The Ink Trials (A Bendy & The Ink Machine AU)

Chapter 1: The Studio

"My names Ben, my friends call me Bendy. I'm thirteen years old and I've been doing gymnastics since I was a toddler and can bend into all sorts of flexible shapes, hence the nickname."

~

No one dared go near the dreaded fenced off Studio, rumors and stories of a strange man and his assistant kidnapping children ran rampant in these parts, and scaring anyone who was curious enough to ask.

Missing children like Boris, the eleven-year-old from down the street who had gone to buy some candy from the corner store two years ago and disappeared. Alice, the sweet ten-year-old girl whom had gone missing from her front yard three years ago while playing with her mismatched sewed up monster dolls. And last but not least, the Butcher's thirteen-year-old triplets: Barley, Charley and Edgar, all had been claimed to have been taken by Joey Drew. 

At least that was the stories Bendy had heard.

Him and his friends always played on the streets in the weekend, when cars were lacking and the sun was shining. The sticky ice-creams they'd bought melting in their hands while they kicked the ball back and forth. Just like today. It was a Saturday, adults were still asleep, the sun barely scraping the horizon. Bendy and his friends always got up early to play kickball on the tar covered road, waiting for the ice-cream van to appear around lunch time so they could stop their fun for a sweet treat and a break.

"Pass it!" Bendy cried, waving his hands at them. He was open! 

Wally, a skinny bean-pole of a boy, kicked it at him. The ball sailed over to him and Bendy stepped back so he could kick it. His foot connected too hard, and he knew it would sail over someone's fence.

He just didn't expect it to go sailing over the Studios one.

Bendy grimaced as the ball hit the dirt ground covered in overgrown weeds and rolled into some bushes. His friends gasped, and they all hurried over, 

"Bendy!!" Wally whined "I just got that ball!"

"You're going to have to go get it, Ben, bye then," Norman said with a smirk.

"Bye?" he questioned, his friend shrugged "Joey Drews gonna get ya, that's his land" he replied,

"Not if I'm quick!" Bendy insisted. 

His friends pushed him closer, "Go get it then!" Wally insisted.

Bendy swallowed thickly and gazed through the chain link, "Wish me luck" he muttered, climbing up and over it with ease.

His shoes hit the ground with a thump and he looked around, his ears and eyes on alert, but no lab coat maniac appeared, and no one shouted at him to get off their property.

Making sure the coast was clear he scampered over to where the ball had rolled to, and dug around in the bushes till he found it. Ben grinned and hurried back over, black shoes dusty from the dry ground and leaves in his hair "See, Joey Drew didn't get me" he said, tossing it over.

Wally caught it "Hurry, before someone sees!" he urged.

Ben grinned and quickly scaled the fence, dropping to the other side and gazing up at the boarded-up windows. The smile on his face fell as he noticed someone staring at him, a figure in black, humanoid in appearance. Ben pushed Wally and Norman back down the street. "Lets go, quickly!" he grumbled. Wally hugged his precious ball close to him "Maybe we should play something else. I don't want to lose my ball again," he said, Norman nodded "Good idea."

~

Sammy hurried back to his master and grinned. "My lord, Benjamin Wells, what about him?"

Joey looked up from his desk and stood up, rushing over to the many folders scattered on the table, "Benjamin, hmm, oh, yes, most definitely, out of all the potential subjects he sounded the most promising, hospital records show he's healthy, strong too, good bones and muscles. Gymnastics since he was three, ooo blood type is universal, that would be most handy" he rambled.

"Do you wish me to bring him here? My lord?"

Joey waved a hand at his insane assistant "Yes, but be careful,"

Sammy bowed and left the room.

Joey waltzed over to the cages and grinned down at his inky subjects housed within, "Don't worry my dears, soon you'll have a new friend to talk too, won't that be nice?"

Alice scurried to the back of his cage, half her face damaged. She had a couple of holes in her cheek, teeth showing as they chattered. Ink, dark and wet, pooled and swirled in one of her empty eye sockets, trickling down her face when she blinked. Boris whimpered softly as she took his hand and squeezed it.

~

Bendy whined as his mother attacked his hair with his brush. The tangled black mop on his head never laid flat, deciding to stick up in two 'horns' atop his head instead. 

"Honestly Benjamin, how do you even get like this?"

"I don't know, I play and it gets messy" he said, shrugging his shoulders. His mother whacked him around the head with her hand and he chuckled, "Don't get smart with me, boy," she said, a small smile on her face. Once she was done fixing his hair (Still a mess, but reasonably better than it had been before) Bendy turned around and hugged her, still a little worried that Joey Drew would be after him soon. "Love you, Mom."

"Love you too," she said, kissing his forehead "Now, dinner, then bed,"

"But!"

"No Butts, no nuts, no coconuts!" she argued, pointing to the door.