Bendy and the Ink Machine: Who's Laughing Now?

2

Bendy. That name had sounded familiar. I know it well now. I hear it in every abandoned hall, every empty room. I hear it. "Bendy's close!" The walls seem to shout, covering me in a cacophony of warnings. I can't escape his name. I couldn't escape my fate. Where was I? Right.

"Wait." I said, "You're telling me that this is the studio that makes them Bendy cartoons? They were all the rage when I was little."
"They may have been but people just aren't as interested as they were back then." Mister Drew sighed.
I'd wondered what had happened to the famous little devil. His cartoon shenanigans seemed to grow farther between, giving Walt Disney a chance to take the spotlight.

"So?" Mister Drew asked, "Want to work for me and Bendy?" The way he said it was just creepy. A little, off. Speaking of his little devil as if it was real. I know what he meant now.

"Sure," I stuttered. Still surprised at getting a job like this. "Sure. I'll work for you and Bendy." If that is what I actually said. I can't remember most parts of my life anymore. They're mixed with his thoughts in our head, like memory soup. "Great!" Mister Drew exclaimed, "Come, Peter, I'll give you a tour of the studio." I loved how kind his voice was. It made me like him. Trust him. Made me not want to say no. "Great!" I said. I was meant to be home in 35 minutes for my next, and last, delivery but I didn't want to upset, or worse, anger Mister Drew. And that's when the blackout happened.

I'd never experienced anything this dark before, and suddenly here it was, it seemed to engulf everything in its path. Erasing everything from existence. "Ha!" Said Mister Drew, as if pleased that the city had vanished. "Well that's unfortunate, isn't it Peter? Guessing won't be able to give you the tour after all." I didn't like this. My day had just gone from bad to worse. I had thought at that point that it may stop. It couldn't get any worse for someone from the Lower East Side. I was worried though that Mister Drew would leave me to find my way back to the entrance. As if reading my thoughts he said "Don't worry, I'm not going to abandon you in the dark. But it's not that difficult to find your way back out." For him, maybe. He had created this studio after all. But for me, not so much.

It seemed to take forever to get back to the foyer and it didn't make it any better that Mister Drew was rambling on about dreams. "And that's why I made this studio," he claimed as we finally got to the entrance. "So I can bring my dreams to life."
"That's great and all, uh,"
"You can call me Mister Drew."
"That's great and all Mister Drew, but I really need to get back before my Mom wonders where I am." I cringed. I was worried that Mister Drew would be angry that I wasn't interested in his talk of dreams. May fire me even though he'd just hired me.

"I get it." He said. A smile across his proud face. "Moms can be real paranoid from time to time. Go on Peter. Go home before your Mom dies of fear." He laughed. A jovial, bright, kind laugh. It made me feel comfortable in my own skin. It was a miracle that he had understood. Maybe his Mom was like that. I never asked though. I was scared to.

I rushed out the door, and down the street towards my house. It was quite the run. I could have participated in the annual marathon. As I got to my street, I heard cries from the building. Things like, "¿Oye, qué pasó?" And "Blackout!" When I got home to my apartment, I decided to knock for Buddy. Tell him about the new job I had.

Nah. I thought. He's probably out doing a delivery.

I got inside, got into bed and pulled on my sheets. There was no point in doing my next delivery. With the blackout and all. Plus, I had a new job at Joey Drew Studios so I didn't really need to work for Mr Spindler any more. This day just got better.

But it was about to get worse. Much worse.