Batim Oneshots/Short Stories

Sight: Batim Au Short Story

Art Credit: Weline Deem on Tumblr

Note: This thing is pretty old so there may be mistakes in it (a lot). This was an old request on Batim Amino I got to write for the au Henry's Search for the Demon's Truth aka HSFTDT. Enjoy!

Bendy ran. Down all the winding halls of the studio, past all the pictures of him smiling with Boris and Alice, all the aligned desks and perfect lighting. He had to. There were too many eyes on him, flashing in interest just like the huge lights hanging above.

It WAS entirely his fault that he forgot his part right then, but that didn't mean everyone had to look at him so expectantly. Of course, Bendy would have to make up for it, he could just picture the angry expressions on the employees' faces right then. Not to mention Boris and Alice... but that didn't really matter. Because Bendy was seeing too much, hearing too much, and he needed to get away from it all.

He would tell himself it didn't matter as he went further. ...He would be wrong.
For now, though, Bendy was focused on catching his breath and taking in everything he could see. Despite the fact that he had been in the studio his whole life, it was still larger than anyone would've originally thought.

The demon could see desks were lined up covered with drawings of him.
Henry's old desk... and the new ones?
Bendy ran over to them looking in interest. Even if he did have time to, Joey had never let him look at all of these, probably because he'd be interrupting the employees at work. But all of them were either on break or at the show he was supposed to be acting in now. So now was the perfect time to see.

There was a certain drawing that particularly piqued Bendy's interest. Left on Henry's old desk, it was a drawing of him again... but with an open mouth? Bendy wasn't too sure until he brushed some dust off of it. Yes... he looked... happier. The word on the paper next to "him" wasn't happy though, a big "NO" in cruel thin lines. This must've been an early design by Henry that got completely rejected. Bendy paused wondering how the man must've felt...

"Admiring yourself? That's pretty low, even for you."

Bendy whipped around so he could see who he already knew was there. That sweet but cruel voice was one Bendy heard ALL the time. Alice's. She was standing next to another tall figure, Boris. Neither of them was happy.
He was already getting a sick feeling inside but chose not to let them see it. Or at least try. Bendy paused staring up at the two.

"I'm guessing Joey sent you...?"

Alice almost looked amused for a second. "He IS pretty mad at you, but no. We decided we should express our, well, OPINIONS to you first. Wouldn't you agree Boris?"

The wolf nodded as Bendy tried harder to suppress his fear. He never liked being confronted, and he HATED fighting. Now all that was left to do was try to come up with good answers and hope that wouldn't happen.

If only I hadn't run out... I could've done anything else.

Once again his thoughts were interrupted by the Angel. "So I'm gonna have to ask now, Bendy... why did you, the 'hero' of the show, run away?"

This was going to be harder than he thought. "...I was a little nervous about the crowd there. You're telling me you've never been nervous before?"

Boris rolled his pie cut eyes while Alice simply blinked in frustration raising a gloved hand.

"But they love you to bits for some strange reason, so I don't see why you'd be nervous in front of them. Are you THAT paranoid?"

She and Boris got closer. Bendy started sweating if that was possible for him. The fact that both of them were far greater in height was not helping this situation.

"You're not really understanding my point of view, Alice. I could've messed up-"

"You mess up even more by not trying, useless demon. There's been nothing but delays because of you!"

"You'd criticize me more if I went through the show and slipped up on a line! You both think I have the easiest part, but it's actually very hard..."

Bendy glanced up to see the angel and wolf staring at him in silence. Alice's eyes slowly flared up. She seethed.

"You know what else is hard, Bendy? Having to work with these pesky animators and musicians for months, having to memorize all those songs, dances, lines... for NOTHING! In every single show, it's always all about you, you get the payback, you get the audience! But you're always the one holding us up!"

She and Boris quickly backed Bendy out into the hall and against a small table with a decorative glass vase on it. There was no hiding his fear now.

"A-Alice, Boris, this is getting too far, please... please stop. I won't miss another show, I didn't know you both were this serious about it..."

Her voice was still cold. "But you still won't see Bendy, because you're their precious idol. You won't see..."

Alice's eyes got a new kind of spark in them when she gazed at the glass vase.

"You WON'T see."

With the state he was in, Bendy had no time to react to what had happened next, although Boris seemed to catch on quickly enough. The angel snatched the glass vase throwing it directly at Bendy with Boris blocking his path after it flew at him.

It got closer and closer to his eye and-

And then total blackness.

The first drawing of Bendy happily stared ahead as thick ink splattered over it.

***

The world started to enter his vision again and all he heard was... quiet. There was almost nobody around. Nobody but Shawn anyway. Shawn? Why was he in the factory with him...?

Bendy's hand immediately flew up to his face. There were cuts of course, but that would be expected considering the situation he was in earlier. But when he got to where his eyes were...

Shawn interrupted him before he could fully feel the piece of cloth that was stitched on replacing one of them.

"Mr. Drew came in with you and I saw yer eye needed some working on. Apparently Boris and Alice were too hard on you, so he decided not to lecture you about the show, and bring ya over here. Wally said the ink was everywhere!"

Bendy was completely shocked as he listened and kept looking around. Shawn spoke again.

"But that's my side of the story. I'll be back to working and let you adjust."

Shawn went off easily, leaving Bendy alone with those words. He frantically searched around for a way to see his reflection.

And he found it too soon, a desperate face with an eye staring blankly into an ink puddle Wally hadn't mopped up yet.

They saw me as someone to look up to... in a way I was perfect to them. But now I never will be. I should've stayed on that stage where they believed in me. Because now I don't know if they ever will again.

The demon pulled away from the reflection quickly, seeing himself giving it one last anxious look. One filled with a new kind of fear that only needed one eye for it. That was all Bendy needed to see because one thing he definitely learned that day was that he wouldn't be seeing it the same again. Only imperfection....