Next Generation of the Ink Dynasty: Chapter 2 (part 1): The Arrival

It was late June in the year of 2018 and Henry Stein the fourth, Henry's great grandson, was in a taxi waiting to arrive at the old studio that his great grandpa used to work at. It was only this morning that he was going through his great grandfather's stuff after he was admitted to the nursing home just last week. Henry was now 107 years old and was still going strong. But the fact was, was that he couldn't be left alone for too long and needed constant attention, just in case if something were to happen to him. His son, who is now 82 years old and is a proud grandfather of several dozen grandchildren. And the rest of the family thought it was a good idea that he went to somewhere he'll receive proper care on a daily basis. Henry was hesitant at first but then he thought of all the times he wasn't able to do the simplest of things without help from one of his family members. Begrudgingly, he agreed to go. So as the family was packing his stuff, Henry the fourth, or Hank as everyone calls him, started rummaging through some of his great gramp's stuff from his heyday in the 1930's. Some of the stuff were old relics from the war and some of the stuff was from all of his previous jobs. Including animation equipment from his time in the studio.

All of this piqued his interest, especially the equipment. And just like the previous three generations, he was also is a fantastic animation artist and loved drawing. He asked his great gramps if it was okay if he could borrow some of his equipment and practice his drawing. Henry said that he would do him a bigger favor. Since Henry could no longer draw like he used to and since the equipment was just sitting up in the attic collecting dust-. He figured that he would rather pass it on to the next generation of artists than letting it go to waste. Hank asked if it was okay if he could really have all of his equipment. Henry nodded in agreement. Hank was so happy that he had professional equipment that he could use for his future career. Though the equipment is quite old, he still loved and appreciated the gift from his great grandpa. It was now officially his personal treasure. When he was putting the equipment in his room, he noticed in a box of note books amongst the animation and drawing equipment. He picked one up that had the title, "Bendy drawings" and skimmed through it till he came upon a cartoon sketch of a little friendly cartoon picture of a cute looking little devil wearing a bowtie. And all around the sketch were several notes about his personality and what he could do. Hank really liked the sketch. It reminded him of the old cartoons that was booted off the air when color came to the big picture. He always adored the black and white cartoons. It always made him laugh and always managed to bring a big smile on his face. But something about the name of this particular character sounded familiar. He figured that if he looked through more of the books, then he could figure out where he heard this character from. He flipped through book after book but nothing sparked anything in his memory. All there was, was ideas for coming up with new episodes of the Bendy cartoon and more sketches of different characters and notes about their personality traits and such. It wasn't till he reached the end of the final book that he finally realized where he heard the name of Bendy and the characters from. His great Gramps told him and his family members of what happened all those years ago in the old Joey Drew's Studios. He always thought that Henry was just trying to scare him and his siblings into behaving by making up scary stories.

But he told those stories when he was still only 6 years old in 2004. But now that it was the year of 2018 and he was going on 20 years old, he thought, "I thought all those stories were nothing but white lies told as scary legends. I never thought that he was telling the truth!" What he read at the end of the last books were logs about his survival days locked in the studio, fighting and running for his life. And judging by the amount of ink, tears, and blood stains that covered the book covers and pages, he knew his great grandpa wasn't making it up. Especially after he found the letter that Joey Drew sent him all those years ago. Finding the letter just proves of what sort of Hell Henry went through, besides reading his log book. He wanted to ask Henry himself, but he feared that he might cause his great grandpa to have a heart attack trying to force him to remember everything that he went through. As he decided to not share the new information he just learned to his family, he packed the books with the sketches and such into his room. And amongst the animation stuff that he was cramming into his room, he also found a small box that had all the items that Henry had sent over from when he was in the war. In the box were old letters, an old looking journal, a WW2 army helmet, and two medals. One was for a badge of honor and bravery and a purple heart for being injured in the line of duty. Hank read every single page of both the letters and the journal. It all described of how it was in the war and how awful the conditions were. But despite how bad things were, he still thought of his family and friends and how, even from across the sea, he still loved them and continued to fight for them. The journal also contained his stories even after the war. Like how in 1968, two years after the incident in the studio, his son, Junior, who back then was at the age of 32, became a father. His first born, Henry the third, or Harry as they called him, was Hank's dad. Henry was the happiest grandfather in the world! Besides his times in the studio, the marriage to his wife, the birth of his children, and the marriage of his first child, Junior, (immediately after he got home after the incident that year in 1966). This was one of the happiest moments of his life! Even more so when he started to get more in-laws and grandchildren. Then 30 years later, in the year of 1998, Henry the fourth, or Hank, was born. The first of his great grandchildren. And here Henry thought that he wouldn't be alive to see this happen. He thanked God everyday from then on for letting him live this far. Hank smiled when he read the entry. Then as he turned the page and noticed that in the last entry, Henry wrote how he was concerned about his family ever returning to the old studio. And if anyone of his family reads this journal, and if, for whatever reason, return to the studio, then he only had this to say, "Run. Run and fight by whatever means necessary! Eat what you can and survive until you can get out!" Hank shuddered at this omninous warning. He thought to himself, "Will do, Gramps! Will do!" As he packed the rest of Henry's stuff and put it in the moving truck, he bid his great grandpa farewell until he visited him in the nursing home.

Later, he decided to practice drawing some of the Bendy characters using some of the equipment that he inherited. He was up all day and night trying to perfect his gramps drawing style of the Bendy cartoon characters. It was around 12 o'clock a.m. when he finished his last drawing. He actually managed to recreate all of the Bendy crew in the same style as Henry's! He was rather proud of this accomplishment of his. Of course he had to sign at the bottom of the pages when he was done to show that it was his drawings, but made sure to give credit to his great grandpa as well. As he got that done, he realized that it was already drawing close to one o'clock in the morning. He stretched his body all in one exhausted yawn. He sleepily rose from his chair, walked away from his drawing desk, and flopped on top of his bed. He turned off his lamp and went into deep sleep almost immediately. But something wasn't right. Something was in the air. All of a sudden, a little ink like creature somehow managed to unlock the bedroom window and slip inside. It turned it's inky head right at Hank and decided to take a closer look at him. It checked to see if he was in deep sleep and confirmed it when the creature snapped its inky fingers in his face and waved its inky hand in front of his face. The most Hank did was mumble a bit and turn over to the opposite side of the bed. The creature turned away from Hank and turned its attention towards the drawings that Hank made. It picked up and looked over all of the pages then paused and stared deeply at the last drawing. And with a creepy and inky smile, it looked back at Hank, then decided to "borrow" the drawings. It leapt from the second story window, ran across the front lawn, and stopped at the mailbox. He opened the mailbox door and from it's bag, that it kept by the mail post ahead of time, unzipped it, and pulled out a letter. It put in the mailbox and raised the little red flag and scurried off into the night.

To be continued...