Inked Souls - A BATIM Fanfiction

Chapter 5

Kat woke up with her hands tied up to what seemed to be a chair and a massive pain in her neck. She struggled a little bit, but the pain in her back from her fall hurt once again. Taking deep breaths, Kat relaxed her muscles and let her neck rest, having her head drooping.

The sound of metal slicing through wood cut through the silence, followed by footsteps creaking the floorboards. Edging around the corner of her eye, a man came into view, heaving around an axe, which Kat assumed was the one she'd used to escape from the room with Normal and Grant's coffins. Unfortunately, it seemed she was back in that room, tied up to a chair.

Kat didn't say anything, she was exhausted and in pain. She wouldn't care much if she died right now, but the iron will to live distracted her from that thought.

The axe blade was swiftly aimed at her throat in a matter of seconds, propping Kat's head up and forcing her to groggily look at the man.

He had brown, messy, curly hair and ink stains all over his face. He was wearing a brown sweatshirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows covered by a pair of suspenders and a pair of black pants with pockets set at his waist.

"A sheep has wandered away from the pasture," he says, tiredness in his voice. His throat sounded scratchy and rough. "And when a sheep wanders away-"

Silence filled the room, and for a second Kat thought about taking a nap. Sanity, don't fail me now, she silently prayed.

"Oh, screw this. Who the hell are you? How'd you get down here?" The voice picked up again, but with a much more gruff tone. The blade was slowly pressed against Kat's throat.

"K-Kat. Auburn. Kat Auburn." She coughed, flinching as the blade grew closer, but then retreated at her response. "I, uh, came here to check the studio out, then... fell." Kat said pathetically. She wasn't sure if she should even continue talking. Then realization hit her.

"Do... Do I know you?" She stammered. The man flinched suddenly, touching his face delicately, then crouched on his feet, and small sobs could be heard from his cracking voice. The axe dropped to the floor by Kat's feet.

"N-no... I need it! Please, no, stop, don't look..."

Kat tilted her head in curiosity. She'd never dealt with something like this before. Perhaps some form of insecurity.

"Is it your face?" She questioned quietly. There was tension lingering in the air, this was quite an uncomfortable situation for the both of them. After what felt like a minute, the man stood, and pulled a small bottle of ink from his pocket. Kat watched him curiously, then, much to her surprise, he chugged the bottle and tossed it aside.

"You." He pointed at her. "You. You're a human. You see me? You can help. Help me find it." He said as he walked over behind her, and she felt tension release from her wrists. "Find what?" She stammered, not sure how to respond. However, the man did. "My face," he said simply, then stretched his hand to help Kat up. She took it, then stood still like an idiot. He picked up the axe and walked to where Kat had cleared the doorway free of wooden planks. She hesitantly followed.

"Can I... call you something?" Kat questioned. "Like, a name?" Minutes of silence followed, then he finally responded as they made their way up the stairs to the office in the music department office where he had apparently found Kat. "No." Kat huffed angrily, then thought for a moment after responding. "Okay, fine. I'll just call you... Ink Bottle." Kat thought it fit, since he had literally chugged one in front of her. If humans had animal ears, Ink Bottle definitely would've flicked one in a mix of confusion and exasperation.

In the recording booth, Ink Bottle inspected the recorder and made it play it's audio once again. Kat wasn't exactly sure what to do, so she sat down and listened to it once again, except this time she was able to hear the ending.

"I got half a mind to talk to Mr. Drew about all this, I really do. But then again, I have to admit. Mr. Drew's got his own peculiarities."

As the room filled with silence once again, Kat could see the muscles in Ink Bottle's shoulders had tensed and he was gripping the axe tighter. If humans could spontaneously combust, he'd be the one.

Suddenly Ink Bottle walked to the bottom of the stairs and yelled up to Kat, "start the projector!" Kat, hesitating for a minute, got up and fiddled with the projector like she had done before and soon enough it flashed it's light through the studio, and the Bendy cutouts were once again visible. About ten seconds later, Ink Bottle came into Kat's view and she curiously watched as he began strumming seemingly random instruments until an audible click was heard.