(Audrey's point of view)
Audrey was in a different room then the room she had been imprisoned in for who knows how long.
The Keepers had come to her cell and forcibly escorted her here. What clued her in that something was going on was that the others were not escorted alongside her.
She looked around the room she was in. She was on a chair, sitting at a table. There was a chair on the other side of the table. The walls were plain, and there were two doors, one behind her guarded by two Keepers and the other in front of her and guarded by one.
Suddenly, the door in front of her was opened, and the last person she expected to see walked in.
Wilson.
"Audrey." Wilson acknowledged her, before taking a seat in the chair in front of her.
"Let's have ourselves a pleasant chat, shall we-" Wilson asked but was cut off by Audrey
Who punched him in the face.
The Keepers pulled her away from him, but not before she socked him in the jaw hard enough to dislodge a couple teeth.
However, Wilson waved his hand, and then the Keepers released her.
"...I can see that you're angry."
"You THINK?! You threw me into this hell, had every ink monster in here hunt me down, had your secret police break both my legs, and throw me in jail! After all you have put me through, you expect me to pleasantly chat with you no big deal just like that?! JUST?! LIKE?! THAT?!" Audrey ranted, absolutely pissed off.
"Yes."
Audrey glared at him for a minute, before pinching her nose and sighing.
Then she said, "Give me ONE good reason why I shouldn't pummel you."
"Because if you so much as try, my 'secret police', as you so lovingly dubbed them, will break both of your legs again." He simply stated.
"...ok."
Then she sat down.
"Not gonna lie, that's a pretty convincing point."
"Good. Now that you've decided to be civil, we can talk. I apologize for the way my Keepers have treated you, dearie."
"After all, a pretty girl like you shouldn't be subjected to such...horrid treatment." Wilson said, in that tone of voice that made her feel...uncomfortable.
"Now, I can imagine you have questions, and I am more than willing to answer them, if you are willing to listen."
"Why should I trust any word that comes out of your mouth? You've done nothing good the entire time I've been here!" Audrey argued.
Wilson put his hand on his chin, thinking for a second, before snapping his fingers.
That seemed to trigger some sort of command in the Keepers, because one of them left the room.
They came back after five minutes carring some sort of machine. It appeared to be some sort of control board, but had a long cord attached to it, and a suction cup at the end of the cord.
"'Do you know what this is?" He asked her.
She shook her head.
"It is a lie detector."
"Like in the movies?"
"Not quite. My own design, crafted for the ink denizens of the studio."
"And how do I know this isn't some random hunk of junk so you can trick me?" Audrey asked, still skeptic.
"Watch."
Wilson attached the end of the cord with the suction cup to himself. Then he said
"My name is Bob."
The machine beeped and it appeared to give a jolt of electricity into Wilson.
"Every time I tell a lie, this machine will electrocute me." Wilson explained.
"Now, will you trust me? Now that I am willing to put myself through this suffering for you? Or will you still distrust and despise me? An old man who is willing to electrocute himself for you?"
Audrey felt her nerves rise and lower at the same time. She knew it could be a very bad idea to trust Wilson, there was plenty of evidence for that.
And yet...
When he phrased it like that, it sounded logical and provided ways for Audrey to trust his word, and it sounded like Wilson was HURT by the fact that she didn't trust him.
He was an elderly man endangering his health by electrocuting himself, and Audrey STILL doubted him? It made her feel like she was being
Unreasonable. Erratic.
Exactly the threat the Keepers declared her to be.
What REAL harm could hearing him out do?
"...alright. I'll listen to you."
Wilson smiled.
"Good."
"So dearie, what is your first question for me?" He asked.
"Why did you bring me down here?"
"It is because you are the daughter of Joey Drew."
That shocked Audrey to her very core.
No, no it couldn't be true.
Yet the lie detector wasn't beeping.
Why wasn't it beeping?!
Was...was Wilson telling the truth then? Was Joey telling the truth?!
"You were unaware of this truth, weren't you?" Wilson stated.
Wilson's statement brought her out of her spiral and raised two new questions.
"How do you know? And why can't I remember anything about Joey or my past?"
"Both of those questions can be answered at once."
Wilson pulled out a small black book that Audrey immediately recognized as The Illusion of Living.
"I see that look in your eye. But this is not your father's memoirs. This is the essence of the Cycle."
"...I don't follow." Audrey said, confused.
"The Cycle was a sequence, a story that always ended with Subject 414 restarting it. And this book was the containment of the story, Mister Drew's way of crafting and controlling it."
"And in it, once are you mentioned."
He cleared his throat before quoting the book
"Once I die, my spirit, made from the memories of me from my daughter's mind will form. This will cost my daughter her memories, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make."
He closed the book.
No beeps.
Audrey just sat there silently for a second, attempting to process what she had just heard.
Her father actively took away her memories, her LIFE, just to keep himself alive.
How could he do that?
"Your father never cared for you truly. You were just the best of your siblings, so he deemed you worthy of life."
That caught Audrey's attention.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"Oh dearie, you didn't believe you came out so perfectly on the first try, did you? There were other children of Drew before you, Mister Drew just decided they weren't good enough to have a childhood." Wilson said, a touch of bitterness in his tone.
No beeps.
"I..I want proof." She said shakily.
"You still doubt me? After all the information I just gave you? You're incredibly ungrateful."
Then Wilson smiled
"You're lucky I gathered so much evidence. That's why it took me so long to talk to you."
He pulled out a letter.
"Grabbed directly from the Office of Joey Drew."
No beeps.
She read the letter
Who would have ever dreamed?
In the declining years of my life,
I have someone more precious to me than any piece of art that I could make
For all the evil that's come with me, this is something finally good.
When she laughs and smiles, it fills my heart so much it overflows.
We play and talk as we both learn from each other.
There's not much time, so every moment has to count.
Unlike my versions that came before her, the ones who called me their "uncle",
I'm proud to have her call me "Dad". Because she is truly my daughter.
- Joey
"Isn't it cruel? He called your siblings 'evil' for something as simple as calling him 'uncle'. What a miserable existence it must have been for you." Wilson said condescendingly.
Audrey was only partially listening, her anxiety reeling in her head, causing so much dread and fear.
"You were essentially a pet to him."
"A pet that could be replaced or put down."
"How...pitiful."
What the hell?
What the actual hell?!
"But, thankfully dearie. There is one upside to this."
"And what could that be?" She asked.
"You are the heir to the Cycle. You can alter it in ways that I cannot."
He gestured to the Keepers.
"My Keepers. I created them, but they cannot last long. I have to keep making more and more. With your help, we can stabilize them." Wilson said.
"And it is not just creating and stabilizing life. You can also...delete it."
Audrey narrowed her eyes.
"What are you saying?" She asked.
Wilson grabbed her hand, held it, and smiled.
"I want you to help me permanently erase the Ink Demon and the Cyclebreakers from the Cycle."
Audrey's eyes widened in shock.
"You want me to kill them?!"
"Don't play innocent, Audrey. How many ink citizens did you kill before you were brought here?"
"That- That was different. They were out to kill me, it was self defense." She defended herself, although doubt and hesitance was present in her tone.
"Really? Sneaking up behind them and banishing them to the Dark Puddles was 'self-defense'?"
"It..it was." She stuttered.
"Regardless, it's for the best of the studio and you if the four are put down, darling."
"You know what they would do to you if they found out about your heritage. They would use you as an outlet for their rage."
No beeps.
She hated herself for already jumping to that conclusion.
'You know he's right.'
'Shut up.'
'You know you can't trust them.'
'Shut UP.'
Still, she defended her friends.
"The Cyclebreakers are my friends! They wouldn't hurt anyone!"
Wilson just laughed.
"It's humorous how little you know."
Wilson opened the book once again.
"Subject 418 has killed hundred people in this studio, sacrificing them to the Ink Demon."
No beeps.
"Subject 430 has also killed hundreds, with a speciality of ripping out the hearts of his victims and placing them around his lair."
No beeps
"And the Ink Demon? Let's just say there are PLENTY of good reasons why it is said that it kills everything that moves."
Despite of her shock of hearing of her cellmates criminal acts, she noticed that he left one of her cellmates out.
"What about Henry?" She asked.
Wilson frowned.
"Ah yes, Subject 414. His murders were in self-defense."
No beeps.
"So why would I want to kill him?!"
"It would be an act of mercy, Audrey. He was created by your father purely to be tortured. Erasing him would be freeing him from his cruel fate."
"And although it would be undeserved, it would be mercy for Subjects 418 and 430 as well. They hold the souls of Sammy Lawrence and Norman Polk. Erasing them would allow their souls to pass on to the afterlife."
He sounded reasonable. She couldn't find any flaws in his plan.
Except for one.
"What about Bendy? Does he have a soul?"
"It does not. Neither does Subject 414. They would simply be erased from existence entirely."
No beeps
That made Audrey stop cold.
"Doesn't that seem a bit barbaric? Erasing someone from existence entirely?" She asked, unsure of him.
Wilson squeezed her hand, so tight to the point of causing her pain.
"It's mercy and logical, Audrey. To disagree would make you a fool."
She sat there for a second, simply digesting everything he had told her.
The machine hadn't beeped once during their conversation, so she knew everything he had told her was the truth.
Everything he told her made sense, so what was this feeling of apprehension within her? Was it simply her anxiety, or was there a reason for the weight in her stomach?
"Have you finally come to your senses? Or do you have any more questions?" He asked.
"Just one. What did you do to the Ink Demon? You didn't kill him, but you made him...small. Why?" She asked back.
"I tried. Through an excessive amount of trial, it was determined that it couldn't be done. It was too integral to the cycle. So I came up with an...adequate solution."
And then he went into graphic detail about how he compressed the Ink Demon into his smaller cartoon form. How he sliced, electrocuted, and tortured the creature.
No beeps
"With a harmless form like that, it was easy to contain it and tell the studio that I slayed the beast."
"Brilliant, is it not?" He said, smirking.
"...You're a monster." She said shakily
"Pardon?"
"You just described to me several atrocities and tortures that you've committed on someone who I care about and you expect me to agree with you?! To praise you?!"
"How can you care about the Ink Demon while knowing what it's done?!" He asked her.
That was...a question she did not have an answer to. She knew the threat the Demon posed, and that he had killed several people.
But...she also knew what her father put him through, going by what Henry told her, and what Wilson put him through.
She also knew him as her little friend that accompanied her for a short while. She knew that he could have killed her at any moment, but he didn't.
She didn't know why, but she knew there had to be a reason for it.
She also thought of Henry and the others's escape attempt, and how determined they were to live.
To just up and erase them and dare to call it 'mercy'...
It wasn't fair.
"I'm sorry Wilson, but I won't help you erase my friends. It's not right."
Wilson's smile vanished. He squeezed her hand harder.
"Fine. Be a fool and surround yourself with murderers. Don't come crying to me when your house of cards crumbles and crushes you."
He let go of your hand and waved at the Keepers.
The Keepers grabbed her amd and escorted her back to her cell.
While she was walked back to her cell, she thought about the conversation she just had.
She was now sure that Wilson was not to be trusted, but she now also doubted that she could trust her fellow cellmates.
No, no. They were friends, she knew that Wilson couldn't be trusted, so nothing that came out of his mouth could either.
She knew that...
"Oh, you're back! What happened?" Henry asked once she reentered her cell.
...so why was there still hesitance in her mind?
She sat in the corner and simply said
"Nothing."
•••
(Wilson's point of view)
Wilson sat in the chair, fiddling with a remote in his hands.
The remote's purpose was to give controlled shocks to whoever was plugged into the machine.
Since he had control of the remote, he made sure that he wasn't shocked at any moment during his conversation with Audrey, except for the beginning, in order to make her believe he could tell her nothing but the truth.
'Oh Audrey...you truly are pitiful..' he thought to himself.
'No matter dearie. I will make you see the truth, and you will be mine.'
'No matter what it takes.'