Vingt-six - Hints, hurt, and horrible ideas.
/
Loop three hundred-and-twenty three.
How the hell did they even get this far?
Okay, the answer was Joey, but it wasn't hopeless like it had been so many loops ago. Tedious, repetitive, grueling, but not hopeless.
Susie's refusal to come around to things was as unpleasant as Allison not being able to talk with Tom about their past as husband and wife. They had one thing in common; the next step was stubbornly being avoided.
But… it wasn't pointless. Sammy became more himself and less the prophet with each round, and every time, without fail, the cartoonist fell for him a little more. It helped that Sammy was just as keen to Henry as Henry was to him… but never let it be said that figuring out how to fit two men onto one cot was a simple task.
Not that either was complaining about it.
New loop, new chance at getting closer.
So, when the trio left for the toy room and headed straight for the elevator, it was… interesting to find the path ahead taking a new turn.
"Show of hands, who wants to say hello to Susie?" Sammy asked.
"Not it." Henry murmured, spying Buddy next to him, shaking his head quickly in a no.
The ink man feigned a pout and examined the axe blade with half-lidded eyes. "Mm. Guess she gets nothing."
"Oh, trust me. I'm used to being and getting nothing."
"Shit!" The musician jumped and fumbled for his axe before freezing with a scowl. How was she still so scary? Not even in the same room and here he was, about to crap himself!
Susie, however, chuckled in honest amusement. "Aw, I think I startled the inky little man."
"Little!" He was taller than half the people down here! As a human, he'd been one fine beanpole!
Buddy covered his mute mouth, trying not to laugh at the poor guy.
The cartoonist, however, wasn't laughing. His gaze hopped to the closest speaker. "Hello, Susie." Henry paused. "Is Susie okay?"
"Mm… no. Not really."
He frowned. "Okay, what is?"
"Seeing as we're all aware that I'm just another monster" The bass growl of her hidden voice overtook her words at the end, before she let out a cool sigh. "Ma'am will do."
He could live with that. If it meant they were going forward, he'd roll with it! "Then, ma'am, what do you want to talk about?"
"Why do you think I have something to say?"
"Last ten times I tried talking to you, you told me off." He managed a small smile. "I figure you'd at least insult me."
A scoff that could have been a laugh. "Oh, Henry, give me some credit," cooed the angel from her hiding place. "Something's different. Can you guess what?"
"You're talking. Is that it?"
"No. Try again."
Guessing games? Great. He sighed. "If you mean Buddy, he brought the miner hat with him."
Buddy lifted said hat in greeting to… no one in particular. He figured that traversing the dark with Norman would be even easier if he had the hat with him.
She chuckled and leaned closer to the mic. "Not the wolf, dear errand boy. I'm feeling generous enough to give you a hint, since you won't figure it out on your own. Your deviation might bring salvation… But the things you miss on the way only snag at your feet as they go."
Henry made a disgruntled noise and glanced at the ink man beside him to find him frowning. "Then… clue me in?" He held his hands open, palms to the ceiling.
"That little clone with teeth on the top of its head. What did you call it? I know you gave them names."
Edgar? "The Striker. Why?"
The delicate lilt dropped completely. "It's not with the other two."
The men traded a glance. "What?"
"That trio of failures sticks like glue, but this time? If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was looking for something."
"Why tell us?"
"Mm. Why not? Have fun." Her line went dead.
Sammy's bright eyes narrowed at the closest speaker. "I don't like this."
A shrug. "Fair enough, but it's better than nothing." He turned to Buddy then, brows up. "Buddy?"
The wolf perked.
"Can you let Norman know to be on the lookout for the Striker? The, uh, the one with teeth in the top of it's head?"
Buddy cocked his head.
"If he sees it, he needs to… uh…" But he let out a sigh and glanced Sammy's way. "What the hell do we do once we have the clones matched to lost ones?"
The ink man shrugged. "No idea, little sheep."
Buddy shrugged and gave a thumbs up. He'd let Norman know what was up. It might take a few tries to get the message across, but he could do it. Easier than crawling in a vent and opening a set of sealed doors.
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There had been no signs of the missing butcher clone on the way to Bendy-Land, which could have meant something if Henry understood what the clone was up to. Did it have mind enough to be up to anything, anyway? Having a mouth on top of your skull didn't exactly say you were smart… or had a brain… or were even technically alive.
He and Sammy stood at the top of the stairs, finding no Butcher gang clones below.
The ink man huffed. "Well. This is dull as dirt. Nothing to fling cans at today."
"Maybe the other two are looking for the missing one?" the cartoonist offered with a smile as he headed down to the left path. Clones or not, there were levers to pull.
"Maybe they remember how Norman handles them and took off to stay in one piece." Axe in its loop at his waist, Sammy thumped down the stairs after him.
Henry entered the left room and paused at who was waiting in the open cell. What the hell? "Sammy?"
The quick fall of footsteps met his ears as the ink man raced into the room, axe ready. But he quickly found he needed no axe. "Oh." Sammy tilted his head at the sight, brows furrowed and an unease rising inside of him.
The lost one freed last loop was in the same place she'd always been… but there was no gate, and she wasn't weeping. She stood, arms around herself and shaking. She faced the corner and swayed on unsteady legs.
Sammy squinted at her back and approached slowly. "Dear sheep, why are you here?"
She spoke but didn't turn. "This is home. It was for so long that home can't be anything else. I can't go anywhere and feel right about it. Only here. Just this place."
The ink man raised a hand to her. "But you are forgiven-"
She turned her head and pinned Sammy with a forlorn glare. "Forgiven for what? What did I even do? Do you even know my crime? The one who put me here was ya but you can't name it, can you?"
His hand dropped, and he sighed lowly. "No, I can't."
"Because you're different. You're not our prophet anymore."
He drew back with a deep frown. "No, I'm really not."
She turned and thumped her forehead with a wet smack. "Then you're wrong to let me go. You've no power, no say, nothing. Just go away."
"Hey now." Henry took a step into the cage and gently pushed Sammy out of the way to the lost one. "We're trying to help everyone, you're part of that. Why are you upset about being let out?"
She turned her head and rested a cheek to the wall. Tired, glowing eyes fell on Henry with a huff. "What life is there for ones like us? Beyond these walls and stuck like this. There's nowhere to go when you're a monster like this. You look human enough to go back to your old life, but me? Down here is better." Her eyes narrowed. "Who are you, anyway?"
"My name is Henry."
"Fine. Go away, Henry." Turning her head, she shut him out.
The ink man made a move to snap but was halted by Henry's hand to his elbow.
Henry tried again. "I want to help."
"Ya can't."
"Why not?"
She sighed and sagged on her feet. "Say we are free and outside. What if we look like this forever?"
"I…" He could kick himself. What if that was very much a possibility? "I don't know."
"And until you know? Both of you can go away."
"...fine." The cartoonist pulled the lever needed and made his way out of the room.
Sammy sighed and shook his head at the lost one. So much for freedom on her end, then.
The floor was empty, no clones in sight. But her words ate away at The ink man, so odd and unlikely but able to stir waves of anxiety.
"Sammy?" Henry's voice was soft in the immense room. "Have you… thought about what she's said? Before now?"
"I have, my little sheep." He sighed and tapped out a waltz with one hand. "I… don't know what we'd do, if this was how I'd be stuck on the other side."
"If this place is like this because of Joey, who says you'll be like this outside?"
Sammy frowned, brows pinched. "How do we know Joey's fully controlling this place? Mm? How are we to know there is a future out there." He shook his head and an annoyed smirk pulled at his lips. The tapping hand ran over his scalp. "My god. We could stop all of this and go free, and the second I'm on the surface I'd be a-a puddle of ink!" Dead and gone, all this work wasted just to die under the sunlight. "Never even crossed my mind! Then what? Keep me in a jar?"
Henry's heart pounded and anxiety dug claws into his lungs, climbing his rib cage like rungs of a ladder. "Sammy, we don't-"
The musician snapped with balled fists, snarling with glowing teeth. "Exactly!" The sharpness of his humanity leaped out and struck. "We know nothing about this place! I've been trapped here for decades and I still can't figure half of this out! What happens if freedom opens her arms and everyone but you end up dead? You come back fine here, but what if it catches up to you when we get out?"
The bubble of anxiety burst and so did the threads of Henry's tightly drawn calm. "I don't know! Do you wanna stay here?" The cartoonist snapped back.
Sammy froze and blinked while he drew back. "I never said-"
"What choices are there, Sammy?" The frustration pressed a hot lump into his throat and forced a hand through auburn hair. The exhausted man drew in a breath and didn't look up. "What else is there? You're only now saying that this… may not even be worth it? That this isn't enough? Well, what is enough? I'm sorry I don't have the answers!" He blinked his blurring eyes, but it did little to clear them. "Even if you're stuck this way, I'd-" But the cartoonist clamped his mouth shut and walked away for the next lever. So much for having faith in him.
He didn't hear Sammy following him into the room on the right. He took the chance alone to push up his glasses and dry his eyes with the back of his arm. Pulling the lever with that same arm, he adjusted his glasses to sit right. Just… press on. He had to keep pressing on even if-
Movement at the opening. Sammy stood at his full height. The light hid his expression save for the burning, amber eyes pinned on Henry.
The cartoonist swallowed. "Let's go."
Sammy did nothing.
Shaking his head a tad, Henry stared pointedly beyond the ink man and walked on. "Come on, we can't keep stalling."
But the ink man hummed lowly and placed both hands to the frame of the doorway, not looking away from Henry.
"Sammy, we-"
"I'm sorry." Short and panicked, but deeply earnest. He needed Henry to hear it with nothing in their way. He had to be clear, even if his voice was frail and his heart was sinking. He had hurt Henry and by god he wasn't going to just move past it without trying to fix it!
"It's fine."
A head shake, and the ink man's left hand grasped a shoulder. "It's not fine."
"Sammy, it's okay, let's just-" But his voice was small and brittle, then Sammy had him in a hug that said as much 'I'm sorry' as it did 'Please listen to me'. In the dark, the cartoonist's face crumpled, and he hugged back. A funny sliver of him noted he was usually comforting Sammy. He sighed and propped his chin on an inked shoulder, letting himself be held.
God. What a mess.
"That anger a moment ago was all me. No ink or prophecy. That's why I worry about this so much. You may have said you'd take the real me any day, but if my mind is fully mine and my body is this… thing, what then?" His grip tightened and he let some of his weight fall onto the man. "If this is how I'll be-"
A sniff and a firmer grip. "Then that's who you'll be and who I'll be with, but I'm not letting go, Sammy. You gotta believe that."
Charcoal fingers carded through faded auburn hair. "But for a minute I didn't. And… in the past, not believing lead to pain." He sighed, eyes searching the ceiling. "You work so hard, Henry. So hard I worry about you, but I shouldn't have snapped."
"Snapping's not what hurt."
"Still. I am sorry, Henry."
A nod. "I know."
"Good." The ink man pulled back and kissed the closest temple. "But, ah, please don't put me in a jar."
The cartoonist let out a wet snort of a laugh and quickly dried his face as they pulled apart. "Just for that you're going in an old pickle jar."
Sammy laughed back, amber eyes warm and soft as they left. "At least get me a new jar!"
"Nah. Some old mason jar under the sink."
"Under the- I deserve a window seat!"
The two men turned and left the room behind.
What a surprise to find Buddy waiting for them in the main room!
"There you are." Henry smiled at the wolf tiredly. "Any Striker sightings?"
But the wolf shook his head. He gestured around the room with furrowed brows and raised palms.
The ink man frowned, gaze firmly on the wolf. "Buddy, where's Nor-"
There was a screech up above and Sammy let out a yelp, axe pulled from its place at his hip as he spun.
His wide-eyed terror fell to a deep scowl as Norman waved from a spot on the rails behind the group. Hidden out of sight until the right moment. The ink man could have sworn the amalgam was laughing at him!
Buddy shook with silent laughter, and Henry's confused squint faded to a halfway-annoyed smile. "Jeez. You got us good." To be fair, his heart rate went up like hell when Norman screeched. He couldn't imagine what Sammy's heart was doing.
The ink man growled and stomped a boot. "Ugh! Unbelievable!"
Norman didn't seem to care about the scolding, but Buddy at least looked a little guilty.
"Good lord, I almost killed you!" He hadn't even come close to killing anyone just then, but the more Norman laughed the less angry he felt. "You liked pranks, Norman, but really?"
Henry chuckled, failing to keep a straight face anymore. The sheer indignation on Sammy's face was what did it! "Y-you gotta admit, it was a little funny. You jumped a whole foot!"
A huff. "Oh, I see how it is. Am I a joke to you?"
"No, but… you do make me smile."
The ink man blustered and holstered his axe with an exaggerated frown. "I'm a clown, then. Fantastic." Gold eyes narrowed, but the frown twitched back into a sardonic smile.
Buddy was bouncing on his feet in excitement, and it wasn't from the prank. He waved a gloved hand their way, beaming.
"What's up?" Henry asked with a soft smile.
The wolf held his arms out to Norman as if presenting an unveiled work of art. Norman, however, growled and brought a cable around from behind his back.
He… had the Striker, and it didn't look at all happy about being tied up.
"Norman!" Sammy gaped.
The Projectionist nodded and held the clone further away from his body as it wriggled in rage. Its top teeth chattered quietly and its good eye darted around the room. Norman made his way down the stairs, reels ticking slowly.
"Did it bite you?"
A nod, and a sharp shake of the creature wrapped in cables.
Henry stared, then pulled his seeing tool from his back pocket. "Norman? Turn the clone so I can give it a good look over."
The amalgam complied, opting to hold the angry critter by a foot.
"Allison said that the Piper clone had a paintbrush, so maybe…" He walked in a slow circle, pausing when the glass landed at the clone's back. "Sammy, that lost one and the Striker have matching markings."
"Fantastic!" He clapped his hands together. "What do we do with this information?"
"Maybe… we have to get them together? In the same room?"
The ink man looked behind him to where the lost one had been. "Well, she's not going anywhere, anyway." He waved Norman over. "Bring that thing over here. I have a plan!"
/
Okay. Nobody said the plan was good.
But Sammy had excellent grip strength, having taken the angry clone by the arms and holding it out to the lost one. "Does this ring any bells?"
"I'll ring your bell if ya don't leave me alone."
Sammy frowned with a low grumble. "Henry, I did not think this through."
The cartoonist rubbed a hand through his hair with a sigh. "You're telling me."
Buddy was glad to have stayed out of the room. Norman was glad to guard the door in case something went wrong. Could he hear, he'd be laughing at the two men and their failed idea.
The clone writhed angrily, snapping its head teeth at the recoiling ink man. Said ink man held the clone further away from his body. "Maybe if you hold the-"
"No way in hell am I touching that thing." She snarled from the corner she'd been backed into.
"Really?" Sammy let go of the clone's bad arm and flung the poor thing her way, then lunged for the handle to shut the cage in a fluid, frantic jolt. His toss landed true and sent them both to the ground with a jumble of limbs and shouting.
Henry pushed up his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose with an unhappy groan.
The clone stood on shaky legs, good eye darting around as the teeth on its head chomped air.
The lost one stood as well and growled. "Open the goddamn door."
"Not until we figure something out." Sammy said.
She pointed with a four-fingered hand. "You two ain't figuring out shit!"
The clone growled in what could have been agreement, teeth slowed but still chattering away. Two stubborn mules bent on not getting killed by the other, having a hell of a standoff with the ink man and cartoonist.
"She's right. We don't know what we're doing with this, do we?" Henry asked mostly to himself.
Sammy's eyes narrowed, the gears in his head working as he tried to parse out what was missing from this puzzle before him. They were the missing piece to each other, so… what did they need? "We… need a link."
"Link?"
"Two pieces of a whole… but what can bring them together?"
Henry glanced at the Lacie tape and slowly reached for the play button. "Well… this is worth a shot."
The surly woman's voice filled the space, and the two in the cage stopped moving altogether.
The clone blinked, tilting its head a little.
The lost one did a similar motion with a flinch. Her eyes flickered, and she lay a hand over her stomach. Inked fingers pressed at the pained spot in confusion, before her head turned to the clone now flexing a hand her way. "...ulcer. What's… who?" She blinked and shook her head, eyes wide as saucers.
The clone took a step forward, sewn mouth almost smiling up at her. It patted its own stomach the same way she had.
The lost one reached out her hand, carefully touched the clone and-
Splat!
Henry's jaw fell open. The moment the two parts willingly touched, they collapsed into a puddle!
The ink man blinked as the tape behind him clicked off.
Movement from the puddle, starting as a faint ripple before a silky, black body curled upwards from the ink, the puddle shrinking as more emerged. An arch of a back rose, followed by blackened limbs that ended with the lost one propped precariously on elbows and knees. Some parts of her flicked gold and went back to black.
The lost one reached out with a five-fingered hand and gripped the lattice front to pull up onto shaky feet. She heaved a couple breaths and turned to stare at the men outside of the cage. "Guess you boneheads got something right. Now, how's about you open that door?"
Sammy grinned and pulled the lever. "Gladly."
The gate lifted to reveal the lost one with what could only be an irritated smirk on her stringy face. "You're lucky that stupid shit worked, y'know."
The cartoonist nodded. "Yeah. Do you want to come with us? We have to get to the lost harbor."
Her brows pinched with a slow shake of her head. "Not going that way. I… gotta find someone."
"Who?"
She could only shrug. "Dunno, but he's important to me. I got the brains back to figure it out, so… y'all have fun throwin' shit around." She waved and headed out of the room at a jog, leaving a surprised Buddy and Norman in her wake as they parted from the entry.
Sammy harrumphed with arms crossed. "Not even a thank you."
"At least she's not swearing at us anymore?"
"True, my little sheep."
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