BATIM { Striker and female reader }

Ch.4

Somewhere in the Archives. 

(Y/N) 

Me and Striker made our way back to the abyss, trying to be as fast as possible while also keeping our senses sharp incase we get surprise attacked by those inky-none-statues. 

We walked along the wooden planks making up the floor, the only things keeping us alive and not falling. Wonder how long it would take for them to decompose and break entirely.

Once back at the machine, I took a closer look at it, trying to find out what I'm missing. 

I then heard Striker making rasping noises, assuming he's trying to get my attention, and I looked up at where he was. 

He's standing next to one of those ink makers and pointing at it. I get up and walked over to it. 

Striker steps back and allows me to take a look. 

I looked to the side of the ink maker and saw a lever. I also see a diel showing a silhouette of a mug. I turned the diel and the silhouette shows a bone. I turned it again and it shows a gear. 

"Nice. Great job Striker" I say, smiling down at him. He claps his hands and smiles proudly. 

"But we need a blob of ink in order to make the gear" I say, looking back at the machine and frowning. Striker makes some more rasping noises and points at himself. I instantly know what he's trying to say.   

"Striker, I'm not gonna use ink that came from you. If I do, I would have to kill you, just like the Fisher clone I had to kill in order to get his ink blob" I say. Striker looks down, now realizing what I meant. 

I looked up and saw another room we haven't been into yet. 

"Come on Striker" I say, grabbing his hand and gently pulling him along as we made our way to the next room. As we entered, we saw a large metal tube and a panel next to it. 

We walked over to the panel and I examined it for a minute before pushing the button. The metal tube slides up into the ceiling revealing a large vat of ink. In an instant, a Swollen Searcher pops out from the ink, giving us both a jump scare.

"I don't think it's gonna attack" I say, noticing it looks like it's in pain.

Nonetheless, we're careful considering I was almost killed by one back on Level 9 when I first met Striker. 

I noticed a strange ink blob on the Swollen Searcher's left shoulder. I then get an idea. I slowly, but also quickly enough as to not provoke it, grab the ink blob and backed up quickly. The Swollen Searcher moans, but in general doesn't react. 

I grabbed Striker's hand and lead him back into the other room. I placed the ink blob in the ink maker and pulled the lever. The ink maker takes the ink and produces a gear. I grabbed the gear, placed it where it belongs, and turned on the power to the bridge. 

The bridge starts moving very slowly towards us. 

"This has got to be the slowest bridge lift I have ever seen" I say, deadpanned. I sat down on the floor, with Striker mimicking my posture and sits down cross-legged next to me. I rest my chin on one of my hands propped up on my right knee. Striker looks at me, then gives me a side hug. I looked down at him and smiled. 

"It's gonna be ok. Who knows, maybe we'll find Charlie and/or Barley as well. Hopefully they remember who they are as well, seeing as you did" I say, giving him a hug as well. He nuzzles into my side and continues to hug me tightly, as if scared that I'm only a hallucination and will disappear if he ever lets go. 

Our peace gets shattered when the bridge lift comes to a complete stop on our side. We got up and got into the lift. As it started slowly moving, I made sure to hold onto Striker's hand tightly incase the lift starts rocking. 

Once we were two meters away from the other side though, the lift stops so suddenly that I almost lose my balance since I was standing. The lift then starts shaking as if it were about to fall off the rope, but then starts going the rest of the way until we got to the other side. 

We both jump off the bridge lift and saw that the four inky-none-statues had removed the gear we just made and threw it into the dark abyss below. Then, just like that, they start walking as if in a trance, assuming they're going back to the archives to wait for the next person to come down here. 

Me and Striker looked at each other in shock and confusion, then we both turned around and headed into the next room.

It was a long hallway.

As we entered and stood there wondering why there was just a random long hallway, the door behind us slams shut and the entire hallway turns red and black. Just like in the archives, arms and hands protruded from the walls and ceiling, reaching out to try and grab us. 

"AAAHHHH" I screamed, stumbling back on the floor, my back hitting the door. Striker tackles me in a tight hug and buries his face in my neck for comfort. As I stare, wide-eyed at the scene before us, just like how suddenly they appeared, they disappeared. 

I stood up quickly with Striker still in my arms and ran down the length of the hallway, bursting through the other side. 

I stood in the next room, still clutching Striker in my arms, trying to catch my breath. 

Just then, the voice of Demon Alice comes through the speakers. 

"I see you there my little errand girl. What is it that keeps you going? Is it the thrill of the hunt? Or perhaps, you're just looking for a little. friendly. wolf. Maybe it's because you have somehow bonded with that monster you have there with you. Be careful, don't want anything bad happening to him. Better hurry. Boris is having trouble staying in one piece." She says as I ascend the stairs to the very top, still holding Striker tightly. Telling me Boris might die is one thing, but bringing Striker into this and threatening to do something to him too is another. I will NOT stand for this. 

I gritted my teeth in anger and walked into the next room at the top of the stairs. 

Once we entered the room, I set down Striker back on the floor and grabbed his robotic hand. We looked around the room and saw that we were in a sort of lounge area. 

"I've heard stories about this place, but never thought it was this big on the inside. Just looks like a normal looking animation studio from the outside, but on the INSIDE! It's FREAKING MASSIVE!" I shouted. 

"He always finds me....I just wanna go home....w-when do I go home...? When do we go home...? Oh no!" says a strange, inky person up on the balcony above us. He then runs off to our left and disappears from view. 

Me and Striker looked at each other in confusion. We then walked over to the door across the room.

"Alright Striker, let's see what monstrosity is waiting for us on the other side of this door" I say, turning the nob and pushing the door open. 

Upon entering the room, we immediately freeze in fear, Striker gripping my hand more tightly. 

Directly in front of us, in a large room assuming to be like jail cells, were more than two dozen Lost Ones, almost like the one that ran off from the balcony. 

They all turned their inky faces towards us and we just stood there, staring back in shock and fright.