For An Unfinished Script - BatDR

New Friend

 Halls led to halls. Sepia groped with ink-black hands, hungry for the mote of color in its midst. Ruins and rubble voiced the neglect of its hubristic construction. Silence compelled those with a voice to speak in whispers, worried that their sound might attract something in the silence.

A vent in the ceiling broke open and something lurched downward.

Jon reflexively spat a swear and punched the thing. It dislodged from the vent and flopped to the floor in a melted tangle of body and broken limbs.

"The heck is that thing?" Jon wheezed. He nudged it with his foot and was thankful it didn't move. Some gold ink had rubbed off his fingers and left smears on the thing's distended face. As Jon watched, the gold ink seeped into the black and made it melt as if it were acetone on watercolor.

Jon massaged his knuckles. "That's what the gold ink does? Melts stuff?"

The thing twitched. Jon immediately punted it. The flimsy body broke apart into a pile of ink and scraps.

"Ech, gross," Jon said, cringing at the gunk on his shoe. He skirted around the fading puddle and continued down the hall, now wary of vents.

The hall opened into a wider room. A nearby wall with loose bricks looked climbable. Mindful of his sore legs, Jon carefully clambered up the bricks and hauled himself over the top. The floor up there was panels of metal instead of wood plank. Something under the grating gave off a sharp scent. The door on his left was shut, but there seemed to be a switch on the wall to his right, along with a couple lockers.

Jon opened the lockers and poked at the books and junk inside. "Glad I don't melt everything I touch." He pulled the switch and the door lifted.

Someone at the end of the opened hall disappeared around the corner. Jon hurried forward. "Hey! Hello? Is someone—." He rounded a few corners but didn't find the person. A vent snapped shut near the floor, making him jump. He turned a full circle to make sure he wasn't being followed, more on edge.

The hall led to a flickering light and portrait on the wall. This was a face and a name he remembered. Bendy. The darling little devil himself. "Oh. Heya, Bends." Jon smiled at the grinning face painted on the wall. He ticked his tongue. "Why do I get the feeling you know what's going on here? You get up to elaborate games but this takes the cake."

His smile fell. "Could use your help here, bud. I've got Dad's ink for some reason and this place screams "home of an ink imp." Lost a good chunk of the past... however-long-it-took to end up here."

The portrait offered no response. Jon sighed. "Already talking to inanimate objects. Cool. Alright, bud, I'll go... find a machine, I guess." He fist bumped the painting and gold flecks made the black run.

The hall finally opened into a large atrium. A fountain sat near the far wall and spewed ink instead of water. A sign reading "Heavenly Toys" hung above it. Banners displaying various cartoon characters swayed gently. A crow cawed somewhere in the rafters. Plushies and rubble and junk littered the floor. Plants grew despite there being no sun.

Jon pulled a leaf off a nearby stem and rubbed it between his fingers. It was alive, but entirely brown. Last he checked most plants were green. He aimed for the staircase leading up around the fountain, tearing the leaf up and scattering the pieces like bread crumbs.

He found another switch but it sparked and wouldn't go down all the way. Jon turned around. "Up the wall again, then." He clambered up, grunting softly as his legs protested the effort.

Something swung toward his face and he reared back on reflex, realizing too late that the floor was farther down than he thought. His back hit the floor, aggravating his already abused shoulders. He looked up at the ledge. The same thing that fell out of the vent earlier leapt down with a wrench raised over its head.