It took some time, but Henry was able to cheer Bendy up at least a little bit. The crying had slowed down at any rate, especially when Henry found a bottle of ink and started to doodle on one of the walls.
That trademark grin slowly returned at the sight of some of the sillier doodles Henry made. It was good to see that smile, even if the toon obviously wasn't as cheerful as before.
"As much as I want to keep drawing, I think we need to get going." Henry wiped his ink covered fingers on his pants, not really caring about the stains that were left behind. "I don't know whether they will come after us or not..." Henry fell silent abruptly, a trickle of dread surfacing.
The swirling, inky darkness that accompanied the Ink Demon's presence had begun to cross the walls.
Henry pressed his aching right hand to his opposite, equally aching shoulder. Both of the near-healed wounds twinged again.
No.
Not now.
"Already?" Henry muttered. He could tell that Bendy realized what was happening, from the quivering of the toon's body, and the worried line his grin had become. Henry hastily scooped Bendy up and then set him down inside of the Angel path, sending the toon stumbling along as Bendy regained his footing. "Keep going forward! You'll eventually meet up with Boris." Henry cast a quick look to the wall. It was getting darker. "I'll catch up as soon as I can."
Bendy clearly wanted to stay put to wait for Henry to join him, but the toon fell backward in surprise as the door suddenly slammed down.
Wait.
Shouldn't the demon path have closed instead?
What was going on?
The Ink Demon emerged from the darkened hall, and with a screech, lunged forward eagerly.
Henry ducked beneath the swipe of that clawed hand. Henry ran toward the open path of the demon, with said skeletal demon chasing him.
Shit.
Damnit.
Henry couldn't move through the flooded room nearly as quickly as the Ink Demon was able to. But the silver lining was that the creature's eyes were obscured once more by ink, and it was not talking.
It was, however, certainly trying its darndest to catch him.
Henry didn't look back as he sloshed through the ink. He needed to catch up with Bendy, and make sure the toon was able to meet up with Boris.
The Ink Demon snarled.
It seemed that Henry wouldn't get to where he wanted to be easily. Henry reached out and grabbed the cassette player, hefting it before throwing the object at the inky being pursing him.
The creature hissed and batted the offending item away.
Henry looked around before he seized a nearby chair. Henry was able to make contact with the piece of furniture as the Ink Demon came close.
The chair made a rather satisfying wooden crack against the side of the Ink Demon's head as it shattered into pieces.
Henry had let go of the broken chair and followed up with a swing of his fist, adrenaline telling him to keep going. Henry belatedly realized that he would be hitting the creature with his bandaged right hand.
The Ink Demon didn't seem overly bothered by this, as its head jerked out of the way as its maw opened. As Henry's arm went by, the Ink Demon caught the offending limb in its mouth from Henry's wrist to his elbow.
Henry let out a strangled cry as the creature snapped its teeth down with a growl. Henry bit the inside of his cheek hard as the Ink Demon twisted its head to the side and let go to throw Henry against the nearest wall.
The letting go of the arm was the important part.
Henry sucked in a harsh, pained breath as he hit the wall. Henry struggled upright in the ink beneath him, before he sagged backward against the wall. Henry clutched his right arm tight to his chest, his left hand pressing against the worst of the new injury. Despite the Ink Demon's blunt teeth, there was torn skin all the way along his forearm. Thinking about the sharp teeth it could have been...
Stupid.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Why had Henry thought it had been a good idea to punch the Ink Demon again?
The Ink Demon stalked forward, teeth chattering together as it blocked Henry's way. Instead of attacking, however, it lowered itself into a crouch. The Ink Demon's head tilted to one side before it leaned forward, a tongue lolling out between flat teeth to lap up the blood from Henry's fresh wound. The clawed hand wrapped around Henry's fingers to hold the limb in place.
That was creepy as hell.
"Stop that." Henry scolded the Ink Demon, wincing as the tongue continued to aggravate his new injury. Henry risked his left hand by placing it on the Ink Demon's nearest horn. The fact that he could reach the top of the inky creature's head meant it was much too close. The horn was slick with ink, but Henry ignored this as he gave the horn a firm shove. "Back off. Hurts."
The Ink Demon let out a low snarl, though it sounded less angry than before.
Maybe...it could be distracted?
Henry dubiously let go of the horn before he gave it a cautious pat, relieved when that creepy tongue stopped licking his bleeding skin.
The Ink Demon seemed perplexed by the touch, and let go of Henry's arm.
With his now freed, if wounded, right arm, Henry pet the Ink Demon's other horn, both horns twitching. To Henry's surprise, the creature slowly sagged to the floor the rest of the way to sit on its bony rump in the ink. The Ink Demon leaned into Henry's touch with what was unmistakably a purr.
A grating, horror-fueled purr, but a purr all the same.
What in the world?
The Ink Demon was purring, its narrow chest practically vibrating with the effort of producing the sound.
This...was not at all what Henry expected to happen. But now he was stuck petting a creature that had torn him apart many times in past loops. It was odd to see it so...calm, as if the Ink Demon enjoyed its horns being pet. Henry started to move his hands away, only to freeze as the gloved hand seized both his wrists and directed them back to the demon's head.
There was a brief growl before the rumbling resumed as the Ink Demon let go of Henry's hands.
Well then...
Now what?
Henry tentatively pat the Ink Demon between its horns.
The thrumming increased.
This was so bizarre.
Henry wasn't sure when he would have the chance to get away, but luckily, someone intervened and saved him the trouble of figuring it out himself.
"How dare you so casually touch my lord like that?!"
Henry was never more grateful to hear Sammy's voice than he was in that moment. And as an added bonus, Alice's voice wasn't too far behind, full of dark menace.
"The Ink Demon!" An exasperated sigh, and then the sound of Alice walking away. "It seems we will have to delay our...date."
Henry was not going to go on a fetch-quest extravaganza if he could avoid it. But with how he'd introduced himself to Alice earlier, he doubted she'd be interested in toying with him this time around.
The Ink Demon didn't take too kindly to the interruption. It moved away from Henry's hands in a reluctant sort of way, before it turned its head and spat a furious shriek at both Sammy, who lingered, and at the retreating Alice.
Henry didn't waste time, nor did he wait to see what happened. Leaving the Ink Demon on the floor snarling away, Henry forced himself to his feet and ran. Henry got the rest of the way through the ink-flooded room unhindered. Damn, his arm stung and throbbed something terrible. Henry ran a distance short away, and reached out to shove a door open. He closed it by ramming backward into it. Henry let out a loud sigh, even as he grimaced after accidentally jostling his new injury.
Ow.
Why was he...so heavy-feeling all of a sudden?
Henry made it a few wobbling steps away from the door, before he collapsed to the ground, the pain getting to him as the adrenaline from before wore off.
Whoops.
That was...that sure was a lot of blood.
Henry heard footsteps and with a weary tilt of his head, looked up. He noted that he happened to have fallen down right in front of a worried Boris and a panicking Bendy.
"Did you know...that the Ink Demon can purr?" Henry asked his friends dazedly before passing out with a still-bleeding arm.
Falling unconscious so often couldn't be good for Henry's health, nor was being the chew toy for the Ink Demon, who still hadn't killed Henry yet.
The studio made no sense this loop.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
A/N: This chapter was easier to get written out and edited than the previous chapter (so that's why it is up so soon).
I have no reason for the purring thing other than I just wanted the inky skeletal murder machine to purr.
Btw, Sammy is jealous. Because how dare Henry so casually pet the Ink Demon, after everything Sammy did for it as prophet.