BATIM AU: An Angel With Wings

War

Susannah sat on the couch, Tom was working on the fish tank in he and Allison's room while Henry was sharpening his axe.

The room was silent as Sammy walked in, gave Henry a dirty look, and parked himself next to the girl.

"What'd you do?" she asked as Sammy pulled her into a hug, he smelt of ink and wood.

"I got some more bacon soup," he said. "Doing something useful."

Henry scoffed, then picked up Allison's sword.

He swung it around carefully, as though he were a ninja or samurai.

Susannah giggled, Sammy narrowed his eyes and lifted his mask.

"Do you know why the chicken crossed the road?" he asked, bending down a little to look at her in the eye.

"Because he wanted to get to the other side," she rolled her eyes at him and he narrowed his eyes.

"No, because it would be a fowl proceeding."

She giggled. "That was the original one from the 1890s, Sammy. How old are you?!"

"I-I'm honestly not sure."

Her face fell. "Oh, well, I'm sorry about that."

"What do you call a blind german?" Henry put the sword back and leaned on the workbench with his hands.

"I'm not sure."

"A not-see..."

"Henry! You can't joke about that stuff!" Susannah hissed with a tone of laughter.

Henry grinned cheekily.

As she smiled, Sammy studied her.

It was a fake one.

In her eyes he saw fear along with sadness and distress. Her grip on his arm had grown a little tighter, and her smile was bigger than a natural one.

"Are you okay?" he wrapped his arms around her.

She twitched a little at his words. "Y-Yeah... I'm fine."

"No, you're not. Are you thinking of the... war?"

She nodded, trembling. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be scared."

"Hey, the war affected everyone," Henry butted in, she relaxed a little.

Sammy shot a glare at Henry and pulled his mask over his face.

The man looked guilty, he continued sharpening the axe.

"What war are we talking about?" Sammy turned towards her. "You're twelve, and if I remember my maths correctly, there's no way you were alive in world war two."

"We're talking about the Vietnam war, Sammy. It started in 1955," Henry answered. "Mind you, it's still going."

"I turned into this body around 1946," he said. "So that's why I never heard of it."

Susannah sat in Sammy's arms for a while, images and sounds of the war coming in flashes.

"Come on! Let's go!" An asian man in a soldier's uniform shouted, people crowded around the televisions in a shop's window.

She remembered seeing men fall on the ground as they were shot, nurses rushed out and picked them up on a white bed.

"It's about time you went to bed," Henry said after around ten minutes. "It's quarter-past nine."

She nodded and got up, and silently went to bed.

Susannah slipped further in her blankets and closed her eyes.

"That was really stupid, Henry," Sammy hissed quietly, standing up.

"I didn't know it would affect her," he responded. "Everyone reacts to the war in different ways."

"She's a god-damn kid," the inky person retaliated. "She had to put up with the war, and now this. She's stuck down here for God knows how long."

Henry was quiet, she could feel both of their gazes on her.

She rolled over and opened her eyes, staring at the wall.

Fumbling for a pencil under her bed, she picked it up and began to draw.

It felt wrong to be drawing on a wall, as she had never done it when she was younger, but somehow it felt right.

She sketched a picture of her, Allison, Tom, Henry and Sammy, they were only gingerbread man-looking figures and it relaxed her.

Labelling each one, she added a title underneath.

'My Family in the Studio,' she added little stars around it, with flowers on the ground.

Each person looked right and felt right, she tucked the pencil under her pillow and closed her eyes as Sammy walked in.

"Rest well, little sheep," he murmured as got into his bed, Henry and Tom had gotten him one, he slept in the same room as Henry and Susannah.

Susannah heard Henry shuffle in, and she soon fell into the deep abyss of sleep.

Helicopters soared overhead, soldiers were ducking and yelling. Gunshots were going off, taking people's lives one by one.

A large tank towered nearby, she glanced around and spotted Henry.
"Henry!" the man turned towards her, his helmet bounced a little.

Sammy came up from behind her, he was also in uniform.

"Watch out!" the ex-music director pulled her down to the ground, she looked up and saw Henry fall to the ground.

"No!" She bawled, Allison rushed over to him in a nurse's outfit, she too fell dead.

"Those bastards!" Sammy roared, standing up. "Tom! Help me kill these sons of a bi-"

He was cut off as a bullet hit his chest, Susannah saw Tom fall beside him.

"No! T-This can't b-be happening!" She saw Bendy rush towards her, he died in front of her eyes.

A ringing filled her ears as many unknown people fell dead, she sat bolt upright, panting.

"H-Henry?" she whispered, looking over at his still figure.

He rolled over and sat up, yawning.
"Yes-You alright?"

She jumped up and ran over to him, hugging him tightly.

"I had a terrible dream," she sobbed. "You were in the war, and y-you died."

"What happened?" Sammy rolled over towards them.

"Y-You were there too, so was Tom and Allison, you all died."

Henry pulled her close and rubbed circles into her back.

"We're all still here," he mumbled to her, she sniffed.

"Is everything okay?" Allison was standing at the door.

Susannah pulled away from Henry and clung to Allison, crying.

"Hey, it's okay," the Alice Angel whispered. "Tom's sleeping, Henry's awake, Sammy's awake, I'm awake. We're fine."

Susannah gazed up at her. "W-What about B-Bendy?"

Allison looked startled. "I-I'm sure Bendy's alright, I mean, after all, he is invincible."

She relaxed and nodded. "O-Okay."

The young girl hugged her again, and they stood there for a while.

Susannah could smell ink with a hint of grease, along with a sweet scent.

"You need to sleep," she said, putting her hands on her shoulders.

"Okay," the twelve-year-old went to her bed, Sammy blinked gently at her.

Soon all five of them fell asleep.