Part II Chapter 3: The Stowaway

When Henry headed out to the front porch early in the morning, much too early in his opinion, Tom was already waiting for him. He stared ahead at the dark sky, still too early for any color to leak out, but bright enough for the star to start fading. Henry handed him a cup of coffee.

Tom raised an eyebrow. "You can't sleep either?"

Henry chuckled. "I haven't had a good night's sleep in years. Not since I left Joey Drew Studios."

"What about when you first joined?" Tom asked.

"Those were the good days. Back when Joey's dreams didn't feel so...desperate. It felt like the handfull of us could take on the world with hard work. I really felt like things could go the best of places back then," Henry said.

"Joey's never satisfied. Never has been," Tom remarked. "Things were doomed from the start."

Henry frowned. "I don't know. Part of me wonders what would have happened if he hadn't gotten that loan from Gent. If he'd never made Bendyland, or the ink machine...how different would things be?"

"The ink machine was in the works long before Bendyland was though," Tom said. "Still, I can't believe someone could come up with such a crazy idea...living ink. Never would have thought it up in a million years."

"But you helped work on it, right?" Henry said.

Tom was quiet. His eyes shifted. He looked away from Henry, away from the sky, staring off into something Henry couldn't see. "Yeah. I helped work on it. But it was...it was more than that. I had my own workshop, you know. Did you know that? Joey let me tinker away with whatever I wanted. I did all kinds of stuff at first. Before I really knew just what that living ink was, I..." Tom trailed off. Henry watched a chill run down his spine, but he tried to hide it behind clenched teeth and fists. "Nothing good can come out of that machine."

"I agree," Henry said. "Still. In our current situation, there's not much we can do about it. Joey has nearly tripled security. Our loved ones are more or less being held hostage. And Gent has an increased presence, now more than ever. I've been seeing more of Sinclair that I'd ever want to."

"He's the top dog in charge, right?" Tom asked. "I remember him. He'd come around early in the beginning too."

"I don't know much about him," Henry admitted. "Just that he was the one who agreed to go with Joey's crazy ideas. He got the investment for Bendyland, and well, now here we are."

"Any idea why he and the other Gent people are showing up more?" Tom asked.

"Well, I thought that maybe it had to do with the park's anniversary coming up. I mean, Joey asked me to start working on a Bendy movie even...so I assumed they're just here for the next big step in Bendyland's future," Henry said.

"Yeah. That's what I'm afraid of," Tom growled. "Every time Gent shows up, there's trouble."

Henry swallowed. He didn't even want to think of the possibility of there being something even worse on the horizon. How could it get worse than this?

No. That wasn't the question. The question was, would Joey ever be satisfied, and if not, how far would he go?"

"...you think Joey's going to create more of those ink creatures? The toons?" Henry asked.

"God, I hope not," Tom whispered.

Both got quiet. The sun started to peak up now, and birds were already rising from their nests to sing their hearts out. Audrey would be up soon, up and sitting down to watch her morning cartoons. She was pretty good about not waking he or Linda up on the weekends. Sometimes she still did, but he didn't mind. Sometimes he preferred it, when he'd hear the bedroom door softly creak out, the tiny sounds of her socked feet padding on the floor as she hoisted herself up into their bed and into the covers between them. He hated to use the word angel, Joey Drew Studios had stolen whatever holy annotation it used to have, but Audrey and Linda, they really were something else. His only lights in this world.

"Henry, would you be willing to help me sneak down into my old workshop?" Tom asked.

"What?" Henry asked.

Tom frowned. "...some things down there I need. Joey's got that place pretty well guarded during the day, but I think with your help, I might be able to get down there at night. I'd need somebody to watch my back."

"What do you need down there for?" Henry asked. "You're not planning on...I mean, you're not going to try to take down the park again, are you?"

Tom hesitated, but then shook his head. "I've got...notes down there. Audio logs. Things I've hidden away from when I was messing around with tools and machine parts and ink. Listen, I...I don't want Gent gettin' ahold of those notes. I've already contributed enough to this nightmare. If I find out they've gone through my stuff, and even one thing I did gives them any sort of foothold to do something worse, then I..." Tom ran a hand through his hair. "...I just don't want any more on my conscious, Henry. I've got enough as is."

Henry sighed. "...how about tonight? I'll tell Linda we're going out, and we can sneak in after dark. But this is the last time, alright? I can't have Joey catching me sneaking around again."

"I know," Tom said quickly. "I don't want that either, and if things get tough, I don't care if you have to rat me out to save yourself and your family. That's fine with me, Henry, really."

Henry rubbed his temples. "...I'm gonna go put on another pot of coffee."

Tom chuckled. "Better make it two."

As Henry turned toward the door, a pair of peeking eyes ducked back inside before he noticed, slinking away back to the living room to watch cartoons.

Tom hadn't really wanted to lie to Henry. And it wasn't an exact lie, so to speak. He really did want to keep those notes out of Gent's hands. But there was something else in his workshop he wanted. Something he'd built a long time ago that had been cast aside and forgotten almost instantly, regarded by Joey as an utter failure. Still, Tom couldn't shake the feeling that something in his old workshop would be useful, that there was something there he absolutely needed if he was going to save Allison.

Save her...that was a thought he hadn't dared to linger on for more than a few seconds in a really long time. It was dangerous. It was...painful. Hope made his heart ache almost more than seeing her as Alice did.

Even as Alice, her gaze was still so kind.

She was still in there, somewhere. He knew she was. He just had to find her. If he could get to remember, really remember, then that would...that would be something at least.

Tom arrived at the park before Henry, right at closing time, watching from the parking lot as employees and park guests filed out in lingering groups. Attendance really had started to shrink down over the past few years, especially these past few months. Piedmont had completed his new ride, no surprise, and it had gained popularity while it lasted, but soon it was forgotten. That was the thing with Bertrum that Tom noticed, his work was flashy, catchy, but usually died down just as quickly as it lit up, like a firework. He chased fads and temporary delights as opposed to long-lasting joys. And while he was a brilliant architect for rides, sure, he wasn't all that brilliant himself. A bit too up in his own head for Tom's taste, too blinded by his own talents to see where he could improve. So he hadn't really improved, not in these last few years anyway. There had been rumors that Joey might be firing him soon.

But Tom wasn't here for Bertrum. He was here for Wally. He saw him exit the park and look around, gazing across the park before his eyes met Tom's. They let up and he waved, and Wally bounced over to Tom with far too much energy.

"Heya Tom! You got a late shift tonight?" Wally asked.

Tom smiled. "You caught me. And I forgot my keys to the lower section, so I figured you'd be able to help me if I could borrow yours."

Wally started to hold out his keys, then paused, dangling them just out of reach. "...are you really workin' on something so late at night?" he asked. "I haven't seen you work on much these past few days. Sure, you do bits here and there, I've seen you make some repairs...but I've been hearing that Joey doesn't really like having you around much these days, and the feeling is mutual. This ain't gonna get me in trouble, is it? Because I swear, if I get in trouble because of your shenanigans and disappear like some of the others, then I'm outta-"

Tom rubbed his temples. "Yeah yeah, I know." He took a deep breath and put on the most genuine smile he could muster. "Honestly, Wally, there's a pipe on the lower sections I think is gonna burst soon. I figured I'd go down there and fix it before it bursts rather than after. I'd hate for you to have such a large mess to clean up, after all."

Wally's face crumpled into horror. "Oh Lord, not another burst pipe, I hate cleaning up those messes!" he practically threw his keys at Tom. "There! Go on and fix it then, if I have to clean up one more of those burst pipes and wade through that awful ink, then I'm outta here!" Wally stomped off, muttering something about cleaning and pipes and not getting paid nearly enough for being the head of janitorial staff, but Tom had ignored him the moment the keys had left his hands.

After what happened last time, Joey had sealed up the entire lower section under lock and key, and only a select few employees were allowed access down by the ink machine now. Tom was not one of them, and if Joey ever needed him to repair anything related to the ink machine, including some of the pipes closer to it, Tom had to be escorted by several other personnel that did have key access. Even with only one arm, Joey still didn't fire Tom. Probably because Tom didn't let losing an arm hold him back. It took him a while to relearn a few things, and it wasn't by any means easy, but he was more than capable of doing his job with one hand. And he couldn't afford to have Joey fire him or get rid of him. If that happened, he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Allison.

Tom went back to his car and waited for Henry to arrive. He parked in the back, hoping lingering security wouldn't notice him. That was another thing Joey had done. He made sure all the security personnel knew to be wary of Tom sneaking around after dark. Unless Joey had given him explicit permission, which was highly unlikely considering Tom didn't even like to look at Joey, much less hold a conversation lasting more than a few seconds with him, the guards weren't allowed to let Tom just wander around the park. But that's where Henry came in.

He hadn't really wanted to use Henry per say, but Henry was his ace in the hole. Joey didn't really trust Henry. He trust his power and control over Henry. He knew that Henry wouldn't do anything to endanger his family.

Henry's car pulled up a second later, parking beside Tom's. Henry stepped out of the car. "Everybody gone? You got the keys?"

Tom nodded and held them up.

"Alright then," Henry said. "Let's get this over with quickly so I can get back home."

"Right," Tom said, and the two headed inside. After they were out of sight, the back door to Henry's car opened, and then shut again. Audrey peeked her head around the corner of the car and watched them with a grin.

"I wanna see Bendy too!" she whispered to herself, and followed after them.

Alice hummed, walking around the park again after dark. Alone. Why couldn't the park guests just stay all the time? Why did they have to leave at all? They should just stay forever. She'd love it if she could always have an audience, or least someone else to hold a conversation with at night. But no. She was all alone. And lately, she hated being alone even more than she usually did. It was...scary. She'd swear she could hear laughing sometimes, or singing that sounded like her, but wasn't quite like her either. Sometimes she heard voices too. One was always mocking, sickeningly sweet, whispering things that Alice could never make out clearly, but still scared her nonetheless. Sometimes there was another voice too. This one was even softer, and harder to hear at all. It sounded like her voice, but different, like through water of muffled through walls. That one, at least, was easier to ignore.

Her humming slowly turned to singing, trying to ease her fears with her own little songs. Most were songs she already knew, but sometimes she tried to think up new ones! That was harder to do. Toons could only recreate what they already knew, so most of her own little songs just sounded like mashups of different songs, reused lyrics and melodies that never quite fit or made sense, but she liked them all the same. Besides, nobody else could hear her right now anyway except Bendy, who often went off on his own at night for reasons she could never quite understand, or Boris, who was either napping or eating when he was left alone. He didn't like being alone either, she could tell it bothered him as much as it bothered her, but he couldn't speak, so even if they walked together, it still felt lonely. And as much as she liked Boris, something about him made her sad when they were alone.

"...ca...turn a...wa..."

Alice paused. Was that whispering? It certainly hadn't come from her head this time. And it sounded like a man's voice. "Hello? Is someone there?"

The voice got quiet, but she heard scuffling ahead of her.

"If you're a worker, I hope I haven't startled you," she said.

Again, the voices were quiet.

"If...if you're a visitor, I promise you're not in trouble, but you aren't supposed to be here after dark. The park just closed, so I can take you to the gates. Just come out, alright?" she said, trying to sound as gentle as possible.

More rustling, this time moving away from her, and the rustling turned into the heavy pounding of footsteps. Somebody was running away.

"Hey! Wait!" she called, running after them. If they were running, then they definitely were NOT a worker. Workers always came out and smiled when she called after them! They couldn't talk for long, but they always smiled! Joey said they would always smile at her, that's how she knows she's doing a good job! Had she done something wrong? Was someone running away from her because she hadn't done everything right? She'd tried to sound nice!

Before she knew what was happening, Alice was giving chase to the person or people running away. It was dark up ahead, and they darted in and around buildings like they knew exactly where to go. But so did she, and she followed after them with the endurance a normal human being could never hope to possess.

"Please stop! It's dangerous after dark!" she called out again, but when she rounded another corner, the figure was gone, and everything was silent. She looked around, held her breath to listen for any sort of noise, but she couldn't hear a thing. There was nothing. No more rustling or scuffling or whispering. Had...had she imagined it? Was this just her mind playing tricks on her again? Maybe it was Bendy or Boris, waiting to spring out and surprise her. But...no. She waited several more minutes, but whatever she had been chasing was long gone.

She sighed and looked down. She really hoped it wasn't park guests sneaking in...maybe it was just a new worker than she had startled. Or maybe it really was all in her head. Maybe something was really wrong with her. She was scared to tell Joey, scared that maybe he'd punish her if she wasn't perfect...but if this continued, she wouldn't be able to keep calm.

"H...hey...d-daddy...where did...you go?"

Alice blinked. No. She hadn't imagined that. A tiny voice, coming back from where she had first started running. She could feel their sadness, like a pull on her heart. Once again, her feet started moving all on their own.

"Waaaaah! W-Waaaaah!"

Alice's running turned to sprinting. Someone was sad...someone was really sad, and scared! She rounded the corner of the park, and there, standing in the middle of the main square, was a small girl. The girl was a crying, sniffling mess, tears and snot dripping down her face as she wailed.

"Excuse me...are you lost?" Alice asked.

The girl stopped, hiccuping back tears as she looked over at Alice. Her bottom lip quivered, and she sprinted over and latched onto Alice's leg, crying into her dress. "M-my daddy...a-and he...r-running a-and...I-I can't..."

"There there now," Alice said, patting the poor girl's back. Just what had happened? How on earth had this small girl gotten here? The poor thing could barely form a coherent sentence, and she was all alone! Perhaps she had run off from her parents before the park closed...but if that was the case, where were her parents? Were they the ones she had been chasing before? If so, why had they run away from her?

The girl continued to cry, and Alice felt her sadness pierce into her like a knife. She knelt down to eye level with the girl.

"Now now, there's no reason to cry! Just calm down. Take deep breathes." Alice started to sing, opening her mouth and singing the catchiest song she knew. After a few moments, the girl's tears turned to smiles, and she started singing along with her. Alice felt her sadness start to dissipate, replaced only by joy. She finished her song and pat the girl's head. "Why don't you tell me what happened, now that you've calmed down a bit?"

The girl's bottom lip quivered again. "I...I can't...I'll get...in trouble..."

Alice smiled. "You won't get in trouble. I promise! But why don't we start with just telling me your name instead, hm?"

"Audrey..." the girl said. "My name is Audrey...and I...I got lost...I don't know where my daddy is..."

Poor thing, Allison thought to herself, and stood back up. She extended her hand to the little girl, who reached out to hold it instantly. "Well Audrey, that is a lovely name! Why don't we search the park to try to find your daddy then, hm? And while we search, you can spend time with me!"

Audrey sniffled and wiped away the last of her tears with the back of her free hand. "Can...can we go on the merry-go-round?"

Alice giggled, and started walking with the little girl through the park. "Why, we can go on whatever rides you want!"

Audrey's face broke into another wide smile, and Alice again felt that joy spread through her heart. Her loneliness was gone, completely dissipated under the admiring gaze of the girl. She almost didn't want to search for her father. She'd made a new friend, one she could talk with and sing to and make happy! But no, Alice knew deep down that wasn't right. She needed to find this girl's father immediately. But going on a few rides first couldn't hurt, right? They could always look for her father along the way!

Alice smiled and started to sing again, little Audrey soon joining her, and the two walked down the empty park lanes without a care in the world.

But Bendy, stirred from his nightly patrols by the sound of running and a new voice singing, was already on his way to investigate.

Henry was getting anxious. He could tell Tom was too. Only five minutes into the park, and they'd nearly been caught by Alice? Tom had froze on the spot, and Henry had to practically punch him to get him to start running away. She'd chased them for a while, but they'd managed to lose her down into the tunnels. Now, Henry couldn't shake the feeling that their entire night was just going to keep going downhill. He thought about asking Tom to just call the whole night off altogether. But seeing Alice had just spurred Tom on, and now both of them were practically running down beneath the park.

"What happens if we run into Bendy?" Henry asked.

"I'm hoping we don't," Tom admitted. "I don't really have a plan for if we do. Just smile I guess?"

"That never works with me," Henry said lowly. "A smile never cuts it..."

"Then I guess we better keep moving."

The tunnels had gotten darker in the time since they'd last visited. Tom hadn't kept up as many repairs. Sure, he'd taken care of the big ones, but he had no motivation to see this park succeed anymore. Smaller pipes had burst, leaking ink all over the place and making the floor slick and dark. The smell was overbearing too, it shot right up into their noses and through to their heads, making them dizzy. Wooden planks had fallen or peeled off the walls. Joey was going to have to completely redo this place, or risk an accident. If the walkways below collapsed, the park above may just fall in too, like one big sinkhole.

"We're almost there," Tom said. He didn't feel the pull toward the ink machine anymore. Not like what he used to feel, when he was Boris. It was severed completely, and he wasn't complaining. The two of them ducked in and out of storage rooms, dodging security that really had increased their rounds. Quite a few times, Tom thought for sure they were caught, flashlights sweeping over their hiding places, but then the footsteps of the guards would just continue on, and Henry and Tom continued on as well. Maybe they were just lucky, but Tom felt he had a bad habit of confusing good and bad luck in this place.

Finally, they reached an old staircase. The door was barricaded and locked shut, but Tom had brought his axe just in case. He had a feeling this staircase would have been sealed off. "Watch my back," he told Henry, and got to work. It was trickier with one arm than he thought it would be, and eventually, Henry took over prying off the old beams and Tom stood watch. Finally, the door swung open, and the dark staircase below beckoned them foreward. There were no lights, they'd either been turned off or burnt out years ago. They couldn't even tell if the darkness that awaited them at the bottom was just empty shadows or a river of ink.

Henry reached into a bag he'd brought along and pulled out a flashlight for himself and Tom. Tom grunted gratitude, and the two headed down into the abyss.

"You really used to work down here?" Henry asked.

"This was before the park was built. Or rather, when the park was just starting to become an idea. After you left, I think. You left before all the ink machine stuff, right?"

"Yeah," Henry said. "I could tell Joey was getting desperate. I didn't want to see where that desperation would lead, and I was just...tired. I didn't believe that we could achieve the impossible anymore. And I'd met Linda, and we were ready to settle down together..."

"You made the right call," Tom said.

"And yet, here I am. Back here again," Henry said with a sigh.

"Yup. Same as me. This used to be a place where we'd work on building the machine. I only ever really helped with maintenance mind you, but...still. I was hired on and worked with Gent about fifty hours a week. No overtime pay. You know how it was. But this place was my workshop, my break room. I could claim I was doing work for Joey or the machine, but really I just used it as an excuse to do whatever I wanted for a while. Give my mind a break, you know?"

Henry nodded. "Still. I didn't know you worked this close with the machine. That you had this much to do with all of this."

Tom clenched his jaw and grew quiet.

"Ah, sorry," Henry said. "I didn't mean for that to sound so accusing..."

"Yeah, well...you're probably right," Tom said. He stopped at the bottom of the staircase. There was a singular dark hallway, with a few doors on each side. He shone his flashlight over to the far door. "There it is. That's my workshop. Can you stay here and stand guard?"

Henry wanted to know what was inside the workshop. Wanted to know why Tom wouldn't meet his eyes, why he seemed so nervous. But asking too many questions wouldn't earn him anything but Tom's anger, and he didn't want that. Not while they were stuck deep down beneath the park. Henry nodded, and Tom walked over to the room in the back. He shoved it open with a heave, and disappeared inside.

Tom wanted to tell him. But...it was hard. It had been hard to force himself to even come all this way. But he had to make sure Gent never got their hands on what was down here. He waded through crumpled furniture and rotting wood toward the filing cabinet and work bench in the back of the room.

There. There was the log. He wondered if it even still worked. He hoped it didn't. It's make him feel better. But...he couldn't let Henry know. He couldn't let...he couldn't let Allison know. If they got her back. And he wanted to. So much. But this was a part of his past he couldn't keep running from. He clicked the play button on the tape hesitantly.

"Progress report to Gent's home office. Client: Joey Drew Studios."

Tom swallowed. That was his voice alright.

"Although we're making progress, the client's expectations keep changing. What started as a machine to simply mold life size figures now seems to be teetering on the edge of magic more than engineering. Although Mister Drew remained convinced that they're the same thing...the process of running the cartoon film through the machines for the figures to imprint upon themselves is going well, we've had several near successes. One weird note, the first figure ever created was a failed attempt at the likeness of the character called 'Bendy.' Since that time, no other attempts at this particular figure have emerged. And the one that did...I don't know. There's just something unworldly about him."

The tape clicked off. Thomas sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

...yeah. He used to work for Gent. He'd been hired onto the park THROUGH Gent. And now, it was all catching up to him. But...he had what he needed. He couldn't remember the old processes. Going back and forth from Boris had scrambled things around. Making going through the ink machine itself had done that. But now he remembered.

The cartoon reels were inserted into the machine. The 'figures' were forced to watch the cartoons as they were created as a way of imprinting onto that character itself. If Joey, and Gent, had figured out a way to perfect the machine, they must have altered the cartoon reels. That was the only explanation for how Allison could have forgotten him when she turned into Alice.

So...theoretically speaking...it he could find a way to swap the reels...maybe play footage of her life up until now, if he could find some...

Maybe. Just maybe, he could get her to remember him. It was a long shot. It was dangerous. Probably just a desperate attempt to grab onto any hope that he could find. But maybe working at Gent before all of this was a good thing. Or maybe, some good could come of it. He used to like Gent, used to trust them. But they'd been blinded by Joey's money after the ink machine became a colossal success. He couldn't trust them now. He could only trust himself and his own capabilities.

Tom packed up the audio log and his notes that could be salvaged in the filing cabinet. He gave the big empty room one last look, including eyeing the mechanical figure on his work bench, then headed out.

Thanks for waiting so long for this next chapter everyone, I hope it was worth the wait! I've still been working remotely from home with my new job, so I haven't had quite as much free-time during this quarantine as I originally thought I might. ...okay, Animal Crossing New Horizons has also completely sucked away my time I'M SORRY. Still, I hope this chapter was worth it, I wanted to make sure I gave everyone plenty to dive back into! Please stay safe during these times, and be sure to take care of your physical AND mental health!

I think that about wraps up this chapter! Hopefully I'll have another one out soon! Thanks again for all of the wonderful support!