This place was eerily quiet, apart from the thrum of machines.
Bendy didn't like it.
It was...scary.
Bendy shifted in the loose hug Henry had him in, and stared worriedly up at the human.
Henry was quiet, his head sagged forward as the rest of his body rested against the back of the box they were in. The human had fallen asleep again.
Was he still hurting?
Henry had slept for a long time in the safe house...
Bendy craned his head up, considering waking Henry, but the little devil overbalanced. With a mute gasp, Bendy fell to the floor of the box and splayed out in a comic sprawl, his head askew and away from his body.
Whoops.
Good thing he couldn't lose his head so easily.
Bendy rolled over and sat up, briefly disoriented as his head settled back over his non-existent neck.
That felt...much worse than when it happened on the cartoons.
Bendy decided to let it happen as little as possible from then on.
But back to Henry...
Bendy stood up and inched closer, gloved hands resting on Henry's. Bendy's friend looked so exhausted, even while fast asleep.
Come to think of it...
Bendy felt pretty tired as well, which was odd, because he was a toon. Most toons didn't tire like this, right? Was it because Bendy wasn't in a cartoon and was in the real world with Henry?
Maybe.
None of this really made sense. It didn't seem...real.
Bendy nervously looked up at the slot in the box. That scary monster wasn't going to come back, was it? That inky creature that looked like a horrific version of Bendy.
It had a bow, even if it was lopsided. It had the eternal grin, but seemed more menacing. The creature even had a single white glove, while its other hand had fingers topped with claws.
That inky being scared Bendy.
The Ink Demon.
Bendy blinked pie-cut eyes. Where had that thought come from? Bendy stared down uneasily at his hands.
Ink Demon...
That seemed right, considering the skeletal form that looked like him appeared to be covered in dripping ink.
And those eyes.
Bendy shivered.
It was scary, to think that someone might see Bendy in that other demon. Bendy wasn't anything like the Ink Demon. Bendy was the dancing demon, the little devil darling. He would never hurt anyone like the Ink Demon had harmed his friend.
Bendy stared at his gloved hands again. He decided that he would never take them off. Bendy knew what lay beneath them, and he didn't want to have another visual reminder that there were...similarities, between himself and the Ink Demon.
It was an unhappy thought.
Bendy looked away from the slot in the box, and back to Henry.
His friend.
Bendy felt the overwhelming need to help Henry when he first met him, and that hadn't changed. Bendy didn't even question wanting to get into contact with the human right away, even if it had been a little nerve wracking at first to introduce himself. Henry was the first being Bendy had laid eyes on inside of this place…this animation studio.
Before that...
Before that, Bendy wasn't entirely sure what he'd been doing. One moment, there was nothing but endless darkness. Then, there had been a voice. One Bendy was very familiar with. It was the voice that Bendy had heard in that darkness now and again. But that last time...the voice...had been so desperate to see Bendy outside of his cartoons.
The desperation had caused Bendy to try to reach that voice.
That voice needed to be reassured that he was there. That the little devil was really there and could hear the voice. That Bendy had just been stuck in the darkness.
It had been a lonely existence.
Bendy had been alone for so long, he almost forgot what the light looked like.
And then, all at once, Bendy was out of the darkness, and in the quiet of the studio. Bendy didn't understand why or how he was there, until he saw Henry.
Bendy knew him.
Bendy had known that it had been Henry's voice that he had heard after so much silence. That voice had brought Bendy off the reels, and into the real world, from Henry's single minded belief that Bendy truly existed.
And here they both were now, hiding out in a box from the Ink Demon.
Bendy snuggled close to Henry's side, and looked up at the slot in the box again. This whole place was so new, but much more dangerous than what Bendy knew.
There was so much to explore, though!
Bendy had even found a large stuffed animal that resembled Boris!
Had Henry seen it yet?
Bendy could show him and-
Bendy's grin vanished into a thin line as he looked the sleeping human over. Bendy moved onto Henry's lap and held onto his sweater, worry overtaking excitement.
His creator…
Henry didn't know. He didn't know that Bendy knew Henry had created him.
Created the others.
But that didn't really matter right now.
Bendy knew, and that was enough. He was certain that there had to have been a reason for Henry to be gone from Bendy's life for so long.
Was that right?
His life...his existence, maybe?
Bendy was positive there was a blank expanse between being a cartoon and being in this studio. Bendy was worried, and might have berated himself over avoiding thinking about something in favor of making sure Henry was okay.
Bendy couldn't think about it.
Not right now.
Bendy gave his head a little shake, like he had seen Henry do earlier. It seemed to help center the little devil's thoughts, to keep them from spiraling. Bendy reached up to check on Henry's bandaged left shoulder.
Bad thoughts began to intrude.
There was...there was something wrong with the injuries that the toon couldn't quite place.
Bendy dropped his hand, feeling worn out all of a sudden. Bendy closed his eyes, and sagged against Henry. Bendy felt safe, for now, in this box. He would wait for the human to wake up.
Henry came first before exploring the studio.
"Sheep, sheep? Are you there? Come out, come out wherever you are..." A distant voice echoed.
Bendy curled up against Henry. The little devil could still hear the one Henry called Sammy outside of the box.
Sammy was, to use Henry's words, a 'nut job.'
Bendy didn't know what this meant, but he guessed that it had to do with the mutters that he could hear from Sammy right now, if he listened carefully.
Random praises to the Ink Demon and such things like that.
It made Bendy deeply uncomfortable to think that Sammy thought of him as some higher being. That Sammy believed he was the same as the Ink Demon, but in 'toon' form. Bendy wanted to shake his head and deny it, but felt it was a lost cause trying to mutely explain that he wasn't like the Ink Demon at all.
He didn't want people hurt like Henry had been by that creature.
Bendy pressed his face to Henry's sweater when Sammy's voice got closer. The little devil shivered involuntary over the thought of the door being opened, and being found first by Sammy, and then, the Ink Demon.
Nothing happened.
Bendy still looked at the door anxiously. He hoped that the Boris he'd met and who helped open the door was all right. Bendy hoped that there weren't too many more scary people and toons in this place. More than that, Bendy hoped that he was mistaken about Henry's bandaged limbs.
But still...that off-putting sensation of something not quite right.
When Bendy got too close to the injuries...it felt like...
It felt like the Ink Demon's aura. Faint, but there nonetheless.
Bendy clung to Henry's sweater, desperately hoping to be wrong, as the toon waited for his friend to regain consciousness.
