Just a Happy Ending

4 - Facing the Beast

This... is not what he was expecting. An old high-backed chair sat in the middle of the circular room like some kind of throne. Ink piled up around its base and large gears made steps up to it. Several projectors were stuck into the ink and many more screens played clips of old Bendy cartoons.

A tape lay by the armrest. Henry clicked 'play'.

"It's simply awe-inspiring what one can accomplish with their own hands." Joey's voice leaked through the speaker and echoed around the room. Henry's lip curled at the sound of it. "A lump of clay can turn to meaning... If you strangle it with enough enthusiasm!

"Look what we've built. We created life itself, Henry! Not just on the silver screen, but in the hearts of those we entertained with our fancy moving pictures.

"But... when the tickets stopped selling... when the next big thing came along... only monsters remained... shadows of the past. But you can save them, Henry! You can peel it all away!

"You see, there's only one thing Bendy has never known. He was there for his beginning..."

Henry picked up the reel sitting on the chair.

"... but he's never seen-"

"The End," said Henry with the tape.

"But you didn't like it."

Henry whirled around to find the ink demon standing at the entrance. The demon's head tilted. "You never liked how it ended."

Henry's mind blanked.

"Face it, Henry. You were always protective of the little twerp." The demon started pacing around the edge of the room. "When I didn't put your name in the credits, you came storming into my office and made demands."

Henry's brain slowly came back online. His gaze followed the pacing demon as he started to make connections.

"You, Henry. Making demands to me."

"You're not Bendy."

"NO!"  the demon, or whatever it was, roared. It composed itself and straightened again, "Not exactly, anyway. He's definitely here, but not very talkative, or really anything, at the moment."

"What have you done, Joey?" Henry demanded, acknowledging the demon's identity.

Joey laughed. It was a cold, cruel, awful sound that echoed through the room and made Henry want to cover his ears. "I've done it, Henry!" he threw his hands out wide, continuing to pace, "I unlocked the secret to death itself! Humanity and its illusion of life, it's utterly laughable now! We were never supposed to stay in those weak, faulty prisons of flesh! This, Henry, this is the truth of living."

"The people whose lives you've ruined might disagree."

Joey waved him off. "Necessary sacrifices. All to the goal of my dream-"

"That's your problem, Joey!" Henry snapped and stabbed his finger towards the ink monster, "It was always your dream, your vision, your, your, your! You pocketed thousands of people, pulled their strings, and when they started pulling back, you hung them! You claim to have vision but you don't see the pile of bodies you leave. You say you have dreams but you've turned everything around you into a nightmare!"

"... And?"

Something cracked in Henry's mind. "You don't even care?!" he spluttered.