Fifteen years. It had been fifteen years since I left my best friend's company, Joey Drew Studios in 1942. As a kid, my favorite pastime was drawing, and Joey loved it too. My parents thought of themselves as strict, but it was a little more than that. So, to escape the spoon or belt, my sister Alison and I would hide out in Joey's treehouse with him, drawing. Alison and I looked out for each other, and we were always close. She was two years older than me, being born in 1898.

It was in that treehouse that we came up with the name Silly Vision Studios, eventually that is what we named our company starting out. With Alison, Joey, and I working feverishly, the company grew and was eventually renamed Joey Drew Studios. But the hours were killing me, and one day he said to me he needed me to stay all day every day, even on weekends and that crossed a line. I was getting burned out, and I couldn't continue to work there if it was going to wear me down to only a stub of my former self.

I had left that company, and that town, behind and moved on. Now, I was a detective in the town where I lived. I was visiting my old town because my sister had vanished, and I personally thought the police there weren't doing enough. I was planning to check the workshop for her, and I was about to leave to the studio, when I got a letter in fancy handwriting addressed to me. It read:

"Dear Henry,

The fifteen years since you left have been much harder. I'm not blaming you, I'm doing the opposite. I'm blaming myself. We did our best, but you were always the cornerstone of the company, and in the end, we could never replace you. I pushed this company too hard for a long time and finally pushed it into the ground. Now it can barely stand thanks to Walter Disney. There might be one last way to save it, and I'd like it if you were there. If you can do this last thing for me, come to the studio. I have something I want to show you. Your best friend,

Joey J. Drew"

At this point, I was crying. I might sound overly emotional, but all the years I worked and partnered with Joey and my friends at the studio came back to me in that one moment. All their struggles felt like my fault, and my fault alone. I was going to go back, at least one last time to see if I could save it, and to possibly find out about my sister's disappearance.

The next day, I got on my nicest clothes and jacket and headed out to the studio, taking a small break from my search, and when I got there it felt like coming home. The place was in shambles, just the way I left it. I went to the door and when I knocked, the door swung open. This was not unusual, as the studios had almost nothing on the first floor, and you needed a key to get to the others. As I stepped inside, the floor moaned as if no-one had stepped on it for an eternity, and then the sounds of the old studio embraced me like an old friend.

The door led to a hallway, with posters of the old cartoons on them. That hallway led to a large open room that was where most of the sketches were made. My co-workers and I used to call it the Main Idea room.

In the Main Idea room, a projector propped up against a wall was playing a Bendy: The Dancing Demon episode. Episode 23 "Baby Troubles", to be exact. I remembered making it. It was about how Bendy had to babysit Alice Angel's toddler, but the baby kept getting into all sorts of trouble. Bendy kept freaking out because Alice would kill him if the kid was harmed in any way. In the end the baby wasn't harmed, but as soon as he handed it over, Bendy fell to the ground exhausted. That was always my favorite episode, because I was a rough baby. So, I put my heart and soul into making it.

Bendy was a cartoon demon with no neck, white gloves, black pants, shirt and shoes, a top hat, and a white bow tie. He was short but stout. He always had a huge grin on his face, and a cane. He twirled the cane in almost every episode, then winked to the camera. He was the jokester and prankster, but never meant any harm. He was my favorite character, no question.

Alice Angel, on the other hand, was meant to be the attractive opposite to Bendy, being all style and fashion and no pranks, along with being taller. She had much smaller horns than Bendy and had a halo. She had a dress with a ribbon around the waist and had high heel boots along with leggings. Like Bendy she had big white gloves and a bowtie on her chest.

I chuckled to myself. Joey must have put it on because he knew it was my favorite episode. Joey, I thought to myself. You haven't changed a bit. But then something hit me, this episode, someone could have stolen this copy of the episode if the door was just open to anyone! But then I remembered, the company was in shambles, and no-one probably wanted it. That was to me, one of the saddest things.

I remember making the entire thing, from making the sketches to the final frame. I remember putting the music to it and laughing out loud at some of the antics. I remembered watching it with the staff and when it ended cheering at our final product. I remember people buying out tapes and seeing the fan-mail. I missed it. I missed everything. Now they are on the brink of going out of business because of that prick, Walter Disney, and me.

I pushed away thoughts as I went back to my sketching desk. I noticed there were new mysterious pipes running along the walls everywhere, but I wanted to check out my desk first.

It was still there, as I hoped. The thing I really wanted to see was under it. There was a small, loose board under my desk, that led into a small hole. I used to keep stuff there that I didn't want seen or stolen. I took all the stuff out of it before I left, knowing Joey was watching me pack. I was surprised to see something was in there, a note to be precise. It read:

"Hello Henry,

So, you did come back! I'm so glad. I made a few changes to the first floor, that I think you will like. Go right from the main room and just continue forward until you get to what I wanted to show you. There is another note there. Happy scavenger hunt,

Joey J. Drew "

This made me smile. Joey knew I loved scavenger hunts, so he set one up. Challenge accepted, Joey. I thought. I went the way he told me, boards groaning as I ran down the hallway. I got to the room; there was a huge hole in the middle of it, with chains leading into the hole. The chains were connected to a mechanism that was supposed to pull up whatever was down there.

It clearly needed power. I found the main battery slots, but the two gigantic batteries there were in there were as fried as KFC chicken nuggets. I took them out and found two more in an open black chest with a gold lock along with another note from Joey titled "Don't read until you have started up the pully."

So, I put it in my pocket, put the batteries in the slots and flipped the switch to start the pully. It made a sound like you'd expect, but much, much louder. What it brought up shocked me.

Connected to the metal chains was a massive machine, much bigger than any other mechanism I've ever seen, with the words "Ink Machine" written in huge letters on the side. It was rectangular with a gigantic spout on one end. I saw that the pipes on the ceiling and the floor all connected to this machine. I took out the letter from my pocket again and it said:

"So, you see it? My magnificent machine. This thing is a beautiful work of both engineering and magic. This can turn fantasy to fact. It will finally make our jobs easier. This is not the end of the scavenger hunt. Find what you need to turn it on. I'll give you a hint- the theater door has opened.

Joey J. Drew"

I knew exactly what he meant. I'd passed a mechanical door on my here that said "Theater" next to it. It was open now, probably hooked up to the batteries. I thought.

I contemplated how they managed to pull that off while I went into "Theater" section. The first thing I came across was a desk with a book on it labeled "The Illusion of Living." Its cover art was completely black except for the letters and what looked like white tendrils coming from outside the covers point of view. When I looked at the author my eyes grew owl-eyed. It read "By Joey Drew." I was shocked I never heard of this book. When I flipped to the first page to look for a publication company, there wasn't one. Oh, I thought. He must have not published it. I took it with me to ask Joey if I could borrow it when I met him.

I walked farther down the passage and came to a door on my right that said "Employees (and Henry) only!" I stepped inside, and my skin grew pale at what I saw. Bendy had a friend in the cartoons named Boris the Wolf.

Boris was a good friend to Bendy (if you kept him fed) and one of my favorite characters other than the protagonist. He was the tallest in the cast. He ad overalls and white gloves, like Bendy and Alice. He had a large cartoonish muzzle with a big nose and smiled almost always. He also had two sausage ears. In the cartoons, he was almost always playing a trumpet.

In that room, stretched out on a surgery table, was a life-sized replica of Boris. The disturbing thing was that his chest was ripped open. You could see his ribs sticking out, ink dripping from his corpse. He had a wrench sticking out of his chest. I slowly backed out of the room, looking at the table the whole time.

Joey must be messing with me, right? I thought. I was pretty on edge as I left that room and headed deeper down that hallway. At the end of the hallway I came to a door that said, "Theater Entrance." I opened the door and entered a large theater with a door on the other side.

The theater was big, but not as large as the theater we used to watch the animations we made back in the day. The seats were higher than the other theater, but there were fewer of them. I walked around in that room for a while just surveilling it and taking in new look.

After I got my fill I headed to the door on the other side of the room. I walked through the door and entered a small room. The room contained six empty pedestals, each with a picture above it. The pictures depicted six things: a sketch of Bendy I made a long time ago, a well of ink, a broken battery, the book "The Illusion of Living," and a projector. The final one made me shudder, because I knew where to get it, and that terrified me. A wrench.

In the back of the room there were two things, a lever with a sign above it that read "Ink Machine Power," and a tape recorder and player with a tape already in it. I rewound the tape recorder and pressed play. I recognized the voice as the janitor, Wally Franks with his Brooklyn accent.

"Wally here. If anyone's playing this, you're probably wondering what's going on here. Well, personally, I've got to say that I don't get it. First, Joey installs this big-ass machine above our heads, then he doesn't secure the pipes correctly! Also, get this.

Joey says he needs a "relic" from each of our stations upstairs to "appease the gods." That is bullshit. Who needs that much ink anyway? And when he starts it, it floods the whole first floor.

I don't know why the hell he needs that machine, all I know is that Joey is either a fucking mad man, or some sort of mad genius, and I can't see the latter. He is going to flood this entire place someday, and I'm not going to stick around to see that. If that idiot keeps this up, I'm outta here!"

I chuckled as I heard this, because he was the same irascible Wally I used to know, if not a little subdued. I figured the reason Wally's language was toned down was that he knew that anyone could play that tape. Back when I worked here, he was constantly swearing at the people who were mean or full of themselves. Behind Joey's back of course, but not behind mine.

Once, Wally and I were in a break room, and we were talking about employees, when he said

"Hey, you know who makes me really fuckin' pissed?"

"Who?" I asked

"Peter. No-one makes me madder than that guy."

"I agree, he is a bit full of himself"

"A bit?! That d-bag walks around the studio like he is the fucking king of the shit hole, just because he plays Boris! He once said to me in passing "A couple of friends and I made a mess downstairs, clean it up janitor. Oh, and be careful, I have a new suit on. I know you are just a janitor, but I hope you can understand." After that I decided to spill my bucket of dirty water on the ass, and he got mad and told Joey! Joey made me clean up Peter's party room, and his new clothes! Peter had it fucking coming if you asked me."

"Wow, the nerve of that guy."

That was just one of many stories I had about Wally and me, but you get the point.

I looked at the pillars and found the one with the "Perception of Life" book above it. I placed the book on the pillar and it pushed a button down. Ah, I thought. It must activate buttons that allow me to start the machine.

Most of the supplies were easy to find, the projector from the theater, the broken battery from the Ink Machine room, the ink well from the room with the projector playing "Baby Troubles," and the sketch from my old desk. After I collected all of those, it was time to get the final item. I really didn't want to get the wrench, but curiosity was overwhelming me.

I entered the room, where gutted Boris was still on the table, dripping slowly. I nervously walked towards him, hands shaking, and took hold of the wrench and pulled. It took a lot of effort to pull out the wrench. The noise was awful, it sounded like a watermelon slowly being cut in half with a butcher knife. When I finally pulled it out with a tug, I tripped back because of how hard I was pulling. Boris's body didn't move, but I was afraid it would.

This whole set up felt off for multiple reasons. One, why would a replica drip ink? Two, who would make something like this? And three, why would a replica make that noise?

The wrench, at one end, was stained permanently with ink. I ran back to the pedestal room and placed the wrench on the last pedestal. I heard a small click from the lever that was to start the Ink Machine. At this point, my heart was beating with a dangerous mix of curiosity and fear. I walked up to the lever, and my heart sped up even more. I swallowed and pulled the lever.

From what I could tell a whirring and splashing sound was coming from the ink machine room. I ran over to the room, but only to be met with three two-by-four boards blocking the doorway. I looked through one of the gaps in the doorway peeking inside. I saw the Ink Machine was running, spilling ink everywhere.

Suddenly, Bendy rose from a puddle of ink, and looked at me, clawing at me viciously. He didn't look normal either, he looked like a demonized, stained, melted version of the animated character I knew and loved. His face was half melted, ink covering his eyes. Half of his mouth was also covered with ink, the other half instead of having normal square teeth, had pointed teeth like our canines. His top hat was overflowing ink onto said eyes and mouth. I didn't get a good look at his body, only his traumatizing face.

Two thoughts crossed my mind at that point. What the hell has happened since I left? And Run. I decided to focus on the latter and ran back to the exit. I should have never come back. I thought. I should have never co-. I saw the exit. I ran to it hoping to get through, but right before I got to the door, the floor gave out and I fell into that abyss.

Luckily, the ink broke my fall, and I survived. I stood up, solidly shaken up, and found a valve connected to a pipe on the wall. I spun the valve and the ink on the floor drained. I saw that there was no way back up, but I was able to proceed down a couple of stairs until I reached a boarded-up hallway. I searched the small room I was in and found two connected metal pipes on the ground I could use as a tool or weapon. I smashed the boards with my new-found tool and got to the door.

Inside was another small room. This one had coffins on the walls, and a pentagram with Bendy in the middle on the floor. The pentagram was blocking the walkway to the other door, so I was forced to walk through it. It was stained with ink puddles blotting out some areas. When I got to the middle, I got light headed. I sat down right there, in the middle of the pentagram, and blacked out.