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

Chapter 34

--Previously--
"I'm sorry..." Sammy apologised, catching me off guard. He looked down at the item in his possession, contemplating his life. "I'm sorry I can't change myself. I'm sorry I can't be with you. It seems you'll have to leave on your own, and I promise to help you as much as I can-"
I cut him off by wrapping my arms around his neck, holding him in a tight embrace. My eyes shut tightly, letting some tears stream down my face as I started to sob uncontrollably.
"I don't care about you helping me, you dummy!" I started to rub his back as he copied my actions. "I don't want to leave this place without you... there's gotta be another way..!"
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It took him some time to reply. Instead of doing so, he kept on rubbing my back in an attempt to comfort me. That may only have had very little effect on my emotions, but it worked somewhat. Knowing that I'd leave on my own was something that would take me some time to process; knowing that my life after this - if I even get out of here - will start all the way from square one without someone on the same path as me was just stressful. Most importantly, having to leave someone I love so much behind in a place that's so dangerous makes me feel so much guilt. I can't even describe it.
"I'm afraid there isn't... we've tried as much as we could..." Sammy sighed, disappointed at his own answer. I could only sob even more which caused Sammy to sniffle a tear. We both stayed like this for a while. The atmosphere was peaceful; the silence was a comforting embrace. None of us bothered to talk for a while, knowing that the better option was to just let out our emotions. I was surprised to hear him cry after so long of him barely ever showing vulnerability towards me - this let me know he trusted and loved me a lot.
Knowing this, it would make the leave far worse.

"Life sucks so fucking much..." I sighed, unable to stand the thought of anything anymore, all I could really think of doing was shifting into a more comfortable position - I had a feeling this moment was going to last a while. Sammy seemed to have the same idea in mind, in fact, he was the one to prop his legs flat onto the ground, pushing my head to rest itself on his lap. I looked up at Sammy, seeing that he'd put down the item he held earlier. Now he was fidgeting with the strings of his mask, contemplating whether to finally take it off and show me his face or if he should just leave it. I encouraged him to do what felt right. I was rather glad that he'd chosen the first option, as he was finally showing his more vulnerable side to him.
He pulled off the mask, placing it onto the ground beside him. Then he looked down at me, showing me his features which had been discarded by the ink. His face was bare, no sign of recognition; not even his eyes were recognisable. However, there was an outline to his features. For instance, his nose was the most obvious, rather long and pointy and his mouth was barely visible - a small curve for his lips indicating that he was smiling at the comfort he felt. I smiled tenderly back at him, and all he could really notice was the sincerity with my glittering eyes. 
I placed a hand on his cheek, not caring if my hand was bound to be covered in ink. I felt the dry texture of his face - it was strange considering he was basically ink now. This was a nice type of strange, however.
"I love you..." I said gently.
It took him some time to fully comprehend what I had just said to him. Those three words were something he wanted to hear from me for a long, long time. They were words he never even thought would come out of my mouth, let alone anyone else. His smile grew even wider, and he couldn't help but chuckle with excitement.
"I love you too, (Y/N)..."

After a long duration of time we'd actually managed to fall asleep. Once we woke up after a couple of hours (surprisingly we were safe) we had decided to start talking again. Before the next topic came to mind, Sammy put on his mask once again. I had taken a peek at the item that used to be in Sammy's hand - the one that he'd fidgeted with when we hadn't been cuddling each other. It was a largely sized, round disk-like item. On it was a piece of old paper which had been secured on by a bit of tape. The label read 'The end.'
"Anyway..." I chuckled out of embarrassment, wiping a tear from my cheek. "Why is that thing relevant?" I asked, pointing towards the reel in his hands.
"It's the only way to get rid of the ink demon." He replied simply. This whole thing had me confused: How did he have this item in his possession? Where did it come from? Why on earth hadn't he bothered using it earlier? It was painful to listen to his replies as they only caused more curiosity to arise from myself. So I asked him very few of the questions that lingered in my mind.
"And how do we get rid of him? How do we use this end reel?" I tilted my head slightly.
"It hasn't been used before - at least I'm sure of it. My guess is that we'd have to take it to the source - the machine itself." 
"Well that should be easy! It's not that far from here-" Sammy had cut me off with that idea.
"No. Not that machine..."

Having no clue whatsoever about what he was hinting towards, I sighed, just going along with the situation at hand. Never had I fully understood what he'd mean until we got there ourselves. The whole picture did leave me with a bigger mark of confusion. Never had I remembered a second gigantic ink machine in this studio.
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A long ink river - one not as long as the one Sammy had been killed in but it was still long. Quite a deep river of ink too, so we had to be careful not to drown ourselves in it. About to take one step into the river of ink, Sammy stopped me by placing a hand on my shoulder.
"I wouldn't recommend that if I were you." He disapproved of the idea of me getting myself covered in ink again. Not just for my sake but for his as well. "Though it wouldn't do you much harm, there'd be no way for me to access it." 
Puzzled once more (kind of been a common theme for me lately), I questioned his statement.
"I can't access the ink river because I myself am made entirely of ink now." He replied, not bothering to explain in any further detail. So - once again - I pretended I understood. 
We both just stared at the place in front of us, questioning to ourselves in our minds how on earth we were planning to get across this river without any risks of harm coming our way. With that, I paced around the place, hoping to find something we could use to sit on to get across the river securely and safely.

I found something.
Let's just remove the 'securely' and 'safely' elements out of the equation. All it was - a small boat built entirely of wooden planks that had been stuck together, like a big basket that was large enough to squish 3 people inside. The walls of this boat were barely noticeable as they were only a few inches tall. They served no purpose at all but they existed for some stupid reason I never found out the answer to. We both hopped into the boat, making sure that the both of us were balanced onto the small floating square. Then the two of us pushed the boat away from the surface, giving the boat the momentum it needed to properly sail across the ink river. Of course, this led us both to be embarrassed, forgetting that this was indeed made out of ink - something that was heavier than water - and forgetting that there was no wind to push us further, we were floating a few meters from the surface.
"Ugh, damn it!" I cursed, rolling my eyes at what I knew I had to do. "You can thank me later."
Soon enough, I hopped out of the boat which caused Sammy to panic. This was all until he found out that the river came up to my chest, so I was unable to drown myself in it. I grinned slyly, watching him go back to being content once more. Then I began the worst journey of my life; the journey that would most certainly strain my muscles afterwards. I pushed the boat forward, beginning to struggle once we reached half way.
"Fuck my life." I breathed heavily, watching Sammy's shoulders bounce up and down with entertainment - the nerve of him to be snickering at me right now! 

After what felt like forever, we reached the end of the river. Sammy gracefully hopped out of the boat while I struggled to get out of the river. Even though there were only a few stairs I had to access, I was just too tired for anything which is so convenient for what's about to happen. Sammy offered a hand to help me out. I huffed, starting to break out into laughter myself. Once the both of us contained ourselves, we continued forward, creeping through a long ass hallway.
From the other side of the door awaited a certain grinning demon...
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Word count: 1650 words

Amberzoeheart~