Same Story, Something New

10 - Inner Child

Allison's POV

It was heartbreaking to see Hailey like this. I wanted to try using my Alice voice, but I had no clue how Wally would react to it, so I couldn't risk it.

"My machines are hungry," Wally barked. "Go to Level K, and gather me some spare parts!"

"I'll handle this one, you two stay here."

"No no no no no!" Hailey whined, and she had a tight grip on my waste. "Please don't leave me!" Her weeping became louder.

"I have to. It won't be safe." I reasoned.

Her weeping turned into wailing, then Bendy forcibly pulled her off of me so I could stand up. However, that ended up making things worse,and she started screaming. "NO! NO! NO! NO! ALLY!"

"Bendy! Stop!"

He let go of her, and she immediately clung to me. Her wailing became muffled when her head buried itself against my neck.

"Oh for crying out loud take that pathetic excuse of a rabbit with you already!" Wally roared. "Do it before I get cranky!"

I sighed. "I'm sorry Hailey. You can stay with me." That calmed her down. I turned to Bendy. "We'll be back in a bit. Come on Hailey."

As we walked to the elevator, Hailey noticed an audio log, and pointed at it.

"Ally, can we listen to it?" She asked in a quiet voice. I nodded, and she reacted with a childlike grin. "Yay!" She then pulled me to the thing, and pressed play.

Thomas Connor:

"These blasted elevators... sometimes they open... sometimes they don't... sometimes they come... sometimes they keep on going to Hell and back. I keep telling these people, if Mister Joey Drew keeps cutting corners like this, someone's sure to end up falling to their death. And it sure ain't gonna be me. I'm taking the stairs."

Hailey giggled. "He's a veeeerrrry grumpy guy."

"He tends to use his audio logs as a way to complain and vent his frustration," I explained.

"Oh. Okay." She then looked at me. "Ally, did I do something bad?"

That caught me off guard. "No, of course not. Why do you ask?"

"Cause you wanted to leave me alone," she mumbled.

"I was just thinking of your safety," I told her. "Your health and safety are my top priority. Understand?"

Hailey nodded, then gave me a hug. "I love you Ally. I'm glad you're my big sis."

"I love you to Hailey. I am lucky to have you as my sister." I said with a warm smile.

I hid my extreme worry for her mental health from her. She did tell us what Wally had meant to her. She had been very close to him, so much that he was like another brother to her. Hailey seemed to be coping with the discovery that this demented wolf was Wally by acting childish.

It didn't help that she had ink in her body that was slowly transforming her. Speaking of which, her hair and irises have become colorless as well. Now the other parts of her body, lips, eyebrows, etc were next. Her clothing seemed to be unaffected by this, though I had no idea if things would say this way.

"Ally, will we be taking the elevator, or using the stairs?" She asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"We'll use the elevator this time. Level K is a long ways up after all."

"Okay."

We walked to the elevator, then pressed the button to open the gates, and entered. After that, I pressed the button for Level K, and the elevator began to rise. Then, Wally spoke to us.