Chapter 12:
"Where did he go?" Alya wondered out loud as the group looked up at where the strange figure had been standing. She was shaking very slightly and fear, but she soon got ahold of herself.
"I don't know," Ladybug replied, glaring up at the spot before turning away. "But it doesn't matter. We need to drain the hallway and get out of here as quickly as possible."
"I agree," Henry said, hefting his axe and taking the lead. "Come on, let's get going."
The group hurried out of the band room, sticking close together and taking comfort in each other's presence. They were walking down the hallway to Sammy Lawrence's office when they noticed the stairway to the infirmary was now ink-free. They decided to check it out just to make sure there weren't any surprises, doing their best to stay safe. Instead of finding more monsters, they found another pipe, but this time the valve was missing.
"Where could it be?" Henry wondered, looking around. He pulled a switch on the wall and they heard something open behind them. The walked down another set of stairs to find what appeared to be a sewer system. Written on the wall across from them was the words "Down here, we're all sinners." They didn't really want to go forward, as there was no telling just what was in the black river, but they had no choice if they wanted any chance of escaping the studio.
Reluctantly they stepped into the inky sludge and looked for any sign of the valve. They spotted what appeared to be one of those monsters from before, though it was larger than the ones they'd seen and seemed to be wearing a hat. When it didn't attack them right away, the group slowly approached it. As soon as they got close though, the monster slunk into the ink and disappeared.
"I think that thing was holding the valve," Henry said, chopping down the planks blocking their path. "Come on, we need to get that valve."
They continued further down the sewer, passing another message on the wall which said: "The sheep will come for the slaughter." They couldn't help but shiver slightly at the ominous message. Soon they came to a small alcove with a desk and another tape recorder.
"Man, it must suck to have to work down here," Alya commented as Henry went up to play the tape recorder. "I wonder what he did to end up down here."
"I guess we'll see," Henry said as he pressed play.
"I love the quiet, and that's hard to come by these busy times," the voice of Jack Fain echoed through the sewer tunnel. "And yeah sure it may stink to high heaven down here. But it's just perfect for an old lyricist like me. Sammy's songs always got some bounce, but if I didn't get away once in a while, they'd never have any words to go with them. So I'll keep my mind a-singin' and my nose closed."
"At least he was down here by choice," Nino commented with a slight smile before he realized that Henry, Ladybug, and Chat were all frozen. "Guys, what's wrong?"
"That… that monster…" Ladybug began slowly, horrified as she put the pieces together. "The one with the hat… I think he might be this Jack Fain guy…"
"That means that all those monster…" Chat continued, coming to the same horrible conclusion. "All of them that we killed… they were all people once."
"I believe your right, but we had no choice to defend ourselves," Henry concluded, putting the recorder down with shaky hands. "They would have harmed us otherwise. They might have been people once, but they're only ink monsters now. And if we have to destroy them so I can get you kids out of here safely, then I won't hesitate to do so."
Ladybug and Chat both nodded in grim agreement with Henry. No matter what, they had to get out of here, even if it felt wrong on so many levels. The group continued on quietly before finally coming to a large room with the monster that was once Jack Fain was waiting. Henry approached the monster, trying to get the valve, only for it to sink once again into the ink as soon as Henry got close. Chat spotted the monster rise in another corner of the room and threw his baton at it. The baton missed as well and returned to Chat's hand as the monster popped up in a different corner.
"This isn't working," Ladybug said as Henry came back to the front of the room. "It's not going to let us get close. We have to surprise it somehow."
While the others were trying to come up with a plan, Nino decided to flip one of the nearby switches out of curiosity. It caused a platform with a box to rise up. Flipping the other switch, the box fell back to the ground hard.
"Guys, I've got an idea," Nino called, making the box rise again. "If we can get the monster under that box, we should be able to drop the box on top of it so we can get the valve."
"Good thinking Nino," Henry said, turning toward ink monster. "Let's get it into position."
It took a few tries, but they were eventually able to corral the ink monster into the spot they needed. Nino then released the box, making fall on the monster and squishing it.
"I'm sorry we had to do that," Henry whispered apologetically to the fallen hat as he picked up the valve. "Nice hat though…"
Turning away from the ink puddle that used to be Jack Fain, Henry lead the way back through the sewer and back to the infirmary. Henry placed the valve back in its place and gave it a turn.
"Hopefully that will do it," Henry sighed, looking over at the others. "Come on, let's go drain that ink."