You were frozen in place, fear coursing through your little toon body.
Alice knew who you were.
Well, she knew what toon you'd been turned into. Whether or not she knew that you'd been Wendy's voice actor was still up for debate. Either way, you couldn't come up with a scenario where this was a good thing. Once Henry killed the member of the Butcher gang, he noticed a panel on the wall and opened it, pulling out the gear inside. Was that what Alice wanted? Henry took you by the arm and pulled you along, back up the stairs. "Ignore her, (Y/N)...one down, three more to go." You nodded and inhaled deeply, trying to calm your racing heart as you looked around, stepping cautiously into the room filled with clocks and plushies while Henry checked the panel on the wall. He grumbled as it was empty.
You walked through the shelves, clutching your pipe tightly. Ink was everywhere, and any monster, or Bendy, could just out at a moments notice. This happened as you opened another panel in the back, revealing a gear inside. You heard the groaning of an ink monster lurching out of the puddle closest towards you. You choked back a scream, remembering Alice's words, and spun around, swinging your weapon at the monster. This killed it, again assuming they could even die..or were even alive to begin with, and climbed the toy shelf and grabbed the gear, too high up for you to have reached on your own. "I-I've got it!" You called to Henry as he joined you in the back of the room. He gave a gentle smile and you beamed up at him, jumping down from the shelves. Just as the two of you started to leave the room, another member of the Butcher gang came through the door, running at you both. The one with its mouth sewn shut, but there was a second mouth on the top of its head, open and closing, like those chattering prank teeth. You wanted to get this over with quickly, trying to ignore how these new monsters had eyes. Had faces.
Were they like Bendy? Were they sentient?
You got an answer much sooner than you'd expected, and hoped, when you swung your pipe. The Butcher gang member stepped back, and you only managed to hit him in the mouth.
Tearing the stitches off.
He staggered back, almost as though surprised, and lifted his hands to his mouth, which now bled ink. The human looking eye fused to his head rose to look at you, then back down to his mouth.
"Y...u ...k th...m ...ff."
Oh Jesus trims your hedges christ. HE TALKS. He spoke much like Bendy, as though he was gargling water...or ink, and his words broke off, making him hard to understand, but he TALKED. "Wh-What?" You squeaked out, backing into Henry, who placed a protective hand on your shoulder. The gang member opened and closed his mouth, making strange noises as if testing his voice out, before repeating, "You...took...them...off.."
"Damn.." You heard Henry whisper in awe. You, however, were filled with horror. Were all of them alive? Oh god..the Butcher looked at Henry, then at you, and said, "Pl...se...please don't hu..t...hurt me..I'm sorry.." Oh no, oh no, how were you supposed to deal with this?! "My name is E...d...r...Striker. Striker." "Erm...hello there...Striker." Henry said, awkwardness clear in his voice. "Can you tell us why you were attacking us?" "Are they all like you?" You blurted out, "Able to talk, I mean..." Striker pressed his large, bloody lips together and thought. "You're...you scared me. And I don't ...nk...think so. They don't a...t...act like me. Or..I don't act like them."
What a relief.
"There were a few o...her...others, like me, but I haven't seen them in a while..."
You thought back to that Butcher gang member you saw Alice electrocuting. God..Nope. The thought made your stomach lurch and you had to push it away.
Henry sighed. "Well...if you're more 'alive' than the others, you're welcome to come with us, but if you don't want to, then please stay out of our way." He then steered you around Striker. The toon didn't exactly come with you, but followed the two of you around like a curious child. You scrunched up your face and shook your head. You didn't want to think of him as a child. Another panel. Another gear. One more left. Turning the corner, there was the room flooded with ink, where you had found Joey's recording, and Bendy. Striker gripped your arm, stopping you. "W...We can't touch the ink. We'll be su...d..sucked back in..." Wait..Alice had mentioned something like that, hadn't she? Dammit...all you could do was wait as Henry checked ahead, but there were no panels in that direction.
At least Striker was, for some reason, helping you.
The three of you made your way up the many, many, many flights of stairs, and from the corner of your eye you spotted a panel near one of the Bendy statues. Telling Henry, he checked and there it was, the last gear. Alice's voice crackled through the room, making you jump. "Ah, that should be plenty. Return them to me," then she paused before adding in an overly cheerful tone, "and try not to die on the way back."
Fine.
Bitch.
-— -— -— -— -— -— -— -— -—
So Striker is alive, and so am I! Surprised you, didn't I? sorry about the dead air. I moved a few times, got some new jobs, a kidney stone, i lost my laptop charger, and updating is hard as heck with my phone. I'll do my best to update again soon!
