I'm back bitches- wonder how many of y'all are still here? I was away because of some things going on, but writing is an escape from all that, so- It's been almost four months I believe, but I was unexpectedly and violently thrown back into the batim fandom, so have a little Benry :]
"Joey, this isn't exactly...something someone would normally do in a cartoon studio."
Henry nervously looked over at his boss, and down at the peculiar inky shape around their feet. A pentagram, to be exact. Joey scoffed at the man, not taking his eyes away from the book perched open in his hand. "Exactly. We'll be the first to accomplish something like this! Cartoon studios and companies all over the world will fall to our feet once this happens!" Joey grinned. He kneeled on the floor and slipped out a matchbox from his back pocket. "Kneel down on the other side now, Henry." He instructed. The animator reluctantly did as he was told. He didn't feel right.
Joey struck the match against the side of the box then slowly lit each candle that sat on every point of the inky star stained into the floorboards. After that was completed, he shut off the light to the room, and kneeled on the opposite side of the circle as Henry, placing the book open faced in the middle along with a full inkwell. "Put your hands on the circle, like this." Joey said, spreading his hands open onto the ground so his palms were pressed into the floor. Henry hesitated a few seconds before slowly doing the same. The uneasy feeling in his gut grew as Joey began speaking Latin words from the book. He half wished he knew what the crazy man was saying.
As Joey spoke, the inky pentagram lit up a bright white, and the ink well trembled and raised a few feet into the air. It kept rising as Joey spoke, until it reached eight feet and the man stopped talking. The candles all went out at once as a breeze from nowhere rushed across the room, plunging them into darkness. The inkwell fell and shattered, ink splattering the floor across the entire pentagram, yet somehow not a drop hit either of the two humans. The room was deathly silent. Nothing happened. They waited five more minutes, but nothing happened. Joey sighed and stood up, then slowly made his way to the light switch. He tripped on a few things and loudly swore before reaching it and flicking it on.
The room was no different from before except for the shattered glass inkwell in the circle. Henry felt relief wash over him, and he let out a quiet sigh. Of course nothing happened, how could he be so stupid? Black magic was just a little fable to scare children and naive adults (much like Wally), into being good people. He stood up and picked a sliver from his hand. "I told you it wouldn't work." Henry said, starting for the door. Joey rolled his eyes and picked up the book, slamming it shut. Henry suddenly noticed the ink from the inkwell had completely disappeared. He assumed it seeped into the floorboards.
"There's much more ways to try, Henry." He said, lightly leafing through the pages. He didn't seem to find anything else helpful, though. Henry shook his head as he opened the door and left down the hallway. He heard the door shut and a lock click, and he turned around to see Joey heading in the opposite direction, presumably toward his own office. Henry passed the music department on his way to his office, and was stopped by an angry, ink drenched Sammy.
"Where the hell did you and Joey go? I looked everywhere and couldn't find either of you. I wanted to let Joey know that the pipe in my office burst for the ninth time this week, and I'm getting really sick of it!" Sammy growled. Henry sighed.
"Joey's in his office right now, but I doubt he'll do anything about it." Henry pointed out. Sammy looked at his shoes for a moment as he thought.
"He's a useless boss, the studio would do much better without him." Sammy huffed, turning on his heel and storming down the hall toward their boss' office.
"Just be careful about what you say, he's not in a good mood right now." Henry called after the musician. He didn't respond, and Henry vaguely wondered if he even heard him. His thoughts interrupted themselves as he felt like someone was watching him. He turned around, golden flecked brown eyes darting around the hall. He thought he saw what appeared to be a shadow around the corner of the hall, but it was gone in the blink of an eye. Henry gave himself a shake, and continued on his way to the animation department. When he got there, he shut his office door behind him, and collapsed into the uncomfortable wooden chair positioned at his desk. He rose a hand and rubbed his tired eyes. A creak sounded behind him.
Henry whipped around and saw his door was wide open. Curious, he stepped into the hall and looked around. Nobody was there. He turned back to his office, and suddenly noticed a pool of spilt ink in the corner of the room. Was that there before? He probably hadn't noticed. He was about to turn and go get the janitor, when the ink puddle moved slightly toward him. It moved. Henry gasped and stepped back. Surely he was seeing things? Large clawed, gloved hands rose from the puddle and dug into the wooden floor. Henry felt as if he were paralyzed.
He stared in horrified awe as the puddle rose from the floor, taking shape as it did so, into an eight foot tall beast with long horns, a spiky back, and a sickeningly familiar grin plastered across it's ink dripping face. Henry felt like he should scream, but his lungs decided to stop working for the moment. It stared directly at him. Henry knew it was, even though he couldn't see his eyes, he just knew it. He felt it looking him up and down, studying him. Adrenalin rushed through the terrified animator's body, and he turned around and ran. He ran as fast as he could until he was back by the music department. He was meaning to get to Joey's office, for as he was running, the conclusion came to him that this horrific monster must have been Bendy.
He ran straight into someone and fell to the floor. He looked up at a tall man, Norman, panting from all the running. He needed to exercise more, Henry decided. Norman kneeled down and held a hand out to him. "Where's the fire?" He asked. Henry grabbed his hand and was hauled to his feet. He glanced behind him, and saw around the corner the shadow of the creature, slowly stepping forward. Henry shoved Norman into the music department, and quickly locked the door from the inside. Sammy glanced curiously over at them where he had been tuning a banjo.
"What-" he began to ask. Henry ran over and dragged Sammy back beside the door, where nobody could see them through the small square of glass. He held a finger to his lips. Normally, Sammy wouldn't listen to people telling him to be quiet, but the panicked aura of the animator made him shut up. Then, all three of them heard it. The rattling breaths like wind raking against tree branches, the splattering footsteps as it unevenly made it's way down the hall, the occasional thump as it's tail whipped the wall. Soon enough, the sounds disappeared. Henry let out a long breath and leaned against the wall.
"Explain." Sammy said. He looked slightly on edge, unsure what was going on.
Henry was about to, but found he was at a loss for words. How does one exactly explain what he just witnessed without sounding like a complete nut? He tried anyways. "Why you couldn't find Joey or me earlier was because he wanted my help to test something...new, for the studio. He said it'd put every other cartoon company out of business. I didn't believe him, of course, especially when he drew a pentagram on the floor and started looking at a spell from a book of black magic. I decided to humour him, and went along with his spell. Nothing happened except for a floating inkwell. So, we both left. I was in my office just now and..." Henry trailed off and took a breath. He wasn't even sure what just happened was real.
"I was in my office when I noticed a puddle of ink on the ground. I know I didn't spill any, so I thought it was weird. Then, it formed into this...huge...thing, and I just ran from it. I-I don't what it was, or maybe I'm just going crazy!" Henry lowered his head to stare at the ground. Sammy narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, while Norman gave an unsure shrug. Sammy opened the door to the music department and peered out into the hallway.
"Well if you're crazy, then so am I, because look at this." He called to the other two. Henry and Norman followed him out into the hallway. Large, inky footsteps made a path all the way down the hall, and a few spots on the wall from where it's tail hit. Norman and Sammy shared a concerned look, while Henry cautiously began to follow the footprints.
"Where are you going?" Norman asked.
"I don't know. Hopefully I can manage to tell Joey what happened without getting killed." Henry said, inspecting the inky blobs on the floor as he walked. He froze suddenly, and turned to the other two. "However, it didn't seem exactly aggressive at all. It just kind of...stared at me for a minute until I ran out. I don't know if it's evil, but it's better to be safe than sorry." Henry shrugged, then continued his trek to Mr. Drew's office. He turned the corner, and immediately slammed into something. He fell to the floor, and held a hand to his face where he felt it was wet. He pulled his fingers from his cheek and saw black ink staining his skin.
His head whipped up and his eyes were met with the monster's toonish grin. It's tail slowly whipped back and forth, like a cat contemplating whether to bite you or let you pet it. Slowly, Henry stood up. Bendy's head turned in the direction of Henry as he rose from the ground, obviously watching the human like a hawk. Henry edged along the hall away from the beast at the pace of a snail. He hoped he wasn't about to be made into demon food. Bendy, however, simply watched the human with an air of curiosity. Henry was now backing away down the hall, toward Joey's office. Bendy began to follow, and Henry dashed away.
The demon made a chirrup noise, then dashed after the man as if it were a friendly game of tag. Henry slipped into Joey's office, and slammed the door shut. He saw through the little square window, the demon peering into the room. It grinned at Henry. Joey quickly stuffed papers into his desk once Henry burst in, but the animator paid no attention to it. "Hey Joey, we've got a serious problem on our hands!" Henry gestured to the window, where Bendy was now licking the glass. He removed his tongue and made a disgusted face. Apparently it didn't taste all that good.
Joey's eyes widened and he looked like he was wondering whether to feel scared, or excited. "That's...that's Bendy! He didn't turn out like I planned, but it's Bendy! Do you know what this means, Henry? If we try enough times, we can get the toon version of him just right." Joey grinned. "We just have to get rid of this ugly monstrosity, then try again." Joey said, waving a hand at the window. Henry looked over, and Bendy grinned wider when he looked at him. He suddenly felt a lot less threatened by the demon. He decided right then Bendy wasn't that bad.
"Now, he looks horribly vicious, so how do you think we could kill him?" Joey asked. Henry glared at him.
"No, Joey. We can't kill him. Just...look at that face! You can't tell me he's a vicious monster, I'll show you." Henry opened the door, and Joey ducked under his desk.
"Whatever Henry, it's your funeral." He scoffed. Henry ignored his remark, and nervously stared up into Bendy's happy face. The demon glanced back into Joey's office and his smile dropped. He saw a poster on the wall. The little toon demon smiled back at him from the poster. He looked down at his ink dripping clawed hands. He suddenly realized why Henry had been running away in such a fear.
"Do you speak at all?" Henry asked. The demon's eyes snapped back to Henry.
"Yes." His voice was a deep growl, not at all what Henry had expected. The animator gave an anxious smile up to the demon.
"Why were you chasing me?" Henry asked. Bendy grinned and held out his hands, then picked Henry up under his arms and held the human in front of him. Henry tensed.
"I thought you wanted me to, you kept looking back at me. Also because I wanted to talk to you, you look friendly!" Bendy giddily explained, tail now positively wagging like a happy dog. He then pulled Henry closer to his chest, and held him bridal style. He saw Joey and his smile turned to an angry frown. "I don't like him. He wants to kill me." Bendy growled, baring his teeth at Joey. The man trembled under his desk, and tried scooting further away.
"Well he's not going to, don't worry." Henry patted the demon on the head. The animator could barely hold in a laugh as the demon licked his cheek, leaving a watery ink trail across his face.
"I like you. What is your human name?" Bendy asked, tilting his head. He began to walk back down the hall toward Henry's office.
"My name is Henry." The animator responded. He was very quickly growing quite fond of the inky demon, even if he got stains all over his clothes. As they passed the music department, a baffled looking Sammy and Norman stared up at him held in the demon's secure arms. "Hi. Uh...he's really friendly, by the way. Um...you guys should probably get back to work, then." Henry commented as Bendy strode past them, barely sparing them a glance. The only human he wanted to pay any attention to was Henry. They reached the animation department, and Bendy sat down in the chair with Henry in his lap.
"Henry, how come I don't look like the Bendy in the poster?" The demon asked sadly. Henry wasn't sure how to answer, especially considering he had no idea what had happened.
"I'm not sure, bud. But don't sound so sad about it, I think you look really hot-NEat! Really neat." Henry gave a forced cough and felt his face heat up. He really almost said that. Bendy seemed to catch on anyways, and his grin widened. His whip-thin tail curled around Henry's thighs and he rested his head atop the man's fluffy brown hair.
"Not too bad yourself, Hen." Bendy purred, wrapping his long arms around the small human sitting in his lap. Henry blushed at this and looked very hard at his desk. If earlier that day you were to tell him where he'd be right now, he'd have driven you straight to the hospital.
I do believe I'm out of requests so if you wanna request or I accidentally missed yours, feel free to request something.
