Just a Happy Ending

Curtain Call

Alright Joey. I'm here.

I'm here.

I'm "Here! I'm here, Henry! Wake up!" 

Wake up? Was he not? Who's calling him? 

He felt too light. Untethered. Like taking control of a dream but the dream was real life. 

He knew his body was there, somewhere. There's warmth in the air and cold in the ground. Something made his hands feel funny. 

Was there something on his hands? Did he do something to them? 

His hands ached. 

He heard voices. 

Was he asleep? His hands felt strange. 

His hands bled. Bleeding red as gold ink broke through his fingers. He broke himself to break the seal. 

Alright, Joey. We're here. 

Where were they? Where was he? He had to set them free. 

Did he do it? 

Did he win? 

Alright, Joey. 

Smells and sounds made no sense. That door had opened hundreds of times. The senses had been burned into his mind. He knew what would await him. 

There was something he needed to see. There was... something... on his hands. 

Alright. 

Something touched his hand. A note of pure emotion clicked from his heart to his brain. Emotional radio signal. He could see it, his other half, dimly glimmering beside him. 

"It's alright, Henry. We're here. Wake up, please."

His body found its weight again. Bone and muscle twitched through the static of blood and nerve. Sensation pricked his skin with touch. He kept his focus on that dim glimmer, that emotion signal guiding him like a lighthouse in a storm. 

Or a door in a prison. 

Air lifted his chest. It smelled like mud and pine. 

Voices spoke around him. He knew the words but didn't care to decipher meaning. 

He opened his eyes. Blurry shapes hovered above him. The closest one called his name. 

He paid it no mind. He focused on the ceiling above him. Endless, soft orange spread above him, the color of dusk. 

Except it wasn't a ceiling. 

"Henry?"

His eyes focused on Bendy's face. 

"We did it." 

With some support from Bendy, Henry managed to sit up. He lifted a hand to rub at his head, finally noticing what it was that made his hands feel so strange. 

His hands were covered in ink. Black and gold swirled together like a marbled nebula that nearly reached his elbows. 

"What happened?" Henry asked, holding his hands up to Bendy. 

Norman leaned into his line of sight. "Ya almost tore yourself apart, you and the imp."

"We used too much gold ink," Bendy explained. "It was enough to break through the Ink, but it hurt us." 

Henry stared at his hands. "... 'us'?" 

Bendy lifted his hands and sparked up his gold ink. Hairline cracks glowed across his hands and up to his shoulders. His hands began to shake and he dismissed his power. "But we did it! See? We're out!"