Chapter 1: Joey Drew Studios

Linda sat in the driver's seat of the car in silence as her grip on the steering wheel turned her knuckles white. She had been sitting out in in the drive way for about an hour or so, trying to figure out where her husband, Henry, had disappeared to. He had been gone for three days and the only clue she had was that he had gone to visit his old business partner and friend, Joey Drew. Linda was aware of their rocky relationship from the time Mr. Drew had pushed Henry into working himself to death over cartoon drawings, forcing Henry to come to the decision to quit.

It had been thirty years since the former business partners had seen let alone spoken to each other. That was until three days ago when Henry got a call from Joey, asking him to visit him at his apartment. At the time, Henry had assured Linda that Joey just wanted to talk, but ever since he didn't return home that night, she wasn't so sure. Linda was a nervous wreck; waiting anxiously for him to call or walk through the front door of their house.

But he never showed.

After a bit of driving, Linda breathed in and out slowly as she parked the car in the parking lot of an apartment complex before stepping out on to the pavement. She dug in her purse for a post-it note that was left by Henry, Joey Drew's apartment number was written on it along with his phone number. Linda could've just called him, but she felt it would be better to speak of the matter in person. As soon as she found the matching number above the door, Linda knocked on the door and waited for a response.

"Come in, the door is open." An older voice had called from inside, as if expecting her arrival.

Linda took another deep breath and opened the door to step inside the apartment.

Joey Drew, an older, retired man these days, was sitting at his desk with sketches scattered on its surface. He looked over his shoulder at Linda and smiled.

"Ah, Linda. Nice of you to drop by. How is Henry doing?"

Hearing Henry's name out loud caused her heart to break.

"I haven't seen Henry in days." She replied, managing to fight back tears.

"You mean he never came home?" Joey asked as was now facing her in his chair.

Linda shook her head.

"No. I was hoping you would have an idea where he went?"

The older gentleman looked to be in thought as he stared at her. Linda tried to keep herself from squirming under his gaze; it wasn't like she was shy or anything, quite the opposite really. It was just she found Joey's gaze to be a bit unnerving, like he was hiding something and was debating on whether to let her in on a secret he had been keeping.

"Last I saw Henry, I had him visit the studio." Joey finally answered. "You may find something there to help you with your search."

After receiving directions from Joey, Linda had arrived at the old abandoned animation studio.

Joey Drew Studio.

When Henry had been working at the studio, Linda was never allowed to visit him. "Too much of a distraction" she was told, but of course she never blamed Henry for that. He never minded her looking over his shoulder when he drew at home, and would even allow her to get a better look at his drawing and ask for her opinion on it.

She missed that.

She missed his smile.

His warm embrace.

His tender kisses.

Linda missed all of it, and she was determined to bring him back home. She wasn't going to sit around and feel helpless.

As Linda entered the studio, she found it to be eerily quiet, except the sound of buzzing lights and the flow of ink through the pipes that were attached to the walls and the ceiling. She only knew it was ink because the pipes were leaking with it. A rather odd sight for someone who wasn't apart of the studio when they were installed. However, Linda did not question the lights being on.

Perhaps Henry turned them on when he came to visit.

Linda walked over to the art department, finding Henry's old desk along with old sketches of a little devil named studio was responsible for making cartoons of the silly rascal. A smile crept on Linda's face as she looked over the sketches; she knew her husband's work anywhere. She found the way he sketched Bendy rather endearing and showed how much he cared for the cartoon demon.

She remembered how hurt Henry was when he had to leave Bendy at the mercy of Joey Drew when he quit the studio as he did not own the rights to make Bendy cartoons anymore. However, quitting was for his own good. Otherwise he would've dropped dead in the studio.

Linda wiped her eyes as tears threatened to fall, and made her way into a room that looked as though a wall had to be knocked down to make it. There were several desks with images of Bendy on them in various poses.

This must've been where they drew and inked the cells for the animation.

There was a desk in a corner of the room that caught her eye.

She thought she saw movement.

Linda approached the desk, seeing yet another drawing of Bendy. However, there was something different about this one than the others.

It almost seemed like it was alive.

"The more I see you, the cuter you get." She said as she chuckled.

Bendy's cheeks darkened a bit.

Did he just blush?!

Linda was speechless as she stared at the paper. She had never seen a non-animated drawing react that way before, or at all for that matter. She must've been seeing things.

An idea formed in her head.

A crazy one.

"Where is Henry?"

The toon devil's eyes shifted to look at her, causing Linda's eyes to widen.

She was going crazy.

"Do you know where Henry Stein is?" She asked, raising her voice a bit in desperation.

Turned out raising your voice at Bendy was a bad idea as he started to become very nervous, shaking violently. Noticing that she was probably scaring the toon, Linda backed off.

She remembered Henry explaining to her that Bendy, despite being a mischievous, trouble-making demon, was rather sensitive.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

I'm talking to a cartoon.

Bendy's shaking stopped as he stared out at her.

"Please, I need to know where Henry is." Linda pleaded, her voice more gentle this time. "He's my husband."

She felt stupid as she began to cry after holding it back for so long.

How could she expect a drawing to know where he was? It wasn't like Bendy could come off the page and show her to him.

Linda caught a glimpse of Bendy waving his hands and shaking his head as if he was telling her not to cry. She then watched as he began to write with his pointer on the space above him. She spelled out the word before it vanished before her eyes.

Trapped.

A/N: I decided to add a bit of the 2D!Bendy au into the story, but decided not to have him talk as Bendy, for the most part, is a silent character in the cartoons. However, I advise not to get too attached to him now as I do not plan on keeping him throughout the story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.