Horror Fan Fiction ❯ Bendy and the Ink Machine ❯ The Old Song ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two: The Old Song

“Ugh, my head hurts...What happened last night?”, said Henry, as he slowly regained consciousness. He could see the lighting in the room he was in start to kindle, getting brighter and brighter until he could see properly once more. He could see that he was lying down on the strange demonic drawing of a circle with a star in the middle that he witnessed before he passed out, surrounded by six candles. I definitely don’t want to be a part of whatever satanic cult this is, Henry thought. He quickly got back on his legs and backed away from the circle, as he didn’t want to pass out again. He tried looking around the room to see if there were any clues that explained why this happened, but all he could find that could be of any use was his axe, leaning against one of the two coffins in the back of the room. “Hey, I didn’t put my axe there,” Henry said to himself, “someone must’ve moved it. Well...guess I’m stuck down here. Better press on and see if I can find a way out of this place.” He quickly grabbed his axe and made his way to finding a way out of this place, since he would probably need it if he was to come in contact with that horrific abomination once more. 

Henry saw that there was a door near where the coffins were located, barred up by two wooden planks. He took his trusty axe, backed up a few feet, and swung it at the first wooden board. It broke in half as soon as the axe’s blade made contact with it, same as the second board as well. Henry then proceeded to open the door handle to try and find his way out of here. I don’t really want to check those coffins, Henry thought, and find another dissected corpse inside. As that thought quickly exited Henry’s mind, he made his way to the nearby room where there was a sign that read out: Utility Shaft. It seemed that it was the right way to go, so Henry decided to see if he could find any utilities that he could use to escape. At first glance, he didn’t find anything, but as he got further inside he could see more graffiti on the walls. This one in particular, though, looked more like a cult-like offering, as Henry took notice of the several candles, a banjo, cans, bowls of food, and a mini-Bendy cut-out arranged in a weird fashion, all while the graffiti on the wall read out: HE WILL SET US FREE. Henry didn’t know what to make of this, other than that whoever laid this out must’ve done it as an offering to whatever “gods” it was that the employee mentioned on the tape. Still, out of pure boredom, Henry decided to try playing the banjo. He gave it a shot, and, admittedly, he wasn’t all that terrible at it. What am I doing, thought Henry, I need to stay focused. He puts the banjo back at the offering and continues to try searching the room for other supplies. Oddly enough, not far away from the offering, there seemed to be another one of these cult-worship things. The main difference here was that instead of having many different types of food laid out, there were only a few lit candles, with another mini-Bendy cut-out, with a tape player directly in the middle. Henry remembered how last time, the tape player revealed the experiences of one of Joey’s employees, so hopefully this one could shed some light on the events that took place here. There was a name written on this tape player, Sammy Lawrence, apparently. Henry then pushed the play button and listened to the audio. 

“He appears from the shadows, to rain his sweet, sweet blessings upon me. The figure of ink shines in the darkness like a moth to a flame. I see you now, my lord and savior, and I pray that you hear me. Those old songs, yes, I still sing them sometimes, for I know you are coming to save me from this cursed place. And I will be swept into your final, warm, and loving embrace. But, love, like all things in life, requires sacrifice. Can I get an amen?” 

As Henry turned off the recording, he thought about what was in this recording. Joey has lost his damn mind if his employees are worshipping our cartoons like the Savior. I know for a fact there is only one true God, and He is definitely not an ink demon. As he was trying to collect his thoughts, he could hear something slowly and creepily coming from a room in the back. “I said, can I get an amen?” This made Henry’s face pale, knowing that there was someone trapped down here with him. And seeing many new pentagrams located inside the room with him didn’t make him feel any better. He waited for a few moments, to see if whoever said this had anything else to say, but there wasn’t. Luckily, Henry had his axe with him, so he felt a little safer knowing that he could defend himself if anything got in his way. He was getting a bit too creeped out by the pentagrams and the offerings laid out across this room, so he decided to exit and continue to hopefully find a way out of this place. 

As he walked along the weird halls, he came across yet another pentagram, but this time it was written on the wall, with a Bendy cut-out in the middle with a food bowl on each side of it. Enough of these cut-outs already, thought Henry, as he used his axe to obliterate the cut-out to pieces. He kept searching until he came across another hall to his left, flooded up to ankle’s height in pure ink. Sure, he didn’t want to ruin his new shoes, but then again they were already soaked after he tried running away from the abomination, so it didn’t seem so desperate. He made his way across the ink, as it splashed back and forth, getting onto Henry’s jeans. It’s just a little bit of ink, thought Henry, and besides, I’d rather take this than not getting out of here at all. As he was around halfway across the hall, he saw something on the other side of it, through an open doorway: he could see what appeared to be a man covered entirely with ink, apart from his pants that is, holding a Bendy-cut out, walking down the hall. This man seemed mysterious, as Henry couldn’t see any of his hair or face, but he was in desperate need of help. “Hello? Excuse me? Can you please help me out?”, Henry cried out, trying to get the man’s attention, but he seemed to just walk by, not even acknowledging that Henry existed. Quickly, Henry rushed through the ink-infested hall to try and find this man, but when he got to the end of the hall, he found only another pentagram one the wall, with a Bendy cut-out placed in the middle, smudged entirely with ink. “Where the hell did he go?”, he said to himself, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. What was even more confusing was that this man was walking towards the area where the pentagram was located, and it was a dead end, with no possibility of getting any further. The only thing that was even next to this pentagram were two aisles, stacked with a large amount of cans. Henry took a look at them, curious to see what food was inside. The cans each had Bendy’s face on, while also having the title “bacon soup” printed on them. Bacon soup...not a terrible idea, Joey, Henry thought. He decided to grab a can, just in case he could find a can opener around here somewhere and give it a try. 

Henry discovered a strange lever at the end of the room, along with some kind of door blocking the path. He tried pulling the lever to see if that would do the trick, and it does, slowly opening the door. As soon as this happened, Henry could hear a raspy groan coming from down the hallway. Hmm...better check it out, he thought. He went through the doorway, only to find that the path was blocked again by some more wooden planks barring the door. He used his axe to chop down each and every wood plank and entered the room. At first glance, he could see on the wall that there was some sort of mural that read out “Music Production”, along with a few drawings of records, sheet music, and large puddles of ink everywhere. On a shelf located near the , he found another tape player, having the name Sammy Lawrence written on it. He mentioned that he still sang some of the songs. Maybe he was a member of the music department, he thought. Henry decided to hit the play button to listen to the tape player. 

“So first Joey installs this Ink Machine right above our heads. Then it begins to leak ink from the ceiling. Three times last month, we couldn’t even get out of our apartment because the ink completely flooded the stairwell. I tell you, this is insane. And guess what Joey’s solution to this is? A giant ink pump to drain it periodically. Now I have this disgusting ink pump switch right in my office. People coming in and out ALL day. Gee, thanks, Joey. Just what I needed: more distractions. These stupid cartoon songs don’t write themselves, you know.” 

Clearly no one around here knows what this ‘Ink Machine’ is, or what it does, thought Henry, and nobody's happy with it, either. Henry could tell from this recording that it must have been taken before the other recording he found a while back. Here, Sammy was just complaining about his work conditions, while before he was preaching to his so-called savior. He didn’t see anything else in the room that could’ve provided something useful to him. What else is around here? Better look around. He tried searching around the room for an exit, hopefully, and came across a door. There wasn’t much point in staying behind, so he thought it was best to move on and go on through. As he opened the door, the nearby room was revealed. It seemed to be some sort of large music recording studio. Inside were several wooden chairs placed in a choir-like form, in front of three music stands. There were many old-school recording microphones hanging from the ceiling, as well as a large drum and a banjo in the back, and a gigantic projection screen located behind the chairs, covering a significant amount of the wall. There wasn’t much else to look at, as in the back there were only a few chairs, a trashcan and a large piano, with a much smaller recording studio next to it. Well...this is odd. What was even more odd was that there was a large Bendy cut-out head right above it, smudged in ink. He tried looking around if there were any clues, but all he could find was another tape-player. This tape player, though, had a different name imprinted on it: Susie Campbell. Did she work in the music department here? I’m not sure, it was so long ago, but I swore I’ve heard that name before. Henry thought it was best to see what information this tape-player would provide, and pressed the play button. Susie’s voice was rather joyful and energetic, unlike the chilling and dim voice of Sammy Lawrence, at least according to these tapes. 

“It may only be my second month working for Joey Drew, but I can already tell that I am going to love it here! The people here really seem to enjoy my Alice Angel voice. Sammy says she might be as popular as Bendy someday. I mean, the past few weeks I’ve voiced everything from talking chairs to dancing chickens! But now, this is the first character that I have really felt a personal connection to. It’s almost like she is a part of me. Alice and I, we are going places!” 

Oh, Alice Angel. I remember that character. Back in the early 1930’s of Joey Drew Studios, Henry provided the first early design for Alice Angel. He thought that people were going to love it, and Joey heavily supported the creation of Henry’s new character. He didn’t really have much time to see how big of a hit she would become because he stepped down in 1933 to spend more time with his wife, Linda. I wonder how things turned out for Alice. He didn’t spend too much time wondering about it, though, since he was still searching for a way out of this place. As he did this, he noticed that there was a top balcony in the recording studio, with a projector standing in the middle and another Bendy cut-out popping out from the left side. Well, I can’t find anything in here. Let’s see if there’s anything I can find up there. He tried retracing his steps, and returned to the “Music Production” hall to see if he missed something. He did find another side room, this one being on the right side of the mural painting, showing a staircase leading to a room with an open door. This must lead to the balcony. Henry thought it was worth checking, so he quickly climbed up the stairs and entered the balcony. When he got there, he discovered it was a quite small balcony, as there was only enough capacity for around six people, at his guess. All that he could see was the projector, a chair, some poster from one of the old animations, “Little Devil Darlin”, a film reel, and a recording micro-Wait...where did Bendy go? 

He saw something that immediately caught his eye. In the recording studio, precisely the choir chair arranged, there was a Bendy cut-out, laying against a chair on the far left. How did he get down there?

(NOT FINISHED YET...)