BatIM AU: Henry's Path (OLD - rewrite in progress/consideration)

Act 1, Scene 5: Inner Demon

Henry Stein

Henry laid in bed and stared at the ceiling. He hadn't slept all night, but instead he'd thought about Joey. He remembered the first time they met to the last time they saw each other. He realized that Joey had slowly been going mentally insane every day, and how it was the cause that Henry left the studio. Joey had been demanding too much out of him, and he was finally fed up with it, leaving the studio in front of a very displeased Joey Drew.

Henry didn't realize how early in the morning it was until Wally sat up and yawned. Glancing at the Bendy clock, which freaked him out to the extreme, it was nearly eight o' clock. Henry sat up, too, mumbling a quiet good morning to Wally. Wally smiled and stretched.

"Feeling better?" he asked when he finished. Henry shrugged.

"It's really not worth it to feel bad about. Might as well get over it now." Henry stood up and opened his bedside drawers to grab his notes. "Besides, I've got work to do. I can't be distracted."

"Can't ya take a break to actually have fun?" Wally asked. He'd set out his overalls on his bed and sorted through them.

"I've promised Edgar that I'd help her figure out some answers. But you're always invited to help." Henry opened the door and left for the kitchen, and Wally followed with an armful of laundry.

"Looks like your girlfriend's already up," Wally said. He patted Henry on the shoulder with his free arm and strode over to the laundry room.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Henry yelled back, but Wally only replied with a snicker.

Edgar was in fact awake. She was at the kitchen table with Sammy. Henry joined her, and she waved hello. She was looking at old photos, and Sammy was shuffling through some himself. He had more tapes set out and various letters.

"Where'd all this come from?"

Sammy found these while he was out on patrol, Edgar explained. She shoved a handful of photos into Henry's arms. There're so many clues in these that it's insane!

Henry looked through the photos himself, but really skimmed through them. The only one that caught his eye was one of himself while he was drawing Bendy. In fact, he was the only artist that drew Bendy in any of these photos. Any other photo of an artist was drawing a different character.

"Wait, Edgar, look at this."

Edgar took the photo and looked closely at it. She glanced back at Henry.

What do you think it means? She asked. Henry pointed at himself in the photo.

"That's me. I was the only artist that animated Bendy. I even created him. And Joey modified him to his pleasure into our little Devil Darlin' we know today. I think it's a connection between our forms. After all, Joey's the Ink Demon, and I'm a perfect form of Bendy," Henry said. He watched Edgar's expression change from confusion to realization.

"Sound's reasonable," Sammy intoned. "But you never added anything to the ritual. You were transformed by a completely different ritual, so it doesn't really add up. Joey even changed the ritual a bit so that you would only become Bendy, and not another character."

"Sure, but that doesn't really explain why Joey became the Ink Demon. He was a part of the original ritual. So were you, Wally, Norman, Tom, and some other people. Each of you had an item to add to the ritual. Wally with his wrench, Joey and his book, your record, Tom's gear, some plushy, and a jar of ink."