My Little Devil Darling

That's Not My Best Friend

The Ink Demon sensed the girl's presence after a long time of being down with the Angel. He moved through the walls down to Level 11, where she was gathering her first items, and made his entrance, creating an ink portal to emerge from his hiding spot, spreading his inky shadows along the walls and floor around him. He stepped out, and that's when he spotted her, the young woman's back was facing him, frozen in place. To him, she was just an intruder, a stranger, an imposter of his best friend, taunting him in this abandoned studio. That's when she turned around; her face was pale as she stared straight at him, pure terror written on her face. He was able to get a good look at her right before she ran off. He growled and ran after the girl; he was right on her tail until he stopped. He couldn't get her; she had run into one of the many Miracle Stations in the studio. Bendy lurked in front of the Station for a while. He could see her frightened eyes through the hole in the door. She was super familiar to him; she looked exactly like Charlotte but older, it didn't make any sense. He growled in frustration and walked away, opening another ink portal in the wall and walking through; the portal, along with the shadows, disappeared shortly after.

Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the Ink Demon walk off and the inky shadows vanish, her pounding heart subsided, and she lingered inside the Miracle Station just a bit longer before getting out.

"If only you warned me about this, Alice!" Charlotte exclaimed, hoping the Angel would somehow hear her.

She sighed and went to find more Swollen Searchers. Instead, the girl found something else. It was another member of the Butcher Gang; this one was shorter, his head detached from his body hanging from a fishing pole like it was its neck. It noticed her and made a gurgling sound as it raced toward the young woman and swung its head to hit her. Charlotte stumbled back as her vision darkened from the hit; she took out her syringe and continuously wielded the needle in the pirate's direction. Charlotte won the battle soon after as the monster fell, and disintegrated into the studio floors, leaving some thick ink.

"I guess that works too," Charlotte muttered, "As long as this silly task gets done so I can get out of here."

The young woman found the last Searcher she needed and filled the last of her syringe; she called up the elevator and waited for it to arrive. As she waited, she looked back to wear the Ink Demon had appeared from the wall, noticing how he just stood there until she ran. The girl didn't think that such a monster could hesitate to attack someone. Maybe he saw something in her? That little Devil that she could faintly remember was certainly not like he used to, but perhaps he recognized her in some way.

"Soon, I will try and talk to him." But she had no idea how to show that she was his old best friend.

She heard the elevator open as it reached her floor, and she entered, pressing the button to head back to the Angel at Level 9.

"That's perfect!" the Angel cheered as Charlotte placed the syringe into the delivery bin, "This next task is simple, but it brings so much joy to my heart." The display cabinet opens, and it reveals an axe. "Have you seen those grinning demons, by any chance? Let's remove them, shall we?"

That doesn't sound like a good idea. Charlotte thought as she took the axe from the display. The gate opened once again, and the young woman went back to the elevator. She remembered all the cutouts scattered around Level K as she found her way down to the Angel, so that's the button she pushed, and the elevator jolted to a start.

The girl was cautious as the elevator reached Level K, searching for any place that Bendy could pop out of; she had a feeling that he wouldn't like his cutouts broken. Charlotte spotted one just outside the elevator to her left and chopped it in half with her axe. The young woman froze as she glanced around the floor, watching out for the Ink Demon. Luckily he was nowhere to be found. Charlotte continued up the stairs, heading back to Heavenly Toys; on her way, she found a few more Bendy cutouts and chopped them in half as well. As the girl entered back into Alice's first room, she remembered the vision she had as the glass broke. The room, that lady, and Sammy; child Charlotte was beside the lady, and the song that she had heard was super familiar too. The young woman got close to the broken window and peeked in to see if anything was important inside. A piece of paper was on the floor right near the window, and she picked it up. On it was lyrics to a song, it was the same song Alice sang, and that Charlotte knew; it looked old, and there were a lot of pencil marks on the page.