Bendy was scared.
One moment he was hiding with Boris from those creepy Butcher Gang clones, and the next, he was suddenly torn away from Boris.
There was a rush of ink all around him, frightening Bendy with whispers, before he was back in a quiet area.
Bendy felt someone let go of him, and he landed on the creaky floor beneath him.
Where was he?
Where were Boris and Henry?
And more importantly, who was he with now?
"We should be far enough away from them now, my lord."
Oh no.
That voice.
Sammy was the one who had picked him up?
But...but he was crazy!
Bendy skittered far away from the voice, and hid beneath a nearby desk, pressed to the wall. The little devil trembled, hugging his arms around the hoodie he wore as footsteps approached.
"Why do you hide?" Sammy's voice was oddly calm, if a little confused by the toon's behavior. "There is nothing to be afraid of."
Bendy peeked up to see Sammy crouched down, the broken Bendy mask staring at the toon steadily.
Nothing to be afraid of?
Bendy turned his head to stare obviously at an Alice Angel cut out before pulling the hood over his head.
"...I suppose she is something to be afraid of in this place, but even she would not dare be in the Ink Demon's presence." Sammy said with an irritable bite to his tone. "But she will not come this far down in the studio. It is safe."
Bendy gave the inky being a disbelieving look before hiding his face again.
"Relatively safe." Sammy amended, before slowly, carefully holding out a hand. "If you would come out from under that desk, my lord, I can take you to the safest place I know of."
Bendy found Sammy's behavior odd. He didn't seem to be as crazy as before. Sammy was almost...calm, and being rather patient, compared to when he picked Bendy up without so much as a warning. As if Sammy had wanted to get the toon as far away from Henry as he possibly could.
Was it Henry that Sammy didn't like?
That couldn't be right.
Henry was a nice person.
Why would someone dislike him?
Bendy lifted his head, pie-cut eyes shadowed by the hood as he stared at the hand Sammy held out. The other hadn't said anything, seemingly content to wait for the little devil to decide to come out. Even if that meant Sammy remained crouched for an untold amount of time.
Sammy was weird.
Bendy didn't get why he was so nice to him and not anyone else. And when Bendy looked closer, he could almost sense the hope, despite the other's face being hidden behind the mask. While Bendy still in low spirits after being separated from his friends, the toon knew better by now to go wandering off on his own.
Just because Sammy said that terrifying Alice wouldn't be around didn't mean she might not change her mind and show up anyway. Plus, the scary version of himself had shown that it could show up wherever it wanted to.
Bendy really didn't like the mask of his own face. The toon frowned in thought, before brightening. He pointed at the mask over Sammy's face and then mimed pulling the mask up.
"I...you want me to take the mask off?" Sammy's outstretched hand twitched. "But I am not worthy to be-" Sammy let out a strangled noise as Bendy had snuck forward and flipped the mask up.
Maybe the toon shouldn't have.
Seeing what looked like a face but inky and featureless was almost as unnerving as the mask itself.
And even Sammy appeared to be uncomfortable now, but he remained crouched with his hand out. His other hand twitched up toward his face, indicating the obvious desire to flip the mask back down.
Bendy felt a little bad, but felt a little better at not having to look at a cracked version of his own face. And since Bendy didn't want to stay wherever they were, the toon reached out and grasped Sammy's hand.
The other froze up, as if he couldn't believe that Bendy had actually took his offered hand.
Bendy puffed out his cheeks a little.
Sammy really was weird.
Was he crying?
So odd.
Bendy was just Bendy.
The toon didn't understand why Sammy had been going on with 'my lord' and 'savior` and then cried over holding the Bendy`s hand.
Sammy seemed to need some time to compose himself before he stood up. As he began to walk, Sammy kept a little bent over to lead Bendy along, without scooping the toon up into his arms again.
Bendy was relieved about this. It had been disorienting to be carried and brought through the ink. The toon hadn't liked the sensation at all, and would be quite happy to never experience it again.
The two of them walked for some time, and luckily, the places they went through were silent and held no scares.
No Ink Demon.
No twisted-looking Alice Angel.
"In here." Sammy murmured, his free hand twitching again as though longing to replace his mask. But he left it where it was and reached out to open up a door. Sammy led Bendy into the room, letting go of his hand as he turned to shut the door. "It is safe here, my lord."
Bendy wasn't too sure about that, frozen in place as he took in so many other inky beings in the room with him. All of whom stopped what they were doing to see who had entered.
"The lost ones." Sammy provided when he saw the toon look up at him. "Those who have lost hope in this studio, many who have forgotten who they used to be. We all are waiting to be set free from this place."
Bendy held stock-still as a few of the lost ones came over to him, hands reaching out hesitantly to prod at his hoodie. As soon as Bendy realized they were merely curious, the toon reached up and tugged back the hood.
The lost ones all had different reactions to the reveal.
A few backed up quickly and cowered, some redoubled their efforts to inspect the toon, while others let out murmurs of happiness over the sight of the little devil.
Bendy felt bad for some of the more frightened ones, especially one that the toon found in a corner of the room who sobbed their misery aloud to the world. Bendy tilted his head to the side, thinking. He didn't like crying, because it made him feel sad too.
Maybe the toon could cheer this lost one up?
Bendy carefully reached out to tap the inky being on the shoulder. When the lost one peeked up with softly glowing eyes reflecting confusion, the toon offered as big a toothy grin as he could, before he started to do a quick little dance on the spot.
The lost one straightened up a little bit, and despite the mostly featureless face, they seemed to be smiling a tad bit.
Bendy puffed up, pleased that he could cheer them up.
Maybe the other lost ones in the room would cheer up if he danced for them too?
Bendy did love to perform for an audience.
It was fun!
The toon looked around for a moment before skipping over to Sammy, and pretended to play an instrument.
Sammy's normally expressionless face shifted the faintest amount to show off a rather genuine-looking smile. Sammy walked over to the left before he stepped back and produced a banjo.
Bendy felt a thrill over familiar sounding music and excitedly bounced around the room with the music.
After all the scares this place had given him, the toon loved that he could dance without worrying about something popping up to chase him.
The lost ones in the room huddled together in a half-circle, seemingly entranced by the toon dancing to the music Sammy was providing. A few had even started to cry again, as if realizing that Bendy, a toon Bendy, that they had only ever seen in screen, was actually right there in front of them.
Everything seemed right in the world for a time, until reality came calling.
Bendy slowed his dance as Sammy ended another song. The toon suddenly said down and curled up, sensing the presence of the Ink Demon outside of the room, or in a close enough area to sense it. Along with another, unnerving sensation Bendy had come to dislike experiencing. The reality of the situation sunk in, and Bendy gripped the hoodie in his gloved hands.
Were his friends going to be safe?
What had happened to Henry and Boris after Sammy had taken Bendy away from them?
The sensation...
The brief pain...
Bendy hoped Henry would be all right.
The lost ones shuffled closer, a couple of them sitting down next to Bendy as they attempted to comfort him.
Sammy had set aside the banjo, hand reaching up to replace the Bendy mask over his face as he stomped over to the door. He waved a few of the lost ones off, pointing back at Bendy before he wrenched open the door and exited, the door slamming shut behind him.
Bendy curled up against one of the lost ones as they pat him gently between the horns. Bendy snuggled into his hoodie as he relaxed against the lost one attempting to soothe him, as though sensing his sadness. Bendy settles down further after another lost one draped a tattered blanket over him.
Bendy felt that everything would be all right.
Henry and Boris were fine.
The Projectionist had been helping to fight against those corrupted Butcher Gang clones.
Henry knew this place well. He knew how to find Bendy again.
The toon just had to believe in his friends, and they would come find him.
Bendy hoped that Henry hadn't gotten hurt again, even though with a pang, the toon knew this wasn't the case.
Suddenly losing interest in dancing earlier hadn't been from exhaustion.
It had been that same sensation that had let Bendy know that something had happened to Henry.
Again.
Bendy couldn't believe how many in this place seemed to dislike Henry enough to cause him harm.
The little devil curled up into a ball beneath the tattered blanket and dozed off into a fitful sleep. Bendy's dreams were filled with shadowy monsters and Henry, who kept being hurt by those shadows.
Being helpless and unable to prevent your friend from being hurt was scarier to Bendy than the studio itself.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
A/N: As an FYI, I have no plans to stop working on this fic. I might just end up with more time between updates when need be (and when I need to write out more outline to work with) Aka I have an ending and it will take time to get to that. I may even be open to suggestions to work into future chapters.
I do hope to get another chapter up this weekend (it will be back to Henry's pov) as it was originally supposed to be ch 30, before the Butcher Gang and Bendy decided they wanted their own chapters first. I did take a bit of a break from writing this past week. Sometimes, working up motivation to write is hard, even if I am having fun with what I'm writing.