Allison Angel sighed as she looked over at the little girl lying curled up on one of the cots in the corner of their hideout whilst her friend and partner, Tom seemed to look at her with an annoyed expression.

"What was I supposed to do Tom?" Allison whispered, careful not to wake the child who seemed to be in a deep, but restless slumber "I couldn't just leave her out there, not in her current condition and you saw how sick she looked, not to mention that bruise on her head, and what if the Ink Demon found her, goodness knows what might have happened." She was interrupted by a small moan and she looked over to see the little girl shivering.

"Sshhh, it's okay sweetie," Allison said in a reassuring tone as she wrapped the blanket tighter around her and stroked her hair in an almost, motherly manner as Tom came over, still unsure of what to make of this child "I know you're probably confused as to who she is and where she came from, I am too but we can't leave her on her own, I mean, look at her, she can't be any older than ten years old at the most, we need to keep her safe." Tom still seemed a little hesitant but he eventually agreed into the child staying with them, at least until she recovered.

After a few hours went by, the little girl slowly began to wake up and Allison immediately went over to the cot she was laying on and crouched down beside it as the child slowly turned her head and looked at the cartoon angel-like woman with half-open eyes.

"Hey there sleepy head, how are you feeling?" she asked the little girl who's eyes were now fully open.

"Thirsty" the child replied, her voice sounding a little cracked "w..where am I?" her eyes were now fully open and she began looking around the room, observing her surroundings.

"Oh, you're in our hideout, mine and Tom's" Allison explained "we found you laying on the floor just outside and you seemed to be in a pretty bad way, also there's a pretty nasty bruise on your head, I'm guessing that's what made you sick, how is your head by the way?"

"Still hurts a little" the young girl replied and Allison took out an ice pack and placed it over injury.

"This should help the bump to go down" Allison stated "how on earth did you end up with this nasty bump anyway?" Without hesitation, the child explained everything that had happened and after she finished, Allison was more than shocked.

"I'm amazed you managed to escape the Ink Demon in your current condition, you were in a pretty bad way when me and Tom found you, and we couldn't just leave you" Allison explained as the little girl gave her a small smile "anyway, you never did tell me your name."

"Melanie stein" the child replied.

"That's a really pretty name, and tell me Melanie, why did you come here, this place isn't exactly safe, especially for children" Allison exclaimed "I think you should leave this awful place once you've recovered because the longer you stay here, the more danger you'll be in."

"No" Melanie said abruptly "I'm not leaving without my daddy" Allison looked at the child with confusion "my daddy's in this place somewhere and I came to find him, I'm not leaving until I do, I need to find my daddy." Allison could see that the little girl was determined to find her father, but she knew that this place was dangerous, especially to a child as young as Melanie and she needed to keep her safe.

"You're pretty determined to find him aren't you?" she asked and little Melanie nodded "well, if that's what you want, we'll help you find him, me and Tom will help you, but you must promise to stay with us at all times and not go wondering off alone, we don't want you getting taken again by the Ink Demon."

"H..he was going to use me as bait to get my daddy" Melanie explained "that's why he took me before." Allison nodded, knowing that the Ink Demon would possibly be after the child if he wanted to use her as bait to capture her father and that made her want to protect the little girl even more.

"Well don't you worry sweetie, we'll keep you safe. we won't let him take you again" Allison reassured as the little girl threw her arms around her "hey, it's okay. You're safe now and we won't let anything happen to you." Allison held the little girl in her arms until she started to drift off to sleep and once she was fully asleep, she laid her down on the cot just as Tom came back, slamming the door behind him which caused Allison to give her an annoyed look.

"Can you not, she just went back to sleep and she's still not one hundred percent recovered" Tom looked at Allison with confusion "she woke up while you were out patrolling and told me everything that happened before we found her, about Bendy wanting to use her as bait to capture her father." Tom walked over to the cot that Allison was sitting on and looked at the child before looking back at Allison and then towards the door of their hideout.

"What is it?" Allison asked her companion.

"He's out there" Tom replied in a gruff voice " the Ink Demon, I saw him patrolling the halls" he looked over at Melanie who was still fast asleep " he's looking for her and it seems like, he doesn't plan on giving up until he does."

"And that's why we can't leave her Tom, I know you're not too great with humans, but we can't leave Melanie on her own, not at the mercy of him" the little girl groaned in her sleep and Allison rubbed her back in a comforting manner "I promised that we wouldn't abandon her and I'm not going to break that promise, we are going to keep her safe Tom and we are going to help her find her dad."

Later that night, Melanie tossed and turned as she had a flashback of the day she and Henry first came to Joey Drew's house on the day he was sent to the studio and disappeared for weeks on end.

FLASHBACK

The little girl looked out of the car window as they pulled up to Joey's apartment, she hadn't seen her uncle Joey since she was around 4 or 5 years old and she was pretty excited to see him.

"Okay kiddo, we're here" Henry said as he turned off the car engine and undid his seat belt whilst Melanie undid hers "it'll be nice to see your uncle joey again after not seeing him for so long." The two then got out of the car and walked up to the buzzer on the front door and Melanie asked if she could press the button for Joey's apartment.

"Go ahead" Henry replied, and with the buzzer being a little to high for to reach, the little girl stood on her tip toes and pressed the buzzer for Joey's apartment.

"Who is it?" the gruff voice of Joey Drew said over the intercom.

"It's Henry and Melanie, I got your letter this morning asking us to come over" Henry replied into the speaker

"Oh yes, My old friend Henry and my sweet little Melanie, come on up." The front door then buzzed and Henry took Melanie's hand before pushing the door open before the two of them made their way to Joey's apartment and once they entered, they found him in the kitchen, cleaning the dishes.

"So soon eh Henry, I wasn't expecting you for another hour yet" Joey replied as he turned around to face the pair of them "you'll have to excuse the mess, I didn't get any time to clean up."

"Don't worry about it and besides, this one couldn't wait to come and see you" Henry chuckled as he patted his Daughter on the head "she was up and ready to go at six am." Joey grinned as he made his way over to Melanie before crouching down to her level and placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Well, I have to say that you've grown since the last time I saw you, you must be what, Ten years old now, am I right?" he asked and the little girl nodded, followed by a shy giggle "well, you're uncle Joey is so glad that you came to visit."

"Me too uncle Joey" the little girl replied innocently before perching herself on one of the kitchen stools as Henry asked Joey why he had asked him to come over and with a small smirk, Joey turned to Melanie and asked her to go in the other room why he spoke to her daddy in private.

"Do I have to?" she complained with a small frown.

"Do what your uncle Joey says Honey" Henry told her "I'll come get you once we're done." The little girl nodded reluctantly and hopped down from the stool before heading into the other room and closing the door behind her. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, Melanie looked up from what she was doing as the door to the room finally opened and she was expecting for Henry to come walking in, but instead, it was Uncle Joey.

"Where's Daddy?" she asked as Joey made his way over to her and knelt down so that he was at eye level with her "where is he?"

"He's not here right now, he had to go somewhere and he asked me to watch you" Joey replied "but, he'll be back."

"When?" the little girl asked, she was beginning to feel that something fishy was going on, if he had left to go somewhere, he would usually come say goodbye and give her a kiss on the forehead "when is he coming back, and why didn't he tell me himself?"

"Well he sort of had to rush out and he didn't really have time" Joey replied "but don't worry, he said he'll be back in a couple of hours." The little girl nodded but she still felt suspicious of all this, why did Henry have to leave all of sudden without telling her, something just didn't feel right.

A few days had passed by and there was still no sign of Henry and Joey told Melanie that he now wouldn't be back for a week or so and that he had asked him to keep Melanie with him at his apartment. After they had come back from Henry's place to pick up some clothes and toys for Melanie to bring with her whilst she was staying at Joey's, he made her a hot chocolate spiked with sleeping pills as unbeknownst to little Melanie, Joey had sent Henry back to the old studio he worked at, but had trapped him in a continuous loop and he knew that the studio would be too dangerous for a little girl as young as Melanie so he decided to keep her here with him at his apartment and decided to drug her when he knew that Henry would be nearing the end of the loop and would returning to his apartment before he sent him on another loop.

"This is the perfect revenge for him leaving to spend time with his pregnant wife and then having to raise that brat after his precious wife died" he muttered bitterly, remembering how Henry had to resign temporarily to go and take care of his wife Linda who was pregnant with Melanie at the time, only for her to die shortly after Melanie was born due to complications from the birth, meaning Henry had to permanently leave the studio to raise his Daughter and he did not like that one bit. So he decided to wait for the right time to take the perfect revenge and right now was the perfect time, he would keep Henry trapped in the loop until his life would end and keep Melanie here with him for the rest of her life, he vowed that Henry will never ever see his little girl again.

END FLASHBACK

Melanie awoke with a gasp and covered in cold sweat, her flashback had all made sense now as to why Uncle Joey kept Henry trapped in the never ending loop. The little girl quickly brushed the tears away from her eyes when she felt a hand on her Shoulder, causing her to flinch and turn around, only to find Allison standing behind her.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to scare you" she replied before noticing that Melanie's cheeks where stained with tears "hey, what's the matter, did you have a bad dream?"

"More of a memory" the child replied as she dried her cheeks with her sleeves "I think I know why Uncle Joey trapped my Daddy here and stopped me from seeing him every time he returned to his apartment...he was wanting revenge."