Cares of Communion (Bendy and the Ink Machine)

9- For Her Sake

Author's Notes: This chapter's art is by Slipnslide blog (Silver) on Tumblr.

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"And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." – Genesis 2:9

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She felt so...

Comfortable.

With her eyes closed and an inexplicable warmth wrapped around her body, Francine only had sensation to describe what she felt now. Do you know that sort of...flutter in your heart where for the first time in a long time...everything seems okay? The way that serenity spreads through your veins until it feels like everywhere you go is walking on a cloud?

Indeed, despite her fears...despite facing this big, inky unknown with encouragement to only accept it rather than engage it, question it-...Francine now finally...finally...

Felt like everything was somehow, someway, going to be okay, just as she had asked for from a god above before chasing omniscience itself to find it.

It was here all along, it seemed.

Even if they all were so different- even so frustrating about it...as she let rest sweep over her until her skin was numb with peace, it dawned upon her like the sun beginning to peak over the horizon that maybe, just maybe...

Everyone she met here really did care about her in one way or another.

And it was likely she didn't know exactly how much she meant to them to drive shadow's citizens to do so.

To Sammy, she was a gift. Even in his growing doubts of purpose in perdition, he no longer questioned hers. She was there by the demon's grace and even if he was no longer so sure about his lord's wishes and intentions, hers were always clear: that he was blessed with her human companionship, and in turn it was his sacrifice to walk alongside and ensure she was as happy as can be.

Even if he couldn't be, and so he let her chase that which he feared most.

To Alice, she was a reminder- a reflection in a living mirror of all she once had, all she wanted to make for herself again. She had only seen the mortal smile so, so briefly compared to all the time spent alone, and yet it was enough to burn her image into the angel's mind. And if Alice couldn't ever again truly have the pristine humanity the woman felt not awarded but burdened with...

Then she wouldn't take it for granted ever again, whether or not it belonged to her.

And to even poor, unsettled Norman, the man with so little left of him that one had to investigate to find clues he was ever a person at all- she was a pleasure. And indeed, he was a person then and still was now, and so deep down the old man still carried that heavy weight somewhere in a heart buried beneath ink, reels, and tangled wires- the load that came with care's obligations. But he only felt and could not comprehend, so it left him desperate in action. By far the projectionist scared her the most, and yet...

Even he that grasped little both in and around him not only could do so physically but spiritually to appreciate the woman unlike anything he'd ever seen.

These were all things Joey Drew let toss and turn in his mind as he saw his newest victim curled up in the best chair of an office he used to be proud to call his own. They cared about her. They all did. In all the years they were trapped together, it took such little time to find her important.