By the next morning, Lily's condition was still the same and she spent the day laying on the couch in the living room, wrapped up in blankets and Henry decided that he would do some paperwork in the living room instead of his study so he could keep an eye on her.
"I can't understand how she suddenly got sick when she was fine before we came to the park" Bendy pointed out as he sat helping Henry, taking a quick glance over at the child who was currently sleeping.
"Well these things can happen buddy, one minute you can fine and then the next you're running a fever and you go all dizzy" Henry explained "it probably just hit her all of a sudden, she'll be fine I promise." Bendy nodded silently and walked over to the couch, checking up on his sister and he could see just how sick she looked, her face was really pale and strands of hair was sticking to her forehead from the fever and she made a small wheezing sound when breathing.
"It must be awful, being sick" the little pointed out as Henry glanced over at him.
"You never been sick before?" the man asked as Bendy shook his head in response, explaining that it was a toon thing.
"Being a toon, I've never had to experience human illnesses but going by how Lily is looking right now, it must be a unpleasant experience" he sighed before looking over at Lily again "I hope she's going to get better soon." Henry got up from his seat and walked over to the little toon before crouching down beside him and placing his hand on top of his head.
"She will buddy, she just needs to get plenty of rest and take her medication, then she'll be back to normal, running around and playing with you just like before" he reassured "now come on, let's leave her to get some rest, you can help me with lunch if you want."
"Okay" Bendy replied before following Henry into the kitchen, taking one last look at Lily before proceeding to walk into the kitchen.
Meanwhile, at the old abandoned cartoon studio, the very place that Henry and Lily had not long since escaped from with the good version of Bendy, an inky figure dressed in dirty white overalls was kneeling on the floor as though they were praying and before them stood none other than the Ink Demon himself.
"I am more than grateful that you have revived me my lord" Sammy Lawrence said as he got to his feet, looking up at the tall figure in front of him "but may I ask why you brought me back?."
"Well, I need your help with something" "Bendy" replied "you see I'm still looking to get revenge on Henry and my little goody two shoes counterpart so I was thinking that we should do something to get him to come back here, like, borrow something very precious to him, he'll be bound to come back here to get back what we are going to borrow and you're going to help me."
"I will do anything to serve you my lord" Sammy replied with a bow. The Ink Demon's grin grew wider, his plan was slowly falling into place and soon, he would have Henry and his little toon counterpart right where he wanted them.
"Come my prophet, we have no time to waste" he instructed before shuffling out of the room as Sammy followed behind, very interested to see what his Lord had planned.
Back at Henry's house, the man was sitting with Lily in the bathroom whilst the little girl emptied the contents of her stomach into the toilet. Henry had tried giving her some lunch but she had a hard time keeping it down and having a swollen throat didn't help either. After she had finished, Henry washed her face, picked her up and carried her into her room before putting her to bed.
"I'm sorry daddy" she rasped as Henry put a damp cloth on her forehead.
"Now what do you have to be sorry about sweetheart?" he chuckled "you've got nothing to feel sorry about, you're not well and it's my Job as your Daddy to look after you when you're not well." The little girl nodded and let out a small smile. She hated feeling like this but was grateful to have her daddy taking care of her.
"Now, try and get some rest okay, I'll be just downstairs if you need anything." Lily nodded and slowly closed her eyes. When she was completely asleep, Henry quietly left the room and went back downstairs to find Bendy speaking on the phone to somebody.
"Yeah, Okay, oh wait" he looked up to see Henry walking towards him "oh he's here now, I'll let you speak to him" he removed the phone away from his head "it's , he said he want's to discuss Lily's condition."
"Thanks Bendy" Henry replied before taking the phone from him and talking into the receiver " hello, yes this is , oh good evening , yes I understand that you want to talk with about Lily...yes,I see, okay, yes I'll do that, first thing tomorrow, okay, goodbye." Bendy watched as Henry hung up, the little toon curious to know what was going on.
"So, what did he say about Lily?" he asked.
"Apparently he believes that her tonsillitis is pretty severe and that I need to bring her back to the hospital first thing tomorrow" Henry explained.
"What for?" Bendy asked.
"He said they'll need to remove her tonsils and that they need to do it as soon as possible" Henry replied "it's pretty bad."
"Do you think we should tell Lily?" Bendy asked "I mean, she'll need to know won't she?" Henry nodded and decided he was going to tell her right now. He turned and headed back upstairs to Lily's room with Bendy following behind. The two walked into the little girl's room that she shared with the toon and Henry walked over to her sleeping form and gave her a gentle shake.
"Lily, I need you to wake up for a minute honey" the little girl's eyes slowly fluttered open and she looked at her daddy with a confused expression.
"Is there something wrong daddy?" she asked in her raspy voice as Henry sat on the edge of her bed and began stroking her hair as Bendy hung near the doorway.
"Well I've just been speaking to from the hospital on the phone and he reckons that your tonsillitis is really bad so you need to go back to the hospital in the morning for an operation" Henry explained.
"What kind of operation?" Lily asked, clearly nervous and Henry explained to the little girl that she needed to have her tonsils removed with her condition being pretty severe that antibiotics would be impossible.
"It won't hurt will it?" she asked, still clearly nervous about the whole thing.
"No of course it won't because they'll put you to sleep whilst they do the operation, you won't feel a thing and you'll be waking up back in your hospital bed before you know it" Henry reassured her "you know, you're Aunt Imogen had her tonsils removed when she was around your age and when it was all over, she got to eat ice cream so I reckon that you'll get to have ice cream too once your operation is over."
"Did she get it for being brave?" Lily asked.
"You know something, I reckon she did but I also reckon that they give your Ice cream because you're throat may be a little sore after the operation so having ice cream will sooth it a little" Henry explained.
"Wow, I never knew that you could use Ice cream for medical purposes"Bendy implied with a huge grin "well I'm gonna go downstairs and draw for a little bit." The little toon gave Henry and Lily a small wave before heading back downstairs as Henry placed his hand on the side of the little girl's cheek, checking her fever and it still seemed to be a little high.
"Daddy" the little girl rasped before letting out a few coughs "I want a drink of water."
"Okay baby" Henry replied, standing up and heading out to the bathroom, but not before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear "everything's going to be okay, I promise." Lily nodded silently and closed her eyes as Henry left the room, not seeing the black inky trails beginning to cross her bedroom walls. After he got her glass of water, Henry immediately could sense that something was wrong, the lights in the hallway were flickering unnaturally and he could hear his own heart beating.
"Lily, are you okay?" he asked as he approached the door but there came no response and sensing that something was wrong,Henry pushed the door open and found the little girl's usual bright room engulfed in darkness as black inky veins covered the walls, that could only mean one thing, he was here, the Ink Demon.
"Lily" Henry muttered, looking over at her bed to find it empty, the cloth that was on her forehead laying on the floor "oh god no..Lily."
"Hello...Henry" Henry looked to see " Bendy" emerging from the corner of the room, grinning down at Henry who could by now hear his own heartbeat loud and clear "are you looking for something?" the Ink Demon clicked his fingers and Henry watched in horror as Sammy Lawrence emerged from the darkness, holding Lily in his arms and Henry couldn't tell wether she was sleeping or Unconscious but one thing he could tell was that she wasn't moving, the little girl just lay limp in the Ink Man's hold.
"GIVE HER BACK" Henry yelled, running at Sammy only to be held back by a group of searchers that had seemingly followed "Bendy" into the child's room "LET HER GO!"
"Tsk tsk Henry" "Bendy" stated with a shake of his head "you just don't know what's going on here do you, well let me tell you so you, I want to play a game, a little game of lost and found."
"What's..what has that got to do with Lily?" Henry asked, causing the Ink Demon to chuckle wetly as he walked over to Sammy and placed his gloved fingers under Lily's chin, tilting the little girl's head back.
"Isn't it obvious, I'm taking Lily back to the studio and all you have to do is come back to try and find her" he explained as Henry could do nothing but glare at him as he was secured to the ground by searchers "if you do manage to find her back" he released his grip on the child's chin before shuffling back over to Henry "but if you fail..." he grabbed them an by the chin roughly "then she remains at the studio forever. Now, I think it's time we got started don't we, ta ta for now Henry, you know where to come if you want you're little girl back." With a sinister chuckle, "Bendy" gave Henry a rough shove, causing him to fall back and hit his head on the back of the shelve on the wall. The last thing he saw before succumbing to unconsciousness was Lily disappearing through the Ink portal as the Ink Demon took her back to the one place he hoped he would never have to set foot in again, the studio.