"It's cute when little kids have imaginary friends." Mrs. McKinnley thought. She was watching Susan Uwerks, sitting at her usual lunch table and telling another boy, Bobby Lariat, who she had managed to convince to sit with her, about her imaginary friend, Bendy. It was honestly a bit odd how much the girl talked about her imaginary friend. How prevalent the character seemed in her home life was... not worrying, but... odd.

Mrs. McKinnley took another sip of her tea. At any rate, It was nice to see such imagination, and partially the reason for her becoming a teacher. She loved seeing all that raw creativity, all that energy, and the openness of her students. You could see it in oh so many of their day-to-day activities, if one only chose to look. That's why she would be trying out some new activities, to help see how her students thought. The first of which, would be show-and-tell.

Each day, a new student would be assigned to bring something into school. A fairly standard practice, but with a twist. Each week a new theme would be chosen. Something along the lines of "beach", or "red", or "most important to bring when going out". Things like that. Innocent little challenges to get the mind working on something that it might not otherwise.

The first few weeks of this went well, students had fun. Children were thinking outside the box and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Peers were learning about each other, and the children ate up each others attention. Maria even brought in her dog for the "fluffy things" prompt. (Although the dog did get the majority of the attention that class)

Then it was Susan's turn. Her prompt was to bring in her favorite illustration, so the teacher was understandably confused when Susan brought in a fairly large box. She was even more puzzled by the way that Susan kept turning to it and addressing it as Bendy. Was her imaginary friend in that box? Or was it the box? No, wait, if she remembered correctly from overhearing some of Susan's various exited rambles, Bendy was some kind of ink creature or demon.

That reminded her, she would need to have a talk with Ms. Uwerks' guardians soon. It was somewhat worrying how loosely the girl was tossing around phrases like "demon" and "hell".

But, that was for after class. For now, she would call up one of her most eager-to-share students yet. "I swear," Mrs. McKinnley thought, "that girl looked like she just might explode from happiness when I told her her theme." And now, that explosion didn't seem too far fetched as she noted the huge grin and eager movements as the child brought her box up to the front of the class. Mrs. McKinnley could tell that there was definitely something in that box from the way that Susan seemed to be struggling a little to move it. Another child had offered to help, but she declined, as she was almost there anyways.

"For my show-and-tell, I'm going to be introducing my friend Bendy!" The child chirped, almost too eager.

Mrs. McKinnley on the other hand, was somewhat disappointed, at this age a child should know, at least, that others couldn't see their imaginary friend. She had so been looking forward to seeing which of Susan's drawings were her favorite. However, despite this, Mrs. McKinnley still couldn't help but be impressed by the sheer strength of her students imagination.

This line of thinking was soon cut off however, as the child reached torso deep into the box and seemed to grab something. Imaginary or no, Mrs. McKinnley wished to be polite and set an example for her class by paying the speaker full attention. And then Susan stood up with her retrieval, and everything went straight to proverbial (and possibly literal) Hell.

There, clutched against her student's chest, dangling like a sleeping cat, was a creature. It was small, even compared to the fourth grader holding it. But, when being supported under it's armpits by the small child, it was still large enough that it's booted feet almost brushed the ground.

"This is Bendy!" The child exclaimed with glee, slowly swinging 'Bendy' around for the whole class to see, "I've already talked with some of you about him, but not all. So I'll go over everything again!"

For a moment Mrs. McKinnley was worried about Susan tripping over the thing's spaded tail, seeing as it was dragging around her feet, but then remembered the far, far bigger issue.

"Now the first thing that you need to know about Bendy, is that he's a living cartoon!"

A what? Before that statement could fully process, a small cough came from the front of the room, like someone was politely asking to interject into a conversation. It didn't sound like Susan, and was confirmed not to be when Susan asked, "What is it Bendy?"

"Erm… you got it sorta right Sue," the creature corrected (it was talking! TALKING!), "but ya missed a big chunk of it."

"Oh, right! Wait! I know! Why don't you tell people about yourself? That way I won't get things wrong then people will get to know you better!"

The creature shook its head, "Nah, it's your show-n'-tell. Kinda beats the point if I do it. 'Sides," the creature took a look around the room, pleased with all eyes being on it… him?, "I wanna hear that speech that ya' were writing all night."

"It's not a speech… I just didn't want to be, y'know tongue tied or something."

The creature snorted in amusement and disbelief, "Considering how long ya' were up, it's probably long as one."

"Nuh-uh"

"Yuh-ha"

"Nuh-uh"

"Yuh-ha"

"Nuh-uh"

"Yuh-ha, look I could literally do this all day. It's in my design. However, listening to us bickering isn't in their's, so why don't we just get on with this."

"Fine, but this isn't over."

"Whatever you say Sue. But, get to saying what you're gonna be sayin' 'cause I think they're tired a' the bickerin."

"Alright, okay, mr. grumpypants-"

"I don't even wear pants!"

"Whatever, I'm putting you down."

With a soft *thump* the creature was dropped to the ground. As it straightened it's bowtie Mrs. McKinnley absentmindedly noted that it really was quite small, coming up no farther than the child's shoulders, even including the horns. Horns which Mrs. McKinnley was relieved to have a bit farther away from the child's face.

"So, correction, Bendy is not only a living cartoon, but also an ink demon!"

A WHAT!?

Mrs. McKinnley wasn't the only one take aback. The whole class, with the exception of Bobby -who had gone slack in disbelief like a puppet with it's strings cut-, were murmuring to each other in a quiet frenzy. A few students pushed their chairs back, other forward, some were even reaching up to touch necklaces adorned with religious symbols.

The creature, ink demon, Bendy, took a step back, towards Susan, and seemed to be getting nervous, if it's body language was to be interpreted in any way similar to ours. If that was even possible for an ink demon. Really, what was an ink demon? I considered asking, but waited, as she may be planning share that with us… and because I was really too stunned by the scene in front of me to have any confidence that I would say anything but *squeak* if I tried to talk right now.

Susan had reached down, and was currently rubbing the ink demon's horns in a manner reminiscent to that of stroking a cat. "Would people please stop praying? It makes Bendy feel bad." She addressed the class.

Everyone's hands were instantly at their desks, a sudden silence falling over the class in the process, like everyone knew that they were witnessing something special.

"Thank you." She turned to the little demon, who was only now removing his gloved hands from clutching his head, the perfect picture of someone who just got over a headache. She would know, this class was one right now, "Are you good? Any dripping?"

"Nah, nah, just a nasty headache. Coulda' been a helluva lot worse though, thanks for the checkup."

"Bendy! Language!"

"Sue! English!"

There was a pause, then Susan brought her hands up in a flawlessly executed facepalm while Bendy giggled, along with a few classmates. Susan proceeded to swat the creature in the back of the head, like one might do to an annoying sibling who was just too endearing to stay mad with. She shook her head, continuing regardless of the creatures attempt at humor.

"I first met Bendy when Uncle Henry brought him back from the studio last month. Apparently an old co-worker of Uncle Henry's-!"

She was cut off by an otherworldly growl, followed by a sound like a bike bell and a "Joey". The middle noise might've even been funny, had it not been for the hellish sound that preceded it and the pure spite filling the word that followed.

Susan seemed sheepish, an apologetic smile on her face and recompence in her voice, "Oh, right. I forgot we don't talk about him, sorry."

"S' fine." The demon muttered, before turning and addressing the class, a dark tone present in his voice that wasn't there before, "Suffice it ta' say, a guy summoned me, and it didn't go well for either end."

"Welp," and the darkness was gone, leaving just as fast as it came, "Anyways, I'll try ta' stop innerruptin' ya."

"Okay!" The chipper girl that everyone knew was back, "Well, Bendy is sort of my cousin slash brother because he is sort of Uncle Henry's son, and Uncle Henry is sort of my like dad as well as my uncle! So this means, since Uncle Henry was Bendy's original animator, which makes Bendy sort of his son, then Bendy is my dorky brother cousin! My… bruzin!"

The "bruzin" in question gave his "sizen" a blank look that really could mean anything. Considering what I had just witnessed, my best guess was that he was disappointed that he didn't think of it first. Although, the meaning of the look really wasn't important right now because, WHAT!?

"So, any questions?"

Every hand was raised. This was going to be a long class.

I would need to contact her… their guardians sooner than originally planned.