Chapter 33: Forgiveness


Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours; at least that's how it felt to Linda as she waited for something, anything, to happen as the Ink Demon towered over her and Henry. She felt Henry move a bit from her embrace to weakly look up at the beast. Ink was dripping from the corners of his mouth when he tried to speak, but no words would come out other than gurgling sounds.

The Ink Demon roared and grabbed on to Henry, tearing him away from Linda before throwing him across the room. Linda let out a sharp cry as her husband's back slammed against the wall, unsure if she even properly said anything.

The film reel had tumbled out of Henry's hands and was now laying over by the glass tube full of flowing ink.

With the Ink Demon focused on him, Linda quickly stood up and ran over to the reel.

"Over here!" She called out to cause a distraction, picking up the reel. "Come and get it, Bendy!"

The Ink Demon paused in his tracks and turned his massive head towards Linda, snarling at the sight of the film reel in her hands. As he charged towards her, Linda quickly moved out of the way so that he would ram into the glass tube.

The glass shattered and ink started to spray out everywhere. The Ink Demon had collapsed from the collision and shook his head as if to clear his focus. He stood up soon afterwards on his fists, growling as he now was focusing on Linda.

She tried to keep her distance from the Ink Demon as she backed away to the next tube, but his long arms helped him maneuver in a way he could quickly close the gap between them. Linda nearly fell over as the beast clawed at her, barely missing her when she continued to back away.

Once again the Ink Demon snarled and charged forward, forcing Linda to use the same strategy of guiding and moving out of the way when he charged. Fortunately, it worked as the Ink Demon had too much momentum to stop on a dime.

Linda continued the same process the last two tubes; once the Ink Demon smashed into the tube, everything went dark for a couple of seconds.

The projectors in the room no longer played their cartoons, ink was spraying in all directions, and the Ink Demon was nowhere to be seen. Linda looked all around for him, until she saw Henry struggling to get up.

"Henry!..."

She rushed over to him, horrified to see the ink from his wounds expand to different parts of his body like it was trying to consume him.

"Linda...End this now." Henry rasped, breathing heavily as he tried to look up at her. "It hurts so much..."

"I'm not ending this without you." Linda replied, setting the reel down beside her as she knelt down to help him up.

The sentient ink from her body attempted to reach an join with the ink consuming Henry.

"Stop it!" She shrieked, placing her husband's arm around her shoulder. "Leave him alone!"

The ink seemed to respond to the command, writing a bit as she picked up the film reel. Henry groaned in pain as Linda stood up, but he stood up with her and held on to her as she guided him to the doorway that was closed before everything was destroyed.

Seeing that it lead them back into the throne room, Linda approached the throne and sat Henry down. The ink on his body had spread out more, but it seemed like a slow process.

A painful one at that.

Before she could put the reel into the player, Linda whipped around as she heard a loud growl, coming face-to-face with the beastly Ink Demon.

He reached out to grab her but stopped as Henry spoke up:

"Bendy, stop...This is between you and me. Leave Linda out of this."

The Ink Demon snarled, roughly shoving Linda out of the way to get to Henry.

Linda fell from the mound of thick ink holding up the makeshift throne and landed on her hands and knees as she hit the metal floor. She hissed in pain, but quickly ignored it as she focused on Henry and the Ink Demon.

The Ink Demon looked ready to tear him apart as he lifted his inky claws and opened his mouth widely to bite down, but Henry showed no fear.

Just pain and exhaustion.

"I'm sorry, Bendy..."

The Ink Demon paused his attack and let out a low growl.

"I'm so sorry. I have come to realize after all this time the pain and loneliness you suffered these past thirty years." Henry continued. "I should've realized it after the first loop you didn't know who you were supposed to be..."

Linda watched in silence as the Ink Demon's harsh growls turned into soft whimpers.

"Joey forced you into this role, and even now he has some influence over you, doesn't he buddy?..." Henry asked.

The Ink Demon lowered his head, letting out monstrous sobs. Henry slowly reached out his shakey hand and rested it on top of the beast's head.

"I'm sure you're tired of the time loops just as much as I am."

The Ink Demon's sobs turned back into growls as he lifted his head, forcing Henry's hand off before roaring in his face and snatching him up in his claws.

Linda began to panic again and quickly ran up to the Ink Demon, latching on to the arm he was using to hold himself up.

"Bendy stop! This isn't you!"

The beast tilted his head down to look at her, still holding Henry in a firm grip, growling at her.

"You never were a monster, Bendy." Linda said with tears in her eyes. "Don't let Joey influence your anger, he has no authority over you."

The Ink Demon's growls grew softer.

"Please, learn to forgive Henry." She continued. "If not now, then consider it in the next time loop. In his eyes, you're still the Little Devil Darlin' he created those many years ago."

Linda reached into her purse and quickly pulled out the Bendy drawing, unfolding it to show it to the Ink Demon.

The beast whimpered as he stared at the drawing before looking back at Henry.

"Please Bendy, forgive me." Henry said gently, most of his body covered in ink.

The Ink Demon seemed to be conflicted as he set Henry back down and held his head large clawed hands, now sitting on the ground. He thrashed his head about, snarling and whimpering all at once.

Linda carefully approached and wrapped her arms around the Ink Demon as far as her arms would allow her for his size.

Henry limped over and hugged the whimpering beast as well.

"You don't need to worry about me forgiving you, I already have. I love you, Bendy."

Linda perked up as she saw the ink on Henry's body glow in a golden color before moving up his arms and rippling through the Ink Demon's body.

The ink that made up the Ink Demon's body began to rise up into the air like steam, forcing his body to shrink.

It wasn't long until all that was left was a small cartoon demon, sobbing in between the couples' embrace.

He looked up at them with big pie-cut eyes.

He was a spitting image of the cartoon Bendy.

Linda was amazed by the sudden transformation while Henry just smiled and hugged Bendy a but tighter.

"There's my Little Devil Darlin'."


A/N: Hugs for Bendy! Forgiveness and love are powerful things. Once again, had to type this out on my phone. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.