BatIM Five Trials

Chapter Six

Once getting back to the Main Power room, Jade took one last look at her handiwork. The flashing sign by the lever now glowed with the bright word READY. She made the walk across the room, shivering from the silence which now took a tone of an eerie coldness. She took a hold of the lever, and after taking a deep breath, yanked it down with all her might. The lever made a loud whine as it went down, and the machinery behind the wall started coming to life. The lights around dimmed as some kind of translucent black haze came from where the lever was.

Despite the dim lighting, Jade was still able to notice it as it drifted toward her and up to her chest. As it made contact with her, she felt almost a chill as she stepped back with a bit of a cough. She didn't have much time to think about it, for she heard the sounds of the Ink Machine echoing to her, and this made her more curious again.

Jade went to walk out of the room, but stopped and took a look behind her. Her eyes went to the Bendy plush for some reason she didn't know, but decided to try something. I wonder if the machine will stop running if I take it off the pedestal? She approached the plush's pedestal and slowly, slowly removed it. The machine's status did not change, she could still hear the old machine's cycling echoing through the studio. It was almost as if now, it was running on something else. But what?

That's a question for later, for now, I've got this. Jade placed her newly acquired souvenir into her bag and left the Main Power room. The echoing of the machine got louder as she got closer to it, and for some reason, her heart got louder and beat harder, hard enough for her to feel it quite noticeably. She noticed it was beating in perfect sync to the machine's slow cycles. Well, slow compared to the typical human heartbeat, anyway. She put a hand up to her neck to check her pulse, to make sure she wasn't falsely thinking. Sure enough, it was just as she thought, and only got more noticeable the closer she got to the Ink Machine.

This is strange. . . was perhaps my assumption that the heart follows a beat correct? Jade was thinking back to a question which had formed in her head long ago, whether music affected the heart's rate. Finally, she had gotten to the hallway leading to the Ink Machine after what felt like a long, drawn-out walk.

As she leapt over the pipe and gazed at the doorway, she found that it had been. . . blockaded by boards? Jade was confused by this. . . but for some reason, she was mesmerized by what she could see of the machine. How it functioned, gushing so much ink from its nozzle, and how it sounded. . . she wanted to get a closer look.

The teen took slow, drawn-out steps toward the machine, as if something deep within wanted to fight approaching it, but Jade was too focused on learning more to notice.

Suddenly, as her hand was just about to cross the blockade into the room, a gloved, clawed hand reached out as she heard a low roar and saw a familiar, but distorted face. Bendy?! Jade scrambled back quickly as she saw the room darken, and it looked as if the walls had gained veins and started to pulse ink within them. Her heart rate was picking up quickly, and she turned to run, but managed to trip over her own legs. As she went to scramble back up, she heard the sounds of wood being splintered under a blunt force. She turned behind her to see the monster behind her slashing through boards with its clawed hands. She couldn't help but let out a scream as she stumbled up to her feet and took off running. She about tripped over the pipe before she remembered to jump over it before she again heard the splintering of another board.

Come on! There's only so many of those boards, run faster! She urged herself as ink began rapidly pouring from the roof. As she ran past the turn in the hall toward the Main Power room, the metal gate slammed. This caused Jade to scream again as it started to bend under pressure, ink seeping through the edges at a rapid rate. This only pushed her to go even faster as yet another board was slashed, and then a low, snarly roar of something like triumph.