you're different, aren't you? From him, I mean. Okay, good. Maybe this is what the studio needs. Now do us a favor, Mister Drew, and wake up. Your friend needs you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Henry woke up with a splitting headache. He groaned pushing himself into a sitting position.

 "Ugh, my head..." He muttered, his hands brushing against the ground and hitting his glasses. "What happened?"

 Once his vision cleared, he looked around. He stared, put on his glasses, and stared some more. He wasn't in his apartment. He wasn't anywhere he regonized. He got to his feet, his hands shaking.

 He was in a long corridor, completely made of wood. "Hello?" He called out, voice hoarse. He tasted a bit of ink in his mouth. "A-Anyone there?"

 He looked towards the end of the corridor, and his mouth dropped open wide. On the wall was a plaster of a cartoon head, of Bendy's head. "No way..." Henry muttered, speeding up. He left the corridor, with two short paths leading into the next room. A room that Henry regonized, only on a piece of paper.

 Heavenly Toys.

 "No," He breathed out, staring ahead. He felt like he wasn't in his own body, like he was viewing this from another person. Maybe that was it, maybe it was all a sick dream. But it sure didn't feel like one. "What in the world, how-?"

 He tore his eyes away from the sign, looking around the room. Everything was exactly how he drew it. Except...his eyes got stuck on the stairs.
 
 Someone was laying there, someone with black hair that was incredibly messy and with a blue sweater vest, black pants, and a white collared shirt on. 
 
 "Shit, Joey!" Henry yelled, running over to him. He was asleep and still, almost like he was dead. Henry grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "Joey, get up! Joey!"

 After a brief moment of panic where he wouldn't wake up, Joey finally opened his eyes and Henry let go of him. "What the...? Hen? What's going on?"

 "Get up, quickly," Henry said, pulling his friend to his feet. Joey let out a quiet gasp. 

 "No, no no no, this is-? This is the studio?!" Joey asked, eyes wide. "No no no no, it's just-it's just like my dreams!"

 Henry's head whipped towards Joey. "You've been having dreams like this?!"

 Joey nodded, looking a bit frantic. "Yes I have, I-I didn't know what they were about, I just thought I was working to much! Oh my god, this has gotta be another dream!"

 Henry stored that thought in his head for later. "Isn't there another ritual that can reverse whatever you did?!"

 "No Henry, no there isn't!"

 "THERE'S NO REVERSAL?!"

 This always happened. Whenever something extremely stressful happened, it wasn't uncommon for the two to turn on each other. But usually, that was over an assignment they'd procrastinated on and needed to finish fast or a dumb decision they made and had to avoid the consequences of. Not getting put into a goddamn story.

 "No Henry, no, there's no reversal!" Joey yelled, growing defensive. "I would've told you about that already!"

 "Aren't you Mister Occultist?! Shouldn't you know?!" Henry yelled back.
 
 "Oh fuck off, you know I didn't mean for this to happen! This is impossible, don't blame me for this shit!"
 
 "OH, so we we shouldn't blame the guy who WANTED to do the ritual?!"

 Their argument echoed through the halls, loud and furious. The fury was distracting them from the stress, the terror, but they both knew it would be a matter of time before it came back full force.

 During their argument, they didn't hear a groan, or the sound of something moving through ink. Henry only saw it when it snuck up behind Joey.

 "MOVE!" Henry yelled, pushing Joey out of the way as the thing lunged at him. Henry didn't have to guess to hard as to what it was, he regonized the thing as a Searcher easily. What he wanted to know was how the everliving hell a stupid DRAWING was moving around.

 The Searcher focused itself onto Henry, lunging at him. Henry's fight or flight kicked in, and he swung at it, punching it in the head. It didn't do anything to the thing, it just made it more mad. It's fingers, sharp like claws, slashed at Henry, leaving his knee bloody. A can of bacon soup landed nearby it, Joey throwing the can at it and missing.

 It swiped at Henry and missed, Henry grabbing the can and throwing it point blank at the thing. It's head got smashed in, and it fell back into it's puddle like it wasn't even there.

 "What the hell..." Henry breathed out. Joey didn't even say anything, staring at where it had died. Then his eyes lifted to something behind Henry, and he gasped.

 Henry turned around, expecting to see an ink creature, another Searcher. Instead, he saw a brown eyed, brown haired man. He wore a gray coat with the sleeves rolled up, a white button up with a black undershirt and suspenders, and jeans and shoes that were absolutely drenched in ink. He didn't wear glasses. Henry knew that last fact because he'd designed this man himself, and decided he wouldn't need them.

 "Hello," The man said, cautiously but hopefully. "You both-are you guys trapped here too?" He paused then, taking a closer look and perhaps regonizing the two before him as two faces he'd remembered from the past.

 This man, the two animators knew, was the Henry Stein of this world.

Chapter Text

Joey could only stare between the two versions of his friend in front of him. A frantic, desperate part of him was still screaming in his head that it was a dream, a stupid dream, but he wasn't that crazy. The words that he heard before waking up here were still ringing in his head.

The story Henry looked towards Joey with wide eyes. "...Joey?" He asked, disbelief in his tone. Oh God. They knew each other when they were kids, too. Even with the change of clothes, of course he'd be recognized. Then, the story Henry looked towards the real one, who was staring right back at him. "You-what the hell?"

Now, one skill you learn from being friends with somebody for 15 years is that you can read them pretty well. And when Joey looked at his Henry, even though he couldn't see his face, he could tell when the panic was getting real bad. While Joey himself was panicking and utterly terrified, if it got to a certain point with Henry, he would shut down and spiral. Joey was feeling a bit like shutting down himself, but he needed to help Henry.

He walked forward, reaching out and grabbing Henry's hand. His friend jolted, like he'd been snapped out of deep thought. "I can talk to him, I'll explain everything," Joey whispered. "You don't have to talk if you don't wanna. Just take a bit to calm down, we can't have you shutting down here. Okay?"

Henry nodded. Joey let go and he stepped back, leaving Joey to face the other Henry. He took a deep breath, before forcing out a word. "You were right. T-That's my name. Joey. Joey Drew."

"How?" The story Henry asked, eyes wide. "I-how?"

"Well, look at the place you're trapped in. I feel like this shouldn't be too surprising to see me, out of everything."

"....okay, I guess you're right," He muttered. "Are you made out of ink, too? Like Boris?"

Joey shook his head. "N-No. Behind me, is Henry Stein. Just like you, but different. He and I, we're both humans, not meant to be here."

Now, story Henry was staring at him with a blank look. Joey could tell that, although it looked blank, he was thinking things over in his head, putting things together. "Alright then, if that's the truth, then how did you get here? Do you know the original Joey Drew?"

Joey chuckled slightly. It was more nervous than anything. "Well, you see here...yes, I do. Sort of. But he didn't invite us in here, like you got invited. It was a ritual we did, meant to be a dumb little thing, nothing real bad happening. Just for some luck and motivation. But whatever happened went wrong, and we woke up here."

"Alright..." Story Henry muttered, looking uneasy. "I just...I'm still a bit confused as to why your younger versions of me and Joey."

Joey's mind blanked a bit. He wasn't sure how to explain that one. Apparently though, he didn't have to, because Henry's voice echoed from behind them.

"It's because we aren't from this world. You're in 1963, right?" Henry asked. Story Henry nodded slowly. "We live in 2027. I drew the Bendy cartoons just like you did, but this world? Joey and I came up with it together, as a fun little project. We put ourselves and people we knew into it. Then, when Joey's ritual went wrong, we woke up in it."

Joey looked towards his friend, seeing that he was still terrified but not on the verge of a panic attack. Good. He looked back towards the story Henry, who now stared at them with a reaction Joey couldn't read.

"...I honestly can't say I believe that I'm just a drawing on somebody's else's page," Story Henry said. "...but I do know the two of you are trapped here, like I am. And I think you guys can shine some light on what's going on. Why don't we stick together for awhile?"

"Seriously?" Joey asked. While he wouldn't turn down the opportunity to get some help in this world, it did shock him a bit that this Henry was so trusting. He looked back towards his friend, who nodded. "A-Alright then, that sounds great, actually."

"The Heavenly Toys section is the third chapter of our story," Henry said. "It's just a fetch quest chapter, running around and getting things for a twisted version of Alice Angel. It's so she'll let the elevator, which we'll get back to later, go to the upper levels. Of course, it's only chapter three and she's gonna let it drop so that..."

He trailed off, looking back at Joey for help. While they could lie, knowing that this Henry cared about Boris, he decided against it. Best he know now than get angry about not knowing later.

"It's so she can get Boris. She uses the Boris clones to make herself look beautiful...you'll see what I mean, but it's bad. She makes the elevator crash so she can get him, and she takes him away.." Joey looked away, the story Henry's eyes filled with horror. "But we know about that. We won't let it happen."

It was like looking at a broken mirror, looking at this other Henry. Except instead of the image just being distorted, it was older and dressed like the 1960s. Well, it was 1963, wasn't it?

"You should know the way forward, right?" Story Henry asked. Joey nodded, and they began on their way. Him and Henry told the Story Henry about cleaning the debris, so that was pretty easy. What suprised the two was when they pressed play on the record of Shawn Flynn. They didn't say anything about it, but Henry and Joey gave each other a look at the fact that it sounded just like his inspiration.

"Before we go through this door, I'm gonna warn you what's about to happen," Joey said." The lights will shut off, and the door will close behind us. You'll hear Alice Angel singing her little song, and a light facing a door behind some glass will turn on. Right as she's supposed to sing her last line, a twisted version of her will pop up and scream "I'm Alice Angel!" before breaking the glass. She'll monologue for a bit, but won't hurt us."

Story Henry nodded. He still had that unreadable expression on his face. Joey could tell that there was still disbelief in his look, and determination, but there were other emotions there he just couldn't tell what they were. He decided to think about that later. They stepped into the room, and the lights shut off. The song started as well, and the voice caught Joey by surprise.

"Holy shit," Henry muttered, voice shaky. "She's-she sounds just like Susie."

"I'M ALICE ANGEL!"

Joey jumped back, and he could see Henry flinch. The glass broke, and cold laughter filled the room. Joey quickly realized that seeing something animated was so much different than experiencing it himself. Yes, he'd had nightmares, but this was so much different.

"I see you there. A new fly in my endless web. Come along now. Let's see if you're worthy to walk with angels."

Joey felt like throwing up.

Chapter Text

 It was a bit of weird silence after leaving that room. Alice's encounter was reasonably terrifying, and it made none of them want to talk. Henry did have one thing to look forward too though. Boris was always his favorite character in this story.

 They ended up taking the Demon Route in the next rooms. The other Henry had been told about the audio logs, and wanted to hear Joey Drew's for himself. They hadn't exactly explained to him the reason why Joey had invited him here, but they probably had to do that soon.

 When they were going through the path, Other Henry heading for the audio log, Henry picked up the Bendy plush that sat on the desk. "I've always wanted there to be a plush like this in real life," He said. "I just wish I didn't have to first see it in person here." Joey hummed in agreement. 

 The audio log clicked. 

 "There's nothing wrong with dreaming. Wishing for the impossible is just human nature."

 It was weird, hearing the log. He'd heard it before, all the words, recorded and edited and everything. Just-in a slightly younger voice. It was almost uncanny hearing it. It was short, and ended rather quickly.

 Other Henry stared at it for a second. "'Just a pencil and a dream," huh?" He said, in a voice that Henry regonized as hidden fury. "You two wrote this story. Why did Joey invite me here?" 

 Henry and Joey exchanged a look. "He's twisted, and off his rocker," Joey replied. "It was like revenge, really, if you can call it that. Even though he made you leave the studio, he's angry that you did, and tried to make these ink things as a way to keep the studio going. Living mascots, if you will. Plan failed, studio was abandoned, and he sent you back just to...make you deal with it, I guess."

 The fury grew, and wasn't as hidden this time. Henry could see Joey step back. "So, what your saying is that he took credit for Bendy, Boris, and Alice, makes me do all the work, and then gets furious when I didn't want to keep living like that? Is that the goddamn truth?"

 Joey nodded, voice coming out hesitant. "Yeah, it is...sorry."

 Other Henry sighed, running his hand through his hair as a fidgit. "Don't apologize. Just...lead the way."

The group headed into the next halls, where Henry knew they'd find Boris. The cutout popped out, and even though he knew it was coming, he still flinched. He needed to get used to that, to know something bad was gonna happen but being unable to stop it. Something told him that'd take awhile. The other Henry walked in front of them, looking past the corner and seeing the toon.

 "Boris! You scared me to death!" He said, and oh, wasn't that just deja vu. They'd animated this, voiced it over, gave it background noise and everything. Henry himself had voiced the line, and although this voice was older, it still shocked him all the same. "Oh, them? I found them in Heavenly Toys, the main area. They're friendly."

 Henry's mind blurred a bit as Joey started talking, explaining. Alright Stein, he thought. What the hell goes on next?

 A fetch quest, that's what. Giving Alice what she needs, then having the elevator drop. They needed a way up, then. Up and out of the studio. God, what were they going to do differently? Talk to the angel, and then what?

 Somebody clapped, right in front of his face. Henry snapped back to attention. "Henry!" Joey said. "What're you thinking about?"

 "Ah, sorry..." Henry muttered. "Did you um, explain everything?" Did you tell Boris what was going to happen?

 Joey nodded, he could read Henry well enough to know what he was asking. "You've got a plan for what to do next?"

 "We need to go deeper down," Henry said. "We can't get back up through here, there's no way. The only way to go is to find a way down without Alice breaking the elevator. That way, we won't lose Boris."

 "Is there even a way deeper down?" Joey asked.

 "I'm not sure yet," Henry replied. "But let's just keep going."

 Although slightly worried about the butcher gang member, which they'd warned the other Henry about, he took care of the thing surprisingly easily. Well, Henry himself was always the type to throw a mean punch, so why wouldn't his counterpart be?

 "You really mangled the butcher gang, huh? Ironic," Other Henry said, giving them a blank look.

 Henry nodded, glancing off to the side. "Yeah, that one was my idea."

 Other than that, it was silence as they entered the elevator. Alice started the thing, sending it down, and she started her rant.

 "You three are so interesting...so different," She began. Henry and Joey gave each other a glance. Dialogue change. "I have to say, I'm an instant fan. Looks like you've got a date with an angel! Come to me now. Level Nine. Just follow the screams."

 "Twisted Alice Angel has always freaked me out," Other Henry muttered. "Her whole thing was to contrast the cartoon Alice, which was done pretty well, but still."

 "What's she like to freak you out so much?" Other Henry asked. 

 "Um...she has a habit of torturing other toons. She claims it "makes her beautiful.'" 

 Other Henry sighed. "Well, that's just great."

 "Susie's nice though. She's the girl who voiced Alice Angel, both in the cartoons and for this story. I don't talk to her that often, but Joey's friends with her."

 "Yeah, I am," Joey said. "We came up with her backstory in this world, too. She wanted to be dramatic about her character, which we were fine with....then again, we didn't know about this, either."

 "Do you think that this is just your story though? Or do you think there could be differences? Between where you came from and here, I mean."

 Before a response could get out, the elevator stopped.

 "Come on, step out of your cage. There's a whole twisted world out here."

 They stepped out of the elevator. Other Henry listened to Thomas Connor's audio log out of curiosity, and then they continued on to the door. When Alice opened it for them, Boris ran ahead of the group.

 "Wait wait wait, Boris, don't!" Joey yelled, running after him. Boris must've known what was happening in here, he just needed to see it for himself. Henry himself didn't want to go after them, though.

 "Just...brace yourself," He muttered to his counterpart, the older animator nodding, a serious look on his face. They followed the two ahead, and other Henry stopped when they got into the room.

 Dead Boris and butcher gang clones. Everywhere. String up, strapped down, all over the room. Henry didn't look up, keeping his eyes firmly placed on the ground, but he could feel other Henry staring at him.

 "...it's different when your drawing it. When you don't think about it to badly, it's different," He mumbled. "Had I realized it'd been real, I'd never let it happen."

 Other Henry didn't respond, rather stepping forward towards Boris. "Are you okay?" He asked. Although Boris didn't say anything, he must've nodded, because Henry then said, "Alright then.."

 Henry lifted his eyes, keeping them away from the mangled corpses and looking at Joey. He looked like he wanted to gag, looking back at Henry with a blank look.

 "Alice Angel is up ahead, isn't she?" Other Henry asked. Henry still didn't look at him, but Joey did.

 "Yeah," He said. "She monologues for a bit and then sends you around."

 "Okay then. Well, obviously I don't want Boris around her, and I don't think he'd want to go anyway," Henry said. "So why don't the two of you stay back here?"

 Now Henry was looking at him. "Wait, why?"

 "Because I know this was planned out by you guys, but I still would rather not have two kids around someone who's done all this," He replied. "Plus, I've been fine dealing with those ink creatures. I'll be fine dealing with her."

 They hesitated for a bit, but eventually agreed. Everything was absolutely terrifying, and Henry wasn't keen on seeing the twisted, mangled version of Alice anyway. While other Henry continued onwards, Henry, Joey, and Boris turned back to the room with the lift. 

 "Hey Boris, you wouldn't happen to know how to get down to the lower levels, would you?" Joey asked. Boris shook his head. "Alright. Worth a shot asking."

It didn't take them long to notice Boris was staring at them. While it was hard to notice something like that with a toon who didn't really have much facial expression, it was a bit obvious.

 "Sorry if this um...sounds rude, but why are you staring at us?" Henry asked, a bit uncomfortable with it. Hah. You'd think something so tame as someone who you know isn't a threat staring wouldn't bother him, all things considered, but it still did.

 Boris pointed at himself. Henry didn't exactly understand, so Boris pointed as Henry, then his head, then at himself.

 "Oh...do you want to know more about yourself? Because we know?" Joey asked. Boris nodded.

 "Joey and I created the cartoon version of Boris while we were in middle school. I needed an idea for a friend of Bendy's, and after a bit of brainstorming, we came up with Boris the Wolf. A generally good friend who likes to sleep and eat a lot. Does that apply to you?" Henry said, thinking back to the days of when he was 12, scribbling on a piece of paper a bunch of different concepts.

 Him and Joey were absolutely determined to find Bendy a pal. While he had loved drawing Bendy in random cartoons, it had also gotten a bit boring drawing him by himself. He wanted a repeating character, another lovable character, but different than Bendy. Therefore, Boris was born.

 "Your character was based off another art major. He was a newspaper club member too, he was the one who mentioned to me I could publish my cartoons in the school newspaper," Henry said. "His name is Daniel, but everyone calls him Buddy."

 Boris froze. Looked at Henry, and although his expression didn't change all that much, Henry regonized the shock, the surprise. 

 "Do you remember that? Being him?" Joey asked. "Being Buddy?" Boris waved his hand in a "so-so" motion. "You only remember certain bits? I'm guessing it's blurry?"

 Boris nodded.

 "Wait, do you remember writing anything down? Like, a journal or something! Buddy had a friend who wrote a story about his character, you, in her writing assignment. They planned it together, it was from his point of view!" Henry said. He remembered them asking him his and Joey's permission, and then reading it later on. They titled it Dreams Come to Life. "Did you write something like that?"

 Boris nodded, very quickly. Then he paused, going into the typical cartoon thinking pose.

 "You...can't remember where it is, can you?" Joey asked. Boris shook his head. "Well...that's okay. If we find it, we could read it. Maybe something in it can help us."

 They all paused, hearing the sound of the doors opening. It was Other Henry, he must've just finished with Alice. Henry and Joey looked at each other, giving slight grins. Hey, they already had a bit of a solid lead on where to go next! If Boris, or Buddy, had written down something helpful, then maybe they could get out of here sooner than they thought.

Chapter Text

 Apparently, Boris couldn't remember where he had stashed the papers. Joey didn't read the full story that Buddy and Dot, in their world, had written, so they couldn't go off their memories. Maybe, if they got lucky, they'd be able to find even more useful papers as well.

 For now, to keep the Angel happy, they'd gone to do the first quest. While his counterpart took the wrench, they'd given the pipe to Henry. He punched a Searcher in the head earlier, it was a reasonable assumption he'd be the best to have the extra weapon.

 Although, Henry looked like he wasn't paying attention to anything. Joey wasn't surprised, that's something he'd do often when he was stressed.

 "So..." The story Henry said. "What exactly is the deal with Alice Angel? I heard the audio tape in that room."

"O-Oh, um, she was originally Susie Campbell. Was
 hired in the studio, originally voiced Alice, then got replace by Allison Pendal," Joey said. "She went a little crazy, was distraught about it, and your Joey Drew used that to get her to agree to the ink experiments. To bring the cartoons to life, I mean. You...obviously see how that went."

 "Oh...I liked Susie," Story Henry muttered. "I didn't know her for long, but Linda was friends with her before she quit."

 Henry shot back to attention at hearing her name. "Wh-Linda? She worked at the studio?"

 "You didn't know that?" Story Henry asked.

 Joey shook his head. "Nope. She helped make music for the story, but wasn't actually put in it. She's also Henry's girlfriend." He got elbowed in the ribs for that. "Hey! What?"

 "Well, Linda is my wife," Story Henry said. He was back to having that blank look. "So I guess that makes sense. You didn't put her into the story?"

 "She didn't want to be put into it. We asked, but she said she'd rather do the music and stuff," Henry replied. "What's her history in the studio?"

 "She was the first music director, in 1929, when the studio was first made. A few months later, Sammy got hired and the two argued a lot. Joey wouldn't do anything about it, and Sammy was insufferable, so she quit."

 "Yeah, butting heads sounds like the two of them..." Henry said. "Why didn't Joey do anything about it?"

 "Because she's a woman and 6 years younger than him," Story Henry replied, looking a bit bitter about it.

 Even though he knew it wasn't his fault, Joey still felt bad. Then he paused. "Wait wait wait, Linda is 6 years older than your Joey? How old are you?"

 "Um, 56?" Henry replied, looking a bit confused. "So is she."

 "Really?" Henry said. "That's...Joey and I are the same age."

 "So that's another thing that isn't similar between our two worlds," Joey said. "So yeah, that means your right, Henry. These are just two worlds that are just convenientally similar."

 With that thought in mind, they continued looking. Unlike in the story, Boris was helping them. While story Henry was collecting the gears, so Alice wouldn't realize they weren't going to complete everything and pull something, Henry and Joey were looking for the papers.

 "Y'know, let's say we're running on toon logic," Joey said, slamming a drawer shut. "We wouldn't get so lucky to find it in this level, would we?"

 "I'm guessing not," Henry hummed. He turned around, whacking a Searcher that Joey didn't even notice in the head a couple of times. Joey was slightly scared by how viciously he did it. "Oh, hey Joey?"

 "Hm?" He slammed more drawers shut. Nothing. He could hear Story Henry talking to Boris. "What's up?"

 "Stop blaming yourself for whatever this Joey did," He replied. Joey nearly choked. "I might not be able to read people as well as you, but I can read you."

 "I'm guessing I get no choice in this matter?" Joey replied sarcastically. Henry gave him a glare. "So that's a no."

 "And don't blame yourself for the ritual either. I know I yelled at you earlier, but you didn't think this would happen. It's probably the way we phrased things."

( '...I want my dreams to come to life. I want to see Bendy out in the world, and his friends, too. I want there to be a studio for us, like in our cartoon but obviously different.'

'Agreed! I agree with you wholeheartedly. I'd do whatever it takes to see our creations come to life.')

 "Yeah, we really did phrase it in a way so that our words could be twisted, didn't we?" 

 Honestly, Joey was extremely glad they were talking normally like this. He was still absolutely terrified, and he knew Henry was as well, but it was nice to use sarcasm to get over it instead of just panicking or arguing. Well, he was glad until he noticed it. The ink.

 Veiny, thin ink crawling closer and closer to them. Joey felt his breath stop. He knew what it was right away, he'd know even without having drawn it. This was always the first sign that he was about to wake up. Then he could hear the whispering once again, the faint whispering.

 "Ah, that should be plenty. Bring them to me. And try not to die on the way back."

 Henry and Joey began running. They almost ran right into story Henry and Boris. "Run, run!" Joey yelled, slowing down but not stopping in his run to the elevator.

 "What-?" Story Henry began, but then he saw. He knew, and he and Boris followed them back to the elevator. They didn't see the ink demon, but Joey knew he was around. Lurking.

 "Holy shit.." Joey muttered. "That was just like in my dreams..."

 "What?" Story Henry asked, eyes wide.

 "Apparently he was having dreams about being trapped in the studio, which for some reason he never made me aware of," Henry said, ignoring the look Joey gave him. "Said he'd dream of being in the studio."

 "I thought it was just random nightmares," Joey replied. Holy hell, if this awkward feeling was how Henry felt all the time, how was he not dead? "Usually it was by the ink demon's hands. I-I think I remember one set in one of the levels of chapter three, actually. I don't know how, but he got into the little miracle station and killed me. Tore the door off and everything."

 Suddenly, Boris clicked one of the elevator buttons. Level K. "Boris? What are you doing?" Story Henry asked. Joey really needed to come up with a better way to refer to him. That's how he kept referring to him in his head, Story Henry. He'd figure that out later. 

 The elevator stopped, and Boris walked out. The group followed him down a few halls, and to a narrow corridor with a very familiar box at the end of it. 

 A miracle station, with the door ripped off. Words were written inside. FEEL FAMILIAR?

 It sure as hell felt familiar. Shit, when he saw it, he slowly began to regonize the halls. Yeah, it was definitely this station he'd gotten killed at. But who was he in the moment? Definitely smaller, but faster. He couldn't remember any of the rest though.

 Instead of saying anything about it, he just turned around and walked back towards the elevator. He knew Henry could read him well enough. He knew Henry would know.

 "Let's go," He said, part of him thinking about how much he hated fetch quest. "Before Alice wonders what we've been up to."

Chapter Text

Henry was never going to draw another fetch quest again. They were currently on task four, destroying the Bendy cutouts. The fetch quests hadn't been in complete silence, though. They'd gone over some stuff.

First of all, they were going to call the other Henry by his last name, just to avoid confusion with them both having the same name. It was mostly for Joey's sake, honestly.

Second of all, they'd found out that Henry, or rather, Stein, had created Bendy, Alice, and Boris on his own. That came as a shock, since Henry had needed inspiration for Alice and Boris. Of course, he'd finished the final drafts of them, but Joey was the one who helped him make concepts and just general ideas.

Third of all, Stein was hellbent on making sure Joey and Henry didn't get hurt. He'd keep the two safe from any ink creatures, and if they'd ever encounter Bendy, he'd rush himself and Boris to the elevator while leaving any nearby Miracle Station to Henry and Joey. While it could have just been he wanted to stay with Boris, it still made Henry quite grateful that he was trying to keep the two alive.

It was rather satisfying watching all the Bendy cutouts get destroyed, but Henry was also a bit sad to see it happen.

"Hey Boris, have you found anything?" Henry asked, meeting up with Boris after the group had split up. Stein had gone off to destroy the cutouts, and the rest of them were looking for the papers. He shook his head, and Henry sighed, before speaking after a moment.

"So, how much do you remember before all this?" Henry asked. Boris paused for a moment, before making a so-so motion with his hand. "Oh. So not that much, huh?" Boris nodded. Henry went back to searching, but continued talking anyway. "I can tell you a bit, if you'd like? About what you were like before?" Now, Boris seemed excited to hear that one, nodding rapidly.

"Alright. Um...you were always very nice. Tall, generally good looking. I know that in your world, you lived with your ma. Worked running suits around NYC. Do you remember any of that?" Henry asked. Boris shrugged. "Alright. You would run around doing small jobs and stuff in your community. People called you Little Buddy, even though your name was Daniel Lewek. Then you got taller, and they cut out the little part, so you were Buddy. Remember that?"

Boris nodded rapidly, seeming excited. It was working then, Henry was helping him remember! Henry grinned a little bit. "I know you lived with your mother, and I think your grandfather moved in with you a little while before...before all of this. He was an artist too, right?" Boris nodded. "Cool."

"It'd be cool to have another artist in my family, but I'm the only one who ever liked drawing. I guess we could count Joey, since he's always liked drawing, but it would be cool if my mom or dad could teach me a couple of things. In my world, Buddy would bring his grandfather's drawings into school a lot and show them off. Heh, he even drew Bendy once! That Buddy really loves to keep his drawings safe, he'd stash them in all sorts of places. I wouldn't be surprised if they were in the walls or something, he always seems to have them on him."

Boris stopped moving right then. His expression didn't change, he did the typical thinking pose that a cartoon would do. Henry never thought he'd see it in real life, honestly. Then, he rushed forward.

"Whoah, whoah, Boris wait up!" Henry said, rushing forward to follow. God, he was fast. "Did you remember something?"

He was heading towards the angel path, Henry realized. When they got inside, Boris knelt down to the ground, and began tugging at the floorboards. Henry watched in silence as the floorboards came up. Boris threw them to the side without a care, and pulled some yellow papers out.

"No way..." Henry muttered. Yet apparently, Boris had remembered. He grabbed a bunch of papers, all bundled together, and a couple of lose ones.

Henry grinned, Boris handing the papers over. "Good job, Buddy," Henry said. Boris bobbed on his feet, looking proud of himself. "Now let's go find the others, shall we?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shit, shit shit.

Joey sprinted through the halls of level K, wondering why in the absolute hell these damned Searchers seemed so hellbent on killing him. Seriously, what had he done wrong?! He'd seen at least 6 in this level so far, and had taken to using a pen to stab them. He was an idiot to split up from the others, especially since he didn't have a weapon.

He sprinted down the stairs to the main Heavenly Toys area, where he and Henry had woken up. Stein was here as well apparently, looking at Joey with a bit of shock when he saw what was chasing him. No words were spoken though, he stepped forward, and soon all the Searchers were nothing but piles of ink.

"Thanks," Joey said, sitting down on the stairs to catch his breath. "I feel like those damned bastards are targeting me on purpose."

"Are you okay?" Stein asked, swinging his axe and destroying a Bendy cutout. He paused, looking over at Joey with concern in his eyes. "Are you hurt?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," Joey replied. He still felt terrified, and still wanted to throw up, but otherwise he was fine. "Probably shouldn't have split up from everyone. 'Least I got experience for this kinda shit already though, haha!"

Joey knew he could be annoying. He knew that he liked to push people's buttons sometimes and that caused people to want to fight him. And as much as he hates to admit it, Joey can't throw a punch very well. Yeah sure, he can spin his words in a way to manipulate a situation in his favor most times, but he was a noodle when it came to fighting. That's when Henry, who couldn't hold a conversation with a stranger to save his own life, would come in swinging.

Joey looked up. Stein had an expression on his face that Joey had seen on all of his teachers before they'd lecture him. Ah, shit.

"You aren't starting fights, are you? Back in your world?" He asked.

"What? No," Joey replied. "I don't even get into fights that often. It's just that um...sometimes I like annoying people who annoy me, and then they get mad, y'know?"

Now Stein just looked a bit amused. Still concerned, but amused. "You shouldn't be doing that, you realize that right? You could get into a lot of trouble."

"Hey, I'm nearly 21, I know how to avoid getting into trouble. I won't get into much trouble as all of this ever again, that's for sure."

"Yeah, I'd sure hope not," Stein muttered. He destroyed a few more cutouts, Joey watching in silence. "How does your Henry react to your fights?"

Joey shrugged, a small grin on his face. "He thinks I'm an idiot, and a bit insane. Reasonably, of course," Joey said. "I don't make him, but most of the time? I ended up stalling or running until he realizes someone's about to start a fight, and then he's the one to throw a punch first. Threw an inkwell at someone once, when we were in high school."

Now that was a fun day. Joey had pissed some people off, they started yelling and shoving, and suddenly an half full inkwell was flying through the air. Nearly in slow motion actually, through the air and shattering against someone's back. Ink was everywhere, and Henry was grabbing his arm, yelling at him to run. Both of them were laughing.

"And in case your wondering, I know your Joey is an asshole," Joey said, feeling a bit self conscious all of a sudden. Yeah, adults didn't really like it when he started fights, did they? "I'm not making him do that stuff with me, not getting him into trouble on purpose. I'm not like him."

Back to that blank look. Perfectly blank, once again. "I don't think your like him. Your a bit chaotic, yes, but your not my version of Joey Drew."

Joey grinned a bit. Look, he was a bit nervous about Stein thinking about him like his own Joey. Maybe it was a dumb thought, but hey, he knew this Joey Drew was an asshole and a megalomaniac. Being compared to him would be a huge blow to his self esteem, honestly.

Before another word could be said, footsteps echoed through the hall. Both Joey and Stein looked up, seeing Henry and Boris run into the room. Henry had papers in his hand.

"Guys!" He said, voice loud. He was grinning, holding the papers in his hand. "Boris found them!"

Chapter Text

What they ended up doing was sitting in Heavenly Toys, going through the papers to see if there was anything useful. It wasn't only the story that they found. They also found a guide, a map. It seemed that when Boris drew it, he was trying to escape the lower levels, but it was still a way to get down there.

"Boris ex machina," Joey had muttered.

They didn't waste time after that. Boris kept the papers on him, seeming reluctant to let them go. No wonder. Henry finished destroying the cutouts, they'd left one near the elevator intact so they could get away from Bendy quickly, and they headed back down to the angel's lair.

"That took you an awful long while..." The angel muttered. More script changes. Henry really had to get used to that. "What, did you get lost?" Her tone was almost teasing, but it wasn't hard to spot the malice.

Henry glanced towards Stein. Although he didn't have much expression, it was clear he was thinking 'This isn't Alice Angel.' No wonder he'd be thinking that. Alice was his creation after all. While Henry had gotten used to her, he knew he'd thought the same thing. Of course, he'd been drawing her, but he still knew it wasn't the lovable Alice she should've been.

"The next quest is kind of a fight," Joey said. Henry didn't pay attention to the explanation, he knew what was going to happen. Angel's Wrath, the second to last objective.

Thinking about it, he really needed to stop spacing out. It was a habit by now, an attempt to distract himself from the shit that was going on. It was fine though, it was fine. Perfectly fine.

He looked up. Boris was looking at him, and although his face didn't change, he knew Boris was concerned for him. Oh, the 'I feel like dying' mentality was probably showing.

"Sammy said I had talent, he was always a good liar... Still he was once a very handsome man."

The elevator stopped and they stepped out. Unlike in the story, Boris came with them. Stein, although reluctant, put the axe back and got his pipe.

"The disgusting wretches have wandered my halls, have gone unchecked! They're trying to drag me back to the darkness! Don't let them take your angel! Purge them, one by one! Smash them into puddles! Kill them!"

Henry wasn't expecting this to be easy. He'd drawn the fight, he knew what was coming. Or so he thought, because four Searchers popped out of the ground, right in front of all of them.

"Oh SHIT!" Joey yelled, two of them focusing their sights on him. And holy shit, those things were vicious. Stein had to focus on the two trying to attack him, so Henry grabbed a can of bacon soup and threw it at one of them. It faltered, but didn't die. And then it focused on Henry.

It was a bit horrific watching the thing crawl towards him. It dragged itself along the ground, swiping at him when he tried to get away. Henry could only get out of the way, having lost the bacon soup can, until he could punch the thing in the face. Once again, it didn't die.

From behind him, Boris run up behind him. Henry got out of his way, and he smacked the thing with a pipe he found. Huh. Where'd he even get that thing? Actually, didn't matter.

The other three Searchers had been killed, and Henry could see two butcher gang members wandering down the stairs. Henry took the pipe from Boris, and stepped forward behind Stein.

Now, obviously, being trapped in this place didn't leave a lot of room for anything other than terror. But he found that beating a mangled cartoon to death was a great stress reliever, actually. As he was doing this, he noticed there were more creatures than there should have been. More Searchers, more Butcher Gang members. While it could just be another story change, something in him could just tell it was wrong. There wasn't supposed to be so many monsters in this fight.

"So quiet. Like a welcoming grave. I like the silence, don't you?"

Right now? The quiet felt like it was pressing down on them. Him and Joey gave each other a glance. Yeah, they were both thinking the same thing.

"I hate leaving work unfinished! Fortunately, I have you to pick up the pieces. But you'll have to go even deeper. Down, down, down, into the abyss. Take the lift down. Say hello to an old friend."

After a moment, Joey spoke. "That's a bit weird.." He muttered, then he noticed the confused look he was given. "She was supposed to offer a Tommy gun, only to pull it away. Kind of like a taunt. I'm just wondering why she didn't do it."

"Well, I'm a bit glad she didn't. My patience is running thin with her," Stein replied. Boris nodded in agreement as they started walking to the elevator. "What did she mean by an old friend?"

"The Projectionist is down there," Henry said. "But I think we can get down into the lower levels through there, according to the map."

Stein was quiet for a moment. "...Is it Norman?"

They all went quiet at that. They'd read about Norman in Buddy's writing, and they knew of his fate. Boris seemed uncomfortable with this topic, and why wouldn't he be? Obviously, being the guy who saw the body, he wouldn't be happy with it.

"He and I were friends for a long while. I heard of his death, yes, but I didn't think all of this caused it," Stein said, his voice even quieter. "I didn't want to admit it before, but Joey really lost it, huh?"

Henry and Joey gave each other a look, before Henry nodded slightly. How would they have responded? They were both just a parallel of the friendship Stein and his Joey had, and they were the version that went well. How could they make him feel better, knowing he experienced the bad?

"Let's go," Stein said. He didn't sound angry, just sad. Not saying a word, the three of them followed him. They stepped into the elevator, and Joey pressed the button to go to the Projectilnist's lair. The doors closed, but the elevator didn't move. He pressed it again, looking confused.

The elevator dropped.

A strangled cry ripped from Henry's throat as they plummeted, down down below. Alice's laughter carried over the speakers.

"You really thought you could betray me?! You really thought I wouldn't realize you were lying to your angel?!" She shrieked. "No, you three! I know what your going to do! You weren't worthy to walk with angels, so now you'll fall! Down, down, down into hell. And as your payment, YOU'LL BRING ME THAT BORIS!"

Henry's mind began to tap out of reality then. Alice's words began to blur in his mind. He could faintly hear Joey talking, repeating "This wasn't supposed to happen!" over and over. He sounded like he was gonna throw up.

Stein wasn't talking. Maybe he was in the same boat as Henry. Henry lifted his eyes, looking towards Boris. He looked terrified.

"I'm sorry, Buddy," Henry said, his own voice sounding far away.

The world seemed to end with a screech of metal and a loud boom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Henry Stein, the older one, mind you, felt the world slipping in and out of his grasp. There was someone there, shaking his shoulders. Who was it?

The world nearly slipped away from him, back into the black abyss of darkness. He grasped onto it, grasped the feeling of pain and confusion that was definitely the result of the elevator crash. He forced his eyes to focus.

It was Boris, shaking his shoulders. He was out of the elevator, on the ground. His limbs felt heavy, and he could spot one of the kids off to the side. Had Boris dragged them all out of the elevator?

He still couldn't move. He should've been able to move by now. There was humming, a familiar humming, as Henry spotted someone behind Boris. He tried to open his mouth, tried to warn Boris of the twisted angel approaching him, but he couldn't move or speak. It was like paralysis.

The world nearly slipped away from him again, and he latched onto it with all he had. The Angel reached Boris. The lights cut. Or was it his vision? Then he could see it, Boris being dragged away, hands reaching out for help.

He wanted to get up, get up and go after him. Yell at the angel, yell at the damned ink creatures, at anyone who crossed his path. He wanted to get up, make sure the kids were alright. But he couldn't. He felt frozen.

He knew who was to blame for that.

Chapter Text

 "Susie wasn't all that bad, Mister Drew. Once upon a time, she was very kind and sweet. Very pretty, too."

 There was a man sitting on the ground in front of Joey. He was completely made of ink, wearing suspenders. He was missing his mask, holding a banjo in his hands and playing it quietly.

 "Sammy Lawrence," Joey said, nearly questioning, but sure.

 "That's me," He confirmed. "Finally pulled a bit of myself together to speak to you. It's been a very long time since I've been able to think this clearly, Mister Drew."

 "Why do you keep calling me that? "Mister Drew", as if I'm your boss."

 "We need a way to differentiate you from our Joey. And we feel a lot better calling you Mister than him," Sammy replied. He set his banjo on the floor and stood up. "That other Joey, you need to be careful of him. Him and his temper..."

 "Can he still affect this world? Is he the one who made the elevator fall prematurely?"

 Sammy nodded. "Yes, Joey's the one that did that. Poor Susie wouldn't have noticed otherwise. She was quite the angel before, but oh...Joey Drew, he did this to us."

 "Can I find you again? When I'm out of here, when your back in the studio?" Another ally would be nice.

 Sammy shook his head, seeming disappointed. "It's already taken a lot of effort to pull my mind together for this. Usually, it's nothing but mush. A crazed character that Joey made me into, made all of us into for his own gain." He sighed. "Some people, like that kid, Buddy, have better luck with keeping their minds in check. People like me and Susie? It's like she said, bits and pieces of our minds swimming around...fish in a bowl."

 His voice sounded like is was reverbing, like multiple people were speaking at once. It took a moment for Joey to figure out what was happening. "Your slipping back into the ink, aren't you?"

 "Yes, I am. People already say I was a bit nuts before I was addicted to the ink...that makes it even harder to keep my mind in check." Sammy shook his head again, as though he were trying to keep himself in focus. "Good luck, Mister Drew. Find your way out. And if you manage to succeed? Set us free."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 There was someone gently shaking him. "Joey? Are you okay?" It was an older voice, but one he regonized. He opened his eyes, seeing Stein kneeling over him. He looked concerned, moving off to the side so Joey could sit up. "How're you feeling?"

 Joey stumbled to his feet and over to one of the walls. He gagged, throwing up. Goddamnit. He always did this when things got to much. He turned around once he felt a bit better, seeing Stein waking up Henry. When Henry was up, he pushed himself to his feet. His glasses were gone.

 "Both of you, are you okay?" Stein asked.

 Both of the younger animators nodded, Joey watching as his friend reached into the twisted remains of the elevator to grab his glasses. The right lense was cracked. "I-I'm okay. She took him, didn't she?"

 "She did. We need to go after them, and quick," Stein said. "I know you said she kills him, but this is real, right? We must be on a time limit, but if we hurry, we can save him."

 "Let's go, then," Henry said. He looked very out of it, like he wasn't paying much attention to what was going on. Joey didn't blame him, with everything that had been happening. He needed to process it all, but Joey knew he'd be able to focus clearly within a few minutes.

 They were all still in a bit of shock when they started to move. When they went to get the wheel for the door, Stein was clearly a bit disturbed by the manic crawlings on the wall.

 "Honestly," He said, grabbing the wheel. "I think I did this a couple of times. On paper, but the point still stands."

 "Really?" Joey asked, a bit of concern in his voice. If Stein was anything like his Henry, then he knew for a fact it would take him a lot to do something like that. They decided not to listen to the audio log, Henry already having warned them what was on it.

 "Yeah. Working with him was...a lot. I think it was just a night I couldn't get Bendy completely correct. I'd been at work for about 10 hours and still had lots to go, and just couldn't get the one drawing right," Stein muttered, putting the wheel into the door and turning it. "Stress had been building all day and that was the breaking point so I just...scribbled all over it. Random words, drawings, anything really."

 "And he didn't really help you at all?" Joey asked, even though he knew the answer. Stein nodded, pushing the door open.

 "Whoah..." Stein muttered, stepping into the room as the lights flickered on. Ink humanoid statues stood on a large pedestal, a statue of cartoon Bendy in the middle of them.

 "Right. This is the Bendyland chapter," Joey said. He loved drawing this one. Henry had his own preferences, but Joey was a fan of things like Disney and Six Flags. Theme parks and art mixed? It was a dream come true.

 "I remember hearing about that. Some sort of theme park that never set off, right? I didn't look to into it," Stein muttered. Joey nodded. "Alright. Let's go on then."

 "This was always a fun level to draw," Henry said. "Joey liked it better than I did. Personally, I liked drawing the level with Boris, but I'm beginning to hate that now."

 The library. The puzzle was simple. Find the books, unlock the door.

 "I've done a few bigger projects, other than the rubber hose cartoons," Stein said, pushing a book back into it's place. "But what you guys did with this world seemed to take a lot of effort, huh?"

 "Yeah. We were doing a sequel as well, Bendy and the Dark Revival. Didn't really get that one planned out as much. I know our new main character was a girl named Audrey though." Joey paused, pushing a book into it's spot. "I hated designing her."

 "Ah, character concepts. I always hated those," Stein muttered, smirking slightly at whatever memory he was thinking of. "God, designing Boris, I-"

 He cut off. He was in the inside part of the small library, having just pushed a book back into it's shelf. He stumbled back, leaning against the table as he looked at something Joey couldn't see. Joey could easily read the shock, the confusion on his face. It looked like he was having a migraine, but it was clear he was seeing something. A hallucination?

 Henry had heard the sudden cut off as well, and had went to the inside part of the library to see if he was okay. Both the younger animators stood in shock for about 10 seconds, until Stein seemed okay again.

 He looked at Joey, then at Henry. "Did you guys see that?"

 "We didn't see anything," Joey replied. "What was it?"

 "Everything was shaking. There was a wired noise and just..." He cut himself off. "It was just a weird hallucination, probably."

 A weird hallucination? Joey paused, suddenly remembering the dream he had after the elevator crashed. "Holy shit.." he muttered to himself, thinking over what he'd been told. "I nearly forgot, but you just reminded me...I had a dream about Sammy."

 Henry's head whipped towards him so quick that Joey heard it crack. "You what?"

 Joey kept talking as he went to get the next book. "Y-Yeah. He told me that Joey could still affect this world, and he was the one who let Alice notice the elevator fell."

 "Jesus Christ, Joey.." Stein muttered, running his hand through his hair. Joey had a feeling that he wasn't the one being talked to there. "What the hell are you doing?"

 They had to continue after that. Henry had grabbed Susie's audio log as they walked, not wanting to stop to listen to it. They listened to it as they entered the next room, which was vast and large. Stein glanced into the drop below. Once Susie's audio recording was done, he took it from Henry and chucked it down there before continuing to walk.

 "The looks...very unsafe," He said upon seeing the lift that would carry them across.

 "Yeah, but it's our only way across," Henry replied, walking into the room where their supply of ink should be. He pulled the lever and Joey turned the wheel, and inside of the pool of ink, a large searcher emerged. Joey grabbed the ball of ink, and the two walked out, Stein following.

 "That was a person, wasn't it? Someone who Joey killed?" Stein said. "All of them were, weren't they?"

 "They were," Henry replied, turning the little machine to the gear setting. Joey put the ink in and used the handle. "All of them, yeah. I'm sorry."

 They watched as the gear popped out of the machine, Stein grabbing it and putting it into the machine. They all stared at the lift, unsure.

 "Do you want me to go first?" Stein asked. "In case it's not safe. I'd be able to tell."

 "Are you sure?" Henry asked.

 Stein said he was, and so they let him go across. The lift shuddered and stopped halfway through, but it eventually got him to the other side. He sent it back, and so Henry went, and then Joey.

 As Joey went across, he kept his eyes off the ground below him. He wasn't gonna fall. He wasn't going to fall, he knew that. But still, if the elevator fell, why wouldn't he? His near panic attacked was interrupted when he reached the edge, Henry reaching down to him and pulling him out.

 Neither of them said anything about it, but Joey knew Henry had seen him begin panicking. They didn't speak of it, but Joey gripped Henry's hand anyway. He didn't let go. This had been a habit of theirs since they were kids, and although they'd nearly stopped doing it when they were older, they would grab each other's hands for comfort in particularly bad situations.

 They walked through the next door, into a long hall. Suddenly, as they were walking, Stein stopped from where he was behind them. Joey and Henry turned around, seeing his wide eyes. He looked like he was watching something, like it was close.

 "Henry?" Joey's Henry asked, using his first name. Joey wasn't sure why, but it seemed to snap him out of his panic. Maybe it was just more recognizable to him. "Are you okay?"

 "I had another one of those hallucinations..." Stein muttered. "You guys really didn't hear the noises? See the hands coming out of the walls?"

 Both Joey and Henry shook their heads. Stein just sighed and told them to keep going, that he was fine. Unsure how to help him properly, they listened. Then came the room with the stairs, with the chains dropping the machine down into the abyss.

 "I see you there, my traitorous little errand boys. Your angel is always watching."

 Joey flinched. He'd nearly forgotten about Alice's voice lines here. Henry's grip tightened, and Joey was praying that they weren't taking to long.

 "What is it that keeps you going? Is it the thrill of the hunt? The thirst for your freedom? or perhaps....you're just looking for a little, friendly, wolf."

 Joey glanced at Stein, the group having continued walking. He didn't have much expression, but Joey could see the fury in his eyes, how his hands were clenched tightly. There was terror in there, yes, but also pure anger, the kind that made even the most calmest of people become the most dangerous.

 "Better hurry errand boys. Boris is having trouble staying in one piece."

 The fury grew. Joey felt Henry speed up, almost run the rest of the way up the stairs. He practically threw open the door of the next room, clearly desperate to get through quickly. He seemed to have forgotten what was on the other side. Stein let in a gasp.

 The Lost Ones.

Chapter Text

 Henry Stein, the older one, had met Joey Drew when he was 12 years old.

 Joey was 18 by then, and had noticed the younger kid because of his drawing skills. Even then, Henry had already matched Joey's skill. Henry was naive and excited when Joey had said he had talent, and so didn't protest when Joey had taken him under his wing. Use that term loosely, if you will.

 Joey was an awful friend. Whether Henry was cleaning up his messes or helping him with art work he should have been doing himself, there was always an incident with Joey that got Henry in trouble. The incidents weren't bad enough that Henry saw the pattern, or maybe he was just blinded by the fact that they were friends to look for one. There was one incident though, one incident that Henry was still bitter over.

 They had snuck into a theater and were watching the performance from the catwalk. When it was over, Henry had still been looking over, staring at the props and the set that had been made so well. Joey had teased him, no, made fun of him, for his fascination with the set decision. As some dumb joke, Joey pushed him. Pushed him, when he'd been leaning over the edge, to far. 

 Things kind of blurred over that. One minute he was hanging over the edge, gripping the catwalk as Joey stared down at him in horror. The next moment he was on his ground, feeling like he'd been hit by a truck, screaming his lungs off. Some of the actors had found him a little while after.

 Henry still had a limp from that. Made it real damn hard to run quickly away from the fucking ink creatures he'd deal with 40 years later.

 Apparently Joey had run off. He later explained it to Henry, he'd panicked, thinking Henry would be mad at him. Henry took it as the truth, but deep down? He knew why Joey had ran: He knew he'd get in trouble, and didn't want to take responsibility. Henry didn't break off the friendship then, but he did years later, after the studio had opened.

  Linda had been telling him he needed to quit for months before that. Not only did she hate the toll everything was taking on him, her health hadn't been the best at the time. Henry didn't want to come home on a late night to find out something had happened to her. When he'd taken her advice, he and Joey argued, and well, you know the rest. Henry'd felt bad, he didn't know why. Tried sending Joey letters, trying to at least become pen pals. He gave Joey that framed drawing, even if he kind of regretted it.

 Although, of all things he could have regretted doing because of Joey, coming back to the studio was definitely the biggest. Against his better judgement, against Linda's advice, he'd gone back. And now he was stuck in cartoon hell.

 Stuck with an ink demon, a twisted angel, a friendly wolf, and...two kids. Honestly? He thought nothing could be more surprising than the ink hell. The alternate universe had to take the cake for most shocking thing he's ever experienced, though.

 He was going to admit this in his head and nobody else: He was jealous of those two. How could he not be? While Henry and his Joey's friendship had smoldered for years till it crashed and burned, they were thick as thieves. They were also determined to get out of here, just like Henry himself was.

 It was strange actually, watching them. The younger Henry always looked like he wasn't paying attention when things got rough, which probably meant his mind was blocking it. Joey always looked like he was going to get sick when things went wrong, but it seemed like he was determined to get his friend, and now the older version friend, through the studio. It was strange seeing a version of Joey that was...nice, actually.

 He had a lot of thoughts, going through the studio. Lots of thoughts of how awful it must've been for the ink humanoids, the ones Joey had muttered were called Lost Ones. Thoughts of how it was especially terrifying seeing Bendy pop out at them through the vents. His younger self had assured him that Bendy wouldn't be a problem this chapter. Thoughts of how Betrum Peidmont's audio log sounded like Joey had only gotten worse, even if the studio should've made it pretty damn obvious already. He couldn't help but see some parallels between what Betrum and him had gone through.

 This new place though, the place Joey'd been planning? Bendy Land was definitely something Henry wasn't sure what to think about.

Chapter Text

 "So, what's the plan?" Stein asked.

 "Mini-games. C'mon," Joey said, walking forward into BendyLand. Bendy Hell, if you read what was on the sign. Certainly felt like hell. Henry was really feeling like curling up on the ground and crying for a little while, but they had to save Boris. Plus, he would rather die than do that in front of anyone. "We need to open the doors and switch the levers. This one gets opened by playing these two games."

 Stein took on the shooting game while Henry and Joey knocked the cans over. Joey had a good arm, so that was quickly finished. Apparently, Stein had exceptional aim, so he managed to shoot all the targets in one go.

 "Your really good," Joey said as they went into the next room. "Where'd you learn to shoot like that?"

 "I used to play a bunch of shooter games at carnivals," Stein answered, watching the door open. "Got pretty good."

 They walked into the room, Stein staring at the Bendy dolls with the creepy faces before pulling the lever. "That's one."

 "I've never been good with a gun," Henry hummed, watching as Joey ran to go pull a lever. "And carnivals have always been Joey's thing. I like them, but he loves them."

 "My Joey never liked carnivals. I always went by myself," Stein said. His expression darkened. 

 Although Henry wasn't the greatest at reading expressions, it was a bit clear to him what Stein was thinking. Maybe it was because he drew him, or maybe it was because they were just less obvious versions of Henry's own expressions, but he could see it.

 "Was he always like that?" Henry asked, before he really meant to. "Ah-sorry if that's to personal. I'm just wondering cause, well, I just can't see my Joey doing that."

 "It's just like we aren't the same person, Henry. They aren't either. Don't forget that." His tone is soft, quiet. He seems to understand where Henry is coming from, though. He doesn't think Joey will turn evil all of a sudden, it's just that he wanted to know if there was a reason he did. 

 "I'm not. Sorry, I'm just curious."

 Joey ran back over to them, the next door opening. Henry nearly forgot what this room was, until he saw the Butcher Gang members.

 "Looks like there's some company up ahead. Without a weapon, we don't stand a chance," Stein said. Henry felt a weird feeling of deja Vu, remembering that he voiced a similar line.

 Joey peered over the edge. He knocked a can over, watching as the scuttling, muttering Butcher Gang members went to check it out.

 "Just like that," He said. "Someone has to go get the lever.  Left door first, then the right."

 "I'll go," Stein offered. "I don't want either of you two getting hurt."

 Henry and Joey were a bit reluctant, but they agreed, Joey throwing a can down at the Butcher Gang members to get their attention. As Stein went for the door, Joey spoke.

 "So I didn't notice this before, but you've noticed he's got a limp, right? I feel bad, since he's doing this for us and he's gotta be a bit fast. I don't think he'd let us go, though. It's not obvious, but it does slow him down."

 "No, I didn't notice," Henry muttered. "Which leg is it?"

 "His right one. His knee, probably..." Joey trailed off.

 That got Henry thinking. There had been an...incident, when him and Joey were 18. They'd snuck into a theater to watch a play, standing on the balcony to see. When the actors were on break, Joey and Henry were fooling around, and Joey pushed Henry a bit to far when he was leaning over the edge.

 Henry remembered grabbing hold of the catwalk, hanging on for dear life, before falling and hitting the ground below, landing right on his knee. He screamed a lot, obviously, and there was a lot of blood. A minute later, a very panicked Joey ran in, a couple of adults following him. There wasn't much he remembered from that day, but he remembered how much his knee hurt and how much Joey kept apologizing.
 
  That hadn't left a limp, though. Henry was still able to outrun his friends and the people he and Joey pissed off. But then again, Joey got some adults pretty fast, as well as the fact that he was at a modern day hospital. Maybe Henry could ask later.
 
 "We could ask him about it later," Joey said, throwing a can once they saw Stein trying to get to the other room. Henry whistled, really loudly, watching as the Butcher Gang noticed them. They ran to the wall, looking up at them in annoying, sputtering nonsense that neither Henry nor Joey could understand. Henry just whistled again.

 "Damn Henry, I didn't know you'd stoop so low as to catcall people!" Joey told him. Henry snorted as Stein left the second room, running back up to join them. It was more obvious now, the limp that he had. He didn't ask though, the group leaving and Henry going to pull the next lever.

 His thoughts blurred a bit. The fear of this situation was feeling normal. It left him and Joey room to mess with each other, like with the catcalling comment. Although that might've just been them both in any scary situation, using humor to cope.

 But the real terror would be behind the haunted house doors. They had been going fast. They'd been going very fast, working together, grabbing audio logs to take with them rather than just stopping and listening. Henry and Joey knew the way. But if Joey's dreams were true, and Sammy Lawrence knew what he was talking about, then the evil Joey Drew wasn't going to let them get away so easily. He wasn't going to let them save Boris.

 But then again, Henry thought, as he was walking back to the others. Why would he let us get this far anyway?

 Maybe he couldn't just do that. Any good story teller knew that plotholes were a nightmare that needed to be dealt with. Maybe Joey Drew couldn't just reach into the story and kill them off without any explanation. They couldn't just drop dead. They'd have to get killed, in some logical way. Logical for this world, at least. But what was logic for this world?

 Logic in this world was ink demons, twisted angels, friendly wolves and rituals. Duality and theming, the ability to survive 40 foot drops from one level to another, the ability for ink creatures to die and be reborn. Logic was the world being able to be looped, like film on a reel.

 Henry's thoughts paused.

 They never told Stein about the ending, did they?

 Oh Lord. They never told him about The Cycle. The endless loop Stein would be stuck in, never able to escape. How would they tell him? How could they tell him that'd they'd drawn out the end, the bad end, and animated it to boot? God.

 How could they? Even if they didn't write it out in this world specifically, they still did it. How would Stein-?

 Hands clapped in front of his face. He snapped back into focus, seeing Joey's concerned face in front of him. They were just about to head into Betrum's room, Henry had been following them without thinking, and no wonder Joey would want him to focus in this room.

 "Are you okay, Henry?" Stein asked, looking equally as concerned as Joey. "What're you thinking about?"

 "Nothing. It's-It's nothing," Henry said, but they already see it was a lie. "Please, can we just keep going?"

 Joey frowned. He didn't respond right away, but Stein nodded. "Just tell us when your ready, okay?" Stein asked. Henry nodded, and they headed into the next room.

 "Betrum Peidmont," Joey said. "I don't think you heard me Henry, but I explained what's gonna happen in here."

 "And it sounds dangerous. You two have gotta be careful, and I'd say you should just stay out of reach of Betrum's ride," Stein said.

 "We can help you," Henry said, frowning. "You don't need to do it by yourself."

 "Your just kids. One of you gets sick when you get scared, and the other dissociates," Stein said, but he didn't say it in a mean way. He seemed concerned. "I don't want you guys to get hurt. Now let's hurry up."

 "We're both 20," Joey said, following him into the room. "We aren't kids. Hell, I'll be able to drink in a month!"

 "And your also 37 years younger than me. And you still can't drink, so that doesn't count for anything. I don't want you two getting hurt."

 "To be fair, we're both super fast," Henry said. He didn't continue arguing his point, choosing the click Betrum's audio log and listen to it play.

 "The biggest park ever built, a centerfold of attractions. Each one, more grand than the one before it. It makes my eyes come to tears at the thought."

 One of Susie Campbell's friends, another voice actor, had done then a favor and recorded this log. This entire boss battle got thrown in because Joey hated one of his teachers, Mr. Betrum Peidmont, and they wanted a way to show that. So they threw him in this story and made him a twisted theme park ride, which was a little macabre but they had been thinking of the ride idea before that. They just needed a way to put it in.

 But hearing this, it sounded like Peidmont's real voice, which made it all the more horrifying hearing him grow angrier and angrier as the ride booted up. Unlike in his animation, which had taken a few days of painstakingly precise effort, there was no music or soundtrack. That just left the yelling voice of Peidmont in his ears, as well as the horrific sound of the ride activating.

"You may think I've gone...But I'm still here!"

 And it began, slamming onto the table with the audio log and breaking it. Stein grabbed the axe that had been inside. Joey and Henry started moving around the perimeter of the room, out of Peidmont's reach.

 "Somehow, he looks less ugly as a giant, twisted cartoon than a professor," Joey muttered, clearly trying to stop his own panic.

 Peidmont's arms slammed down, and they watched as Stein cleaved off two of the targets with his axe before getting out of the way. He wasn't very fast. Henry and Joey glanced at each other, and they both knew what they were gonna do. They were known for their dumb decisions, after all.

  When the roller coaster cars slammed down again, close to them, both Henry and Joey ran forward. Each one grabbed a target, pulling as hard as they could to get it off. Joey got his off, but Henry had to get pulled out of the way before he could get his off. Damnit.

 "If you guys are going to do that, be careful!" Stein yelled at them from wherever he was standing. Henry didn't see him just yet.

 They waited again for the ride to slam down, hearing Stein hacking off parts of the ride again. This time, Henry was able to get one of the targets off, but once again it took him almost to long. He barely got out of the way in time, tripping over himself and losing his glasses somewhere in the ink.

 "God fucking damnit!" He yelled, feeling annoyance bubble up. Terror and anger came hand in hand sometimes. One was better than the other, after all. Henry lunged forward to grab them, wiping the ink off and watching it stain his hoodie.

 It was a bit of a weird realization, realizing he and Joey were the only two beings in this studio with color. His bright red hoodie and dark blue jeans, and Joey with his light blue vest. Even Stein didn't have much color to him. Suddenly, he felt annoyed that his clothes were stained with ink. He didn't want to blend in with this place.

 He continued doing his best to get the targets off. With three people working together, it didn't actually take that long to take Peidmont down. The limbs of the ride seemed to disappear once they got them off, and soon, it was just the body of the ride. Once it closed up was when Joey could pull the lever.

 "Are you both okay?" Stein asked, looking nervous. "I told you guys to let me do it. Joey, don't think I didn't notice you nearly got your head bashed in."

 "I'm fine!" Joey replied. He faltered. "The Projectionist is up next."

 Henry flinched slightly. Poor Stein. Henry was friends with his own version of Norman. The man was older than him, a 23 year old fourth year who had shown great skill with technology. The two got along very well, Henry would consider him one of his best friends. Behind Joey, of course.

 They'd actually met while Henry was still in highschool, while Norman was working at a projectionist in a theatre. Henry would never wanna deal with a version of Norman like this. Never.

 Joey began to warn Stein of what would happen. Stein was, on the surface, taking it rather well. Henry could see the apprehension in his face though. He didn't want to do it, obviously. It was obvious he would though.

 He'd do it for Boris.

Chapter Text

 The game plan went like this: They'd all go into the Projectionist's room, and when the levers were pulled, Henry and Joey would stay up the steps while Stein triggered the Bendy and Norman fight. Simple. Easy.

 Joey had offered to trigger the scene, but Stein said no. And look, Joey had done a lot of stupid shit before. He'd talked his way out of trouble, sprinted away from trouble, and once or twice drank away the feeling of it on his shoulders. He was a college student, doing stupid shit was a way of life.

 This was something he wasn't going to argue against, though. This was dangerous, this was terrifying, this made Joey want to puke and go lay down in his bed. But he couldn't, so he agreed to let Stein trigger the fight.

 "Is this Joey Drew's idea of a joke?" Stein had asked, his tone showing that he was ticked off. He'd seen one of the posters. The Buddy Boris Railway.

 Buddy. Boris.

 It was so dark, it nearly made Joey want to laugh. He didn't.

 They could see him up there, The Projectionist. Joey had never been good friends with him, but Henry had. They'd met a couple of times, and he was a bit curt, but rather nice. Henry liked him, so by association, Joey did as well. And of course, Joey didn't refuse when Henry asked if his friend could be put in the story. He wished he did.

 They could see him down there, trudging through the ink. Lurking in the darkness. Stein went for the first switch while Henry and Joey went for the stairs.

 And Joey did not expect the Projectionist's eyes to turn around and land right on him. The thing shrieked, Henry grabbing his hand and pulling him as hard as he could towards the Miracle Station. He could hear his friend muttering swear words, and holy shit, the Projectionist should not have been that goddamn fast. He nearly caught up with the two young animators.

 Joey lunged forward, grabbing the door of the Miracle Station and yanking Henry forward into it. He nearly slammed into the back wall, slamming the door shut behind him and turning around.

 The station was cramped. Henry and Joey were in there shoulder to shoulder, but it was big enough for each of them to be pressed uncomfortablely against a wall. Henry was at a slight angle. The Projectionist didn't move away from the station though. Instead, Joey watched as his heart rate picked up, as the Projectionist reached for the door.

 This part of the animation had been a first person point of view. Joey knew how it'd play out. He could hear Henry breathing next to him, breath ragged. Joey was still gripping his hand.

 A loud staticky noise played out, ringing through Joey's head and cutting through his brain. And then there was Bendy, snarling and growling at the Projectionist as they began their fight. But Joey could hardly hear them. He could only hear the voices. Overlapping, swimming around his head like fish in a bowl.

 hewillsetusfreehewillsetusfree

 iwanttogohomeistillremembermyname

 pleasehelpmepleasehelpmepleaseplease

traitortraitortratiortraitor

dothadsomuchfaithinmeandnowimjust

 SETUSFREESETUSFREEPLEASESETUSFREEMISTERDREWPLEASEMISTERDDEW!!

 SET US FREE!!

 Then the whispers were gone. Bendy was gone. The Projectionist was gone.

 Joey practically fell out of the Miracle Station, stumbling over to a wall and holding his hands out to balance himself. He gagged, hearing Henry come up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. He jerked away without much thought. He could hear running footsteps, Stein's probably, and voices over his shoulder. The whispers still rung in his ears, loud and clear.

 Set us free. Set us free.

 That's what they had said.

 Joey didn't like loud, sudden noises, which you'd think was strange for someone like him. If he knew they were coming it was better, but the sudden loud whispers and noises in his ears scared him nearly as much as that battle did. Because holy shit, the Projectionist was so goddamnit close to killing them. Had he been quicker, he would have opened up the door and killed them.

 God, he knew that nothing bad was going to happen yet, but his heart couldn't stop racing. He felt like he still couldn't breath, gagging like he was going to throw up but nothing coming out. His head felt like it was trapped in fog, he just couldn't think. He'd never felt this amount of panic before, ever in his life. Not even when Henry got hurt because of him, and that day was full of panic.

 He could hear talking behind him, panicked whispered and a calm voice. Then, his friend's voice cut through the fog in his head.

 "Joey?" He asked quietly. "Can I touch you? It's okay. Your going to be okay."

 That hand that Joey had pulled away from, had it been Henry's? Maybe it had. He nodded, feeling Henry's hand on his shoulder once again.

 "Breath, Joey. It's okay, he didn't get us. We're here," Henry said.

 Joey did what his friend said. Breath. He listened to his friend speak, as well as the muffled voice behind him. It took Joey a moment to realize Stein was giving Henry advice on what to say. Of course Henry wouldn't know what to say. Joey had never had a panic attack before. Is that was this was? He couldn't tell.

 The fog in Joey's head lifted, and he stood on shaking legs. The concerned faces of his friends looked back at him.

 "Are you okay?" Henry asked, sounding slightly panicked. He took a step back when Stein muttered to give him some space, which Joey was grateful for. 

 "I'm...okay," Joey said. He knew Henry could see through the lie easily. "Did you...did neither of you hear the whispers?"

 "It was very loud, but I didn't hear whispers," Stein said. "I could hear the same noises I heard before."

"I heard them too, those noises, but no whispers," Henry said. "What did they say?"

 "I don't know, I just-" He felt his voice crack. It took him a moment to speak again. "The words were murky, I could hardly understand anything. I do know they said "Set us free" though. I don't know what it means. Can we keep going?"

 "Do you think you'd be alright to keep going?" Stein asked. He looked very concern, that was something Joey could read well. He wasn't asking that because he was in a hurry, even though Joey knew he was. He was asking because he didn't know if they should stop to let Joey calm down.

 "I'll be fine. We need to save Boris."

 Henry ran to go pull the lever, while Joey and Stein exited the room. Joey glanced back at the projector on the ground. "Are you okay, Stein?"

 Stein shrugged. He didn't look okay, staring ahead and not making eye contact with Joey. "I don't know. I'm glad Norman didn't get to you guys, but I still feel bad that he...he died like that."

(He wasn't telling Joey the full story. He wasn't telling Joey that he felt so, so incredibly guilty, because if he had stayed instead of quitting, would any of this had happened? Would his friends be damned to this inky world? Or would this entire place just be a drawing on a student's page?)

 For someone who was so good with words, Joey really didn't know how to respond. Henry ran back over to them though, so he didn't have to. They left the Projectionist's area, Stein giving a final glance back at the projector on the floor, before heading towards the haunted house. The last two levers were pulled, and the haunted house opened.

 Instead one cart, there were two. Henry and Joey gave each other a look, Stein deciding to take the first cart. They took the second one. Once they all sat, the ride began, and all they could really do then was hope they weren't to late. The "Turn Back" sign wasn't really helping any of their nerves. Joey still felt shaky from what happened moments earlier.

 "And now, the ride truly begins, you three. Come in, and pretend it's all just a bad dream."

 They sat in silence, Joey gripping Henry's hand like a lifeline. A part of him noticed how damn hungry he was getting. Just a small thought, a distraction from what was going on. Maybe it was because he realized all the food he'd eaten today had left his stomach. Or was it still the same day? Joey couldn't tell.

"It's a funny thing. How so much can fall apart so fast. We never really had control at the studio. Either you in someone's pocket, or you were putting someone else into yours."

 Stein lifted his head slightly at that. He could definitely relate to that, Joey knew. They were all in the older Joey Drew's pocket, weren't they?

 "I just wanted what was promised to me. I just wanted to be beautiful!"

 Up ahead, they could see the outline of Boris in the shadows. Joey mentally begged for that to be the real Boris, even though he knew it wasn't the truth. Slow dread was filling his stomach, squeezing itself into his lungs and making it hard to breath. He didn't want to do this, to hell with it all, he just didn't! He couldn't! But he couldn't go back either, goddamnit.

 He just wanted the fear to stop. He wanted to scream, get furious and violent, and maybe a bit tipsy, but he wanted to feel anything but this fear that was settling itself into him. Eating him inside out, like a goddamn parasite.

"Surely you can understand that. Henry... Why are you here? We're all dying to find out. Do you just enjoy the terror of the drop into hell?"

 Now, Joey caught that line. Henry seemed to catch it too, by how his head whipped towards Joey so fast it had to have given him whiplash. That wasn't a script change. That was exactly how Susie had said it.

 "...She was referring to me only, wasn't me?" Stein asked, not turning around.

 "I think so," Henry replied.

 Alice had paused, but then she continued.

 "Because if that's the case... Hang on tight. I've got a surprise..."

 God. Fucking. Damnit.

 That's when it was solidified into Joey's head. They were to late. They weren't going to save Boris. They should've known, they should've fucking known. The older Joey Drew would never let them save Boris. He should've known this. They were set up for failure from the start.

 He hardly noticed the carts entering the mansion area. He was hyperventilating, he couldn't fucking breath. Joey felt like he was suffocating. Boris, oh god, Boris. Wait, shit. They never told Stein about what Brute Boris looked like.

 "Stein," Joey said, his voice wavering. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, I don't think we, we didn't-"

 Maybe they weren't just two worlds that were continentally similar. Maybe if they had changed things for the story in their world, those things would have been changed here. Joey didn't know. It was to late. Stein didn't even get a moment to response before the ride was stopped, giant hands grabbing onto it.

 Brute Boris came out of the shadows.

 "Boris...no no! What has she done to you?" Stein said, his voice panicked and upset. Boris responded by picking up his cart, stepping away, and throwing it across the room.

 "Shit, SHIT!" Joey screamed, grabbing Henry and practically throwing him out of the cart. He scrambled to get out, barely making it in time before the cart was smashed.

 God DAMNIT!

Chapter Text

 This was fucking horrifying.

 That's what was going through Henry's brain right then, watching the mangled corpse of Boris smash their cart into pieces. Hell, Henry had talked to Buddy just yesterday. To know he had become this, this thing, was awful when it really hit Henry.

 It was even more terrifying when Brute Boris charged them. Henry and Joey ran in different directions as the brute ran at them, smashing through the objects on the level and not stopping till he ran into the wall.

 Henry could see Stein push himself to his feet, his cart having been smashed on the ground. Then, the older animator had to get out of the way, Brute Boris charging at him and missing.

 "What do we do?!" Stein yelled. Can we save him, that's what he really meant.

 "There's an ink maker next to the wall, we need to use it to make pipes to hit him with," Joey yelled back. He had run over to the ink maker, flipping it to the pipe setting. It seemed that his lack of a response to Stein's unsaid question gave the older animator all the information he needed to know. If Henry was able to catch the question, there was no way Joey hadn't.

 Henry remembered sketching this out. How long the animation had taken, how long it'd taken to render everything. Countless nights of staying up far to late for this fight. He'd been so goddamn proud of it. Him and Joey had shown it to their teacher as soon as they were finished, matching grins that rivaled Bendy's in size. Recording his voice lines, Susie's voice lines, getting the sound effects for Brute Boris and all the noises that came with the battle. Getting Sammy and Linda and Jack to work on the music.

 He was so proud. This project was his, his and Joey's, and they were so proud. He wished more than anything that he had given up.

 Had he given up on one of those sleepless nights, or given Boris a different fate while writing the script. They wouldn't be here. They wouldn't be stuck here. Had he stuck with his original cartoon Bendy, had he avoided drawing the whole thing at all. This wouldn't have happened. But Henry Stein, he was a stubborn bastard and he knew it. He would never have stopped. He had to use that mindset now, no matter how much he wanted to run.

 He waited until Brute Boris was charging at him to get out of the way. He watched the corspe slam into the wall, before getting up faster than he should have and charging at Stein. He ran out of the way as the creature slammed against the wall, before coughing, spewing out ink.

 "Grab it!" Joey yelled, Stein running forward to do so. He ran it over to Joey as Stein distracted the brute, and his friend threw it into the ink maker, pulled the lever, and both watched as a pipe popped out. Henry picked it up.

 What was quickly becoming obvious was that this Brute Boris wasn't going to die as quickly as he should of, considering how his battle worked and how three people were working against him. He was able to stop himself before he got to the walls, and he wasn't stopping as much as he should have. It definitely wasn't just by chance, or by Alice actually being careful with how she made him.

 "Lure him towards the wall! Make sure he slams into it!" Henry called out. Stein listened, making sure to be near a wall when Brute Boris charged him. Once the amalgamate got close to him, Stein ran out of the way. It was too close of a call for Henry's liking, but it got the job done, forcing the creature into his coughing fit, giving Henry a chance to hit him. The young animator did just that, running over and hitting the creature across the chest. Brute Boris let out an enraged roar as Henry ran to get away.

 Along with him seeming smarter, Brute Boris didn't go onto his next stage right away either. He only got faster, more aggressive. More than once, one of them nearly got crushed by those giant fists. The whole battle made Henry more and more panicked.

 Stein managed to get another hit in, smacking Brute Boris with the pipe as hard as he could. There was a horrible squelching noise as one of his ribs was pushed into the ink. The pipe broke, and Stein got out of dodge almost as quickly as Henry.

 Brute Boris let out another roar. Whether it was from pain or anger, or maybe a little mix of both, Henry couldn't tell.

 The amalgamate jumped a good 10 feet into the air, causing Joey to have to run before he'd get launched back by the sheer force of the landing. It was actually pretty easy to dodge this, if you could run fast enough. Brute Boris seemed to have focused on Henry and Joey, which were indeed able to run fast enough to get away.

 They just had to wait until Brute Boris starting spewing ink, which was taking way longer than it should have. Once he did, Stein grabbed up the ink blob, which he put into the ink maker and produced the pipe.

 Henry snatched it up, but not before Brute Boris was ready to move again. He jumped into the air, and smashed down onto the ground right by where Henry and Joey had been trying to run to get away.

 Both of them were sent flying due to the shock wave. Henry's head smacked against something, the rails on the ground. Pain racked his brain, a ringing sound filled his ears. He could hardly hear, the ringing was so loud as he pushed himself into a sitting position. He reached up, feeling the back of his head. His hair was wet. His hand came away smeared in red and black.

 Red and black, just like his hoodie. Instead of fabric and ink, it was blood and ink. That wasn't good, was it? His vision was blurry. Where the hell did his glasses go?

 He looked up, seeing Joey 10 feet away from him, staggering to his feet. It didn't look like he hit his head like Henry did. He turned towards Henry, who was still in a state of disorientation, before screaming something that Henry could hardly hear due to the incessant ringing in his ears. He regonized fear when he saw it, though.

 Suddenly, he was grabbed from behind and pulled from his feet. The ringing in his ears subsided enough so that he could hear Stein talking in a panic, telling him that he needed to run, run!

 They managed to go fast enough that when Brute Boris landed somewhere behind them, he didn't knock them forward. He only made the ground shake. By then, Henry been able to get a hold of himself and focus. His head still ached something terrible, but he could walk on his own again.

 A loud whistle cut through the air, shriller than Henry could ever do. He looked up, seeing Brute Boris walk towards Joey as Stein grabbed the ink and booked it towards the ink maker. As Joey distracted the brute, Stein made a brand new pipe.  Henry had lost track of his, it was probably in an ink puddle somewhere. There was another shock wave, and Stein got a hit in, forcing Brute Boris to go to his third and hopefully final stage.

 Brute Boris walked away from them, to the end of the tracks. Alice had apparently released some carts, because they were already going. He grabbed one, and threw it with all his might at Stein. Stein got out of the way as quickly as he could.

 One more cart was thrown, which Joey dodged, before the brute started spewing ink. Joey ran over, grabbed the ink, and started running back. Brute Boris raised a cart and threw it straight at him.

 "DUCK!" Henry yelled, even more raw panic filling him as he watched the cart fly at his friend.

 Joey took a split second to look behind him, before diving to the ground. He got right back up, flinching slightly, before running back to them at a slightly slower pace. He'd definitely been hurt from getting thrown around earlier, Henry could see the bruises already beginning to form under his collar.

 They put it through the ink maker and a new pipe popped out. Stein was the one to grab it this time, and Joey managed to distract the brute enough to get a cart thrown at him, letting Stein get close. Brute Boris began his coughing fit.

 Stein got close enough to hit, but before he could, the brute recovered quickly. Much, much to quickly to be normal. Henry watched as Stein was sent flying with a punch that definitely cracked or broke a few of Stein's ribs. The man let out a strangled cry, landing on the ground and not getting up right away. The pipe flew a few feet away from him.

 Shit. That wasn't good.

 Rage began to boil up in Henry's chest. He couldn't see for shit, he still hadn't gotten his glasses back. Stein definitely couldn't get up right away, Joey was bruised all over, and Brute Boris was raising a cart. Joey let out a shrill whistle as Henry moved towards the pipe, grabbing it. The cart was thrown, and Henry could see Joey dodge it out of the corner of his eye. He watched his friend move for something on the ground, something shiny. Henry swung his pipe, hitting the brute and knocking a couple of his ribs loose.

 He moved out of the way, Joey smacking the amalgamate with the pipe that Henry had lost earlier. It was all over then.

 Boris convulsed, staggering forward, before falling back as Alice Angel screamed over the loud speakers. Henry looked over at Stein. He looked on with absolute despair as Boris turned to ink, melting into the ground. All that was left of him was a puddle.

 There was screaming from behind them. Henry turned, seeing Alice rush them. Just as she got to the two animators, Stein being on the ground somewhere behind them, a sword went through her chest. Henry watched, a numb feeling in his chest as he looked up, seeing his two saviors standing there.

 An angel and a wolf. How fitting.

 Henry didn't hear what they were saying. The ringing in his ears was back, and yep, his head was definitely still bleeding. He could feel it soaking into his hair, running down the back of his neck. He didn't hear what was being said, only sees the wolf point the axe blade towards Joey. He faintly heared a yell of panicked protest from Stein. Suddenly, all the shit Henry has experienced went through his head in a matter of seconds.

 He's reached his fucking limit with this story.
 
 He draws his fist back and swings, connecting with the stomach of that goddamn wolf. He can hear shouting now, from Allison, from Joey, from Stein. He doesn't care. He's not dealing with this shit. Not at the moment, not now, not ever. To hell with Joey Drew, the one who wrote this terrible script and his best friend inside it. To hell with all the ink creatures, he's not getting captured after just losing Boris. Not without a goddamn fight.

 Joey seems to agree with him, because when Allison Angel grabbed onto Henry, Joey pushed her away. Tom Boris swung his axe at them, but they got out of dodge quick enough to avoid the swing. Stein began yelling something, and the word cut through the ringing in Henry's ears.

 "RUN!"

 Joey grabbed Henry's hand, and finally, finally, they listened to the panicked instincts in their brains and booked it.

Chapter Text

 Joey didn't let go of Henry's hand until they were far from the haunted mansion, until his legs were screaming in protest and his throat felt like it was full of blood. The two paused, leaning against the walls to catch their breaths. Holy shit.

 Adrenaline wasn't making him feel anything, but he knew he'd be sore from getting launched. He looked around the hall they were in, breathing heavily.

 God damnit, where were they? He was completely lost. This was so off script, and they'd left Stein behind in their panic. Shit, they left Stein behind! He was the one who yelled at them to run, which Joey did on instinct, but he felt guilt flood his chest anyways. They wouldn't hurt him. Right? Not according to the script, but so many things had gone off script. Joey looked over at his friend, seeing him sit down.

 "Are you okay? Is your head still bleeding?" Joey asked.

 Henry reached up to touch it. "Slightly. What about you?"

 "I'm okay," Joey replied. Henry was missing his glasses, and he looked completely out of it. Joey felt the same way.

 Suddenly, Henry stood up. He turned to face the wall, pulled his fist back, and swung. "GOD DAMNIT!" He yelled as his fist made contact.

 This was always the start, Joey could vaguely regonzie it. It always happened when tensions were high, when neither Joey nor Henry had a good grip of their emotions. When stress or fear gave away to pure, unbridled anger.

 Joey grabbed his friend's arm before he could do it again. "Hey! Stop doing that!" There was a groan and the sound of ink, but nothing could happen before Henry kicked the Searcher as hard as he could. "They got lured here, we've gotta be quiet!"

 "God fucking-of course they are, of course they are!" Henry said, slightly hysterical.

 Joey could see it coming from a mile away. But he was so, so tired of feeling fear, so tired of being scared and stressed, just like Henry was. He engaged, without much thought to it.

 "Don't yell at me like it's my fault! My apologies for not wanting us to get murdered by some ink creature!"

 "I wasn't yelling at you!"
 
 "Well, it surely fucking sounded like it!" Joey bristled. "Maybe your the one who should be getting yelled at! Considering you didn't do shit during the second half of Boris's battle! I know you didn't want to fight him, but maybe you could've fucking helped more than stand at the ink maker!"
 
 "Helped, when I literally had my head bashed in by metal? I had been helping! I even got a final blow in, we both did!" Henry yelled. This argument wasn't making sense, but god, it felt like they couldn't do anything else.

 "Well, you certainly stood by and watched as I lured him towards me about 5 times!"

 "Maybe we wouldn't have to fight him had you not done that stupid ritual!"

 "Oh, we're on THAT again?!" Joey yelled, his voice shrill. Was Henry fucking serious?

 "Do I have a point?! Maybe if you hadn't forced me to do that ritual with you, we wouldn't be trapped here! You started all of this, Mister Drew!" Henry yelled, heavy sarcasm on the last two words.

 (They didn't notice the ink creeping up towards them. They didn't notice the whispers, their yelling voices blocking out the warnings to stop, to calm down. They didn't realize that the argument, which would've been much tamer, was having true venom poured into it by the black liquid.)

 "Jesus fucking Christ Henry, I obviously didn't mean to do anything!"

"Well, you sure as hell did! Like always, you've got us stuck in another one of your goddamn messes! You-!"

 Joey cut him off, grabbing the collar of Henry's shirt and pulling him forward. "Say another word Stein, I dare you! I fucking dare you!"

 A shrill noise filled the air, loud and ringing in Joey's ears, the exact same noise as when Bendy and the Projectionist fought. Suddenly, the person in front of him changed ever so slightly. It was still Henry, still the same face. Almost. Younger face, older clothing. A white shirt like Joey's with an unbuttoned dress coat on, a hat on his head and an untied tie around his neck.

 He was still yelling now, but he couldn't control his words anymore. It was like he was trapped, trapped in a memory of something that'd already happened.

 "Are you fucking kidding me?!" He heard himself yelling, in an accent that sounded like he was from New York in the 1920s.

 Henry pushed him away, looking scared and furious. "Don't get mad at me for telling. You know how much trouble we could have gotten in? I wasn't even involved, Joey!"

 Joey fumed. "Do you know how much trouble I'LL be in? It was just a stupid prank, we both know it!"

 "Stupid prank?! You stole from someone Joey, someone who was fucking blind! Your lucky enough I said it was an accident, said you grabbed the wrong bag!"

 "I'm really fucking tired of you acting all high and mighty, Stein!"

 "Maybe I'm not acting high and mighty! Maybe I just want you to have some common fucking sense!"

 That really makes Joey's blood boil. He stormed over to Henry, grabbing him by the collar once again. (When did he get so much taller than his friend?) "Say another word Stein, I dare you! I fucking dare you!"

 Henry responds in a fight or flight instinct. He punched Joey in the stomach, causing Joey to let go. "Don't touch me!" He yelled. He faltered. "A-Are you okay?"

 Joey seethed in rage, staring at the younger artist with contempt. "No, I'm not okay! Are you fucking serious right now? You always do this, you always get so damn emotional and cause issues for us both! I've done so much for you, and this is how you repay me?!"

 "Joey, I-!"

 Joey doesn't let him finish. Instead, he storms over to a 14 year old Henry Stein and slaps him straight across the face.

 The memory ended.

 Joey let go of Henry's collar, staggering away from his friend. Henry backed away, holding a hand to his cheek as if he had just been hit. What the-?

 "You saw that too, right?" Henry asked, voice quiet. Joey nodded.

 "You looked a lot younger. Exactly like you were 14, but...dressed like you were in the 1920s."

 Henry sucked in a breath. "You looked the same age as you are now. With a mustache, and like you said: In the 1920s."

 Joey looked down, noticing the ink crawling around on the ground. It wasn't like Bendy's ink, but it was crawling up onto Joey and Henry's shoes, twisting around their legs. Joey kicked it off.

 "I'm sorry," Henry said, doing the same as Joey regarding the ink. "For yelling like that. I got sorta...hysterical. I shouldn't have done that. I know you didn't mean to get us trapped here."

 "I'm sorry for yelling at you, too. And accusing you of not helping us save Boris, I know you tried your best just as well."

 Before Henry could respond to him, ink began to crawl around the ground once again. The ground, the walls, the ceiling.

 "Shit," Henry hissed. They knew who it was. Bendy.

 They both ran, ducking behind a corner and watching as the ink crawled towards them. Bendy lumbered past them, not noticing them. He moved with a limp, like Stein's. For someone who had been so frequent in Joey's dreams, Bendy didn't really come around that often. Why that was, Joey didn't know.

 When Bendy was gone, the two stepped out of their meager hiding spot. Joey turned, and saw someone else in the hall. Tom Boris.

 "Oh god damnit."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 So Henry Stein (the older one, obviously) had told the two younger animators to run, yes. He didn't exactly consider to think that them leaving would leave him alone with the New-Alice and New-Boris. He couldn't get up and do anything because his ribs were definitely broken, and he definitely did something that made his bad knee hurt something fierce.

 They were sizing him up, clearly trying to figure out what to do with him. He hoped they wouldn't kill him, since he knew there was another chapter after this, but he hoped that his Joey Drew didn't have other plans. Plus, the kids attacking them probably didn't help with their trust.

 "Who are you?" New-Alice finally said. It was a little odd, but not unwelcome, seeing this version of Alice without half her face torn up.

 "My name is Henry," He said. "But um, the kids call me Stein. If you just leave us alone, I can go find them and we'll be well out of your way."

 New-Alice frowned. New-Boris crossed his arms, looking unimpressed and very annoyed. Henry's heart ached. God, he wanted Buddy back.

 "That's not exactly a thing we can do down here. New things, new people, are dangerous. Those two have already proved themselves dangerous."

 "Proved themse-he pointed an axe at them!"

 "And the one attacked without hesitation. You can't blame us for being wary."

 "You saw the other Alice, you've seen what we've been dealing with. Of course he did, he wouldn't want his best friend to be hurt."

 New-Boris and New-Alice glanced at each other, clearly sharing a thought Henry couldn't read. Expressions were always Joey's thing. "How do you know them, anyway?" She asked. "How do you know they aren't hostiles? Lots of people aren't who they say they are, at least in the Studio. We're all sinners down here."

 Ah, shit. They definitely wouldn't believe the kids were trustworthy if he told them he'd just met them. The lie slipped out of his mouth without him meaning it. "They're my sons."

 "So that means you know them very well?" New-Alice asked, looking very confused. New-Boris, who just seemed annoyed this whole time, also seemed confused. Henry just nodded. "Well, Tom, go track them down. I'll take him back to the base."

 "What?!"

 "Just because we know those two aren't a threat doesn't mean we can trust you. You can't trust strangers down here."

 Joseph Drew, Henry thought, watching as New-Boris (Tom, apparently?) walked away. I'm going to throttle you. 

Chapter Text

 "Mister Drew?"

 The voice was quiet. There was a soft, muffled crying as well. Joey strained to see it, eyes narrowing in the dark, before it suddenly popped out at him. Two figures, right in front of him. A boy and a girl.

 They looked like humans coated in ink, the boy wearing a rumpled suit and the girl in a dress. The girl was sitting on the ground, curled up and crying into her knees. The boy was staring at Joey, and a passing thought of him looking slightly like Henry went through Joey's mind. With those glasses, one of its only defining features in the ink. Joey promptly told that voice to keep it's goddamn mouth shut.

 "Buddy and..." Joey paused, looking at the girl. "Alice?"

 "Susie," Buddy corrected. "She don't wanna be here as much as any of the rest of us. Joey Drew did this to us, she didn't mean any of it."
 
 "I'm sorry, Buddy," Joey said. "I'm sorry we couldn't help you."
 
 "It was part of Joey Drew's script, and I'm sure he's scrambling to keep it in motion," Buddy sighed. "Dot had to much faith in me for this sort of stuff. And this is how it turned out."

 Suddenly, Susie spoke up. Joey flinched at how much she sounded like his friend. He and Susie had always been good friends. "It's looped already," She sobbed. "Once or twice. It's got to have, we all noticed the script changes."

 "It's looped already?" Buddy asked, his voice impossibly small. Joey felt like there was ice in his stomach.

 "You haven't noticed?!" Susie asked, whipping her head around to look at Buddy. The boy flinched. "How? Did you not feel like something was off when you first saw them?"

 "Well, other than Henry and Stein being practically identical, save for age? No, not really. Everything is off down here."

 "Alice didn't notice, but I did," Susie whispered. "And Joey Drew. Joey always notices, Mister Drew. He always notices, and he made me build the brute differently." Buddy turned away and began to walk off into the void. "He doesn't want you to escape. He-"

 She cut off in a flash of bright light. Joey covered his eyes, momentarily blinded by the bright, sudden light. He turned around, hearing the sound of a projector reel. Once his vision cleared, another inky creature that looked like a normal man covered in ink stood there. He was bulky and tall, holding a running projector in his hands.

 "Norman Polk?" Joey asked, but he didn't need to guess.

 "You've got it, Mister Drew," Norman replied, the accent familiar, despite how aged the voice sounded. "Sorry for cuttin' em off. She was just gonna repeat things, like always. She can be a ramblin' mess, just like that Sammy Lawrence. Buddy looked like he was dyin' to get outta there anyway."

Joey didn't laugh. He knew that Norman had dark humor, Henry had mentioned it before, but Jesus Christ.

 "Hm, tough crowd," Norman said. He turned the projector away from Joey, which had still been shining in his face. "Anyways, Susie's right. Loop has been completed about twice now, I think. Two times through hell. Henry, my Henry, ain't noticed it yet. He's gonna though."

 "Shit...I never told him about the loop. I need to tell him."

 "Tell him 'bout the loop, but not that's he's been through it," Norman told him. "It'd crush him, knowing these things have happened already. Things like my death and all that."

 Norman gave out a big, long sigh. "I'm one of the luckier ones, y'hear? Can keep my head on better than most others in the ink." He snorted at his own joke. "Everytime I come back, I come back as the Projectionist. Now Mister Drew, how familiar are you with the occult?"

 "Um...pretty familiar," Joey said, thinking about the occult books that take up an entire shelf of the bookshelf in his apartment. His parents never liked him dabbling in the occult. Never went to far to stop him, but it was a common argument of him leaving out candles and that type of thing. And just after they'd accepted it, this happened. Just his luck. "Why do you ask?"

 "Well, I wanna know if your familiar with makin' pocket dimensions and all that," Norman told him, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "This whole place? A pocket dimension within the ink machine. Time in here is wonky, absolutely crazy! A few days in here is barely anything out there."

 "How do you know all of this?"

 "I'm a projectionist. We have a habit of lurking, looking into things." He winked, giving Joey an inky grin. "And that don't mean you can dilly dally. Y'all need to get Henry Stein, my Henry Stein, outta here. He's a good man. Doesn't deserve a fate like this."

 "I'll get him out. I swear, I'll do it," Joey promised. Norman nodded.

 "Good. But be careful, Mister Drew. If Joey Drew gets his hands on you, well..." He trailed off. "Good luck."
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Henry was awake when Joey woke up, his friend immediately sitting up straight, looking like he had no idea where he was. He had been sketching, drawing out a cartoon Bendy. Stein was asleep, they'd (forced) him to take the cot, stuck in this stupid little cell. While they did know the way out, they were all injured. Best to rest up for a bit. Not like they had to rush anymore.

 "You okay, Joey?" Henry asked, keeping his voice down. Best not let Allison or Tom hear. "Nightmare?"

 "Not exactly. It was Buddy, Susie, and Norman," Joey replied. He and Henry were sat on the floor, opposite of the cot. "The script has been looped already."

 Henry froze, his pencil still stuck on the page. "Please tell me your kidding."

 "No, I'm serious," Joey replied. "But Norman, he said that time passes differently in here. "A few days in here is barely anything out there", that's what he told me."

 "So it still hasn't been that long since Stein got here. Or us, for that matter," Henry said, continuing his drawing. He shouldn't be drawing Bendy. He should be sleeping, getting rest, ignoring the throbbing in his head. Hopefully toon logic would heal that up quick. That was always how Stein could heal so quick in his animation. Toon logic, that's what they said. "God, I really just wanna go home. I wanna see Maggie."

 "You think Margaret is Stein's little sister as well?" Joey asked, looking over at the older animator.

 "Maybe. It sure would be hard for her, though," Henry muttered. She'd have been born in the 1910s, right? Now that would awful for her, considering his Maggie had autism. It'd be another question for another day, it quite honestly wasn't a big question in his mind right now.

 "Oh, Norman also made us promise we'd get Stein out of here. Sure as hell ready to do that, right Henry?"

 Henry nodded. He felt distant from everything, like a camera out of focus. "You think we're gonna get out of here, right?"

 Joey seemed startled by that. "What kinda question is that?"

 "Joey Drew is trying to stop us, right? You don't think he'll have Allison or Tom kill us? I don't know, I just..." Henry sighed. "I'm not feeling very hopeful against him. He's essentially a god to this world."

 "Yeah well, we were too," Joey replied. He sounded determined. "And we sure as hell aren't going to lose to an ugly version of me with a Hitler mustache, now are we Henry?"

 Henry snorted, looking at his friend with a grin.

 "Now, are we Henry?" Joey asked once again. Henry shook his head. "There we go. Glad you've got your head back on."

A humming filled the air. Both of the animators went silent, looking over at Allison Angel. She had gotten some art supplies out and began to paint on the walls. The was a bit of shuffling from where Stein was sleeping as he woke up, sitting up on the bed. He looked over at Joey and Henry, before looking at Allison Angel. (Not Allison. Henry knew an Allison, and this wasn't her.)

 They watched as Stein limped over to the door, his leg getting better but not good enough to move around much yet. "I know that song," He said quietly. Well, that certainly gave Henry deja Vu. A few months ago, sitting in front of a mic and voicing these lines, Allison (the one that he and Joey were friends with), sitting with him and them voicing the lines together.

 "Everyone knows that song," Allison Angel replied, before turning around. "Who are you? Why are you here?"

 "I was invited here by an old friend," Stein said. "And now I can't leave."

 "Then you know more than we do." Henry nearly laughed at that. Of course they did, but it wasn't in the way the new angel was expecting. "One minute, we don't even exist. Just...thoughts. And the next minute...this place."

 "Are you gonna let us out of here?" Of course he'd ask that. It was clear Stein wanted to be on better terms with them, trying to get the angel and the wolf to trust them. It was futile, but Henry let him try anyway.

 "Down here, strangers aren't a good thing," She said. "How can we trust you? We don't even know what you are."

"You already know our names," Stein told her. "I used to work here."

 "I...honestly don't know my name..." she mumbled. "So they call me Alice. But I'm no angel. You go back and rest. We'll talk later."

 Stein sat back down on the cot. He looked at Henry and Joey, pessimism on his expression. Henry just shrugged. "Want some paper?" He asked. When your an artist in an animation studio, there's no end in sight for paper. Bound to keep them busy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 "It's only a few hours. No need to worry, I won't go far. Only up to level six, just stay here. Keep an eye on them, okay? I'll be back as soon as I can. I promise."

 Henry wasn't really paying attention when she said that, but he could hear Tom-Boris hitting his axe against his hand. He could also hear when Joey decided to be a smartass.

 "Well," His idiot of a friend said loudly, sarcasm dripping off his voice. "Your very friendly, aren't you?"

 The noise stopped. Henry nearly choked, his next words a mix of senseless laughter and trying to tell Joey to keep his fucking mouth shut.

 "Joey!" Stein said, the man having been sitting on the cot and drawing. He sounded reprimanding, but Henry knew he found it amusing. "Apologize."

 Henry looked up, and yep, Tom-Boris was standing there staring at Joey. Even with an expressionless face, contempt was clear in the wolf's body language.

 "Sorry..." Joey muttered. He didn't mean it, obviously, but he made it sound convincing enough for Tom-Boris to go back to his seat. Henry and Joey shared a glance, Joey giving him a subtle grin. Then, he turned towards Stein. "Hey, what're you drawing? Any tips?"

 Ah, conversations. This meant that Joey really was losing it in here. Another thing Joey did when he was stressed was talk even more than normal, which was a lot. Stein looked up from his paper, a small smile forming on his face. He passed over his paper to the younger artists, Joey picking it up with a curious look. Henry peered over his shoulder to see.

 It was a picture of a woman. She had curly hair, in a shoulder length style from the 1950s. She wore a black skirt (what other colors where there in here?) and a blouse with a bow around the neck. She looked to be turning towards whoever was viewing the painting, with her skirt twisting. Music sheets covered the bottom of the page, looking like they were flying up around her, as though she were standing in a pile of them and they were hit by a gust of wind. She had a wide smile, a genuine smile.

 "Linda?" Henry asked, although he didn't need to question it. Stein nodded, Joey handing him the paper back. "Wow that's...it looks just like her."

 "God, another guy lovesick over Linda. One was enough," Joey responded. Henry rolled his eyes. "Y'know, we started this story 'cause of her."

 "Really?" Stein asked. "How so?"

 "'Cause the one time Joey ever felt anything for a girl was towards the one I had a crush on as well. I asked her out first, and he drew Beast Bendy as a way to get back at me," Henry replied. "I think he's going after Nathan Arch now."

 Joey hit him in the arm so hard Henry thought it might leave a bruise. "You son of a bitch, I am not!" He looked towards Stein, who was hiding a smirk behind his hand. "Oh come on, you don't get to laugh at this!"

 "Yeah, I do," He replied. "And it's especially funny since Nathan Arch is my boss."

 "Oh my god Joey, if I work for Nathan Arch, you have got to date him and get me some employee perks-"

 "Henry, shut your fucking mouth, he's dating Tessa, and even then, I don't have a fucking crush on Nathan Arch of all people!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 "Stein?"

 Henry looked up. Seriously, Stein was the only one Allison Angel seemed to want to talk to. Henry watched as Stein looked up from where he was drawing, having been teaching the two younger animators a few tricks to drawing.

 "Here, you must be hungry," Allison Angel said, Stein standing up to see the bowl of bacon soup that she was placing on the boards. "Sorry..." When she said that, she glanced at the two younger animators. "It's all we have."

 Ah, bacon soup. Put into the story because Joey knew Henry couldn't cook for shit. Henry looked back down as his papers, hearing Tom-Boris smash the bowl. After a moment, Stein sat back down. He had a blank expression on his face, one that not even Henry could read. He looked back down at the papers, hearing the door slam.

 "Y'know, I meant to say this before," Joey said, clearly not wanting to give any attention to Tom-Boris. "But you draw beautifully, Stein."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Henry was just waking up when he could hear the next set of dialogue. He didn't open his eyes, still laying on the ground with Joey somewhere next to him, when the voices started.

 "I know your watching me," Allison Angel said. "It's just...a little creepy."

 "Your the one that writes on the walls," Stein said. The slight surprise in his tone was clear. He'd definitely been wondering.

 "We all do. For some poor souls down here, it's the only way they can be heard. But you don't wanna touch the ink for too long! It can claim you..pull you back." She paused. "That's how I met Tom. I was messing with things I should've have been and he...he was there."

 "Why do you call him Tom?"

 "He just seems to respond to it."

 "Well, I don't think he's very fond of us."

 "Let me show you something." Henry opened his eyes, watching her walk over to Stein with the seeing eye tool in her hands. "Awhile back, I was mapping out one of the upper levels when I noticed something reflecting off a piece of glass. I held up the glass, looked through, and on the wall behind me was a hidden message! Right there, in plain sight!"

 Right, the secret messages. Henry had almost forgotten they'd put those in the story. There weren't that many, not yet at least. He'd been in the process of redrawing some of the upper levels with them before all this. According to their script, Stein had been the one to write a lot of them, as well as lost ones, Allison Angel, etc. But considering Stein had only gone through the loop once or twice, according to Joey, and couldn't remember anything at all, it was safe to assume most of them weren't his.

 "So, I kept looking, and found more and more messages everywhere in the studio! But you can't see them with your eyes. Only through this. Take a look!" She handed the device over to Stein. He held it up and looked through. Henry could see Allison Angel's halo through it. "I don't know who's leaving them, but I think they know the way out of here."

 Stein glanced at Henry and Joey before looking back at the angel. "Where does it all lead to?"

 She paused for a moment before responding. "Nowhere. I followed them for a long time...just leads me in circles," She said. "I don't think I'm supposed to leave this place, Stein. But maybe...you three are."

 "Alice, please let us out of here."

Stein definitely wanted to get the angel to trust them. He wanted to help her and the wolf escape, that was clear. Henry knew what the next response would be.

 "Tom thinks your dangerous."

 "And what do you think?"

 Allison Angel paused, taking a second to look at Henry and Joey. "I...I think..." She paused. "Your the hope I've been waiting for. Go to sleep. Maybe tomorrow will be better."

 The angel walked away. Stein sat back down on the cot, watching her for a moment. His face was perfectly blank. "Henry?"

 Henry pushed himself up, having been slumped across the wall. "Yeah?"

 "How does this story end?"

 Henry didn't speak right away. He glanced at Joey, who was asleep. No help there. It wasn't like he could hide the ending of the story, the loop and all that.

 "After you play the reel, you appear in Joey Drew's apartment. No control over your body, moving on autopilot. He talks for a bit, talks about how you moved away from the studio to have a family, how he stayed to build the corrupted empire. Blames you for not pushing him to do the right thing." Henry hesitated, but he continued anyway. "Then it loops. Sends you straight to the beginning, to hell and back. It...never stops."

 Stein stared at him. He said not a word, but Henry could see the horror in his eyes. The sheer terror at the prospect of being trapped here, in an endless cycle of hell. The realization that'd he'd be alone through it all, through losing Boris, getting locked up in here, everything.

 "I'm sorry," Henry said, looking away. He didn't want to see that look. "I know that we'll be able to make Joey Drew stop this, once we play the reel. Maybe you'll be unable to confront at first, but he has no control over us. We'll stop him."

 There was silence for a moment, before Stein spoke. "Y'know, I'm a bit jealous of you and Joey," He said. Henry looked up. Stein wasn't looking at him anymore. "You've both got everything that I would've killed for back when I was younger. I obviously know better than to want to ever become friends with him again, but I have been wondering "What if?" y'know?" He paused for a moment. "Ah, sorry for the rant."

 "Don't apologize. I'm an adult too, I can listen," Henry replied. "How'd you even meet Joey Drew anyway? Since he's so much older than you."

 "He came up to me when I was 12, saw I was good at art. I, being a naive kid who liked attention, grabbed hold of the opportunity to be friends with him."

 ("Now, what's this?"

 Henry looked up, seeing a man standing behind him. He was well dressed, with ice blue eyes and messy black hair. Henry glanced back down at his half finished drawing, a drawing of Bendy running, before looking back at the man. "It's my drawing, mister. My character."

 The man grinned, gesturing at the part of the bench next to Henry to ask if he could sit. Henry nodded, and he did. "Well, aren't you gonna introduce me to him? What's his name?"

 "Bendy. His name is Bendy, and he's a dancing demon."

 To Henry's surprise, the man didn't laugh or look amused. He just grinned, wide. "Tell me about him!"

 It took a bit to form a thought, but once he did, Henry spent at least the next 5 minutes talking. Ranting, on and on about Bendy. The man didn't cut him off. He encouraged him, gave his own input. It was great.

 "Y'know kid, you seem to have a lot of talent. Especially for someone so young!" The man said. He stuck out his hand for Henry to shake. "My name is Joey Drew. I think, if you'd allow it, we could end up as pretty good pals."

 Henry grinned wider. He shook Joey's hand. "I'm Henry Stein. And I'd like that a lot.")

 "What about you?" Stein asked. "How'd you two meet?"

 "Oh, um, we met in kindergarten. I don't really remember much about it, but we've been friends ever since." Henry paused. "I'm really sorry about what happened to you, with Joey Drew. With all of this."

 He thought back to the vision he had, when Joey Drew slapped Stein. God, that must've been awful to experience, especially when it was someone you looked up to so much.

 "Don't apologize. Not like it's your fault," Stein told him. He looked uncomfortable, so Henry decided it might be best to change the subject.

 "Hey, so I've been wondering, you told Allison Angel we're your kids, right? Do you have any kids?"

 Stein shook his head. "Nope. Linda couldn't have them, and then I found out she didn't want them, which I understand. I've always wanted to have kids though, and although I never will hold it against her, let me pretend for a little longer." The last part was said with sarcasm. Henry wondered if his Linda felt the same.

 "Will do, dad," He said. Stein snorted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 "That was really stupid, Tom! You shouldn't have gone out there. Now that he's seen you...it's only a matter of time before he finds us here."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 "Y'know, I've worked long and hard on getting this story up and running."

 Joey couldn't move again. He couldn't even see. He knew the voice though. The voice of Joey Drew.

 "And I'd rather my story not get messed up by two kids, two kids who shouldn't even be here. You've got guts, kid. A good head on your shoulders. You remind me of me, which I guess should be expected. But you've been messing with things you shouldn't have. And your an artist, too. All good artists know how to spot silly mistakes when they see them."

 Suddenly, Joey couldn't breath. He choked, his mouth suddenly filled with ink. He sputtered and coughed, but it kept coming, filling his lungs and throat. He still couldn't move, so he just stood there, choking on ink.

 "I hope to see you very soon, Mister Drew. Because then, you'll finally leave my story alone."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 "We can't just leave them! Not with the ink demon right outside the door!"

 Both Henry and Stein woke up at the same time, Stein rushing to Allison Angel and Tom-Boris. Henry just went to wake up Joey, already knowing this part of the story. Before he could really say anything, blocking out the dialogue in the background, Joey woke up.

 He sat straight up, gasping for air like he just ran a marathon. He held a hand to his throat, with wide, scared eyes.

 "Nightmare," He whispered. "I can't, I can't remember what happened, but I....god, I felt like I was dying."

 The door slammed. Both of the younger animators paused, Joey pushing himself to his feet. Henry followed suit.

 "You okay?" Stein asked.

 "Yeah, I'm...I'm okay. Thank god we're getting out of here, feels like I'm suffocating in here," Joey muttered, ignoring Henry's worried glance. He grabbed the spoon, opening the door and grabbing the gent pipe. He smashed the boards, and they all stepped out. "Whoo, freedom!"

 Henry and Joey went first, Stein taking a little longer to step out of the safehouse. Henry and Joey didn't notice the lack of golden messages within the cell, the only ones telling Stein to pull the spoon. They also missed what Stein saw through the glass, not seeing the golden paint above their own heads.

 For Henry, it was a halo, crooked like the twisted angel's and resting on his head, but there and glowing bright. For Joey, it was a pair of demon horns, not very large, but sharp as Bendy's and jutting out of the sides of his head. It took Stein a few startled seconds later to continue going.

Chapter Text

 They moved quickly through the halls, Joey smacking any Searchers with the gent pipe. Although he was happy to finally get out of that prison cell, he was still thinking of the dream he had. Why couldn't he remember it? He'd always hated the fact that he could remember the studio dreams he had in a lot of detail, but now that he couldn't, he wished that he was able to. All he remembered of it was drowning.

 Which was terrible for the next part of the story, wasn't it?

 They came into the boat room, Stein staring with wide eyes. Joey looked over at Henry, and yep, he was just as hesistant for this part of the mission.

 Stein raised the seeing eye tool, eyes going wide when he spotted the message on the ground. "There's something in the river?" He questioned.

 "Yeah. It's a giant hand. We need to take the boat across, and it shouldn't get close to us unless we stop. That is, unless the boat stops, which it will since the ink will get it stuck," Joey said, pulling the lever twice to get the boat into the water. "Henry and I can knock it lose though, all you've gotta do is steer it."

 "...Alright then," Stein muttered. Great, the whole group was hesistant. How wonderful, now everything could be tense.

 Stein started the boat, and they were off. It was only a couple seconds in when Joey started talking. He had too, the silence would've driven him mad.

 "So, have you ever seen It's A Wonderful Life?" He asked. Stein glanced at him curiously, but he seemed to understand the reason behind the question.

 "Yeah, I have. Watched it the year it came out," Stein said. "You guys live what, 80 years after it came out? I'm a bit shocked you know about it."

 "Henry and I watch it every year, around Christmas. I go over to his house, or he goes over to mine."

 "That sounds nice. When I was a kid, my parents didn't really like Joseph, so he didn't come over all that often. If he did, it was just to come get me."

 "Damn, Joey can walk into my house and get himself a snack, and nobody will bat an eye. I think Maggie would switch us as brothers in a heartbeat."

 "You have Maggie as well? God, I miss her. Joseph didn't like her that much, the asshole said she was overdramatic."

 "Give me one more reason to beat him up, I swear to God," Joey muttered. The boat shuddered to a stop. Joey's breath caught in his throat. There was the noise of ink splashing, and they all looked over, seeing a giant, warped hand drag a boat down into the ink. "Holy shit."

 He knocked the ink out with the gent pipe, and the boat continued going anyway. "Hey, speaking of things that happened in the 40s, were you in World War 2?" Joey asked, his mind so frantically trying to keep himself from panicking that he didn't consider the question invasive.

 "Um, no, I didn't," Stein replied. "I've got a limp. Fell off a catwalk when I was 18, so didn't qualify for the draft."

 "You fell of a catwalk? Was it Joey who did it, pushed you, in the Lyceum Theatre?" Henry asked.

 "Yeah...I can see why you'd guess him, but how'd you know the theatre?"

 "Same thing happened to us, two years ago," Joey replied. The boat shuddered to a stop. He hit the ink out of the paddlewheel. "I accidently pushed Henry off the catwalk. I thought I was gonna have a heart attack."

 The pipe nearly slipped out of Joey's hands. He gripped it, palms sweaty, as the boat stopped again. He hit the ink out of the paddlewheel. Holy shit, he could hardly breath. He kept talking. He had to keep talking, lest he begin to panic and Henry dissosicate.

 "This part was really hard to animate, y'know. We can animate digitally, we don't have to hand draw every frame," Joey said. He'd mentioned this to Stein before, who had been reasonably surprised by it, but he didn't care about the repeat information. "The hand, just drawing it was super weird."

 "I could imagine, especially if you were great in art with more of a cartoon style, like Bendy."

 The conversation stopped as the hand popped up again. Very close. To close, even. Joey smacked the ink out of the paddlewheel, before letting out a sharp whistle. It was easy to tell when Henry was zoning out. His friend snapped back to focus as the rice continued.

 Holy shit, how long was this tunnel?

 It was only a bit of disoriented chattering after that. Joey wasn't really paying attention to it. The absolute joy he felt when he finally saw the Lost One's village though, it was huge.

 The boat stopped one more time, only one, before they got out. Once they got out of the boat, Joey leaned over the dock and threw up into the ink river. "God damnit."

 "At least that part is over," Henry said, grabbing Joey's sleeve to lead him off the docks. "Now we've gotta deal with Sammy."

 "Sammy Lawrence? I thought the ink demon killed him," Stein said. He didn't seem all that happy facing off with Sammy once again. "Back in the music department."

 "If you die here, you'll always get revived from the ink," Joey said. "He worked the same way."

 "So does that mean if any of us die, we'll be fine?" Henry sarcastically asked.

 "Let's not test that," Stein muttered. Henry snickered.

 "Plus, Sammy was helping make the music for the animations. We decided to let him have a final confrontation, even though we put him in originally as a bit of a joke."

 ("You think this is funny, artist?" Sammy had asked, looking entirely unimpressed as he glanced at the drawing Joey gave him.

 Joey's response was "A little.")

 Stein was looking through the seeing eye tool again. He had a troubled look on his face, that definitely came from seeing all the messages from the Lost Ones. Henry came over to Joey, holding two pieces of wood in his hands. He handed one over and kept the second for himself.

 "Stein, you want this?" Joey asked, holding up the pipe. Stein nodded, hooking the seeing eye tool onto his belt, before taking the pipe. They walked to the area closed off by wood, and Stein stepped close.

 "BETRAYED! ABANDONED!"

 Sammy Lawrence broke the wood, lunging at Stein. Henry and Joey ran off in different directions as Sammy swung his axe. Stein dodged it, and hit Sammy a few times before he had to run. 

 Henry and Joey ran at Sammy from each side, Joey hitting him with the plank of wood while Henry just stabbed him with a sharp end. Sammy let out a furious cry, swinging his axe around manically. Both Henry and Joey scurried to get out of the way.

 "YOU LEFT ME TO ROT! WHY? WHY?!"

 Christ, he was loud. Joey covered one ear with his hand. Stein had managed to get a few more hits in with his pipe, before having to deflect a bunch of frenzied axe swings towards him.

 He swung his axe at Stein once more, except this time with the blunt end, Stein nearly getting knocked over by the force of it. Joey let out another sharp whistle. Sammy turned towards him, and Henry ran up behind him, stabbing him through the back.

 The wood went through his body, and Sammy let out a cry, but he didn't die. He swung his axe, the blunt side hitting Henry in the side of the head. Henry went down, and before Joey could do anything, Stein hit Sammy in the head so hard that he fell down. He didn't get back up.

 "Henry, are you okay?" Stein asked, helping him stand up. Joey ran over as well, giving Sammy's body a kick.

 "Why am I the only one who always gets hit in the head?" Henry asked, looking very unhappy about it. "But yeah, I'm okay. But do you remember this part, Joey?"

 "Oh shit, yeah. Sammy was keeping the Searchers at bay so..." Joey trailed off as the crackling noises sounded out through the room, the Searchers beginning to pop out of the ground. "And only one of us has weapons!"
 
 "Then we do the smart thing to do, and fucking run!" Henry yelled, grabbing Joey and pulling him as hard as fucking possible. As they were running, Henry drew his fist back and swung at the wood blocking their path, just barreling through anything in their way. Joey could hear Stein following, as well as the Lost Ones and Searchers.

 He almost forgot about the drop, until Henry fell and he went down with him. The two fell, both letting out strangled yells as Stein called down to make sure they were okay. As soon as they told him, he dropped down as well.

 This was just going great, wasn't it?

Chapter Text

 "I have a bit of a plan," Joey said as they were walking towards Administration, going to pull the lever to open it up. "So, the whole thing here is to get three ink blobs and bring them back here to turn into pipes. The Butcher Gang is going to be wandering the area though."

 As Joey talked, Henry was cleaning his glasses. Dear God, it was very easy to get ink on them. He could hardly see without them though, so he had to ruin his sweatshirt even more.

 "Basically, I'll lure the Butcher Gang members out here and keep them out here, while staying within the Miracle Station," He said, pulling the lever. "You both, all you've gotta do is go retrieve the ink blobs."

 They ultimately agreed on that plan. It took them a little while to lure all the Butcher Gang members out of Administration, but they did. They got them to follow Joey, who was now opening and closing the door to harass them. He was also whistling to keep their attention.

 "So, this next part is a maze. Without the Butcher Gang wandering it'll be easier to find our way through, but I've never been the best at mazes. Have you?"

 Stein shook his head. "No, unfortunately I'm not good with them either."

 A few moments into trying to find the ink, Henry spoke up. "Y'know, I don't think Joey Drew seems keen on granting us an angel this time around, eh?"

 "What do you mean?"

 "Allison Angel and Tom-Boris show up in the original script, help with the Searcher and Lost Ones fight. They didn't this time. Maybe we just went through quickly, but I feel more like it's him trying to make things harder for us."

"I can see that. Full of spite, Joseph Drew," He paused. "I can't believe it took me 11 years of him to finally snap and cut things off."

 "If you don't mind me asking, what was the reason you broke things off with him?" Henry asked. "I know we just wrote you left the studio, but do you mind if I ask why?"

 It took Stein a minute to start speaking. Henry couldn't tell if he just needed a moment to gather his words, or if he was hesitating. "I was going to quit anyway, that's what I wanted to tell him. In typical Joseph Drew fashion, he started yelling and screaming. I wasn't really giving into it much, I was just standing there waiting for him to finish, when he asked if Linda put me up to it. The bastard called her a tramp and that's when I hit my breaking point."

 ("I've been putting everything into the studio for the last YEAR!" He had yelled. "While you've been playing manager up in your fancy office, I've been putting some actual work into this studio! We've got TWO ANIMATORS, the both of us, and I'M THE ONE who's doing everything! And you have the gall to yell at me when I want to quit?! When I want to get out of what's essentially a prison?! Not even that, but you insult my wife as well?!")

 "I was a bit of an idiot afterwards though," Stein admitted. "Tried to make up with him. He wouldn't listen, and I think that was for the best. That was, until the letter came, and..."

 "You thought he had changed?" Henry asked. Stein gave him a nod. "Jesus, that's awful..."

 "It is. And now we're all here," Stein said. "I'd kill for a friendship like yours and Joey's, if I could go back and redo it."

 "Sounds to me you did the absolute best you could," Henry told him. "Joey and I, we've just clicked. The lack of an age different probably helped, too. Anyways, what I'm saying is that you tried your best with it and he's a maniac, so I don't really see anything else you could've done."

 Stein hummed. "Ha, Linda's told me all that a million times," He said. "Still, I appreciate it."

 "I miss Linda. My version of her, at least," Henry said. "She's got a piano recital next week actually. I promised I'd go, so I wanna get out of here quick."

 "You said she created music for your story, right?"

 "Yep! That's how we met, actually. She, Sammy Lawrence, and Jack Fain were teamed up for an assignment. They had no idea what they were going to make though, and the deadline was the next day, so Sammy called Joey and asked for inspiration. He was very annoyed that he had to do that, Sammy I mean. They made a song, we made an animation based on that song, and Linda and I stayed friends. How'd you meet her?"

 "Oh, it was a few days after the Studio officially opened. I knew Joey had hired a music director, but I didn't know who it was. I heard her playing, went to see who it was, and I think you can guess the rest from there."

 "Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious."

 They finally found the office. Henry reached into the ink well, grabbing one of the ink blobs. Before he took one, Stein walked into Joey Drew's office.
 
 "I hate this office," He said. "It was much more plain last time I was here, which is really saying something."

 He walked over to the other side of the desk and pressed play on the reel. Silently, they both listened to it. Henry felt disgusted just hearing that voice. It was odd, hearing that voice. Him and Stein, their voices sounded similar. Not so much they sounded exact, but you could just tell. Joey sounded hardly anything like his counterpart. Henry liked it like that.

 He could practically feel the disgust radiating off of Stein. "That bastard," The man muttered. "Come on, let's go."

 With Henry having one ink blob and Stein having the two others, they made their way back through the maze. "Hey, Henry?"

 "Hm?"

 "Shouldn't we have seen the ink demon once or twice? I don't know, I just...felt like we should've seen him more."

 Henry nodded, an uneasy feeling curling in his gut. "Yeah, I think we should've. But we'll see him plenty in a few minutes."

 Leaving Administration, Henry was met with a very weird, very dumb sight. His best friend sitting on top of a miracle station, which was face first on the ground. He had placed some heavy objects on top as well, and was currently lost in thought.

 "What do you got there, Joey?" Henry asked, holding back a snicker.

 "Um, a smoothie?" He replied. Henry snorted. It was clear Stein didn't get the joke, but they didn't bother to explain. "I got bored and I wanted to see if this would work."

 "You got bored so you decided to torture the butcher gang," Stein replied, sounding equally amused as Henry felt. Joey got up. The rasping noises from underneath got louder. They all ignored it.

 "Exactly!" Joey said, giving a mischievous grin. "Are we ready to continue?"

 They put the ink through the ink maker, getting the three pipes. Once the pipes were in place and the path was cleared, the Film Vault was theirs to explore.

 "So, the Last Reel. The ink demon has already gotten it, right?" Stein asked.

 Henry nodded. "Yeah, and..." He stepped towards the door Tom-Boris was supposed to have opened. It was already wide open. "Seems like we've gotten an invitation extended to us to go get it."

 "Jesus Christ, that can't be good," Joey muttered, going through the door. "I almost wish we had to find a way in."

 They headed through the halls, each of their steps growing quieter when the ink demon's trail leaked over the walls. Henry glanced through the window to see him, and holy shit, what the hell was wrong with him?

 He looked more distorted then he should have. His horns were larger, and strands of ink were connected between them, streaming down his face, covering nearly half of his mouth and his bowtie. His limbs looked twisted, his limp worse. Nobody said a word about it, but they were all thinking it.

 Henry ignored the "DEATH" sign at they walked, choosing to go silently into the room with the ink machine.

 "Oh my god..." Stein muttered.

 It was huge, vast. Just like it'd been drawn. A dream come to life, really. They continued forward, Henry feeling like reality was slipping away from him all the while. He'd definitely be panicking in mere moments, it was best to stop the panic from growing. As they grew closer to the throne, Joey Drew's audio log started at random.

 "It's simply awe-inspiring what one can accomplish with their own hands! A lump of clay can turn to meaning... if you strangle it with enough enthusiasm."

 "Good luck trying not to kill it," Joey muttered sarcastically.

 Henry felt like he couldn't move. He stared at the reel, feeling stuck in his spot. Stein and Joey weren't moving either, and just by glancing at Joey out of the corner of his eye, he could tell his friend felt the same feeling.

 "Look what we've built! We created life itself, Henry! Not just on the silver screen, but in the hearts of those we've entertained with our fancy moving pictures! But...when the tickets stopped selling, when the next big thing came along, only the monsters remained. Shadows of the past. But you can save them, Henry! You can peel it all away! You see, there's only one thing Bendy has never known: He was there for his beginning, but he's never seen...The End."

 Now they could move. Stein was the first, going up to the throne and grabbing the reel. But by then, it was to late to skip the boss fight. Bendy appeared over the throne, staring down at them all. He seemed to be...in pain. In a lot of it.

 Henry watched as his hands distorted, growing bigger and larger. He ducked under behind the throne, holding his head, and when he came back up? He was just...wrong. So, horrible wrong.

 He was bigger, that was obvious. His horns were larger, his teeth sharper, his body overall bigger. One of his hands was twisted all the way around, Henry could see it in the way the ink was twisting. His legs were bigger, and it was clear he wouldn't just need his fists to move around.

 He raised one distorted, bubbling hand and knocked Stein to the side.

 The battle had begun.