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

Chapter Nine: Animation Antics

Searching around the place, you noticed a table filled with different things, batteries, Gent parts, and toolkits, all there just for you. 'Don't mind if I do.' At this point you had given up on wondering how you could hold so many things at once, since this whole world didn't really make sense. After gathering everything, you recollected your boundaries, listening out for the scampering cues above you.

Moving forward, you saw a person covered in ink, strung up to the wall with cloth over their head. The words, "Demon Follower" were written beside them, which made it look like they were executed. You felt saliva trickle down your throat along with chunks of ink when you noticed the thing inside his chest. 'Oh no... why is it there?'

The "Gent Pipe" Alice told you to find was lodged in the Lost One's body, waiting for you to get it. You shook your head and turned to open the door beside you to enter and grab the pipe, but you found that it was pitch black on the other side.

'...' While you didn't want to be a baby about it, you still were afraid of the dark. 'I'll find some light first... Let's keep looking.'

Turning back around, you decide to have a look around for a proper light source. 'Who's in there?' A raspy and loud voice called from behind a locked door. You quickly hid behind a few pieces of steel. You made sure to quieten your breathing as you listened. The creature banged and shook on the door, shouting 'Open up!' Before you could do anything, he ripped open the door and looked around, you dropped down lower so it would be harder for you to be seen.

'If I find you, I'm going to rip your face off!' You skin crawled at how rough his voice was. You weren't going to take the chance that he was joking. Sitting there in rising fear, you remember what Alice had told you as a pointer.

'"Y/N, you will find you'll get yourself in a lot of trouble in your journey up, so just remember the best way out of trouble is to not be seen. Hide as often as you can until you gain something to defend yourself. Lost Ones have terrible peripheral vision, but good hearing, so if you just stay crouched and steer clear of their line of sight, you will be fine."'

Thank you, Alice... Crawling on your hands and knees, you find yourself looking for which way the Lost One was going. He started to go to the right of you, so you clawed your way to the opposite side of the steel barrier. Please don't see me, please don't see me...

You successfully got past him, and he walked away from you toward the desk that once held loads of valuable resources, and you made sure to keep an even pace to the door that was now open. A small library with a broken wall stood before you, and the broken brick wall led into another secret room. You continued to crawl, finding yourself in a power room. Letting yourself get back up into a more comfortable position, you noticed that three lights were blinking, showing everything was in proper working order. However, the power to the Atrium Supply was off with no fuse at all, the room that was pitch black, and the room you needed to get through.

'So... it's missing a fuse... Let's see if I can find one around here somewhere.' You turned back around, only to be frightened by a Bendy cut out. You didn't scream, but you stepped back suddenly, with your eyes widened in surprise. As your foot stepped back, it landed on a creaky floorboard, and you winced at the noise it protruded. 'Who's there?' you could hear the Lost One call out, getting closer to your whereabouts. The sound of something breaking made you cringe and cower into a small ball. From where you were sitting, you could see the Lost One's feet walk back and forward, and you saw the swinging of what looked to be a bat.

He already found a weapon? Are you serious... He didn't seem to be moving away from where you were, so you had to think. You looked through your stuff, but everything was valuable. You sighed heavily and drew out your notebook, feeling along its edges. Attempts and successful drawings of the cartoon characters you grew up with lived in these pages, notes on how to survive, and memories. But you knew that you had good memory. You wouldn't need to have this with you to survive. Hugging it tightly to your chest, you mentally said a final goodbye to it.

When the Lost One's back was turned, you threw the notebook across the room, it made a loud thud against the wall. 'What?' The Lost One exclaimed, walking over to it curiously. You shimmied your way out of the brick's hole as fast as you could, and then crouched and made your way to the right of him. He started to flick through your pages, staring at your drawings. It made you feel awkward as he grunted at what he saw. Eventually, you made your way across to a room you hadn't explored yet.

A stuffed Bendy greeted you on a work chair, making you smile. Standing up, you walked over to it and rubbed your hand over its soft fabric. It felt like velvet, making you relax at the touch. These stuffed toys are the only thing keeping me sane here...

A note was left on the table, along with some coin tokens either side of it. "Management has come up with a new way to "reward" us employees: Instead of paying out bonuses or overtime, they've started handing out these little tokens that you can spend in company vending machines." What kind of reward is that? It reminded you of your mother having access to the vending machines whenever she had a tight deadline. "Obviously, a lot of people didn't like the idea."

"The best part is that, within a week, someone figured out how to make fake tokens that fools the vending machines. We've started to call them "SLUGS"." Serves Management right.

Looking at the stray "Slugs" on the table, you decided they may have some use after all, and pocketed them for safe keeping.

'I don't have bad vision... I'll find you!' You head the Lost One call out from where you last saw them, which made it very hard to suppress a chuckle. You managed, however.