Apologies for the delay... I've been lacking in the inspiration department for BATIM lately. That was until I was up til 2 in the morning because inspiration is a b*tch like that...
Anyways, please R&R and let me know if there are any mistakes cause, hehe, I was extremely tired when I wrote this chapter...
"Joey," the little demon looked at a piece of the machinery that his creator was working with, "What's this?"
"This, my darling little devil," the man began, "is an Enhancer."
"What's an enhancer?"
Joey chuckled, patting the little demon on the head, "It is supposed to help your power increase as well as your strength. The world is a dangerous place, for you, my little devil."
"Ya mean outside the studio walls?" the demon asked, a cartoonish question mark popping above his head.
"Exactly," the man answered, "and I want this place to be, essentially, your kingdom. Everything here will be at your command and if any humans try to walk in here and take it away from you, I want you to be powerful, so you can protect yourself and your subjects."
"But that don't make sense," Bendy scratched his head in confusion, "Ya said yerself that no one ever comes here, that this place is abandoned."
"That may be so, my little devil," Joey smiled, "But there will be people some day, and you will need to protect yourself, and your friends Alice and Boris. You'd do anything for them, right?"
"Well, yeah. They're my family."
Joey showed his teeth in his grin, and it scared the little devil a little the way the human was looking at him, "Then you must be… powerful, Bendy. You must have the strength to always fight for them."
Bendy looked confused still, "But, wasn't I created ta make people… laugh? I don't want ta hurt anybody Joey…"
"The world doesn't care anymore about you!" The little demon jumped at the sharpness of his creator's voice. Joey had stood to his full height and Bendy could see that whatever he said had caused Joey to clearly show both anger and hate.
The man growled, "The world and it's people don't care about you or the others anymore. Why, Henry abandoned you here! Humans are not to be trusted! They will destroy you and anything else that shows a spark of happiness or light!"
Bendy looked at his little black shoes, muttering an apology before leaving the room that suddenly felt cold and empty.
Bendy noticed that Boris was poking at his breakfast the following morning. He knew what was bugging his best friend, and it had to do with him waking the little demon up in the middle of the night because of his cries.
The nightmares had seemed to increase in violence since his arrival and he started to feel very cold, never mind that he still didn't trust any humans, even the ones that were currently sitting at the table. But, how could he blame them?
Henry looked up from his coffee cup and looked at the wolf with concern, "Boris? Something wrong?"
"Nah… just havin' trouble sleepin' is all," the wolf replied, stirring his eggs around his plate as if he was trying to paint a picture with them.
"Nightmares from the latest studio trip?" Linda asked.
Bendy fidgeted with his cloth napkin. He blamed himself for Boris' lack of sleep. The wolf had sensitive hearing and any noise would wake him up and keep him awake, and the demon's cries in the evening seemed to be the cause of Boris' lack of sleep.
He returned to the present as Boris shook his head, "Nah, nothin' like that mom, just keep hearing stuff that keeps me awake."
Henry smiled, "I should've known that you had sensitive hearing, Boris. I'll give you some ear plugs tonight to use when you go to bed."
Alice looked surprised, "How did you know Boris has sensitive hearing?"
"Well, he is a wolf after all. Like dogs, they all have extremely good hearing, perfect for keeping guard. And, believe it or not, some humans suffer from it as well. Our oldest needed to sleep with earplugs in so he could get a good night's sleep, otherwise he was just like Boris, always tired and lost interest in a lot of stuff."
The wolf perked up at the thought, nodding in agreement to let Henry give him something to help him sleep at night.
Suddenly, a loud banging on the door jolted everyone at the table. Henry stood, "Finish your breakfast, and I'll see who it is."
Bendy turned and watched as Henry disappeared down the hallway. He could hear the door open before loud voices echoed off the walls. Bendy nearly jumped out of his skin as loud running footsteps came running toward them, thoughts racing as to how he was going to protect Boris and Alice from whatever was coming toward them.
"Alice! Boris!" A squeal came as a little girl with blonde hair tied back into two short pigtails came running into the kitchen. A little boy, a little older than her with dirty blonde hair and a navy-blue baseball cap, followed behind her, racing toward the wolf.
Boris bounced from his chair, exhaustion forgotten, and picked the boy up, twirling him about in the air, howling with laughter. Alice, too, had stood from her chair and hugged the little girl tightly before twirling around with her hands in hers.
Bendy cocked his head at the image before him. Boris and Alice knew these two? How long had they been friends?
It was here that Henry made his appearance and noticed Bendy's confusion. "This is David and his little sister, Denise," he explained to the little demon, "They live down the road from here and often play with Boris and Alice at one of the parks nearby."
At the mention of her name, Denise turned to see Henry talking to a character she had never seen before. Bendy got a full look at the girl with her facing him. She wore a big pink t-shirt with a kitten-type character on it, blue shorts, and white socks that peaked above her white tennis shoes. She was clutching a stuffed rabbit with a multi-colored polka-dotted bow in her arms, common for a child of her age to carry around. She suddenly ducked behind Alice, peaking her head around the cartoon angel's waist.
"Alice, who's that?" she asked pointing at the demon.
"This is Bendy," Henry smiled at Denise, "He's a friend of Boris and Alice."
"Oh cool!" David came forward and looked at the demon up and down.
Unlike his sister, Bendy noticed David was a bit more unabashed. As the boy was looking over the demon, Bendy looked him over as well. David was about his height, maybe a little taller, and wore a bright blue t-shirt with a baseball on the front, jean shorts, and muddy tennis shoes with white socks peeking out. The baseball cap, obviously too big for his head, kept slipping forward and backward on top of his dirty blonde hair.
"I never knew ya had another friend 'sides Alice, Boris," David was saying, turning to the wolf, "Ya think he knows how ta play a good ol' game of kickball?"
"Kickball?" the demon asked, looking to Henry for help on the topic of discussion.
"Probably not," Boris answered, crouching down to be level with David, "Bendy's been in hidin' fer a while, so everythin' he's experiencin' now is new ta 'im."
"Hidin'? From what?" David asked.
"Something you'll understand when you're older," Linda explained, making her presence known again, "Boris, Alice, finish your breakfast, then Henry can take you all down to the park."
"Is Bendy comin'?"
All eyes turned to the little devil darling. Pie cut eyes looked suddenly confused and he shrugged his shoulders, "I guess…"
David cheered before sitting down next to Boris while the wolf rushed to finish his eggs. Alice, on the other hand, took her time while Linda placed two glasses of chocolate milk in front of David and Denise. Bendy stirred his eggs as Henry took his seat again next to him.
"If you want to stay here with Linda, you can," Henry whispered, watching as the demon suddenly became notably nervous about going out with Henry and the kids.
"A part of me wants ta," Bendy explained, "but what if I hurt 'em? They're just kids, Henry…"
It was a first to hear Bendy call him by his name, other than "betrayer," and it was startling ot hear him think he would harm these kids. True, he had put Henry through quite a bit of torture while in the studio, but he didn't think Bendy was capable of hurting any child, his or anyone else's. Unless Joey told him otherwise…
Henry placed a hand on the toon's shoulder, "You won't hurt them, Bendy, I promise," then he got an idea, "But if you want to come, you can always sit and watch. I usually do, just in case something happens."
Bendy perked up at the thought. He could just sit next to Henry and observe, that way he could play with the kids the next time.
Henry chuckled as Bendy gobbled up his breakfast before bouncing out of his chair, waiting impatiently for the rest of the crew to finish up.