Bendy and the Imp's Survival

Episode Eleven: Bonding?

(Probably gonna be a lot of timeskips here. Split this apart from the actual Chapter 5 segment for that reason.)

The sound of someone singing a lyric-less song roused Moxxie from sleep. Groaning a complaint, he carefully sat up and put a hand to his still-aching chest to stop anything from shifting before moving off the cot (careful not to wake up Millie, who'd been sleeping with her back against him). He paused when he saw Henry was already at the boards blocking them from getting into the rest of the safehouse. The humming singer turned out to be the angel creature-Allison, Audrey had called her.
Henry spoke, stopping the angel's humming. "I know that song."
"Everyone knows that song," the angel replied somewhat coldly.
There was an awkward silence, then the angel turned from writing on the wall to give Henry a somewhat distrustful look. "Who are you?" She asked. "Why are you here?"
Man, these ink creatures have fuckin' horrendous memory.
"I was invited by an old friend," Henry said with a little shrug. "And now I can't leave."
"Then you know more than we do." The angel dipped her ink-covered paintbrush back into the bucket of ink beside her and turned back to the wall. "One moment we don't even exist, just...Thoughts. The next minute...This place."
'Sounds like a horrible way to live,' Moxxie thought, but kept his mouth shut. This was the first time any of these ink creatures willingly spoke to Henry, startling Allison might make her cut off the conversation.
"Are you gonna let us out of here?"
The angel turned to him again, her stance defensive. "Down here strangers aren't good things," she warned. "How can we trust you?"
"You trusted Millie quickly enough," Moxxie muttered.
"You trust Millie," Henry echoed. "And she's married to Moxxie. That has to mean something."
"Millie also has some kind of power over the Searchers." Moxxie blinked. She does? "Plus she wasn't the one caught up with the angel."
"We're never gonna hear the end of that, are we," Moxxie sighed. Henry rubbed his shoulder to try and cheer him up a little.
"Besides," the angel continued, turning back to the wall, "we don't even know what you are."
Oh for pity's-
"My name is Henry," Moxxie's companion cut off his angry internal dialogue. "I used to work here."
The angel straightened up. Moxxie took a step back, afraid Henry had said the wrong thing.
"I...I honestly don't know my name." She turned back to Henry. "So, they call me Alice. But I'm no angel."
"Audrey calls you Allison." Moxxie pulled himself up to his full height, trying to see over the boards. Henry helped him up to sit on them instead.
"Audrey seems to know the real name of everyone. Now, you two go back and rest. We'll talk again later."
She dipped her paintbrush back into the ink and turned her attention back to the wall, effectively ending the conversation. Henry helped Moxxie down from the boards again. "How's your ribs?"
"Feeling a lot better, actually." Moxxie ghosted one hand over where the bandages were and was relieved when there was no stab of pain at the touch. "What about your head?"
The gash seemed to have more or less healed over. Henry shrugged a little. "Still hurts a little bit. Wouldn't be the first time I got my head split open, though. Are you going back to bed?"
Moxxie shook his head. "I'm not tired."
"Would Millie mind if...?"
"I don't think she'd care who sleeps with her, really. You're only sleeping."
Henry smiled a little, rubbed his shoulder and went to the cot. Moxxie went for his beat-up guitar and sat with his back against the boards to occupy his mind with a little music.
Unbeknownst to him, Alice had stopped writing on the wall, instead pulling a chair over from the table to listen in a little.

"Moxxie, honey...Hey, wake up. I'm goin' out..."
Moxxie startled awake and realized his back was still to the boards. Had he fallen asleep playing?
He looked up at Millie, who gave him a gentle smile. "Rise an' shine, sleepyhead."
"What's that about going out?" Moxxie asked, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.
"She's coming out with us," Audrey said from somewhere over his head. "Don't worry, we'll keep her safe."
"Out where? Wait!" He grabbed his wife's arm. "Where are you going?
"It's only for a few hours," he heard Alice say. "No need to worry, I won't go far. Only up to Level 6."
"Exactly." Millie gave her husband a reassuring smile. "Level 6 ain't that far up."
"W-Wait, it isn't safe!"
"It is when you've got an army!" He heard Bendy exclaim.
Millie laughed slightly. "There you go. See, honey? I won't be alone."
"Don't leave me" was right on the tip of Moxxie's tongue, but he swallowed it back and nodded. Millie gave him a quick kiss before making her way back over the cell's boards with a little help from Audrey. Moxxie watched the two leave with Bendy and Alice stayed back a moment longer to nod to Tom. "We'll be back as soon as we can."
Tom whined like a dog already missing it's owner when the door closed, then he looked over at the cell and lay his ears back when he mad eye contact with Henry.
"Allison told me to keep an eye on you," he growled, grabbing a chair from the solo table and dragging it over to the wall facing the cell. "And that's exactly what I plan to do."
Moxxie braced himself against the boards to see him better as Henry walked over. "What," the imp started sarcastically, "by staring us down and growling if we look at you the wrong way?"
"Exactly," the cartoon wolf snarled.
Henry lightly knocked the imp's shoulder. "Don't aggravate him, buddy. He won't do anything."
"That's how much you know, Boris killer!"