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

Chapter 7: Trial Two

Ben awoke back in his cage, his body feeling stiff and sore and his head pounding. Sweat ran down his face, dark and wet as he struggled to sit up. Alice took his hand and smiled sadly as he groaned in pain. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times, feeling like he was going to throw up. "How do you feel?" she asked.

"Like death took a shit on me" 

Alice giggled, "You look okay, Joey's happy, so I guess you succeeded" 

"What do I look like? Be honest" 

"Your hair's different, and your skin's white, kind of like paper." 

He held his hand up to his face and narrowed his eyes at the snow-white whiteness, his veins now black, were faded but still there, pumping his inky blood around his body. He reached up to feel his hair and realized it has solidified into two horns above his head, with not a strand out of place.

"Ughhh, my mom's going to hate to have to untangle this, the brush will break!" 

Alice giggled again, "The ink's changed it" 

"Yeah, no shit." 

They went silent as they heard Joey whistling from far away, and both of them sighed at the same time, "Jinx, you owe me a soda" he said, sounding bored and lazy.

"I'd kill for a soda right about now" Alice replied. 

"Me too, and ice cream." 

"I haven't had ice cream in months"

"I had one last week, Vanilla with chocolate sprinkles"

"Yuuuuum" the girl whined. Boris nodded, that sounded delicious. 

~ 

"So the studio had an accident?"

"Yes, Joey messed with something he shouldn't have and it caused the entire place to be shut down." 

"Was Joey ever found?" 

"No, not a single piece of DNA was recovered, he simply vanished without a trace" 

"That's awful, is it safe to go in there?" Susie asked, writing it down in her notebook. Henry shook his head, "No! That's trespassing! I will not allow you to go in there" he ordered, "Promise me you won't." 

Susie sighed and looked at the boys, giving them a sneaky wink as she tucked her notebook in her dress pocket, "We promise, Mr. Stein." 

"Good, now off you go, go play, or something." Henry said, waving them away with his hand and rubbing the tiredness from his eyes. Wally and Norman followed Susie out the door and picked up their bikes from where they had discarded them, "We're going to sneak in, aren't we?" Wally asked. Susie grinned, "Yep, we just need some weapons and we should be good to go!" 

"Dad might have some things in his tool shed that we could use" Norman piped up, strapped his bicycle helmet on and pushing the breaks up on his bike. "What's he got?" Susie asked, sitting down on the back seat of his bike as he gestured to it.  

"I don't know, he has garden tools, an axe-" 

"An axe! That would be perfect!" 

"Really? Ugh, my dad's going to kill me if he finds out I took it!"

~ 

Bendy picked at the food Joey had given him. He was hungry, but the fact the meal had ink in it made him cautious and confused, "You need the ink, Ben" Alice said, spooning her own food into her mouth at an alarming rate. Ben scrunched up his nose, "I will not be eating ink! It's not edible!" 

"Just try it." 

Bendy scooped some up and sniffed it, the smell alone making his stomach grumble with hunger. "It's really okay, trust me" Alice insisted, waving her rusty spoon at him. He shoved the spoonful of food into his mouth with a disgusted look, waiting for the inky taste to hit home. But nothing happened. Instead, he tasted plain old bacon soup, and that was it.  

"Huh, weird." 

"Good?" 

Bendy took another bite, "Yeah" 

"Told ya."