The Broken Loop

Chapter 30: 'Exit?'

Henry shook his head to clear his thoughts.
"Uh- sure?" He replies.

"Why am I going first?" Norman asks, shining his light at Sammy.

"Because you smeared the ink on the wall." Sammy replies as he drags Norman through the ink portal.

There's silence, almost two minutes pass before Sammy returns.

"Had to make sure Normie knew where the pit was." He explains.

Hesitantly, Henry walks over to Sammy who puts a hand on his shoulder.

"You'll be fine going through it, not like you haven't ink traveled before." Sammy says to Henry as they walk through the ink portal.

"I assume Linda wants to go now?" Sammy asks her when he returns.

"Yes, I'll go now." She replies as she walks over to him.

"Alright, then. I'll take Boris next." Sammy says to Wally and Buddy before walking through the portal with Linda.

After Boris, it was my turn to go, the moment I left the ink portal, I nearly fell off the edge before Sammy grabbed me and dragged me away from the edge.

"I already told Tom and Susie that this platform won't be able to hold them." Sammy explains as I look around.

I see the door Henry mentioned, in fact he's on the crate at the edge of this platform, staring at the door. Linda is right next to the crate in case Henry falls. Further up the stairs, I see Norman watching for any potential threats, Wally is doing the same further down.

I hear something fall off the edge, as did Sammy, Wally or Buddy(or both), and Norman.

We turn to look, Henry is on the platform in front of the door, the crate has fallen into the abyss below us.

"Are you okay?!" Linda asks Henry, worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The ink man replies as he tries opening the door, I grab out the Seeing Tool and look at the door through it.

He is correct, it does say 'Exit?'

About ten minutes later he gives up.
"It's not gonna open." He announces as he turns to look at us.

"That's fine, we could try something else?" I reply

"What about that door on the music department that was flooded with ink." Sammy suggests.

"You mean the one I was about to go through until you knocked me unconscious. Several different times?" Henry asks him bitterly.

"Uh. . Yeah. . That one." Sammy awkwardly replies.

"That's a good place to start." Linda says.

"Yep." Buddy replies as Wally nods.

"It works." Norman comments as he goes back to looking up the stairs.

Henry loses his balance, almost falling into the pit before quickly recovering himself.

". . I think I'm gonna stay right here for a few moments while you take everyone back. ." He says to Sammy who nods, grabbing Boris by the arm and goes through he ink portal.

Linda is staring at Henry anxiously, worried that he's gonna fall.

I look at the platform he's standing on.
Please don't break under him. Please don't break under him.

I hear Sammy return and take Norman back to the others.

"Henry." I say to him. "You're going to have to jump." I explain when I notice that the platform tilted a bit, which he obviously noticed too.