Chapter 15: End the Angel

Alice stepped into the room with a hum. She knew that Boris had gone this way. She was more than a little displeased that he had managed to so easily escape that little cage she'd locked him in before. But she couldn't complain too much. The chase was always far more fun this way. To run and hide, to gracefully glide through the halls, knowing there was no where he could go, made her feel alive. Powerful. Like an angel of God, sent down to smite the unworthy. But he should be grateful. She was going to help him, and fix herself all in one fell swoop. He shouldn't just be grateful, he should be honored. To serve a real angel like herself? Was there any greater joy in life?

After all, Sammy was more than willing to serve and honor her, and she'd seen the joy on his face firsthand when she'd bestowed him with her 'gift.'

Now. Where was he?

Alice entered one of the larger workrooms, one of the many rooms where she'd picked up tools and parts for her projects. Oh those daytime workers, so graciously leaving her toys to play with, things to work on and improve. It was like they knew she needed some way to alleviate her boredom during the evenings. And she didn't sleep. Couldn't sleep, really. It was...odd, when she tried. Like someone else was doing the dreaming. But if she couldn't get her beauty sleep, she needed something other way to maintain her elegance and grandeur during the day. This inky body was a gift, of course, but it wasn't perfect. Almost perfect. Almost an angel. But the ink wouldn't stick. So she needed to borrow some parts from others.

She knew they wouldn't mind, of course. They were just lowly little worms. She was the angel. And she wasn't perfect yet, but that wasn't her fault, it wasn't, she was meant to be Alice, this was what she was supposed to do, so if she wasn't perfect yet she just had to work a little harder. Keep working Susie, keep climbing your way to the top, keep pushing and fighting and clawing until you're the perfect little angel...

Alice headed up the staircase from the office, heading to one of the many overhangs that looked over the warehouse floors. It would be much easier to see her little Boris from up there, and she could turn on the lights up there too. Yes, he had to be in one of these two large rooms, and these rafters looked out over it all. Her heels clicked along the floor until she reached the top, flicking on the lights and raising the tone of her hums to match the buzzing up above.

"Where are youuuu?"

Down below, Tom and Allison pressed themselves under one of the conveyor belts, shrinking back into the shadows. They exchanged a look and nodded.

Alice walked up above on the walkways, her eyes scanning every inch of the room down below. Allison waited a bit, then dove under the shadow of the walkway, right underneath Alice. She matched her, step for step, right beneath her shadow. When Alice stopped and paused to look around the room, Allison froze as well, waiting for her to move, to continue on. Just a bit further...she just had to make it a liiiittle further and she'd reach the turning point in the walkways. Right underneath the sprinkler system for the room.

Tom crawled as best as he could underneath the conveyor belts, hiding on the other side of boxes and cardboard, listening for the sound of her heels and freezing when they paused. He was almost to the wall. Almost there. Just a bit further.

"There you are!" Alice called out with a giggle. "My Boris! You stay right there so I can-"

"Tom, NOW!" Allison shouted, thrusting her knife up through the walkways and between Alice's feet. Alice shrieked and jumped back, clanging into the safety railing.

"YOU!"

Tom launched himself toward the wall, pulling the bright red fire alarm. Wailing filled the room almost immediately, and the sprinklers fizzed as they hummed to kick on. Tom didn't wait a second longer, continuing his momentum and diving into the safety of the office and underneath the desk. He hated to leave Allison out there alone. But he had to wait. She'd made him promise to wait until the sprinklers stopped. Rain and ink didn't mix well.

Alice screamed as the water burst open above her, and one more thrust from Allison's knife sent her falling from the railing to the ground below. The sprinkles continued to rain down on them, plastering Allison's hair to her face. She cautiously stepped toward Alice. Had the fall killed her? Was the water finishing the job? She took another step forward, watched as ink started to run off of Alice's body.

Alice's arm shot out, grabbing Allison leg with a shriek and pulling her to the ground. The knife clattered out of Allison's hands as she fell back to the floor, the impact rattling her teeth. Alice's nails dug into Allison's leg, tearing through the fabric and digging into her skin. Allison screamed as ink stung her wound, and Alice crawled her way closer. Allison looked up in horror at the distorted angel's face, dripping with ink. The pristine white skin had melted away to black gaping wounds revealing teeth and bone all over her face. Even her hair was falling out around them, sucked away by the water.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" Alice screamed. "I JUST WANT TO BE BEAUTIFUL AGAIN!" She raised her free hand to swipe out at Allison, so Allison reached out to grab her wrist and keep her at bay. The other hand digging into her leg released and grabbed at Allison's other arm, pushing her into the ground and the water. Noise sounded to her right, and Allison looked over to see Tom swinging open the office door to head toward her.

"STAY BACK!" Allison shouted. "Don't you DARE, Tom!"

He froze, frame trembling in the doorway as rain continued to sprinkle down on them. He moved to take a step forward, then back, forcing himself forward and backward again and again as he watched them struggle on the ground.

Alice looked up at Tom, snarling, and Allison took the moment push Alice off of her, swinging around and slamming her into the ground. Alice screamed again, but this time, Allison had the upper hand.

"You...why are you doing this?! What the hell, what the hell are you?!" she shouted at her.

"I'm an angel..." Alice started cackling, black ooze leaking from her mouth and eyes. "I...I'm a beautiful angel...Joey said so...they'll love me forever if I stay beautiful...have to stay beautiful...I have to...or they'll just replace me again..."

Allison paused. "...Susie? Is that you?"

Alice stopped struggling. She stopped moving. Allison couldn't tell through her ink covered eyes whether she was looking at her or at the sky.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm...I'm so sorry..." her voice wavered and she took a sharp breath in. "So many voices...all the time...it's so hard to hear my own anymore..."

"We can, we can try to save you," Allison said. "This isn't over. This doesn't have to be over yet, Susie."

"It's not fair," she whispered.

Allison sat back off of Susie, letting her lay on the ground while still staying close. Was there still a woman behind the monster? Was there anything of Susie left beyond this broken voice, scared and alone? Or was this all that was left of the woman she once was, a voice actress, strong and proud, so overjoyed to have such a leading role. Was Allison any different? If things had been different from the beginning, would it be Allison lying here in a puddle of water and ink instead of her?

"We can make Joey pay for this. We can find a way to fix this," Allison said.

"Fix...me?"

"I don't know how, but we can, we just have to-"

"There's no way to fix me," Susie said, her voice dropping to a low, even tone. It was calm. Deep. "I'm just a broken little toy. And Joey doesn't bother fixing broken toys. He just buys new ones." She turned her head toward Allison. "Don't let him catch you, Allison. He'll need a new angel now. I'm not going to be his angel any longer."

And then, nothing.

Silence filled the room. Ink and water ran off down drains in the floor, or stained cardboard and toys with water. Allison could feel the water wet her socks and clothes. The cold of it was starting to sink in as the sprinklers finally stopped. Susie, Alice, both of them were no more. Just a pile of unrecognizable mush and ink on the floor. Maybe a few remnants of clothes or a halo. But that was it. Alice was gone, and she'd taken Susie with her.

Allison was jarred when she felt Tom's hand on her shoulder, soft at first, but then firm. Urgent.

Right. They needed to get out. They needed to leave before the too much attention was drawn to the fire alarm. The fire department might show up, after all. Or worse. But Allison was having a hard time rising from the floor. She was having a hard time getting her limbs to listen to her at all. She just kept staring down at Alice's broken form, and the ink on her own hands. This ink was all that was left. How long would it take to wash it off? Would it still leave traces on her skin, deep in the crevices of her fingerprints, to small to see, but still there? Would she ever erase that pungent smell from them?

Another tug from Tom. This time insistent.

Yeah. She had to go. She couldn't stay. She forced herself slowly to her feet, every movement hard, but once she was on her feet, Tom was dragging her away to the office to hide. He pushed her underneath the work desk there, and crowded in himself a moment later.

Minutes later, the door to the work room burst open. Joey walked in, hair undone, still in his evening robe, scowling at the scene in front of him.

"What the HELL kind of a mess is this?!" he roared, several security guards behind him. "Who did this?!"

"I-I don't know sir," one of the guards stuttered. "Everything was just fine when we left for the night a few hours ago..."

"Does this look like 'just fine' to you?!" Joey scowled. He walked across the room, shoes squelching over the ink and water. When he saw the ink, he paused, and rushed over to the lump on the floor.

"W-what's wrong? Is there something over there?" the guard asked.

"Dammit...DAMMIT!" Joey roared. He slammed his fist into the work table, sending echoes of rattles throughout the large room. "Do we have any security footage in this room?"

"No sir, just in the main studio I'm afraid."

"Do you have any way of figuring out who did this? Do you have any idea how hard it was to make this damn thing?!" he asked, gesturing to Alice's remains on the floor. "Dammit, do you have any idea how hard finding a replacement for it is going to be? We're going to have to cancel shows for a full week, which means ticket sales will be down, which means that YOUR paychecks will be down if you don't find me the people responsible for this immediately! I don't care if it turns out to be a plumbing malfunction, if that's the case, then go find me the damn plumber who messed up before I decide it's YOUR fault!"

"Yes sir!" the two guards said, immediately turning and running out of the room, one talking into a walkie-talkie. "I want parameters up and down this park, search every entrance, and remember the rules in place if you run into any of the toons..."

Their voices trailed off, leaving only Joey left in the empty factory floor. He looked down at Alice's remains on the floor once again.

"...you really were a star," Joey muttered. "For however brief. But now...I need to find your replacement as quickly as possible." Joey walked out of the room, and after a few painstaking moments of waiting, Tom and Allison left their hiding place.

Now that the deed was done and Joey was gone, Allison's mind was a whir. Tom was looking just as broken, and she could see the gears spinning in his mind as he paced back and forth around the room, carefully avoiding puddles.

She wasn't a fool. She knew full well who Alice's replacement was supposed to be.

She couldn't go home. Joey knew where she lived. It was in her employment records. It was just as dangerous here, especially with the added security prowling around, but what else could they do? Trying to leave was just as dangerous. They'd have guards posted around the entrance constantly now, and even if they didn't know that Allison was directly responsible for what happened, they'd be looking for her. They'd know. And of course, she couldn't leave Tom. She wouldn't.

"We can't stay here," she said finally. "It's only a matter of time before they come back. So the sooner we find a safe place to lay low, the better." She looked up at him. "What about that room you took me in, after our first fight with Alice? I woke up on some cots. We could stay there. Maybe find a way to barricade it to keep you from leaving during the day too."

Tom paused, putting his hand to his chin. He nodded.

"Getting out of the building will be tricky. But this factory uses the underground tunnels, right? Might be safer than walking around up top."

Another nod.

"Good," she said. She started to leave the room, but nearly tripped over broken metal pieces on the ground, remnants of knives or broken metal railings from where Alice had fallen up above. They'd grabbed onto her socks like ugly metal hands and...

Her eyes widened. She bent down and quickly started scooping metal parts into her arms, as much as she could carry. Bolts, nuts, metal screws, planks, wiring, anything she could find in a few moments and loaded them into an empty cardboard box. Tom looked at her with nothing more than a raised eyebrow and a confused expression. Satisfied with everything that she'd collected, she hoisted the box into her arms and turned to him.

"You still have your old toolset, right? It was back in that room you locked yourself in?"

Tom nodded, still not sure where she was going with all of this.

"I'll explain later," she said, following him through the halls to the tunnels underneath the park. "Let's just stop by that room first."

Tom knew better than to question her by now, and it wasn't like he was able to even if he wanted. So all he did was nod and lead her along through the tunnels that he'd ran through just a few hours ago.

They cleaned up her remains before the night was done. A few men with dustbins, trash cans, and shovels, scooping up the inky remains and wheeling them off. They left nothing behind. Nothing but a singular broken piece of a halo. That, he'd claimed for himself. His last memento of her. Of his angel.

How had this happened? Who could have done this to her?

To awaken, after so long he slept, so long he was sleeping in the dark and the ink and the nothingness, to awaken and have her gone was torture. And then he finds her, like this? A broken mess of limb and ink on the ground, barely recognizable from her once perfect beauty, the divine right only an angel could achieve?

Still. It could be worse. Because she wasn't dead. Not really. That's what he thought anyway. Because wasn't that the amazing beautiful thing about what Joey had accomplished? About what the ink machine represented?

He was apart of that world too now. A glorious part of that world. He didn't have a name or a character, but that was alright, he didn't need one yet. He was content with his place as a follower.

His angel was gone, but only for a moment. He just had to find someone else to take up the mantel. Someone even more perfect. His Susie had been good, but he was beyond that now, he'd seen into the inky wells, into the black void where nothing but voices and screams and whispers remained, where thoughts became reality and drifted between crumpled paper lines. He saw that the people didn't matter. Susie didn't matter. Sammy didn't matter. Only the souls they sought to bring to life mattered. Only Alice Angel mattered.

So he'd just have to find a new Alice. A new angel. It wouldn't take long. He'd already found the perfect replacement. And she would be perfect, he had no doubt. He just had to find her, and now that every ink puddle and inkwell spoke to him, it wouldn't be long before Miss Allison Pendle saw things like he did. Once he fell into the ink machine, everything just made sense. So much more than it did before. He just had to show her what an angel she could really become.

He took the remnants of the halo from the ground, keeping it with him, a small little memento of what was, and headed out to look for her. Miss Allison Pendle. His new angel.

Joey crossed his hands in front of his face. "So. Am I to believe that you're the one responsible for the mess in the factory?"

Norman didn't think he could see something more terrifying than Bendy. But he was wrong. He'd never felt his heart beat so quickly it actually hurt. He'd never felt his adrenaline pumping so fast that he thought he might pass out on the spot if he didn't get the chance to move and run away. He didn't get that chance of course. He was tied firmly to the chair, the broken remains of his projector in his lap. Joey had tossed it there rather painfully as a sick reminder of what he'd tried to do. Escape. And Joey's just been waiting to decide what to do with him. When Norman thought he might finally have a moment's rest, a moment to escape Joey's questions and accusations of trying to leave before after the park closed, Joey had marked back in with a fury he'd never seen before.

The GENT man from before was gone. He'd dropped off Norman, had a few words with Joey behind closed doors, then disappeared. Norman's relief was only temporary.

"I swear, I don't know nothin' about the factory," Norman stuttered. "I-I've been here this whole time, you know that, I've been tied up!"

"True," Joey said calmly. Norman didn't like that his voice was so calm. He could see the veins bulging on his forehead. The redness of his neck. The sound of his knuckles cracking. The calm voice didn't match.

"S-So then I didn't have nothin' to do with it," he said. "Just like I've been sayin' this whole time Mister Drew, I-I'd never do anythin' like that, honest! I'm loyal to you, where else would I have to go!"

"Still sticking with that story? About taking the projector home for some extra work? You're a dedicated, hard worker Norman, but that would certainly be going above and beyond what's expected of you," Joey said.

"I-I've just been noticing the projector acting kinda funny lately. Y-You know, it's gotta be in tip-top order so I can keep the little devil happy, ehehe...h-he's gotta be able to watch his cartoons after all! And I know that technology's up and developin' and everything, why, my little old projector's just about the oldest model out there nowadays," he rambled. "B-B-But you like things just the way they are Mister Drew, and there's nothing wrong with that, so I've just got to keep it working like it is! Keep up the repairs and good work! B-Because I love working here at Joey Drew Studios!"

The last part was a bit too forced, a bit too loud, they both knew it, but it was only Norman who winced at the shrill of his own voice.

Joey hummed. "...let me be clear, Norman. Things are not looking good for you. I don't believe a word you're saying."

Norman gulped.

"And right after I find you trying to run away, I come to learn that there's been an accident down in the factory that resulted in one of my finest creations turning into a pile of inky shit on the floor. And you're going to say you have nothing to do with this?" Joey stood up, towering over Norman. "I'm going to ask one more time. What happened in the factory? What did you do?"

"I swear I didn't do nothing," Norman said, his voice cracking as he tried not to cry. "I swear, I swear it wasn't me!"

"...well, unfortunately for you, there's no one else to take the blame," Joey said. "Bendy, if you would be so kind as to take him away."

Norman heard a growl behind him, looking up to see Bendy's grinning face gleaming down at him. He was wrong. Bendy was still more terrifying than Joey.

He screamed as Bendy grabbed onto the back of the chair, dragging him down the hall.

"WAIT! WAIT, WAIT IT WASN'T ME! IT WAS ALLISON!"

Joey raised his hand. Bendy stopped.

"It-it had to be Allison! Allison Pendle!" Norman said, his words scrambling over themselves. "She-she's been planning on taking this whole park down, she wants revenge after something happened to Tom, she came to me for h-help, but I swear, I had no part in this! I swear it, I swear I had no part in this!" he sobbed.

Joey was quiet. He drummed his fingers against the desk for a moment, then stopped.

"Miss Allison Pendle. Yes, I should have known. That's fine, I was expecting her to fix the mess anyway. It certainly makes things easier for my conscious knowing that she's the one who caused it though," he said. He turned to Norman and smiled. "Thank you for your cooperation, Mister Polk."

Norman felt relief wash over him as another cry caught in his throat. "S-So then, you'll let me go?"

Joey raised an eyebrow. "Let you go? Someone with your skills? No. I have something else in mind." Joey looked down at the projector in Norman's lap. "Thank you for your service, Norman. Consider yourself...promoted! Job security and all that. Alright Bendy, you know what to do."

"NO! NO, NO PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU JOEY, NO! NO! NOOOOO!"

Norman's screams echoed down the hall as Bendy dragged him back and forth, his cries of protest turning to nothing more than random, guttural shrieks for help. Whether Bendy heard them at all or he just face them with a bigger smile, Norman couldn't tell. But even as Bendy pulled him roughly down the stairs, swiveling around corners quick enough to form bruises, he didn't stop. He didn't stop until they were face to face with the enormous ink machine and Norman was reduced to nothing but a sniveling pile of sobs and snot.

"Please..." he whimpered up at Bendy.

The demon didn't even hesitate as he threw Norman, and his beloved projector, inside.

Yo. YO. Have you guys SEEN the image the Bendy and Ink Machine page on Facebook and Instagram shared on Halloween?! If you haven't, go do that right now because ohhhhh my goodness O.O

As always, thanks for reading! A lot happens in this chapter, so feel free to share your thoughts on any piece of it, big or small! And stayed tuned for more in the next chapter of Welcome to Bendyland!