Joey and The Ink Machine. || A BATIM AU FANFICTION.

THE OLD SONG - PART 4

"..Henry—this is a very obvious lie, you know that?"

..Henry hadn't even thought to consider that maybe taking the photo wasn't the best option, seeing as there was always the possibility of Joey just not believing him.

Henry frowned weakly, gripping the photo in his hands as Joey practically towered over him. "..Joey, I know I don't normally come to you about stuff like this, but come on—"

"Oh, don't talk to me like that!" Joey waved his hand, "If you wanted to prank me, you could have done it when we weren't on some work day. Is this what you wanna waste your old pals time on?"

"Wa—Waste your time? Joey, this is—"

"Ah, ah! Henry, I'm not gonna hear any more of this." Joey uttered, and then glanced off to the side. He then began to turn on his heel, walking into another direction with his head held high. "If there's any sort of truth to this, why don't you take it up with Mr. Franks or something? He may look pretty weak, but he's got the least to do out of any of us here."

Henry's expression of concern faltered into one of genuine confusion, though it quickly formed into frustration, "Joey, this is serious! I know you're a busy man—". Henry began to limp after Joey—who appeared to stop in his tracks as he heard Henry limping closer from behind him. Joey glanced behind himself witn a slightly startled expression at the normally calms man sudden boost in frustration.

"—but you can't just.. just.." Henry stammered. His eyes lingered up at Joey—who's ice-cold, blue stare peered down at him. It wasn't even dark. They were in a room with lights on the ceiling. Yet Joey's face looked shadowed, as if he had been some kind of ominous looming villain in a fantasy tale. Or as if his eyes had been glowing from within a dark void of shadow.

Henry swallowed down his words, and glanced down at the floor. "..ne—nevermind. Sorry. I shouldn't have talked like that to you."

"..yeah.." Joey simply said, turning around to face Henry a little better. "You shouldn't have. Maybe let the truth or lies be up to me next time, you know? With you.. heh.. its hard to say if anything you say is even close to being true. Wouldn't want you to end up as some kinda lunatic!"

Henry gulped at the very idea of this all being in his head. He didn't want to think of what he had seen earlier as being some kind of hallucination—as he didn't like the idea that maybe the stress of the studio was starting to slowly get to him after all. He didn't want to think it was true, but Sammy behaving that way seemed so unbelievable, it was hard to not question if what he even saw was even close to being real.

"You should probably get back to your desk now, Henry." Joey finally said as he turned around, and began to walk away. "If you just sit down for a little and be quiet, maybe you won't ruin anything for me.. you have a tendency of doing that."

Henry froze. Joey vanished into the shadows, leaving Henry standing there—stunned. His eyes were wide as his eyes trailed after Joey's figure that vanished into the darkness of the hallway he just exited into. He was like some kind of ghost, almost. He came, and he went. And.. even though he was present, it rarely ever felt like he was really there.

Henry's stare went to the floor, and he stood with a frown. Maybe Joey was right. Maybe it would be best to get back to his desk and just sit down so he didn't start anything. He'd be more useful that way anyway.

But.. he remembered. Sammy. What he had clearly seen him do earlier. The photo. The drawing. He knew Joey might have been right about him just being crazy, but he didn't want to leave it alone incase it might have been real either.

Hesitant, Henry only let out a small sigh—pausing. Before nodding to himself, and slowly turning, not walking to where his desk had been—but back into the direction that led down into the entrance of the Music Department.