Inked in Mystery
Hi, guys! Before starting the chapter, I want to tell you that Foxiso didn't help me with the translation because of too much work she had to do. So I translated alone and I don't have an English level as good as her.
If there are huge mistakes, don't hesitate to report them to me and I will correct them! In the future, I think of translate alone unless I can find another translator. so... now here is the chapter!
Chapter 3: A chick's curiosity
The next day, after a restless night's end that woke Heckle and Jeckle several times, the two magpies and the children had gone to the studio. The parents had the episode ''Wild Life'' to finish and Gandy could keep an eye on the little ones (SourPuss being more useful than him for the shooting of the day). The magpie ''mum'' had warned the goose that Keffan had nightmares last night, but the kitten didn't want to explain. The cause was a mystery to Dad. Both children were calm enough today and played quietly. Gandy had no trouble watching the little ones.
In the wheelhouse of Gandy, after playing many board games all morning, Aiden and Keffan are quietly drawing, lying on the ground by waiting for the lunch break. While the kitten colors happily, the chick seems pensive and draws softly on his notebook, the black pencil firmly held in his little hand. The half-Toon is also intrigued by the calm of his friend. Taking advantage that his Daddy went out to find Daddy Cat, he almost pulled the notebook out of his bird friend's hands.
« Hey ! » The chick gets annoyed.
Keffan is horrified to see a picture of the person responsible for his nightmares: Bendy the Devil!
« Can I know why you draw this monster? » he asks, refrains from planting the sketch on his friend's head. « Are you completely sick in the head or what? »
« Oh calm down, Keffy! » Aiden grumbles as he retrieves the sketch. « He's not going to show up at once! He's in his studio! »
« Maybe, but we promised that the parents wouldn't know but if you draw without stopping this demon, they will ask questions and we will be busted! » the kitten annoys.
« Yeah, but ... I can't get him out of my head. »
« That, I think it's called post-traumatic stress syndrome. »
« No, Kef, it has nothing to do with it... but I feel like he's not like that normally. »
« No, at first he was a Toon, now he's crazy! »
« I'm not sure ... »
« Hum, let me think ... » Keffan mumbles as he recounts. « This guy is still alive when he has been forgotten for a long time, he has ink to no longer know what to do ... oh yes! AND HE TRY TO EAT ME ALIVE! » the kitten shouted.
Aiden is left with ruffled feathers but he quickly recreates them and sighs.
« Keffan, I know he's behaved badly but there's a mystery that's not clear here ... and I want to know what! I'm going back tonight! »
« WHAT? » the half-Toon is horrified. « But you're completely siphoned off, Aidy! And you think ... »
« Kef, you're my friend! My best friend, so you have to promise to tell the parents anything! »
« But you're mad! »
« Keffan, I beg you! Please, please, please, please, please! »
The kitten glares at his friend ... then sighs.
« Aiden, you'll give me that one back! »
« Before, officially promise! Hand on heart and one holding my chin! »
Keffan sighs ... but knowing that his friend wasn't going to let go, he puts his hand on his heart and takes the chin of the little magpie who does the same with him, looking him straight in the eyes.
« Brush, paint, eraser and pencil! If I denounce, dissolve my chin! » declares the chick, waiting for him to repeat and therefore promise.
Sighing, the kitten mutters:
« Brush, paint, eraser and pencil If I denounce, dissolve my chin. »
Overjoyed, Aiden jumped on his neck tweeting ''Thank you thank you thank you!''. The half-Toon squeezes his friend, who isn't reassured... when the bells ring. Gandy comes in at that moment.
« Are you coming, children? We'll meet the others at the cafeteria. »
Tonight, when the bell announcing the end of the day sounds, Heckle and Jeckle come to pick up their son. The chick looks tired and falls asleep in his mother's arms.
« What stupidity did he do to be tired like that? » Heckle jokes, stroking the feathers of his boy.
« No, he was a real little angel today. » Gandy answers, smiling at his friends. « Keffan says he's recovering last night's sleep. He's had so many nightmares like that? » the goose worries.
« Not in the early night. » Jeckle reassures, rocking his baby. « It was around 1:00 am that he woke up because of a nightmare and had a hard time going back to sleep. »
« Let's hope tonight, at home and with us, he will be able to sleep. » the Toon smiled, caressing the small head of the chick. « A good night's sleep and they will be fine tomorrow. »
« It's sure, at this age they don't need much. » Heckle smiled. « See you tomorrow, Gandy! »
« See you tomorrow, boys! »
The two magpies return home and lie Aiden down in bed, preferring to let him rest. Jeckle still leaves him a sandwich on the bedside table in case he wakes up because of hunger in the night. The parents went to bed without knowing that their chick was about to leave tonight to investigate the demon that frightened them all.
As the day before, at 11:00 pm, Aiden's alarm clock ring, extirpating the little magpie from his sleep by making him turn off his alarm clock. Taking a deep breath, he grasps his courage with both hands and goes out the window as he did the day before (taking the sandwich to eat it on the way). ToonTown's crossing seems longer and more stressful but he isn't ready to give up! He is decided to go back to this dark studio and find out who really was Bendy and what had happened to him.
Arrived in front of the abandoned tunnel, Aiden flies to pass between the planks and crosses it in one go. Once in the world of humans, he observes the studio that still seems so abandoned. The little magpie sighs, he was almost afraid that the place was destroyed in the day by the fury of the little Devil. Determined, he goes there running and enters. Closing the door quietly, he walks silently into the studio. He wanted to understand what happened but if he could avoid Bendy, that would make it better. Moving past the Bendy plush, he hesitates to take it... but he decides to touch anything. He trembles while passing by ''Dreams come true'' and continues. But this time, instead of going to the ink machine, he turns. There, the corridor divides into two. He hesitates a moment... then decides to try the corridor on the left.
He arrives in another hallway with a slight recess, a chair and a tape recorder on a shelf. Intrigued, he grabs the chair, pulls it under the shelf and perches on the back to reach the device. But he is too small to reach it, and flying to it is impossible. The day before, he had damaged his wing by bumping against the walls. It was a simple, harmless scratch for a Toon but enough to keep him from flying. It wasn't an injury strictly speaking (since the Toons don't hurt themselves physically) but an embarrassment.
Aiden is still trying to catch the audio log when...
« Hey, what are you doing here? » a voice that seems to be echoed smiled.
Thinking it's Bendy, the little magpie jumps and lose his balance... to be caught by two large transparent and bluish hands. Looking up, Aiden is surprised to see another Toon in front of him. Well... it's more like a Toon ghost! A wolf surely black and white but now slightly bluish wearing a overalls.
« Sorry, little guy! » he apologizes in a soft, calm voice that sounds resonant. « I didn't think you would be so scared. It's true that I've lost a bit of a habit of seeing people. » he explains when he poses the chick. « It's been 30 years we're locked up there with Bendy... Oh, what an idiot! You're way too young, you can't know him. »
Aiden stares at the wolf ghost, flabbergasted. There were other Toons in this studio with Bendy?
« Uh ... who are you? » he stammers as he observes the wolf, his head leaning slightly to the side.
« Oh, where do I have my head, I'm not used to it anymore. Hello, little guy! My name is Boris, Boris the Wolf! »
« Nice to meet you, Boris! My name is Aiden. » the chick grinned, shaking the gloved hand that Boris is giving him.
« By the way, what are you still doing up and here right now? A child of your age is already sleeping normally. »
Aiden bites his lip before whistling quietly. Boris allows himself a little amused smile as if it reminded him of good memories.
« Well… now that you're here, I can give you a tour! Come in! I'll put you in Henry's desk, so you'll be able to look at the sketches, and explain to me more clearly what you're doing there. »
The wolf directs the chick towards the reception area and goes to the recess of the room. The little magpie observes the room, intrigued, wondering how a Human could have agreed to draw in this dark corner without any other light than that of the desk lamps.
« Here we are. » Boris smiled as he grabbed Aiden to sit on the chair. « Well, it's not the biggest nor the best location, but I can guarantee you that the one who worked there was an angel in person. »
Aiden smiles as he looks at the many sketches on the desk. Mainly sketches of Bendy but also Boris and some other characters.
« Oh, wait for me here! » the wolf suddenly exclaims as he leaves, crossing the walls to go faster.
Aiden laughs and starts to look at the sketches. All show a Bendy happy, player and joker, kind and charming, dancer and even singer. Nothing to do with the demon he has become!
« How did you get there, Bendy? ... » he mumbles, sorry and disturbed.
Bendy seemed to have a life similar to the one of any Toon... and he would suddenly ''fart the lead'' to the point of attacking his Animators? All that seems unlikely... Aiden had already seen Toons get tired but never anger like that.
He is so immersed in his thoughts that he doesn't hear someone coming behind him.
« WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, YOU!? » Bendy's voice rage.
Aiden jumps and turns to see the little devil who glares at him. He seems really angry. Clenching his fists and glares, he walks towards the chick until he standed in front of him.
« I thought I was clear last night! I let you go with your Tunman friend but you never had to come back so ... WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? »
Aiden trembles and gets ready to answer when ...
« Bendy, why are you screaming? »
The two Toons turn to see Boris coming back, a reel in his hand. The devil calm down when he sees the wolf, to Aiden's astonishment.
« It's nothing, Boris. Just one of last night's intruders. »
« Oh, he's the one who came yesterday? » the wolf-ghost smiled as he walked toward the little magpie. « That's why you're here. You heard about Bendy from your parents and you're curious? »
Aiden nods, not daring to say anything for fear of annoying Bendy. Boris turns to his former episode companion and smiles, amused.
« And that's why you get angry? » he chuckles. « Come on, Bendy! You too, you've been 'newborn' and curious, and I'm sure you still are. You play the big guys, but you're still the little smiling devil I know. » he smiles as he approaches the little devil until their foreheads touch each other.
Bendy blushed like crazy (which astonished Aiden) before moving away by crossing his arms and lifting his nose, sulking. Boris laughs and then kneels in front of the little one.
« Tell me, Aiden. I found this old reel of the episode ''The Sheep Song.'' Do you want to looking at it? »
« There are still records? » the chick marvels, taking the reel under Bendy's bored look of and Boris's smile.
« They are rare but they exist. We must have them all here and this one is the first one I show with Bendy! We weren't that bad at the time, even though our devil has always been good. »
Bendy blushed at the Wolf's words and, embarrassed, he moved away grumbling.
Boris chucks and leans over to Aiden.
« He isn't that mean! It's just that after what happened, he became a little wild and you have to tame him to find the real Bendy. »
« What happened to make him wild? » the chick asks.
The Toon sighs, losing his cheerful air as if it reminded him of terrible memories. Then, looking up at his little guest, he forces a smile.
« You're a little young to hear that, boy, but know you're welcome here. As long as you respect us, Bendy and I, there's no problem. »
Aiden is intrigued by all these mysteries... but he smiles and catches the chin of the Wolf (which seems a little surprised).
« Brush, paint, eraser and pencil! If I denounce, dissolve my chin! » the little Toon promise.
Boris laughs and ruffles Aiden's hair-feathers before picking up the reel to take the child to the projector to watch the movie. Bendy (hidden in the corner of the hallway) observes and listens attentively. Seeing his unhappy companion laugh and have fun with Aiden make him feels his heart squeeze. He looks away, feeling the tears invade his eyes before flowing on his cheeks and his hand will land on his stomach. Trembling and furious, he clenches his teeth and goes away grumbling:
« All liars! ... The Creators lied to us! Liars! Liars! »
Later, after the episode ended on a smiling Bendy on Boris' shoulders, Aiden applauded happily, amusing the wolf.
« It's awesome! I'm sure many people would like to see these cartoons again! » he smiles, turning to his host.
« Bendy was very famous before all that. People loved him and as soon as we started our duet, the studio exploded and Joey thought that in a short time we could have become like Disney or Universal. Or TerryToons Studios where Henry left before all that happened. »
« But ''all that'' what? » the chick asks.
« It's not for your age. » Boris sighs before looking at the old clock. « But now you should go home to sleep. »
Aiden freezes and look at the clock to see the time: 1:20 am!
« Damn! Tomorrow I'm going to be a booby bird! I have to go! »
Without any explanation, the chick flies off and rushes toward the door, missing a knock on Bendy who is folding a sheet of paper. Seeing the little magpie run to the exit, he chuckles.
« Already annoyed? That's the curiosity of children, even the Toons one. »
Boris, who followed Aiden, sighs as he looks at Bendy, almost saying: ''You're exaggerating''. But Heckle and Jeckle's son turns to them with a big smile.
« I'll be back tomorrow night, I promise! » he shouts as he opens the door.
Bendy is so shocked that he tilts from his chair and stands up just in time to see the Toon child close the door. Turning to his companion, he points to the entrance and is indignant:
« No, but I'm dreaming! I gave him the scare of his life last night, I don't welcome him here at all, no Toon has been here for years and he comes like a flower and wants to come back every night ? »
« What do you want? The curiosity of the children is much bigger than you think. » the wolf smiled, recovering the folding of Bendy to finish it.
Once this is done, he make the paper airplane fly with a smile. Bendy (although he loves it normally) pays no attention to it and stares at the door. Was the arrival of Aiden a mere coincidence? Or was it still a trick of this monster who had taken everything from him?
That's chapter 3 :D
Aiden has just discovered a new character: Boris the Wolf ^^ Yes yes, he appears in this fiction ^ ^ but he isn't a "walking dead", no no no! Let's say for the moment that he's a ghost. The term isn't very appropriate but you will understand why later. The Toons don't use this term ghosts for Toons like Boris ^^
Would Aiden be bringing Bendy back to normal? What do you think?
Ah! before someone says something wrong, the pictures don't belong to me ... except for those that Foxiso is kind enough to draw for me! : D Thank you again to her!
Please leave a comment :) And see you next time :D