R-E-B-O-R-N [Sammy X Reader]

Chapter 15

--Previously--
I knew who this was, and she looked beautiful...
She almost fully replicated Alice Angel, if it wasn't for the left side of her face being deformed. The whole thing worried me even though she was breathtakingly beautiful - it gave me the answer as to what happened while we all thought Susie was gone. I didn't like it one bit. Although she looked completely fine and happy, something was telling me that Susie wasn't doing so well - and not just by looking at her face. It sounds cruel, but I believe this wasn't some 'experiment gone wrong' type of thing; I felt like it was something much more sinister that happened to Susie.
Seeing us brought her so much delight, and she couldn't help but welcome us with open arms...
"I've missed you two so much..!"
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It didn't take her long to realise that we were both acting quite different than usual. By that, I mean I kept my mouth shut as my mind drifted off into thought while Sammy couldn't even take another glance at Susie. Her welcoming smile soon turned upside down and she started to calm herself, her excitement replaced with worry. Susie feared herself at the moment which made many 'reasons' come to mind as to why we were ignoring her. 
'Are they scared too..?' Her eyes narrowed, taking the sight of her ink-covered hands. She sighed, looking back up to see us both finally paying much attention to her. This all led to confusion from her end.
"...We've missed you too, Susie..." I replied, seemingly unhappy. Unfortunately, Susie took this all a different way and thought we were scared or hated her. I couldn't blame her for thinking that, it did seem that way.
"I'm sorry if I'm a bit... y'know." She chuckled nervously, pointing at her deformed jawline, tracing it carefully. "It hurts. I may look different, but I haven't completely changed..!"
"Shut up. I don't care how different you are, you're still Susie Campbell." Sammy replied, catching her off guard. He muttered afterwards, "...of course I missed you."
Sammy had always confused Susie - as he did to everyone - she smiled in delight. She noticed the change in the way he acted now compared to when she'd always speak to him when rehearsing Alice's voice lines. He cared, but never showed it much until now. Perhaps it was guilt or pity, either way she never cared. 
"I'm glad." She blinked, tears forming in her eyes. At the moment, she couldn't take in the fact that she had been gone for so long that it led to her friends trying to find her, all scratched and bruised. It pained her to see us in this state; she took a shine to that, seeing how much we'd sacrificed just to find her - at least, that was the story in her eyes. Unfortunately, it wasn't anything like that. We were beginning to believe that Susie was gone forever and all we were trying to do was leave this godforsaken studio at the moment. It was then she grew serious, "Listen, I know what happened... he's here, isn't he?"
Knowing who Susie was referring to, we both hesitantly nodded at that - the truth scaring us greatly. Without warning, Susie gripped tightly onto mine and Sammy's wrists. Her eyes grew wide, her pupils shrunk and her eyebrows furrowed; her voice became almost silent and she panicked.
"I've seen him..." She cried. It didn't take her to describe any of that encounter to know the basis of what went down during then. In almost an instant, her tears were wiped away, replacing her voice of fear into one of bravery. "You two should get going, and I may have a few... tools that could keep all of the nasties away."
Susie mentioned all  of those ink creatures I had met earlier, paired with the many cartoon characters roaming around the place.
Susie loathed those creatures dearly, and hated the mere thought of them; she even made it clear by the description she gave them. Of course, me and Sammy didn't need a description of these creatures as we had already met them in person. Unbeknownst to them, there was one in particular that I was friendly with. After addressing the hate, she beckoned us across the bridge and through the door - the door that Alice's head overlooked. I never understood why Joey wanted that massive head put there. If anything, it was creepy.

I shivered uncontrollably, walking into a long corridor that led to one quaint room. Flooded with ink, the only way across to the next area was over unsteady planks. These planks were balanced over barrels, so I found myself quite nervous to fall into the ink. Of course, I knew the ink wouldn't usually do much harm, but with the amount of cuts both me and Sammy have, falling into the shallow pool wouldn't be such a great idea. Despite how this room already had its quirks, there was one thing that traumatised me forever...
Strapped to tables (that were placed in many odd places of the room) and hanging down from the ceiling looked to be soulless creatures - some familiar to me. It seemed the role of Boris was quite popular amongst these clones and appeared to be dead, along with Charley, Barley and Edgar clones. All of these (although dead) had their body parts dislocated - with Barley's proportions successfully making me the most uncomfortable person in the room. I had never felt so relieved to have just walked out of a single room in my entire life.

We were brought to another room (this time, much smaller), a glass window overlooked another table. This time, a clone of Charley had been strapped down, looking as if it were being experimented on. By now, it was clear by the looks on our faces that we were all as equally disturbed as each other. Tears formed their way out of Susie's eyes, looking regretfully at the piece of work lying in front of her. Trying not to bring attention to herself, she quietly sniffled, wiping her tears away. Unfortunately for her, those puffy eyes were too distracting and I soon found out she was more upset than me and Sammy.
In an effort to cover for herself, Susie sighed.
"I'm sorry, I can't help but pity the animal-" She corrected herself, "-Charley. As much as I hate those creatures, I don't see why somebody could do such a thing."
I patted Susie on the back and sighed myself. I had no words to describe the grief I felt... I befriended him just 20 minutes ago...
'How on earth is he dead?!'
This should've been my suspicion from the beginning, but it never came to my attention until now. Just how many clones are there left if most had been tortured in ways I couldn't begin to describe? Me and Sammy had only met up with each other after everyone left a couple of hours ago. At least, I was sure it was only a few hours - the state of this place says otherwise.
Sammy was quick to grow suspicious of Susie. Something didn't feel right about her to him, but he kept that bit of information to himself. The grump narrowed his eyes at the dead body, then turned his head to Susie.
"If you were planning to take us to this place then surely this body would be no shock to you." Sammy stated wisely, wanting to smirk so badly.
"W-what..?" Susie stuttered at a loss for words. Never had she expected Sammy to give that reply. Quickly, she coughed. "I knew, I just forgot..."
I could sense the tense air between the two and it sure as hell felt strange to see them not get along. They both glared at each other, not enjoying the conversation at all.
"You need weapons, right?" Susie raised a brow, talking as if whatever she 'felt' before was irrelevant. This tone of voice was gruff and distant, like she had become a whole different person. Of course, I remember hearing her speak like this a few times and it would always leave me confused. Sammy and I nodded slowly. "Well, here they are - through that window." She pointed at the glass, causing me and Sammy to follow her hand.

Nothing was said after that until we entered the room, each of us choosing appropriate weapons to use against any potential threat that would soon come. We thanked Susie and started to leave but I was stopped with a hand that tugged on my wrist, pulling me slightly backwards. Again, Susie had completely changed her attitude back to how she usually acted. Right now though, she was quite shy and proceeded to beg, a frown on her lips.
"Take me with you, please..!" She held my wrist even tighter than before thinking about the next few years she'd most likely spend trapped within the studio walls. It made death appear a lot less depressing. "I don't want to be here anymore..." 
For me, the immediate answer was a 'yes'. However, Sammy seemed hesitant to share his reply. We exchanged looks before Sammy finally came to terms with his (my) decision. He gently closed his eyes, breathing out.
"Alright..."

All of this was strange to me. Just moments ago, Sammy was enthused to have seen Susie, now he wants nothing to do with her. The mere thought of her drove him absolutely crazy - and not in a good way. Susie did not exceed Sammy's expectations from this point onwards.
She wasn't the same anymore...
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Word count: 1588 words

Amberzoeheart~