Same Story, Something New

5 - The Angel's Acolyte

Alice's POV

I was now panicking. Hailey had vanished. She was no longer inside the Music Department. I did manage to find a way to get past the warding, and grew concerned when I studied Susie's messages. When I found an empty can of Black Ink Mac & Cheese, the inside of it had a faint smell that didn't belong. Along with the normal smell, it also smelled of a sleeping agent.

My eyes widened. "Oh no. Hailey!"

***

Hailey's POV

I felt groggy as I regained consciousness. In a semi-awake state, I slowly opened my eyes. I ended up becoming fully awake when I discovered my arms were bound together by rope, and the same thing was true for my legs. I looked around and discovered that I was inside a glass tank that was in the center of a small dimly-lit room.

The tank was too small and slippery for me to attempt to stand, which forced me to stay in a sitting position. It was tall enough that the rim of it's top was a few inches above my head. However, the terrifying part was the ominous open ended pipe on the ceiling, that was directly above me. I suddenly realized that I wasn't alone. Not too far from me, a woman stared at me. I turned to look at her, and gasped.

The woman was covered in ink, minus her mouth, chin, neck and the tip of her nose. What little skin that was visible had been drained of color, which made it a pale white. Her strapless dress and tall heeled boots were covered in ink as well. Her inky, matted hair covered her right eye, while her left one was visible. Void of both pupil and iris, it glowed a bright orange-yellow. Slanted on the left side of her head was an Alice Angel mask.

"Hello demoness," she purred.

My eyes widened, and I felt myself trembling with fear. It was Susie.

A wide grin spread across her face. "It's been a long time. How have you been? I've been really busy being depressed. You know, after you abandoned me."

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" She mocked, as I remained speechless. She suddenly darted to the box and slammed her fists against the glass. "Boo!"

I jumped, which made her laugh. She backed away, crossed her arms, and looked down at me.

"You're pathetic, demoness," she sneered. "You may act brave, but in reality, you're nothing but a coward."

"What happened to you?" I asked, ignoring her remark. "What happened to the studio?"

"The woman I fell in love with broke my heart," she replied. "As for the studio, well this used to be a place where dreams would come to life on silver screens. Then you left us, and something went terribly wrong. Now there's only terror, decaying dreams, and animated nightmares in these halls."

"What happened? What did Joey do?

Susie scowled, and slammed her fists against the glass. "Joey may have done this to us, but all of this is your fault Hailey Stein!" She roared. "You never should have left us!"

She didn't give me a chance to say anything. "Joey was always a nut, but your departure made him worse. He became unhinged. You had the talent to pump out all those amazing drawings for the cartoons without it making you overworked. After you left, the studio suffered. Joey had to start up an entire animation department just to replace you. All that bastard did was dream and spend money."

"He expanded the studio, he had plushies made, he hired someone to build an amusement park based on the studio's cartoons, and he partnered with Gent to have the Ink Machine built. He even took the role of Alice Angel's voice actress away from me! I lost it to that Allison woman. After you broke my heart and abandoned me, I had nothing. You were the only real friend I had," she scoffed, "at least that is what you fooled me into believing. I was in a terrible state of depression and loneliness, then I met Her."