{~ This entire story was written a year ago, Chapter 3 had just come out so it does not at all follow cannon. It shaped my writing into longer than it was before and, believe it or not, the reason I started an account... and I'm just now posting it. This was my attempt at horror, did I succeed? ~}

Prologue

(warning: suicide briefly mentioned later on)

It was years and years ago, perhaps centuries past, when it was discovered that there was a way to find a person's spirit animal. And now, it has been perfected.

Still, there were people who were...different. Their spirit animals were not normal at all, impossible to classify.

There were three of them. One easily mistaken and usually not found until it was too late. The other two, nothing came close to theirs, they matched no known species. And if they were not found in time, they were dangerous. The spirits were powerful creatures, whatever they were, and if working together with the human as a spirit is meant to, the world could be at their mercy.

.~.~.~.

"It's been 60 years since the last time you and I caused some trouble, old friend," the old man choked out as he lay, reclining on his deathbed.

"Aw, really? Gosh, it feel like it was jus' yesterday," the spirit replied. "Too bad we never found the others, imagine the fun we coulda had with them on our side!"

The man's smile widened. "Well, I guess that's something for you to look forward to when you are reborn with a new person," he commented. "Bendy, promise me you'll never forget the fun we had in our life together?"

The spirit that only he could see smiled excitedly himself. "Of course, pal! I never forget a past!"

It was later that night when the old man passed on. Around that same time, a child was born, the child who would be the next human for the spirit known simply as Bendy, for their kind was different from normal animals. Unlike normal spirit animals, their kind reincarnates with a new person each time the last one died.

"Hey, little buddy," Bendy whispered to the baby, ghosting around the room so he could see the child. This young, it was okay to make his presence known, when the baby was old enough to remember things, then he had to disappear. "We're gonna have all kinds of fun t'gether, aren't we, lil' Joseph?"

The baby boy looked at him, acknowledging his appearance, before falling asleep again in his mother's arms.

"Aww, how cute!" the mother cooed.

"Little guy's already tuckered out," the father laughed.

.~.~.~.

Elsewhere, things were less then pleasant, footsteps echoed down the metallic hallway as the bare feet raced through.

"Left -no, right- no, left!- no..."

"Boris," the middle aged man groaned. His eyes landed on a sign. "Found her!" he stated, racing towards the sign until he arrived at the heavy, metal door he had been in search of.

"Alice?" he asked, whispering into the door. He and the woman only knew each other by the spirits' names. In fact, the woman and the spirit were fused now, the spirit living as the woman and becoming the her completely. "Alice, you there?"

"Boris?" came a feminine voice from the other side of the door. "How did you escape?"

"I knocked a guard out and ran," the man explained, fumbling with the keys to get the door open. "Now, hang on, I'll get you out and we can blow this joint!"

No sooner had the door opened, a voice boomed through the hallway. "Don't let them get away!" a guard captain bellowed.

The two left the room and fled, heading straight for where they thought the exit was. Sadly, they were wrong. They did, however, succeed in finding a dead end to trap themselves in.

"Remember," the guard captain said as he and a small army of armed soldiers approached them. "We need them alive. We're already trying to track the last one, the last thing we need is to lose the two we already have."

The two had been captured a long time ago, the woman when she was a young girl and the man when he was early twenties and wreaking havoc on a nearby town. People had been curious about the girl but never suspected the seemingly normal young man. Now they were both middle aged and tired of being trapped so they couldn't cause trouble.

.~.~.~.

A few years later, the woman was found in her room, a rope around her neck. If she couldn't run free herself, the least she could do was set the spirit free in a new body.

The man stayed put for a few months, almost a full year, mourning her appropriately before he stole the gun from a guard and shot himself with it, setting the spirit free as well.

In their efforts to keep them, the people had lost them. And now, they may never get them back.