[BATIM/BATDR]A Lonely Sepia Melody

Part 3

"Miss?" Audrey's eyes shot open and she sat up, a dull throb on her rear bringing her further into reality. The Lost One stood in front of her, eyes curved in glee as he gripped her warped hand, "Thank you very much for your help! The name's Porter, by the way. Who might you be?" Audrey's eyebrows drew together as she pressed her other hand to her left cheek, trying to focus on the conversation.

"Audrey?" Porter's finger rubbed against his chin as he repeated her name a few times, drawing it out, before shaking his head.

"I don't like it. Doesn't suit you. I'll call you... Bobby!"

"Huh?"

"And to say thank you for the rescue here's a little gift." He wobbled a little closer, gripping her hand tighter as he closed his eyes, "Something I've learned." Is holding someone's hand a learned thing now? Audrey opened her mouth to ask if he was a little insane, (not that she would judge!) when a bout of lightheadedness hit her. Her vision swam with the gold that filled her eyes and she figured this was what it felt like to cry in this world. Like she might keel over to the side from whatever was overtaking her.

As soon as it was there, it was gone, and Audrey was stumbling back a bit in confusion.

"Hm, there we are. It's passed on." Dropping her hand, Porter stepped back, giving Audrey some space as she tried to pin down the airy feeling that flowed through her body once disconnected from Porter's hold. "Now you can move like me!" Is it just me... Audrey thought as she looked back up at Porter, mouth slightly agape, or is he... brighter now? He certainly was. Gold ink shone through the dark abyss that she had found the Lost Ones took as bodies.

Porter giggled a little hysterically as he hopped from one foot to the next, shifting around to face the massive hole that separated them from the other side of the room. He reached out to the exit, and it was as if his entire body obeyed the command to turn into air and shift across the hole to safety on the other side. Audrey's mouth fell open once more and she simply watched in awe as Porter waved to her once more.

"Goodbye, Bobby!" Porter waved once he'd gotten a hold of himself, "I hope you find your two little friends!" And with that he was gone once more, goggles and rope warping along with him. Two little...?

"Bonzy!" Audrey cried, hands pressing against her cheeks as she looked around stupidly, of course, they wouldn't appear before her. "Charlie! Dammit!" They were separated the moment this studio found a way to separate them. "We're gonna have to reprioritize here." She stepped up to the edge of the hole like Porter did and tensed up unconsciously. This could go very badly.

Reaching a hand outward, she imagined grasping the wall on the other side of the room.

It was as if her atoms and cells and molecules were turning into liquid and riding the air across no ground. As if she'd thrown her own body on command in liquid form. Luckily, Audrey's very solid feet hit the ground on the other side of the chasm. She smiled to herself, pleased with the outcome, and took a step forward.

"Alright Audrey, step two is finding-."

Unluckily, the chips she last ate came up her throat and she had to press a hand against her mouth as she leaned heavily against the nearest wall, eyes wide. Don't throw up, don't throw up, don't throw up, don't-.

♆♆♆♆♆♆♆♆♆♆

"Oh, little ink boy..."

Charlie's breathing sharpened as he risked a heavy-footed right turn down the hallway and smashed his shoulder against the corner of the studio wall. Left, right, left-, he tried to map out where exactly he was, but nothing became clear in the eye of dimmed walls and abysmal inkiness in hell. The walls melded together in a blur and Charlie narrowed his vision down to the nearby vent at the end of the hall. And like the dancing demon himself was on his heels, he sped up, the long pipe he'd used as a weapon for so long smacking against the walls from its place tucked in his suspenders behind him.