Ink Demonth 2024 Short Stories - Bendy : The Untrusted AU

Day 14 : Steam

A cup of steaming tea was placed in front of a young lady with soft, reddish-brown hair.

Her breath trembled as she tried to calm herself down.

Rose carefully picked it up, taking a sip of the slightly sweet tea.

It had been a long time since the incident involving the bizarre ink machine, and that wretched man named Joey Drew. Even though a period of time had passed, her family still suffers from hallucinations often.

It has gotten better since a while ago, but suddenly, everything seemed to worsen tenfold. The hallucinations now weren't limited to visual, extending to auditory, and sometimes, Rose swears she could even touch them.

She looked up at her brother sitting opposite to her, fidgeting with his mug of tea absentmindedly.

"I don't-" Ollie stopped mid-sentence. "I really don't understand why.."

That was what they'd say out loud often, to keep themselves glued to reality.

"Don't understand what?" Rose casually asked. This was a response to begin solving any irregularities in their senses.

"Why.. why it's suddenly gotten worse." Ollie concluded.

Rose's gentle smile froze. It was a question she didn't really feel like bringing up.

"That's.." Rose tried to answer, her eyes trying to focus on the tea in front of her.

Suddenly, the color of the tea seemed to darken, until it looked like ink.

Rose turned her face away, focusing her sight on the fridge. Ollie quickly pushed away his mug as well, indicating he was seeing the same thing Rose was.

Rose's gaze was glued to the fridge.

She watched as it slowly creaked open on its own, a mound of goopy, black liquid seeping out from the edges.

She quickly retracted her gaze, looking at Ollie instead. His fearful expression matched hers completely.

"It's okay." Rose, out of habit, quickly denied her sights. "Remember, it's not real."

"Exactly because it isn't real that it could be rewritten."

Rose and Ollie jerked their heads towards the direction of the voice. Even though they'd come to the agreement to ignore all voices, this voice was new. Usually, they'd hear the same voices over and over again. Some Rose would recognize as Joey Drew, some as Archie, some as Evan...

This was a new voice, a bright, upbeat voice with a tinge of madness.

More importantly, this voice was crystal clear, as if the owner of the voice was speaking to them.

All the other noises they've heard so far are always muddled and distorted, like a broken radio.

The two of them landed their eyes on the big window over the kitchen counter, overlooking the streets.

The sky outside seemed to have darkened.

They walked over carefully, drawing the curtains.

A strange, dark gray fog wafted through the streets, the pedestrians making confused expressions, implying that their eyes weren't lying to them.

"What is.." Ollie trailed off, covering his nose and mouth out of habit.

Rose slowly backed off from the windows, glancing towards the stairs.

"I'll go get a better view. You stay here and make sure all the windows are locked."

Ollie wanted to argue that his sister always threw herself into dangerous situations first, but being given a responsibility, he quickly shut up.

"Okay." He replied dryly.

Rose rushed up the stairs, going up to Ollie's bedroom, which faced the streets. She made sure they were locked, before focusing her sight outside.

The ground suddenly rumbled.

A tall building in the distance, near where Kismet was, appeared to distort in shape. It seemed to bulge and grow, turning into a gigantic mausoleum of some sort. The chutes on top of the roof also extended up into the darkening sky, appearing more like spires which spat out steam and gas, turning it into fog that permeated the streets earlier.

The steam smelled like ink.

Rose rubbed her eyes.

Screams began to emerge from the streets. Rose couldn't tell what danger they had encountered.

As she retracted her hands, she saw that it was stained with ink.

Ink began to seep from the edges of her eyes, like tears flowing down her cheeks after being exposed to the strange steam.

Without another moment to waste, she grabbed the pillows and blankets in the room, wetting them with tap water and using them to block the edges of the windows to prevent any more from leaking inside. Rose could feel the uncomfortable sensation in her decrease as she did that.

"Rose, ROSE!!!" Ollie screamed, rushing up the stairs and into the room. "Don't stay near the windows!!"

"I know, don't worry." She tried her best to reassure herself and her brother. "I will-"

As she turned away from the windows, she heard a loud splat as something collided with the glass.

A frightened expression slowly grew on Ollie's face.

As Rose's expression froze, she took a deep breath, turning back to face the window in a careful stance.

A dove had hit the window, its wings dripping with ink, its body tainted by the dark smoke, turning its usual white color dark.

The dove helplessly slid off the pane of glass, leaving a nasty black trail behind as it fell to its eternal slumber.

Rose and Ollie turned to face each other, knowing well their senses are no longer lying.

"What..?"

Bendy : The Untrusted AU - Epilogue (Part 4/5)