The Ink that stained my heart

That haunted these halls

No matter how hard I tried I could not shake the feeling that someone was watching me. And I only felt it as I passed a bendy cut out. Eyes that seemed to be follow me as I moved up and through the music department.  Sammy was not in the recording area anymore and the feeling out grew as I passed cut out after cut out. Henry was walking around showing and probably warning everyone about Joeys moving up the the animation department. I wondered by I was stationed in the music department then. The being downstairs could have only been curious to the point of no harm. Everyone has a curious mind, everything and everyone. It was cruel to call him a thing yes but there was something about the ink being downstairs that seemed unnaturally human.  His curiosity and the way he moved. He was entirely ink but he seemed to have the mind of a child. Shaking my head I turned the corner to the office I would be sharing with Sammy. 

He was sitting at his desk and crumbled papers littered floor around his overflowing trash bin. His pencil was moving quickly, almost enough to lit the poor paper a light. There was another desk in place for me with a type writer in place on it. I looked up at Sammy while he continued to stare down at the paper in front of him. An assortment of instruments littered his office as well. His favorite seemed to be the banjo and guitar for most of his music. He picked up the guitar next to him as the music he played. It was a few notes at first but then it moved into the melody and a chase to the chorus. His fingers danced across the neck as his fingers moved between the frets of the guitar. Each chord sang out its own word as he began to hum the melody and how he would imagine the lyrics that Jack would write later. 

I listened to the music as I began to type away at the notes and the many papers that I had to finish for Joey for the end of the day. My fingers did a dance of their own as they jumped from each of the keys. There was not a lot of freedom in my work as there was in his. Music was always something I was fond of. Before my father went off to crave into the mountain of South Dakota he would sing to us as we went to sleep. Mother would watch in the door way. I miss those days. Father was due to return to us soon after the project hit the halfway mark but an explosion happened to close him and he was buried with other under the rubble. He survived for a week before his finally succumbed to sepsis. 

Mother was devastated when the letter came home. Rosaline was old enough to understand at the time and she held onto my mother as she wept. I have few memories of them being happy together, I was only eight when the letter came home. Rosaline was twelve. This was fifteen years later, and I still hum those tune Father sung. It was hard with the depression but we managed to make due. Its how I ended up here. Mother recently passed away from cancer and I only now felt the grief lift. I didn't even notice the eyes that became fixed on me. The tune in my head began to sing from my vocal chords. 

"I haven't heard that tune since my mother sang it to me. Where did you learn it?" Sammy asked. My head shot up and then back down to my work. I had began to type a word or two from the song father sang. I looked up from the work that now would need to be corrected. 

"My father was the one who put me and my sister to sleep at night. It was the last song he sang to us that I can remember. Mother didn't try to sing to us because that was father's job and his self claimed duty to us." I replied.

"What happened to you dad?"

"Dad was offered a job up in the mountains. He was carving the mountain. Well he was only supposed to be up there a few months and he was about to come home three weeks before an accident happened. It cost my fathers life. He died a week after it happened." 

"Something exploded a bit to close to him while they were working I take it." 

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"My brother died the same way. He probably worked with your dad." 

"Sorry about him." I replied and then froze. The feeling returned and a ink like vein appeared on the wall. It slowly entered the room hugging the base board of the wall as it moved deeper into the room.  Searching? Curious. Sammy seemed to follow my eyes and looked behind him at the vein.  He jumped from his chair and ran over to the other side of the room where I was. We both stared at the vein as more grew over the room. Sammy placed a hand on my shoulder and put a distance between the veins that now consumed the room. 

"Ms. Catharine. Are you ok?" Sammy asked in the confusion we both faced as the veins centered in the middle of the room. The closer they pooled in the center the larger the mass consumed the furniture. As the day he was born the horns of the ink creature rose from the center of the mass of ink. His stature was hunched in the room. The ink covered eyes surveyed the room. There was a fire ax in the office with us and Sammy took the moment the creature was looking around to dart to the axe. He held it up to the ink creature. Bendy just looked down at the frightened people before him before taking the axe in his gloved hand and easily removing it from Sammy's grip. "Bastard." the curse left his lips before I could respond. But Bendy did. The axe handle that dangled in his grip was used to bat Sammy across the room. 

"Mr. Lawrence!" I cried. Bendy now held the axe the correct way and looked at me. It was strange the way he did, The axe was not raised to me. His smile shrunk in size and then grew rapidly before he limped to the wall where the veins opened up and swallowed him in the wall. 

I ran over to Sammy as helped him up off the ground. There was a decent sized welt growing on his head but other than that no blood was drawn from the creature. His head was limp but her seemed ok for the most part. "You ok Catharine?"

"I am fine but you got a nice shiner on the top of your head. Lets get you to the doc." I replied helping him down to the infirmary. "You might want to take it a bit slow today seeing as he's getting bolder. I don't think anyone will believe us if we tell Drew about this."

"You're probably right but I do need ice as this is startin' to throb a bit." Sammy said as we finally arrived at the infirmary. I looked around for someone there to help him but of course it was the lunch break for the doc. So I started to search around the cabinets for something to help ease the pain. I found a few bottles of painkillers and there was an ice chest in the back where a few bags of ice were sitting, I grabbed one and wrapped it in a cloth for him. Sammy held it to his head as I read the bottle of painkillers. He took two with a bit of ice and then laid down. "Can ya tell them that practice will me delayed for a bit. When you head back up there?"

"Yeah, I'll pick up your office too. Get some rest and please. If he comes back don't try to attack. He could have done worse." Sammy nodded as I headed back to the stairs leading to the music department. There was more veins on the walls as I walked back and many cutouts had been moved. A chill surrounded the air as many people flocked around with instruments. Wally was taking the trash out and Norman was heading up the booth as practice was about to begin. 

Wally spotted me first running up with the bag still in hand. "You think that for this department alone we probably killed all the trees in Maine. Where's your new office buddy? He's never late to any practice."

"Well we had a bit of trouble in the office, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Practice is going to be delayed. Sammy is in the infirmary."

"What happened?"

"It came." I said. Everyone in the building had heard of the creature, well Bendy, in the lower levels. No one liked the idea of working with him in the building knowing nothing about him. But now telling Wally what we know will only make things worse for others. Norman walked down the steps and butted into the conversation. 

"What do you mean it came?" Norman asked. His brow was furrowed and a fist was clenched by his hip. "That thing came up here? How?" 

"Those." I said pointing the the now retreating veins of ink on the wall. "He travels with them." 

"I see. look out for those now." Wally said now putting as much distance between him and the veins as he could. 

"It appeared in Sammy's office and he raised an axe to it and it got angry. Took the axe off Sammy and whacked him with it hard. He's got a nice shiner on his head. He's just lucky that's all it did."

"Well if it comes near me I'm out of here." Wally said leaving to finish his job. Norman was walking to the infirmary probably to check and see if what I said was true. Turning to finish my job there was something strange while walking down to the office. It was colder, and heavier to breath. The ink was overpowering and i started to sway. The air was to much. A cold hand was on me before I fell within the darkness.