My Little Devil Darling

An Old, Inky Friend

"Where the hell would I find the ink flow?" the young woman said to herself, "There needs to be a map of this place, it's so confusing."

Charlotte walked out of the Break Room and towards the tape recorder that she had found before.

"Maybe this guy said something about it."

She pressed play on the tape and listened to the, who she assumed was the studio l janitor's, message again "...if I see one more of these pipes burst, I'm outta here." Pipes. These things were everywhere, maybe if Charlotte followed some, it would lead her to the ink flow. She turned around opposite the table and looked up; sure enough, there were a bunch of pipes leading down the hallway and around a corner. The young woman went down that exact hallway and around the corner, following the pipes, and right as she was near the end of the hallway, a Bendy cardboard cut-out popped out from around the corner and Charlotte jumped. Was someone else really here?

Charlotte continued down the hall, around the corner and spotted the cut-out that had startled her seconds beforehand. She had to admit, the cartoon demon was cute...but the way the studio looked and all the sudden scares happening everywhere, she had an uneasy feeling about him. She slowly moved away from the cardboard Bendy and was, once again, jump-scared by a projector turning on with a loud, echoed click; revealing a short animation of the dancing demon himself, bouncing up and down. The frames were so smooth; whoever had made that animation was a super talented artist and animator. Charlotte was impressed. The young woman walked into what seemed to be a small theatre and passed the bright projector, shielding her eyes from the blinding light, and found the valve that controlled the ink flow.

"Bingo," she said aloud to herself, "Now let's see what this Ink Machine can do."

But in the back of her mind, those visions showed up. Charlotte swears she has never been here before, but with the familiarity of the voices, even the visions of her being drowned in the face of the Ink Machine itself, part of her believes that she had come here as a child....but why?

Charlotte was making her way back to the Break Room after turning the valve to the ink flow. As expected, the blinking sign no longer read 'Low Pressure', it now said 'Ready'. The girl took a deep breath and walked over to the big lever that would officially start up the main power to the Ink Machine. She pulled the switch and suddenly the lights in the room shut off, the soft glow from some yellow floor lights giving Charlotte the chance to still see. As she was about to go back to the Ink Machine room, she glanced back to the pedestal that held the Bendy plush doll. She had found that doll in the closet in her room years ago, how did it get there? Did her father hide it in there? And if he did, why? she had never even heard of the shows this guy was in.

Why had the studio shut down anyway? Charlotte thought, Maybe because of the Machine? But what does it even do?

The young woman walked out of the room, so many questions, yet none could be answered.

He could hear the rumbling pipes and the ink flowing. It was time, he could finally regain a solid form. The blob of ink slid fast through the studio and into the Ink Machine room. But as he was gaining power, his hatred of the intruder and being abandoned and lied to all those years ago, something went wrong, but he couldn't understand what. His mind grew clouded and filled with anger. Thoughts of being abandoned again flooded his inky mind and he had formed himself into an inky monster. Tall, skinny and ink covered his eyes; Bendy did not look like he used to. He will make sure this intruder pays the price for barging into his studio.

Charlotte stood a distance away from the entrance to the Ink Machine room, confused. It was boarded up; inky footprints were leading from the doorway to another door just 2 feet away. She had tried to open it seconds before, but it was locked. She was hesitant to get closer to the boards, but she wanted to see the Ink Machine. She faced her worries about the boards and walked over to the doorway to peek inside. Charlotte was only able to get a short glance at the Machine before being pushed back by something. She fell to the floor on her back and when she finally sat up, she noticed the whole place was starting to flood with ink. Charlotte also saw what looked like Bendy but more...terrifying. A growl came out of the demon and he started pulling and the boards. Horrified, the young woman got up and started to run away; avoiding ceiling boards that broke and fell, causing more ink to flood the studio. A loud moaning sound rang through the halls and made Charlotte run faster towards the exit. The door was in sight, slightly open with light peeking through; this was the moment of truth, Charlotte's escape from the nightmare was right out that door. But....not all dreams come true. About a foot from the doorway to freedom, the floorboards broke from underneath the girl and she fell a long way and crashed into a small flood of ink that, when standing, reached up just below her chest.

The Ink Damon had finally broken the boards holing him in the room and ran to where the girl had fallen. He growled.

If she wants to be here, he thought, Then she's going to stay here for all eternity. SHE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO LEAVE!

Bendy's anger roared through the studio, making the place shake, then he ran and disappeared into the wall.

Ahead of Charlotte was what looked like a valve. She treads through the thick ink and turns it; the ink began to drain from the room and she breathed a sigh of relief. The young woman turned around and noticed a tape recorder on a shelf. Must've been drowned in the ink before, she thought. She went over to the tape and pressed play; a deeper sounding voice came through the speaker.

It's dark and it's cold and it's stuck in behind every single wall now. In some places, I swear this godforsaken ink is clear up to my knees!

"Yeah, no kidding," Charlotte muttered under her breath.

Whoever thought that these crummy pipes could hold under this kind of strain either knows something about pressure I don't, or he's some kind of idiot.

But the real worst part about all this...are them noises the system makes. Like a dying dog on its last legs. Make no mistake, this place...this...machine...heck, this whole darn thing...it just isn't natural.

You can bet, I won't be doing any more repair jobs for Mister Joey Drew.

This man, Joey Drew, was brought up once again in the tapes. Was he the owner of the studio? Maybe he made the Ink Machine. As more questions about this seeming to be haunted studio, Charlotte made her way down the stairs, turning any valve that she needed to drain the ink and reached another door. The woman opened it and was immediately blinded by the lights in the small room.

"Power's working in here," she muttered, rubbing her eyes.

The first thing she saw was another boarded up doorway and it seemed a bit darker in that direction.

"Maybe that way can lead me out of here."

She walked into the room and in the corner of her eye she saw black and jumped, now facing the wall that had read, THE CREATOR LIED TO US. The creator....was Joey the creator? Who did he lie to? Did he create that monster Bendy that Charlotte saw a while back? In the back of her mind, the name Joey Drew seemed familiar to her; she didn't know why and wasn't aware of any other family members. Staring at the strange message once more, Charlotte found an axe laying on a table to the left of her. Her eyes brighten at the sight of the weapon and picked it up.

"This could come in handy," she said, smiling.

She took the axe and chopped up the boards from the doorway and walking in and around the corner to meet a door that was blocked by wooden boards; Charlotte broke those down too and opened the door. All of a sudden the ceiling caved in behind her, ink flowing down and into a hole in the wall and she stood in shock at what she saw in front of her.

"What the hell was Joey doing in this place?" she stuttered, "A ritual circle? What would he possibly do with this?"

Then she notices something in the middle of the circle, it was her Bendy plush, she recognized it right away.

"But..." she started, walking closer to it, not stepping into the circle, "I thought I had put you on the pedestal upstairs."

Drawn to the Bendy doll, she walked into the ritual circle and picked it up, looking into his small, black, pie-cut eyes. Then out of nowhere, an image flashed in Charlotte's mind. It was a man, her father, sitting at an animation desk, papers scattered on the floor with drawings of Bandy. The image went away for a split second and the young woman was starting to get dizzy. Another image flashed and it was a living cartoon Bendy in front of her, his hand held up against hers. That image went away and Charlotte's vision was clouding and she heard a bunch of voices chanting 'Best friends forever'. The last vision was the same one as before with the Ink Machine; the ink shot out at Charlotte and she started choking, dropping the axe and plush to grab her throat, sight getting darker. Then Charlotte fell to the ground, unconscious.

*Yes, you heard it here folks, I'm not dead. I'm back and ready to continue this book. The canon ch1 of BATIM is officially over here and I'm writing for ch2. I'll try not to die again, don't worry. ;-)*