Boris's head hung down limply, his ears drooping slightly to one side. He was bound to a flat, wooden surgery table by huge metal rings clamped around his wrists and ankles. One of the straps on his overalls was undone, and dark, inky blood had trickled down his front. His exposed ribs curved like cat claws over a ragged whole in his chest where his heart and lungs should've been. The wolf's eyes were in the shape of an 'X', proving that he was dead.

Behind Bendy, Alice let out a gasp of horror, and Joey cursed under his breath. But the devil was deaf to both of them; he couldn't tear his eyes away from Boris's mangled corpse, though his mind was screaming for him to do so. The sickening sounds of the knife tearing in to flesh and the snap of breaking bones came back fresh in his memories; Boris, his best and closest friend in the world, had been cruelly murdered. Bendy managed to squeeze his eyes shut, but the terrible image was burned in his mind.

"What happened?" Alice whispered. Her voice was quiet and choked up; her eyes had already begun to glisten with tears. Bendy took a small step closer to Boris, looking up at his friend's face. Brief memories began to flash through his mind; the wolf's smile as he saw Bendy in the doorway to the Ink Machine room; him playfully teasing an indignant Bendy; the two following Joey along the hall, side by side. And now, his best friend lay lifeless, trapped and mutilated horribly.

"I'm sorry!" he cried, sinking dramatically to his knees and wrapping his arms around Boris's legs, letting tears flow out of his eyes. He lay there, sobbing, into Boris's overall pants, completely oblivious to everything around him. All he could feel was grief and love for the dead wolf; nothing else mattered to him at this moment. Bendy looked up at the white of Boris's ribs, standing out against his inky black chest.

"Oh, Boris, what has he done to you?" he asked, his voice catching in his throat. His shaking arms tightened around Boris's legs. Bendy heard someone coming up besides him, and felt someone lay a gentle hand on his shoulder. He turned his head around to see Alice crouching besides him, her cheeks streaked with tears. Her eyes were fixed up on Boris, too. Bendy burst into a fresh round of sobs and buried his head again into Boris's pants, slightly muffling him.

"Who did this?" Alice said quietly after a while, wiping a tear off of Bendy's cheek. Bendy took a couple of deep breaths, clenching his trembling fists in a vain attempt to calm down.

"Joey," he said in a low voice. "Yesterday, before you were here, he led Boris and I into a room, and told us he was going to show us something. He told us to wait for him there." Alice furrowed her brow, thinking, and Bendy remembered Joey had said those same words to her.

"We waited, just like he said, but then we were knocked unconscious – I'm pretty sure it was Joey who did it – and I woke up, locked in that room you found me in," Bendy continued, voice beginning to shake. Calm down, Bendy, he told himself firmly. "I heard Boris and Joey in this room. Boris started to – to scream, and I tried to get out and save him, but…" his voice trailed off into a whimper. "But now he's – he's–" Bendy struggled to choke out the last word. "–Dead…" Bendy blinked the inky tears out of his eyes and looked up at Alice with anguish.

"Oh, Bendy…" Alice said, crouching down next to him, "I – I don't know what to say."

Suddenly, there was the loud noise of someone walking down the hallway outside – someone who didn't care if they were heard. Alice looked up sharply, watching, her hand still sitting on Bendy's shoulder. A man strolled casually past the doorway, whistling as he went and glancing in to the room as he passed. The man stopped dead, taking a step backwards. His eyes widened as they flickered from Bendy and Alice, kneeling on the floor, to Boris's lifeless body behind them. His mouth gaped open before he closed it quickly.

"Um, what's going on?" the man said uncertainly, still eyeing the three cartoons with shock. Bendy glared at the man, who looked back worriedly.

"Go away," he snapped, shuffling himself protectively in front of Boris and watching the man with an intense gaze. Alice, though tears streamed down her face as well, gave an exasperated sigh and got to her feet, facing the man. He tore his gaze off of Bendy and stared at her instead.

"Do you know who Joey Drew is?" she asked him carefully. The man nodded slowly, not taking his nervous eyes off Alice.

"Uh, yeah, he's in charge here," the man replied. Another man suddenly walked over to stand behind him, looking tired and annoyed. He prodded the first man on the shoulder.

"C'mon, we've got to get to work or Joey will get annoyed – Oh my god!" the second man gasped as he caught sight of Alice standing there in the room. Bendy glared apprehensively at him as their eyes met. Finally, the second man looked over at Boris. His face paled as he eyed the huge wound on the cartoon wolf's chest. "What the heck happened here?" he whispered finally.

"It was Joey," Bendy muttered shakily, getting to his feet. The men's eyes quickly swivelled to him. "I don't have a clue why anyone would do something like this." He looked away from Boris, wiping his face clean. His gloves were slightly damp and the white surfaces were stained with dark patches of Boris's blood. Bendy took a deep breath, trying to calm himself to no avail.

"Wow…" the second man whispered. He looked at his companion, then back to Bendy and Alice. "I mean, we've always thought that Joey was a bit of a weirdo, but, this is…" he trailed off, gulping as he looked over Boris's exposed ribcage.

"Not what we'd have expected," the first man finished softly. He glanced over his shoulder as footsteps sounded along the hall and faded off again. "Sounds like everyone else is turning up."

Suddenly, Bendy noticed the sounds of people moving around in the workshop signifying that the work day had officially started; what had previously been eerie silence was now filled with the sounds of people moving around and the dull murmur of many voices speaking to each other. Bendy listened to the buzz of activity.

"How many people work here?" he asked, more to himself than to the men.

"No idea, really," the first man replied. He looked once more at Boris's limp body, looking disgusted. "Well, we've got to get to work," he said, backing out of the room. He cast a meaningful glance at the second man, looking as though he wanted absolutely nothing to do with this. "Come on, didn't we say we'd help Wally look for his keys before Sammy found out?" The second man opened his mouth, looking confused for a moment, before the first man grabbed his arm and pulled him hurriedly out of the room. The second man cast a brief, sympathetic glance at Bendy and Alice before disappearing out of sight completely.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Alice called after them. She watched them go, looking crestfallen. She sighed and turned back to Bendy. "What are we supposed to do now?" she asked hopelessly, her hair moving slightly as she shook her head.

"I don't know," Bendy replied, looking down the doorway where the men had left. He looked at a wooden plank in the wall absent-mindedly, before noticing something; the doorway was empty. Joey was gone.

"Where is he?" Bendy yelled, running to the door and frantically looking around. His creator was nowhere to be seen. Coward! Bendy thought, he must've sneaked off while we were distracted!

"Who are you talking about?" Alice asked. She looked over to where Bendy was looking, and narrowed her eyes in anger.

"He thinks he can sneak away?" Bendy hissed, white-hot rage surging through his body. He clenched his fists. "He thinks he can murder my best friend, and just leave?" Tears began to well up in his eyes again, but this time they were from rage as well as grief.

"Where would he have gone, though?" Alice asked. Bendy began to pace, his mind churning turbulently as he tried to think where Joey might've run off to. He stopped and snapped his fingers as realisation dawned over him.

"The Ink Machine!" he cried. "Joey made that thing; I bet that's where he'd be right now." Alice nodded thoughtfully.

"Well, I'm going to go look for him," he muttered to Alice, dashing to the doorway, "Stay here." Alice opened her mouth to reply, but Bendy swivelled around and ran down the hallway before she could. His footsteps mingled with the sounds of the workshop, one pair of feet joined by many others. The sound of many conversations going on at once created a soft murmuring noise, making the workshop seem less empty. He skidded around a corner, glaring around. C'mon, where are you, Joey? he thought angrily. In the hall, two men were walking along, their backs to him.

"I can't believe we have to fix that darn machine again," one man was saying. At the mention of the Ink Machine, Bendy stopped to listen.

"I know," the other man sighed. "Why Joey thinks we need it, I have no idea – hey, where're you going? The Ink Machine's that way," he said, jerking his head to the side. Bendy looked hopefully in the direction the man had indicated.

"Oh, I know, I've just gotta grab my wrench," the first man said. They passed out of sight. Bendy grinned in satisfaction. Thanks for the pointer, you two, he thought. He started off towards the Ink Machine through a hall lined with posters. As he walked, a poster caught his eyes; Bendy sighed in grief as Boris's familiar face stared out at him from the paper. He thought back to the previous day, when he had stood in the Ink Machine room with Joey, asking excitedly if any of his friends could be brought to life too. Joey had given Boris life, all right, but only to brutally end it later. Bendy stared sadly at it, trembling with suppressed tears.

"I will make sure he gets what's coming to him. I promise, Boris," he muttered solemnly to the poster. He began to walk down the hall again, listening out for anything that might give him another shove in the right direction towards the Ink Machine room. Towards Joey. Bendy clenched his fists as rage once again surged through him. Calm down, Bendy, he said to himself, You'll find him eventually. The babble of conversation rose as he passed a half-open door. Bendy slipped past it like a shadow, shaking his head with annoyance. How am I supposed to hear ANYTHING with all this noise? he thought frustratedly.

"–pass me that inkwell, please?"

"–you lost your damn keys AGAIN, Wally?"

"They just disappeared into thin air–"

"Can you run up the hall to grab my pencil from the Ink Machine room?"

Bendy grinned again at the last comment. A small map of the workshop was coming together in his mind. He swerved around the corner and looked down a vaguely familiar hallway. At the end of the hall, there was a wide doorway. The words 'INK MACHINE' were splashed in bold black ink on a sign above the doorframe, and inside the room, the familiar bulk of the Ink Machine sat, its cogs grinding slowly. And next to the Machine, a figure was moving around the room. Bendy stopped, staring down the hall. The figure in the room straightened up stiffly, eyes widening in horror as he saw the little devil standing at the other end of the hall. Bendy's gaze locked with the Joey's and he flexed his fingers menacingly, grinning with savage satisfaction.

"Found you!" he called, bolting down the hall. Joey immediately ducked out of sight. What a coward, Bendy thought spitefully. Skidding to a stop at the doorway, he glanced around. Joey was nowhere to be seen.

"Where are you, Joey?" Bendy asked playfully, stepping quietly into the room. There was no reply. Bendy peered behind a cabinet, grinning with satisfaction, but Joey wasn't there. His smile faded and he huffed with frustration. Bendy straightened up and placed his hands on his hips, listening out for Joey. There – the sound of someone breathing unevenly from behind the Ink Machine. Bendy tip-toed towards the noise, trying not to make any noise. He placed his hands on the edge of the machine, peeking slowly around the side. His eyes found Joey, pressed against the side of the Machine. Joey went still as he caught sight of Bendy looking at him.

"Hello," Joey mumbled, swiftly averting his eyes from the angry devil. Bendy stepped out in front of Joey. He glared down at him, grinning demonically. Nowhere to run, he thought.

"Well hey there, Joey!" Bendy said.

Thanks to Cato Winter, GoldenJubilee, Dancing-Ink-Demon, Winter's Writing and Talevideo271 for reviewing, following and favouriting this story; it means a lot to me. Also, sorry for the delay in this chapter's arrival.