The Inky Reality

Chapter 2 - Entering the Studio

I walk into the abandoned studio.
"Hello?" I ask, knowing nobody will answer. I turn to the right to walk down to the music department, hoping to find Henry. But to no avail. I continue walking down the stairs, walking through the corridors. Still nothing. After a bit, I start losing hope.

b o n k
"Hello?"
c l a t t e r
"Is someone there?"
t h u m p
t h u m p
t h u m p
A nose can be seen, but it doesn't seem human.
"Who are you?"
The full figure comes out from hiding, but still cowering in the shadows.
"I mean no harm-"
A step forward. They can almost be seen.
"- if you mean the same"
A full figure can be seen.They seem to have floppy ears and they radiate the feeling of being safe.
"Boris?"

"Boris! You scared me! Hey hey, can you help me? I haven't been here in far too long.." I say to him, realizing maybe I do have some help besides Tom and Henry. Boris nods and motions to me to follow him. After a bit of walking, we make it to his safehouse. "Boris, do you know where Henry is?" Boris nods, but his expression seems worried. "Is he in some sort of danger?" Boris nods. "Can you take me to where he is?" Boris wanders off, so I follow behind him. We enter a large dark hall. Halfway through we hear rushing footsteps. "What was that?" Boris shrugs, and we keep on walking. We make it to a bright opening.

Boris looks around terrified. I pat his shoulder in hope to give him some sort of comfort. "I see you're already back my little errand boy.. wait a minute, who are you?" Someone says from above. "Who is that..?" I ask Boris. He points at a poster of Alice Angel. "Alice?" I say, baffled. I didn't know there was another Alice Angel, she doesn't sound like an Alice. She seems rough. Boris looks terrified of being here. I feel bad I asked him for help but this was the only way I would've found Henry. "ANSWER ME!" I hear her yell. "I'm Alice Angel." I answer.

Only moments later I see a figure walking towards us. Boris is shaking with fear, you can just see the fear in his eyes, poor Boris. The figure gets closer and closer till they're standing right in front of me. "Alice Angel you say?" They ask, this has to be the other Alice. She points at me and brings her finger to my nose. "I'm the only Alice angel here, so explain yourself" she says. "I'm Alice Angel. That's all I've ever been referred to as. So who are you?" I say, feeling quite bold. And that's when the elevator arrived at level K. That's when I see him coming out of the elevator. Henry. So he is in danger. I can tell this 'Alice' means no good. I'm getting to the bottom of this.

"Henry?" I ask. "Alice?" When he said that, both the other Alice and I reacted. "Which are you speaking to?" The other Alice said. "Uh- th- u h - " Henry stuttered, not being able to find a difference between us two, as we were both a fair distance away from him.

"I don't have time for this, errand boy." The other Alice says, sounding more annoyed than ever. Henry looks at me with a pleading look, I can just see he wants to get out of here. Henry walks closer to the other Alice and hands her what I can kind of guess are gears. "Thank you my little errand boy." she says, kissing him on the cheek. When she did that, I felt jealous. 'I've only known her for less than 5 minutes!' I say to myself.

Henry looks disgusted and slowly walks back to the elevator. I immediately chase after him with Boris right behind me. I try to step into the elevator but I feel a hand stop me. I can tell it's not Boris. I turn around and see the other Alice. Once I realize it's her hand against my wrist I can feel my body heat up. 'I hope my face isn't all red' I think. "No no, I have other plans for you" Alice says, giving me a twisted smirk that makes me shiver in fear. I look back at Henry, seeing he's already rising up to a different level. 'Save me' he mouths to me. I nod and look back at the other Alice, scared for what'll happen.

Alice continues dragging me by my wrist, and it made me flustered. "So, uh, where are you taking me?" I ask. "Just to do some s p e c i a l errands" Alice says. "What kind of s p e c i a l errands..?" I ask, extremely nervous. "You're perfecter than me I suppose.. so I want you to give me a makeover" Alice says, kind of stuttering. "Wh- w h a t ? - " I ask. "You heard me. I want you to give me a makeover" The other Alice demands.

"Well, that doesn't really count as an errand-" I say. "Then, a job." Alice responds. After a bit of walking and dragging, we finally made it to her 'lair' area. "So, uh, how do you expect me to give you a makeover if you have no supplies?-" I ask. "Ah, uh, you see-" She stutters. "I see what?" I ask. "I don't actually have anything, I was just hoping you could make me look more beautiful.. more like.. you." the other Alice says, mumbling the ending yet I caught what she said. "Uh, can you repeat that last part? I don't think I heard it correctly-" I ask, my heart beating loudly. "More like the official Alice" she says, not specifically saying me anymore. She points at an Alice Angel poster "Her.." she says. "Oh.." I reply, actually feeling disappointed. She goes and gets a stool and she sits on it. I stare at the half of her face that as she sits comfortably. "So you just want to look more like.. me?" I ask "Yeah, basically..." She replies.

Hours later after doing my regular 'beauty' routine on her I find a mirror she surprisingly had in her 'lair' and showed her how she looked. Her eyes widened in amazement "I look perfect!" she says, looking at a poster of Alice Angel. "Thank you! Thank you!" she says, seeming more grateful for
me than for Henry.. huh, weird. Alice then gets closer to me and kisses my check. My face goes red, that was entirely unexpected. "Uh, y-you're welcome-" I reply, still trying to process what just happened.

We both stood there awkwardly for about 5 minutes. "Well then! That's all I need from you my little errand girl, you are... free to leave" the other Alice says, sounding almost..disappointed. I nod, walking slowly to the door. "wAIT!" The other Alice yells. I turn towards her almost immediately. When I looked back I didn't see her where I thought she was. Instead she was hugging me. I was so surprised it took me a while to comprehend what was happening, but I eventually hugged back so it was an actual embrace. "I don't know how or why but I feel as though we are connected in some way.." the other Alice says. That was very bold of her to say when we only met not too long ago. I didn't know how to react to it so I just stood there, embracing her in silence.