Little shorter then the last few chapters, so sorry about that... But I do hope you enjoy! (Once again thank you for the reviews!)


Chapter 4: Deeper into Hell

If one were to tell Lacie that one day she would be trying to get the hell out of a death trap, with a twisted toon that was once a coworker of hers practically clinging to her leg like a lifeline. The mechanic would have looked you dead in the eye and told you to go sober up and not talk to her again for the rest of the day. Right now however she was quietly wondering if someone just straight up replaced all the water in the studio with alcohol.

The name of the coworker slipped her mind, she was sadly never very good at names to begin with, but she could recognize both his voice as well as the pure fear that shook him to his very core at everything that's happened. Though she very much wanted to run and leave this… thing her coworker became behind, she made herself stay and try to comfort him as best as she could… which lead to where they are now with her walking through some halls while holding onto one of the coworker turned toon's hands.

"... How you holding up?" Lacie gently asked, the two walking carefully through the halls… and also trying to sidestep the fact she couldn't remember his name. Maybe if she could see what he looked like before she would have a better guess on his name… but all that was going on now was just a blank for her. Quiet muttering from the completely dislocated mouth was her response and she could only give him a saddened glance.

"... Hey, how about this. I find out how this happened, and then beat the person who did this over the head with the heaviest wrench I can find… and you could punch them in the gut while he's down. Then we get them to fix this." Lacie offered, knowing it might actually be next to impossible to actually do so… but the thought wasn't a bad one. Heck it got the ink creature to nod a little, she did notice how the ink seemed to finally be settling with all the final details at this point.

"... How… does that feel to you?" Lacie questioned, hoping there was at least something that she could do to help.

"Everything hurts… everything's wrong… breaking… snapping… sinking… burning…" the twisted toon shook as he spoke, his speech still unable to form complete sentences. Lacie bit at her lower lip, her heartbeat raising again as images started to play…. the scene of Bertram's death coming in most clear as each of these words were spoken.

She was only brought out of these flashbacks by the suddenly much tighter grip on her hand. If she wasn't wearing gloves she swore whatever counted as fingernails for the twisted toon would have cut into her skin. Turning her attention to the toon she saw that he was holding his head in his other two hands… and single human eye seemed to be unfocused and shuddering.

"Hey… hey are you-"

"Name…"

"Huh?" Confused on what brought this up, Lacie slowly began to regret her decision to try and help the human turned toon as the more human looking eye continued to quiver a little, and attempted to look at her face.

"Name! Name! Namenamenamenamenamename!" Lacie's fear started to return as the twisted toon practically shouted at her… but she did understand what he was trying to ask and knew she wouldn't be able to help at all. The growing fear overriding her pride at the moment she tried to pull away from the former coworker. She couldn't even get a word out before the toon seemed to grip it's head in pain and begin to scream.

The twisted toon dug it's fingers into its head as if he was trying to pry it apart, while the one holding her gloved hand was squeezing it so hard Lacie thought that he was trying to break it. The top of the toon's head started to drip ink from how deeply it had dug it's fingers in… and Lacie was forced to pull her hand out of her glove before it's grip broke it. It took a bit of effort but she was able to do it.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" She shouted while backing away, the former coworker still screaming but now seemed to be convulsing a bit as he dropped to the ground. As she backed away, Lacie heard something coming their way from the hallway. Taking her gaze off of the former human to look down, the curly haired woman had to cover her mouth to suppress a scream as a group what looked like a torso made of ink began crawling toward her.

Fuck all this, I'm done! Lacie thought finally turning to the hallway that was clear from the oncoming torsos and wasn't blocked by the twisted toon and running as fast as her legs could take her. All while the sounds of screams and groans of pain echoed behind her.

….

It was so quiet, and normally he liked it that way… but this amount of silence was concerning. Jack couldn't place why as he pushed himself up, his legs feeling so numb it was almost as if they weren't really there. His whole body felt in pain… though then again last he remembered something hitting him.

Why's it so dark? Jack thought as he was sure he opened his eyes… though all he could see was darkness. Reaching forward he realized quickly his movement was a little sluggish and that he couldn't see his own hand either. It was just pure darkness.

Maybe the lights went out? Jack rationalized to himself and nodded to himself, attempting to get himself to stand up. Once again it felt like his legs just weren't complying with him and all it felt like to him was that he could only get up onto his knees.

Well… that's going to make getting out of here difficult… Jack sighed, and decided to just wait till he could feel his legs again. It's not like he was dying after all, so why worry? Sure the pain he felt that spread through his body was something for concern, but he figured it was mostly from whatever had hit him.

As he got settled to wait, the old lyricist never really noticed how he was actually completely submerged in ink… nor the fact that he had no trouble breathing in it… let alone the fact he actually wasn't even breathing at all.

….

Grant had never run so much in his entire life like he was doing now. He was gasping for breath and his muscles were so sore he swore that if he stopped running he would collapse to the ground.

It also did not help him at all that there were more than just the twisted ink humanoids now. He had seen humanoid torsos that dragged themselves on the ground with elongated jaws. Not to mention the twisted living cartoons he saw shambling around…. hell one of them had its head swinging around on a fishing line!

I'm dead! Joey Drew broke me with all his spending habits and I died from a heart attack. Now I'm somehow in hell! Grant thought to himself, doing his best to rationalize everything happening around him. Unfortunately for him, even he doesn't completely believe this line of thought… even though it was the best he had.

Barely registering a stairway going down, the accountant turned far to quickly to go down and lost his footing, making him stumble and fall down the stairs into more knee high ink. Pushing himself back up, Grant began to cough out some ink that got into his mouth and nose from his fall.

The accountant tried to stand up but quickly noticed that his vision was far to blurry.

Shit my glasses! Grant quickly dove his hands into the ink below feeling around for the eyewear he needed. It seemed to just keep avoiding his fingertips the longer he took, fear slowly building up as more time was wasted on trying to find his glasses. It really didn't help at all when he heard someone's footsteps sloshing through the ink towards his location.

Growing more frantic he kept digging through until he finally found them. Pulling them up quickly and quickly wiping some of the ink off he placed them back in their proper place, before hurrying on his way. However as soon as he rounded a corner he ran right into someone… and they weren't made of ink.

Both of them staggered back from one another and evaluated each other. For Grant he quickly noticed this was a woman, a mechanic if her outfit was anything to go by. Curly black hair seemed to stick to her face a bit from probably sweat and ink, and he could see under the longer side bangs she had there were small patches of light in that darker skin of hers. The same was with her hand that seemed to be missing a glove. She also seemed to be giving him a look of suspicion as she looked at him.

Lacie, to her credit, was looking over the accountant with the same level of detail he was doing. She saw how Grant's normally slicked back hair was all a mess from all the ink and running he was doing. His normally more presentable suit was probably never going to be worn again after all this. Finally was the fact that he seemed to be surprisingly uninjured despite how he looked like he had just went through hell.

"... you ain't gonna blow a gasket and have an identity crisis are you?" Lacie cautiously asked, making whatever question Grant was possibly thinking to ask fade away into pure confusion.

"I… I beg your pardon?"

"Forget it… Who are you?" Lacie sighed, trying to seem calm but fully prepared to bolt if the need arose.

"Grant Cohen... head of finances… and your one of Piedmont's workers if I'm not mistaken." Grant didn't know why but the woman before him let out a long sigh of relief before finally speaking.

"Lacie Benton. Now I don't know about you Grant, but I say we get to the closest exit and get as far away from this studio as possible."

Nothing said to him that day sounded sweeter then what Lacie had just suggested.

….

"Seems like we're not the only ones to survive here." Thomas mused to himself as he saw one of the Ink drains looking like they had been activated on the floor they just arrived on.

"That's going to make the trip to the exit easier then." Norman sighed in relief. That was one problem out of the way.

"Wish those drains would help with the other inky problem…" Susie muttered, she and Sammy had both calmed down enough from their embarrassment earlier, and had let go of each other's hands a little while back.

"Well lassie, I wish we could take the elevator but with this whole Ink mess I be thinking that don't be no good idea. Or really possible now that I really think bout it." Shawn mused as he thought about the open cage elevator the studio had. Allison and himself would have probably used it before had the ink not blocked the door leading to it.

"We are not riding that death trap." Thomas stated, his hatred of the mechanical transport through the floors on full display.

"Oh! Because of the ink messin with the inner workings! That would make the entire thing plummet straight to the lowest levels and smash into the ground!… Right?" Wally excitedly explained, putting some of what he learned from being a maintenance worker on display. Thomas blinked in surprise for a moment but gave Wally a congratulatory pat on the back with his right arm.

"Yes and no kid. Yes there's a good chance of that happening now, but no that's not the main reason I refuse to use it." Thomas responded, getting a slightly confused look from Wally.

"There's another reason?"

"Thing's practically a rush job. Even without the ink that cage would probably come crashing down eventually."

Neither of the two handymen noticed the uncomfortable looks they were getting from the others, mostly from how excited Wally seemed to explain what would happen.

"I don't think I can look at an elevator the same way again now..." Allison muttered and rubbed at her arms.

"I ain't ever stepping on one again if these two are around lass…" Shawn responded with an uncomfortable expression on his face.

"Way to ruin elevators guys…" Sammy hissed and turned his gaze away from where the handymen were.

"Or at least the one here." Susie offered, rubbing one of her arms and walking near the music director. She did stop however once something caught her eye and it seemed like an idea came to mind as she looked at it. "Anyone got a good arm?"

At her question everyone paused and looked in the same direction. There sitting on a wall was one of the many fire axes that were placed throughout the studio. It didn't take a genius to figure out what the plan was for such an item.

"Pretty sure Sammy's good arm is on display." Wally joked as he glanced over to the music director. Sammy for his part gave the red haired youth an unamused look, missing the slight blush on Ms. Campbell's face as she stole a glance at his sleeveless arm.

"Want me to take my sleeve back and slap you upside the head for that?"

"No, no I'm good!"

"Well if none o' ya are gonna take it, I'm gonna take it!" Shawn exclaimed as he practically marched up and pulled the fire axe off it's position. Thomas, Norman and Sammy could all only stare as this man, who barely barely broke 5' 3" in height, picked up the axe and had the mischievous smile of a kid that was about to pull a prank on someone. Allison pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to offset a headache that was threatening to surface. Susie winced, almost regretting pointing the fire axe out. Wally however didn't seem to get why the others were reacting the way they were, at least they now had something to help take care of those ink creatures.

"Well, what we be waiting for? Let's head down n maybe we will find more for the lot o you!" Shawn grinned as he marched onward, resting his newly acquired axe on his shoulder and humming merrily.

"... What have we done?" Allison muttered, moving on from pinching the bridge of her nose to full on pressing her hand onto her head.

In all honesty no one knew what just happened aside from her… and possibly Shawn. But from Shawn's sudden surprised yelp from up ahead along with the sound of the axe hitting something wooden they just figured they had made some sort of mistake. Quickly catching up to the Irish toy maker they found the chopped remains of one of the many Bendy cut outs that littered the studio.

"Uh… Shawn was it?" Norman asked, glancing over to Allison as well as the mentioned toymaker himself, but only getting a nod from the voice actress. Norman then continued on with what he was saying. "Why in the world would you chop up a cardboard cut out? It ain't really worth it…"

"It jumped right out at me!" Shawn shouted, pointing the axe at the broken cutout. Everyone just stared between the man and the cutout and a collective, quiet agreement was made between everyone but Shawn at that moment.

"... Alright that's it. You've just lost axe privileges." Sammy stated as he grabbed for the axe only for Shawn to pull it away.

"I'm being serious! I right came out o' nowhere and got in me face!"

"Flynn, it's cardboard. It can't move on it's own." Thomas stated as Sammy still tried to take the axe from the shorter man.

"Look I know I mess around and pull a lot of japes Tom," Thomas quietly objected to the nickname once again, but Shawn ignored it and continued. "But believe me when I say it literally came out of nowhere!"

"We're all on edge Shawn… Doesn't mean it wasn't just set up there and you thought it came from nowhere." Allison pointed out, getting herself a mock look of hurt from her former boss.

"I may be needing to use my reading glasses for more than just reading nowadays, but I ain't blind yet lass! I know what I saw!"

"Give me the damn axe already Flynn!" Sammy shouted, still struggling with the Toymaker. As Shawn kept fighting the music director to keep the weapon, he was not expecting it to finally get taken from his hands by Susie.

"Hey!" Shawn shouted only to be cut off by the pointed glare that both Susie and Sammy gave him.

"You are not getting this back until you are less smash happy Flynn." Susie stated before handing the axe to Norman, seeming to set Shawn off a little more.

"Oh so you just hand it to the giant of the studio instead?"

"Well that was rude." Norman muttered but still held onto the axe.

"One, Mr. Conner over there has a bad arm." Susie pointed out to the handyman's relocated arm.

"That's fair." Thomas nodded.

"Two, knowing Wally he would set it down somewhere then forget about it." Susie continued, getting a mock hurt expression from the red haired man.

"I would not!"

"Your keys seem to say otherwise Franks." Sammy deadpanned, making Wally flinch lightly.

"Three, I don't want to get near those things. So I'm not holding onto it. Four I doubt Ms. Pendle would either." The hint of venom that slipped into Susie's voice as she mentioned her fellow voice actress made the brunette flinch then look away with guilt rising up.

"You… you would be right on that…" Allison muttered, barely being heard.

"And lastly… Sammy was busy."

"No, no give the real reason lass." Shawn pushed, he could tell she was skipping out on something. The black haired woman just gave Shawn a pointed glare and refused to anything else on the matter.

"Whatever, we got a weapon. Let's just get a move on before-" Thomas started, only to be cut off as the studios building began to shake violently.

"NOW THERE'S AN EARTHQUAKE?!" Wally shouted, arms instinctively flying up to cover his head as he tried to curl up into a ball as there wasn't any good cover nearby.

Norman panicked for a moment as he nearly lost his balance, the axe still in his hands. Thinking quick the projectionist tossed the axe away from himself as well as the others. The solid thunk that it made without anyone shouting in pain was his best indication he succeeded. He soon dropped to the ground and used one arm to keep himself steady while the other covered his head as covered as possible.

Susie wasn't fairing to well either, and ended up stumbling into Allison, knocking them both over onto the ground. Shawn wasn't to far behind them on stumbling onto the ground, but also quickly took to Wally's example and curled up to try and keep his head safe incase anything decided to break from above.

Thomas had the worst luck as instead of the ground, he stumbled into a wall. Smashing his bad arm against it and making him cry out in pain before falling onto the ground, once again right on the once dislocated arm. Today really just wasn't his day.

Sammy for his part, having worked in the lowest parts of the building for so long, with the ink machine humming and leaking overhead all the time, pretty much just handled this exactly like how he handled the ink machine. Just sit down, wait it out and be annoyed as hell about it till it was finally over.

What none of them were prepared for however, was the sound of cracking from the floorboards… or the fact some of the floor broke through underneath a few them, sending Susie, Allison and Norman into the depths below. Wally and Shawn almost fell as well but unlike the other three managed to grab onto the rest of the floor for dear life.

"ALLISON!" Shawn screamed, almost reaching a hand out for her but self preservation instincts made him, almost reluctantly, keep full hold onto the part of the floor that he held onto. All he could do was dangle there for a bit and listen to their screams as they had fell. Wally fared no better in that regard as he nearly did reach out to try to grab one of them, but flinched away in fear of his own fall.

"SUSIE! NORMAN!" Sammy screamed when he saw them fall, pushing himself from his spot and rushing over to the hole. He barely noticed that the Earthquake had stopped and was to focused on the ones who had fallen.

"Shit!" Thomas cursed as he pushed himself up, despite his pain and hurried over to the hole. Looking through he only saw darkness and no sign of the three who had fallen. He could however still see Shawn and Wally. Shawn was able to pull himself up pretty easily, but Wally seemed to be in a frozen state of fear. The handyman noticed that the part of the floor Wally was hanging onto looked like it would come undone any minute.

"Damn it kid…" Thomas sighed then reached down with his good arm, and grabbed one of Wally's arms. "Hey, Lawrence, Flynn! Would one of you mind giving me a hand with Wally over here?"

Sammy seemed to be completely out of it as he looked down through the broken floor. Desperately searching for any sign of the others, but none were popping out to him. Shawn almost was as bad but he at least was snapped out of it by Thomas's request and hurried over.

….

Grant had been stealing a few glances towards his companion as they traversed the halls. He didn't think Lacie noticed all that much, and if she did she made no indication of it. He really just couldn't help looking though, he hadn't really seen any one have patches of a different skin color on them before. It gnawed at his curiosity on the cause.

"You know if you're going to say something, then get on with it already." Lacie seemed to snap as she turned the valve for the ink drain for this floor.

Crap, I must have been staring to long… Grant thought before clearing his throat.

"Sorry Ms. Bent-"

"Lacie."

"Right, Ms. Lacie," he quietly ignored the annoyed sigh she gave at being called "Ms". "It's just…"

"Unnatural? Freaky? The product of a frowned upon relationship? Whatever it is, I've probably heard them all by now Coinman… so just get on with it already." Lacie sighed, avoiding looking the accountant in the eyes. Grant's words died on his tongue for a moment as he processed what she had just said.

"I was going to say lovely… but now I'm just stuck on being called 'Coin man'."

Lacie froze at his words. Both surprised at the word he used… and the possible mistake she just made.

"Ah shit… That's not your last name, is it?"

"No… it's Cohen." At his correction, Lacie just slapped a hand over her head and muttered how she "Did it again", to which Grant took in surprising stride. Before he could say anything the building began to shake violently. Both he and Lacie naturally being used to something similar happening usually with working on the lowest floors of the studio, both just kinda "Assumed the position" and started to wait everything out.

"... Think this would affect those ink creatures as well?" Grant questioned, offhandedly as the building still shook a bit. Lacie shrugged, they had already discussed what they had seen in the studio with the torsos, the twisted figure and the living toon.

"Maybe the twisted one you've mentioned… Those torso things might be good being closer to the ground an' all."

"And the messed up toon you mentioned?"

"God only knows with that poor soul… Pretty sure he was supposed to be that spider fellow now that I think about it."

Grant hummed a little in agreement, taking great pleasure in the surprising casual conversation… with the clearly not so casual topic of choice.

"Think the I saw the monkey and the fisherman earlier… what were they called again?" Grant wondered out loud, only to get a pointed look from Lacie.

"Hell if I know. I don't watch the shorts. I'm just supposed to use some of the designs for a few of the attractions."

"Never really watched the shorts much myself. To busy trying to get Mr. Drew to follow a stricter budget plan… and failing as he finds ways to screw it over anyways."

Lacie chuckled a bit at that.

….

Joey hummed to himself as he got to work after watching the white spots for a bit. It really wouldn't do to keep them all together. If he wanted results, he would have to get them separated. So, reaching out to the ink model… he did a few "changes" to the studio lay out.

The results were instantaneous as the building around him shook and began to reform itself to its new model, though his location remained untouched thanks to a few "contingency" plans put into place. Smiling to himself as he finished, he watched as three of the group got seperated and onto a different level.

Oh… This was going to be good.