Back in the studio again. For the 300th time.
Maybe he could hold an anniversary party. With no one else but himself.
Or he could just stay in position and do nothing. Just stare. At the wall.
He could also sleep for a very long time, though he wasn't sure if he could even fall asleep.
Sighing, he placed his hand on the doorknob and sat down.
He wasn't aging. Not anymore. Stuck in this never ending loop, placing the tape, finding Joey, and coming back here again and again and again.
Even the monsters were getting frustrated.
One time he was so obsessed with winning the arcade games that at one point Susie Angel stomped down the stairs and said, "Look, if you don't want to save Boris this time, at least give me a heads-up! You're wasting my time here!"
And once he accidentally broke the 'The End' tape, and he and Monster Bendy just stared at each other, until Henry finally decided that it got too awkward and scribbled all over the walls 'The End' and 'Joey Sucks At Drawing' in permanent black marker.
Then there was that other time when Sammy threw Henry to the ground (as usual), but then killed himself with his own axe. When Allison Angel and Tom/Boris came, Allison just said awkwardly:
"So... you killed him? Nice job."
"He killed himself."
"..."
"Tom... this sucks."
And one time he jumped over the planks that were supposed to crash and cause him to fall underground, and into the Exit door. On the other side he saw Joey sipping a cup of tea while watching TV, waiting for when Henry would defeat Bendy and come back, only to be surprised because he had skipped the entire place.
What should he do this time? Vandalize the whole place? Knock down the door behind him? Annoy all the monsters?
Or maybe he could try to escape this loop.
By... I don't know, smashing Joey's face with a chair?
That could work...
But right now he had to focus on finishing Bendy for the 300th time.
Grabbing the axe he had placed there on his 299th run, he walked forward, only to be jump scared by Sammy, who appeared right in front of him and said, "Hey."
His first instinct, of course, was to swing his axe. Henry was just about to strike when he raised up his hands in defense and said, "Woah, calm down there buddy. I'm here to strike a bargain."
Bargain? Ridiculous.
"Why would I agree?"
"Don't you want to be freed from this never ending dream?"
Hmm. Tempting.
"I was planning on smashing Joey's face with a chair. What's wrong with that?"
"That won't work. Trust me."
"Also, you said dream. Is this actually a dream?"
"If you believe it is," he said, shrugging.
Always the same thing. Belief. He had nothing to believe in, except that Joey's brain dead.
"Anyways, what do you want from me? Note that I haven't agreed yet."
"Look to your right."
Henry looked, and saw nothing but a few planks blocking a doorway.
"What's with that?"
"You'll see later. All I want from you is to set us free. So is this a deal?" He stretched out his hand hopefully.
Reluctantly, Henry reached his hand out but didn't shake hands with him. "Deal. But on one condition..."
"What?"
"Don't do anything threatening to me or my friends. Alright?"
"Always taking precautions, huh? Alright, I agree."
"Good." At that they shook hands, sealing the deal.
There was one thing he hadn't mentioned to Sammy.
He had no idea how to set them free.
"So what should I do?"
"Break the planks with your axe, and as soon as you walk in, you'll see a Bendy cutout. Move it aside, and a small tunnel will show itself to you," he said, gesturing at the blocked doorway.
"Crawl through it, then I'll tell you what to do next. See you on the other side."
With that, he disappeared into a puddle of ink.
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Joey stared at the sign with cheerful letters that said, "Welcome to Bendyland! Where dreams come true."
Everywhere was packed with people, all excited for the big opening. The parade starts precisely twenty minutes later.
Even though the park opened at 7:00, a lot of people came early so they could get tickets before it sold out.
The park was so successful that Joey almost forgot the dark days when nobody was here.
He looked at his watch, then walked through the 'Staff Only' door so he could get ready for the parade.
Everyone was busy. It was the first time the place had been packed with so many people.
He could see Wally Franks busy with fixing one of the floats that had broken down.
The band was rehearsing, the mechanics fixing, and everyone was shouting so much barely anyone could hear each other.
Ten minutes left. Sammy was telling the band what they should do to improve and what they shouldn't. Tom was packing all his tools into the tool box and hurrying away.
Five minutes left. Joey straightened up his tie, fiddling with the microphone. The crowd was literally buzzing. Everyone was excited.
Inhaling deeply, Joey stepped onstage, giving everyone a wide smile. His white teeth flashed at everyone.
"Welcome, everybody, to the place where dreams come true!" He cleared his throat.
"Long ago, everything was a disaster. We only had six employees. But we kept believing! And guess what? Our dreams came true!"
50 seconds.
"I am proud to present to you our new and improved Bendyland!" With that he walked off stage.
40 seconds.
Parents lifted their children up onto their shoulder so they could get a better look.
30 seconds.
Backstage, Sammy whispered frantically to the composer for the parade.
20 seconds.
Joey fiddled with his tie nervously, looking around at the beaming faces.
10 seconds.
The crowd was silent. Not even the rustle of clothing could be heard.
9.
A bead of sweat dropped down Joey's nose.
8.
Alice Angel tapped the microphone softly.
7.
Boris fiddled with his bone.
6.
Bendy straightened up his bow tie.
5.
Wally whispered something to Thomas, who rolled his eyes in return.
4.
Allison looked at Alice Angel happily.
3.
Nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
2.
This was the big moment.
1.
The whole park exploded with life. The whole crowd was cheering, the band was playing, and everything seemed too unrealistic to Henry.
He stood in the middle of the crowd, watching the parade proudly. The others seemed not to recognize him, too immersed in the parade.
He hadn't thought that Bendy would be so successful. Turned out Joey actually did something right for once.
Smiling, he squeezed through the crowd and into the Exit door.
Joey could have swore he saw his old friend. Or maybe he was hallucinating. Shaking his head, he looked back to the floats.
He had to admit, Bertrum did a very good job on the floats, even if he didn't really like him.
Suddenly the crowd screamed. He thought that something had gone wrong, but then realized that they were screaming with excitement, because Bendy's float finally arrived.
The little devil darlin' danced around, occasionally winking at someone or jumping down from his float to play with little babies.
It was a success. For the first time, Bendyland was popular.
After the parade, the crowd split apart, some headed for the rides, some grabbing a bite of breakfast. Bendy skipped around the groups of people, smiling at everyone.
Everyone could finally relax. For a while. Then it was back to work.
They all headed back to the studio, with Joey following closely behind.
His mind was still on his success. It seemed unbelievable.
Oh, Henry, he thought, smiling. If only you could see me now.
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Henry straightened up his spine. After crawling through the long, cramped tunnel, his back started aching.
"I've been waiting for you for a long time." A voice behind him spoke.
He turned around to see Sammy plucking a banjo randomly.
"Don't criticize an old man. That was torturous for me."
"Well, this is only the beginning."
"More tunnels?"
"Yep."
Henry muttered something inaudible under his breath.
"Cheer up. This is the easy part."
"I bet I'll have to meet with Bendy for the 300th time."
"Yes and no."
"Just tell me what I'm supposed to do," he said tiredly.
"Crawl through that inky tunnel over there, and it'll take you back to the beginning. Complete this run normally until you reach the part where I'm supposed to knock down the planks and try to kill you."
"Then you'll tell me what to do next," Henry finished for him.
"Yep. Think you can do that?" Without waiting for an answer, he disappeared into another ink puddle again.
Grumbling, Henry got down on his knees and crawled slowly across the ink tunnel.
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Back at the studio, Joey did something unexpected.
"You've all been working so hard," he announced once they all got back. "I'm letting you all take a break for the whole day!"
Everyone cheered. Joey smiled, finally able to please his co-workers. They'd all been working so hard these past few weeks just to get ready for the big opening.
Tom soon found himself alone with Allison.
They hadn't spoke much these days, since they'd all been working their butts off.
"So..." Tom scratched his head nervously. "Want to grab some lunch?"
Allison blushed. "Well..."
The door suddenly opened, and in walked Sammy with a stack of papers who stopped dead when he saw them both.
There was a very awkward pause, then he backed out of the room and closed the door.
Allison smiled. "I'd love to."
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Henry had gone through this studio so many times the jump scares didn't even make him jump.
He would have done something interesting to spice things up a bit, but Sammy had told him to do this run normally.
It's just a dream. You'll soon wake up. He kept reminding himself as he walked silently through the studio. You'll go back to the world of reality.
But still, the words seemed hollow somehow.
He let his mind wander as he walked up to the place where Susie would jump scare him.
Wait. Something seemed off. Even with his face pressed against the glass, she still didn't appear.
"Why do you trust him more than me?" Henry jumped and spun around to see Susie Angel leaning against the wall, stroking her inky black hair.
"Excuse me?"
"I said, why do you trust him more than me?"
"I don't understand."
"Don't play dumb, Henry. I know you made a bargain with him. How do you know he's not lying?"
"I don't. That's the point of this."
"I can help you. I don't need anything in return. How about that?"
"Look, lady, I already agreed with him. It's not a good idea to just, you know, strike a bargain with another person that I trust even less."
She chuckled. "I guess that's how Joey manipulated you. You're so naive. Don't you ever learn?"
"Learn what?"
She leaned closer, whispering, "Never trust anything at first glance."
Then she pushed him away, giggling. "I know exactly what he's planning. Luring the sheep in, that's what. You're falling for the oldest trick in the book."
"Shut up. I'm not stupid, okay? I think listening to your advice is worse than listening to his. You've tricked me in every single way, and now you're asking me why I don't trust you?"
"It was for your own good."
Henry snorted.
"Listen, boy, there are a lot of things you don't understand. I know a lot more than you can possibly think. This place has a lot more secrets you still haven't uncovered, but I already have."
"Can I just walk away now?"
"Do you accept or not?"
He pondered it for a while, then nodded silently.
"Good. Now we must proceed."
"You're coming with me?"
"Obviously."
"Welp."
"Come on." She opened the creaking door, grinning widely.
Sighing, Henry followed her, his back aching even more.
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For days the parade went along smoothly. Nobody had anticipated that this would happen.
Alice was just a cute little girl around the age of six. She had loved watching the Bendy cartoons since she was 2, and now getting to see the characters live was a dream come true.
She had been begging her parents until they finally agreed, smiling at their hyperactive daughter.
Not long ago, she'd broke her leg in a car accident. Now she was still walking around with crutches, so her parents decided to give her a little treat.
Her dad lifted her up on his shoulder so she could see better. Peering around, she saw Joey Drew himself walk up the stage. He then cleared his throat.
"Welcome, everybody, to the place where-"
Suddenly he was interrupted by a man who hurried upstage and started whispering frantically to him. Joey looked annoyed, then his expression melted into fear.
Alice cocked her head to the side. Since they were standing so close to the stage, she could hear everything.
"Sir, there's some difficulties backstage that you need to see."
"What is it, Tom?"
The man named Tom looked around fearfully.
"Sir... Bendy's not here."
"What?!"
He then looked at the thousands of people looking up at them curiously.
"But the parade starts in 50 seconds! What are we going to tell the people?"
"Sir, that's not all. We also found something... odd. You should go and check."
"Fine." Looking back at everyone, he said with a gleaming smile, "Sorry everyone, but there's something that happened that needs to be fixed. Please excuse us."
He then scurried away with him, growling, "This better be good..."
Being the mischievous girl she was, Alice wanted to know what was going on.
She tapped her dad lightly. "Daddy, can I go to the restroom?"
"Sure, honey. Do you want me to go with you?"
"No thanks. Bye!"
She skipped and swerved through people's legs without anybody noticing. Looking around to make sure no one was watching her, she ran backstage.
It was a poorly lit place, with thousands of people immersed in their own work.
Alice soon spotted the two men talking frantically to each other. She swiveled around towards them, then ducked into a clothing racket to avoid being spotted.
Peering through the clothes, she could see another man waiting for them.
"For God's sake, Sammy, what is it?"
"Sir, the conductor is missing."
Joey exhaled, then said, "Sammy, go find a replacement, and Tom, take me to the place where you found something 'odd'."
The two nodded, then they both went their own separate ways, with Alice following closely behind Tom and Drew.
As you might have noticed, I deleted the chapters before this one. It's because I looked back and thought it was just... bad. So... yeah.
Also for some reason it glitched and now the text is stuck in the middle, so welp.