Inked in Mystery
Chapter 5: Macabre Discovery and First Answers
The following weeks were pretty similar. During the day, Aiden was playing with his friends as if nothing had happened (even if Keffan knew his secret) and at night, he went to meet Bendy and Boris. Every night, they watched episodes of Bendy and the devil learned to dance to the little magpie. Of course, it was painstaking... but the evenings with the happy chick were gradually giving back to Bendy his old personality. Several times, Boris and Aiden had been surprised to hear the Toon laugh with pure joy and no sadistic joy as the first time the little magpie met his new friend. Bendy seemed to find what he had lost ... but everything changed one night.
Aiden smiles as he watches 'The Dancing Devil' lying on his stomach, his head supported by his hands. Bendy and Boris are behind him and watch the episode nostalgically... when the Bendy of the episode appears with a pink tutu (or Aiden assumes it was pink). The little magpie waits, intrigued, but the little devil starts to dance with the tutu. Despite all these efforts, the chick can't help but burst out laughing.
« Pfff HA ha ha! No, but what's this costume? » he laughs, turning to the two adults.
« Well, it's a costume for dancing ballet. » the devil replies, shrugging his shoulders.
« Seriously! » the chick grinned, turning to them, sitting as he should. « You were wrong in the costume but since it was funny, they left the scene! That's it? »
Bendy suddenly turns black, as if he's hurt, and drops of ink drip from his forehead. Boris bites his lip and gets up to kneel in front of Aiden.
« Aiden ... you know, this scene is Bendy's favorite and…. »
« I WORKED VERY HARD FOR THIS SCENE AND I WAS TALENT ! » Bendy suddenly yelled, making Boris and Aiden jump. « DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF THE QUANTITY OF WORK THAT IS REPRESENTED? SURE THAT NO! YOU ARE ONLY A LITTLE BIRD! AND I REFUSE THAT A CHICK MOKS OPEN TO WHAT I LOVE THE MOST IN THIS WORLD! GET OUT OF HERE! I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU ANYMORE! GET OUT ! »
Aiden trembles and gets up before running to the exit.
As soon as the chick is gone, Bendy put his hand into his hip to pull a cigar out of his hammerspace and light it with a snap of his finger. Furious, he pulls hard on the cigar before spitting out the smoke in small clouds like a small locomotive... when he looks up at Boris. The wolf seems disappointed by his behavior.
« What? » the demon grumbles.
« Don't you think you've been a little hard here? » his companion sighs.
« Did you hear like me, didn't you? HE LAUGHS AT MY DANCE! »
« I was there, I heard everything. But Aiden is a child, he doesn't always measure the reach of his words. »
The devil gets another puff from his cigar, grumbling.
« And by the way, since when did you smoke this filth? » the wolf questions.
« It's only flavored paper! » the little demon mumbles.
« And what about Aiden? And what if someone wanted to dissolve him? His soul couldn't rest in peace because he would like to be reconciled with you! » Boris gets indignant, making Bendy giggle.
« Why do you want someone dissolved him? It's a little angel with a little sugar face! »
Boris looks at Bendy with a look that says a lot about what he's thinking.
« OK OK ! I'm always wrong anyway! » the dancing demon impolite, throwing his cigar. « I'm going to see to fix that ... » he sighs, squeezing ink from his hand.
Once the puddle is large enough, he slips effortlessly in and goes to the studio's entrance... but Aiden isn't there. To tell the truth, nothing shows the passage of the chick.
« Where could he go? » Bendy mumbles, plunging back into the ink puddle.
Aiden advances in the studio. Bendy had just had a fit... but the chick is no longer impressed by that. If the demon no longer wanting to see him, alright! So he decides to take a ride in the studio until the Ink Demon calms down. He walks past the Ink Machine (feeling more and more uncomfortable in front of this machine) then turns to the right lane. He whistles gently as he gets to the end of the corridor. He sees a room with six pedestals ... but he decides to turn left, in a corridor that leads to a closed door. Curious to discover a new wonder, he stands on tiptoe and grabs the handle. He just turned the handle to open that ...
« AIDEN! NO ! » Bendy screams horrified as he comes out of an ink puddle behind him.
Boris appears around the corner... but it's too late to stop Aiden.
The door opens in a sinister grinding and there, Heckle and Jeckle's son literally finds himself breathless by horror, his hands pressed on his beak and his eyes terrified. There, right in front of him, attached to what looks like an experiment table of Disney's Mad Doctor, is the body of a Toon.
A big black and white wolf dressed in a jumpsuit and whose ribcage is wide open, the ribs apart, and empty! The Toon's heart had disappeared and large splashes of ink covered the floor and the walls. But what scares the little Toon the most is that he immediately recognizes the corpse.
« Boris ... » he suffocates, turning to the wolf ghost and the devil.
Bendy is literally frozen, shaking and big tears of ink running down his cheeks. Boris sighs. He looks hurt but much less than his friend. Aiden looks at both of them, unable to believe what he has just discovered. That's why Boris looked very alive to the episodes in which he appeared. It's because once, he was alive!
« Are you ... you're not a drawn ghost? » the chick stammers.
« No. » sighs the wolf. « That's what's left of my body... and what you see is my soul. »
Like all the Toons, Boris has a soul that can escape from his body when this one cannot stand it anymore (too damaged or too weak) and it was often used in scenarios and gags but the bodies were always rehabilitated so that the soul can return in it. But there, the body of Boris is in a lamentable state... and above all, his heart was gone! Even with a body in poor condition, the soul could return to it thanks to the heart. Without heart, the soul had no way to find his body. To tell the truth, a heartless Toon was no more than a soul in pain. Literally as figuratively…
Aiden is subjugated, horrified ... to tell the truth, he doesn't know what to think.
« But ... how did it happen? What's happened ? » he asks, terrorized.
Bendy and Boris look at each other and the Dancing Devil shakes his fists and growls:
« Joey Drew ... have you heard that name before? »
« No ... » the chick stammers.
« That's better…. this Human is a real monster! » Bendy gets annoyed to the point of almost boiling the ink that composes him, dripping it on his forehead. « In the old days he was our friend and the director of this studio. He was very visionary and ambitious and people admired him for that. And personally I always had a hard time getting in touch with him. He seemed to avoid contact with the Toons unlike the others and especially unlike Henry ... »
« Who's that, Henry!? » Aiden bursts.
The two Toons kept talking about this human but the chick didn't even know who he was. Bendy being too disturbed to answer, Boris resumes.
« Henry was our Animator. He was one of the first to enter the SillyVision Studios adventure with Joey and they became very close friends. To be honest, without Henry, this studio would never break. I was his first draw and I rained for a while. Bendy was created after and that's where the studio broke into the world of Toons. »
« But then, what happened to ...? » the chick ask, pointing at the corpse with a trembling finger.
« Oh well ... »
« Joey showed his true face. » Bendy rage. « He showed what it was to be a Creator! Because he was our director, he thought he could play the sorcerer's apprentice! He bought this damn machine, claiming to use it to improve the drawings but this monster used this ink on us, the Toons! He pretended to be a Creator ... but he's only a traitor! A FILTHY TRAITOR! »
No longer holding, Bendy bursts into tears and falls to his knees, shaking all over his body. Boris gets up to him and caresses his head with an intriguing sweetness for Aiden (the only people he saw so close, it was his parents) and he sighs before continuing.
« Joey was doing some tests on us, especially me and the other minor characters because Bendy was the star of the studios ... and one day, he did the most terrible of his experiences: he ripped my heart. »
Aiden is horrified and puts his hands on his beak.
« I was unconscious for a while and when I got back to that form, I found Bendy in tears and dripping ink near the machine and the studio was deserted. It was the day we were locked up here. Bendy panicked when he saw what Joey had done to me and he absorbed a lot of ink from the machine to become more imposing and protect himself. »
Bendy's sobs redoubled, hurt by his horrible memories. Even though it was 30 years old, the injury was still alive, morally and physically. Aiden feels his eyes fill with tears when he sees his new friend as miserable. He then runs to hold Bendy in his arms, trembling and restraining himself from crying.
« I'm sorry ... I didn't know ... »
The dancing demon (whose cheeks are now black with tears) accepts the embrace of the little magpie, feeling his heart calm down by feeling these little arms and hearing this little voice full of tears for something that didn't touch him very much (even not at all).
« You have nothing to do with it ... » he sighs as he strokes the back of the chick. « It's the guilty of humans ... Joey but also the others who surely knew about it. The others who knew and did nothing. Humans only see us as tools, objects to make people laugh and make money! » he suddenly becomes angry. « They don't even see us as living beings. That's why I hate them! The Humans and their bastards, the Tunmen! They're just liars! All liars! »
Aiden sighs for the umpteenth time of the day. Bendy's words are looping in his head... and to be honest, the more he observes around him in the studios, the more these words seem true. The most striking example he saw was Antoine! This damn episodes director seemed to hate the Toons and showed them no respect... but nobody in the studio likes him. Some humans speak and laugh with him but, in the vast majority, they sulk and ignore him. Aiden had never approached him too much (his mother kept him far away from the Human because of a bad joke he allegedly said while his parents were hatching him) but he had never liked this Human.
Since he cannot change his mind, he jumps from his perch (a microphone boom) and walks out of the studio to find Keffan. His friend is in front of his dad's wheelhouse, reading a comic book, while Gandy is working on a junk next to him. It is besides the goose which notice the small magpie first.
« Ah! Hi Aiden! » He said, forcing his son to lift his head.
« Hi Uncle Gandy ... » the chick mutters before planting himself in front of Keffan. « We can talk ? »
The kitten understands that there is a problem with the neutral tone of his friend. Even Gandy is worried.
« Hey ! Are you OK ? You look all sad, chick. »
« I'm fine ... » the chick softly answers.
« Alright come on! » Keffan said, getting up and forcing a smile. « We're going to play in the wheelhouse! »
« Don't do the mess! » the goose warns when both children enter the wheelhouse.
« Yes Dad ! »
Once inside, Keffan closes the door and turns to his friend.
« What's the matter ? Looks like your parents have just disappeared. »
« No, on that there is no problem. » Aiden sighs, sitting on the bench. « It's ... do it ... do you think humans can lie to us? »
Keffan looks at Aiden as if his feathers had suddenly turned from black to green.
« What do you mean by that? »
« Do you... believe that Humans don't see us as living beings, but more like stupid objects to make people laugh and make money? »
« What are you talking about ? » the kitten mumbles. « Humans work with us, we're mostly actors and we make money together. In the backstage news, Toons actors and human directors make half the money from the episodes. »
« I'm not so sure anymore ... I've been watching humans today and ... I feel like they don't appreciate us ... »
Keffan frowns as he looks at Aiden ... then he sighs and crosses his arms.
« That's the other Inky Demon who put that in your mind? » he grunts, annoyed.
« He has a name and you know it! » the chick groan. « And he didn't put anything in my mind. I just figured out why he was crazy... but he's just a wounded Toon. He's nice, but he's suffered a lot and he had trouble trusting because that he was betrayed. »
« That's what he told you and you were stupid enough to believe it? »
« YOU DIDN'T SEEN WHAT I SEEN ! » Aiden screams, his eyes filled with tears and startling his friend.
The little magpie had seen Boris and the Wolf's soul wouldn't stay with Bendy if it was the little devil who did that. So, even though he couldn't believe that humans could do that, he didn't see why Bendy would lie.
Keffan calms down, but looks at Aiden with concern.
« My word, he has washed your brain! How can you believe that humans are bad? »
The black chick is about to argue ... when screams echo in the studio. The children then leave the wheelhouse and join Gandy who has approached the center of agitation. Center that happens to be Aiden's parents, Heckle and Jeckle, in full argument with Antoine!
« You have nothing to say about the scenario of the episode that we play! You're not our director! » Heckle yell.
« Maybe but I'm one of the directors of the Studio! And I'm a Human! I'm one of your bosses! »
« You're not the absolute boss here! And Paul Terry has already given you a job that lives up to your stupidity! »
« Heckle, stop! » Jeckle intervenes, wanting to avoid the scandal.
« You should listen to your lover, the gay bird! » the Human rage. « It's because of you-two that Paul Terry doesn't give me any more good scenarios or only secondary episodes that don't work! I have a crazy talent but because of your whining to the 'Grand Manitou', I am lowered to second class role! »
« A crazy talent? » Aiden's magpie mother exclaim. « Do you realize that you gave us something to make an omelette if our egg wasn't viable? Do you think it's something to say to future parents when they're expecting a baby? What would you say if you were told to eat your own children? »
The director then shakes him violently to silence him and glares at him.
« Hey ! I forbid you to touch him! » Heckle screams, planting himself between his husband and their opponent.
Antoine was everything (a moron, a heartless idiot, a boastful patient convinced to be out of the thigh to Jupiter, etc.) but he is certainly not a human that was good to make angry. With a tone mixing disgust and hatred, he vociferates:
« This studio would turn a thousand times better with my ideas! Paul Terry shouldn't have let slaves get reviews and take over the studio! »
While Aiden is literally frozen in horror at these words (like most Toons present), two animators rush to the other human and catch him by the arms. But the chick cannot bear what his ears have heard and he runs out.
« Aiden! Wait! » Keffan cried, running after him, only being noticed by his father.
Bill (former director of Heckle and Jeckle's episodes and new great director after Paul Terry retirement*) crashes before the raging Antoine and glares at him.
« If you dare to treat the actors of this studio once again as inferior beings, you will not only have my fist in your face but you will have to look for work elsewhere. » he threatens, visibly furious.
Antoine stares at him hatefully, not understanding why Bill was chosen as the new Grand Chief and not him, then gets rid of the grasp of the two animators who hold him before moving away grumbling.
Aiden leaves the studios crying, stumbling in his own feet and falling to his knees in the street. Bendy was right. Humans saw them as slaves! Their smiles, their kindness, everything was wrong! Keffan comes out behind him and takes his shoulders.
« Aiden! Antoine is a moron and everyone hates him. He's just an angry man who thinks he's better than everyone else. But I'm sure Bill is going to … »
« STOP ! » Aiden screams.
Keffan gasps, surprised. The little magpie stands up, his eyes shining with tears of sadness ... and rage.
« Are you so blind, Keffan? » the chick exclaims. « Bendy is right! He says that humans lie to us! They exploit us! They are only liars! They only belittle us as if we were just toys! The creators lie to us, Keffan! They lie to us! »
The little Tunman is amazed at his friend's words. Aiden wipes his tears and sighs.
« Can you do me a favor and cover me in the afternoon? » he asks, looking at his friend.
« Why? Where do you want to go? » the kitten ask.
The chick looks at him with a small smile telling him that it's obvious... and the half Toon freezes.
« Are you serious ? Isn't it enough for you to risk your skin every night? »
« I don't want to stay at the studios today and Bendy is finally starting to trust me! Hopefully, it's only a matter of days before I get have the last word of the story! And here I could help him to come back to ToonTown! »
« Do you want to bring this demon to ToonTown? »
« You'll understand that we won't risk anything when you see him, Keffy, I promise you! »
Keffan frowns, annoyed that Aiden attaches so much importance to this monster rather than to his friends ... but the little magpie was as stubborn as he was small and cute. Sighing, the kitten chases a lock of hair behind his ear and grumbles:
« If I say no, you'll make me dizzy. »
Aiden smiles and jumps around his neck.
« Thanks, Kef'! You're a real friend! »
Then, without another word, he runs away, returning to ToonTown to join the Kansas City Tunnel. The chick has barely disappeared around the alley that Gandy and Jeckle leave the studios. The goose rushes to his son and hugs him.
« Keffan, I'm sorry you should have seen that. Antoine really doesn't have a heart. » he sighs, looking at his boy.
« Where is Aiden? » Jeckle asks, looking for his son.
« Oh, um ... he ... he must be somewhere around there. » the little one mutters. « I offered him a hide and seek. »
The two adults don't believe it too much ... but since Keffan has no reason to lie, they don't try to understand.
Aiden crosses the tunnel after verifying that he was alone and then goes to the studios. He enters noiselessly and advances, looking for the two Toons (the living and the soul) who reside there. He finds them sleeping against each other and Bendy finally seems perfectly calm. Boris slowly emerges, feeling a glance at him ... and freezes when he sees the chick.
« Aiden? What are you doing here? » he whispers so not to wake his friend.
« You were right for everything ... » the little magpie replies, restraining himself from crying. « Humans are bad... they take us for objects, slaves ... »
« Awww ... come on, this isn't true for all humans. Alright, come here and tell me! »
Aiden runs to hug the wolf, being careful not to wake the little devil. Bendy didn't need to be bothered by his doubts about humans. He already had enough to handle.
As the afternoon passes and Aiden is still untraceable, both parents start to worry. They had gone home, thinking to find the boy there ... but again, no trace!
« Where did he go? » Jeckle worries, hugging his husband.
« Damn Antoine! » grumbles Heckle. « If he hadn't stung his fit of racist jealousy, Aiden wouldn't have been scared and wouldn't go hiding anywhere other than in the studio! »
« Do you think he's fine? »
« Jeckle. » the other magpie sighs, lifting his chin to force his husband to look him straight in the eyes. « I know you're still scared for our chick but he's not a baby anymore. He can defend himself alone. »
« He's only six, Heckle! »
« Maybe but you don't think you're going to overdo him? Do you remember when you were pregnant? I was overprotecting you and you couldn't stand it. Aiden is like you about that. He hates being overprotected for nothing. He has to learn where his limits are all by himself. »
Jeckle sighs, lowering his head. He was protecting his son a lot, that's true ... but to say that he was overdo him? Aiden was their only child and he wasn't sure that the little one could endure the looks of some Toons too down-to-earth if they tried to get another one.
« Didn't you find him? » Gandy asked as he approached with Keffan, stopping the magpie's thoughts.
« No, we don't know where he could go to hide, Antoine must have scared him by screaming so he flew like a girl in front of a Lepew! » Heckle growled.
« Um, am I supposed to take it well? » Pepé the Looney Skunk grunts who passes at that time with his episode partner (as in real life), Penelope the Cat* who restrains herself from laughing.
Jeckle, Gandy and Keffan chuckle while Heckle smiles, embarrassed.
« Sorry, Pepé! I thought not bad! It's just one of the episode directors of the studios who stung a racist crisis against Jeckle and me and our son Aiden heard it all. Since, impossible to find him. »
« Mom? Dad ? »
The Toons (and the half-Toon) turn to the little voice and see Aiden standing nearby. He seems surprised to see that his parents are already there.
« Aiden! » Jeckle sighs, getting up to join his chick and hug him.
« Ah, there he is, le petit poussin! » the skunk smiled, pressing his companion against him. « Hey, my sweet peanut of brittle, we should also be thinking about having our own babies. »
« Pepé! » the black and white cat sweetly growls even if she smiles, amused, gently pushing her skunk lovers.
« Yuck, find a room! » Keffan grins, hugging his dad's legs while he is laughing.
« You're right, little Keffan! » the Looney replies, ruffling the boy's hair. « Are we going, my little darling? »
« See you next time, friends! » Penelope greets as she walks away.
In the arms of his mother, Aiden greets the couple, thanking the fact that the stench of Pepé is only a gag specific to his episodes and not a real feature of the Toon.
Heckle approaches his husband and son, slightly worried.
« Aiden. What you saw earlier in the studio, you don't have to worry about that. Antoine is just a big moron. And since Bill is the new director of TerryToons, Antoine is jealous and puts that on our backs. But don't worry, man! He will not hurt us! Neither mine nor your mom! »
« We will always be near you, treasure. No human can change that. » Jeckle smiled, looking at his child.
The little one looks at them, looks a little empty or... frightened ... but he forces a smile.
« Okay ... »
« Where were you this afternoon? » the father asks while his husband puts their child on the ground. « We looked for you everywhere and even Keffan couldn't say where you could be. »
« Well ... actually ... I wasn't quite on ToonTown ... »
« Where were you then? » Jeckle asks, on the verge of panic.
« I was in a studio ... and ... I made a new friend ... »
Keffan freezes when he hears that, but adults don't notice it.
« A friend? » Heckle wonders. « A Human? »
« No, it's a Toon. Like us. »
« And we know him? » Jeckle asks.
« No, he ... he doesn't come out of his studio a lot. »
Both parents look at each other, intrigued, then they smile.
« I hope we can meet him soon. » Jeckle said.
« He is very shy but I try to convince him to go out a little bit more. » Aiden says.
« Now that we know Aiden is at home, we'll be back tomorrow. » Gandy said as he walked away with Keffan.
The kitten glare the little magpie and follows his dad under the sad gaze of his friend who returns home with his parents. Something told him that he would have to explain himself with the Tunman tomorrow.
Later that night, after Aiden fell asleep (tonight, he wouldn't go to the studio because he had spent the afternoon there), Heckle and Jeckle end up in the living room.
« What do you think about this new friend story? » the slender magpie asks to his companion.
« I don't know, Jeckle. I feel like there is some real... but he's hiding something. »
« Do you want we asked him tomorrow morning? »
« No, if you ask him too much, he'll rush and shut himself in. The best thing would be to follow him and find out what he's hiding. »
« But it's impossible! We have work at the studio! We cannot let everything go on a suspicion of lies! »
Heckle thinks ... then he goes to the phone. Without a word, he dials a number and wait ... when his correspondent picks up.
« Hi Bill, it's Heckle. Tell me, do you have the number of a private detective on you? ... We have a little secret problem with Aiden. ... When do you think you can bring him? … Okay ! We find a babysitter for Aiden and we're coming. ... Yes, see you! »
« What do you mean 'we find a babysitter for Aiden and we're coming'? What do you have behind your head, you ? »
« We cannot watch Aiden ourselves so I asked Bill if he knew anyone and he can arrange an appointment tonight with the detective. »
« What detective? Human detectives don't deal with Toons business! »
« You're wrong, there's one. The one who helped Roger in 47. Eddie Valiant. »
Eddie goes in the office of the new TerryToons Director, hands in pockets and hat a bit crooked. He had been called late for an case at the studio. He still doesn't know what it is but he knows it touches a Toon child and, especially since the birth of his goddaughter Candice, he couldn't stand a child is in danger even if nothing was proven. He go face-to-face with Bill Weiss, the director, and two of the stars of the TerryToons, the two talking magpies Heckle and Jeckle.
« Thank you for coming so late, Mr Valiant. »
« I can know what it is. » the detective asks, sitting down.
« It's about our son, Aiden. » Heckle explains.
« Candice told me about him. He's a real little jerk, she said. »
« It's not the subject now. » the magpie sighs. « Aiden's been weird for a while. »
« How weird? »
« He suddenly started to dance but the weirdest thing is that he disappeared for a whole afternoon. » Jeckle adds. « At first, we thought it was because of the argument we had with one of the directors ... but he told us that he had gone to see a new friend. »
« How weird is that? It's from his age! » Eddie shrugged.
« He is only 6 years old. » the mother magpie sighs.
« It's especially that his friend is supposed to be a Toon who spends his time locked up in his studio. » Heckle adds. « Well, unless he's a new Toon and there was none, we should know him. So we'd like to know where he's going. »
« Aiden is everything for Heckle and Jeckle, Mr Valiant. » explains Bill. « And everyone loves him at the studio. We want to make sure he's not in danger. You'll be pay well and you'll only have to watch him. »
Eddie thinks for a few seconds ... then nods.
« I start tomorrow at the first hour. »
Here is the chapter 5 of the fiction and the discovery of the body of Boris ... as well as the arrival of a well-known character thanks to "Who framed Roger Rabbit?" Will Aiden manage to keep his secret for a long time? Will he and Keffan reconcile?
Ah! Before I forget! Here are the notifications noted *
* The TerryToons studio is sold to CBS in 1955 and Paul Terry dies in 1956. The first to have taken over the direction of the studio was Gene Deitch then he was fired and replaced by Bill Weiss who worked a lot on the cartoons of Heckle and Jeckle and those of Mighty Mouse
* This is one of the recurring characters in episodes of Pepé LePew and I found it amusing to put her as the love of Pepé to ToonTown while in the episodes, she flees constantly.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) see you next time, friends! : D
Ah! PS: a small comment please: D