A/N: See the note at end of this chapter for the reason why this had been delayed.
-x-x-x-
The vents were normally not so tricky to traverse, but that was when Henry was alone.
He had company this time.
The vents felt much more cramped than usual, which made sense, as there was now more than one person traveling through it. And added to the enclosed space feeling smaller than usual, there was a keen sense of urgency to get away.
It was best to follow that gut instinct, here in the studio.
Henry had a hunch that things would only get worse if he, Grant and Bendy didn't get out of that vent as soon as was possible. But even as Henry moved forward, light held before him, he couldn't help but risk a glance backward, looking past Grant's frowning toon wolf muzzle.
It wasn't an out of the ordinary sight, those lost ones. Two lost ones normally shuffled forward to block the way back, and there they were, standing in front of the grate like always. It was likely that one of the inky beings had seen Grant kick the grate into place to prevent them from following. Neither lost one made as if to touch the grate, however. Either they were uninterested, couldn't budge the grate themselves, or they believed that Henry leaving the area was good enough.
That was fine.
Henry sure hoped that the other lost ones in deeper areas of the studio would not take offense to his appearance. Even now, Henry wasn't sure how he was going to reassure Bendy that he would do his best to not go through the well of voices again. It seemed to have become a very hollow promise to make in this place. One never knew when something might go wrong, and that was where Henry was ending the thought, pleading for there to be no more surprises going forward. Right now, all he, Grant and Bendy had to focus on reaching the other side of the vent without-
Something that sounded a hell of a lot like Sammy running his mouth could be heard in the distance.
No.
Dread grew within Henry, his tail flicking.
"Henry? Why did you stop?" Grant questioned, frown deepening. "We need to keep moving. I doubt the vent being haphazardly covered will convince them to stay away for long."
The voice was growing closer, the tone confirming it as the music director's.
"Won't deter Sammy." Henry pointed out.
"Of course, he's still around." Grant shook his head. "Thought the Ink Demon might have snacked on him."
"If only." Henry sighed.
Bendy issued out an unhappy sound as he gently shook Henry's shoulder, as if to urge him out of his frozen state.
This might have gotten Henry to move, had he not still been looking at the grate, and the cacophony of voices outside it.
Please...
Henry watched with growing distress as both lost ones abruptly moved aside.
Please, anything but-
Not a moment later, Sammy fucking Lawrence, the man himself, appeared in front of the vent, trembling with barely contained rage. Without missing a beat, Sammy reached out to seize the grate, and with very little effort, tore out the grate with his bare hands. Dropping the piece of metal carelessly to one side, Sammy turned so that the mask over his face appeared to stare Henry down.
Hell.
Sammy hoisted himself into the vent wordlessly. There was a faint glow visible behind the Bendy mask, which made the music director appear more menacing.
This was hell.
Sammy was damn tenacious.
Henry knew that this vent eventually opened up into an area that was close quarters, with not many places to go to (or hide in) other than up the stairs (where one could be cornered). At least until the door to the left of the vent was opened up to allow entry into Bendy Land (or Bendy Hell, as someone had dubbed it, scrawling with ink over the sign). All Henry could hope for was that Sammy would pursue him once everyone got out of the vent. As much as Bendy wouldn't like it (being separated again), this would give the little devil and Grant a head start once they got through the door to Bendy Land.
"I won't let you take my lord's toon form away from us again, false savior!"
How wonderful.
Upgraded from a lowly sheep to a nonbeliever and now, to a false savior.
How absolutely spiffy.
Henry did not care at all right now, but Sammy clearly did.
The music director sure did seem to dislike Henry's current appearance, if only because it took attention away from the Ink Demon and toon Bendy amongst the lost ones.
That appearance being a mishmash of the two, tall like a lanky toothpick in tattered sweater and a pair of overalls, with boots.
Henry even had a tail!
Neither Bendy nor the Ink Demon had one.
Henry would have liked the chance to point out to Sammy that the interest of said lost ones hadn't lasted once the human imperfections were noticed, namely Henry's arms and legs.
"I won't allow this continued disrespect toward our true savior to continue. You may run, but you will never truly escape! And once you are cornered, I will make certain that you do not come back from the ink like before! He will set us free! Soon, you will be no more, to get in the way of my lord!"
Strange, how Sammy's ravings could be unhinged, while at the same time, spoken as if the man found it completely rational.
"Grant, go on ahead! Sammy's headed this way." Henry squeezed in close next to the partly dented grate, near where the Ink Demon ordinarily popped up to make a 'shh' noise at him. Henry tended to move through the vents as quickly as possible to avoid seeing the Ink Demon at all, or at least, only a very quick glimpse. As far as Henry was aware, this loop the skeletal creature was still outside the previous room. Though with it no longer menacing Sammy over giving attention to Henry and toon Bendy instead of it, the Ink Demon may have moved on to another place. Henry didn't question the Ink Demon showing up out of nowhere, as it was apt to do.
"Henry, if you get sent back to the well of voices over this, it's going to upset Bendy." Grant squeezed past Henry regardless, taking the light in hand when offered.
"I know, but we can't keep being delayed trying to move forward." Henry replied, reaching behind his head to try and wrestle Bendy's arms away from his neck.
The little devil's arms only wrapped more snugly, a discontent noise slipping out.
"I'm sorry." Henry told Bendy, successfully unlatching the toon's arms. "I'll try to be careful."
Bendy comically flailed about and kicked his feet, but the shoes never made contact with Henry. Bendy went limp right before he crossed his arms over his chest, horned head completely turning around so the toon could pout at Henry.
Sammy was getting closer.
"Please? I want you to be safe."
Bendy sniffed and unwrapped one arm to point at Henry before crossing his arms again and looking aside.
"I know I haven't had the best track record, but that's kind of par the course for me in this place. Just a little more dangerous than the last couple of loops" Henry knew this wasn't very reassuring, from the little toothy frown Bendy fixed him with. But Henry was already passing the compliant if unhappy toon over to Grant. "Even with Sammy's threats, he can't do too much inside this vent. This means that I can provide a diversion to let you move forward and get to a safer place."
"Catch up when you're able to." The toon wolf shook his head, presumably at Henry tempting fate by interacting with Sammy. Grant gently herded Bendy further down the vent, the little toon devil letting out another distressed sound.
Henry didn't like how close Sammy was to him, nor the way that the man seemed to be headed right for him instead of choosing to go and try to bring Bendy back to the room with the lost ones. Henry was quick to shove away from the grate to follow after his friends as they turned the corner of the vent, just as the Ink Demon chose to make an appearance.
Shadows gathered over the vent's grate, casting darkness within.
Shit.
Instead of taunting with a whispering hush, the Ink Demon did something completely different. The inky creature rushed the vent with a low growl as it smashed its ungloved hand straight through the grate. The hand uncurled as claws flashed out, grasping for Henry's legs.
Before Henry could even comprehend what had just happened, he was caught in a painful manner. The skeletal creature's claws dug into Henry's leg, one claw tearing a jagged line from just below the back of the knee to drag along the shin, and down to just above the ankle. The Ink Demon's fingers flexed its claw free before it firmly grasped Henry's ankle, the tail trapped alongside the limb, tail tip flailing in alarm.
Henry's head began to throb with a dull ache.
The whispers within the darkness that accompanied the Ink Demon seemed as if they were trying to claw their way into Henry's mind.
There was a distressing amount of ink blocking his vision.
Henry's frantic scrabbling with his hands against the metal of the vent was cut short when the pain became a growing ache. That ache spread throughout his right hand and left shoulder, where Henry had been previously injured by the Ink Demon. The newest wound throbbed in time to the pounding of Henry's racing heart.
"Beacon Henry." The Ink Demon hissed, its grip now crushing. "No more hiding. Come out of there." At that, the inky creature yanked Henry clean out of the vent without any further resistance. "No more running away with others."
"Henry!" Grant must have either heard or seen what happened.
"Keep going, Grant! Go and-" Henry trailed off with a choked groan of pain as he dangled upside-down within the Ink Demon's unyielding hold. There was a little less ink within his vision now. Shaking his horned head in an attempt to clear it, Henry finished his previous thought with a shout. "Open the door to Bendy Land! The switch is at the top of the stairs, around the table that's there, on the wall to the left!"
"No more fleeing within the ink, to reappear in a different place than before." The Ink Demon didn't seem to care about Henry yelling. The inky creature shot a pointed look in Sammy's direction. "Beacon Henry is my prey. Mine. Not yours to chase."
To Henry's amusement, Sammy shrank back from the edge of the vent briefly as he spoke.
"I won't kill him without your say so, my lord."
Henry highly doubted this.
The moment Henry was out of the Ink Demon's presence, Sammy was sure to hunt him down.
"Mine. Leave now, Follower Sammy." The Ink Demon hissed, keeping Henry upside-down as it narrowed its eyes. "Must deal with Beacon Henry now. Later, will find Follower Sammy, for help that was offered before."
Lovely.
How wonderful.
The Ink Demon could hold conversations and even retain contents of the ones it recently had.
Sammy hesitated at the edge of the vent, as if reconsidering the possibly of offering his lord assistance. The music director seemed to decide that possibly enduring another snarling lecture by the Ink Demon was something that didn't need repeating so soon. Sammy spared Henry a brief, satisfied look, as if pleased that the Ink Demon caught him. The slightly distrustful look that followed after was likely because Sammy did not think the Ink Demon could 'deal' with Henry on its own. Perhaps Sammy...recalled, if only vaguely, of Henry outwitting him in one of the past loops?
Henry sincerely doubted that Sammy would dare question his savior and was proven correct when the music director merely did as the creature asked and left.
Reluctantly.
Sammy shuffled backward, boots clunking against the metal of the vent, before the inky man turned to continued crawling through the vent, presumably to try to fetch toon Bendy.
The Ink Demon let out a satisfied sounding huff at being listened to, before its inky head swung to face Henry, lifting him up a little to come face to upside-down face.
Henry dangled there, doing his best not to move lest that big maw opened, and Henry was greeted with a large, flat-toothed bite.
The ink within Henry's vision was gone now.
"Quiet now. Noisier before." The Ink Demon rumbled eventually, its head cocking to the side, eying something on Henry as its gaze looked down. "There is much red..." The inky creature hissed unintelligibly for a moment before it became understandable again. "What is red? The liquid is red. Not ink black. Black is the color of this place. The ink. Why is it red?"
"Blood. The red is blood. Remember my hand from before? My shoulder? How I told you...I wouldn't let you have any more?" Henry wheezed out. He only spoke, because it was too uncanny and almost...wrong, to listen to the Ink Demon reasoning things aloud. Henry figured the Ink Demon saw whatever wound had been caused by being seized and then unceremoniously dragged out of the vent. Henry didn't dare move his head right now, determined to keep his focus on the Ink Demon.
The damage shouldn't be...bad, right?
But Henry couldn't feel it yet, and there was more blood dripping down than a shallow injury would have caused. Henry worried just how bad the injury was, if he was currently numb to it. Henry turned his thoughts away from himself, hoping that Bendy and Grant would be all right, because he wasn't so sure he would be. Henry winced as the grip around his ankle and tail grew impossibly tighter, before the Ink Demon turned to toss him a short distance away.
"The ink filled room. The first non-hurt touch was." The Ink Demon indicated its horns with a claw, then pointed at Henry. Its eyes narrowed, as if in thought. "Remember this happening. The strange taste from that time, when biting shoulder." The Ink Demon loomed closer, ink sliding off of its body as it moved. "This was before the non-hurt touch. The taste...was not ink."
"Yeah, it wasn't ink." Somehow, Henry didn't immediately fall over to the floor, despite landing on his heavily bleeding left leg. "I'm not made up of ink like most everyone else is here." Henry wasn't sure for how much longer that would be true and wondered if even that piece that marked him as human would eventually be gone.
"Then what was it? This non-ink?"
Direct question.
Curiosity.
Direct eye contact with those too human-like eyes.
Henry looked around the small room quickly, hop-limping backward as the Ink Demon approached, its own limping gait bringing it closer. There weren't many places to run in this enclosed space. There was a door behind him, but Henry sincerely doubted that he could make it through the door (if it was even open) with the Ink Demon so close.
Not without some kind of distraction.
"Beacon Henry. Where are you going?" The skeletal creature's head tilted to one side, ink dripping off one horn. The teeth chattered a moment, before another word issued out. A question within the name spoken. "Henry?"
An incensed noise emitted from the vent.
Henry wearily sighed.
That was another point against him in Sammy's addled mind.
Being called by his name by the Ink Demon, and not a title followed by a name.
Great.
Henry just loved the idea of Sammy being extra aggressive toward him later on, when Henry inevitably ran into the man again.
"Do not run yet." The creature growled again, taking another step forward. "Henry."
"That's my name. Don't wear it out." Henry kept the Ink Demon within his line of sight as his back made contact with the door. It sure was handy that his pie cut eyes could remain open for a longer amount of time without needing to blink. Unnerving, but useful. Hand fumbling for the handle, Henry attempted to get it ready to open up before-
The Ink Demon pounced.
Wincing as those claws threatened to dig into his previously wounded shoulder, Henry froze up. At least until the Ink Demon leaned in closer, the ink still out of its eyes as it stared avidly at Henry with what appeared to be a searching gaze. Henry pressed his back harder into the door, as if this would get him away from the scrutiny of the inky being before him.
This didn't help much.
The Ink Demon's head took up much of Henry's vision as the creature inspected him, unasked questions dying the moment they were about to be spoken.
What was it doing?
Why was it frowning at him?
Funny.
Henry was so used to it smiling that wide toothy smile, with blunt flat teeth, or sharp. Henry looked anywhere but the Ink Demon, which meant looking over the shoulder of the arm that pinned him, spying some of its back spikes.
Wait.
Were those spikes...longer than before?
Henry couldn't recall at the moment.
"Wet."
What?
Henry's gaze switched back to looking at the top of the Ink Demon's head, to avoid those slit pupil eyes.
"The blood is wet, like ink." The Ink Demon grumbled as its gaze dropped to Henry's left leg, black tongue briefly flicking out. "Recall coppery taste. Do not understand what that means, but it is that. Coppery."
Henry chanced a brief look down, and grimaced, his stomach dropping at the sight of all the blood that had pooled beneath his left foot. He must be numb to it after all, due to the adrenaline of being dragged so forcefully out of the vent. Apparently, blood loss was not as concerning as it ought to have been, if Henry was still upright?
"Henry is no good injured. No fun to follow, like this." The Ink Demon let out a displeased grumble. "Not interesting to hunt, when unable to run." It relinquished its grasp and stepped back, teeth gnashing together. The Ink Demon narrowed its eyes at Henry again. "Need the make better box to fix leg for chasing."
Henry blindly fumbled for the door handle once more. He kind of preferred the screeching and the growls of a mindless beast to this more calculated one.
Make better box.
The med kit.
It would have been kind of cute, if it was anyone but the Ink Demon calling the kit that.
...maybe not Sammy or the twisted Alice either.
"No running, Henry." The skeletal creature warned, stepping forward as if to grab him. "Too much limp in leg...injury hinders." Those eyes seemed to pinch at the corners in apparent pain. "Should know, with this." The Ink Demon gestured its gloved hand at its own bum left leg, growling irritably. "Can chase but not as fast as before."
Thank goodness for that.
Henry silently thanked whoever crippled the Ink Demon's leg before Henry ever ran across it in his many romps through the studio. Had the Ink Demon been able to properly move about, Henry doubted that he ever would have been able to outrun it for a short time to get to safety. Henry wondered how the inky creature could even remember that far back, though it clearly wasn't a pleasant memory from the expression on its face.
"Will not get far, if trying to run now."
Ominous.
Henry didn't think he wanted the Ink Demon carrying him off somewhere. Even if it helped 'heal' his wounded leg, Henry had the unnerving thought that the chase would begin soon after, whether or not Henry was fully healed. He couldn't chance the Ink Demon killing him. There was no way to know if Henry would be able to come back, or if the Ink Demon would end up sending him all the way back to the beginning of the loop.
It had happened many times before, after all.
Henry couldn't let it happen now.
He would try now.
Henry wrenched the door open.
The Ink Demon lunged.
Henry threw himself through the doorframe and slammed the door into the Ink Demon's face.
This did not do much more than briefly stun it.
Henry barely missed being hit with the door as the Ink Demon charged through the now doorless frame.
"HENRY..."
Panic fueled adrenaline lent speed to Henry's reckless charge down the hall. Henry ran, heedless of any other potential enemies. Sprinted, at the expense of his seriously wounded leg, which twinged every time Henry's left foot hit the floorboards.
The leg felt like it might give out at any moment.
"There is nowhere to run, Henry." The Ink Demon screeched. "No boxes to hide inside. No others around to send to the inky place of voices."
Bendy Land.
Henry had to find a way to rejoin his friends. He highly doubted that he would be able to get back into the vent without the Ink Demon pouncing. And even if Henry did manage to get back into the vents, there was a high likelihood that Sammy might be lurking there, waiting to strangle him.
Best to avoid the vents.
Henry didn't want death by music man again.
Stumbling round a corner, Henry evened out into a fast-limping jog.
He couldn't run forever.
Even if the Ink Demon happened to lose sight of him, it could always leave this area and then reappear, to possibly drag Henry through an inky wall with it.
Turning a sharp corner one more time, and desperately ignoring the surge of agony up half his leg, and further up, Henry continued to run.
Only for the floor to give out beneath him with a bare warning of a loud crack of wood beneath his feet.
Henry fell, barely having any time to brace himself.
Luck was on his side as Henry somehow landed on a stack of burlap sacks and tumbling down to the floor with him. The fall stunned him, his leg a major factor in this as Henry was nearly blinded with the pain as his leg took some further damage from the fall. Overhead, Henry heard the Ink Demon's own limping charge as it sought him out. Henry knew that it would soon spot the large hole in the ground and put two and two together.
He had to move.
Leave.
Maybe find a little miracle station to lie low in.
Henry tried to maneuver himself up to hands and knees, still dazed, but ended up sprawled out on the floor on his front. After that, Henry was unable to find any strength in his limbs to continue on. Closing his pie-cut eyes, Henry's horns and tail twitched as he became aware of several someone's suddenly surrounding him.
Their whispers...they were different. Not voices within the swirling darkness, since Henry wasn't being picked up by a large, gloved hand or an inky clawed one.
Not the ink Demon, then.
These hands were smaller, but it didn't feel like they were as big as the lost ones still human sized hands. Henry couldn't open his pie-cut eyes, but he did manage to issue out a thin noise of discomfort when his leg was accidentally jostled as he was turned over. Several voices spoke over one another, as if arguing, and this made it harder for Henry to track them all in his current state. Eventually, he was able to pick out a few sentences, even if Henry couldn't put a face to those voices.
"Keep quiet afore that inky demon fella hears us."
"Git him under the arms, gents."
"Is this…Bendy? Why is he so much bigger than us?
"He doesn't look quite right, just like that twisted Alice. He has a tail. See?"
"Quiet down fer a sec, gal, that thing's gettin' closer!"
A hushed silence fell over those crowded around Henry.
"Beacon Henry! Beacon...no, not Beacon. Not shining bright, without seeing through ink." The Ink Demon snarled lowly, claws digging into a nearby wall. "Henry. Come out, Henry! Help blood leg before chasing." The shadows along the walls dissipated as the Ink Demon roamed off in search of its missing prey. "No screaming whispering darkness for you yet."
Henry's hands twitched, but otherwise, he was simply too exhausted and in pain to do anything. Not even to protest the way he was awkwardly carried off by several individuals from the feel of it, half his tail left to trail along the floor. Henry's head eventually hung listlessly to the side, his breathing labored as his chest rose and fell with short breaths.
Tired.
He was tired.
Always so tired in this place.
The dripping ink.
The whispering that came and went.
The constant chasing by the Ink Demon or others.
Injuries piling on more than in past loops.
The well of voices
It was all exhausting.
But Henry couldn't give up.
Not now.
Things were much different this loop.
Henry wanted to see what other changes this current loop would bring.
"Rest." A sweet voice said, a hand tentatively resting on Henry's head between his horns. "You'll be all right. We'll take care of you."
Funny.
That voice...
It was almost exactly as Henry pictured Alice Angel's voice.
Not like the voice of the twisted Susie or Allison's, but of what toon Alice's voice could have been.
As determined as Henry was to not pass out, he unfortunately could only exist in a somewhat half-aware state at present. Though as soon as he was settled somewhere, and Henry's leg was seen to, a surge of overwhelming agony swept through him. The pain made Henry reconsider a formless swim through the well of voices, but he would try to keep his promise to Bendy to be careful, and that included not intentionally looking for trouble. Even if a trip through the well would heal his wounds, Henry wasn't sure what further changes would happen to his body.
It was best to just take it easy.
...As much as one could, anyway, in this sprawling studio that held many creatures and lost souls interested in killing you if given half the chance.
Bendy...
Henry would hold on, for the toon.
Surely recuperating wouldn't take that long, especially if Henry happened to down some of that bacon soup scattered about to help speed up the process.
-x-x-x-
A/N: I did not realize it would take me so long to get back into this story. Sorry about that long wait. I tend to leave fics alone for extended periods of time until I have renewed interest/inspiration for them again-I don't like to try to write chapters while feeling burnt out/unmotivated.
But with the new game coming out soon (and due to the cute Bendy at the end of the trailer) my creativity for this fic sparked again (I got about 25 pages of rough draft out of my outline so far since said trailer). I'm hope for a few more chapters before the end of the year, so long as editing goes well. As a head's up, chapter length will be inconsistent. Some might be shorter; others might be longer (it'll be based off how the outline translates into rough draft form).