I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Chapter 2: Something Dark This Way Comes
Wally had just finished patching up the leak in the infirmary. It took him a little longer than it should have due to him forgetting his wrench for a bit, but he was finally done. Johnny didn't look like he was going to be done losing his lunch anytime soon… but he at least looked a lot better at not having to see any more ink flowing into the room.
Pretty sure that's the last of them pipes. Now I just gotta get outta here and over to- Wally thought to himself as he whistled a tune from the Bendy Cartoon, only for it all to be brought to an abrupt halt at the sound of pipes bursting and the horrified screams of both Johnny and a few other people that were still in the music department. The red haired young man could only stare on in both utter horror and confusion at the chaos before it seemed to click into his head that he wasn't safe being out in the open as another pipe burst open.
"HOLY SHIT!"
Wally tried to get out of the way but the ink pressure practically smashed the poor man's head hard into the wall, and knocking him unconscious as the ink continued to flow.
….
In the Break Room Sammy, Norman and Susie all heard the pipes before the screams outside.
"What in the-" Sammy started before being pushed to the ground and Susie, who quite frankly was just as confused as the Music Director, was pulled by Norman, just as the pipe in their room bursted open and began filling the room with ink.
"Oh my god!" Susie shreeked. Sure she was used to leaks happening, but a pipe had never bursted open before… or if it had it was never that violent in it's bursting.
"What the hell?!" Sammy shouted, arms instinctively shooting above his head as the ink poured down from above.
"Get moving!" Norman shouted, pushing both Susie and Sammy to the door, thankfully not hit by the intense pressure but getting a good chunk of ink stained onto their backs, legs and some of their hair. Thankfully able to get the door, all three piled out before making a mad dash down the now flooding halls.
"What the hell is Joey even paying the maintenance crew to even do if this is going to happen?!" Sammy shouted in pure anger as they tried to get to the exit, only to see it completely flooded.
"H-How are we going to get out now?!" Susie screamed as the sound of more pipes bursting happened on the floors above. The dripping of ink starting to leak through the floorboards.
Norman looked around the department for a moment before his eyes went down to the two hallways on the right. On one hand they could try to reach Sammy's office and drain the ink with the pump… but with the entire floor being flooded it wouldn't really help at all, so that left only one other option.
"Upstairs! The Ink will flood us down here before the higher floors!"
Neither Sammy or Susie could complain with this idea, after all no one wanted to drown in ink. Rushing through the closest hallway to reach the stairs, Susie stopped when she noticed the knocked out Wally Franks. Glancing between the younger man and the exit that both Norman and Sammy were racing to, not seeming to notice how she had fallen behind. Taking in a deep breath, Susie made her decision and hurried over to Wally's side and tried to help him up.
"Come on Franks!" Susie grabbed onto Wally's torso and heaved. "Ugh! Why do you have to be so heavy for a string bean?"
Susie began to drag Wally as best she could towards the exit. The man's taller 5'9" frame to her above average 5'5" height made it all the more hard for her to properly carry the man. It also didn't help that the ink was slowly getting higher and higher up her legs.
"NORMAN, SAMMY!"
Sammy and Norman had reached the stairs before finally noticing the voice actress wasn't with them as they heard her call. Sammy immediately cursed and raced back, leaving Norman at the stairs glancing between the director and the stairs before giving a soft curse and following his lead.
"Give me a hand here!" Susie ordered once she saw the men come into view. Sammy paused when he saw her trying to carry Wally, wanting to tell her to leave him behind… but with the ink filling everything up to fast as well as pipes sounding like they were exploding all over he decided Arguing was a horrible idea at the moment.
"You owe me one for this Franks…" Sammy quietly muttered as he got onto the other side of Susie and helped her with carrying the younger man. The two of them together being more than enough to move a lot quicker to the exit. Norman however motioned for Susie to let him take over and as soon as he took over they were able to make it to the stairs and up them with ease.
God what in Heaven's name is even going on? Norman thought as he glanced down to Wally, noticing a small amount of the handyman trainee's blood mixing with the ink. Concern grew in the dark skinned man's heart as he thought of the horrible fates everyone else on the lower floors would be facing if it was this bad here.
….
The old lyricist Jack Fain, a quiet curly haired blonde in his mid forties, was sitting down in his usual place in the sewers, quietly relaxing despite the horrid stench that permeates the air. There were a few papers in his hands of songs Sammy had written a while back and Jack was thinking about a few lyrics to place into a few of them before he had to leave for the day.
Sure he could do this in a normal office above ground and in a place that smelled a lot better… but there was only so much he could take of people before he wanted to just crawl into a corner of social anxiety and die. So suffer through the smell and get recharged for the day.
Hearing the echoes of something going on Above ground, Jack stopped his work and looked up.
"What in the world is going on up there?"
The sound of loud banging echoed above and making the ceiling above him shake a bit. The crates on the ledge above him coming dangerously close to falling and making the man worried for his own safety now. He stood up slowly, a few of his bones popping a little as he did. He adjusted his bowlers cap once as he made his way for the exit… only for a single pipe to burst, a large amount of ink gushing out and pushing the debris and crates down and fast onto the Lyricist.
….
To say the workers of "Bendy Land" were having a good day, would be horrible liars. Being at the lowest level of the studio meant that ink was more likely to get over all of their work from the attractions to the in development Animatronics they were just starting on.
Bertram, a surprisingly very active man in his mid to late fifties with faint grey growing in his well groomed black hair, was NOT happy at all that Joey Drew's useless Ink Machine was ruining his greatest creations. He and one of his most trusted mechanics, Lacie, a dark skinned woman with her shorter curly hair being tied up into a small pony, but failing to effect the longer bangs that fell in front of her left eye, were working on his Carousel as the ink began to drip on them from above.
"How far is Mr. Drew willing to let his studio fall and taint even my own creations?" Bertram angrily questioned as he was about to close one of the panels to the ride as the ink started to fall.
"Enough to make anyone feel the need to find a pub and drink the rest of the day," Lacie commented as she rubbed at her head, trying to calm down an oncoming headache. It had already been a long day for the woman and it was only going to get worse if all this ink wasn't going to be taken care of. She was slowly packing away her tools on the ground next to the ride when suddenly the sound of something overhead bursting open made her jump... even before she heard her boss's horrific screams.
Turning quickly to where Bertram was, Lacie could only look on in horror as she saw the high pressured ink flow slammed the man into the delicate machinery. The sight of his body convulsing and his screams to be drowned out by the ink that was shoving him into the large ride and to his death.
Screaming loudly, Lacie dropped everything she had and raced from the attraction only to find more horrors going on around as more pipes bursted open, slowly drowning her fellow mechanics and killing many who were being hit by it directly into their works. Despite seeing all this, Lacie only had one thing in mind.
Run. Run and live. And so, she, like many others at the moment, ran as fast as she could to escape the rapidly increasing ink flood… and trying to block out the horrific death screams around her.
….
"WHAT THE HOLY HELL?!" Shawn screamed as a pipe bursts in the room, Allison screaming just as loudly from the sound of the pipe alone. Both were lucky to be out of the location of the pipe but instinct practically screamed for them to book it and get to a much higher up floor for safety. After all… there were pipes all over the place. Allison, who was much closer, threw a door open, but fell back with a scream as a pipe bursts open right outside at the same time.
"Other way lass!" Shawn shouted as he helped the new voice actress up and started to lead her to the second door in the workshop. Both knew that way would be far longer to get to the stairs but from the pressure of the inkflow outside the shortcut… they were going to have to take their chances.
Racing through the halls they both knew from memory, both brunettes flinched and jumped at each pipe that burst all the way to the stairs. Knowing very well the ink would be worse down below, the duo ran up to at least find a safe location to wait everything out. After all, everyone in the studio knew that all the exits were near ink pipes as well, better to wait out for the high pressure to lower before attempting to leave the building.
"W-What about the other workers?" Allison questioned as both she and the toy maker raced up the stairs, adrenalin filling their veins the whole way up. Allison was further behind Shawn, who seemed to be skipping a few steps from how fast he was moving while she was trying to do her best to run up with her dress and heels.
"Don't really know now do we?! I just wanna hope that it ain't as bad as I think and they all be fine!"
Allison couldn't help but agree with that line of thought as they continued to climb the stairs to their highest point. With sheer luck the duo found that there was a room that wasn't even close to the pipes, nor did it have any in them and they rushed in to finally collapse and catch their breath after slamming the door closed behind them.
They sat there for a bit, the adrenalin slowly leaving their system as they tried to relax a little more. It was short lived however as the door was soon thrown wide open once again and the duo screamed loudly as Thomas Conner strode into the room, breathing very heavily and clutching at his left arm that hung limp at his side and coated in ink, along with a good chunk of his left side.
"You… you know… given… the bullshit going… going on outside… I have… no idea… what else... I was expecting." Thomas breathed heavily, his voice sounding like he was in clear pain.
"What in the everloving hell is going on Tom?!" Thomas quietly protested to the nickname the Irish man insisted on calling him, but it didn't seem to do anything as Shawn continued on anyways. "Why are all the pipes springing open like kegs of spirits?! What happened to your arm?! HOW THE HELL DID THE INK PRESSURE GET THIS BAD?!"
"S-Shawn, calm down," Allison pleaded as Shawn's voice rose with each question. Thomas sighed however and shambled over to a chair in the room, still holding his limp arm and hissing in pain when it touched something.
"For the majority of those questions… I have no clue." The handyman answered as calmly as possible given his situation as well as the one going on outside. "The one about my arm though, THAT I can answer easily."
"Well, go on then."
"... I think it's pretty obvious…" Allison muttered, still trying to get her heart rate to slow down and feeling a bit of pain in her ankles from running in her heels. Shawn didn't seem to hear her or notice the "Really?" look that Thomas was giving the toy maker at the demand.
"Pretty sure from all the ink it's obvious Flynn." Shawn glanced between Thomas's tired face to the limp arm.
"Dislocated or broken?" The Irishman asked after a sigh, annoyance creeping into his voice from not registering the scene quicker.
"Dislocated, ain't no bones popping out of my skin or anything." Thomas moved his right arm with a pained hiss and both Allison and Shawn saw it did look more dislocated with how it hung. Allison kicked her heels off and hurried over to the handyman's side.
"W-We should try to reset it!" Allison exclaimed, worry clear in her face. "Who… who knows when we can get you to a hospital after all…"
Before Thomas could say anything and either Shawn or Allison could try to help him fix his arm, a small group of people came bursting into the room, panting, covered in ink and completely out of breath… and startling the trio with their sudden arrival.
Norman, Sammy and Susie weren't to surprised to see other people seemed to have the same idea they did, aside from carrying an unconscious coworker like Wally… but Susie couldn't help but feel a bit of her anger rise up at seeing Allison again. The black haired woman knew that her fellow voice actress wasn't to blame for what happened… but knowing that she was meant to replace her still did nothing to ease the growing anger at how she had been wronged. Sammy however took one look at Thomas and, despite his exhaustion from racing up far to many steps while carrying someone, looked like he was ready to fight the injured man in a pinch.
"What the hell happened to Wally?" Thomas questioned, upon seeing the younger man being carried by both Norman and Sammy.
"Better question, how pray tell did all this happen when you, and your crew are supposed to make sure something like this doesn't happen?" Sammy sneered, letting Norman walk Wally over to a chair in the room to set down carefully.
"This isn't the result of my crew slacking on their job Lawrence!" Thomas snapped, standing up quickly from his seat before hissing out a curse as the pain in his arm made itself known once again. Allison quickly shot up and had her hands gently hover over the dislocated arm, quietly trying to remind him to keep it as still as possible till they can pop it back into place.
"Oh so the Pipes are supposed to explode, and drown everyone in ink then. Good to know," Sammy gave a sarcastic clap while giving Thomas a pointed glare, who returned it with a scowl and was so close to getting into Sammy's face. Shawn was quietly getting a little excited at the scene going on before him and leaned in a little more to watch what might happen a bit closer.
"Sammy, stop it." Susie hissed, wrapping her arms around one of Sammy's to prevent him from the possible fight… didn't really seem to help as Sammy seemed to be to focused on his anger at the handyman.
"Thomas wait!" Allison raised her voice in concern around the same time as Susie did, but Thomas didn't seem to hear her… unlike someone else who decided to take over and help at least try to keep the peace that the two women were trying to do..
"Knock it off you two!" Norman shouted at the two men after he got Wally situated. For extra measure, the taller man got in between the two and held them both at his arms length from each other. Norman took a little extra care with Thomas though as he did notice the dislocated arm. The projectionist turned to Sammy first before speaking again. "Are you seriously going to start a fight with an injured man? We just barely escaped the Music Department with our lives for god's sake Sammy, and you want to go fight a man with only one good arm and is in the same situation as us?"
Norman then turned to Thomas to let his words sink into Sammy's head for a moment, and started to address the handyman. "And don't think you're off the hook on this either. You need to get your arm back in place and rest. NOT getting worked up over someone who's stressed out from all the crap going on outside this room and looking to place the blame on anyone he could. No need to sink to his level after all."
"Damn it lad! Way to ruin the entertainment!" Shawn groaned and, since he was sitting on the floor, flopped onto his back with a loud groan of annoyance. The toy maker got many unseen looks ranging from "Really?" to "Are you being fucking serious right now?" Though the only one not giving him any look was the unconscious Wally, who looked like he was only now starting to slowly coming back into the waking world.
"Ugh… who took one of them anvils and hit me with it?" Wally groaned as he opened his eyes for a moment before squeezing them back shut at the large pain in his head.
Needless to say, everyone in the room all knew this was going to be one long and painful wait.
….
The sound of wheels squeaking in the darkened room rang out with an eerie vibe as the figure who rolled them hummed a soft tune as they approached a desk. Fumbling around in the dark they eventually found a large box of matches. They opened it up and struck a match, once then twice till it finally lit up and the figure, a crippled man, slowly used it to relight the white candle he still held.
Once it was lit he wheeled back with ease to where the circle was and examined the center of the circle. The ink that was inside had changed from a simple puddle, to a much more complex looking, 3D map of the studio. A small smile formed as he saw little black spots appearing everywhere in the many areas of the studio.
"Now then… which ones shall have the honor of being the main cast here?"
The man hummed once again, carefully reaching out and tapping the inky model, making it open up to different floors and showing the many dark spots. Some of the spots seemed to slowly rise up a little but never formed anything more than a blob, making the wheelchair bound man frown before checking on another floor and another. Many of them had the same blobs appearing, until he stopped in one area and saw a few of the blobs forming something different.
"Hmm… Only side characters so far. No matter, this is still only the first part, and this dream has only just begun."
Chucking to himself the man slowly began to relight all the other candles to begin the second part of the ritual.
….
Grant honestly couldn't believe his luck after all the pipes burst. He somehow had got away from it with less ink on him then he expected, and was surprisingly safe within the bathroom he just dived into out of desperation. Sure some of the Ink did leak in through the crack at the bottom, but it surprisingly never went higher then his ankles. Despite this though the accountant decided to bide his time and wait till he felt more comfortable to try and leave.
Wonder how soaked my notepad is from all this ink… Grant thought to himself before reaching into a pocket of his and pulling out a small notebook and pocket pen. Looking around for somewhere he could get more comfortable the accountant took a deep sigh and resigned himself to sitting on the toilet lid to write in his little notepad.
Numbers began to make their appearance on the blank pages he flipped to as Grant just quickly jotted them down. He might as well get a little bit of work done after all, so he was putting down some of he numbers for the finances he memorized so he could sort them out when the time came.
Though factoring in the costs for dealing with what just happened… Grant paused in his writing. Glancing at the paper once again and the math he just did something slowly came to mind. Flipping back a ways in the small book Grant found the results of the second time he tried to figure out how Joey was paying for everything without going into the red.
Weren't… Weren't there accidents that happened a few months back as well? And some of those deaths from trying to build a location for the theme park a few years ago… The accountant carefully pulled the filled pages out of the book and quickly flipped to the few blank pages he had left. Doing some calculated mental math on the costs the Studio would have had to pay to the families of the deceased, as well as the co workers that got badly injured. Grant's eyes widened when he was barely halfway finished with the math and already things started to add up a bit.
We should have been at least in the red then. There were far too many for the families and the community to not notice… yet why did none of them file charges? Why did none of them get in the papers, let alone obituaries? Grant looked over the math and rubbed at his head. None of this made any sense… What the hell was Joey doing? How was he keeping all these things quiet?
A loud groan and soft banging from outside the door snapped the accountant out of his thoughts.
"Hello?" Grant called out, closing his little notepad and pocketing it once again with his pen. He got no response other then more groaning. "Excuse me… Are you alright? The Door isn't locked."
The banging seemed to continue, no attempts to even open the door seemed to be made.
"Shawn? Is that you? I swear to god if this is a messed up joke!" Grant moved closer to the door, his heart beat increasing the closer he got and the lack of a proper response not helping at all. Opening the door to confront who he hoped was just the toy maker in one of his "Mischievous" moods, he instead found an empty hallway that was all covered in ankle high ink.
The pressure seemed to have lowered and now the pipes seemed to only have a small, steady stream flowing out of them… but what concerned Grant most was how there was no sign of any living being even being close to the bathroom's door.
"... Shawn?"
Silence was all he was met with, and instantly Grant was once again on edge.
I need to get out of here. The black haired accountant turned down the hall and started to make way for an exit. The ink behind him began to bubble a little around the door he had just left before following after him.
….
"Ready Thomas?" Norman asked, holding the injured man's dislocated arm. After calming both him and Sammy down enough to not want to strangle each other on sight, Norman rolled up his sleeves and got ready to help the handyman reset his arm.
"Just get it over with."
"Now hang on one moment!" Shawn piped up and dug around in his vest pocket for a moment, with both Norman and Thomas looking at him in annoyance. The Irish toy maker soon pulled out a small leather strap from his pocket and gave it to Thomas. "Bite down on that before ya go through the pain lad!"
"... I'm curious on why you have this on hand, but at the same time I really don't think I want to know." Thomas used his good arm to take hold of the small strap and positioned it between his teeth before giving Norman a thumbs up.
Norman to his part did shoot Shawn a confused look as well, but decided not to question it like Thomas did. He soon took a deep breath before quickly popping the arm back into place, causing Thomas to bite down HARD on the leather strap and let out a restrained scream of pain.
"Anyone got something we can borrow to make a sling?!" Norman called, still holding Thomas's arm gently at an angle. Allison quickly untied the sash around her dress, making it more loose and flowing, and handing it over to Norman.
"Thank you Ms. Pendle."
While they were taking care of Thomas's arm, Susie was over in the corner helping Wally with Sammy not to far away.
"I tell ya, I've only been repairing these pipes for nearly two months now and ain't no one ever tell me how to fix something like this!" Wally ranted as Susie did her best to wipe both the ink and blood from the trainee's head with a handkerchief she carried around.
"In the year I've been here I've never heard of something like this happening…" Susie responded with a frown as she saw there was a long cut over one of the younger man's right eye that seemed to still bleed a little.
That's going to turn into a scar for sure. Susie thought, moving Wally's matted down, ink covered hair out of the way to better assess how bad bad it was.
"Sammy, do you have anything to use for a bandage on you?" The voice actress asked, turning to the blond haired man that was giving a glare in Thomas's general direction before being snapped out of it.
"I'm sorry, what?"
Susie sighed, while Wally flinched in pain as he reached up to feel the cut on his head.
"A bandage, or some kind of wrap. Wally needs it."
"Oh geez, that's bad." Wally hissed quietly to himself as he saw the blood on his fingertips.
"I don't carry medical supplies on me Susie. I'm not the toy maker carrying around a leather strap for some ungodly reason." Sammy pointed out.
"He what?" Wally was so lost while Susie just gave a deep sigh.
"Then help me make something then… please."
Sammy looked into her eyes for a moment, then sighed in resignation. He pushed off the wall he was leaning against and went over to her side, ripping one of his sleeves off at the shoulder as best he could. After removing the ripped off cloth, both Susie and Wally couldn't help but stare at the surprisingly toned arm that the music director had.
Was… was Sammy always this muscular? Susie thought, a faint hint of pink appearing on her cheeks while Wally stared in awe, not expecting the music director to have that much to him.
"You owe me a new shirt after this Franks." The comment snapped Wally out of his awe.
"Wait, what?! Why me?!"
Needless to say as Sammy and Wally argued, Susie was still lost in her thoughts as she began to wonder how the rest of the music director looked underneath his loose fitting shirts.
Shawn and Sammy are becoming my favorite characters to write.
