Blood and Ink

Chapter 4

Aiden, Lukas, and Kate continued to look around Joey Drew Studios. Now that Mister Drew left them alone for a bit, they were asked to turn on the Ink Machine so that Mister Drew could show them what it could do when he returns.

But not even an hour after Joey left them alone had passed. And the trio had seen what appeared to be one of the cartoon characters ripped open on a table, and someone put a cardboard cutout right around a corner to scare them. That meant that there was someone else in the studio, and it couldn't have been Joey. They would've heard him coming since he was in a wheelchair, and they heard him leaving them when he headed out.

Even though they were spooked a bit, they still had to turn on the Ink Machin.

They exited the room with the switch and started to head back down the hallway that they came from. They walked down to the end to see a small seating area and another hallway.

Aiden took a quick look back, and he saw the cardboard cutout of Bendy from before still in the same spot. That meant that the one that was used to scare them, it was another one. Someone was certainly with them in the studio. They weren't alone.

But before Aiden could try to bring this up to Lukas or Kate, he heard his friends speak.

"What is this thing?" asked Lukas.

Aiden turned around to see Lukas picking up a recorder of some sort.

"You remember that recorder Tails showed you guys? This is kinda the old school version of it, with a little tape to play something," said Kate.

Lukas flipped the recorder over. The words "Wally Franks" was on the back. It must've been the name of the person who recorded a message in the recorder.

"I see a tape inside. You think it still works?" said Lukas.

"Hmm... maybe. Why don't you play it? It might give us something," said Kate.

Lukas nodded his head. He hit the play button on the recorder. A message began to play. The voice belonged to a man, possibly Wally Franks.

"At this point, I don't get what Joey's plan is for this company. The animations sure aren't being finished on time anymore, and I certainly don't see why we need this... machine. It's noisy, it's messy, and who needs that much ink anyway? Also, get this: Joey had each one of us 'donate' something from our work stations. We put them on these little pedestals in the break room. 'To help appease the gods,' Joey says. 'Keep things going.' I think he's lost his mind. But hey... he writes the checks. But I'll tell you what: if one more of these pipes burst, I'm outta here!" the man's voice said in the recording.

The recorder went silent, meaning that the message ended there.

"Wonder if he left the place like he said he would..." said Aiden.

"I think I get it now. What Wally said, they put things on the pedestals in that rom we were just in. And I bet the objects are tied to those picture frames that were hanging up in there," said Lukas.

"What were the six pictures again?" asked Kate.

"I remember. We need a wrench, a cog, an ink well, something with music, a book, and I think the one that looked like Bendy might be a toy of some sort," said Aiden.

"We should probably split up to cover more ground," said Lukas. "Each of us find two of the objects?" asked Lukas.

"And we'll meet back in the pedestal room," said Kate.

Lukas and Aiden nodded their heads. Kate continued down the hallway, Aiden headed to where the entrance of the studio was, and Lukas went back to the break room was.