Blood and Ink

Chapter 3

Aiden, Lukas, and Kate were quiet as they met Joey Drew. They had never heard of the man prior to receiving the letter from him. And here he was. The man himself.

Joey looked like he was in his early or mid-sixties. He was dressed in a nice suit, but he was sitting in a wheelchair.

"It's... it's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Drew," said Kate.

She couldn't find herself saying anything else since she didn't really know much about Joey nor about his studio or the cartoons that were made here.

"The same goes for you, my dear. I've heard about what a great writer you are. And you said that this is Aiden and Lukas?" said Joey.

"Yes sir. We're writers ourselves," said Aiden.

"Really? Any works that I should look up from you lads?" said Joey.

"Not really. We're uh... not that known around here..." said Lukas. It was the best he could say without giving away that they were from another universe.

"Well, I'm sure you'll love working here at my studio regardless," said Joey. "Come on in. I'll give you a tour of the place."

Joey turned his wheel chair around and started to head inside. The doors were open, so Lukas, Kate, and Aiden followed him in. The three were surprised by how the studio looked. It appeared to be like an old cartoon from the inside, because everything was styled to look like it was hand drawn, which surprised the trio.

The entrance room was very open. There was a projector running, but it just shined a light along one of the walls. Some desks were set up in some places, but no one was working at any of the desks. Along one of the walls was the company logo, and there were old posts that advertised some of the cartoons that the company created.

"It's like an old cartoon in here. Like everything's hand drawn," said Kate.

"When I first had the studio built, I wanted the inside to look that way. It was one of our ways of bringing our cartoons to life," said Joey.

"It's... certainly unique," said Aiden.

Lukas was quiet. He was looking at a few of the cartoon posters. There were three different titles hanging up in the room.

"'Bendy in Little Devil Darling'. 'Bendy in the Dancing Demon'. 'Bendy in Sheep Songs, with Boris the Wolf'. Sounds like something interesting. Were these your cartoons?" said Lukas.

"Only three of many. I am a man of ideas, and my wonderful crew made many cartoons before I had to temporarily shut down the studio. But if you join my new crew, I'm sure you can bring this studio back to life," said Joey.

"Well, we just got here. We'd like to know what we're getting into before we make a decision," said Lukas.

Joey nodded his head. He started to lead them down a hallway of the studio. As the trio were following him, they saw a glimpse of a cardboard cutout of one of the characters. The character appeared to be a little devil, and he was giving a big grin.

"Sir, that cardboard cutout, is that the character Bendy?" asked Lukas.

Joey stopped his wheelchair and took a glance at the cardboard cutout. He smiled.

"Why yes indeed. He is the studio mascot. The heart of the company. He is the studio's most popular character. The star of the show in every cartoon. My wonderful creation: Bendy the Dancing Devil," said Joey.

The trio looked at the cardboard cutout once more. Bendy seemed like a cute old-style cartoon character. They could see why he would not only be the studio mascot, but also a character to be loved by many fans.