A/N: Hello, hello! I am proud to announce, dear reader, that we have finally arrived in the studio. Took me long enough, amirite?

Keep a lookout for the absolutely vital plot [secret] development in this chapter. I'm not sure if anyone will spot it yet, but don't worry, its importance will assert in the story soon enough.

This one's a touch shorter. Enjoy!

Chapter Three: THERE NEVER WAS A CHOICE

AUDREY

Audrey drew a deep, shuddering breath. There was no sound in the long hall, apart from a constant drip of the dark liquid pooling in the corners, and her own thudding heartbeat. The hallway stretched, down and down, branching at the end. Each wall, the floor, everything was strangely muted- no color to speak of, just dimness. Audrey exhaled in a long whoosh and took a few step forward- nearly pitching into the dark hole before her. She gasped and leapt back, wincing as her boots rattled in the silence.

Audrey scowled at the hole. Old boards. She shifted the bag on her back and slid to the side, carefully edging sideways toward the edge of the hole. A thin trickle of ink spilled from a pipe overhead, falling through the hole, and splashing far below. Audrey flinched at the movement, even as she crossed the planking and reached the other side. She swallowed, reached down, and touched the knife in her boot. I think, somehow, I'll need this.

She took a deep breath and crept down the hallway.

The air crawled with menace and the dripping ink (Audrey decided it had to be ink) was ominous, but after a few reassuring minutes of no attacks, she began to relax just a little. She turned a few corners and stopped, staring down a long corridor. Something whispered in her mind, wait.

Audrey squinted, trying to see through the darkness, and slowly stepped forward, wary. A lightbulb flickered at the end of the corridor, and she yelped at the sudden image of something with eyes, before her mind processed that it was cardboard. Audrey sucked in a huge breath of air and sighed as it escaped, smiling a little, before stepping down the rest of the hallway (avoiding the ink puddles) to come to the end of the corridor.

Before her stood a desk and a strange cardboard cutout. Audrey looked over the figure first, staring at it in confusion before pulling out the sketch from her inside pocket. She frowned and glanced between the two. The same creature. This is 'Bendy'? My dad drew him, so maybe he had something to do with it. He worked here.

Then Audrey looked toward the desk, and gasped. She darted forward and touched the sketches. She'd recognize her dad's work anywhere.

But someone had torn his sketch in half, and one of the halves was missing. It was half a rough, crescent-shaped head, and the word NO above it with half the O gone. Ink had poured all over the desk, but strangely, the sketch was untouched.

Audrey frowned for half a moment, then picked up the sketch and stuffed it in her pocket with the other one. She traced one hand over the desk as gently as she could, imagining her dad sitting in the chair, and her fingers found a divot in the desk- a curved line. She leaned closer and found a heart, with H & L carved inside.

Audrey turned away to fight down the sadness in her throat and heard something, louder than a drip, more of a splash. She felt her skin tingle, every part of her coming awake, fear pushing everything to the surface. "Hello?"

No answer.

Audrey tiptoed to the end of the hall and looked both ways. Nothing. No one. She didn't even feel as if she was being watched, but the unease remained.

She turned and walked back up the corridor, quickly, coming back to the hall where the exit door loomed. Audrey turned for one last, longing look at the door out, the EXIT sign hanging above temptingly-

-and the whole world began to shake. Audrey cried out as golden light seared her vision, images flashing before her eyes.

Her father, stepping through the hall, a wary curiosity on his face.

Her father, flying back through the hall, toward the door, fear glittering in his eyes.

The floor cracking, her father falling, down…

The images burnt away, and Audrey looked up toward the door, still at the end of the hall. In large, golden glowing letters she read: LET ME OUT OF HERE!

But as Audrey stared, unblinking, her heartbeat slowing to one single crashing thump, the golden ink smeared as if some hand had blurred it, and new letters began to form, traced by an invisible brush:

THE ONLY WAY OUT IS DOWN

Her heart finished its crashing beat, and with it, the golden light brightened to a blinding flash. Audrey gasped, unaware that she had fallen until she felt the shock reverberate in her knees.

When she looked up again, the golden letters were gone.

Audrey's heart thumped frantically in her chest. Behind her, she heard faint noise, a constant thump that sounded like… another heartbeat?

As Audrey scrambled to her feet, her mind screamed. The sunlight is through that door, it wailed as she pushed herself forward. The darkness waits below, it roared as she sprinted for the hole. Why do you trust the bright words? it demanded as she dropped into a slide for the edge, ignoring the splinters.

As Audrey fell, she could only answer, I don't know.

The darkness swallowed her.

When Audrey came to, she gasped for air, suddenly aware that she was not at home. A few lightbulbs sparked above her, strange walls and painful wood. And something liquid, dark and sticky, that her right hand was floating in.

Something reached through the darkness and snatched at her hand.

Audrey yelped and tore her hand away. She scrambled back, clawing her way backwards, as the puddle her hand had rested in began to bubble and seethe. A hand reached up and clawed around, with a round something following, and then a neck- it was a thing, and it was black and dark, and it was looking for her- Audrey felt the strangled gasp escape more than she heard it, and the creature, halfway emerged, swung its head around to face her. It had no eyes. Only a blank face. And a hole began to open for a mouth.

Audrey's throat closed. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. She couldn't act.

And she didn't have to.

Something flashed in the light above her, and the black monster froze. Audrey stared in shock at the axe head that had suddenly blossomed from the creature's head. With a strangled moan, the ink thing melted away, back into its puddle, and was gone.

Audrey blinked and looked up, squinting against the lightbulb. Ears. Nose. Black. Overalls. Metal arm…?

Audrey gasped, a sob bubbling up in her throat, not of fear this time, but relief. A word formed in her mind, and with it, a face to match the creature standing before her. And memories.

"Tom?"

Tom was not friendly. But Audrey knew that. What she didn't know was why he hadn't left her there.

He had grabbed her arm and dragged her, half-running and half-stumbling, through halls and down corridors she had never seen before and yet somehow knew. Twice they had gone hurtling into a side room and frozen solid, the fierce glare in Tom's eyes enough to warn her of the danger even before she heard the telltale splashing. His grip never relaxed, never releasing, and the pain firing in her arm sometimes made her eyes water.

When they weren't already watering, that is. Audrey somehow knew, deep in her bones or in the back corners of her mind, that Tom was an ally. Or more. Maybe even a friend. And to have someone she trusted, a friendly face or at least a companion, lifted a weight off her shoulders that she hadn't realized she was carrying. The pain in her arm paled in comparison.

Up stairs. Down stairs. Around fifteen different corners, before Audrey lost count. Twists, turns, bends and curves. One time Tom swung his axe with his other arm, not even stopping to wait for the creature to dissolve back into ink before they hurtled on.

Finally, after the pain in Audrey's arm began to eclipse her relief, and her hand had lost all feeling, Tom paused. He glanced all around, then pulled a hidden lever. A door beside them slowly ground open. Tom pulled Audrey in behind him, and with a twist of his hand, sent her flying to the floor. The shock from the relief of the pain left Audrey gasping for air for a moment, and when her vision cleared from the sparkling stars she saw, Tom had bent over her. The glare in his eyes made it clear he was angry, and if it wasn't clear enough, he thumped the axe head into his other hand.

Audrey took a deep breath and nodded, rubbing at her arm. "Thank you, Tom."

His name clearly gave him pause. He leaned back and tipped his head, watching her intently.

Audrey moved to push up from the floor, but Tom loomed over her again, and she sank back on her elbows. Then she winced and lay back down fully, rubbing at the pain in her right arm. "You want to know my name?"

A short, sharp nod from Tom.

"I'm Audrey. Audrey Stein." She shut her eyes, trying to think. "My dad is Henry Stein. He worked here for a while-" Warm air, laced with a bacon smell, gusted over her face. "Ack!"

Audrey jerked up only to collide into Tom's face. She cracked her head on his. He didn't even blink. She crumpled back to the ground, and stars danced around her head again.

Tom growled- low, deep in his throat- and pointed at her.

Audrey winced, trying to understand. "Henry?"

Tom nodded, hard, and suddenly the axe was up in the air, falling.

Audrey's breath caught, and the world twisted again. Her heart slowed, and she felt the breath slow to molasses in her lungs.

Golden light burst in on her vision, and on the wall above her, glowing letters trailed into existence:

HE FEELS BETRAYED

And a little further below:

WHERE IS ALLISON?

Audrey's heartbeat thundered in her ears, and she gasped, the air thin enough to breathe again. She threw herself sideways and cried out. "TOM! Wait! Dad- Henry-"

Tom paused long enough to track her with his gaze, a growl still rumbling in his chest.

Audrey coughed and sat up. "He cries," she said softly. "At night. I never knew why, but I remember now. He-" her voice caught. "He thought you melted away, like everyone, before he left. But he was always terrified, he was so scared that he'd left you behind… and he did." She blinked up at Tom. "And I can tell you now, he cries. He's sorry." Audrey sniffed. "Even though he's not here to tell you himself."

The growl rumbled to a stop. Slowly, the axe lowered. And then Tom sat, suddenly, with a hard thump on the floorboards, and covered his face in his hands.

Audrey hesitated, then scooted closer. "Tom."

He looked up, eyes sad. Empty.

"Where's Allison?"

TO BE CONTINUED

/\/\/\

A/N: And now we've really arrived. Tom's back! Bloodthirsty, perhaps, but that's just pretty much Tom. Still no Henry or Linda, sadly.

Do we think that being in the studio is better or worse for Audrey? In all honesty, I still haven't decided. So far, an ally isn't too bad to have, and she's not throwing up every five minutes. On the other hand... that's a lotta memories to have flooding your head out of the blue. Maybe my perception's too skewed to tell. Don't worry, it'll get weirder.

As always - insert once again asking for your financial support meme here - any reads or reviews are so incredibly welcome! Thank you for making it this far. I'm always looking for criticism, since my whole point here is to get better at this writing thing. We're keeping to the Thursday evening uploads so far and I'm happy about that, 'specially cause I fought through a huge test this week.

Godspeed! ;)

-Sam