Bendy and the Imp's Survival

Episode Nine: To Hell and Back...Literally

(TW: dirtier jokes/speech, blood, death by throat trauma)

"Can't fucking believe this."
Blitzo eyed his Hellhound daughter somewhat worriedly as she slumped against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor, pinching the bridge of her muzzle. Now that she'd gotten over her screaming fit she looked like she was about to either cry or rip a door off it's hinges. (The steadily rising temperature suggested the latter was more likely, though.)
Blitzo pulled his tail up and started playing with it. "Yeah, this is...Pretty fucked up, isn't i-"
"Don't you fucking dare say another word to me," Loona snarled. "I don't want to hear another word out of your fucking mouth."
"Hold on-you don't blame me for this, do you?"
"Give the fucker a cookie, he figured it out!"
Blitzo clawed his hand in anger. "Loona-"
"No, Blitzo, don't you dare try and talk your way out of the blame. You KNOW it's your fault we're down here."
"Excuse me?"
"If you had just ignored the letters this wouldn't have happened in the first place!"
"Who kept bringing the letters to my attention, hm?!" Blitzo stood up and lashed his tail, pointing accusingly at his daughter. "Who was the one I suggested I check this place out?! Who was the one that got us trapped in here?!"
"You can't fucking be serious-you're pinning this on me?!"
"NO!! I'm not-" he sighed and rubbed his temples. "I'm not blaming you, Loonie, I'm just a little stressed out."
Loona's ears twitched when her father's voice cracked, as if she was caught between sympathy and anger. She apparently decided to stick with anger since she pinned them back again and turned her head away.
"Look-I know you're scared, Loonie." Blitzo put a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "I kind of am too. We just need-"
"I am WAY PAST scared, Blitzo!" Loona snapped, glaring at him again. "I want to get the fuck out of here like we should have the first time, but you wanted to keep fucking around looking for someone who's already dead-and now there's two dead?! Who's next, Blitzo?! Me?!!"
"No! I would never let anyone kill you! And may I remind you that Moxxie isn't-"
"MOXXIE IS DEAD, DAD!! Now Millie is too and it's YOUR FAULT!"
"She wanted to go! You're the one that vouched for her, in case you've forgotten!!"
"SHE WAS CRAZY! YOU'RE ACTING CRAZY! WHY ARE WE STILL IN HERE?!"
"Because Moxxie is family!!"
Loona finally went quiet, though the temperature wasn't going down any. If anything it was now so hot it was stifling. Blitzo moved to take his jacket off when the now familiar feeling of something slimy lodging itself into his throat made him start coughing instead.
"You're really doing that right now?" Lonna asked in a snarl.
"I'm fucking sorry-" more coughs. "I can't control when I do or don't-choke on my own shit!"
"Oh BULLSHIT! This is a sympathy act and I'm not falling for it!"
"Loona-"
"NO! I don't want to hear it!"
"Why in the DEAD HEAVEN would I PRETEND to choke on this?!"
"Don't play like you haven't bullshit for attention before."
"I'm NOT-"
More coughing. It was getting to the point where just breathing was ridiculously hard. Loona's ears met her head and she started to snap at him when the bathroom door opened and Sammy ushered Jackie inside.
"My lord is out there still," Sammy bluntly pointed out. "So keep it down, maybe?!"
Blitzo covered his mouth to hide his coughs and gave the ink creature a thumbs up. Sammy pushed the bathroom door closed and crouched down in front of Blitzo, tilting his head up.
"It's getting worse," he noted.
"Is he...Gonna die?"
All eyes looked to Loona, who looked worried now. Sammy shrugged at first, then nodded. "Most likely."
"I thought you thought I was doing this for attention," Blitzo wheezed.
The Hellhound pinned her ears back again and looked away, snarling lowly.
The group stayed in the bathroom until Blitzo's ink attack ended, Jackie curling up next to a sulking Loona and Sammy staring at Blitzo as he tried to choke it down. There were times the imp had to hit his chest to keep breathing when the ink got lodged somewhere in his throat. Needless to say, he was worn out by the end of it.
"Fuck me..." He groaned and slumped back against the wall. "Either kill me or leave me alone...This is shit..."
"The Lord's blessings are often cruel-"
"Shut the fuck up, will you?"
Jackie groaned loudly as if trying to defend his friend. Blitzo waved him off and pushed himself to his feet, heading for the door. He felt his daughter's eyes boring holes into the back of his skull and mentally flipped her off before flinging the door open and doing a double take.
They were back in the hallway for the orchestra room...In the same doorway said room used to be in. "What in the...?"
"What is it?" Sammy made his way over. "What's wrong?"
Blitzo's voice failed him as he motioned uselessly at the hallway. Sammy seemed to connect the dots before he did. "Ah, we've moved."
"Moved?" Loona was the next to arrive at the doorway, peering out. "Okay-how did we get here?!"
"The building can move rooms around of it's own free will," Sammy explained like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"I'm sorry-how the fuck does that happen?"
"Just like the dual hallways upstairs," Blitzo said in a weak whisper. "Oh fuck, just like the hallways upstairs..."
"There are no dual hallways upstairs-"
"Pleasestoptalking." Loona put her claws to her temples. "Please. Don't say anything else."
"I don't understand what's odd about this."
"Which just goes to show how far gone you are!"
"H-Hang on, Loonie." Blitzo fell against the doorframe and put a hand to his head as it started to pound. "There's a way to the exit from here, if I remember right. Unless that moved too..."
"It could have."
"Thanks SO much."
Loona brushed past Blitzo, now carrying Jackie like he was a giant black cat. Sammy nudged the imp forewords and guided him down the hall with a hand on his shoulder, something Blitzo had to admit he was grateful for. It meant he could focus on more important things, such as why the hallway walls seemed to be filling with black spots.
Black spots on the walls?
"Hey...Sam?"
"Yes?"
"How do you guys get around...?"
"The hallways."
"Well no shit, Sherlock, but is there any other way?"
Loona snorted a laugh. Sammy seemed to finally clue in on what Blitzo was seeing. "My lord is near."
"Now he tells me-where is he?!"
Sammy grabbed Blitzo's arm in response, dragging him down the hall faster and almost shoving Loona aside to get past her. An ink creature shaped much like Jack sprang up at them from an ink puddle and made Blitzo flinch back violently enough to jerk his arm free.
"My sheep, not now!" The mask-wearing man tried to push the figure back into it's puddle. "Please! This is the worst possible time for you to start demanding things!"
The ink creature just latched on to Sammy and seemed to melt it's hands straight into his arms as another one appeared, than several more. They seemed to be vying for his attention like children competing for a parent. Blitzo might have found it funny (or even cute) had the Ink Demon not been nearby.
"Listen, you bunch of cartoon rejects!" He scraped off the one on Sammy's arms and hissed at it when it growled at him. "We don't have time for this! Do you see what's going on with the walls?! Something's happening!"
"He's got a point, guys." Loona came back over, Jack now by her side. "Don't you think the walls look weird?"
There was a pause as the creatures stared at the walls, watching the black spots on them grow bigger and start looking more like ink soaking into the wood.
This spurred the creature in front of Sammy to react oddly-it howled and lunged at Blitzo. The imp squeaked when it's ice-cold hands wrapped around his throat , pinning him to the ground. Another pair of arms grabbed on to him as well and a third one seemed to go straight through him, taking hold of something inside his body. Something that felt both physical and mental.
Clawing his hands, Blitzo pushed himself upright and headbutted the first ink creature that had him. "GET THE FUCK OFF ME!!"
The thing splattered, but there were more in it's wake. Loona came to Blitzo's rescue to claw down another incoming ink creature and grab his hand, pulling him up and pushing him towards the end of the hallway.
"GO!" She shouted. "Take Jackie and go! Get out!!"
Jack was a little over half Blitzo's size. "I think the fuck not!"
Loona groaned loudly and pushed past her father, picking up the hat-wearing creature herself and bolting. Blitzo paused for another moment to look for Sammy before following suit.
Where the muscular creature went, he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
The two Hell-born creatures ran for the stairway, then skid to a stop at the edge. "This isn't the way out," Loona panted. "It's too narrow-where's our stairs?!"
"The building probably took them." Blitzo slammed his fist against the wall in frustration. "Fuck this place, we should've burned it down when we got here!"
"That's what I've been saying-just get down the stairs!"
Blitzo started jumping down, then stumbled back when more ink creatures sprang out of some puddles in front of him; enough to cut off the escape route of the two. Loona yanked her adoptive father back by the collar of his shirt and they tried to go back, only to run into more backed by the Ink Demon.
Blitzo suddenly found his arms full of ink as Loona practically threw Jack at him and plunged her hand through the closest creature's face, yanking something back out that made it dissolve into a bubbling puddle. The display was enough to make several other creatures back off in fear when she took a step foreword. Taking advantage of this, Loona led her father up to the projectionist's booth, the creatures in front of her backing into each other to clear her path.
"Stay here," she said firmly as she pushed Blitzo into a chair.
The imp tried moving out of it again, only for the Hellhound to grab his shoulder and hold him there. "They can come up here!"
"They won't."
"You think stairs are gonna stop them-they've gone up stairs before!"
Jack groaned as if to agree with him. Loona dropped one hand to rub the top of the creature's hat.
"As long as they think I'm up here, they wouldn't dare try and get to you," she said. "Believe me, Blitzo. You're in the safest place you can be."
"Where-Where are you going?" Blitzo stammered when she moved away.
"I'm gonna try and lure them-"
"My sheep..." Sammy's voice cut her off, shaking from fear. "You must stay quiet. If my lord finds us, we are all dead."
Blitzo straightened up in the chair to look over the booth's railing. The orchestra room seemed to be back where it belonged, flooded with ink creatures and a nervous Sammy trying to talk them down from grabbing on to him or crying in fear. Blitzo's head was starting to hurt. "Wasn't the bathroom here...?"
Loona nodded. "It must've changed back."
"We were only away for a minute!"
She shook her head now, looking just as confused as her father. Then she made her way to the remaining railing and leaned against it. "Hey! Sammy! Up here!!"
All the ink creatures looked up. The ones closest to the booth snarled or hissed and moved away, Sammy himself seemed to brighten up. "Hellhound?"
"I have a name. Where's the Ink Demon?"
Sammy pointed at the doorway, which was now closed off with the piano. "My lord is still out there."
"Loona, please tell me you're not going to fight the Ink Demon."
Loona scoffed. "Yes, Blitzo, because I'm that fucking stupid-no I'm not going to fight the Ink Demon! I want to keep track of him. Stay here."
Blitzo looked down at the ink creature still in his arms and practically weighing him down. "Where else am I gonna go?"
Loona nodded like that was an answer and jumped down through the gap in the railing. There was the screeching and growling of more ink creatures, then the Hellhound started talking to Sammy-though Blitzo couldn't hear what was being said.
Growling, the imp pouted and flopped back against the chair. Jackie started batting at his flicking-from-irritation tail, making him yank it back and sit up quickly enough to almost send him to the ground. "What do you want?!"
The eyeless creature merely stared at him before looking back down the stairs. Blitzo craned his neck to see what he was looking at. It looked empty, but it sure didn't feel like it.
He moved his chair to face away from the doorway and found himself looking at the orchestra room again. Sighing, Blitzo draped one arm over the back of the chair and stared gloomily at the ceiling. "I regret every second I'm here. I'm worried about my family."
Jackie groaned in a questioning way. Blitzo looked down at him. "What, you wanna hear about 'em?"
The creature stared blankly at him.
"Well hey, don't fuckin' mind if I do!"
The imp fixed his position so Jack was laying more comfortably in his lap, like a big black humanoid cat. He waited until the ink creature had settled and rubbed his back, lost in thought.
"Well, there's...There's Loona, she's my daughter. Adopted. Got her almost off the streets when she was just a little puppy. Little bitch didn't like me then and almost took my hand off. Heh! Said-She said she didn't need me. She still says that sometimes. I can see past the blunder, though. She loves me. Don't fucking look at me like that, she does!"
Jack shook his head and dropped it onto his lap. Blitzo lightly ran his claws down the creature's back and couldn't help smiling when he felt him relax under the touch.
"Moxxie and Millie, they're...They're like my sister and brother-in-law. Moxxie's an asshole but you've gotta love 'im. Did you even meet him? Probably not, right? He was gone by the time we...The time we, um..."
He shook his head to shoo away the guilt creeping up on him again. "A-Anyway-you've met Millie. She seemed to take a bit of a liking to you, which-really isn't unusual for someone like her. She's always been somewhat partial to cute shit. That's probably the only reason she married Moxxie, really-he's got such a cute little weenie that she couldn't help it."
Jackie groaned, catching his attention. The fat creature looked somewhat disgusted.
"What?! It's true! It's the smallest thing you've ever seen!"
That earned him an inky fist to the shoulder. Blitzo threw his head back and laughed.
"Ah...I like you, Jackie," he said, wiping a tear out of his eye. "I'm starting to see why Millie and Loona took such a liking to you too. You're cute and fun to play off of!"
Somehow, without eyebrows, Jackie managed to raise an eyebrow at him. Blitzo patted his head and managed too push his hat further down, making the creature groan in confusion and try to fix it. The imp couldn't help giggling as he watched.
Jack suddenly froze, wrenching his hat up above where his eyes used to be. He was staring over Blitzo's shoulder. Arching an eyebrow, Blitzo looked over his shoulder as well and saw...Nothing.
"Hey, cutie patootie." He tried pulling the ink creature to lie down again. "What's gotten into you?"
Jack grew agitated, trying to climb out of Blitzo's lap and hissing at the imp when he pulled him back by his shoulders. Blitzo thanked his lucky stars the creature didn't appear to have teeth or claws-only to find out he did have claws when he dug the appendages into his arm to make him let go.
"What's gotten into you?!" Blitzo snapped, pinning him down with all his strength. "We've gotta stay up here, it's safe for us! Calm down! Will you let me-"
He cut himself off when he happened to glance over his shoulder again at the back wall. The wall seemed to be soaked with ink suddenly; and a certain portion of the ink was getting darker. It almost looked like an opening portal but with the opposite of bright flashy magic.
Blitzo stood up suddenly, sending Jack tumbling to the ground. The portal opened further and a familiar grinning face poked out through the ripples. "Fuck me, you can teleport with portals?!"
The Ink Demon's ever present smile seemed to widen. Blitzo grabbed Jackie and threw him through the gap in the railing, the followed suit-only to get grabbed by the collar of his shirt and hauled back again. His organs seemed to scream in pain as the demon wrapped one of his skeletal arms around his neck and dragged him back towards the portal. He pawed desperately at the desk, knocking the recording perched on what remained of the railing loose and sending it clattering to the ground. The noise, thank Satan, caught Loona's attention. "Blitzo? The fuck are you doing up there?"
The Ink Demon, for some reason, stopped and loosened his grip on Blitzo's throat. The ragged breath he drew in was loud enough for his daughter to hear.
"Blitzo? I swear to Satan, if this is you fooling around-why is Jackie down here? Why is he a puddle-did you throw him?! What is wrong with you?!"
'Piece it together, you smart little bitch!'
Blitzo tried calling out to her, only for ink to choke him and cut him off. The sputtering sound must've caught Loona's ear since she dropped her usual snarky tone. "Blitzo?"
The Ink Demon tilted his head as the imp sputtered and gagged some more. Blitzo clawed at his arm to make him let go, evidently catching him off guard and making him flinch back. He took this small window of opportunity to stumble over to the railing and grab hold of it. Turning back to the demon, he wiped ink off his mouth and forced his head up high. "You tthph-you thought you could kill me, hm?"
The ink demon took a threatening step foreword. Blitzo shuffled backwards slightly and steeled his nerves.
"My daughter is on her way up here," he warned the approaching demon. "She's going to soundly kick your ass. If I were in better shape I would join her, but thanks to your disease I'm not in much shape to do anything at all!"
"So go ahead and try to kill me!" He forced his uncooperative foot back again as the Ink Demon limped foreword another step, one hand reached out to grab him. "See how well that ends for you! Maybe when she's done, I'll mop up the puddle and we can-"
The Ink Demon seemed to lunge suddenly, shoving him back and breaking the rail. Blitzo grabbed it to stay on his feet and glared at where he figured the demon's eyes would be as it raised a clawed hand.
"I'll see you in Hell, asshole."
He kicked back with that but couldn't escape fast enough. The claws came down and a searing lightening-like pain ripped across Blitzo's throat. The force of the attack pushed the railing over and he was sent to the ground, grabbing at his throat and struggling to breathe.
"BLITZO!!" He heard Loona scream and saw her a second after, picking up her father's body and holding him to her chest even as his dark red blood soaked her fur. "Blitzo, holy shit-NO! Oh Satan, what happened to you?!"
Blitzo moved one shaky hand to point upwards. Loona looked up and snarled a few seconds later.
"Sammy!" She abruptly snapped at the muscular ink creature, catching him and several of his friends off guard (the latter badly enough that some disappeared into puddles). "I need something to use as a bandage! Now!!"
Sammy looked from her to the rapidly-dying imp in her lap. He didn't move.
"What're you waiting for?! GO!!"
Blitzo reached up and grabbed his daughter's muzzle, turning it back towards him. He forced a smile and ignored the gurgling of his throat that came when he spoke.
"See you...Downstairs...Beautiful girl..."
He dropped his hand with that, the world already starting to fade to black. He left his Hellhound daughter scolding him over thinking about leaving her.