The wait for something to happen was the worst.
The false sense of calm was unnerving.
Henry attempted to ignore his own discomfort by checking up on Boris over the next few hours. At first glance, the toon wolf seemed upbeat, if a little uncomfortable over the state of his ankle. Henry felt guilty for not being there sooner for Boris and Bendy. To distract the Ink Demon, and give them time to get to safety.
Boris eventually noticed Henry's mood. The toon wolf gave a shake of his head and waved a hand idly, as if to say he was fine. That Henry didn't have to constantly check on his ankle, as if Henry had been the one to cause the injury.
Henry backed off on the checking, but that only gave him extra time to stew in negative thoughts and what-if`s.
The quiet soon became too quiet.
The lack of inky enemies spawning to attack was odd.
It caused Henry to be on edge. He cast a glance Boris' way.
The toon wolf winced, having accidentally moved his foot-paw wrong.
Bad ideas for a good cause formed, and were soon ready to be acted upon.
Henry needed to do something.
Retreiving medical supplies seemed like a good way to spend time doing something useful.
Henry was familiar enough with the studio at this point that he wouldn't get lost. Henry could do some good by helping speed up Boris' recovery.
What could possibly go wrong?
"Hey, you two." Henry stood up , stretching as he cast a gance toward the long window pane. "I'm gonna go get a first aid kit. I'm pretty sure I know where one is."
Bendy and Boris glanced at one another, before both toons made gestures and displeased noises over the very idea.
"I won't be gone long." Henry`s attempt at reassurance was met with skeptical looks. Henry couldn't help but smile. "Really, I'll be fine. I have a Gent pipe, and I don't have to go very far down the stairwell to get to where I'm thinking the kit is."
Both toons remained unconvinced.
"I`ve gone though this all before, you know. I know my way around this studio well." Henry smiled at the affronted look on Boris' muzzle. "Yeah, I know you know this place too, buddy, but you're not going anywhere on that foot right now."
Boris let out a huff, but acknowledged the words with a half-shrug as the toon wolf settled on the chair comfortably.
"Bendy, can you stay here with Boris?" At the unhappy pout, Henry added. "He needs someone to be around in case he has to get into the little miracle station." The pour deepened, and Henry sighed. "You wouldn't know where to find the med kit, and based off the earlier face-off with the Ink Demon, you might end up having to run from anyone that might try to attack you."
Bendy didn't seem to be too happy but did seem to agree with Henry's assessment. The little devil didn't want to fight if he could make friends instead, and that was dangerous in a place like this.
With a sad downturn of a toothy grin, Bendy hopped up to sit on the table, as if to say he would stay with Boris.
Henry felt bad about leaving the toons behind as he headed out, but he didn't want to put either of them in unnecessary danger. Henry berated himself for his quick exit, but he hadn't wanted to give the little devil time to change his mind and run after Henry to tag along.
He wouldn't be gone long, anyway.
Henry hoped.
The studio could be an unforgiving place.
With a deep breath, Henry squared his shoulders and headed for the stairs.
Focus, Henry, focus.
Medical supplies.
Beat the shit out of anyone who tries to stop him.
Easier said than done.
Henry exhaled harshly as his feet hit the steps one by one.
He wanted a damn axe again.
Oh.
Duh.
There was an axe behind that boarded room on level 9.
Henry grimaced.
He'd take care of Boris first, before thinking about stepping foot on Alice's home level.
Level K was Henry's first stop, once he'd checked the stairwell landing. With nothing of note, Henry carefully ventured out to explore the rest of the floor.
Out of spite, Henry hid all of the Bendy cut-outs that he came across. The ones that Alice normally tasked him with destroying. Henry didn't want to accidently draw the Ink Demon to him, or upset Bendy by breaking cut-outs of his image. Henry decided to also hide the three gears he usually retrieved. Henry broke nto the panels with a screwdriver he had found. Henry didn't care if hiding the items meant possibly drawing Alice's wrath.
She wouldn't have her 'errand boy' this time.
Henry refused to do the angel's bidding.
Once the last cut out was hidden well enough, and the final gear secured and hidden, Henry finally came across a small amount of medical supplies. They had been tucked away on a shelf amongst all of the plushies.
Not much to the med kit, but it would have to do.
Supplies secured, Henry went back to the stairwell, prepared to go rejoin his friends. Instead, Henry rounded a corner and almost ran straight into Sammy Lawrence from behind.
Where the hell had he come from?
Henry took a cautious step back. Maybe Sammy hadn't noticed him? Henry could have sworn that there had been no one in the stairwell earlier.
Not that Sammy couldn't just seemingly appear from out of nowhere.
The music director was humming softly as he plucked the strings of some instruments in the corner.
The area where Henry sometimes heard Sammy's disembodied voice.
Right now, a voice would have been better than the real deal.
The music director's humming drifted off as he finally noticed that he had company. Even with the broken and put back together mask, it was clear that Sammy was displeased to see Henry there.
"You!" Sammy spat, wasting no time to lunge at Henry. "Where is my lord?! Where is He? What have you done with our savior's toon form?!"
Henry ducked back out of range of those inky hands, dumped the medical supplies on the desk, and then ran for the nearest stairs.
He went the wrong direction.
Being chased by a madman did that to your sense of direction, making you choose the closest route of escape.
This was not part of the plan.
Henry went out on the nearest floor, not wanting to be cornered in the stairwell by a furious Sammy. Henry had a Gent pipe, yes, but he wanted some room to be able to swing it about.
Level P.
Henry located an area down a hall, where there was a room with enough space that he could watch his back. Henry took the Gent pipe in hand, before he took in a breath and let it out.
"Bring it on, you singing psycho." Henry muttered irritably. "Let`s get this-"
Sammy stalked into the room moments later, hefting an axe menacingly.
Henry ground his teeth in frustration.
Of course.
Of course Sammy was holding an axe.
Henry wasn't too confident that the Gent pipe could block the swing of an axe for very long before breaking.
Searchers spawned and attacked Henry, giving him no time to dwell on the sturdiness of his current weapon. Henry swing the pipe and struck the Searchers, trying to keep them at bay.
It was not going well.
Sammy was urging the other inky beings to attack Henry, even though the music director wasn't actually saying anything aloud. Sammy was also getting too close to Henry's current position, as though Sammy were eager to swing his axe at him.
That would be...messy right now.
Henry was still human, so he wasn't going to bleed ink.
Not that Sammy knew that.
Henry did his best to keep up with the swarm of Searchers, but between the never ending attacks and Sammy clipping though his clothes and nicking skin, it wasn't enough.
He was cornered.
Wounded with every hit he couldn't deflect.
Soon, Henry was unable to continue on, ending up on the floor. It was always humiliating to be swatted and beaten up by Searcher fists or open palms.
Henry had fucked up.
Badly.
This wasn't how things were supposed to be.
Henry shouldn`t have let this happen again.
Not this loop.
It was getting harder...to see through all the ink.
Before Henry's vision was blocked completely by Searchers, he saw that Sammy had pulled up his mask.
There was an expression of vindication on his blank face, which showed that Sammy felt that a wrong had been corrected.
"You will not prevent our lord and savior from reaching all in this desolate place. He will set us free. None of us trapped in this place will remain behind."
Funny, how Sammy either sounded lucid or completely insane.
Darkness came, surrounding Henry completely.
Silence soon became deafening noise as the swirling darkness and light gave way to the well of voices.
Henry let out a weary disembodied sigh.
Great.
He really hoped this wasn't going to be one of those loops, or Henry was going to have some explaining to do to Bendy.
The whispers and the screams were louder this time, and it took a bit more effort on Henry's part to get through to the end of the well, his thoughts troubled.
But to be fair, Henry was distracted.
How did one explain to a toon that you were turning into a toon each time you were beaten? Each time you visited this place? That Henry would end up becoming a toon Bendy,.
Sort of.
Because of previous loops, Henry knew that he would become a Bendy who was much taller than the original.
A mix of both toon Bendy and the Ink Demon, in fact.
Henry never could figure out why. But every time, without fail, Henry would end up towering over Boris by about a foot and a half, Henry's clothes draping on the taller, yet thinner, frame.
That would be...an awkward one-sided conversation to have.
For Henry, at least.
No.
He didn't want to think about it.
Not right now, with all the screaming, crying and whispering of the well filling his sense of sound.
Henry wouldn't think about becoming a toon unless he absolutely had to. Henry could very well be able to prevent that from happening but with how his 'careful' was turning out to be anything but careful...
Focus.
Henry needed to focus.
He was nearly there...and then-
Henry came to at the base of one of the Bendy statues. Henry let out a groan before he briefly looked himself over. Already, he could feel that there was a change, but couldn't put his finger on what just yet. Henry figured he should get going. He didn't want to get cornered again.
Level P.
He better get going before Sammy came across him again. Henry reached for the Gent pipe, only to find it gone.
Lovely.
Unarmed again.
Henry kept an eye out for trouble as he went into the staircase and went to go retrieve the medical supplies. Henry found the med kit right where he'd left it. Henry hesitated before reaching out to flip over a shard of glass. Henry stared at himself in the reflection, turning the glass here and there to get an overall idea of his state of being.
More ink stains...check.
Still exhausted and done with the bullshit...double check.
Henry opened his mouth experimentally before shutting it with a grimace.
Oh boy, there it was.
Henry tentatively parted his teeth before he snapped them together to wryly grin at his reflection.
Yup.
There was the change.
Henry's teeth had shifted to being slightly flatter, as well as blockier, kind of like the Ink Demon. It felt weird as hell to eat, drink or talk with these particular chompers, as they barely fit in Henry's still human mouth.
Joy.
What next?
A tail?
Henry didn't think so, but shifted on his feet to reassure himself that he didn't have to worry about-
No.
No way.
"I was just joking," Henry protested uselessly to thin air.
What was up with this loop?
With mounting dread, Henry reached backward to pull out a long, thin black tail from where it had been trapped down a pant's leg. Henry gave it an experimental tug.
It was attached.
To him.
Why the hell did he have a tail?
Becoming a toon before had never involved a tail.
Henry groaned over the irony of the tip of the black tail being what he`d imagine a devil`s tail to be in a drawing. Henry let go of the tail, aware of it idly flicking back and forth behind him, as if reflecting his mood. Henry held the med kit tight as he hurried back to level 11, distracted by his...his tail, as it swayed back and forth with an occasional nervous flick.
This was...going to take time to get used to.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
A/N: Henry 'I'll be careful' Stein, everyone.
Also, I feel like Sammy is turning into that 'I won't hesitate, bitch' vine when it comes to finding Henry in the studio now and/or finding Henry with toon Bendy or the Ink Demon. Especially when the Tommy gun makes an appearance.
(Someone was getting a tail in this fic, and that someone was Henry).
I finally took a look at the hit count of this fic, and wasn't expecting it to be almost at 7,000 in such a short time. So, I`m glad that people are enjoying this.