Le Note: So, editing on this one was a tiny bit more rushed due to how long it takes to type these (since honestly I didn't take a typing class yet yikes-), so feel free to point out any errors! Aside from that, this is probably the most important chapter in the book so far! I hope you enjoy it ❤️
Art Credit: Dusk Ealain
Freedom was physically close but still locked away for now.
You understood now, understood what kept every ink being, every soul from just opening one of the doors on the first floor and stepping out into the city streets regardless of what shocked reaction the people from above would have.
They didn't know their world anymore.
Memory was and still is a very delicate thing. Each being down in the studio had a set of them. Each monster pushing through the hierarchy of the harsh reality the studio trapped them in had a set of them. Each employee that lived when the inky halls weren't labyrinths had a set of them. Each cartoon who was carefully drawn in a black and white land for all see and to make others smile had a set of them.
The issue with what Joey Drew made was every single memory was mixed. Memories previously from or created in varying "worlds" he should've never brought together. Human memory, memory from the cartoons. Like one was IN the cartoons, belonged in them. Even creatures who kept a perfect set of memories from only a cartoon or human soul would have the experience of their present misfortune as well. Going back on the tape was not an option. People were killed, changed, souls were lost... some even scattered so far they didn't show at all in the reality you previously breathed in. Memories, or rather pieces of souls, were duplicated in the ink, split, rearranged, erased, put through almost anything imaginable in any ink creature. Despite this large problem every ink creature and piece of soul could fully link to one place and possibly even become whole in: the ink abyss.
You opened your eyes to a blur of gold light gently reaching down to you with its rays from far above in the circling darkness. Such light continued to fly down slowly throughout the inkwell like falling stars or dust glowing in the sun. Even though you opened your eyes you had only entered a dreamlike state.
This must be what Henry meant about being reborn. And the whispers from the Bendy statues... they match the whispering in here.
Not everyone could say they remembered dying. You knew deep down it would've happened at one point during your journey, that was confirmed after what Henry confessed to you. Sammy had explained the cycle to you before then as well, and as saddening as it was... dying and coming to the inkpool of revival, the ink abyss as they called it, was just a part of how they lived. Every ink monster. Still... it hurt figuring out they'd never be able to rest. Or at least be peaceful during their time buried in the swirling ebony. ...You knew how bad it was once your eyes moved away from the flashing light and towards the darkness circling around you to the sides, just as present.
Immediately the pain sank in again. Every slice across your skin, pounding hit, slam... essentially everything you experienced during your fight. The feeling of soulless eyes, searchers enveloping and suffocating until air was a myth to your lungs.... Although no ink in the flowing abyss touched you, each drop of coldness seeped into all your nerves until you thought you would freeze where you were floating and sink down to never see the reaching gold again.
Wails and pained cries from other beings wavered in and echoed around you, all of them most likely the only thing keeping the trapped souls (or pieces of souls) sane. ...Or proving they weren't the same anymore. Some of the voices begged to no end; begging to go home, to end everything, erase memory, bring it back, evade danger... evade the ink demon. Evade Alice. Kill her. Kill the demon. To be given anything that'd grant them hope. Some even spoke hushed pleas for power over others. Others wished to be at the bottom of the studio's hierarchy, to move down so far on the food chain they'd forever be unnoticed and safe. Trapped, but safe.
YOU ARE READING
BATIM x Reader (Bendy and the Forgotten Dream: AU)
Fanfiction"The studio pulled you back..." "...What scares me is the question of how he's still gone." "...Even if he forgot the experience, the feeling still stains." "It doesn't matter, Y/N. You're important. If the ink recognizes you as an angel once you're...
