Chapter 12: Misfortune
The Butcher Gang stayed close to Linda as they followed human couple over to the power box beside the Haunted House ride, acting weary of Henry even though he had no weapon on him. Henry couldn't blame them as he was a bit weary of them as well, but was willing to try to be friends with them for Linda's sake. He was still surprised how quickly the three deformed toons warmed up to her, despite the fact she had swung her purse at them.
Each time Henry looked back at the Butcher Gang to see what they were up to as they followed, the three toons huddled closer behind his wife yet acted tough in their nonsensical speech.
Linda couldn't help but find it a little funny, though she did hope they would come to trust Henry over time.
"We're close to opening the Haunted House." Henry said as he pulled the switch and started walking over to the other end of the storage room. "The closer we get to opening it, the more risky things get."
The small group followed Henry past some shelves through a path that lead to an Attraction Storage. 'Edgar' paused as he saw a dead copy of himself laying by a wall, reminding Linda how Boris looked when he saw dead copies of himself in Alice's lair. She placed a hand on the twisted toon spider's tiny shoulder out of sympathy.
"We won't let that happen to you." She assured, attempting to bring him some comfort. "Not without a fight."
'Charley' and 'Barley' seemed to have been inspired by Linda's words as they joined in to comfort their spider friend, waving their wrenches in the air like they were ready for battle.
Linda smiled as she was touched by the Butcher Gang's bond, they may have been villains and would often pick on one another in the cartoons, but they were still loyal to one another like brothers.
Looking over at Henry, Linda saw him standing at a work table with an octopus or monster type ride sitting in the center of the room. It had four arms with three carts at the end of each arm. Something about the ride was off.
As Linda approached, she saw the tape recorder on the work table.
"You will want to stay back." Henry warned as he pressed play on the recorder.
The biggest park ever built, a centerfold of attractions. Each one more grand than the one before it.
The voice of Bertrum Piedmont spoke from the recording.
It makes my eyes come to tears at the thought.
But then...oh Mister Drew.
For all your talk of dreams, you are the true architect behind so many nightmares. I built this park. It was to be a masterpiece! My masterpiece!
And now you think you can throw me out? Trample me to the dust and forget me? No! This is my park! My glory!
The lights around the base of the ride lit up as the ride started to move its four arms.
You may think I've gone...But I'm still here!
The tape ended as the shutters on the ride opened up to reveal a large bloated face of a man inside the machine, as if he were fused to it. Linda covered her mouth as she let out a shocked yelp.
The ride started to turn its arms quickly and swing its arms wildly. The carts at the ends of the of the arms spun in the opposite direction of the ride, causing a bit of a dizzying effect. One of the arms smashed the table in front of Henry, breaking the tape recorder in the process and revealing an axe.
Henry quickly grabbed the axe as the ride stopped and thrashed two corresponding arms about. As the arms began to malfunction from their erratic movements, he ran up and chopped at the two bolts holding the joints of the arm together.
The monster ride reacted as if in pain and started to spin again, knocking Henry down with one of its carts.
Linda ran up to him, falling to her stomach to avoid getting hit. She looked up to see one of the arms stop above the and pulled Henry out of range as the ride tried to crush them with its carts.
The Butcher Gang let out war cries as they quickly hobbled their way up to the malfunctioned arms to attack the bolts.
"Wait!" Linda cried out, not wanting to see them get hurt or worse, but her cry landed on deaf ears.
'Charley' crawled into a cart and started to crawl up the arm with his good arm and good leg, breaking off the last remaining bolts of the arm Henry attacked. The weakened arm broke off and 'Barley' and 'Edgar' tried to follow their leader's example. However, the ride started to move again, moving faster than before to throw the deformed toons off. 'Charley', missing a hand and using part of a plunger for a leg, couldn't quite climb into one of the carts of the next arm as he tried to get on to climb up to attack the bolts but was sent flying into some crates with a wail.
Henry gripped his axe as he watched the other two manage to stay on before running over to 'Charley' and moving him to the side to safety.
"You did well." Henry praised. "Now stay here and let us take care of the rest."
The monster ride stopped yet again to thrash its arms about, seeming not to learn how doing so caused its arms to break down and become vulnerable.
'Edgar' and 'Barley' took out the bolts on the arms as they clung on, breaking them off and leaving one arm left. The two toons hobbled as fast as they could to join 'Charley', but the deformed sailor toon was struck by the last set of carts, splattering some ink as he was sent tumbling across the floor.
"Oh my god!" Linda cried out as she kept herself from running out to him, it was much too dangerous as the ride spun its remaining arms about madly.
"Barley!" Henry called out, hoping the old deformed sailor was alright. Even if they were once enemies in previous time loops, this 'Barley' had risked his own life to help in the fight that had yet to be finished.
As soon as the last arm broke down, Henry ran towards it with axe in the air. Linda joined beside him, holding on to 'Charley's' wrench. She took one side and Henry took the other. After destroying the arm, the monster ride spun around until coming to a sudden stop as the the giant head inside tilted to the side and hung limp as ink spilled from the mouth. The shutters of the ride slowly closed as metal doors to a power switch opened.
Linda quickly made her way over to 'Barley' as 'Edgar' approached his fallen brethren. 'Charley' even limped over from where he was sitting. Linda placed the sailor toon's hanging head on her lap as she got down on her knees.
Henry got down beside her and gently rubbed her backed as he noticed 'Barley' was limp and bleeding out ink.
"He was such a brave sailor." Linda wept.
"That he was." Henry agreed before looking at 'Charley' and 'Edgar'. "I'm sorry you lost a friend, but thank you for your help. I know what it's like to lose a friend."
He then stood up and went to go pull the switch.
Linda was silent as she followed Henry out into the main storage room with 'Charley' and 'Edgar' following close behind. She didn't know why exactly she got so attached to their Butcher Gang when other copies of the gang tried to attack them before. She didn't understand why she felt heartbroken as she had seen several copies of 'Barley' slaughtered by the Ink Demon. Perhaps it was because the ink beings in the studio were much more than ink.
They were alive.
Pulling the third switch on the power box, Henry looked down at the remaining Butcher Gang members. They didn't hide behind Linda like they had before. He sighed and knelt down to their levels.
"We will understand if you stay behind this time. It's pretty dangerous up ahead, and neither of us want you to get hurt."
'Charley' and 'Edgar' looked at one another before looking up at Linda, who bit her lip as she looked back at them. Henry was right, she didn't want to see them get hurt, and she had a bad feeling about the next room the switch was in.
"We'll come back for you." She assured the two before looking up at Henry as he nodded in agreement.
"It shouldn't take us too long." He said.
'Edgar' gave a salute as he let out a confident screech; he seemed to believe them. 'Charley' remained silent, only letting out pained grunts.
"A can of bacon soup should help make you feel better." Henry told the Butcher Gang leader. "I'll bring you some if I can find any."
The human couple walked over to the final door, leaving the two deformed toons behind as they entered a room with words "CHOO! CHOO!" written a couple times on the walls. There were also posters of Bendy conducting a train.
As they walked through a metal valved door, Linda noticed a miracle station and froze as she noticed a flickering light coming from the set of stairs that lead down to an ink flooded floor. She could hear heavy footsteps sloshing in the ink and held her breath as the Projectionist came into view as if her breathing would give her and Henry away.
"There are two levers in this room." Henry said in a hushed voice. "One is for a lift that is currently blocking the stairs to the upper level, and the other is the one we need for to power the last switch we need to open the Haunted House. Once the lever to the lift is pulled, the Projectionist will begin to chase me and I'll run up back here to hide in the miracle station."
He then looked at Linda.
"I need you to stay in the miracle station where it's safe."
"Last time you almost got caught." Linda reminded him, never forgetting how close of a call it was as the Projectionist approached them while Henry was caught on a broken step.
If Boris wasn't there to knock down the monster, they would've been dead.
Or perhaps they would've become ink creatures themselves.
"Let me help."
"The Projectionist will kill you if he catches you." Henry argued.
"Henry, please. Let me help." Linda pleaded. "I don't want you to get killed either."
Oddly enough, Henry chuckled a bit at her statement. It was a sad one, one he wouldn't explain to her.
"I've been married to you long enough to know once your mind is set on something, there's no turning back." He finally said after a moment or two of silence.
"Then you get the lift, and I'll get the power switch." Linda replied.
She watched Henry hesitantly nod in agreement.
He carefully lead her down the stairs as the Projectionist trudged past them a second time in his rounds. Henry stepped into the ink as he kept an eye on the ink creature.
Linda shivered a bit as she also stepped into the cool black ink, staring ahead as two big tank engines greeted her with smiles and pie-cut eyes. Her attention was grabbed once again by Henry as he motioned towards the lift and the stairs.
Walking to the side of the left train as quietly as she could, Linda wanted to gag as she spotted a pile of inky hearts sitting on top of a box. Fortunately, she knew better than to make a sound as she did not want to alert the Projectionist. However, she flinched as she heard the monster's familiar screech and quickly ran up the stairs as the lift rose up, unblocking them. Linda peered over the balcony and watched Henry run through the ink in the direction they came from with the Projectionist in pursuit.
She watched a bit longer to see the ink creature return empty handed, letting out a silently sigh of relief. She then made her way over to the power switch and pulled it down.
The lights suddenly turned off except for the emergency lights on the balcony. Linda did not like the feeling of anxiety rising in her chest as she saw no sign of the Projectionist below and crept over to the stairs.
On her way down, she noticed a tape recorder tucked to the side. Her curiosity got the best of her as there was still no sign of the monster and pressed play. Linda frowned as she heard the voice of Joey Drew.
I believe there's something special in all of us.
With true inner strength, you can conquer even your biggest challenges.
You just have to believe in yourself and remain honest, motivated, and above all, who you really are.
The message sounded nice, but that quickly changed with Joey's tone.
Okay, let's stop it right there. I can only do so many takes of this trash a day.
And tell the guy in writing I want more use of the word dreaming in every message. Keep railing on that, get it? Dreaming! Dreaming! Dreaming! People just eat up that kind of slop.
Hmm? What? It's still on? Well, turn it off, damn it!
As the recording stopped, Linda let out a squeal as she saw flickering light in front of her and heard the Projectionist screech furiously as he appeared right behind her. She ran as quickly as she could through the ink, nearly tripping and falling as its thickness slowed her down a bit.
"Linda! Run to the miracle station!" She heard Henry yell as she ran for the stairs that lead them into the storage room.
Linda skipped a step as she managed to get to the top of the stairs and tripped. She winced in pain as it surged through her body. Henry got out of the miracle station and went to help her up, but paused as the Projectionist's light flickered down on them.
A/N: Now this is longest chapter I wrote so far. I've been stewing over how to write this chapter for a while now, and I couldn't just stop after the fight with Bertrum or Barley's death. I had to continue. I do hope you enjoyed this chapter if you read this far.