Save the Inky Dream (Batim Reader Insert)

A Place of Dreams and Nightmares.

You looked up at the old and decrepit studio you'd heard your grandfather occasionally talk about, a day prior you'd received a letter claiming to be from your grandfather's old friend, a Mr. Joey Drew, asking him to come back to visit the old studio. Unfortunately your grandfather; Henry Stein had passed away just a week prior due to cancer. You looked back to the letter written in ink and walked up to the door, it read,

'Dear Henry,

It seems like a lifetime since we worked on cartoons together. 30 years really slips away, doesn't it?

If you're back in town, come visit the old workshop. There's something I need to show you.

Your best pal, Joey Drew.'

You looked to the old door and twisted the handle, the old and rusty metal creaking and grinding from misuse. With the old rivets creaking and suddenly giving out, making the door fall flat onto the old wooden interior, giving you quite the scare in the process. You walked inside and placed the door on the wall next to its old frame, you then turned to the inside, noticing some areas either covered or dripping in ink. You also saw a projector in the back of the main room somehow still functioning after what looked like decades of going unused. "Hello? Mr. Drew? Is anyone here?" You called out to the factory, your voice echoing slightly. But the silence cutting through your voice like a knife. You stepped forward further into the old studio, noticing posters for some of the old cartoons of a character called 'Bendy the Dancing Demon'. You vividly remembered seeing your grandfather occasionally drawing when you were a kid and your mother brought you along to visit him.

He even had an old plush of the Demon himself he let you have as a gift, you had always taken a liking to the old characters. So you still kept that plush to this very day. You walked over to the projector that was still running and turned it off. Then the sound of wood creaking and fast paced footsteps caught your attention as you turned to another open hallway. "Hello?" You said as you walked in the direction of the noise, but when you came to another room, the words 'Dreams Come True' written on the wall in ink caught your eye. You side eyed it as you walked down the hallway and towards a room titled 'INK MACHINE'. Once you entered the room you saw a huge hole behind a railing and a small generator with a lever to your right. You noticed the empty slots in the generator and looked around before finding a small locker on the floor with a battery right next to it.

You opened the locker and found another battery inside accompanied by a giant gear. You placed the batteries in the slots and then pulled the old lever, chains then began rising from the hole in front of you as you watched and observed a massive machine rise from said hole. You guessed that this was the so called 'Ink Machine' you'd seen on the sign earlier. You then heard a metal door opening back the way you came, so you followed the sound and saw that a door that was previously closed had opened. You walked through the door way and soon came to a three way path in the hall. That's when a board fell from the ceiling and lightly scared you, before you laughed at your silliness and continued walking to a large room with six pedestals on it. You figured you'd need six items to place on said pedestals and noticed signs around the room.

One with a teddy bear, a gear, a wrench, an inkwell, a music note, and a book of some kind. You thought back to the gear you saw in the locker and walked back to retrieve it. Only to be met with a cutout of Bendy stood up right around the corner, from the sudden jump you fell on your back before standing up and saying, "Who the hell put thi-" You stopped as you looked past the Bendy cutout to a room that had a character you had also seen Henry draw before; Boris the Wolf. He was strapped to some kind of table with his chest ripped open and cartoon x's over his eyes. You looked on in horror as you noticed the wrench that was lodged in the poor wolf's chest. You gagged as you grabbed the wrench and pulled it out, you then took a nearby tarp and placed it over the dead wolf, as a form of burial.

Questions raced through your mind as you gathered the other objects around the studio. But it all felt like a blur to you as the next thing you knew, you were in the theater room, looking for a pressure valve. You found it around the corner and twisted it before a pipe spontaneously burst and ink started flowing everywhere, you quickly got out and started moving back to the main power room. When you got there you flipped the main power switch and some of the lights turned off. As you walked down the halls, you noticed some things different about the environment, a few doors closed and ink footsteps all over the place. When you got to the area where the Ink Machine was kept, you noticed it was now mostly boarded up.

As you aproached a gruff and low voice suddenly cut the silence, "You! What'dya think you're doing!?" You swiftly turned to see a cartoonishly short man with a beard and pie cut eyes looking around the corner at you.

You didn't have time to answer as an Inky black hand suddenly reached out and managed to grab part of your hoodie. A good chunk of the fabric was torn off as you stood back as some form of Inky horrific version of Bendy tried reaching out for you before backing up a bit. "Oh now you've gone and done it. RUN KID!" The man said as he grabbed your hand and dragged you along with him as he made a mad dash for the exit. Quickly getting your senses together you started running to as ink began to flood the place. Soon the two of you reached the final hallway with the light of the outside world beaming through as if it was a gate to heaven.

But as you were about to make it, the floor underneath you gave out and the two of you tumbled down, further into the hell this trip had turned into. You must have fallen a few stories before you landed in a pool of ink, quickly surfacing so you didn't inhale any, you found a valve and turned it with the ink lowering out of your sight. You then saw the man who'd helped you unconscious on the ground, you began to panic and ran over to him, you kneeled down and inspected him for any damage. But soon he coughed up a glob of ink and sat up, groaning in the process, "Agh, you'd think I'd be used to the taste of Ink by now." You sighed as you fell backwards and lightly laughed, "Ohoho... You're alive... wait... YOU'RE ALIVE!?" The realization hit you as you sat up and inspected the character sitting in front of you. The look was all to similar to a character from the Bendy cartoons called Charley.

"Alright kiddo! Ya don't need to scream in my ear. Geez, ain't you ever seen someone like me before?" The character said as he recoiled and stood up. "Only in cartoons but how the actual hell are you alive!?" You said as you stood up with him, he then began walking down a set of stairs. "My guess is as good as yours kid. But what I know is that you can't come in hear and mess with things that don't belong to ya. Why are ya even here?" Charley said as he kept walking down, you not taking your eyes off of him for a second. This was a cartoon character in Real Life! "Ah... apologies, you see. I have this letter from a Mr. Joey Drew addressed to my grandfather, Henry Stein. Asking him to come visit this old place." You said as you held the letter to Charley and he snatched it from your hand and quickly read it.

"Why didn't he come himself?" Charley asked as you looked down, he quickly read your expression and mood and returned the letter to you before saying, "Oh... I'm sorry for your loss kid." He grabbed an old axe from a desk and began chopping away at some boards. A little while after he tried lightening the mood by saying, "So... ya got a name or am I just gonna have to call ya Kid?" "Oh, sorry. You can call me (Your/Name). I assume your name is Charley?" You said as the two of you entered a room with a few coffins on the back wall and some strange markings on the floor surrounded by candles. "Yeah, that's my name. Nice to formally meet ya (Y/N)... (Y/N)?" He turned around to see you on the floor passed out.

"(Y/N)!"