Chapter 3
Henry reads the note next from near Sammy's office door and sighs:
"This is a note from Wally, one of this place's janitors, complaining about leaving the keys of that closet inside a trash can."
"What a dumbass!" Bendy expresses his ill-mannered opinion.
"He was so airheaded that reaches Joey's level." Henry explains while shaking his head. "Now it is time to do his job finding them."
Bendy sticks his tongue out in disgust as Henry searches the bacon soup filled trashcans back the way the duo came from.
"Look, Bendy! There is one with your face! " Henry shows a Bendy mask from a trashcan. "This is strangely fitting, doesn't?" Henry says while chuckling.
Bendy frowns, floats down to a trashcan and throws a wet bacon at the laughing man, but he just does it louder. When Henry stops, he notices that besides this trashcan a new room behind an open rolling door. Going in there , he notices that it is very big, with a lot of chairs and stands for music manuscripts at the left side but with few instruments leaning on the walls, where the furthest one has a very big paper for a projector to show its contents, that is at a tall porch on the right side of the room.
"This is the band room." Henry says. "Also, that power switch opened the rolling door, so I am glad that all that splashing I did with that puddle people wasn't for nothing.
While Bendy floats off to the band side, Henry goes to a front end where is found a piano next to an open voice actor's booth.
"Suzie the voice actress." Henry whispers to himself as he touches the microphone. " She loved her work so much that even put a smile on that grouch Sammy with her voice." Then he sweeps his finger at the piano's dusty keys. " She once said that loved pouring the very soul at the job. " Henry stops for a moment and then gulps. " I just said, soul." Henry leaves his hands dangling. "I am going to find her ghost, am I?"
Unholy sounds from a poorly played banjo fill the air, making the man put his hands at his ears.
"Come on, I am not that bad!" Bendy says while frowning, and continues pressing his fingers at the strings, but he does one so hard that the instrument slowly leans out of the wall, making the devil swing his arms around the banjo until he finally holds it at an angle. "See!?" Bendy gasps and smiles. "I am not that weak!"
"Why there are colored wires behind it?" Henry frown and walks to the instruments leaning on the walls. " The drum, the bass..." Henry goes back to the Piano at looks behind it. "All of them has it." Henry scratches his hair. "Why?"
"The staff must have caught on when I started stealing and playing the instruments behind the walls!" Bendy laughs.
"These wires do not look to be made for holding." Henry answers, then look down and finds something shiny inside a bacon soup mess in a trashcan near the piano. Without hesitation, he sinks his hands in the trash and takes out a keyring with a single yellow key.
He notices Bendy looking at him and yucking, so he tries cleaning it on his ink-stained shirt but since it only makes it dirtier the man just shrugs. "Some dirt will not mess up the opening part, don't look me like that." Henry says.
Both go back to the closet near Sammy's office and Henry opens it using the key. Suddenly a flood of bacon soup cans comes off and buries Henry. The small demon laughs, making Henry stick his body out of the mess and stare him.
"You did this to yourself! I am just having a nice Schadenfreude here!" Bendy says
Henry scowls at Bendy's attempt at smartass remarks and gets up. Getting closer to the closet's stands, he finds a recorder with a tape on it and presses its play button.
"Every artistic person needs a sanctuary. Joey Drew has his and I have mine. To enter, you need only to know my favorite song:"
"Hey! It is Sammy's voice!" Bendy says cheerfully. " His stuck-up voice is making me willing to find ways of staining him with ink just for listening to that funny grumbling again!" Bendy sighs " I admit I am kind of missing him right now."
Bendy waits for a comment, but none came since Henry is not in the pile anymore. Bendy quickly searches around until he feels a tug and flies at high speed to the hallway's direction.
Henry is back in the band room, browsing the instruments with the recorder in hand.
"Don't go too far away from me!" Bendy's voice comes from the rolling door, and then comes himself while growling. "Or I will get pulled to you! I hate that!"
Ignoring the complaints , Henry checks the wires behind the banjo , nods and then plucks the instrument, gets annoyed while going through the chairs to reach the piano to call a note , then Bendy questions the man's sanity while he goes for the drum and kicks it, resulting a thunderous sound , and the little demon laughs as Henry almost falls over in an attempt of jumping over a chair to fiddle with the bass.
A loud click calls their attention to a door to the left of the piano.
" This is looking like a kind of game." Bendy says.
The ink on his back gets up due to a loud cracking sound. He looks at Henry who is huffing and holding the ax whose sharp side is above a destroyed chair.
"Give me a break. That chair almost made me fall." Henry huffs and watches Bendy as he just motions his finger making circles on his own head with a smile. " I am way too frustrated to care about your opinions."
When opening to Sammy's sanctuary, it greets the duo with a long and narrow hallway full of empty stands on its walls and at its end, two big black pipes surround a big circular lever that has a sign written "Pump."
"This is the saddest sanctuary I ever have seen." Henry says while approaching the ink pump. "Didn't you say he hated ink on himself?" Henry asks and points at the pump with his ax.
"But he does!" Bendy confirms and shrugs. "I bet this emptiness must be that classic trope of the true emptiness of his soul?" Bendy wonders and Henry lifts an eyebrow. " Then the demon shakes his head. "Whatever! Starts the pumps!" Bendy points dramatically at the lever.
Henry lightly shakes his head while smiling, puts his ax on the floor and uses his both hands to rotate the lever. He sweats as he needs almost all of his strength to turn it with a screeching sound until the pipes shake lightly as the dark liquid inside pumps.
"Whew! A job well done!" Henry sweeps a sweat from his brow and the looks at it. "I am glad it is not black."
"For now." Bendy whispers to himself.
A loud sound from the band room rolling door closing makes Henry quickly get his ax and go outside of the sanctuary. There he notices from the upper corner of his vision a man at the porch with a pitch black skin, wearing a Bendy mask and suspenders.
"Look Bendy, a fan of yours." Henry mutters and tightens his grip on his ax.
The weird man lifts and spreads his arms.
"Listen, Brothers! Do not needlessly scar the sheep since we need it tender for the lord!
"Sammy!?" Henry gasps.
Feeling a tug on his suspender, Henry notices that Bendy is pointing at a huge, dripping pentagram on the band's side wall. The projector helps to mark its presence is by illuminating it.
"That voice." The ink colored man says, letting the last syllable linger on the air. " I know it, and it also knows my name." He drops his hands and faces Henry.
"I am Henry!" Henry screams and waves his hands. " Remember me!?". Bendy tugs the screaming man' suspenders again.
"Henry...Henry..." Sammy tone lowers and slowly leans and grasps hard the corner of the porch.
"I am so glad I found you!" Henry delights. "What happened to you? I thought you hated that stupid cartoon!".
Sammy just stares wordlessly at his acquaintance, until Henry opens his mouth. The black man's hand shoots and points in a direction.
"What is this!?What is this!?" Sammy screams and visibly shakes. Henry notices that Bendy is the one being pointed. "My Lord!?But he was!?" Sammy puts his hands on his head, his body shakes like a liquid and slides in high speed to the right, disappearing from sight.
"Wait!" Henry says as he extends his free arm.
Henry's feels cold when his body turns around against his will, to face the pentagram's wall. It is dripping
huge globs of ink through the wall and when it hits the floor thin arms comes out together with a dripping human head.
"Bendy?" The animator shallows dry as his free arm lifts and the other lowers the ax towards the latter.
Henry feels the adrenaline's coldness as he forces the ax hand away and feels it shaking.
"Oh for Satan's sake!"
The ax hand cuts the sleeve from the another in one swift motion. Henry sees Bendy's arms coming out of his chest and getting the piece of cloth. Then he comes out with a green glow and shakes it near Henry's face.
"You are so damn slow, Henry! I am going to wipe the pentagram off, so try to not freaking die!"
The animator keeps his eye on the searchers pouring out, breathes in, widens his stance. Three searchers moan and speedily slides towards with their waits them get into the range and does a huge swing, splitting all of them with one blow. The man exhales but something splashes om his back and makes him lose his balance. Stepping away from the horde, Henry feels the unknown assailant shiver on his back so he goes into a wall close to the piano and smashes it with the wall.
"Get off!" Henry grunts.
With another splash, the thing slides away to the floor and loses form into a liquid.
"Rude Ink Blob." Henry says and waves to Bendy. "Thanks for not letting it possess me!"
Bendy turns and his eyebrows rise, then lowers, compresses his mouth and turns back to the Pentagram to swipe it away with the
cloth. The man just shrugs.
Searchers are pushing through and around the chairs with their gelatinous bodies, slowing them down enough for Henry to
prepare himself.
"Breathe in" Henry's chest puffs. "And out." Then exhales. "Go back to war". The man creases his eyebrows and slowly advances towards the searchers.
One collapses together with a chair due to an Axe swing. Other lunges but Henry pushes a chair to block it, making it he throws this chair towards other three searchers, undoing them with a plopping sound.
Henry notices that some searchers are getting thinner, slower and clumsier. Looking at the wall, Bendy already cleaned a good third of the pentagram. The man smiles and cleans a bit of spit on an edge of his month and charges! The remaining weakened searchers never stood a chance against Henry's barrage of ax and furniture strikes, all fueled by great amounts of frustration.
"I am finally done, Henry! I hope you are still alive!" Bendy turns and widens his eyes when he takes notice of his partner being soaked with inert ink, breathing deeply and is surrounded by destroyed instruments, furniture and thin puddles of his victims.
Bendy smile widens as he floats closer to the warrior.
"I am impressed! You really have it on you!" Bendy claps.
The opening rolling door wakes both to reality.
"Sammy!" Henry gasps and goes on full sprint towards the exit, then through the main hall. He notices a trail of ink where on one side goes to the stairs where it resides the porch with the projector, and another end on a wall, where there is a scratchy pentagram.
" Oh no, he teleported again!" Henry leans towards the wall with one hand where the pentagram is. "What is happening to him, Bendy?" Henry asks.
Bendy crosses his arms, looks up and touches his cheek. The waiting is making Henry's breathing faster.
"Henry, we need to go back to that switch in Sammy's office for clearing that flooded exit, remember?" Bendy says while slowly undoing his pose.
"Can't you just..." Henry puts his hands up, close to his body. "Tell me now?"
"It is..." Bendy pauses for a bit and Henry grinds his teeth. "It is complicated, I will explain it after the switch.
"The show do not tell thing!" Henry rolls his hands. " Not that I just have seen someone I know talking like a messed pastor and suddenly has a black-like-ink body!" The man walks with a hunch towards the destination. "I am calm. I am fine." Henry starts nodding and does a quick look to Bendy with a forced smile. The demon creases his hairline and avoids eye contact.
The duo is completely silent while in Sammy's room hallway, where the ink is not blocking the door anymore. Henry kicks the door open that goes inside. There is another message on a wall in same letters as before: "It is time to believe."
" I want to believe I can survive this with my sanity and soul intact," Henry whispers to himself. But then he hears Bendy burst with laughter.
"I don't know about your mental conditions, but I can say for sure that your soul is not the same as before!" Bendy grins all the way. "Contract with a demon, genius! You gave me a part of your soul!" Bendy taps his head with his finger.
Henry looks down and presses the bridge of his nose with two fingers.
"Whatever, Life is cheap." Henry says and shrugs. "Let's pull this thing."
Henry grasps the lever and pulls, but it's tightness forces him to use his own weight to get it down with a screeching sound. The gears start spinning and the ink flows inside the pipes.
"This one seems more sophisticated than the other." Henry says.
The man feels his legs go numb and they make him jump away from the switch, where a big piece of wooden board demolishes the switch. A black hand takes away a big remain of the wooden board, where is now Sammy is holding it with both hands, huffing and puffing.
"Oh my God!" Henry says. "Don't control me suddenly like that! " and he lifts a arm and looks at the floating Bendy. "Warn me first!"
"I am doing that because you are a big human slug!" Bendy mimics Henry's reaction. "Also, don't say that name!"
"GOD!" Henry screams and jumps. "Godgodgodgod!" Henry starts jumping again while hunching and completes with a "GOD!"
Bendy facepalms.
"Oh my god, Henry!" Bendy screams, but he puts a hand on his mouth. "See! You also made me say it, you bastard!" Bendy's voice comes out muffled due to his hand.
Sammy's loud throat gurgle interrupts the moment, his head and neck too low.
"You! The false prophet!" Sammy screeches while pointing to Henry, his mask almost falling from his face.
Henry gasps. Sammy's black skin seems that is constantly dripping towards inside his suspenders, and his feet look like black stumps.
"What are you talking about!?" Henry says while opening his arms.
"You are here..." Sammy's tone lowers. Suddenly he throws the piece of board very hard at the wall and his tone increases immediately. "With your false god inside your body!"
"Gods!? Prophets!? What!?" Henry emphasizes every word. " Why are you talking about religion!? There is nothing inside me or around here!"
"Don't lie to me!" Sammy screams and swings an arm in the air, making Henry shield his face from the...
"Sammy, is this ink!?" Henry
"I see! I see!" Sammy's voice gains a breathy tonation. He points his black, dripping finger at... "Bendy! I see Bendy!"
Henry slowly turns his head to the toon's direction, that is still looking at the madman, scowling and sweating ink. Henry also feels sweat forming on his temple when slowly turns his head.
"But this Bendy is NOT like the real Bendy!" Sammy screeches and gets something from a pocket of his loose suspender. " He is not the one who has the Presence!" Sammy grasps the object, it is a flute, but the point where is put the month seems thinner. "The one who can shape this cursed place as it wishes!" The madman then starts stabbing himself in the chest with that thin point, making ink fly every stab and making Henry suppress a gag. "The one WHO put me on this black abyss of a body!"
Henry takes a step forward.
" Sammy! I can only help you if..."
Sammy swipes the knife-flute in Henry's direction, forcing him to jump back.
"But also..." Sammy's tone' lowers. "The one who can set me free."
"Sammy, who is this "Bendy?"
"Don't you know?" Sammy points the flute, sharp point first. "He also said that if I offer you he is setting me free."
"Offer me?" Henry grasps his ax, hard. " Are going to sacrifice me?"
Sammy gives a low laughter.
"I don't know, maybe he will, maybe he won't." Sammy shrugs. "I am just his messenger, a prophet." Sammy does the low laugher again.
"Sammy. I know you, you don't bow down to anyone." Henry says, lowering down his ax slightly but still maintaining fighting stance. " There is no god here, just madness. You are above that! "
Sammy takes a step back and puts a hand on his face. After a moment, he coughs.
"What I saw and suffered here humbled me." Sammy suddenly weeps. " You know nothing, Henry!"
The ink man coughs, breathes and lifts the flute to his says the following, gravely.
"Let me enlighten you."