BATIM x Reader (Bendy and the Forgotten Dream: AU)

Chapter 2: Old Songs, Old Faces

Art Credit: Luna on DeviantArt

The whisper behind you was so close and fierce it sent a jolt throughout you and caused you to whip around in immediate fear. The voice you heard hinted familiarity, but the form in front of you definitely didn't.

He was...an inky man. That was the best way you could describe it. The skin he had was either coated or purely made of ink, but the shaping was human, male, and especially toned too, you noticed. The only thing he had on was a pair of overalls splattered with ink, unless you counted the shoes he had on of course.

Overalls. And the smooth voice. Someone had a voice like that who wore a different pair of overalls nearly every day.

Sammy. Samuel Lawrence.

Looking at Sammy again, you could see thick strands of ink arranged together on the top of his head to form hair. Messy hair like when he was human but hidden behind a mask displaying the cartoon head of Bendy. Sammy was hiding behind the face of the little devil himself.

What the mask DIDN'T hide was how angry and scornful he looked. You could see how his mouth- which had dangerously sharp teeth- twisted across his face.

"Must I repeat myself?! Do not. Play that song." Sammy shook his head and his ink hair swayed as he glared at his own sheet music like he was contemplating ripping it apart. He didn't. "Tch, no matter. It won't be a problem in a moment."

Adrenaline danced its way into your heart once you saw him pull out an axe and hold it right at your throat, along with using his free hand to pin your arm to the piano. Sour notes on the keys hit as he leaned in. You quickly forced your own words out.

"Sammy! Sammy... Sammy, wait. It's Y/N. Remember? Do you remember? I'm here to see what happened to Henry and bring him back... along with you now..."

Sammy gave a rueful smile with a sigh that wasn't at all comforting. He let you go only for a second but quickly grabbed your hands again while holding the axe and taking you down the hallways to whatever destination he had for you.

The halls you didn't pay attention to earlier, Y/N. Do the messages feel familiar?

"He will set us free"

"Above all, He is greater than any angel"

"I will sing your name"

It clicked in disturbingly quick time: Sammy was worshipping Bendy. Or whatever demon had been on the first floor, which was most likely both. It was like you'd missed the main act of a horror story but came in time to still be haunted by it. BENDY was haunting the studio, and Sammy was treating him like a god, you just knew it. And it seemed that he forgot much of his memory along with his sanity.

You finally looked up to see that he had brought you across the second floor to... your old department. "Story" as it had been called, and where the old cartoon episodes were written. The slightest smile went across you when you saw Dot's desk but trailed off when you saw the ink message above it.

"Where?"

And there, above YOUR desk...

"They left us"

"You clearly haven't been paying close attention to the messages left by my lord and the other ink souls left on the first floor," Sammy hissed, "so I'll make your human eyes see this. Oh yes, I remember both you and Henry Y/N, I remember well enough to know that you left us, as the words say."

I should struggle. I should run.

...I don't want to run from him.

"Sammy, I know it's not an excuse but Henry was really the only reason I was still there at that point. You should know as well as I that the work conditions were terrible."