Blood and Ink

Chapter 9

It was mess in the entrance room of Joey Drew Studios. Ink was everywhere. From puddles on the floor to dripping from the ceiling, it was as if a tsunami made of ink had touched the building. And judging by the big hole in the middle of the entrance, that meant that the building could be breaking down.

Knuckles kneeled down and touched some ink right by his feet. It was very messy, and got all over the fingertips of his glove.

"This ink is fresh. Whatever happened here, it happened today," said Knuckles.

"What could've happened to use up so much ink?" said Henry.

"We won't be able to find any answers unless we can go inside. Which means we need to be able to cross this," said F. Jesse. She looked down in the hole as she spoke.

She pulled out some blocks from her inventory. F. Jesse built an easy but sturdy pathway over the pit for everyone to walk over. Henry watched with a confused look, as F. Jesse built the pathway, and then as his new friends walked over the pathway as if it had always been there.

Maya turned around and saw that Henry was confused. She motioned for him to come and said, "It's okay, Henry. It's safe to walk on it."

Henry stayed quiet, but he took Maya's word and walked over the pathway. He wasn't going to question what F. Jesse just did. Based on what he could interpret, Maya and F. Jesse weren't from around here. They were from someplace that would be very strange to him.

The four began to walk down on the hallways. It was hard to see where they were going since it was very dark. Maya pulled out a stick and a piece of coal and crafted a torch. She held it up, enabling them to see a bit. Henry watched her craft the torch, but he still didn't say anything. He wasn't going to bother. Things were already strange in the studio, so if there was anything odd about his new friends, he shouldn't be too surprised.

The four walked down the hallway that led to the Ink Machine. Since there was lots of ink everywhere, they couldn't see the messages or the ink output schedule on the wall. They were oblivious to the things that Aiden, Lukas, and Kate spotted during their venture on the first floor.

The doorway was boarded up. Knuckles punched down the boards as if they were easy to break, and the four entered the lift room.

The Ink Machine was gone. The lift was in motion, for the four could hear that it was on and the chains were moving.

"What the hell was in here?" said Maya.

"Oh no..." said Knuckles.

He was looking down. Lying in a puddle of ink was a cell phone. The echidna picked it up. It was covered in ink and the screen was cracked. A beeping sound went off, indicating that the phone was very low on battery.

Knuckles teared up when he picked up the phone. It was Kate's cell phone.

"She was in here. Which means... they all were in here..." he said.

F. Jesse looked around. Because there was ink everyone on the floor, it was hard to interpret which way Kate went.

"Hopefully she's around here, along with Lukas and Aiden," said F. Jesse.

They exited the lift room and started to search around the studio. It was hard to interpret which way their missing friends could've gone. There was ink everyone along the floor, so even if Aiden, Lukas, or Kate made any footprints, it was impossible to find them.

Upon reaching the area near the break room, Maya spotted the table with the Boris corpse. She shrieked when she found it, alerting the others. They came running in. Knuckles and F. Jesse gasped when they saw the corpse. Henry, on the other hand, formed a sad look.