BATIM The truth behind the lies Au(AU) The illusion of living

Chapter 1: So Strange yet so familiar

 "Ugh, my head",Bendy groaned.

He rubbed his head as he looked at his grim surroundings, faded posters plastered on the walls to remind of a golden age from long ago. Slowly creeping down a dark hallway, only light being provided was the projector light shining on the wall. Bendy took a right turn once he reached the end of the entryway.

"DREAMS WILL COME TRUE!"

Bendy murmured to himself what was written on the wall in ink. He shivered a bit, getting cold chills down his spine. He journeyed on, stepping over a pipe, as found a room where the ink machine would be. He looked around for a trigger or something to power it on, noticing a place connected to a switch. As he flipped it a few times, nothing happened. His gloved finger tapped his chin, his hums of thought echoing the room. Glancing around, he noticed a battery laying on a shelf.

"Hm...maybe needs a few dry cells..", he mumbled to himself.

He grabbed the battery and opened the chest below to find another one, with a gear laying next to it. After he inserted the batteries and flipped the switch, loud clanking from the rusty chains echoed throughout the studio, the ink machine was rising back to the top....revealing someone was trying to start up the machine....

Bendy gasped in awe as the massive machinery rose to reveal itself, a soft hiss letting out as the chains rested from pulling such a heavyweight up to the surface. Black pipes were connected underneath leading down into the depths of which no one could ponder what could hide in its veil of darkness.

A soft creak echoed from behind the toon, his curiosity leading him to the sound. Another doorway was revealed, he peeked inside as he strolled in, grabbing a few cans of bacon soup that laid on the shelves to rot and rust away. His stomach grumbled quietly, begging for food.

The toon clutched it gently with his gloved hand, gripping the soup can with the other. His pie-cut eyes glancing around before deciding to throw the can against the wall, grunting as he did this with great effort, how amazing! Yet, the can was as stubborn as Joey Drew himself, and refused to reveal its juicy insides for Bendy's consumption. Bendy frowned upon that...

"There has to be a way to open these!", He exclaimed in frustration, god dammit can, he wanted to eat your juicy insides!

He picked up the can and searched for something to open his victim he held firmly in his hand, i mean the can of soup. He opened a few doors and tried it on an empty projector. He smashed it open to scavenge any possible sharp metal or just something to rip his victi- I mean can of soup's sealed lid open, To his luck, he did! He stabbed the can's lid to pierce through its shiny aluminum skin to reveal the sweet savory guts.. the bacon soup. Bendy huffed as his thin body loomed over his latest victim, but the soup can will have their revenge...

He lifted the can quickly to his lips and guzzled down the cold soup like it was a nice glass of the finest wine you could buy. For how long it's been sitting, it wasn't too bad, he had definitely tasted worse..

Then, just like that, he tossed the empty, lifeless husk that was left of the victim and ventured on with his journey. Turning back around, the toon stumbled upon two rooms, one held a body of a lifeless corpse of a gutted toon he didn't recognize, the other seemed like a room where you would put items down for a ritual of some sort.

He went to the weird ritual room, nerved that there was a DEAD toon, chest open and body gutted, laying on a table. As he entered the room, Bendy noticed the switch at the other end, using good deductive skills he was blessed with, he assumed the pictures on the walls were items needed to power the ink machine...

He huffed and exited the room, not wanting to search throughout the WHOLE floor for some measly items. He turned the corner and jerked back, a cutout stared back at him with lifeless eyes and a toothy grin. The cutout looked similar to him but...not quite. Freckles speckled across his face and one tooth was missing, and he had the cutest little hat.

"I wonder who put you here...", he murmured to himself as his hand grazed over the edge of the cutout, he paused and glanced around," HELLO?", he called out, nothing but his echos answered in return.

Bendy sighed, walking past the cutout, ready to see what else the studio had in store. The cutout's eyes slowly followed the toons movements as he headed down into the break room. He rushed down the steps, freaked by the cutout, and tried to search for the items.

"I remember see a picture of a book.... Maybe it's in here.".

His attention turned to a dusty dart board, with the darts still wedged inside. Maybe relaxing would help get his mind off the unsettling feeling this studio was giving as a whole. Yanking the darts out one by one, he sat down on a table and tried to aim the best he could. Bendy felt the dart leave his gloved hand as he threw it.

Thud

It hit the wall...

Thump

It hit the second outer ring of the board...

Thunk

He barely missed the center, "One more should do it!", he thought to himself.

Thump

The dart hit right smack dab into the middle. Bendy felt...happy, and more relaxed. He stretched and hopped off the table and searched through the few books scattered throughout the tables for the book titled "The illusion of living".

When he found the book, he tucked it under his arm. The foul stench of ink was stronger than before, at least he swore to himself it was. The room seemed darker too, but that's probably just his mind playing tricks on him...

right?