Songs in the Abyss

Chapter 2.3; Breaking a puppet's strings

*Sammy's POV (le gasp!)*

I looked at Y/N lovingly as I tied her to a pole not far from Henry, this one not with a pentagram beneath it. Oh sweet, sweet Y/N... It has been so long, but never have I lost my love.. my lust.. my desire for you, my dear... And if my Lord approves, maybe I can finally have some... fun... with you...

But not now, for I first need to sentence Henry to his deserved death. He has kept her from me... From me and my Lord... and he deserves to die for it..!

Oh look now..!

The traitor and the beauty are waking up...

*Y/N's POV*
A throbbing head and a migraine were the first things I felt when I came to my senses again. My eyelids seemed to have a weight of iron on them, as I could not open them as far as normally possible. Then I heard the voice again. Confusion clouded my thoughts. Was that Sammy? If yes, how has he become like this?! What had Bendy done to him?! Or Joey perhaps?! And why had he hit us unconscious, because I was fairly certain he had!

Lifting my eyelids again, I succeeded and took in my surroundings. It seemed like we were in the old storage room. I was worried about if I was on my own, until I noticed Henry was bound at another pole to my right. The only difference was; there was a pentagram beneath him and, looking down, none beneath mine. And in front of Henry stood the figure. I gulped and listened in. "There we go now, nice and tight... We wouldn't want our sheep roaming away now... would we..?" Henry opened his mouth to answer, but quickly realized the question was rhetorical, as the figure spoke again: "No, we wouldn't..."

He then lifted up his gaze to meet mine, as he continued: "I must admit, I am... honoured... you came all the way down here to visit me... It almost makes what I'm about to do to him seem... cruel..?" I let out a slight gasp at the insane tone he spoke with. This was definitely not the Sammy I knew. And finally finding my tongue back, I stuttered: "S-Sammy..?" A visible shiver ran down the 'spine' of this inky Sammy, who was almost nothing like I had known him. He turned around and a slightly high pitched answer came: "Yes, my dear..?" I took a light breath and asked: "What happened t-to you..?"

He smiled at me in an almost maniacal way, as he now fully turned to face me. It was then I noticed how the dim lights lit up his chiseled features perfectly. The ink seemed to bring out his body like that of an angel. Wait a second, Y/N! He's some kind of ink monster!! I wasn't sure what to think anymore. Even despite that, I knew Bendy could get quite irritated by Sammy whenever he was 'worshipping' the demon he was seemingly wanting to offer Henry to now. However, my train of thought got altered when he answered my question: "A big bunch of events, dear sheep, a big bunch... Anyways..." He now turned to face Henry again, as I rapidly thought about what to do. Then I remembered. Usually, Joey said a couple of words when he was doing his crazy rituals. One day, Henry had caused a lot of noise in the room next to the one Joey was doing a ritual in. But, as I had listened in, he had caused a distraction which made Joey's ritual fail. Maybe if I were to do something similar, I could save Henry!

After a while of talking to Henry, Sammy turned to the middle of the room and spoke: "Sheep sheep sheep, it's time for sleep... Rest your head, it's time for bed... In the morning, you shall wake... Or in the morning, you'll be dead... Hear me, Bendy!" And before he could continue, I broke through with my own voice: "He had sent us a letter, to come back home to play. But to our dismay, this wasn't our day, for the happy fun time has faded away. I can't watch as you reanimate the corpses I abandoned. You were dismanteld and mishandeld, but you've never been skipped and swayed." Sammy had long stopped saying the ritual, as the walls darkened with the sticky substance me and Henry knew all too well. The ink darkened even more and I heard my heart beating, as I kept singing: "Trapped within these walls, we left your souls to drip away. A big mistake, I wont remake and the reckoning has come today, I'd say. Boris has no guts, 'cause we replaced them with mechanical string. You've been tortured, still you move forward, this disorder kills my dahahaay!" A silence filled the room, despite the ink dripping from the ceiling. "Has he left..?" I thought. "Can't be... right..? The ink is still there..."

Suddenly, a pitch black puddle appeared in the middle of the room, the ink swirling and swaying, floating upwards to take form of what I presumed would be the demon I once knew and still loved. Me, Henry and Sammy watched the breathtaking spectacle while bowtie and glove appeared in place. And there he was. Bendy the Dancing Demon, right in front of us. He turned around to face me and I suddenly felt ink leaking from my arms. Looking back, I felt my arms fall to my sides, as realization hit me. Bendy had freed me. Only me. That's when my breath stopped right in my chest. The demon had come forward and stood before me now, having to look down a bit, since he was a teeny tiny bit taller than me. I looked up into where I presumed were his eyes, since they were overflowed with ink. All of a sudden, Sammy spoke up softly: "M-My lord... S-She's the one I've been t-talking about... D-Do you remember her..?"

The demon looked back at Sammy, who immediately bowed. Then he looked at me again. I was frozen to my spot, as he seemed to take in my appearance, as far as you could sense by his body language. I softly, soundlessly almost, gulped and exposed my neck to him, showing I was not gonna harm him. Silence filled the room once again. Then I felt something cold brush over my hand and heard a purr coming from... "B-Bendy..?" The demon had kneeled for a second, positioning his head under one of my hands and, as he stood up, my hand had petted him, which he seemed to... like..? He took a step back and the ink started swirling and breaking apart his body again. After a while, he and the puddle had completely dissapeared and the walls started going dry again. Sammy turned to me and spoke enthousiastly: "He seems to see you as a friend! At least, he wasn't going to hurt you right on the spot, which means you could maybe be of interest to him! I will let you go now, but don't let me catch you again!" And before he could do anything, I ran up to him and fell in his arms. Apart from the smell of overdue ink, he smelled just like the old Sammy. Memories flooded my mind, but I pushed them aside. However, he seemed taken aback by my sudden action, not knowing how to react. But after a while, I felt my back cool down as well, since the black substance was now coating my back as well. I looked up at him and smiled. He seemed to smile back, although it could not be seen clearly, due to the Bendy-mask covering most of his face. We broke the hug and I freed Henry, the two of us leaving Sammy's sanctuary after I'd said goodbye to him. Making our way to the lift, we talked about what had happened.

After a little while, we arrived at the hall in front of the lift, visible by the sign next to one of the two doors, saying: 'Lift'. We cautiously walked towards it, since you could never know where the danger hides here in the old workshop. And as soon as we passed one of the boxes, a can came rolling over, startling us. "Hello..? We know you're there..! Show yourself..!" As a reaction, a wolf came walking from the corner of the room. My eyes lit up and one question raced through my mind, when I felt my legs give way once again.

'Boris..?'