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

Chapter 6: An Explosion

Joey carefully poured the vial of ink into the beaker, his hand shaking slightly as he did so. This was it! If this went right, it would all be worth the years of torment from his fellow nerds. Sammy was watching from the side, a pen poised as he waited for the chemical reaction to happen. 

The ink was still as Joey swirled it together with a glass stirrer. Then it began to bubble and expand, melting down the stirrer as he started climbing up the sides. Joey leapt from his seat as it overflowed and poured down the desk. Dripping down to the floor and getting bigger and bigger as it moved away from its previous location.

"What do we do!?" Sammy cried, dropping the clipboard as it made for him, reaching out to him like tentacles. Joey watched it with great interest, the strands crawling over to the man as it snaked across the lino.  

"Stand still" 

"WHAT!? ARE YOU MAD!?" 

Joey grabbed Sammy by the shoulders and held him down as the ink crawled over, worming its way up his shoes and ascended up his pant legs. Everyone was watching now as Sammy shrieked and struggled, and Joey grinned at him with a mad look in his pale blue eyes. Henry was about to tear him away when the beaker started to shudder, and everyone's gazes turned to it as it rumbled across the desk, shaking violently. 

"IT'S GOING TO BLOW! TAKE COVER!" a man cried, pointing to Joey's desk. People ran for the exit and out of the room as soon as those words had came out of his mouth. Henry grabbing Joey's hand as Sammy was encased head to toe in the ink, his body shaking as it filled him up. " 

JOEY! RUN!" 

"NO! LEAVE ME! MY WORK IS WORKING!" 

"JOEY! THE BEAKERS GOING TO EXPLODE! COME ON!" Henry cried, tugging his friend to the exit door. Joey pushed him out of the room and closed the door on him, keeping a firm grip on the handle so Henry couldn't get back in.  

The beaker exploded and Joey disappeared as every single bit of the enormous work room was covered in black ichor. Henry shook the doors, trying to open them, but whatever substance Joey had been messing with jammed it tight, seeping through the cracks and reaching for him like an unknown entity. Henry looked at it in horror before a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him away. The alarms began blaring loudly, signaling the remaining scientists to evacuate as Henry was wrenched down the hallway.  

People rushed out of Brooklyn Studios as fast as they could, while Henry's ears rang from all the noise. He had just lost his best friend to whatever ungodly thing he had been working on, and nothing would ever be the same. 

~ 

"Mr. Stein!" Susie called, knocking on the door as hard as she could with a persistent attitude that was beginning to annoy Norman greatly. Henry grumbled, tugging on a sweater as the evening air grew colder, and making his way to the front door. He opened the door and frowned down at the girl standing on the stone steps, "Miss Campbell, can I help you?" 

"Yes, Wally, Norman and I wanted to ask you a few questions" 

"About what?" 

"The studio, we know you used to work there." 

Henry swallowed thickly, "What do you want to know?" he asked.

"What happened there? The accident in the papers we dug up from the archives suggested that you were there when it occurred, and the policeman said something about the 'ink-filled hallways' we want to know what happened for there to be ink all over the place." 

Henry allowed the three to enter the house, "I guess I could tell you, is this for school paper, or?"

"Sure!" Susie said brightly, beaming at him as she sat down at the kitchen table. Wally took a seat, pushing away the cold plate of breakfast Linda had left out for Ben if he had returned. 

Which he hadn't. 

Norman sighed, he really hoped they would be able to find their friend in time. 

~ 

Bendy trembled as Joey sorted out Trial 2 from his desk, the inky liquid moving about the vial it was in all by itself. The boy had been wrenched from his cage a few moments ago and strapped down to the filthy table, unable to move much except his head, "How's it doing that?" he asked. Joey looked up, his glasses perched on the end of his nose as he wrote out something in science jargon onto the printing paper, "The ink?"

"Yeah, how's it moving on its own?"

"It's sentient" 

"WHAT!? HOW!?" 

"Black magic and a bit of science" 

"Why did you even make that stuff!?" 

"It was supposed to save lives, but I took a unique path with it, instead." 

"No shit" Bendy grumbled, glaring at him angrily. Joey stood up and took off his glasses, folding them up and stuffing them in his lab coat pocket as he grabbed a syringe from the cupboard.

"Get ready, Benjamin, Trial Two begins now."