Dreadnought - Ink demon x reader - BATDR

Chapter 10- Debilitated

Let's just say...Experiment 44 was definitely a turn for the worse, at least for the demon.

There was screaming. A lot of it. A screeching voice demanding for orders to be followed and results to be given, but to no avail. Keepers were pouring out of doorways and slithering into hallways, looking for something...or someone...

"T-The demon has es-scaped!!"

A keeper hissed, extending its long, bony claws and grabbing onto the door frame like it was a piece of living flesh, digging into the wood and tearing splinters from it. It didn't need to have all of the normal, human facial features to express its sheer anger and frustration. It was enraged. The usual daily dose of glee it got from the torture and anguish of others was forcefully stripped from it. That was something to be fuming about, certainly.

The search was relentless, but no matter how hard and long they looked they would never find the big, bulking demon whom they loved to degrade. As much as it seemed like the ink demon would be easier to find given his limited abilities, he wasn't exactly...himself...

While the keepers slithered along the wood floors, there was another creature that always managed to stay just beyond their sights who's footsteps were much softer. Lighter. Quieter.

A feeble little thing, with a knack for mischief and a face once loved by many. It was in fact Bendy that they were pursuing...at least, it was the cute and stout toon that most children would think of when they heard the name 'Bendy'. It was quite a devilish contrast from the towering demon he used to be just a few hours ago.

'What is this?!'

The demon snarled, finding himself utterly discombobulated with the new flow of emotions in his system. Being turned into an adorable former concept of himself infuriated him to no end, and yet when he wished to unleash his anger onto the keepers now that he was finally free, he found that his legs took him in the opposite direction.

Fear. He could feel it. Rising down from the pit of his rounded stomach and up into his pie-cut eyes. He could feel it.

The lack of control, even in himself, was detrimental. He looked down at himself as he fled the keeper's domain, and he was met with the little devil seen on the very cutouts littered in the studio.

'Disgusting.'

His voice shook inside his head.

'Weak.'

The little devil picked up his pace, with the loud and erratic cries of the Keepers slowly fading behind him somewhere.

'Worthless.'

He found that no sound came out past his friendly little grin when he spoke, unlike in his beastly form. Either he was mute, or he was too afraid of gaining unwanted attention in this pathetic form of his to utter anything aloud. He was this cute and lovable thing, and yet in some ways he wasn't. Sure, he could feel all of the problematic emotions that he had never once felt before, and he could identify that his body had indeed changed...but at the same time his mind still treated his weakened state like it was lower than himself. Like it was someone underneath him even though it was him.

Emotions lead to failure. Emotions make him defenseless, but now he couldn't help it. He could do nothing to plug them out.

It wasn't hard to lose the Keepers, though they had never once spotted him with his smaller and more nimble frame. The ink demon wasn't one to look at the positives, but the results of this chaotic experiment had made his escape much easier.

He moved swiftly through the hallways, which seemed much bigger to him now. All he could hear were the little tapping sounds his shoes made when they hit the wood floor.

With the Keepers out of mind, now there was just one problem...

How the hell was he supposed to change back to normal?

'...better not be permanent...'

No one would have ever been able to guess that such a hard-headed, and cold-hearted demon would be hidden internally within the little dancing devil. He hated that he was smiling so innocently on the outside too. It just felt like it was there to purposefully enrage him, and he wanted so badly to tear it off of his face. The only thing stopping him was the fact that it was his face for the time being. If he was truly stuck like this, he'd at least prefer to have all of his senses.

"T-There you are!"

He hardly had time to turn around before a Keeper dragged itself into the hallway and immediately lunged at him, claws outstretched. The large, blank area of its face was glowing a deep red color. He was beginning to really think he'd lost those idiotic pests, but apparently one of them hadn't given up. With his smaller frame he was easily able to avoid the Keepers rigid grasp, and again he felt that weird emotion fill him from the bottom-up.

There it was again. That pang of fear that he hated feeling. It just reminded him of how weak he'd become. The ink demon would have liked to put this Keeper in it's place more than anything.

For the sake of his circumstances, however, he needed to leave.

The Keeper pursued the little devil relentlessly, screeching and wailing with merciless intentions. It went as far as to grab onto nearby objects as it chased him, hoisting them up into its claws and hurling the objects at the demon ahead of it. Boxes and crates smashed into the walls around him, some just barely missing him and sending his meek frame into a state of panic despite his distaste for it. Never had he felt so frantic. Never had he ever gotten such a rush of adrenaline.

And for the first time, he was also feeling fatigue. He knew he wouldn't be able to run forever.

Fortunately, the chase came to an end when Bendy bolted into a ventilation shaft, and the Keeper was forced to stop. It couldn't fit in the vent, and with an angry shriek it turned and slithered off in the opposite direction.

Once the Keeper was gone he was left to himself once more, slumped inside of the metal vent.

But on his face, the happy little grin was no longer there.

And in his pie-cut eyes, were streams of inky tears...