Authoress' note: Da da da da da d-da da- Another Chapter! (My best attempts at type-singing.)
Hey Bendy freaks, Joanie here! Yaaaay! Another chapter! I know I said once a month, but life is just... ugggggghhhhh right now and all I want to do is write some Bendy mayhem.
So here you go-
Wait...
7 REVIEWS AND WE'RE ONLY ONLY ON CHAPTER ONE?!
Oh boy Oh boy oh boy!
Pink Fox Productions: I'm glad you're excited! I'm gonna have fun with this rewrite!
And about your fanart question, I am open to the idea, but if you do fanart I have three things to ask:
#1- Please let the viewers know who Grace belongs to
#2- No ship moments with Bendy. I know thats a bit weird to ask but for now I don't want any ship moments, maybe later. If you want to draw her with Bendy, ya know, just hanging out, I'm cool with that.
#3- SEND ME A LINK WHEN YOUR DONE!
PinkiePieParty122894 : Glad you love it!
GameFan 335 : I can understand that you don't like the idea of Bendy being evil. In this story he's not... despicable, per say, but 30 years alone in a rotting studio can do some things to one's mental state. Just a heads up warning.
Twins 'n Fandoms: Oh god your reviews crack me up! Don't worry, you'll get your fluff!
Dancing-Ink-Demon : Why thank you!
MeliLouiseNorth : Part of the reason I'm starting over is because I felt like the characters weren't fleshed out enough, hopefully this story will fix that. I really did like working on it and I may restart that story with it being a true Henry-Bendy story with Grace being a minor character, I donno. It what I was going for originally but fate had other plans. And yes, you will be getting more background info on Grace as time goes by.
Guest: (Grumbles) Thanks for the tip. (Eyes Meatly nervously)
On with the Horrors! And I own nothing but my OCs and wand, which by the way if you want to know more about them I'm writing a Cuphead story involving my feline trio. Check it out! (And a little spoiler warning, Grace will be a character, although she won't do much. You'll understand if you read the story)
On the outskirts of Ghostburg, Illinois, a neglected building sat on a weed-riddened avenue. Once a place filled with life and imagination, now it was like a coffin that should have been buried long ago. It was a two-story building with a rotting sign that said "Joey Drew Studios." The shrubs surrounding the building were so thick and tangled you couldn't see where the building met the ground. Blackened vines twisted up the wooden walls and seemed to choke the place.
Other than teenage thrill-seekers and ghosthunters, no one really bothered the studio. It was the talk of the town, though. Ghostburg was known for living off the tourism the abandoned studio gave. You can find bacon soup in restaurants, Alice Angel dresses, and chocolates molded like the characters.
People would visit the studio and take pictures, but few actually went inside.
And that was because most of them never came back.
Ghost hunts became popular for the studio in the early 40s, but people didn't understand how demonic the place really was. People who did come back always reported something strange. One group of kids back in '44 claimed to have met an ink-covered man wearing a Bendy mask. This psychopath chased them all out with a dustpan, screeching like a maniac. After that people started reporting cases of a giant black monster roaming the halls. Some people never came back from their hunts, and I'm not talking about one or two people, I'm talking about maybe a dozen teenagers armed with holy water and bats. Eventually the police were sent to investigate the situation... two of them never came back. Even though no one explored the studio in the past 5 years, the stories had made Ghostburg a hotspot for tourism.
But if one ever does venture in the studio, the number one rule was this:
Beware the ink demon.
It's a shame no one told Henry and Grace this.
OOO
When the two of them arrived in Ghostburg, the first thing they did was check into a hotel. After getting everything organized (they planned on staying for two or three days) Henry decided to visit the hiking trails.
"Joey can wait." He said.
A hike through the woods was just what Grace needed after weeks of moping in her room. It felt like the further they hiked the further she was from him. It was early April, so there was still a chill in the air despite the fact that the trees were budding shades of pink and orange. Grace didn't mind, though, the cold air felt good in her lungs. The crisp air made her feel alive.
For most of the hike neither of them spoke, they just watched the birds fly beneath the sapphire sky. Cardinals and Blue jays sang to each other in the treetops. It was mating season, after all. Their chattering reminded Grace of the scene from the old Bambi movie, when the birds were harmonizing and the old owl was screaming at them.
The ground was frozen mud, so hiking up the hill was a bit tricky as the ice crunched beneath their boots. But once they got to the top they were in the middle of a huge clearing surrounded by colorful trees. Grace turned around and viewed the town behind the treeline. It was evening at this point, so about half of the buildings glowed. Off in the distant Grace could see the sun blanket the sky in a peach hue.
"When I wasn't slaving away for Joey, your mom and I would hike this place. I always beat her." Henry joked. "This was my favorite spot."
"The town's beautiful." Grace said.
Henry chuckled. "You should of seen it in the jazz age. Everywhere you went you could here the saxophone playing. Today we get rock' in roll. People go around with their guitars and white jumpsuits and dance like Elvis."
The Father and Daughter laughed so hard they scared the birds away. Henry plopped to the ground and sighed with content. Grace sat next to him. She had laughed so hard she started to pant.
"I haven't heard you laugh like that for two months!" Henry said.
Grace's breathing evened out. "Yeah..." She looked away, her smile dying. "Don't get used to it, though."
"Grace..." Henry sighed. He rubbed her back in a fatherly manner. "I know it's been hard, but that doesn't mean you can never be happy again. You did nothing wrong."
"Yeah, well tell that to everyone else! They think you just lied to everyone to get Matt away from me. Everyone thinks he's the victim." Grace spat.
Henry struggled to swallow his anger towards the bastard. He didn't want to think about him now. "People will know the truth. I am no liar, Matt is not a victim, and you are not guilty of anything."
"People will know the truth, huh? When, on Judgement Day? That's too far away, that- that- perv needs to be behind bars now!" Grace's shouts scared more birds. Crows this time. Their screeches startled Grace.
"I agree with you, whole-heartedly, but sometimes life isn't just."
Grace huffed. Under her breath, she muttered, "The Reds should nuke that shuckster."
"Grace." Henry scolded. The Soviets were nothing to joke about in Henry's opinion.
"Sorry." Grace mumbled. For the next few minutes the two watched the sky turn from peach to tangerine. Even though they were far away, they could make out people walking the lit-up streets of Ghostburg. They looked like black ants under the warm glow.
Henry decided to talk about something a bit more light-hearted. "I loved this town. Hated my boss, but this town was a dream come true for me. I once told myself when I retire I'd move back here."
Grace took her time in responding. "Why don't we just move here now? Charity will be moving out soon, it'll be just the three of us."
"I like the idea." Henry said, "But we still have a purpose back home."
"Not me." Grace said sadly.
"This is just a chapter in your life, it's not the end, you'll see. God has big plans for you."
"I thought it was mom who was the religious nut." Grace joked.
"Well, mom's not here." Henry grunted as he stood up. "Augh! My back!"
"You okay?" Grace asked.
"I'm getting old, Cupcake, soon I'll be walking around with a monocle and saying 'when I was your age we didn't have cars, we had to walk to school unlike you lazy bums!'"
Grace and Henry laughed so hard they both coughed from the chilly air. There was an old man who lived across the street of them, always complaining about the baby boomers of the town.
The two of them hurried down the hill, trying to beat the setting sun. By the time they make it back to town it was pitch black, but the city was still alive with casinos and restaurants. The Brookes stopped by a cafe for hot chocolate and laughing at the Bendy chocolate molds they sold. They ended up buying one, and while they ate it on their way to the hotel Henry told Grace stories of when he used to animate the devil darling. Grace really seemed to perk up, which was warming Henry's heart. But there were times when Grace would look away, her head bowed and shoulders slumped, as if she carried a bolder on her back. It tortured Henry to see her like that. Only months before he was the sweetest girl in town, bringing a smile on everyone's face.
Henry hoped he could free her.
OOO
The next morning Henry and Grace were finishing a light breakfast at the cafe. Their conversation swayed from serious to light-hearted, as most discussions between the two went. When they were finished with their pastries Henry recommended that he should go to the studio first.
"Why?" Grace asked.
"Well..." Henry rubbed the back of his neck. "Joey and I didn't leave on the best terms, and I want to make sure everything's cool before you come. Last thing you need is more drama."
"Wow, that bad, huh?"
Henry smiled. "He threw a beer bottle at me as I walked out."
Grace had the facial expression of "I want to laugh but I know I shouldn't," causing her father to chuckle.
"Was Joey an alcoholic?" Grace asked.
"It would have been better if he was. Joey's problem, well, he was into 'the other side.'"
"Oh..." Grace nodded slowly. "You mean, like..." She lowered her voice, "Weegee boards and stuff?"
Henry shook his head. "I'm talking occult books and black magic."
Graces jaw dropped. She leaned forward and whispered "No way."
"Yup, one time Wally Franks, our old janitor, claimed to find an old book in Joey's desk drawer. It had a..." Now it was Henry lowering his voice, "A Pentagram on it."
Grace gasped. "Shut up. Did you believe him?"
"Wally was a lot of things, but he was no liar. He wasn't afraid to speak his mind. I asked him to show me, but when we got to the desk the book was gone. We never said anything to Joey, though."
"Dang..." Grace leaned back in her seat. "That must be zorros."
Henry nodded. "One of the many reasons why I quit. Funny, people always said it would be Wally who would walk out first." Henry looked out the cafe window with a distant look in his eyes.
"Do you regret it?"
Henry turned to Grace. "Regret what, leaving?"
"Yeah, that was your dream job."
Henry thought for a moment. "Nah. I loved working there, but fate had other plans."
"But it looks like fate brought you back here."
Henry grinned. "Perhaps, perhaps not. We'll see."
OOO
Meanwhile, deep underground, the devil waited patiently.
Authoress' note: For anyone who's curious, Ghostburg is inspired off the real town Point Pleasant, West Virginia, home of the legendary Mothman (and before you ask, no that's not where I live). This town thrives off the tourism the Mothman brings, from gift shops to statues to pizza! I thought it would be cool if Bendy had that kind of fame, being a legendary cartoon character lost in time and supposedly haunts the studio that created him.
How do I know about the mothman?
...
Buzzfeed Unsolved.
Also, since this is 1958, people will have different slangs (Sammy and Bendy talk like people from the 20s while everyone else talks 50s) I'll also put in some historical content, though not much. (Like when Grace and Henry mentioned the Soviets, the cold war was not pretty). So if you get confused at any point, please let me know, but be nice about it.
Anyway, Follow, Favorite, and Review! And remember, beware the Ink Demon!