Phoenix Drop 2: An Inky Situation

Chapter 13: Finding Bend-o

The moment I didn't see him on the floor, my eyes and body shot up as I immediately hopped off the table and left, not even waiting for Kawaii~Chan to follow. My eyes jumped from left-to-right, up-to-down, side-to-side, looking for the little ink demon. I didn't even care if I was getting strange stares from everyone as I pushed and sped past them, even if I did hate glares like that; my anxiety was the last thing I cared about right now. "Bendy!?" I called out. "Bendy!?" I called again. Even if he was made of ink, I couldn't rely on his footsteps since they were nowhere to be seen. So, I had to find him myself. Where did he go? Where could he have gone? I kept pondering in my racing brain. He could be anywhere, especially when this festival is fairly huge. Unfourtuently, I was forced to resort to asking around to see if anyone had seen him and knew where he went. I asked up to seven different people, but they had all responded with a headshake or a quick reply of no. It took the eighth person I had asked to finally get an answer.

I had run up to a little stand with a sign made of colorful green and pink shining lights that read something, but I was too focused on getting answers to fully see what it said. Underneath the lights, I saw a dozen kids just leaving after what I assume was the end of a show. Beyond the seas of leaving children, I noticed a guy sitting on an important chair with what seemed to be a dummy on his lap. Although a performer is the last person I'd need to ask since they'd probably be paying more attention to their audience than anything outside, still, I had to make sure and ask anyone in case they noticed anything outside of their domain. As I walked up to the guy and his puppet, I got a better look at their attire. The guy had curly brown hair, hazelnut eyes, pale skin, faint freckles, an innocent-looking smile, a white dress shirt with green overalls that hoisted up his dark grey pants to cloth over his skinny body, and fancy black shoes. He looked as if he was trying to capture the classic style of performers of the past.

And he was pulling it off, too, to be honest. Then there was his puppet. Its hair was light brown, its eyes were green, their skin was regular, its lips were red, its cheeks had a hint of blush, and its suit was black, with a little pink rose in its suit pocket. "Umm.. excuse me, sir?" I began, now reaching the decently tall guy. "Hmm? Oh! Hello there, ma'am! Please excuse me, I was just busy thinking away into my head." the man spoke, with the sounds of cheer sprinkled all over his voice. "It's da' only thing ya' eve' do, ya' dolt." suddenly spoke the puppet in his hands. "Be-Berrnard! What did I tell you about calling me names in front of others?" the guy whined towards the dummy. My eyebrow raised, confused as to why he was trying to continue his childish charade when no one was around to laugh or clap. "I heard ya'. Yet, I still said it!" chuckled the puppet. "Ugh. Please ignore him, he just likes to mess with me when I'm trying to make communication. A-Anyway, what brings you here, miss?" asked the guy.

"Well... I came here to ask around if anyone has seen a little... boy about this tall come by anywhere?" I asked him as I gave a demonstration of his height. "You mean about the size of my buddy here?" he asked to get a better idea of his possible height. "Y-Yes, I think so." I nodded. "Hmm. Maybe. Yes, I think I might've seen such a lad. Berrnard, have you seen such a boy outside our stand? I was so focused on making the children laugh that any outside vision seems fuzzy." the guy asked to his puppet. "Bold of ya' to ask me when I don't care fo' whatever's outside our shack," retorted the puppet, dropping his wooden eyebrows to look irritated. "But yessir, I think I did spot somethin'... odd lookin' while you were bein' you." "Really? What did you see?" I asked the dummy, even though I must've looked stupid trying to get answers out of a wooden doll that's clearly being controlled by the guy. Or, is it a remote-controlled puppet? Whatever, I shouldn't be carrying about that right now. 

"While I was mindin' my own beeswax, like usual, from da' corner of my eye, I suddenly spotted what seemed to be some kid that was completely black from head-to-toe. My eyes went wide after seeing such a kid; don't usually see kids that dark." giggled the dummy. "Umm... Ber-Berrnard? Co-Could you please refrain from putting things as 'blunt' as you do?" concerningly asked the man. I'd assume he was referring to the 'completely black' part of the dummies sentence. I guess he was trying to get him to use his correct pronouns in order to not step into any unintentional racial territory, even though I wouldn't have thought about that. "Yes, that's him! Did you see where he went?" I asked again, eager to get an answer. "Yeh, I think so. When I saw da' little guy just lookin' 'round with a bita' worry all over his white as flour dough lookin' face. The lad then looked at me as I looked at him back. He titled his head at me as if he ain't eva' seen an A-list star like myself befo'." laughed the doll.