The eldest Arc daughter grimaced ash she wiped the dust from her shirt. The run down warehouse had seen better days, and was desperately in need of a cleaning service. That's not to say the place hadn't been cleaned up a bit. Many of the holes in the floor had been patched, most of the piles of dust had been removed, and even some of the windows appeared to actually not be broken.
Scanning the poorly lit space, she found her target. Sitting under the light of one of the few working lamps was boy, no more than 15 years old, drawing away at a workbench. As she approached, she could see piles upon piles of papers, each with its own set of smiling characters. Characters that looked ready to jump of the page and put a smile on your face. Violet grimaced. She had to get out of here before the sugary sweetness of her brother's creations gave her cavities.
Hearing his sister's approaching footsteps, the boy turned around. "Violet, what brings you here? Did you come to see how I am doing?" The boy asked with a stupid smile on his face. Violet huffed, he knew damn well how she felt about his dumb projects. "No Jaune, I'm not here to see any of your fevered scribbles. Mother and father sent me."
Jaune's eyes grew angry before he turns back to his drawing board. "What did they send you for? To remind me that I'm a failure?" Violet could here the venom in his voice. Violet hated to do this, despite his naivety, she did care for her brother. But her mother and father had spoken, as a member of the Arc family she had a duty. "No Jaune, they told me to bring you home."
Jaune whirled around in his chair, an enraged look on his face. "Why?! I thought they were overjoyed that the failure was out of the house, the better to keep the filth from the perfection of the Arc clan." Violet grimaced, those words were closer than she would have liked to those that her parents had actually said.
"They were, Jaune. But they got word of what your doing here. They sent me to bring you home, that way you can't embarrass the family with your work." Violet expected Jaune to break down and cry, the maidens only knew how much he had done the same when faced with similar criticisms from their parents. So she was very surprised when Jaune flung his arms across one of the nearby tables, sending papers, brushes, and varying colors of ink flying in his rage.
Violet stepped back as her brother leaned against the table while he tried to reign in his anger. "Why can't they leave me alone? I can't swing a sword. I can't shoot a gun. I can't build robots. So tell me why, when I finally find the one thing I am halfway decent at, they decide I can't even do that?" Violet tried to reason with Jaune, maybe calm him down. "Jaune, they just don't think-"
Jaune turned back to his drawing board and picked up one of his drawings and held looked at it. "Why can't they see?" Jaunes words have Violet pause. "See what?" Jaune turned the drawing towards Violet, showing her another one of his smiling creations. "I can't fight the Grimm, they would rip me apart within seconds. But what if I didn't have to? Grimm are drawn to negative emotions. If my creations can make people smile, even for just a little bit, the Grimm would have less reason to attack. Why can't they see it?"
Violet shook her head at her brother's ideals. It was almost admirable, if it weren't so childish. "You can't just make people's troubles go away with paper and ink Jaune." Jaune turned to her with fire in his eyes. "I'm not trying to make their troubles go away. I just want to help them forget them, even if for just a few minutes." Violet sighed as she realized her brother wouldn't give up on this particular idea. "Be that as it may, I still had to bring you home. Grab your things, we're leaving." She turned to go wait for Jaune at the door, but paused when he replied.
"No." Violet whirled around at the phrase. "What did you just say to me?" Being the eldest daughter at the Arc clan, she held much authority over her younger siblings, and insubordination was no tolerated. "I said no. I finally have something I can do, and I'm it about to give it up for some useless sense of family pride." Violet reached behind her back and piled out her halberd. "Don't make me hurt you Jaune, one way or another. You are coming back."
They stared at one another, and for once Violet's resolve began to break. None of her siblings had challenged her like this. Trying to frighten Jaune into compliance, Violet swung her halberd at Jaune, hitting the floorboards between his feet. With a loud crash Jaune fell through the floor as the aging floorboards gave way.
As the clatter of falling debris finally left her ears, Violet heard the sound that would forever haunt her. Waving away the dust from her face, she stumbled towards the hole, where screeching gears and wails of pain could be heard. Looking down, Violet beheld her brother's fate. Beneath the floor of the warehouse was the printing room, where the aging printing press Jaune had purchased with the last of his savings sat. Violet heaved as the ink that had leaked from the antiquated machine begun to mix with the blood that now leaked from the ruined machine.
Unable to bear the sight any longer, Violet stumbled out of the building. Once she regained some of her composure, she opened her scroll and called her father. "Violet, I'm assuming you have Jaune with you?" Her father said, his cold voice coming from the device. "No father. Jaune wouldn't come. I tried to scare him, but he fell through the floor." Her voice cracked as she remembered the sounds of his dying screams. "He.. he fell into the printing press. It killed him. Jaune is dead."
The line was silent for a while before her father spoke again. "That was not the outcome we had hoped for, but that does tie up any issues he might have caused us. At least he did help us in the end." Violet was confused. "What do you mean? How did this help?" The man chuckled. "Your brother, in his idiocy gave us the perfect out. If anyone asks about your brother, we just tell them he left, and that we don't know where he went. If they find him, then they will think he died of an industrial accident, one of his own doing. The Arc family's hands are clean." The man paused for a second then continued. "I'll be sending a bullhead to pick you up."
As she waited for the bullhead to arrive, Violet turned and gave one last look to her brother's legacy. An old crumbling warehouse, with a brightly painted sign. As night began to fall, she could just read the writing on the sign "SillyVision Studios."
2 years later
Violet hated events like these. The pomp and circumstance made her nauseous. She would rather be out in the wilds, surrounded by Grimm and low on aura before she had to attend one of these events the well todos of Vale seemed to like to put on.
Violet was dressed in a knee length gown that sparkles gold when she moved, with a necklace in the shape of the Arc family's stumble around her neck. She felt practically naked without her halberd. She often wondered why her mother sent her to these events. The woman knew almost any of her siblings would have been a better choice. But here she was, representing the Arc name to the socialites of Valean high society.
Tonight, the rich and well off of Vale had decided to hold an opera in one of Vale's oldest surviving theaters. The night had begun with a ridiculously opulent banquet, some ballroom dancing, and now the night would end with the show. Finding her seat, Violet turned to find that the seats next to hers was taken. "Whitley Schnee. Pleasure to meet you." The young man bowed as he took her hand. Violet internally grimaced, mentally reminding herself to completely disinfect that hand once she got home. "The pleasure is mine Mr. Schnee. You will have to excuse me though, I just go freshen up before the show begins. Wouldn't want to miss anything now would I?"
Violet sighed as she took in a breath of, relatively, fresh air. She had only half lied when she said she had to go freshen up, getting away from Whitley had just been a bonus. Violet now stood in the women's bathroom, staring in the mirror while she touched up her makeup and waited for a stall to open. Hearing a one of the door open, Violet turned around, only to bump into a young woman as she left the stall.
"Watch where you're going!" The young woman yelled as she clutched her bag the threatened to fall off her shoulders. "I'm very sorry. I should have been looking where I was going. Do you mind if I had your name? You look like someone I met just a few minutes ago."
The white haired girl rolled her eyes and put her hand on her hips. "That must have been my idiot brother, Whitley." The girl spat. Violet nodded her agreement with the girl's obvious dislike of her brother. Looking at the clock on the wall, Violet realized she didn't have much time left. "You better get to your seat, the show will be starting soon." The girl nodded and opened the door to leave. "You're right. I hope you enjoy the show, Ms. Violet."
Violet entered the stall and locked the door. As she turned around to face the toilet, she was horrified to see stained gauze wrappings littering the floor of the stall and laying on the the toilet. If she didn't know any better, it would look like a scene from a hunter medical camp. As she very carefully used toilet paper as a makeshift glove to move the gauze so she could use the facilities, noticed that the blood was very dark, almost like it was old, but the stains were very recent, and still wet.
Returning to her seat, she was surprised to find the seat on the other side of Whitley empty. "Where is your sister? I ran into her earlier. The show is about to start." Whitley rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Who knows, Wiess does what she wants. It is not m job to account for my sister's actions." Violet guessed the the dislike between the two siblings was mutual as decided to drop the subject.
As the patrons waited for the lights to dim, a thought occurred to Violet. "Whitley, has your sister been injured recently?" Whitley thought for a moment then replied. "Well, father did send her to check out a location the company recently bought a few weeks ago. Probably as punishment for disobedience, but I digress. It was some run down warehouse on the outskirts of Vale. The place was practically falling in on itself, which explains how she managed to get hurt. When she came back she was heavily favoring her left side, but she refused to let any of the doctors see her. Father decided that if that was how she wanted to act, he would let her do it."
Violet pondered this for a while before thinking of something else. "Have we met before at one of these events?" Whitley shook his head. "Not likely. Father prefers to attend events on his own, that way he can insure things are done his way. Weiss and I were simply recruited into this as he had another engagement to go to. Why?"
Violet purses her lips in thought. "I just thought it was odd that she already knew my name." Whitley shrugged. "Maybe she heard about you from someone else." Violet sat in thought for a while as she thought, a specter of cold doubt forming in her stomach. "Maybe..."
The two were stopped from their discussion as the lights dimmed. The room fell silent as music began to play. Soon, however, the performed loomed around in confusion as the music playing was apparently the wrong song. A jaunty sounding piano tune played as the aging theater's projector sprung to life. Violet sat up in her seat as the doubt began to intensify. "Something's wrong."
As the music played, an announcer's voice could be heard. To Violet, the voice sounded awfully familiar. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show! Sit in wonder and prepare to witness a motion picture unlike any you have ever seen before, brought to you by SillyVision."
Violet sprung up as the doubt turned to a cold, hard sphere of terror. There on the screen was a logo she had not seen for two years. Whirling around she sprinted towards the theater exit with Whitley calling after her in confusion. "Got to get to the projector. Got to stop this!" She repeated to herself as she ran to up the stairs.
As she ran across the balcony that ran up to the boxed off room that held the projector, she stopped to looked down at the screen. To her horror, there on the screen was a character that looked just like her late brother. As she stared at the thing, it seemed to turn to look at her, and then it smiled and waved. She nearly screamed, that smile was not one of recognition of a loved one. The smile that thing gave her was one of unending terrors.
As she finally made it to the door leading into the projector booth, Violet was dismayed to find the door locked. Pressing her ear to the door, she could just make out the tune of a young woman humming to the tune of the music as the characters on the screen below danced. "Weiss! Open the door now!" Violet yelled as she tried to get in. Her response was a cackle. "You best just enjoy the show, Violet. I hear it is to die for."
Violet was about to see if she could climb around to the projection window when the theater manager and two security guards showed up. "Out of the way." The man said as he pulled the keys from his pocket. Violet watched as the man opened the door and rushed in with his guards. Violet heard shouting a scuffling before the sound of three gunshots rang out.
Racing into the room, Violet saw Weiss standing over the bleeding corpses of the three men, with a smoking gun in her hand. The scene would have been terrifying enough if the gun did. It look like it had been take from a drawing. Violet's mouth gaped as she noticed that the girl's dress was stained, not with blood, but with a deep black liquid. The very same liquid that ran down her arm, and into the hand holding the gun.
As Weiss turned the weapon towards Violet, time seemed to slow. Thinking fast, Violet kicked a film reel into the girls hand, ruining her aim and distracting her. Using the distraction, Violet slammed her side I tot he girl, sending her flying into the glass of the projection booth. The glass gave way with a crash as the music ended, sending the girl plummeting to the floor of the theater. Screams rang out from the audience, who had been blissfully unaware of the scuffle upstairs as the sound of the music muffled nearly all noise down there.
Violet ran to the window to look. Laying in a broken heap on the floor was the body of Weiss Schnee. The girl was frozen there, with a smile on her face as black liquid oozed out of her mouth. Violet looked up to see the head of the Vale Police department on the stage, trying to regain some order. "Now calm down people. Emergency services have been called. We aren't doing any good by running around in circles!" The man yelled.
Behind the man, the characters on screen had halted their movements and appeared to be watching him. Hearing a noise, Violet looked at the back of the booth at the projector. She quickly found the cause of the noise. The projector had run out of film and the tail end of the film simply flailed in the air, making a slapping noise every time the reel went around. Turning around Violet gasped as the characters on screen smiled out at the crowd.
Feeling a tap on his shoulder the chief of Police turned around and gasped as he was picked up by his neck. The chief paled as he stared at the monochrome abomination that was choking the life out him smiled. As he scratched ineffectually at the things arms, the thing smiled and opened its mouth. "You should smile more. It's good for you." It said.
Screams rang out as people began to panic. Whitley, who had been trying to cover his sister's body with his jacket to preserve some of her dignity chocked as an arm shot out and grabbed him. He screamed as his sister picked him up by the vest. She smiled, with her skin as white as paper, and her eyes as black as Indian ink. "You should smile, Whitley. Bad things happen to people who don't smile."
Author's Note:
I blame NateWantsToBattle for this one. He released a Bendy and the Ink Machine song, which is awesome. That got the gears in my head turning, and so we got this. Just a one shot. Not much else to say here. Thanks for reading!