Edgar

Edgar woke up relatively earlier than normal. Possibly because she was excited to be with Henry more. She left her room with a smile and began making herself breakfast. She could hear Wally's deep snores and Henry mumbling to himself in his sleep. She saw Sammy when she came, but didn't want to bother him because of his upset look. He was frowning from under his mask, eyes closed. He was hunched over, hands held together at his knees. Edgar rethought about helping him, setting her plate down on the counter.

Edgar sat next to Sammy and acted like she didn't care, but Sammy looked over at her and stared. Edgar looked back and smiled meekly.

"I know what you're trying to do," Sammy scolded. "It's not going to work."

Edgar frowned and drew her eyes to the floor. She drummed her fingers on the ground in impatience. Sammy growled and got up to move somewhere else, leaving Edgar alone in the corner. He stopped for a moment near Wally and Henry's room, then continued to the doorway of the safehouse.

Edgar shrugged and sat back down at the table, eating her stale cereal solemnly. Wally's snores could still be heard from across the room, becoming louder each minute. She could have sworn she heard Henry yell at him, then Wally stopped and flipped to his other side. Edgar snickered under her breath, nearly choking on a cereal flake.

It wasn't until an hour later when Henry and Wally woke up. They stayed in bed for a while talking to each other before getting up to eat. Edgar had already set out bowls for them, leaving out the cereal box. Sammy still sat in his secluded corner with his arms crossed. He watched them with a grave expression, his eyes narrowed slightly.

Edgar finally finished with her breakfast and sat down at the table next to Henry. He smiled warmly. She made a couple hand gestures. Good morning.

"Good morning," Wally replied with the matching gestures. Henry observed and rubbed his chin.

"Complicated stuff," he said, narrowing his eyes.

Edgar made more gestures. Feeling better?

Wally elbowed Henry softly. "She's asking if you're feeling better."

"Oh. Uh, yeah, sure. I'm getting a little used to it."

Edgar smiled. Good to know.

"She says 'good to know,'" Wally explained.

"Gosh, you need to teach me this. I can't just rely on you to tell me everything she says," Henry said.

"Well, it's a little difficult, but we have all the time in the world to teach you."

I'll be happy to help.

"She says she'll be happy to help," Wally repeated. Henry nodded.

After a couple hours of trying to teach Henry sign language (with a bunch of angry outbursts and complications), Sammy had called them over to talk. Edgar knew what was coming. She'd been prepared for this for a long time.

Sammy was standing near the entryway like he was guarding it from something. He was clutching one of the old axes from storage.

"You're not going to like this," he said. Wally put down his head. Henry had his arms crossed. Edgar just stood casually. She'd been hearing bad news so much lately that she had become used to it.

"I'm already hating it," Henry said to himself softly, but Edgar caught it and shot a glare at him.

"He knows about what I've been doing. He knows that I hid you two away," Sammy continued. Edgar grunted. "I wasn't there for yours, remember?" Edgar just shrugged and looked away. If you say so, she thought.

Does that mean you're in trouble? Edgar said, but remembered Sammy couldn't read sign. It was a stupid question, which she realized a little too late.

"She asked if you're in trouble," Wally explained. Edgar rolled her eyes.

You should teach him with Henry, she said. Wally giggled and Henry looked like he was concentrating hard to know what she was saying. Sammy clutched the axe tighter and drew his lips back in a snarl.

"Of course, I am! I'm lucky I escaped with my life still intact. Joey would do anything to get his way," Sammy hissed.

"He always did. He's very convincing when it comes to his way of doing things," Henry replied. Wally made an agreeable "mm-hmm." Edgar didn't bother to say anything. It wasn't worth it.

"He's vowed to kill me or any of you if he sees us. That means we need to stay on high alert when we go out on patrol," said Sammy.

"I thought it was impossible to die down here." Wally raised an eyebrow waiting for an answer while Henry whispered, "Patrols?" Edgar groaned quietly.

I learned that the hard way, Edgar signed. Henry grumbled something about suicide.

Wally went to translate, but Sammy held up his hand. "You don't need to translate everything for me. I can understand some sign language."

Edgar frowned. It seemed like nothing could be kept secret around Sammy. She made a rude hand gesture, then said, Translate that, smart-ass. She turned on her heel and went to her corner. Sammy scoffed, and Henry and Wally chuckled. She sat down and pulled out her old ink-stained notebook an opened it to a new page.

Sammy's keeping secrets again, she wrote, shooting a glare at him. I have a feeling we won't be hidden here for very long. But at least I have something to keep me busy while I wait for our pitiful demise. The new guy wants to learn sign. Hopefully he's a fast learner.

Henry Stein

Henry groaned loudly.

"How was I supposed to know that?"

Edgar and Wally exchanged confused glances. "That was a pretty simple sign, Henry. You should know that one by now," Wally said. "It means cat, you idiot!"

Henry made another frustrated groan. He was trying hard, he really was, but it looked so difficult. He felt stupid getting these wrong, especially when he was being taught by a former janitor and a spider. Edgar made another sign.

"Let me think. It looks a lot like cat, but it was slightly different," Henry observed.

"See? You're gettin' it. What do you think it means?"

"Dog. Simple stuff."

Wally and Henry high fived. Edgar remained motionless.

"Alright Edgar, give him a harder one."

Edgar made a more complex sign. Henry made a small whine. Edgar smiled and did the movement again more slowly.

"Wait, wait, wait," Henry interrupted. He rubbed his chin and furrowed his brows. "It looks like sun or light, but not exactly. I'm seeing a bit more to it, but I can't put my finger on it... Could it be day? Afternoon maybe?"

Edgar nodded vigorously and elbowed Wally, who had a look of disdain. Henry was impressed with himself. He stood up and put his hands on his hips.

"Would you look at that! I figured something out on my own," he scoffed.

"For once," Wally replied, which was answered with a nasty look from Henry.

Edgar signed something. I agree. Sorry, bud.

Henry shrugged. "I don't mind. Besides, I'm done for today. I'm hungry and my brain hurts."

"Perfect timing. I think Sammy just finished making lunch."

Henry stretched and watched Wally walk next to Sammy and help set out dishes. Edgar remained and stared at Henry. Just stared at him. Henry made a nervous wave. Edgar narrowed her eyes and smirked.

So, smart stuff. Edgar crossed a pair of arms. What do you think? Feel like staying?

Henry laughed. "As if I have a choice."

No kidding, she said back. They walked to the table and sat next to each other. Wally made thumbs up and snickered.

"Shut up," Henry growled. He scooted away a bit from Edgar, who embarrassingly looked away. Wally's snickers turned into loud laughter. Henry felt his face grow hot with embarrassment. He heard Sammy sigh in annoyance.

"You three are acting like children," he muttered. He sat down as far away as he could from them. Wally kept snickering under his breath while Henry was trying hard not to blush.

"A demon and a spider! No one's gonna see that anywhere else," Wally mused. Edgar patted Henry on the shoulder and made a sign under the table so that no one else but Henry could see it.

Don't listen to him. Besides, we're all different on the inside than on the outside.

Henry smiled. He secretly squeezed Edgar's hand under the table. Their eyes met, and it felt as though the world stopped spinning just for them.

"So, you and Edgar, huh?" Wally was at the sink washing bowls when Henry walked by.

"Shut up," he said. His face flushed and he turned away from Wally to hide it.

"Ooh, you like her bad. Don't worry, your secret's safe with me!" Wally tried hard to hold back his laughter. Henry shot the bird at him and continued walking to Edgar's room.

"Look! Ya learned somethin' after all!" Wally snapped.

It was late afternoon and Sammy had gone on patrol, whatever that meant. It was Wally's turn to wash dishes tonight, so Henry and Edgar were free to do anything they liked. Edgar had gone to her room after dinner to get away from Wally's snide remarks. Henry didn't blame her. Ever since lunch Wally had been hovering over Henry and Edgar to see if he could catch them doing things like saying "I love you" or kissing. He was disappointed to find nothing, but still never let it go.

The safehouse was relatively quiet besides that. There was the occasional ink drip and rumbling from outside from the Ink Machine. He could feel the tremors beneath his feet, wondering if Sammy was okay. He could see faint veins of ink through the cracks of the door to the outside. And remembered that it was a sign the Ink Demon was nearby. He vaguely recalled when he met it for the first time, it reaching its malformed hand through the boarded doorway to the Ink Machine, its malicious grin burning itself into Henry's mind. He remembered how he nearly drowned in ink trying to escape, and how close he was to the open exit when he fell through the floor, down into the bowels of the studio. Before he met his strange fate.

Henry was on his way to Edgar's room to cheer her up, to continue on with their normal lives. Well, somewhat normal. Except when he entered her room, she was at a wall observing and moving pictures around. She had strings attached to push-pins, which held up the photos and drawings. The strings led to other pictures, some strings red, some black or other colors. She seemed very stressed and kept making hissing noises when she messed something up.

Henry set his hand on her shoulder, making her nearly jump out of her skin. She turned quickly to face Henry then relaxed and smiled.

It's you, she said. Then her face turned angry. Haven't you ever heard of knocking?

"Sorry. I just wanted to talk." Henry sat down on her bed and made eye contact with her.

Edgar looked down at the floor. She turned back around to her photos and continued adjusting them. So? You're here now, so talk.

Henry watched her for a moment. "I just wanted to let you know that Wally's always been like this for as long as I've known him. He'll forget about it eventually, so don't worry about him."

I know, she replied. She moved a drawing of a house next to a photo of Wally when he was still human.

"So, you're okay with it?"

With what?

"With the fact that he'll make fun of us for being friends?"

Edgar froze. After a few long moments she replied with, sure I am. After all, he's been my only friend for five years down here. She took some deep shuddering breaths.

She was expecting something else, Henry thought. She really does like me. He felt his face grow hot, then looked away for a few minutes.

Edgar reached up and plucked a drawing of the terrifying twisted version of Bendy Henry had seen when he returned to the studio.

"What's the deal with Inky here?"

Edgar looked at him like he was crazy. You mean you don't know?

"Should I? I feel stupid for asking now."

Edgar planted her palm in her face. Of course, you don't. Wally never told you, did he? She placed Bendy near a drawing of the Ink Machine and a poster of one of Bendy's shows. She connected them with a black string, which stopped on a photo of Joey Drew. What do you think it means?

Henry looked closely at the string's path. It actually began with Joey. It connected to a photo of him and Henry together, which connected to a drawing of Bendy. That led to what looked like blueprints for the Ink Machine. From the blueprints was a letter from Joey Drew, then the Bendy poster. At the end were two photos; one of Joey and the Ink Machine, and one of the twisted Bendy.

Sudden realization fell upon Henry. He looked at Edgar, who was staring at him.

"Joey... He's the Ink Demon?"

Edgar nodded sadly. She connected a blue string from the Ink Machine Blueprints to the photo of Wally.

I'm trying to figure out how this happened, and why some people turned out as certain characters. So far, I've connected Wally and the other workers from the Gent company with the Boris clones, Edgar said. Henry noticed that any picture of Boris was linked to photos of mechanics or janitors, Wally being one of them.

"Clones? There's more of them?"

There's a lot you don't know, Edgar said. She stepped back and traced a finger through the air trying to connect all the photos.

"Well, I have time." Henry smiled at Edgar, and she smiled back.

All the time in the world.

"So where do we start?"

Edgar pointed to the Ink Machine blueprints, then traced her finger down an orange string which connected to a poster of the Butcher Gang.

I'm working on a theory on the Butcher Gang. Henry nodded and rubbed his chin. Most of us know that there are several clones of each member, all twisted and mindless. Then there's me. Edgar paused and looked back over her shoulder at Henry. I want to know why I was the only perfection, why I'm a girl instead of a male, like Edgar would usually be. I would have guessed that I would end up as Alice, you know?

"Yeah. It is a little strange," Henry replied. "Like how I ended up better than Joey."

Edgar snapped her fingers. There's another thing. I think that might reflect on how he acted, or something like that.

"He did have a rotten personality," Henry mumble to himself. He looked at the photos Edgar had of Joey. Each one had him smiling and cheerful, but Henry knew better. Joey was always cranky, snapping at everyone and being rude. He was nice if he wanted to be, but it was always false advertising.

Anyways, back to the Butcher Gang, Edgar continued, I found one employee that might link to them. Edgar gave Henry a photo of a young man holding a Bendy doll. He was painting it's smile on with a concentrated expression.

Shawn Flynn. He was in charge of painting details onto the stuffed animals in the Heavenly Toys Factory deep in the studio. He was always yelled at for painting Bendy's smile on crooked.

"And why does he connect to the Butcher Gang?"

Just look at how Charlie turned out. Edgar handed him a drawing of a malformed cartoon character, a twisted version of one of Henry's characters. It was missing an arm and a leg, which was substituted with a plunger, and held a wrench. Its mouth was gaping open, showing human teeth. One of its eyes was crossed, showing that it was dead, but the other was normal and staring at Henry through the paper.

Charlie always had a crooked smile, didn't he?

"He did," Henry answered, recalling his drawings of the old butcher and his evil smile.

And what was Shawn remembered for?

"Painting crooked smiles."

See the resemblance?

Henry thought for a minute. He didn't know Shawn, but he knew that Joey always mentioned something about how production was going down because of a certain person. Henry handed the papers back to Edgar, who pinned them back up on the wall.

So, I think that anyone in product management became a member of the Butcher Gang.

"But you don't really remember what you did."

No. I don't. Edgar drooped her head and sighed. Then she turned and walked over to the other side of the room to a drawer and pulled out an old notebook. She flipped it open to the end and ran her finger down it while returning to Henry's side. She stopped and poked the paper. Henry peered down at it and recognized Wally's handwriting. He took the notebook out of Edgar's hands slowly as he read the page.

"So, my best friend left today without saying goodbye. He was in such a hurry he didn't even look back. All I heard from him for the past couple days were complaints about how Joey's doing things around here, I thought he would at least tell me that he would tell me he was leaving. But Henry's been acting pretty weird himself lately. He's drawing nonstop, chasing off anyone who tries to talk to him.

A couple days ago I went to say something to him, and he said he hated how I bothered him, told me to never come near him again. I've never been s heartbroken in my life. I should have said something right back, but I couldn't bring myself to it. You know what? Maybe I hate him, too. Actually, he's been the rudest person I've ever met ever since he had that talk with Joey a week ago. I hope he doesn't come back. That's the truth."

A lone tear stained the writing on the paper. Henry stood motionless for the longest time.

"I never..." he said finally, voice choked. "I never said I hated him. I just..."

Edgar took the notebook back and closed it, a grim look on her face. She whimpered when she met Henry's eyes.

When I found out that it was you he was talking about, I wanted to show you, in case that he's just acting like he's your friend now or not, Edgar said. She put a hand on Henry's shoulders and looked into his eyes. Henry turned away and looked down at his hands.

"He's right," he said, clenching his fist. "I deserved that."

No, you don't! You're an amazing person! Edgar flinched when she said it, then looked away to hide her embarrassment.

Look, take these notes and see if you can figure anything out. Edgar gave him a large binder and an ink pen. We'll talk about it in the morning.

Henry nodded and held the binder under his arm and the pen in his teeth. He left Edgar's room and looked back to wave goodnight, and she smiled back. But Henry could feel new rage form towards Wally as he shut the door.

Wally Franks

It was nearly midnight when Henry returned. He had his arms full of papers and he held a pen in his teeth. Wally watched him from his bed through the open door, wondering what was going on. Henry went right to his desk to set out the papers and began taking notes.

"Henry, it's twelve in the morning. I think it's about time to get some sleep." Sammy had just walked in from patrol and noticed Henry. Henry mumbled something and continued writing. Sammy shook his head and went to his own room.

"You should do what the man says, bud. He doesn't like anyone who disobeys orders," Wally whispered. Henry stopped taking notes and looked up at him, a scornful look across his face.

"Then do what master says. After all, dogs are supposed to be loyal," Henry grumbled. Wally gasped. He felt new fury bubble up inside his chest.

"So