A/N: Hello, hello, and welcome back! Happy February. Hope you all enjoy :)
Chapter Eleven: HE CAN[T] BE SAVED
HENRY
Ink can be sculpted... and not necessarily into normalcy.
Henry discovered it a week after his escape. He'd been fighting his own body again. He'd woken up screaming from a nightmare-filled nap to a liquifying hand, and brought it crashing down on the bedside table.
Except in his dream he'd had an axe.
The bedside table had cracked down the center and the legs splintered. Linda rushed in to find Henry staring in disbelief at a hand that was definitely not a hand. More of an axehead.
Over time, Henry had found ways to keep his body in line. Sunlight. Warmth. His wife. But sometimes, especially when dealing with fear, he'd discovered the best way to cope was to… stray out of line. Significantly.
'Sometimes the best way to fight a nightmare is to be a nightmare.' A Joey quote, but true nonetheless.
So Henry practiced. He learned to forge many weapons. A mace. A hammer. Knife hands. (Linda didn't like those much.) And eventually, he'd improved. He'd even managed to catch a falling glass with a third hand in Audrey's toddlerhood. Linda had laughed, and asked him to let the glass break the next time.
It wasn't normal. It wasn't even logical. But Henry wanted to push himself. Why just three hands? Why not more?
So he'd practiced. And slowly, the nightmares had receded. His body became more responsive. He'd mastered himself. More or less.
Now that golden ink poured through his body, and now that he needed every advantage… Henry was actually thankful for the old fears. They'd pushed him. Helped save him from who he was.
And now he'd need them.
Henry fell from the ceiling, yelling his wife's name like a war cry. His two normal arms stretched out, keeping him balanced.
Four other fists pounded into the wood planking around him, catapulting him forward. Five more snatched at his broken wife's body, halting her rush just as she reached for Allison.
Henry slammed into her, several hands planting on the walls and floor to stabilize them, and the rest wrapping tightly around her arms and legs, crushing her against him.
His broken wife writhed and thrashed, the wail ripping from her throat like she had no control of it, and Henry hung on grimly. "Linda!" he roared, and he thought she paused, but the moment passed and she tore at him with her claws, as much as she could. He felt his grip slipping a fraction and tightened it.
Her head slammed back into his, and Henry's head spun with stars, dizzy from the blow. "AUDREY, NOW!" he yelled, as hard and as loud as he could, and fought against his wife's strength.
A small figure darted past, in front, and he heard Audrey's scream.
"Momma!"
And then gold erupted, everywhere.
Henry felt more than saw Alice-Linda freeze. He felt the light trace through her, from her head down, washing over her in rivulets like someone had poured glowing paint on her head. He felt the madness, the darkness fight the brilliance, then fade and wink out in the golden light, and he felt his wife go limp in his arms.
The light flickered and died away. Slowly, Henry relaxed his grip on Linda, sliding down to the floor with her in his arms. He saw Audrey crumple and reached out with one massive hand, tugging her toward them. Then he gently turned his wife in his arms, praying with every fiber of his soul.
Linda's face was peaceful and calm. Swirls of bright gold crossed her skin, brushing over her jawline and crisscrossing her neck down over her arms and legs. Her eyes were closed, her mouth relaxed, the tears gone save for one last drop of black ink.
Henry took a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders, feeling the arms he'd created pour into his back, restoring his form to normal. With one trembling hand, he reached up to her face, ignoring the gold coiling through his own body.
Henry brushed away the black teardrop on Linda's cheek. Her eyelids flickered and slowly, carefully, opened.
Tears sprang to Henry's eyes as he stared down into Linda's dark ones.
"Henry?" she whispered, and he smiled. The smile turned into a chuckle, and then he started to laugh, shakily at first and then deep, from the belly.
And Linda laughed too, touching his face with clawless hands, smiling through new tears, glittering with golden hope, not black despair.
She held him, and he held her, and they laughed together. And cried.
Audrey stirred at his feet and pushed herself up, blinking. Henry opened one arm to her, and Audrey stopped dead, her eyes bright and wide.
"Momma?" she breathed, and Henry could feel her worry tangle with his own- if Linda didn't remember her own daughter, despite everything Audrey had done-
"Sunshine," Linda said weakly, and then the three of them were in one tight embrace, sobbing together. Audrey shook, and Henry grinned through his tears, holding the two people dearest to him in the world as tightly as he could. We've gone through Hell. This must be Heaven, he thought, and laughed again.
He only had a second's warning. Audrey stiffened.
A deep, rhythmic thumping. A heartbeat. Shadows at the corners of his eyes.
Henry's breath left his lungs.
From the dead end of the hallway, ink bubbled on the wall, and tall, misshapen, staggering and grinning, the Demon erupted, rushing toward them in a crash of ink.
Long arms reached out, the creature's figure looming to the ceiling, and Henry could only yell in frustrated terror as he heard Allison scream, Tom roar, Sammy cry out. He leapt to his feet in front of them, praying the Demon might at least spare Linda, Audrey-
"Bendy, NO!"
A tiny glowing figure leapt to her feet and turned, shoving one shining hand in the grinning teeth of the Demon.
The night's blanket of solitude. The desk's hard edge under his elbows. The hum of a single lightbulb.
Henry growled and crumpled the piece of paper. He scrunched it into a tight ball, then tossed the thing over his shoulder. The rustle of many other paper balls on the floor as his little missile landed behind him only tightened the set of his jaw.
Henry blew a long breath and tipped his empty coffee mug from side to side. He winced and rubbed at the headache in his temple, then leaned back in his chair. He felt the itch in his fingers, the need to draw… something. It. The one thing he was looking for. But everything he'd drawn so far that night was an abysmal failure.
With a huff of exasperation, Henry let his eyes close.
Time blurred - hours, minutes, seconds, who knows, as Henry's mind wandered.
A smiling face painted itself on the back of his eyelids.
Henry's eyes flew open, and he flung himself upright so fast that the desk rattled. He snatched his pen out from behind his ear.
Henry bent over the paper again, one last time, and his fingers moved with certainty: curved shape, sharp corner, a swoop of the ink. The pen scraped, the dry scratching drowning out the hum of the lightbulb above, as Henry filled in the dark areas, coloring in his creation.
With a deep breath, Henry leaned back slightly. He lifted the paper and blew on it gently, then settled it back on the desk.
The little creature grinned up at him, one eye closed in a mischievous wink, waving from his white paper window, beaming with life.
Henry smiled back down at him. He already knew the devil's name.
"Hello, Bendy," Henry whispered.
Time hung in the air, heavy as the black ink seething on the floor, the only thing that moved.
Audrey stood, shaking slightly, her one glowing hand outstretched. The Demon's clawed hand hung over her head, his blind face turned toward her. Shadows boiled in the corners, writhing in fury.
A tiny golden coil bloomed in the Demon's chest, faintly piercing his own darkness.
Henry barely saw it. He looked- really looked- at the Demon looming over his daughter, and felt the breath leave his lungs.
"Bendy," he croaked.
The dripping, grinning blind face turned up, in his direction. Henry swallowed, hard, something finally sparking other than the fear in his veins.
Anger. But not at you, devil.
"Bendy," he repeated, and took a step forward.
The shadows in the corners hissed, and the Demon lurched. Audrey shivered as black ink dripped onto her face, but her hand stayed high, and Henry took comfort from the swirling gold still tracing its way over her arm.
He knew he glowed, too.
"Bendy," Henry said, softly. "My devil. Mine." He took another step forward, sorrow and anger crashing like a high tide through him, sweeping fear away. "What did he do to you, Bendy? What the hell did Joey do to you?"
The Demon's shoulders twisted, eerily writhing as the rest of him stayed frozen. The dripping, misshapen head turned slightly to center more on Henry.
Henry took another step, and another, and another. Feeling terror thump around him in time to the heartbeat in the walls. Warning him of how close he stood to yet another death.
But this wasn't just a monster in front of him. It was Bendy under there, not just another twisted black hopeless thing, hidden under dark ink and torn apart by his old friend. His devil. His creation.
Even a tiny part of his soul. Poured into his art, brought to life through a tiny spark of Henry's own.
The walls groaned. The Demon's head twisted, his body rippling, clawed fingers still outstretched, Audrey's light still holding him at bay. He twitched.
"You were never Joey's," Henry said. He glared at the dark ink covering his creation's eyes. "You've never been Joey's. You. Are. Mine."
The Demon stilled again. Then his head dropped, and Henry bit back terror as the warped creature bent down till his face rested just inches from Henry's. Audrey whispered something small, quiet, and the whispers in the walls fell silent.
Henry felt the studio listening, and for the first time since he'd been within these dripping walls, he didn't care.
"I made you," Henry said fiercely. "I made you to dance. To laugh. To smile, Bendy, because you're happy-" Henry's voice broke. "Because you want to. Because you're so happy you can't keep still. Like you did. When I made you."
Audrey straightened, slightly. The Demon's head swung toward her.
"He made me too, Bendy," Audrey whispered. Henry heard sadness, unshed tears, in her voice and his stomach clenched. His daughter dragged in a deep breath and kept going. "Not the same way. But Dad would do anything for me - for us." She hesitated. "'Cause he loves me, Bendy. And he loves you, too."
The walls sighed. The Demon's head inched closer to Henry's. He stared up, past the dripping teeth, at the ink where his devil's eyes should have been. "She's right. But I think you know that."
The Demon's grin faltered.
One corner slowly twitched, slipping downward, leaving a faintly glowing golden trail in the ink pouring down the Demon's face.
Henry choked on a laugh and reached out, ignoring the ink tears pouring down his face, to touch his Devil's face for the first time.
The Studio screamed.
An inhuman wail shattered the quiet, tearing at Henry's ears, sending ripples through his vision. He stumbled, ripping his gaze away from the Demon before him. The darkness of the studio crashed around their little group, fear and terror and something else. A presence. Something.
Black liquid poured from every corner, every crack in the wall, crashing to the floor and rushing over the wood planks toward them. Henry yelled. The Demon pulled back, head jerking up in confusion.
Something exploded out of the wall behind the Demon. Audrey shrieked a warning. Henry saw grasping hands, hooked claw fingers and tackled her sideways, into the wall, wrapping himself around her small frame.
A roar moaned in the walls, small under the terrible shriek, and Henry unfolded himself from Audrey, trying to scramble up, pulling her with him.
The Demon writhed on the floor, grin painted back on his face. He clawed frantically at the hands clamped over his ankles and his legs, dragging him back into a black seething hole in the wall.
Henry roared and leapt forward, reaching for the Demon's hand. The Demon's blind grinning head turned toward him.
Bendy's huge, clawed hand brushed Henry's own black one for just a moment.
Then the ink pulled with a final tug, and his devil was gone.
The portal crashed to the floorboards, leaving the wall as decayed and blank as before.
Henry yelled, the sound echoing in the suddenly silent halls. He screamed at the studio until he ran out of breath, and then he punched a hole in the floor.
Finally, he turned around.
Sammy, Allison, Tom all stood silent, eyes wide in shock. Audrey curled up on the floor, shaking slightly, eyes unfocused and dark.
Linda slowly pulled herself over to Audrey and gathered her into her arms. Audrey whimpered once, and with a shudder, she collapsed, lying limp.
Linda looked up at Henry and reached out for him. Henry dropped to his knees beside her, and she laid his head on her shoulder, Audrey small in between them.
"He wanted to be free," Henry said, laying a hand on his daughter's head, and grief twisted in his words - Bendy was here this whole time, what if I lose him again?
"Then we'll get him back," Linda said quietly. "You saved me, too."
Henry exhaled, hard, and dropped his face into her hair. "That's true. We did do that. Ah, right." He lifted his head and managed to smile toward the others. "Have any of you met my wife?"
TO BE CONTINUED
/\/\/\
A/N: Whew. That was a wild one to write.
The family is reunited! Next week (or next upload, if I get curbstomped by schoolwork again) we get a Linda POV. And who doesn't love an Alice? (Rhetorical question. Around here, we all love Alices... or else. *loads shotgun*)
Take your vitamins, everyone - I got laid out this week by some flu variant, probably. Worst 48 hours of illness I've had in two years... not my preferred weight loss strategy. Everyone at my school has been dropping like flies. But I'm all recovered now, hallelujah.
I'll see you all in a week! Uploads are kind of scattered right now, since I'm catching writing time here and there as I can get it. Sundays are most likely, but if I get the chance to upload on Thursday, I will. Wild times here at university.
Godspeed this week!
-Sam ;)