The switches weren't that difficult to reach. Hard to find, some of them, but not out of reach. Mary could easily stretch onto her tippy toes, or hoist Bendy onto her shoulders.

Even the switch they'd needed to move past Bertram to reach had been simple. When he'd seen (somehow) that she was only a child, it seemed to stir some forgotten memories within him. And like many of the other toons and human-shaped ink creatures she'd met, he hadn't wanted to hurt her.

("Because yer a child, kiddo," Bendy had explained as they hurried along. "Yer one of the people were were meant to entertain, to make smile. None o' the toons wanna hurt ya, and most of the people don't either."

Sammy had hurt her. And Alice had tried to. But the two of them wondered if maybe…maybe they were simply bad people. Some adults had no trouble hitting a kid or worse, after all…)

So yes, the switches had been simple… Until they walked down a flight of stairs and had found a flooded room of ink.

"Now what do we do...?" Mary whispered to herself, shoulders slumping in defeat. The ink was too high for her to wade through, and there were no docks or bridges for her to walk on. They'd somehow managed to avoid the worst of the flooded areas until now, but... But now it seemed they were stuck.

At first.

slosh slosh slosh

click

whirrr

whirrrrr

Mary perked up as a familiar noise reached her ears. "Bendy, is that–?"

Sure enough, an inky humanoid with a projector for a head waded around the corner.

"Norman!" Bendy shouted before Mary could say anything. He cupped one hand around his mouth, waving frantically with the other. "'ey, Norman, pal, over here!"

"Norman?" Mary echoed quietly.

The projectionist's head turned their way, shining a spotlight on them. He waded over to them, as casually as if he were meeting them on the street. Then he bent down slightly, reaching out to pat a heavy hand against Mary's head. A gurgling sound escaped him, as if he wanted to speak but couldn't quite manage it.

Bendy forced himself to keep smiling, pretending that it didn't pain him to see one of his old friends like this. "'scuse me, Norman?" The projectionist's head turned his way, and he continued. "We're lookin' for a switch?"

"Yeah! A - A big lever!" Mary added, reaching one hand high above her head. "Have you seen one?"

The projectionist - Norman - tilted his head, as if thinking. Then he made another gurgling noise, turned around, and sloshed off. Mary and Bendy exchanged glances-

-and then they heard a heavy, mechanical creak.

There'd been a switch in that room after all.

"Thank you!" Mary cried out, clapping her hands once and bouncing on her heels. "Thank you, Mr Norman!"

Another sloshing sound and Norman came back to them. Once more, he patted Mary's head, then Bendy's. He gurgled again, like muddy water going down a drain, but this time they could make out a proper sound. "Hu...huuuuh..."

"Norman?" Bendy asked.

"Hur...rrryy... hoooome..." Norman finally managed. "Home..."

"We will," Mary said quietly, her brief happiness fading fast. "But first we hafta-"

Norman stiffened, shoulders tensing as he seemed to focus on something else.

"Norman?" Bendy whispered. "Norm, what's-"

He was abruptly cut off as Norman seized both his and Mary's arms and ran for the stairs. Ignoring Mary's yell of alarm, Norman forcibly dragged kid and toon up the way they'd came, moving like the devil were on his heels.

"Norman!" Bendy cried. "Norm-"

"Sshlk! Sssshhhk!" Norman gurgled loudly. He stopped in front of the Little Miracle Station, briefly released Bendy to open the door, and shoved them inside. Mary fell to the floor, skinning her knees, and she looked up to see Norman briefly hold a finger in front of his head.

Be quiet.

He quickly moved his hand in a downward motion, patting thin air.

Stay down.

The door closed, and they were in near-darkness. The only light came from a thin slat high on the door, but it was too high for Mary to see from, even if she stood on the seat.

Despite Norman's silent warning, Mary glanced at Bendy and tried to whisper: "What's going-"

An unearthly shrieking cut her off.

CLICK WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

More shrieking, a heavy and sticky sound, whirring and squealing.

Mary covered her mouth with one hand, wide eyes trained on the slat above them. She felt Bendy wrap his arms around her shoulders, both to try and protect her and to comfort her. But even still she could feel his chest heaving in fright.

BAM!

The light briefly went out, the booth shook violently. Mary nearly screamed, only barely stopping herself. Bendy held her tighter, arms shaking. The light above dimmed slightly, they could hear a wet growling...

Something heavy being dragged away...

And then silence.

It was three minutes before Mary dared to speak. "Is it gone?" she whispered, her voice faint and far-away.

"I...I think so, pum'kin..." Bendy whispered, though he didn't sound convinced. When he pushed open the door, he did it slowly, only moving it a few centimeters and peeking out before deeming the coast clear. He pushed the door open the rest of the way as carefully as he could, praying for it not to squeak and alert whatever they'd been hiding from.

'Whatever.' He knew full well what they were hiding from.

Mary shakily followed him, clutching her wrench like a security item. She glanced around, and her gaze fell on something behind Bendy. "Bendy!" she gasped, one hand flying to her mouth.

He turned.

He felt his metaphorical heart fall into his stomach.

There, lying on the floor, was a projector, its light flickering three times before going out altogether.