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

Act 1, Scene 7: A Rekindled Love

Sammy Lawrence

Sammy was extremely paranoid; He was outside the normal boundaries of where Joey roamed. He'd gotten pretty far despite his recent injuries, but his energy had slowly waned over the hours. It was strange being this far from the safehouse, but he wanted to get as far away as possible from safety. If he wasn't wanted, he didn't need to stick around.

The halls were dark and ominous, perfect cover for anything dangerous. Ink flowed slowly from the corners of the walls, and writing was dotted here and there from Joey's other victims. Sammy thought he recognized Alison's writing for a second, but observing it closer, it was someone else's. Sammy wished he could see her and Tom again. He missed Tom's complaining for once. The old mechanic was always disobeying orders, going out when he wasn't supposed to, and arguing with almost everything anybody said. Alison was the complete opposite. It was a wonder how they could stand each other, let alone get married.

Sammy treaded carefully, stopping occasionally to look behind him. He eventually came across the music department and his old office. It looked so different now. The ink had claimed the dark corners and was spread out in large blotches across the floor. He recognized the pentagrams he had drawn so long ago to lure Joey to his domain. Multiple Bendy cutouts lined the walls where the pentagrams were set. Both the stairwells to the exit and the infirmary were flooded, plus the hall that led to the drain pipes. The band room was the same as always, the instruments laid to rest where he'd left them. Above the band room, one of Norman's old projectors sat on the edge of the railing, emitting a dim light onto the wall. The recording booth was closed off, and the microphones seemed well preserved, a thin layer of dust on top of them. Sammy could hardly imagine that he'd done this. It felt like ages ago when he resided here.

Sammy was above the band room when he noticed something glimmer in the trash can beside a desk. Reaching down, he pulled a familiar set of keys out. These had once belonged to Wally, and it wasn't surprising that he'd lost them again. These particular keys were to his supplies closet, where he kept most of his maintenance utensils.

Suddenly the projector clicked off, leaving Sammy in complete silence. Below him, Searchers began swarming the floor. Sammy pressed himself against the wall out of their sight and began breathing heavily. He stood no chance against what he estimated to be twenty of them. Then, to make matters worse, thin veins of ink began to reach across the room, indicating that Joey was nearby again. Sammy wouldn't survive another encounter with him, and not so soon after the last.

Though Joey looked exhausted when he stepped out from the ink in the wall. He slowly limped his way through the room, glancing around at the Searchers before him. Then he stopped to address them.

"Find him. Whoever brings me his head will hate my eternal gratitude," he growled. When the Searchers didn't move, he barked, "NOW!"

The Searchers scrambled away like terrified mice. Joey watched them go with a hint of a snarl, then left. The heartbeat and ink veins faded, and Sammy let go of his breath. He'd been holding it the whole time, scared to alert Joey. But now he had a new problem: The Searchers were just as hell-bent on killing as he used to be if it meant pleasing Joey. If he was spotted by one, the rest would surely be on their way as well.

He walked back down the stairs with a careful eye on the blobs of ink on the floor. The Searchers could appear out of nowhere, but spots of ink were their domain. In the distance, he heard the projector click back on.

That's weird, he thought. No one else was up there, or were there?

Sammy continued, though he looked back before leaving the stairwell. That projector shouldn't have turned on by itself unless someone turned it on, or a certain presence activated it. If Joey could cause it to turn off, it was completely possible for something else to turn it back on.