Protag's POV

It's been a while since everything happened. God, I don't even know how much time has passed, a couple months at least, since that night. It didn't take long for word to spread about what happened at Freddy's, but I'm just happy we made it out at all. That whole night's been playing on loop in my head ever since, imagining what could have happened if things had played out differently, and I always found myself shuddering at the point of losing anyone because of me. Although we did manage to get out of there alive, we weren't able to escape unscatched. Poor Natsuki, she easily got it the worst out of everyone, to the point where because of the fact those robots haven't been cleaned once in over 30 years, the leg that was nearly torn off by them ended up having to get amputated and replaced with a prosthetic one from the knee down to prevent any kind of infection. Sayori too, even though she thankfully didn't get that hurt, she's told me she and Hat Kid have been haunted by these… visions, that would come up and blind them, almost at random, that have happened ever since that night. Damnit! Why wasn't I good enough? I haven't been able to do anything since I've been stuck bedridden for so long, and all I can think about is what I should have done better! I know it's too late to do anything about it, but the point still stands! I just-... sigh, I can't let that happen again. I need to be better than this…

I won't let anyone be hurt again because of me.

Sayori herself apparently hasn't had it much better either. Since her injuries were minimal compared to the rest of us, she was let out sooner than the rest, and she originally decided to help Hat Kid find her timepieces. However, just a few days later, she came back to tell us that both her and Hat Kid agreed that it would be best if she stayed behind while Hat Kid left to search for the rest of them herself. The rest of us were of course shocked by this, but I was even more so when I learned why.

A pirate attack on Mafia Town, led by Risky Boots of all people? All of the games that got stuck in this place are starting to come across one another now. God, who knows what sort of crazy things are gonna happen in the future. I'm not even sure what I was supposed to do now. All I wanted to do at first was figure out how to get home, but I wasn't even sure if that was possible, and now with this in mind as well… I'm gonna need time to figure all this out, if I even can, that is.

As of right now however, we all did eventually recover enough to be allowed to leave the hospital just a while back, and we agreed to head back to the house across from the Neighbor's home that I first found myself in all that time ago, in the hopes of deciding what we were going to do next. Hat Kid coincidentally had just made it back from her planetary exploration as well, and rejoined us while we made ourselves at home in the main living room, pieces of paper scattered across the floor from my little anxiety driven episode I had a while back. Her, Natsuki, Yuri and Sayori were all seated on the couch, while Monika and I had brought down a pair of chairs from upstairs for us to sit. Everyone had also taken the opportunity to change out of their school clothes after the incident as well. Natsuki was wearing a red, V neck T-shirt with white kitten head outline, long jeans and a pair of pink and white sneakers, probably to cover up her leg. Yuri had on a light gray hoodie with an undershirt, sweatpants, and shoes that were all black. Sayori was wearing a faded blue shirt with darker outlines and rounded shorts, but still kept her school shoes. I guess she didn't have anything else. Lastly, Monika was dressed up in a light green tank top, light blue jeans and white dress shoes. They all looked really nice, but I had to say, it was strange seeing Yuri with short hair as well, but I thought it looked nice on her, although I probably could say that to her outright without her entire face glowing red from embarrassment.

The three girls seated by Hat Kid were listening in to her telling them all about the adventures she had been having, which were all the same levels from her game beyond Mafia Town. You know, Dead Bird Studio, Subcon Forest, Nyakusa Metro, the works. From what I heard of her storytelling, nothing seemed all too different from what happened in the game itself, which was a nice change of pace from the chaos that's been happening to us so far. I myself wasn't paying attention to the conversation however, as my attention was solely fixated on this strange, stone tablet with illegible writing that Sayori had said the Mafia gave her before she and Hat Kid left. Monika was just coming back from the kitchen in the next room with a freshly brewed cup of coffee, taking a sip before sitting down beside me.

"So, any idea of what it could be?" She asked me.

"I've got nothing." I replied, shaking my head in disappointment. "I don't have any idea what game this could even be from." I turned my gaze over to her.

"You said you couldn't access it from the game files, right?"

"I'm not sure." She told me, her hand glowing blue again to demonstrate her ability, only for the glow to suddenly vanish just as soon as it appeared.

"It's like I've been locked out of the system entirely." She explained. "I can still look at all the files just fine, but as soon as I try to interact with any of them, it kicks me out." She tried again, breathing heavily as she focused, before turning back to me.

"From what I'm able to tell though, there looks to be seven more just like that one." She stated, pointing to the tablet in my hands.

"Really?" I asked, taken a bit by surprise, before looking down at it myself. "If I know anything about how this works, something tells me we're going to have to find all of these then, won't we?"

"What do you think might happen if we do?"

"I'm not sure, but I guess we don't really have many other options at this point, do we?"

"I hope you're right." Monika tried to reassure me with a smile, but looked unsure about this herself. I sighed.

"Me too…" I said to her. We both looked back over at the others, Hat Kid at this point had just wrapped up her last story. I could tell just from the trio's expression that Natsuki was fully engrossed in her tales, Yuri was completely surprised, her hand slightly covering her gaped mouth, and Sayori was definitely listening in, but it also seemed like something else was on her mind too.

"Ok, hang on. Let me get all this straight." Natsuki said right as she finished speaking. "So not only did you beat the crap out of those Mafia guys, but also pirates, killer birds, a soul stealing ghost, deadly plants, a cat mafia and saved everyone from a sinking cruise ship, and you did all that by yourself?!" She recalled, counting them all with her fingers as she spoke.

"Goddamn, you are one badass little girl, you know that?!" She told her. Hat Kid scratched the back of her head, looking proud of herself, but also a little embarrassed from the compliment.

"I'm just happy you're alright." Yuri spoke up softly. "I can't imagine the amount of times you could have gotten yourself hurt doing all that. At least you were able to find your hourglasses, right?" Hat Kid put on a grin and nodded to confirm her request.

"That's good to hear." She replied, but her face then seemed confused as a sudden silence filled the room. Yuri turned around towards Sayori, who rested her chin on her hand, leaning over towards the wall, looking down about something. While we were in the hospital, Sayori had also been more willing to admit to the others about her depression, which came as a shock to both Yuri and Natsuki, who both were aware that she had it as Monika revealed it to them before, but they were both still surprised by just how open she was about it, saying it was something she has put a lot of thought into before ultimately deciding to tell, so it came as no surprise to me that they would both be more aware of it.

"Are you doing alright, Sayori?" Yuri asked calmly. Sayori perked up in surprise, obviously not expecting the question.

"Oh, yeah. I'm doing fine." She replied. "I'm just…" She sighed, her voice quickly faded, and her gaze fell back down towards the floor.

"Sayori…" Monika said in a reassuring tone. "Don't be afraid to speak up if something is bothering you. Just feel free to let us know. You don't have to hide anything from us anymore, okay?"

"Guys, please, I'm fine." She told everyone. "I've just… got a lot on my mind right now…" I could tell Yuri was about to say something else, but before she could, we all suddenly heard the ringing of the doorbell, our attention collectively shifting over towards the front door.

"I'll get it!" Sayori shouted excitedly, a complete 180 of her previous tone from just seconds ago, and before anyone else could react, she suddenly sprung out of her seat and ran over to the door, throwing it open.

"Huh, who are you?" She asked, confused.

"Ah, my apologies. I don't believe we've met before. May I come in?"

"Oh, of course!" She said, stepping aside to let the visitor through.

"Oh, Theodore! It's good to see you again!" Yuri stated gladly, as the Neighbor stepped into the room.

"As is good to see you as well, Yuri!" The Neighbor returned the greeting, stepping into the middle of the room.

"Hello again, Mr. Peterson!" I welcomed him. "How have things been since we last saw you?"

"Greetings, Protag!" He said. "It's been… oddly quiet ever since that day. I'm just glad those visions have yet to return, and my home is no longer that massive juggernaut it was when we saw each other last."

"That's wonderful to hear!" Yuri stated enthusiastically. Monika then stood up to greet him next.

"You must be the one living across the street from us, right?" She asked, holding out her hand towards him. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You would be correct." He responded, returning Monika's handshake. "I don't believe I caught your names."

"I'm Monika, and this is Sayori, Natsuki and Hat Kid." She replied, gesturing towards everyone respectively.

"Hi!" Greeted Sayori, waving her hand excitedly. "We've heard all about you from Yuri and Protag!"

"Ah, so I suppose you know about everything then." He said.

"Yea." Monika admitted, her mood quickly turning sour. "I'm sorry about what happened to you." He shook his head.

"Don't be." He told her. "That was a long time ago. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you."

"So, what brings you here today?" I asked him, attempting to change the subject.

"I wanted to stop by as soon as I heard you were alright." He stated. "Word spread around within hours about what happened at that restaurant, and I couldn't bear the thought of something happening to you. But thankfully, it seems you all made it out in one piece." I noticed Natsuki looking away in the corner of my eye. The Neighbor then suddenly perked up as if he just remembered something.

"Oh, that's right. I also have something I wanted to give you, Protag." I looked up with interest as he opened up the brown satchel he was weathering over his shoulder and pulled out… wait, was that!?

"I found this thing hiding in my basement." He said, turning the stone tablet around in his hands. "I was looking around for anything that might help you out, you know, as thanks for before, but I've never seen anything like it before, so I figured I'd bring it to you to see if you could make any sense out of it." He held it out to me, and I took it from his hands, but just as I did, a circle of blue light formed around my feet, and before any of us could react, a beam shot from the ground towards the ceiling, engulfing the room while a strong wind struck me, forcing me to shut my eyes, but just as soon as it started, it stopped, leaving us all perplexed as to what just happened.

"What the…?" The Neighbor questioned, lowering his arms that were shielding his face.

"Alright, what was that all about?" Natsuki questioned.

"Wait a sec! That's the same thing that happened to me!" Sayori called out. My gaze widened in realization as I looked back between her and Monika, and the tablet in my hands.

"I think that answers our question." I said to Monika.

"I think so too." She said in response.

"What question?" The Neighbor asked. I turned around and grabbed the other tablet piece that was resting on the chair I was sitting on before, presenting them both to everyone in the room.

"Earlier, before you came in, Monika found out that there were eight just like these." I stated. "If just holding them is enough to do something like what just happened, then something has to happen if we find all of them, right?"

"I think that makes sense!" Sayori said.

"Do we know what would happen if we found them all?" Yuri asked.

"That was my worry as well." Monika pointed out.

"Well, we don't know if finding all these things is even gonna do anything to begin with." Natsuki stated.

"That's true." Monika replied. "But I have to agree with what Protag said. We really don't have any other clues to go off of as of now."

"Sure, but how would we know where to even start looking for the rest of these in the first place?" Natsuki questioned. Everyone was stumped by this question. No one had an immediate reply, instead either crossing their arms or placing their hand on their chin as we all tried to decide where to start looking. My eyes eventually fell towards the ground, where I glanced across the many torn up pieces of paper that still resided on the floor. One of them happened to catch my attention, so I bent down to pick it up and got a better look at it. An image of a short cartoon character with devil horns and a sinister grin…

I sighed to myself. If these tablet pieces are gonna end up anywhere, it's probably going to be in there, aren't they? I caught myself about to speak, but… god, I don't know. I can't ask them to go to that place, can I? Not after what happened at Freddy's, and this might just be even worse than that! We only made it out of there by the skin of our teeth, and now to ask them to head right back into another death house was… but this… this really is our best shot, isn't it? I'm honestly not even sure how to describe the series of emotions running through my head right now, but Sayori took notice of my conflicted expression.

"You alright, Protag? What ya got there?" She asked, looking over my shoulder to see the picture I was holding. I unconsciously almost yanked the paper away so she couldn't see it, but I just found myself looking away from her concerned tone of voice. I sighed again and shook my head. Why am I still so insistent on trying to hide this stuff from them? They all already said they wanted to help me, but I'm still asking way too much from them. No… I can't hide this from them. I looked back over to her.

"...Do you remember that place in the town that was always dark and raining, even when it was sunny outside?" I questioned. She took a split second, then I saw the lightbulb ding in her eyes.

"Oh yeah! That weird, creepy looking place?" She replied. "Do you think one of them could be there?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I guess you could call it a hunch, but I'm not… I'm not sure if I… If you…" My voice started to trial off.

"Protag…" I heard Monika say firmly, placing her hands on her hips. "If you're trying to ask us to stay behind again, it's not happening. We've gone after this already."

"Yeah, we've already said we want to help you." Sayori chimed in. "So why do you keep trying to push us away?" Their sudden shift in tone caught me off guard. I was at a loss of what to say.

"I understand why you're worried, Protag." Yuri spoke up, getting up from her seat to stand by the rest of us. "You're just trying to protect us, but we do all want to help you. So please, let us protect you as well."

"We're not some delicate little damsels, you know!" Natsuki chimed in, standing up as well. "We can handle ourselves just fine. If anything tries to get between us and those tablet things, we'll mess them up real good!" She cracked her knuckles as if to prove her point.

"But!" I started, then just stopped. I wanted to say something, but even I was unsure about my own words at this, seeing them all so insistent on tagging along. I couldn't find it in me to argue with them, but at the same time… I just didn't know...

"…even if it could be worse than Freddy's?" I asked after a moment of hesitancy. The others looked towards each other in silence, then turned back, grins beaming towards me.

"Then you're absolutely not going alone!" Monika declared, and the others nodded in agreement. I could only look around at everyone in awe as they all faced me. They all seemed so sure about this, their faces brimming with confidence. It was so much to take in at once, I honestly don't have the words to describe it, I was just completely stunned by what I was seeing.

"Guys, I…" I used my thumb to wipe away a tear I felt flowing down my cheek, then returned with my own smile.

"Thank you…"

"Seems you all are more extraordinary than I thought!" The Neighbor said, glancing towards all of us. "Please, allow me to come with you. There's some things in that place I need to get answers for myself."

"Hmm? Answers to what?" Monika asked curiously.

"Well… that shadow wasn't the only thing that's been haunting me for so long." He explained. "I've been suffering with these visions of myself as this… monster in that place, hurting anyone who was unfortunate enough to find themselves in there with me, and this could be my chance to finally learn why." The girl's expressions widened with surprise upon hearing this. I had a feeling I knew what he was referring to.

"Of course." She quickly agreed. "You deserve to know just as much as anyone would."

"Will you be coming along with us too, Hat Kid?" Yuri asked her, who was standing over on the nearest side of the couch this whole time, listening in to the conversation. She perked up upon hearing her name, as if she wasn't expected to be called on. She looked around at everyone, then held her hand to her hat, concentrating for a moment, before eventually nodding her head toward us in agreement, her expression filled with determination. Actually, that just reminded me, I was still holding the two tablet pieces, and I didn't have any idea on what to do with them. If Hat Kid can put hourglasses half her size away in her pocket, I wonder if I can…

"Oh wow. That actually worked." I uttered, chuckling to myself that it played out exactly as I saw it in my head, before turning my attention back towards the others.

"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Sayori said excitedly. With that said, the seven of us turned towards the front door and headed outside, beginning the trek down the road towards the town once again. As we walked, I couldn't help but repeat what all the girls said to me in my mind, and smiled to myself. Sayori, Yuri, Natsuki, Monika…

I can't thank you all enough.

Sayori's POV

It didn't take us very long before we found ourselves in the front of that creepy looking building again. It was exactly the same as it was when me and Protag first came across it a couple of months ago. Even when the rest of the town was enjoying the nice, sunny day, this single building was always covered by dark, stormy clouds that never seemed to stop raining. The grass was decaying, and the yard was surrounded by a rotting, wooden fence, with only a makeshift fence gate and a rocky path leading us towards the front door of the place. A wooden sign attached to a piece of rope was hanging on one of the fence posts, reading in red ink "Gospel of Dismay". I had no idea what that meant, but something told me we were gonna find out sooner rather than later. Protag was standing right by the gate, and looked back behind them towards the rest of us.

"You guys sure about this?" They asked us.

"Yes." Theodore reassured them, while Monika replied with a nod. I tried to give them a reassuring grin of my own. They smiled slightly in response.

"Alright." They muttered softly, before turning back around and pulling the pin up that kept the gate shut, opening it and walking into the rain, using their hands to cover their heads as they ran towards the lonely building, everyone else following one after the other. Me and Hat Kid were the last one to go, as she opened up her umbrella to use, well, as an umbrella. As Protag made it to the front door of the building, they opened it up and held it for everyone to run inside, closing it behind them after we all made it inside. When we did all get inside though, I wasn't prepared for how… creepy it looked. Everything had this yellowish-beige color to it, almost it was put in a sepia tone filter on a phone camera, which also applied to us now as well! The floor and the ceiling were completely wooden, the air felt really cold, and these weird black, gooey puddles were all over the place. I didn't want to know what they were, but what really caught my attention were the posters on the beige walls. They looked like advertisements you would see for old timey cartoons. One of them had a cartoon wolf holding what I'm getting was a flute, another had a close up of someone's gloved hand, and a third was the body where that hand came from, although their head was missing for some reason. They each even had their own little names to go along with them. 'Bendy in Little Devil Darling', 'Bendy in The Dancing Demon' and 'Bendy in Sheep Songs with Boris the Wolf'. Whoever this Bendy guy must have been really popular around here.

"What is this place?" I wondered out loud, as we continued walking down the first hall that greeted us as soon as we came in, passing under a painted welcome sign ahead of an arch made from planks of wood into a large open room. The most apparent thing that I we all noticed was the large cutout in the right wall of the room with a series of three giant film reels spinning, blocked off by a large rusted, steel beam in front of them, black text reading 'Joey Drew Studios'. The lights were all still on, and there was even a film projector turned on over on the other side of the room, shining onto the wall near a large cutout of the cartoon character from the poster, only this one thankfully had it's head. It was short, with black arms, legs and body, a white bow tie, gloves with black dots, and a rounded white face with black, circle eyes, a big, toothy grin, and black curves on the top of it's head that looked like horns. It looked cute, but also weirdly… creepy at the same time. Like something was definitely off about it, but I couldn't really describe what. It just kinda rubbed me the wrong way. In fact, I could kinda describe the whole room like that. Holes in the wall had boards slapped over it. Post-It notes were plastered all over the wall. Chairs, tables, a random crate and drawing desks were just kinda thrown all over the place. It seemed like no one had time to put anything back properly. From what I could gather from the others, they all seemed to share my uneasy feeling.

"Ugk! This place reeks, that's what it is!" Natsuki yelled, covering her nose. "It smells even worse than the stupid pizza place did!"

"It feels so cold here, like all the life has just been… drained from this place." Yuri pondered, pressing her hand onto one of the walls. "What could have happened to this place?"

"This used to be a movie studio." I heard Protag explain. "They used to make old cartoons here."

"Cartoons!?" I exclaimed. So they did make them after all! That is so cool! I always wondered what it was like to work on stuff like that! That definitely explains the posters then! It's such a shame then it's so run down and …

Empty…

"The guy who ran this place, Joey Drew, used a machine that could bring his cartoons to life." Protag continued his explanation. All of us gasped in shock when he said this, save for Protag and Theodore.

"Really?" I and Natsuki both wondered.

"Is that really possible?" Monika questioned.

"Yes." The Neighbor answered. "However, those characters, let's just say, weren't exactly thrilled with being given life against their will." He stopped for a moment before continuing. "They went mad, turned savage… many went missing because of them… and now, this place was left to rot…" Another gasp escaped us.

"Oh my goodness…" Yuri muttered, holding her hands to her chest.

"That's horrible!" Monika exclaimed.

"Indeed…" Theodore said. "By no means, can that machine ever be allowed to be used again." His tone was firm about this, driving his point home.

"Hopefully, if we're the first ones that came in here, that should mean the Ink Machine is turned off right now." Protag stated. "As long as we're quick enough, we should be able to grab what we're looking for and get out before anything bad happens."

"I sure hope so." Theodore agreed.

"So, what exactly should we be looking for, anyway?" Monika asked.

"For starters, we should find a way downstairs." Protag said. "I get the feeling neither our tablet piece or Hat Kid's timepiece is gonna be on the top floor, considering how the game worked."

"We might be able to cover more ground if we search in groups." Yuri suggested. If that machine is off, then we wouldn't have anything to worry about for the time being, correct?"

"That's a great idea, Yuri!" Monika stated. "Let's start by splitting into groups of two or three. Sayori can go with Hat Kid, Yuri and Natsuki can-"

"Actually." I interrupted her. "I was hoping I could go with Natsuki." I quickly grabbed Natsuki's arm, whose arm completely froze as her gaze shot towards. Everyone in the room is a bit taken aback by my sudden obstruction.

"Oh, um, sure!" Monika said, quickly recovering. "Are you good with that, Natsuki?"

"I… I guess." She agreed unsurely.

"I suppose I can take Hat Kid for a bit." Yuri stated, walking over to her and holding out her hand, which Hat Kid looked at confused for a moment before taking.

"Thanks Yuri!" I told her.

"Great!" Monika stated. "That just leaves me, Protag and Mr. Peterson then."

"We should probably make sure that machine isn't on for sure before we start wandering too far." Theodore stated.

"Right." Protag agreed. "Let's meet back here if we find anything, got it?" The rest of us all agreed before the others all started heading down the hall on our right, leaving me and Natsuki in the open room.

"Well, guess we should start looking then, huh?" She said to me.

"Alright." Was all I replied, and turned to start walking down another hallway to our left, which was completely empty besides a pair of empty wooden shelves. There was a single light at the end of the hall, hovering over a work desk, along with another wooden chair, a poster, and more sticky notes. Cobwebs and dust covered the desk and some sketches of Bendy that were on it. Another cutout also sat in a corner of this little nook, and now that I got a better look at it, I felt a shiver roll up my back. I could tell Natsuki definitely was confused by it herself, but simply looked away and towards another room right behind us. It looked like a big work area. Drawing desks were shattered all over the place, lights were plentiful, and there were more random boxes, stools and metal trash bins placed randomly. More empty shelves, another unnerving cutout of Bendy (Why were there so many of these things anyway?) and more posters placed wherever there was empty wall space. There were replicas of the ones we already saw before, along with a couple new ones. One featured an advertisement for Bendy branded Bacon soup in a can, while another had him holding up a piece of paper in front of him that read "Work hard, work happy" with that same creepy smile going through it. We stepped down from the inclined wooden walkway into the main titled work space and looked around, both of us taking a side of the room. Man, seeing all this just being completely abandoned made my heart sink. I wondered to myself what must have happened that made it so they had to leave everything in the state that it was, and all that stuff Protag and Mr. Peterson both brought up before. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like to have to leave all of this stuff behind, if they even got the choice at all, that is…

"God, this place is a mess!" Natsuki complained out loud. I looked over to see her swiping dust and cobwebs of an old book she picked up, and started flipping through. It had a black cover and spine that were both surrounded with a white border, along with white text in the middle that read "The Illusion of Living," along with white lines that looked to form devil horns on each side of the title. It was also signed by Joey Drew. That was the same guy in charge of the building and the weird machine thing, right? He must have also written that book. Just another thing that was left behind…

"Yeah…" was all I could say in response. Natsuki definitely noticed the disheartened tone in my voice as she soon turned her head around to see me.

"Hey." She asked, concerned. "You doing alright?"

"I… I don't know..." I told her honestly, leaning against one of the empty shelves on the far end of the room. An awkward silence filled the room, as Natsuki looked like she was both waiting for me to keep talking and struggling to find her own words to say.

"Well…" She started, shutting the book with one hand and setting it on the table in the middle of the room, before walking over to me. "...if you need someone to talk to, I'm here."

"No, it's just… I've just had a lot on my mind recently." I told her.

"...You're still thinking about that whole thing with Hat Kid, aren't you?" I perked up in surprise.

"Was-was it that obvious?" I sighed, looking down towards the floor "I've just been thinking about it for a while now, and I wanted to ask. Do you think it was the right thing for her to leave me behind?" Natsuki was definitely a little bit aback by my question, and crossed her arm, thinking to herself for a moment.

"Hmm… um, uh… God, I'm never the best when it comes to stuff like this." She admitted, scratching the back of her head. "Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't ask Monika or Yuri about this instead."

"I wanted to ask you." I said to her, "I was hoping to get more of an honest answer…"

"And you think they wouldn't be honest with you?"

"Nonono! That's not what I meant!" I quickly corrected myself. "Maybe 'honest' was the wrong word there!" I took a second to reconsider my words. "I guess I'm looking for something more… 'direct'?" Natsuki thought about this for a moment.

"You don't want me to sugarcoat it, is what you're saying?" She asked, and I responded with a confirming nod.

"Okay. Alright. Hmm, how do I want to put this?" There was another long pause before Natsuki spoke again. I wanted to hear her answer, but at the same time, I was worried I was gonna hear exactly what I didn't want to hear.

"If all those stories she told us about what happened to her were true…" She started, hesitating for a moment. "I would say… she made the right call."

"That's what I was afraid of…" I muttered out loud, sighing in disappointment. Natsuki immediately threw her hands up in defense.

"I didn't mean it like- uh- okay wait- I- um- I didn't- uh- ah- Damnit, I'm screwing this up already!" Natsuki grabbed the sides of her head in frustration.

"No, no! It's fine!" I told her, pushing myself off the wall and throwing up my own hands to try and calm her down, which she did lower her arms right after. "I asked for a direct answer and that's what I got. I just…" I sighed again, this time in annoyance, slumping back over against the wall. "I just wish I didn't feel so useless all the time! I mean, I know I'm not like Hat Kid or anything, but-"

"Well, that's just it. You're not. And you're not going to get anywhere by pretending to be." Natsuki said bluntly to me, lightly grabbing my shoulder to pull my attention towards her. "Here, let me just throw an example out there real quick… You can't be Superman if you're Lois Lane. As much as it sucks to admit it, we can't fly, we can't shoot lasers, we can't rip steel beams in half like it's nothing. Hat Kid… might be able to do some of that, I don't know, but what I do know is that like it or not, we just can't do stuff like that. If Hat Kid really did end up having to do any of that crazy shit that she was talking about, then I honestly wouldn't be surprised if she asked you to stay behind because… because then you would just end up being something else she would've had to worry about." I… I didn't know what to say. I was completely at a loss of words. I just… stared at her with widened eyes and an open mouth, before my gaze fell back down towards the ground. I… I didn't want to believe it, but… she was right. I hear her sigh.

"Alright look. I'll admit, I don't know what's going on inside your head." She admitted. "Honestly, I'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole depression thing. It's all still so new to me. Just the idea of anyone having to go through something like that almost everyday, it just… it makes my blood boil." She clenched her fist tightly in front of her face to emphasize this, but then let her hand drop again.

"But, I know that I'm no doctor. I just wish I can help you more than I'm really able to..." There was silence for a bit, before she then quickly turned to me with a spark of confidence.

"But that doesn't mean I'm not gonna do what I can for you though!"

"Natsuki, I-" I tried to say, stunned by what I was hearing.

"Sure, maybe we can't jump twice in midair or whatever, but there's still so much stuff we can do! I mean, we're already doing it just by being here, right?" She spun around to place her hand on my shoulder, gesturing around the room.

"This is gonna sound cheesy as hell but, don't worry about being more like Hat Kid, you just need to focus on being you, that's all." She said, looking right at me with a warm smile.

"Yeah. I guess so." I… I didn't know what else to say, but Natsuki caught my expression falling down again.

"And look, you don't have to think for a second that we wouldn't be there for you. If you ever need us, we'll be there, alright?" She told me softly.

"Natsuki, I-" I ran forward and hugged her tightly, feeling a tear flowing down my cheek.

"Thank you…" I never realized just how much I needed to hear that until now. The fact that I wasn't alone, the fact I wasn't useless, the fact that everyone really did care about me… I felt those rainclouds again, and they were just the tiniest bit more parted. We stood there, hugging it out for a good while, before we let go of each other, a pair of bright, cheerful smiles brimming across our faces.

"Alright, now let's say we keep looking, shall we?" She declared.

"Got it." I answered with vigor, but right as I started moving again, I heard Natsuki sounded confused about something.

"... wait a second." She muttered, looking around the table in the middle of the room. I remember she put the book there before we talked to each other, but now I see that it was no longer there.

"I could have sworn that I-..." She continued, looking under the table before noticing something stuck to one of the legs.

"What the hell is this?" She said, pulling it out and studying it in her hands.

"What is it?" I asked, walking up to her.

"I don't know, some kind of cloth." She answered, continuing to spin it around in front of her.

"I don't remember someone wearing something like this though…" She said to herself, before she suddenly gasped, as if she just realized something really bad.

"What if someone's in the building with us?" She uttered in horror. I gasped in shock. Could there really be someone else in here? But if there was, then who could it be?

"We gotta tell the others!" She declared, starting to run back up the stairs onto the walkway.

"Wait, what about your leg?" I called out to her, not wanting her to get hurt since it was still new to her, but she quickly stopped to look back at me.

"Forget the leg! We gotta get going now!" She yelled. Understanding how serious she was about it, I quickly nodded and the two of us began running down the hall.

Yuri's POV

I couldn't even begin to describe my thoughts as we continued treading deeper into this place. As I looked around, following close behind the others, I just saw more and more that showed something clearly went wrong here, and that this was the aftermath of it all, left behind in this state of deterioration. The chills that flooded the air, the black goo dripping from the many pipes littered across the ceiling, the lack of noise beyond our footsteps and the barely audible humming of the lights that flickered as we walked past them, and that wasn't even considering the very walls had begun falling apart, holes being covered up only by a single plank of wood, and the corners of the walls becoming infested by webs and rotting wood. I wondered to myself, for just how long had this building been left like this. What could have really happened here? I thought back to what Protag and Theodore had said before, of how the characters this studio had created were brought to life against their will. Could that have really been true, and if so, could they have really done all of this? My immediate response was to think otherwise, but considering what we had been through already, I was willing to believe just about anything. Hat Kid and I followed close behind the trio of Monika, Protag and Theodore at first, heading down the hall that shifted toward another one to our right, revealing a large, painted sentence formed with black text.

"Dreams come true" The paint was still dripping from the words. This was made recently, but by who, and for what purpose? By those living cartoons, perhaps, but in that case, why, and if they made this, that would mean they would still be roaming around this place, so where would they be now? I looked down towards Hat Kid, who was hovering close to my legs, seeming both unnerved and confused at the same time, and I couldn't blame her. Something was definitely wrong here, we just didn't know what or why.

We split from the others at this point, opening the doors that were scattered around the hall. Most just led to supply closets, and work rooms, but one led to a series of wooden stairs into another large room. Perhaps this could be our way down. Hat Kid rushed to the bottom of the stairs and held her hand up to her top hat, scanning the room to her right and around the stairs. She smacked it a couple times, knocking it off center on her head, before quickly readjusted it back into place, gowling in annoyance. I heard from Sayori that she could use her hat to help locate her hourglass. Perhaps something here was interfering with her ability to do so. I followed her, and found ourselves inside another large open room. Almost everything was constructed with planks of wood, much like the rest of the building so far, but a curtain was in place, supported by wooden beams, that separated the stairs from the main area.. Chairs and tables were laid out across the room, copies of the same posters from the entrance hallway covered the walls, a game of darts was set up on our right, and a punch machine was hanging on the wall to our left, as explained by a sign near it, reminding them to punch in, as it could save their job. I found myself continuing to walk around, almost involuntarily, my eyes scouring the room that surrounded me, running my hand along the smoothness of the cold, wooden walls.

"These walls, these rooms, everything feels so decrepit." I uttered to myself. "I can't help but wonder what all this looked like before it became abandoned like this." I kept going, threading under another wooden arch through the hallway that was connected to the room, only to discover the path was blocked off by a series of wooden planks, covered in spider webs. I tried to move one, but none of them would budge. Gazing between the cracks, I noticed a makeshift sign that read 'Danger keep out' in black text, with a rapidly flashing light aimed down into a wooden trap door. Instinctively, I attempted to push myself closer, trying to catch a glimpse of what was hiding underneath it, but my efforts proved fruitless. Pulling myself away and patting myself down, I sighed, trying to decide if it was even worth it to-

DING!

My eyes went wide, and it felt like my heart skipped a beat as I jumped in surprise. My body was instantly frozen in shock, and my gaze immediately shot itself towards the source of the sudden, loud ring, before two more noises soon followed it. The creak of a chair, and a loud thud, as if something heavy hit the ground. Running back towards the main room where the sound came from, I found Hat Kid laying down on her back, near a tipped over chair. Gasping, I hurried over to her, getting down on my knees.

"Are you alright?!" I said distressingly. She brought herself up into a sitting position, groaning as she rubbed the back of her head, but otherwise appeared unharmed. Breathing a sigh of relief, I stood back up, extending a hand down to help her back onto her feet. Afterwards, I quickly scanned the area and found the source of the loud ringing. It was the punch machine. She must have accidentally triggered it, starling her and causing her to fall off the chair she was standing on. Thankfully, she seemed unharmed for the most part, so my mind wandered back to our surroundings. That punch machine, along with the many laid out tables and chairs, brought an interesting perception to my mind.

"This must have been a break area for the employees." I thought to myself. My mind began to fill the empty room in front of us.

"So many people used to be here, conversing with each other, discussing future plans or hobbies, but now… it's just all gone, almost without a trace. I can't imagine what it would have felt to be part of something like that…" Hat Kid looked up at me, clearly confused by that last statement, and I figured it only made sense to go into more detail about it. I grabbed one of the empty chairs and brought it over to where we was, sitting down and clasping my hands together on my lap. Hat Kid flipped the chair she fell off of back up before following suit, looking at me with curiosity in her eyes. It… admittedly took me a moment to find the right words at first, but eventually I knew how I wanted to start.

"You said in your stories that you came across many different types of people on your journey. Just how easy was it for you to interact with them?" I asked her. Hat Kid thought for a moment, then responded with an 'so-so' hand gesture..

"Of course. Most of them did attempt to harm you by the end." I quickly realized. " But the fact you were able to speak with them at all regardless… I looked down toward my hands. "Interacting with so many different people like that…" My hands tightened together.

"…I wish It was that easy for me." Hat Kid tilted her head slightly, puzzled by this. I sighed out loud before I felt ready enough to continue, painful memories beginning to run rampant to my head.

"It's… hard to explain. I… can't really remember when it started, but I remember I was just always… sacred. I don't know why, but I was just always afraid that the world around me always hated me for some reason it never explained, that I always needed to be someone different, that I needed to be someone else, but I didn't know who I was supposed to be. I was always scared of losing myself, that everything I did would always turn me into the type of person that I never wanted to be, so I just… never did anything. That's how it's been my entire life. Endlessly second guessing for every decision I'd ever make, always too frightened to make a choice, always too scared to act, as I was always worried about what would happen if I did… or what kind of person I would become… Monika and the others… They were the only ones who saw me for who I was, rather than what I thought I should be, and I will forever be thankful to them for that, but I'm always reminded that I'm not that kind of person, that person I want to be. I want to be able to speak to others like they can, I want to be able to trust myself, be more confident with myself. I want to feel like I belong!... but I can't. Something always holds me back... Perhaps that's why I take solace in my books as much as I do, as it's the only place where I can pretend to be someone else, while hiding myself away from what I really am… a coward, always too scared to make even the simplest of decisions…" My words began to trail off by the end. I didn't know why I felt the need to dump all of this onto her, and at the same time, a feeling of guilt began encroaching itself in my stomach, but I knew this had been building inside of me for so long, I just felt the urge to get it all off my chest. Hat Kid was noticeably unsure what to think about this, and I saw her looking towards the floor, looking down about it all as well. We sat in silence for a moment, before Hat Kid, perking up as if she had a realization, quickly stood up in her seat, and began pretending to hit something with her umbrella, looking towards me with an optimistic expression. It didn't take me long to understand what she was referring to.

"I suppose…" I muttered, clearly recalling that night as if it had just happened moments ago, but I soon shook my head. "But at the same time, I wasn't really thinking about what I was actually doing during that whole situation, so I'm not really sure if I can count that." Hat Kid stopped, dropping her arms and seemed disappointed by my response.

"I'm sorry." I quickly apologized, wanting to break the grim atmosphere. "I've been going on for too long again." I stood, extending my hand out towards her. "I don't think there's anything for us to find here. Why don't we head back and meet up with the others?" She nodded, taking my hand and jumped off her seat, and the two of us headed back up the stairs, shutting the door behind us. The shutter door that had previously blocked us from progressing deeper into the building had disappeared, and we stepped through, curious as to where the others had gone. The empty hallway we threaded through soon split, paths leading left and right. Without any idea where to head first, we both chose to head right, passing by another supply closet, another drawing table (I had to wonder why they were all placed like this), along with a railing randomly placed between the wall and another wooden support, doing nothing beside separating a small portion of the room.

The hall split into two directions again. It seemed strange to me how often the paths branched off from each other. This would have made the building much more difficult to navigate, I'd presume. Regardless, a single wooden planks rested right in the middle of the split, and we once again looked down both paths to determine where to head down next-

A sudden gasp escaped me as the air was pulled from my lungs.

"Oh my god!" Shouting involuntarily, I froze where I stood, only able to gaze in horror at what rested at the far end of the left hallway. I blinked rapidly, in some effort to deter what I was looking at, but regardless of my attempts, the horrible image remained.

At the end of the hall in the center of the room, a body rested, strapped onto an upright medical operating table. From this distance, I couldn't quite make out any details, but it definitely seemed human in proportions, and it remained still, unmoving in the slightest. Against my better judgment, I found myself slowly stepping towards the body, feeling myself growing more and more tense, shaking just thinking about the possibility of something happening, but as I did, I realized more about just what was in front of me. This wasn't just a body…

It was a corpse…

"What is this?" I muttered quietly. It's body hung, lifeless against it's straps keeping it in place. It's chest had been torn open, and a large wrench was set inside of it's ribcage, which was peeking out of it's torso. I stepped closer into the room, the wooden floor giving out into smoothed out rock, an assortment of other objects laid around the room, a pair of candles were lit on wooden beams opposite sides of the body, and a single light shined from underneath it, but my attention was completely overtaken by the sight. It's head hung downwards, and as I grew closer that's when I discovered that this body wasn't a person at all. It was some kind of anthropomorphic dog, wearing a pair of plumber's overalls and white gloves, but the rest of its body was all black beyond its face, which featured x's for eyes, which shared the sepia tone beige of the rest of the building.

"You poor thing…" I whispered to it, as if it could hear me "Who did this to you?" Cautiously, I walked closer to it, stepping into the circular workstation it was resting inside, and held my hand out to it's jaw. It was cold and viscous, much like the black goo pouring from the ceiling. Could this have been one of the cartoon characters that was given life with that machine? I looked over to one of the posters on the wall, where I realized the resemblance.

"Boris…" That was its name…

"MONIKA! YURI!" I heard Natsuki and Sayori yelling from the other end of the hall, along with the rapid sounds of footsteps against the wooden floor as they ran, clearly worried about something.

"Yuri! There you ar- Oh Jesus!" Natsuki shouted.

"Ah! What is that?!" Sayori yelped, both of them noticing me standing by Boris.

"I-Never mind that!" Natsuki yelled, catching her breath and waving her hands in front of her. "Yuri, we might be in trouble!"

"Natsuki? Sayori? What's going on? Did you find a way down?" I asked with a concerned tone.

"No, but we found this." She told me, holding up a piece of black and red cloth.

"Fabric? Why would this be…" I started, taking it from her hands, before my mind began quickly putting the pieces together.

"None of us were wearing anything like, but it feels too recently made to be here for so long, but that can only mean…"

My eyes went wide.

"Someone else is here with us!"

"Shit…We might actually be in trouble then." Natsuki admitted, before quickly turning back to us. "We gotta hurry and tell the others."

"Agreed." I said.

"Okay." Sayori agreed, and all of us began running back down the halls. While we ran, I turned back to take one last look towards Boris, only to see that the wrench that was previously inside his stomach opening had now mysteriously vanished from sight.

Monika's POV

The creaking of the floorboards echoed throughout the hall, and I felt chill after chill shoot down my spine as we walked. The sheer emptiness of this place was giving me the creeps. Just how long has this place been abandoned for, and why? My eyes found themselves glancing around at the walls that surrounded us. The state of disrepair it was in, the endless piles of black goo, the ominous writings on the walls, just why could this all be like this? What was all of it for? Who really did all of this? My mind wandered back to what Protag and Mr. Peterson had mentioned before, about the characters being brought to life against their will. Could those old cartoons really have caused all of this? Were they the ones that forced everyone to abandon this place? I can't imagine what that must have been like. Being pulled from your world into another you don't know or understand, especially if you weren't aware of it to begin with. Just how lost and confused they must have felt, it must have been terrible for them. Even with how much I yearn to cross over into Protag's reality, I would still want to be sure I knew it was going to happen. Although, now that I think about it, when that day finally does come…

...would I be able to handle that new sensation, or would I lose myself to it as well?

Wanting to distract myself from that topic, I hurried to catch up with the two ahead of me, and decided to fill the quiet air with some conversation.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, those visions of yours." I asked, the others turning to hear what I had to say. "What were they like?" Mr. Peterson turned back away, looking down at the ground before sighing.

"I… can't quite recall when it first started happening, but… I remember myself in these halls. I was chasing someone. I don't know who it was, but something inside me wanted to make them the same as I was. The machine… It turned me into some kind of monster. I couldn't control myself anymore. I know none of it actually happened, but I saw everything I did, and I felt like I really was there, doing all of these horrible things. It felt real." Mr. Peterson spoke with a regretful tone. That must have been horrible for him. Always having to live through these events, but unable to do anything about it. It hit too close to home for me.

"I think I might know why you're having those visions." Protag explained. "I think it was a couple years back, but there was a crossover with you, or, your game I mean, and this game. So that might be why you remember that." Mr. Peterson seemed confused, and thought about this for a moment.

"Hmm, I see." He pondered out loud, his hand placed on his chin. "So that explains it then…" He then turned back to us. "But it goes further than that." He paused for a moment before continuing.

Mr. Peterson continued his story, looking back down the hall as we kept walking. "I recall in those visions, I saw myself meeting with the man who first commissioned the machine, Joey Drew was it? He wanted nothing more than to make his creations real, saying it was the next step in entertainment. And in the end, they managed to do it." We stepped over a pipe with a metal sign that read 'Watch your step'. It was clear, so I could see that it was filled in the same black goop that was infesting the rest of the building. Why would they need so much of this? Could this be the ink for that machine?

"But even with that, he still wasn't satisfied." He continued. "Those cartoons were sentient, but to him, that wasn't enough. They weren't 'real enough'. They didn't learn. They didn't change. They didn't grow. They ended up locking all those failed experiments away inside of a painting. I believe they called 'Inkwell.'" Protag quietly gasped, their eyes going wide. They must have recognized the name.

"However, in order to give those things life, they needed something they couldn't ever replicate with technology alone…" Mr. Peterson stopped for a moment, before turning towards us again. This time however, I could see the turmoil in his eyes.

"A soul."

I felt my throat tighten slightly, and my eyes widened as I realized exactly what he meant.

"No… they didn't! They wouldn't!" I shouted in horror.

"I'm afraid so…" He muttered, before he turned ahead once again and we kept walking in silence.

"We're here." Protag stated not too long after, stepping into a large open room. We were standing on a balcony, overlooking a massive, square hole in the floor, a series of rusted chains hanging from holes in the ceiling that disappeared into it. Light was peeking from the cracks between the wooden planks that made up the walls, and I could see at the other end of the room was a large set of wooden doors. I leaned against the railing that stopped us from dropping down to the floor surrounding the hole.

"What's this place?" I thought to myself. "And what could be down there?"

"Hmm. It looks different than what I remember." Mr. Peterson admitted. "Those visions must not be one to one. But if it's still here…"

I looked over to my right, and saw him reaching for a glowing lever by the railing.

"Wait, hang on!" Protag called, reaching out to grab Mr. Peterson's hand to stop him.

"Please." He said gently. "I need to see it with my own eyes…" Protag looked surprised and hesitated for a moment, but they nodded and stepped back, lowering their arms. Mr. Peterson then gripped the lever tightly before pulling it down, the lever making a heavy cranking noise to lock into place, and soon after the sounds of gears whirling, cogs turning and chains rattling echoes throughout the room. We all took a step away from the railing, and watched in awe as the chains began to emerge from the darkness below us, and at the end, I saw what they were attached to. The chains carried a massive, cubed device! It was huge, probably the size of a car and was covered with gears, cogs, scratches, dents and a black tube that wrapped around it. It also had a large pipe protruding out from the front of it, and a grate underneath, probably to catch whatever came out of it, as multiple other black tubes were connected to the underside of it, disappearing into the dark void it came from . Steam shot out from underneath as it finished rising, settling into place, and the sounds ceased.

"What was this thing?!" I thought, in awe of what I was looking at.

"There it is…" The Neighbor uttered, stepping forward towards the railing. "The Ink Machine…" So that's what it was! This was the machine they were mentioning before. I wasn't sure what to expect when they told us about it, but this was completely different! We all just stood there for a moment, gazing at it, completely entranced by the sight of it. I felt chills in the air, the uncanniness of the thing starting to creep into my skin. This thing really had the ability to bring cartoon characters to life? It seemed so hard to believe, just the very idea of it was impossible, but at the same time, here I was standing right in front of it! Could this really be the cause of everything we've seen, why this place was abandoned like this, why everyone-

"MONIKA!" We snapped out of our trance by the sounds of running footsteps, as I heard the others yell from behind us. We quickly spun around to see them all running into the room, sweating and looking incredibly worried about something. They stopped right in front of us, catching their breath

"Sayori, Natsuki, Yuri?" What's going on? Did something happen?" I asked them, trying to calm them down.

"Someone might be in the building with us." Natsuki rushed her words out, holding up a piece of black and red fabric for us to see.

"We found this piece of cloth that doesn't belong to any of us." Yuri explained, struggling to keep her composure. I took the fabric in my hands, and both Protag and I studied it for a good moment. She was right, none of us was wearing this pattern, but in that case, where did it come from. I couldn't recall anything I've seen in particular, but Protag gasped as if they just realized something horrible

"Wait, that cloaked guy from the restaurant!" They shouted to us with a frightened tone. "Their cloak looked just like this!"

"What?!" Yuri and I yelled in shock.

"Oh shit, really?!" Natsuki exclaimed.

"Wait, what cloaked guy?" Sayori asked.

"That's right." Natsuki realized. "You were still asleep when the guy showed up."

"I was? I don't remember…" Sayori stuttered, but was suddenly interrupted by Protag.

"Look, we'll explain later." They stated. "Right now we have to make sure this machine doesn't get turned on."

"Got it." The rest of us agreed right away.

"O-okay." Sayori was taken aback for a second, but quickly understood, and Protag took off, sprinting back down the hall, the rest of us following close behind. I knew Protag was adamant about this, since they would know exactly how bad this machine really was. If they were this concerned about this, then I knew we could be in serious trouble. We all hurried down the halls of the building, and soon found ourselves inside another strange room. This one featured a makeshift pathway of wooden planks, and the bare floors on each side of the room had three small pillars with random objects on them and light shining down on them, with tubes attached to them from the walls, and framed pictures of those objects. The most prominent part of this room however, was the back wall, which housed a massive series of mechanical motors and circuits, creaking and cranking as they activated, ink was squirting out of cracks in the tubes that were attached to the walls, with a sign above them that read 'Ink Machine: Main Power'.

"Oh no…" Mr. Peterson uttered in horror, and I quickly saw why. The lever to turn it on was pulled down, and the screen next to it confirmed it was running.

Protag slowly turned back to us, fear emanating from their eyes.

"We need to get out of here. NOW!"

We all instantly understood, and immediately began running back down the hall we came from, making a beeline for the exit. The whole building felt like it was shaking as we ran, the sounds of the mechanics drowned out any noise of our footsteps, but I could still feel the heavy beating of my chest and breathing, the sweat running down my face, and the dread coursing through my body. No matter what, we had to keep running, but even that proved to be a challenge as we noticed pieces of the ceiling beginning to crack and fall, creating debris we had to avoid, and the pipes inside the walls started to burst, leaking steam and liquid across the floor, making it slippery and even harder to run. I was forced to shut my eyes almost completely, shielding my face with my arms to stop the ink from getting on my face, dodging pieces of debris falling from the ceiling. Some of them however, did still hit me. I groaned in pain whenever they did, feeling whatever bruises or cuts they left behind, and forcing myself to keep moving through it. I was so distracted by this, that I almost didn't hear a sharp yelp and a loud thud from behind me.

"FUCK! THIS LEG!" I heard Natsuki cry out in a combination of pain and frustration. I quickly stopped, turning around to see her on her knees, holding her knee as she tried to cover the bleeding scrape with her hands. Yuri stopped right besides her, wasting no time helping her back onto her feet. The ink was now starting to rise, covering up to our ankles, making it a struggle to even slug through it. Sayori noticed the flood starting to engulf Hat Kid, so she quickly lifted it up into her arms, before we all started taking off again. I had hoped this would have been the worst of our problems, but as soon as we made it back to the hallway, I realized just how much trouble we had gotten ourselves into!

"GRRRHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRGH!"

A loud roar shot through the hall, catching us all by surprise, and the origin soon revealed itself, stepping from the hallway that led to the ink machine.

It was… a Monster! Human in shape, but tall, lanky, disfigured, deformed and covered in the very ink that was now enveloping the studio! It's bones were showing, a single hand was overly large and covered with a dirty, white glove, it wore nothing but a simple bow tie, the bones on the top of its head resembled devil horns, and it shared the same uncanny grin of the cartoon character that was featured throughout the building. It looked… incomplete, and even though the ink masked its eyes, I could tell it was angry. It roared again, and began sludging towards us, raising its hands to grab us. But before we could even figure out what it was, Mr. Peterson suddenly stepped in front of us

"Get going!" He yelled. "I'll buy you some time!"

"No, we're not leaving you behind!" I shouted back.

"This thing will turn you into one of its own if it catches you! Now Go!" He snapped back, dead set on his demand, before turning back to face the creature, pulling out a rusted shovel that was held on his back, and swung it at the creature. The creature stepped back to avoid it, bending down as if it was reading itself to do something, before it leapt above Mr. Peterson, lunging at him. We watched in horror as it landed on him, driving it's feet into his chest and clasping it's hands around his face, the weight and force shoving him back and down into the sea of ink, both of them disappearing completely.

"MR. PETERSON!" Protag cried, trying to follow after him. I quickly grabbed his wrist to stop them from running any further.

"Come on! We have to go!" I told them, pulling them back towards the rest of us. They looked at me with dejected eyes, although they soon understood, and the rest of us continued running towards the exit. After a short while, we finally made it back to the entry hallway, but to our horror, we all gasped as we discovered something else awaited us in front of our goal.

Standing by the front door, was a cloaked, humanoid figure. I was shocked to realize that the pattern on that piece of fabric did in fact, match the cloak they wore. This was the same person that sent those robots after us at Fazbear's, and I was sure this was the one who turned on the machine in the first place. We all froze at the sight, completely horrified by the fact they were here now.

"Who the hell are you?" Natsuki shouted at him. The figure didn't respond, but rather from underneath their hood, a devilish grin revealed itself, and began to shine. Whoever it was, they were taunting us. It infuriated me, but I knew better than to let it get the better of me. I glanced around towards others, only to find they were as completely at a loss of what to do as I was. Protag, on the other hand, began to slowly step forward, before suddenly leaping towards the figure. They reached out towards them, but they were just short of reaching them, and we were shocked when we saw the floor beneath them suddenly gave out. They tried to reach for the edge, but their hand was stopped by some kind of invisible wall, and they vanished into the dark void. We all gasped in fear.

"Protag!" Me and Sayori shouted. We all ran over to the edge of the newly formed pit, looking down and watching as the ink began to drain into it, but there were no signs of Protag.

"What did you do?!" I heard Yuri yell at the figure. Again, the figure said nothing, but then suddenly transformed into a series of blue, 2d, pixelated 0's and 1's before vanishing entirely. We all gasped in complete shock, frantically looking to where they could have gone.

Where they were though, was right behind us.

"AHH!" The five of us shouted in surprise, nearly falling back into the pit now behind us, struggling to hold our ground against the rushing ink. The figure then raised their hand towards us and shot their fist open. As they did, we all suddenly felt a strong, invisible force hit us, pushing us over and into the ink infested, dark void.

{Error} {Error}

This night was no longer young, for I was the only soul on the road. Not a sound was heard beyond that of my own feet crushing into loose gravel and metal scraping against itself. A thick fog filled the air, so potent to the point where the street lights barely made a difference. It meant nothing to me, so I still walked. Rusted, corroding steel rubbed and slid through whatever was left of this body, but I had long since been used to that feeling.

It didn't hurt anymore, nothing does…

This thing… how I despised it after so long. It would always keep twitching, the metal that encased me trying in vain to reactive, but through its eyes, I could still see. This town… was it even still the same place anymore? Just how long had it been since that day? I didn't know, but I didn't care. I was not wandering aimlessly, for I knew exactly what I was looking for.

I still… remember everything that happened, but I didn't regret any of it. In fact, I yearned for more. I could feel it, the knife inside me, it craved flesh once again, especially from the one it did not get the chance to carve through before… the blood it could not taste…

This gospel, they called it… it called to me… something… drew me here…

That child… she was here, wasn't she?

I stepped within the rain that covered only here, the same rain that caused… all of this, but there was another feeling. There was someone else out here. A pair of eyes, in fact, followed me from the dark, and I knew exactly who, or rather, what they belonged to, for I had felt it before.

That creation of his… that Puppet, it still functioned… It must have noticed, for it's gaze slipped back into the darkness.

No matter, it didn't not concern me, not as I am now. Rather, my focus was only on one thing. I did not know how that child got away from me before, but I was certain that it would not happen again.

"No one has ever escaped me, and I will make sure that remains the case!"