Spilled Ink

Traitor

Amy crouched down to lace up her bright orange sneakers, making sure the laces were tucked into the sides of the shoe so she wouldn't trip or anything of the sort while going through the studio. It was almost time to go back to the abandoned building.

The sun was hanging low in the sky, beautiful blues, oranges, and purples filled the atmosphere, giving off just enough light to see ten feet beyond your nose.

"Ready Amy?" Thomas asked, a bit harshly. He seemed a bit irritated about something, but Amy couldn't figure out what. Was he upset that Cristina wasn't coming? She couldn't handle the studio, he knew that. Cristina explained to him what was happening.

"Yeah, let's go." Amy slid into the passenger's seat of Thomas's car. She didn't change much from earlier, mostly just tied her long light brown hair back in a half ponytail. She did charge her phone up as much as she could and filled her pockets with little knick knacks that might be useful. Along with a pack of gum.

It was quiet ride back to the studio. Not much was going on around the streets, but all Amy could think about was the uneasy feeling she had at the studio earlier that day.

She shook her head and sighed. "What's up?" Thomas asked. He didn't take his eyes off the road ahead of the car, like a good driver. Amelia stayed silent for a minute, readjusting her seatbelt. "Nothing really... Just the studio. I got a weird vibe from the place while we were there earlier." Thomas frowned.

"Do you wanna spend the night at the hotel? I can go on my own-"

"No. No, I want to go. It just feels weird, that's all," Amy interrupted. Thomas nodded, entering the lot of the of studio. "Well, we're here," the man said.

It was darker than earlier, the sun had lowered itself beyond the horizon, enveloping the town in dim light. It was a beautiful night, Amy had to admit that, but the time to appreciate the sky and time of day would have to come later. The teenager hopped out of the car, patting her pockets to make sure her phone was on her person before she followed Thomas up the metal framed staircase.

The teacher unlocked the door to the studio, allowing his pupil inside before himself. Amy pulled herself to the center of the room. It was dim, but not dark enough to hinder naked vision. Thomas clicked on a flashlight, a steady stream of bright white flooding into the room. He handed Amy the second flashlight and traveled about the room, running his hand along the table on the side of the room.

"This used to be a prosperous studio," Thomas said, mostly to himself. Amy crept up behind him, humming in acknowledgement to his words. "What closed the place down?"

She knew the answer, the two had talked about it before, many times. She just enjoyed the story.

"Experts say that the placed closed because of budget cuts and the animators' inability to get the cartoons out on time," Thomas said. Amy nodded. "I know that story. What was the other reason?"

Thomas let a grin spread across his face. He enjoyed telling this story to his students. "They say Joey Drew, my grandfather, went insane.... gave up his faith and started to worship his creation- Bendy." Amy hummed, going around the projector on the far end of the room. "He started building a machine that he believed would bring Bendy to life... Bring all of them to life. Joey killed his workers, using them as a sacrifice to the Gods..."

The projector cut on, soft music filtering through the little speakers.

"What the..?" Amy inched toward the little machine, trying to find a switch or button to flip it off. Thomas looked over his shoulder and his grin grew wider. "That's a vintage reel-to-reel projector, and it still works!" Mr. Drew hurried over to the little device, tinkering with the settings on the base and rewinding the reels. Amy shook her head at Thomas's little geek moment, and took this opportunity to go explore a little more.