Henry Stein x Reader {Completed}

Chapter 11: Angel's Errands

Y/n's POV:

    The first thing Alice had us do was collect some gears on Level K for her machines that led to her room. For some reason she had us take a wrench with us.

    Once we headed back towards the elevator, Henry noticed an audio log on a shelf. I didn't care to listen to it, but he always seemed to be interested to see who recorded them and what they were saying. This one was kept by Thomas Connor.

    "These blasted elevators...

    "Sometimes they open... sometimes they don't... sometimes they come... sometimes they keep on going to hell and back.

    "I keep telling these people, if Mister Joey Drew keeps cutting corners like this, someone's sure to end up falling to their death. And it sure ain't gonna be me.

    "I'm taking the stairs."

    "Nice to know we might end up falling to our death in that elevator," he said.

    "Oh please, we'll be fine," I insisted. "I've been on that elevator thousands of times. Thomas was just being dramatic."

    "If you say so," he said with a shrug.

    We continued back towards the elevator only to hear Alice start talking to us again.

    "There are so few rules to our world now. So little truths," she began. "But there is one rule we all know and respect down here: beware the Ink Demon."

    The three of us walked into the elevator and headed up to Level K before she continued talking.

    "Stay out in the open for too long and he will find you. For if you see him, you'd better hide. If you don't? Well, I enjoyed our date."

    Shortly after, we arrived at Level K. The two of us got out and headed up the stairs while Boris stayed in the elevator. Suddenly we noticed Charley come down the steps, charging toward us.

    "Have you met him? The Ink Demon?" Alice went on as Henry fought back Charley. "They say he hears everything. Every creak of the floor. Every rustle of paper. I wouldn't run so fast if I were you. You never know what will draw him in."

    After a few swings of Henry's wrench, he finally killed the ink creature, making it fade away in a puddle of ink and drop a gear that I didn't even notice he had.

    "One down."

    We continued wandering throughout Level K, looking for hatches in the walls to find gears. Most of them were empty, but once we found two more, we heard Alice over the speakers once more.

    "That should be plenty. Return them to me. And try not to die on the way back."

    "What? Die?" Henry exclaimed. "What does she mean?"

    "Don't listen to her," I said. "Let's just get back to Level Nine so we can return her stupid gears."

    "Then what's all this about?"

    Henry pointed to the wall ahead of us. I looked over at it, only to see ink dripping; lots of it. Way more than usual.

    "Oh no," I mumbled. "He's coming. We have to hide!"

    "Who's coming?"

    I didn't answer, but instead grabbed his wrist and started trying to run with him to find the nearest Miracle Station. But I wasn't able to move very fast because of my injured leg.

    "Y/n, you're hurting your leg!"

    "Well, I'd prefer to be alive with an injured leg than dead!"