You all have no idea how excited I was to actually write most of this! I'm just going to leave it at that and I hope you all enjoy!


Chapter 7: Growing Fear

Sammy had had a very long day. First he was expected to make not one, not two, but five whole new songs. Five whole songs for the upcoming short… with a god awful deadline. Then there was all the distractions and people coming in and out all day, practice with the band for the songs on the current short…. then the Ink machine finally decided to flood the whole studio. Now there were ink creatures after them, his best friend Norman might be dead, he's stuck with two of the most annoying people in the whole studio and god knows how long they've really been here.

Right now all the music director wanted to do was just close his eyes for a bit and forget all the bull shit that's happened. Sure a nice hot meal would be good as well but like hell was he going to eat any of the bacon soup cans they had around. So when they had found the break room, the first thing Sammy did was grab a chair, position it against the wall and close his eyes after setting the axe next to him.

"Only wake me if more of those things try to come after us." Was what he told the others before he started to take his nap. Thankfully for him no one seemed to disturb that rest, though the faint sound of darts being played was a little annoying but easy to tune out.

Then Wally screamed, and Sammy jolted up, snagged his axe and rushed for the bathroom that the ex janitor was in. Shawn seemed to beat Sammy inside and was already looking around the bathroom frantically for enemies that weren't there… while Sammy took notice of Wally sitting against a wall, shaking and holding his head.

"Where be the inky bastards?!" Shawn shouted, brandishing the wrench as he looked around the entire bathroom. Thomas slowly crawling in and over to Wally's side while Sammy noticed his ripped sleeve drying on the sink basin.

"You okay Wally?" Thomas asked, resting a hand on the younger man's shoulder but unable to get him to calm down enough. Especially since Wally seemed to be so freaked out that a few tears seemed to be rolling down his cheeks. "Wally, come on kid talk to me. Are you okay?"

As Thomas was trying to get Wally to respond, Sammy frowned seeing nothing amiss that would make the trainee freak out so much.

"Franks what the hell?" Sammy questioned in a tired tone, he was half tempted to berate the trainee before pausing when he noticed the surprisingly large amount of ink on Wally's forehead. "Franks… where did all that ink come from?"

"I don't be seeing what you mean Sam." Shawn mentioned, looking to the music director that just shot him a glare.

"It's Sammy you loud mouthed toy maker… But I was talking about Franks, for your information." As Sammy mentioned this, Thomas finally noticed the large ink blotch above the red haired man's eye… but a definite lack of it everywhere else on his face.

"Wally?" Thomas asked as gently as possible, using his one good arm to reach up and gently try to rub some of the ink off, avoiding the injury as much as possible… only to find more ink dripping down as if to replace the ink that was taken away. Thomas practically felt his heart stop when he realized… Wally's head wound was dripping more of the ink from it. "Oh my god."

Sammy himself was speechless after he got closer for a better look. He had honestly no clue what to do, and even Shawn was having a little difficulty trying to pinpoint the right things to say in this situation.

"... Maybe we be needing to scrub at it more?" The Irish toy maker hesitantly offered. The offer only seemed to make Wally shrink a little more into himself muttering something that even Thomas, who was right next to the younger man, had trouble hearing but was at least able to make out a soft no.

"Hey, Wally look at me." Thomas tried, giving Wally's shoulder a small shake and seemed to finally get the young man's gaze on him. Looking into Wally's normally chocolate brown eyes, Thomas saw how they almost seemed like they were beginning to darken a little more in color. Thomas nearly froze once he noticed but steeled himself up as he knew it was more important to get Wally to calm down then freak out anymore.

"... Look Wally, I'm gonna level with you… No one knows what the hell is going on anymore. But god damn it, you can't be breaking down on us now kid. Sure there's…. There's ink coming out of your head now… I have no idea where I'm going with that one but screw it, all the shit going down right now is bad. People are dead, those things are running around out there and now this. But god damn it if there was ever a time to want to "Get outta here" now is the perfect time to focus on that instead of shutting down because of the bullshit that's happening."

"Wow, never took ya to be a motivational speaker Tom." Shawn spoke up after a moment of silence after Thomas finished his whole speel to try to get Wally to calm down… and immediately got two sets of glares on him.

"And you ruined it Shawn…" Thomas sighed deeply.

"I swear to god Flynn, of all the times to make jokes this is the worst moment!" Sammy groaned in annoyance as he rubbed a hand down his face.

"Hey now! I just be making an observation! If all o' you took it as a joke then the shame goes to you!" Shawn protested, only getting a scoff from Sammy while Thomas just rubbed at his head from the continuously growing headache.

Wally, now seeming to be a little less in shock, was looking between the others as Sammy and Shawn seemed to be getting into an argument and Thomas just seemed to be completely done. It all just seemed so normal at that moment, sure the people in this scenario were different and in different places, but damn… it just felt like another day at Joey Drew Studios to the red haired trainee. Despite the fact he was still pretty shaken up about what he had found earlier, Wally found himself laughing a little at what was going on around him.

"Hey see now, we got the lad to laugh! That's a step in the right direction if'n ya ask me!" Shawn grinned and gave an "I win" type of look to Sammy, who looked like he was contemplating if it was worth using the axe on one of the only other able bodied people in their small group.

"Keep pushing me Shawn, I dare you at this point."

"And like that I'm suddenly much more certain that either Sammy, or Shawn will somehow be the death of me at this point." Thomas sighed even deeper than before.

"Hey, better something ya know than… than an unknown getting ya in the end, huh?" Wally offered, sniffling a little as he took one of his hands off his head and one of the little sharp points there to wipe at his face. Wally did stiffen slightly as he removed his hand, paranoid about how the others would react if they noticed them, but thankfully they seemed to be to small for the others to notice so he was in the clear… for now.

"Don't go digging my grave already Kid."

"Hey I'm just saying. Then if ya did die you could find a way to come back and know just who to go after!" Wally, slipping into a bit more of a better mood leaned in to Thomas as if about to tell him a very important secret. "Personally, I'd be messing with Sammy the most. Moving his music sheets to different places, playing with some of the instruments really bad on purpose. I'd be the one distraction he couldn't get rid of then."

"Now don't you go thinking of digging your own grave." Thomas gave Wally a joking push and a smirk. The older man was just glad that Wally was, in a way, back to normal… though the continued presence of the ink dripping down his head was still a great concern.

"Wouldn't even dream of it Tom!" Wally grinned, his use of the nickname Thomas never asked for got him a surprisingly happy look from Shawn, who quit his bickering with Sammy just to do so, and an annoyed one from the handyman.

"You keep calling me that and I'm going to be the one digging a grave for you, kid."

"Right! Never mind that then!" Wally nervously laughed, sure he felt like Thomas was joking but at the same time Wally could barely tell if he was being serious.

Sammy, though he didn't really look it, was actually pretty relieved to see Wally acting all back to normal. It…. it really bugged him to not see the ex janitor not trying to be his usual, annoyingly optimistic self. Still, unlike Shawn and Thomas, Sammy could tell there was something else that was making Wally so on edge… but the music director couldn't tell what it was aside from how Wally's injury was bleeding ink now. Speaking of…

"Well now that you're no longer a sniveling mess, you might as well finish cleaning up." Sammy drawled, turning on his heels and making way for the door.

"And where do ya think you're going Sam?" Shawn practically demanded, only to get a tired glare from the music director.

"First off, its Sammy to you. Secondly, I was trying to nap earlier, I would very much like to get back to the blissful state of not having to deal with any of you." Sammy sneered as he just let the door close behind him to go back to his nap.

Shawn let out an annoyed huff then turned to Wally.

"If in ya need to take your mind off anything, ya can help me set something up to mess with the grouch out there. When ya be ready that is."

"You don't even have to ask on that one!" Wally laughed as Shawn gave him a mock salute before following after Sammy to the other room.

Thomas however seemed to stay by the red haired trainees side. Even with the others already in the other room Thomas stayed with Wally.

"Uh… aren't… you going to go join them? I mean I won't be long and-" Wally started, not really wanting to try to get a better look at the sharp bumps on his head with someone else around…. but got cut off by Thomas.

"I need a moment away from them as well kid…" Thomas sighed but also gave Wally a sideways glance. "Besides… you might need a hand checking those out."

Wally froze and turned to stare at Thomas… who was taking a glance to the top of the younger man's head, past the inky wound and somewhere past his hair.

"You… you saw them?" Wally practically whispered, fear crawling back up.

"Kid, I'm sitting right next to you… and with the lower amount of ink on your head, well… it's kinda hard not to notice two black things in that mess you call hair."

Wally had no idea if he was surprised at how calm Thomas was about this… or that he actually hadn't brought this up to the others earlier.

….

Norman, Susie and Allison, after their rest and checking of injuries, all finally began to move again. Looking around, all three couldn't even tell what floor they were on…. let alone if they were even close to an exit. By now they were just doing a bit of guesswork as they wandered through the halls aimlessly.

"How long have we even been here in this damned studio?" Susie questioned, rubbing at her head as a bit of a headache began to form. She felt like it had slowly been getting worse recently as they passed through another unfamiliar hall, finding no stairway or hint to a more familiar location.

"Little more than half a day by my guess…" Norman responded, frowning deeply as he opened up a door and finding nothing more than a storage closet.

"Why did Mr. Drew have to make this studio into such a maze?" Allison questioned with an annoyed groan. This was about the tenth door they tried while looking for a staircase and still they couldn't find what they were looking for. "Wouldn't it be more sensible to have all the staircases together for all the floors?"

"You'd think the sensible solution would be to have all the staircases together… but Joey seems to take what's sensible and tosses it out the window." Susie retorted in annoyance.

"Be glad the music department, and toy departments are close enough to one another." Norman sighed, knowing fully well how horribly planned out these halls seemed to be for the basic employees. To complicated and hard to traverse through. Only made worse when pipes would burst or… like now… when the studio has been flooded.

Wait a minute… why would anyone build a studio like this? Norman thought as a realization slowly started to dawn on him.

"Norman?" Allison questioned, noticing how quiet the projectionist had gotten as well as the horrified look that crossed his face.

"... This studio was built up as a death trap…" Norman muttered out loud.

"I would think that's almost obvious by this point…" Susie pointed out, her uncovered eye tiredly looking around as one of her hands continued to rub at one of her temples. Even Allison seemed to agree with Susie's point.

"No, no I mean… Look I know you two haven't been around the studio for as long as Sammy and I have been… but after the old head animator left nearly eight years ago now, Mr. Drew had insisted on expanding the building to what it is now. Now I as well as many of us long time workers have always just thought it was from the success of all the Bendy shorts, and to house more workers… while Sammy just thought Mr. Drew was just losing his mind. Thinking back now I think Sammy was actually right in those thoughts, after all we both witnessed how he seemed to build every new floor into a maze as well as converting older floors into bigger, but more confusing paths." Norman explained, his mind drifting off to the day the head animator, Joey's best friend and co owner, had stormed out of the studio… and how different Joey had been after that… then drifting off to how Joey had started to insist certain areas be built not long after. None of it had been normal, let alone comforting at the time but no one really questioned it. Now was different.

"So… So you think Mr. Drew was… was planning to do all of… all of this since then?" Allison stammered, disbelief and fear beginning to build after hearing everything. She really didn't want to believe someone would do something like this… but from everything they've seen so far and how much trouble they were having just getting out she wasn't going to just brush it off either.

"I don't know for sure… but sadly I do find it a little to suspicious." Norman stated, yes he wasn't entirely sure if what he thought was correct or not… but it was to much of a coincidence for it not to be true.

"Then we won't… know for… for..." Susie started before seeming to stumble and use the wall as a support. Her single eye clenched tightly in pain.

"Susie!" Allison shouted in shock at how her fellow voice actress seemed to slowly slide down the wall as the pain she felt made her feel like her head was spinning. Norman hurried over, and checked around the hall really quick to make sure they were in the clear, before helping Susie into the storage room they recently looked into.

"Allison, move one of those boxes please." Norman ordered as evenly as he could, freaking out wouldn't help at all in this situation after all. With a shaking nod of affirmation Allison found a good sized crate and pushed it with all her might into the open. Once that was done, Norman helped sit Susie down on the box, but the voice actress still held onto him as if he was a life line at the moment.

"Susie, I need you to let go for a moment please." Norman gently pleaded before gently peeling her hands off his shirt, only to have her hold onto one of his hands tightly. Allison slipped over and offered one of her own hands to Susie in an effort to help Norman. Thankfully Susie took hold, and Allison did her best not to let out a pained hiss from how tight the grip was.

"You…. you have a… a strong grip there Susie…" Allison bit out, just as Norman was able to slip his hand out of Susie's grip and move it to gently rub at her back. Both of them were doing their best not to panic at the moment, trying to figure out what was causing the woman so much pain… however something caught Norman's attention before they could even begin questioning what was wrong.

Some sort of white spots were pretty clear through Susie's naturally raven black hair. Two of them to be specific, and seemed kinda small enough to miss at a glance… but too different to properly blend in. They looked like two small little triangles on either side of her head… and when Norman just attempted to touch one, mostly to see if it was just something that was just sitting there, Susie let out a wince of pain.

From the wince, Allison took better note of the strange things on Susie's head by shifting the black hair around one of them them just a little… only to gasp in shock as she saw it was coming out of Susie's head.

"Oh my god." Allison gasped in horror, her one free hand going to cover her mouth. Norman covered his own mouth, preventing himself from saying anything or even making a noise as he saw as well.

"What's… what's…. wrong…?" Susie weakly asked as she forced her one eye open just a little, her vision going blurry and the pain still making itself well known… until it became to much and the black haired woman passed out, and became oblivious to the world around her.

Norman and Allison on the other hand were terrified as they had to catch Susie to keep her from falling over… and saw that the white things were growing little by little and forming horns.

….

"So let me get this straight…You believe all these ink monsters, no offense August," Lacie started, looking Grant dead in the eyes but paused and glanced over to the resident ink creature in the room as she mentioned him.

"Considering you were all chased by a bunch of them and my current situation, I completely understand." August responded before making a motion for Lacie to continue.

"... Are all employees that died from the ink pipes." Lacie concluded. Grant nodded and gave a weary glance over to August. The ink person was unreadable aside from his glowing eyes… that seemed like they were at least thinking the information over. "I mean… It's a theory to what's going on I'll give ya that."

"I know for a fact Lacie! That toy department worker… Robert or Bob or, whatever. I know he was dead! I saw his lifeless body and yet he spoke to me looking like… like August over there!" Grant insisted, he know the guy was named Robert but forgot if he went by a nickname or not… he wasn't that close to the man after all, but still talked to him enough to remember his voice and face.

"I don't know Grant… I mean, the dead coming back as ink creatures part feels a little hard for me to swallow to be honest. Yet it does make sense given everything… Any input on this August?" Lacie asked, looking to the trombone player for a few answers.

"Can't really tell you if I'm dead or not ma'am. I feel pretty alive and clearly I'm able to talk and everything… but I… I do remember…" August trailed his glowing gaze lowering a bit as he dug into… unpleasant memories. Taking a deep breath he continued soon after. "I remember being in the recording room with all the instruments. I was in there doing a bit of practice with a few others of the band before we were gonna head home for the day. Gotta make sure we don't put Mr. Lawrence into a worse mood then usual by screwing up a song after all. Anyways… as we were in the middle of practice when I heard something going off. I remember putting my trombone down and looking up then… then a pipe burst right above us. I… I vaguely remember Ruth, the piano player, trying to break the door down so we could get out but… Next thing I remember is waking up about two floors up and in the middle of an ink puddle that… actually turned out to be me. No idea how any of that happened, confused as all hell and feeling all sorts of wrong… Can't really say much else though so… sorry."

To Grant that was more than enough proof for his "Theory" as Lacie put it, while Lacie's eyes were wide and she soon felt this "Theory" wasn't as far fetched anymore. Sure there did seem to be a few holes in the story, but… she herself knew how bad the Music department got with the ink flow. She just had to put the pieces together to at least paint a pretty clear picture of what might have happened… which lead to another sudden thought.

"I need to get back to the lower levels!" Lacie exclaimed, already pushing some of the barricade out of the way as the banging outside had ended a little while ago.

"Wait, what?! I thought the plan was to get out of here!" Grant exclaimed, trying to get the mechanic to stop her frantic breaking down of the makeshift barricade.

"Okay, no offence on my part now for you ma'am… But what in the actual hell would make you want to go down there after all this?! Just go with the possibly crazy accountant and get out of here!" August exclaimed, also attempting to stop Lacie from trying to get out to go with her crazy idea. The ink turned employee didn't even pay attention to the offended glare he got from the accountant.

"My boss! Bertram! I need… I need to know…" Lacie trailed, her eyes starting to water as she mentally heard the echo of her boss's screams and saw the ink pushing him into the machine… had… had the air always been thick in this room? Why was she having trouble breathing right now?

When he saw Lacie begin to hyperventilate Grant acted immediately on autopilot and wrapped his arms around her, gently rubbing her back and holding her head close to his chest. The latter being a little hard to do as she was only an inch shorter than his average 5'8" height, but seeing as she was already bending down a bit in an attempt to catch her breath he just made due.

"Lacie! Lacie it's alright! You're not there, you're alright!" Grant exclaimed, only half knowing what he was doing as he was frantically trying to get Lacie to calm down. He hadn't seen her get this worked up at all during his time with her… and quite frankly it scared him as she seemed to be so collected, so confident and now… now she was looking so fragile.

"Ma'am… Lacie, breath! Deep breath in, slow breath out!" August instructed, digging through some memories of once seeing someone else in the band going through something similar and seeing how they handled it. He wasn't completely sure if it would apply to whatever she was going through now… but damn it he needed to try something.

Lacie seemed like she only barely heard either of them as she shakingly tried to follow August's instructions with her breathing. It was hard to get into the rhythm as she just had trouble drawing herself out of the horrors she saw down below. However once she did start getting into the rhythm she soon found herself slowly beginning to tear up. Feeling the need to hide the tears the mechanic buried her face into Grant's shoulder just as the first few began to crawl down her face.

Both Grant and August felt like they were at a loss on what to do now as Lacie just started to cry it out.

….

Joey wheeled himself back into his office, actually flipping a proper light on now as he re entered and went back over to his ink model of the studio, a fresh cup of coffee in his hand now as well.

"Well, time to see what I missed." Joey took a sip of the coffee after speaking out loud to himself and checking in on the layouts of the studio before almost spitting it back out in surprise at seeing how one of the white blotches was now shaping something new. It seemed like it was being carried by the other two white blotches, of which only one of them seemed to have a hint of the darkness in them, but it was forming into a familiar shape with both horns and a halo slowly seeming to push their way out of the once white spot in the ink studio.

"I missed the birth of one of the stars?! Ugh, note to self… don't take a long break next time one gets close to being formed." Joey sighed to himself and looked it over again, greatly disappointed to see that the black ink that had taken over was quickly changing to a more grey color as the form shaped itself more. That was one inconvenience but at least he got one of the main characters he was looking for.

Feeling excited he checked the larger group and found a few hints of what was forming on the one with the most dark in it. However, Joey knew what these hints would lead to, and quite frankly it only made him feel like a child on christmas as he recognized what was coming.

"Oh, oh this one I am not going to miss for the world."

Being to distracted with the fact that the main star was being formed, he never thought to check on anything else in the studio as he excitedly took another sip from his coffee mug.

….

Pain, stiffness, agony and cold were just a few minor things to describe how Bertram was feeling. Going onto the major points however? The engineer felt like every part of him was ripped from their proper places and stuck back together improperly. He felt cold, dripping, foul ink dripping from these misplaced pieces and twisting inside his malformed body as well. His body… Was it even something he should really be associating with who he is supposed to be?

No, this wasn't a body. This mechanical creation, this colossal wonder he created, he built up with his hands… this was more like a prison. A casket, or a tomb perhaps, but not a body. Oh he knew what happened. How could the great Bertram Piedmont not remember what lead to this current predicament he was stuck in?

The feeling of the accursed ink swimming and swirling within this tomb that dared to make itself his new body was all he needed to remember. The sparks of electrical energy that coursed through to move one of his now many limbs helping cement the image clear in his mind.

Oh, Mister Drew… Not only have you destroyed what was going to be my greatest work, you've also destroyed your own work in the process. No that's not quite it now is it? This is part of a bigger piece of work, a bigger stage for you now isn't it? Well now… You may think you've gotten away with your plan. But you've seemed to overlook one thing. I'm. Still. HERE!

Mechanical arms slammed into the ground with a force that shook the entire room as panels opened on the Carousel revealing a much larger, decapitated head of one Bertrum Piedmont.