Charley And The Swap Machine: Re-Ink'd

CHAPTER 2: Part 2 - Sing A Song of Misery

The author claims that someone was talking to her about how sheep were trees while she wrote this.

The Voice Of Susie Campbell

It may only be my second month working for Joey Drew, but I can already tell I'm going to love it here!

People really seem to enjoy my Edgar voice. Sammy says he may be as popular as the other two some day.

These past few weeks, I've voiced everything, from talking chairs to dancing chickens.

But this is the first character I've really felt a connection with. Like he's a part of me.

Edgar and I, we're going places.

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After pushing a few buttons, Henry opened the gate blocking off the music department.

"Hm, it's really dark in here."

Switching on the lights, he took in his new surroundings. They had certainly knocked a few walls out while he was gone, the room actually only an entrance to a much larger department. Henry took a look in one room, and saw a poster for a cartoon. It must've been made after he left, because he had zero memory of working on it.

'Angelic Anarchy'.. He read to himself, studying the poster. There was that spider that he was trying to remember from before- Edgar. His name is Edgar, right here.- smiling while sitting on a cloud, waving to some unknown viewer.

I didn't expect him to make it past the final sketch stage. Joey got him a voice actor? Wonder who it was. Couldn't expect someone like...well, him, to have such a deep voice.. Somewhere in the background, the other two were there, Charley with his usual dopey grin and Barley with his normal anxious expression.

Walking over to another room, he soon found himself before a flooded stairway. "Well, looks like I have to do a bunch of shit for one thing. Again. Yippee."

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You thought the author was going to write all this? Really? Chapter 2 doesn't even take that long in retrospect, so don't go complaining "oHhHhHhhHHhH iT wAs ToOo ShOrT" or something.

Anyways, insert some long, drawn out fetch quest sequence or whatever......

And Jack's here. I guess.

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"Finally, I can use that stairwell. Jeez, that took forever....especially 'cause of that....dumbass ink monster and that valve. Nice hat, though."

As Henry turned the corner, he felt a hard, metal object slam against the back of his head.

As he went unconscious once more, he saw the figure from before standing above him..........

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"There we go, nice and tight. We wouldn't want our little sheep roaming away, now would we?"

Henry came to, his eyes readjusting once more. All these concussions were going to take a toll on him...

"Wakey wakey, little sacrifice."

Henry looked up at the strange source of the voice. Looming before him was some strange, pitch-black man in a dirtied robe that came all the way down to his feet. His hair was long and matted, coming down to his lower back. But what was most noticeable was his glowing facial features; Large glowing eyes, with an equally luminescent cheshire-cat grin, stretching across his face.

"AH! What- Who- Who are-" Henry stammered out, trying to break free from the restraints he just now noticed.

The figure grabbed his face, shushing him. "I must admit, I'm quite honored you've come down here to visit me. It almost makes what I'm about to do seem.........cruel."

"What the hell are you talking about!? Who are you? What do you want?"

"But, the believers must honor their savior.." The figure continued, letting go and pacing around a bit. "I must have him notice me." He turned back around to Henry, studying his face. "....You look....familiar to me. That......face...."

He shook his head. "No, no time for that now. Our lord is calling to us, little sheep."

Henry was as perplexed as ever. "Are you high or something? Who the hell is our lord!?"

"Have you not seen his face everywhere? Have you not seen my gifts to him?"

Henry soon drew the conclusion that he was, in fact, worshiping Charley himself. Couldn't ever picture that little guy being a cultist, or whatever.

"Soon, he'll free me from this....prison. This.....dark, ink abyss I call a body. I can hear him! Crawling, crawling above....."

He turned away from Henry. "Let us begin. The ritual must be completed! Soon, he will hear me.......soon, he will set us free...."

He left the room, and Henry was left tied up and confused as ever.

The intercoms soon turned on, and he turned to them.

"Sheep, sheep, sheep, it's time for sleep.

Rest your head, it's time for bed.

In the morning, you may wake.

Or in the morning, you'll be dead......"

A loud, familiar screech was soon heard, and the cultist began screaming. "NO! No, my lord! Charley, my lord, I am your PROPHE-"

What followed next was what Henry could only assume was "Charley" grabbing the microphone and bashing the prophet repeatedly over the head a few times, before it eventually broke. Well, bye bye, crackhead. Hardly knew ye.

The restraints holding Henry finally broke, and he grabbed the nearest axe. "I gotta get the hell out of here!"

He hacked and slashed at a few ink monsters in the way, moving forward, until he found himself in a large, ink filled room.

Unexpectedly, "Charley" rose from the ink. Startled, Henry immediately threw the axe at its head.

It broke in two, and they stared at each other for a few seconds....

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SHIT! FUCK! MOTHERFUCKER! WHY THE HELL DID I DO THAT! SHIT- Henry cursed repeatedly in his head to the beat of his own running, as he rushed through the ink filled maze, the monster hot on his tail. HOW HAVEN'T I SLIPPED YET!? HOW LONG DOES THIS GODDAMN THING GO ON!?

He took a sharp turn around a corner and slammed his hands on the handle of a door, swinging it open and immediately slamming it shut. He pushed a board across it, and silence followed.

Is that it? Huh. Guess they never taught it to open doors.

Looking around the new, smaller room he was in, he tried to unwind a bit.

A can soon rolled from around the corner, and Henry tried grabbing a nearby board.

"H-Hello? Is someone there? I know you're in here!" He stuttered out. "C-Come out and show yourself....!"

The being that peeked from around the corner made Henry's blood run cold.

It was.....Barley? But....not....dead? His bandage around his eye was back, and he stared at Henry with an anxious expression, gripping onto the side of the corner. "Wh-Who are you?"

Henry dropped the board on the ground.

".....Barley?"

He blacked out soon after.