An Inkwell's Stain //BATDR Fanfiction\\ [Male Reader]

Chapter Six: Just the Beginning

Climbing up the brick wall with newly found strength, you gripped onto it tightly to make sure you didn't fall again. No monster was waiting for you, thank goodness. A note was left on a stool in front of you which you decided to read.

"Around here, it's best to stay out of sight. Don't ever go running into some place if you don't know what's in there!" You chuckled to yourself. Noted. "If you attack a problem head on, you're going to find yourself in trouble. And that's just foolish! You gotta watch, listen, and when the time is right, push forward." Once again, it was signed by "Your Best Pal", and you were feeling this isn't Wilson with how it's written. Too friendly. Alice? No... I'll figure it out eventually.

Wandering around reminded you of when you were exploring Arch Gate Studios, which was a lot more innocent then. Everything is different now. Rounding a corner, you find a mirror and notice a sickening creature staring at you, eyes glowing brightly as it stared into you with fear. Then you realised it was you. Rushing up to the mirror and resting your hand on the reflection, you look in dismay at your ink stained and drenched face, pale and dripping. Your eyes were glowing purely, in a faded orange hue.

'My face...' you saw ink build up in your florescent eyes, which you knew were your equivalent of tears. 'I just... I just want to go home...' you murmured, closing your eyes as you stood in meaningful silence. Keep moving, quit crying. Turning away from yourself, you continue on your way.

Crawling under a ceiling collapse, you found yourself in a room with a gigantic Boris the Wolf plush toy, just like the one near the ink fountain. A beam on your face immediately boosted your mood as you ran to it and poked its soft body. It gave a little squeak from the impact, making you snicker.

'Oh, at least you aren't completely saturated, Boris.' you laughed, and pat its huge leg affectionately. Some candles were at his feet, which you made to steer clear of as you backed away. Twisting your head to the right, you noticed writing on the wall, in messy handwriting. It must've been written by someone desperate, you thought. "Where is the toyman?" it said in all capitals.

Ignoring it, you turn on the cassette tape below it, hoping for some context. "Yeah, so those GENT corporation boys are kinda... strange." Your eyes widened slightly, hearing something familiar. GENT was the co-company with Joey Drew Studios that basically no one knew about, or why they were even there.

"Every time I come back to work; they're putting in more o' their gadgets...' You started to think he was just going to complain the whole time, so you decided to look around the room for something to distract you.

The locker beside you contained nothing useful; just some books about engineering and inkwells, which was rather ironic since ink was spilled all over the place. "...They added security codes for opening doors! Geez, what kind of work do they think we do here anyways? Last I checked, we make toys and silly cartoons!" Well, there's something. Looking around, you noticed a security code input system which was wired to the door opposite it.

"...No frickin' thank you!" His sudden voice echoed in the room, making you tense at the volume. Then a sigh came through the cassette's receiver. "I'm just gonna... I'm just gonna record the door code here so I don't forget." He cleared his throat, and you got ready to put in the numbers. "The code... is 4...5...1... 4-5-1." You completely blanked out at what the rest of his words were, you just scrambled the code as quickly as you could and pressed the button below it to signify that was your answer.

The loud and whining rolling door arose, allowing you entry to continue on your way. I'm guessing there'll be a lot of obstacles here, huh...

This area felt a whole lot darker to you, almost completely obliterating the state of mind you had with the Boris plush's presence. A winding stairway led to yet another work bench, accompanied by another climbing brick wall. Resting your hand on the beam for balance, you start to descent, only to be scared out of your wits by the rocking of the world's surface. Your fingernails dug into the wood, causing a slight indent in the beam as the world swayed, and what tiny amount of light in the room flickered.

As soon as it started, it ceased with you frozen in place. '...That was completely unnecessary...' you grumbled after digging your nails out of the old bar. Reaching the floor safely and looking to the table, you could see the handwriting staining the table straight away. "He sees everything" was scribbled down, which you found to be rather ominous. Who? You noticed the cassette tape leaned against the wall, so you flicked the on switch. "It seems that Arch Gate Studios... in all its misplaced admiration..." Wilson. Wilson sees all.

"...Was so eager to absorb the life's work of that crooked Joey Drew, they didn't fully realise what they had acquired. Call it fate that I just happened to be there on the loading dock that morning. When the delivery boys found one of the crates, it smashed open... and inside... there was something truly special." The way he spoke made you shudder. "A mass of yellow steel, and beautiful rivets... some kind of machine."

Machine? Like that... thing that flooded the museum? Both Wilson and that weird contraption was always in the back of your mind. "No one knew what it was, so the fools put it on display for all to see... But I could tell that this crude device held secrets... secrets... that could be mine." The cassette finished its audio, and you only just realised your hands were clenched tightly, hurting your palms. Relaxing your fingers, you thought about what you just heard.

A peculiar machine was displayed for everyone to look at, a machine that held secrets... Apparently this delve into this world would be quite long and interesting... it seemed as though this was just the beginning of your journey.

And that feeling of excitement told you that you couldn't wait to learn more.