Bendy and Friends

Chapter 1: Joey Drew (a picture ;) )

32-year-old Joey Drew exhaustedly sat outside his favourite restaurant in the sweltering summer heat. He clutched a brown paper bag filled with leftover food that he'd taken from the restaurant. At least, what he'd managed to take before he was kicked out by security. It wasn't his fault that the waitress that served him was a pain in his a-

His phone suddenly rang, buzzing in his lap. He picked it up, and looked at the caller ID. "Ugh, Audrey." He complained, opening the flip phone and answering. "Hey babe," he said in a fake happy voice.

"Joey! It's you!" Audrey, his girlfriend, said from the other end. "Don't forget the minced meat pies!" She chirped.

Joey rolled his eyes and propped up his elbow on the metal table beside him. "Yeah, I'll try to remember." He said, his stomach growling as he shifted on the plastic chair uncomfortably.

"Great! Oh, guess what?" Audrey said, a hint of excitement in her voice. "What?" Joey said, not bothering to get his hopes up. When Audrey said 'guess what?' it was almost never something exciting.

"I'm doing an article on your old workplace!" She exclaimed, and someone in the background on her end started shouting. "Audrey, hey! I was wondering if...if you maybe wanted to get coffee with me?" The person in the background said.

"SHE HAS A BOYFRIEND!" Joey yelled in the phone, causing people around him to turn and stare.

"Oh, um. Yeah! Right! The article on my workplace! Are you sure that's a good idea?" He said awkwardly, holding eye contact with a sneering old man who was checking him out.

"I think it's a great idea! Especially since you worked there, so you know all the secrets that place holds!" She said.

"It's just an old animation studio. What secrets could there possibly be?" He lied, finally breaking eye contact with the old man.

Of course he lied. That studio had been abandoned three years ago for a reason. Joey frowned, sniffing slightly from his bad allergies.

"Well," Audrey continued. "I was thinking, since you knew the place so well, that you could help with my research by checking the place out?"

Joey snorted. "Yeah, if I had a death wish—I mean, sure thing," he said awkwardly, watching as a filthy disgruntled-looking cat approached him, giving him a sultry look as it sauntered slowly forward.

"Uh, so when do you want me to go?" He asked, nervously watching as the cat winked and licked its lips at him.

"I was thinking maybe . . . Now?" Audrey said. "It's just that I only have a few days to produce a story about the workshop, and I should probably get a start on gathering information,"

Joey stood up abruptly, causing the plastic chair he was sitting on to snap in half and fly across the street. "Yeah, that's fine. Um, what kind of 'information' am I looking for?" He spoke, stepping over the cat to walk in the direction of his car. "Ow!" He yelled as the cat bit onto his leg, refusing to release.

"Well, just anything strange that you happen to see. Anything that would hint to how everyone stopped working there." She said, and sneezed into the phone.

"Ok, that's fine. I'll try." Joey said, dragging his foot with the cat with him as he made his way to his Tesla Cybertruck.

He got in, and shut the door. "Thanks babe, call me when you get there!" Audrey said, and hung up before Joey even got a chance to respond.

"Whatever," he mumbled, starting the car and taking off down the street.

About ten minutes later, he pulled roughly into the workshop parking lot. His car skidded across the damp dirt road, as he slammed on the brakes and sent his car tumbling across the ground. The windows smashed, and the door was ripped off its hinge as the car perfectly landed in a spot right in front of the door.

Joey sat there, his eyes wide, as he processed what just happened. The hood was busted, and plumes of smoke billowed out from beneath as he noticed that the exhaust pipe and passenger door were all the way at the entrance to the parking lot.

"Great," He said sarcastically to nobody in particular. He opened the car door, which snapped right off and flew into the woods.

He stepped out of the vehicle and inhaled deeply as he took in the surroundings. Large trees stuck out of the ground like poles, their branches spiderwebbing across the sky hundreds of feet above him.

Several dozen pine cones fell off the tree directly above him, bonking onto his head.

"Ow!" He yelled, his hand flying to his head.

Anxiously, he jogged to the entrance, the cat still clutching onto his leg.

"FBI, open up!" He yelled as he kicked down the door in an explosion of splinters.

"I've always wanted to say that," he said to the cat as he entered the building.