Elise and The Ink Machine

   Elise walked up to the dusty doors of the abandoned Joey Drew Studios. The studio had shut down about a year ago and it became infamously known for its employees disappearing mysteriously. They say that anyone who enters the studio never comes back out. But she was there to prove them all wrong. If she could prove she was tough enough to survive the studio, then everyone would finally see that she's strong enough to take care of herself and that she didn't need any new parents. She could fend for herself. "Just so ya know Elise, this is a stupid idea." Elise looked down at her little furby friend, Tattletail. He was a gift to her from her parents and she took him everywhere. Tattletail was an AI so he was able to think for himself. And in this case, he thought that this idea was stupid. Elise rolls her eyes," Of course you would think that Mr. 'Oh Elise, you can't have fun, Elise. You gotta s t u d y.'" Tattletail rolled his eyes as Elise picked him up," If we die, just don't say I didn't warn you." Elise chuckles and picks the lock of the studio door. "We'll be fine, Tattletail. What's a dusty old animation studio gonna do anyway?"
   Elise opens the doors to the studio and looks around. "Ew, this place is HIDEOUS." The whole place was a gross shade of yellow, with no windows and no exits other than this one. The hardwood floors were seemingly thrown together, with uneven floorboards everywhere. Strewn across the studio were old cartoon posters and cutouts featuring the studio's main toon, "Bendy". Tattletail frowns," Elise it's creepy in here... Let's go back." Elise scoffs, "In your dreams!" Elise walked down the hallway and looked around. She was in a big room with random household appliances strewn across the room. One of the weirdest things was the projector. It was still on. It should've run out of batteries by now if it's been over a year since this place shut down. Were some people still here? "Weird..." Elise muttered to herself as she shut off the projector. 
   Next to the room was a hallway with a single desk. It had a name tag signed "Henry Stein" on it as well as little sketches of Bendy and some other toons. To the right of the desk was an animation room with over 20 desks, and some even had animation frames still in the process of being made. Though they were all collecting dust. Elise feels one of the desks, smiling. "Cool!" Tattletail however, had a different opinion. "Is NOT! It's like a creepy ghost town here! Ugghhhhh I hate this place..." Elise can feel his tiny body shivering. She frowns and gently pets him, which seems to calm him down. Elise continues to look around until she eventually comes to a room. It had a pipe run along the floor with the sign, "Watch your step." on top of it. On the wall next to it was an "Ink output chart" signed off by somebody named 'Thomas Connor'. Elise blinks," Who really needs that much ink anyway?" She steps over the pipe and walks into an even larger room with a lever, a battery station, and chains coming down from the ceiling. Elise stares at the lever curiously. Tattletail seems to know what she's thinking, "Don't do it." Elise looks down at him," I'm gonna pull it."

"No."

Yes."

"No, don't."

"Yes."

   Without hesitation, Elise pulls the lever. Tattletail grumbled and sighs," You never listen to me." Elise chuckles," It's 'cause your advice doesn't do anyone any good." Tattletail rolls his eyes and sighs. The previously stagnant chains were beginning to move up and down as if they were pulling something. Tattletail growls, "Now look at what you did. You activated the ghost chains." Elise scoffs and watches the chains. In the corner of her eye, she can see the chains lifting something. She focused her attention on it as the chains pulled the object into view. It was a gigantic machine with pipes running down multiple parts of it, all connecting to a large tub with the words "Ink" written on it. The tub seemed to be the fuel source to something. If it really was ink in there, the ink seemed to come out of the nozzle of the machine. What purpose that served, Elise didn't know. All she knew was, that this was really cool. "Woahhhhh..." Elise looks at Tattletail, "Let's turn it on!" Tattletail's eyes widen with horror. "WHAT?? No! That's a stupid idea! This machine could be the cause of why everyone is disappearing!" Elise frowns," So WHAT?? We came here so I could prove to everyone that I could take care of myself. Remember?" Tattletail frowns," But Elise... It's dangerous." Elise holds Tattletail up to her face, so he could look her in the eyes. "If anything goes wrong, I will get us out of here. I promise. Just please, trust me." Tattletail's ears droop and he sighs," Fine." Elise smiled and hugged him tightly. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you!" Tattletail chuckles," Yeah yeah. Let's just get this over with." Elise nods and begins to look for a way to turn this machine on. She eventually comes across a room with multiple pedestals connected to the wall with pipes, and a lever titled "Main Power" in the center of the room. Elise gasps," This must be it! We found it!" She pulls the lever, but oddly nothing happens. Elise slouches sadly," It didn't workkkkkkkk...." 

   "It's low on pressure." Elise blinks and looks up at Tattletail in confusion. "What?" Tattletail repeats his statement. "It's low on pressure." He motions to a flashing screen next to the lever saying, "Low Pressure". "You gotta stabilize the pressure before ya turn it on." Elise pouts, "But how?" Tattletail motions to the pedestals. "You see these?" Elise nods. "There are instructions written on the wall over there. Apparently, you gotta find specific items scattered across the studio and put these on the pedestals, and then activate the ink pressure. Then you'll be able to turn on the machine." Elise rolls her eyes," This sounds like some tedious fetch questy mission for some dumb video game." Tattletail nods in agreement," Hop to it!" Elise nods, grumbling. She looks at all of the items she needs, and then walks out of the room only to be greeted by a stationary Bendy cutout standing right in front of her. Elise screamed and nearly fell over. "That. That was not there before." Tattetail is equally spooked. "GREAT. Now this place is HAUNTED." Elise knocks over the cutout out of spite and stalks off to go look for the items. She ends up finding them all. The vinyl was in a radio room, the wrench was in a room across from the main power with an empty surgical table (oddly enough, it looked like it was being prepped for something), the plushie was in the ink pressure room, the cog gear was in the big machine room, the vial of ink was in the animators' room, and the book was in the break room by the machine room. Once Elise had gathered all these items, she set them on the pedestals. The pedestals made a clicking noise, signaling that it had worked. "Now just the ink pressure," Elise mutters as she picks Tattletail up and carries him there. As they turn the corner into the hallway, Elise sees a Bendy cutout pop out, which nearly gives her and Tattletail a heart attack. She sighs," Who on earth is setting these cutouts up to scare us??" 

  "Demons, that's who." Tattletail grumbles. Elise chuckles," Yeah right." and heads on. She makes her way into the room and the projector suddenly turns on, showing an animated loop of Bendy dancing. The projector plays audio of some random guy listening, though it didn't sync up with the dancing well at all. "NOPE! That's it. I've had enough of this stupid haunted studio. Let's go Elise." Elise shakes her head," Aww c'mon Tattletail. Someone probably set these things up as little pranks. That's all." Ignoring Tattletail's protest, Elise walks over and turns the ink valve. As soon as she does so, a pipe bursts and starts spurting ink into the room outrageously fast. Elise flinches," Ew! This ink is like, sticking to my body." she said, trying to rub the ink off. "Let's just get out of this room," Tattletail grumbles, knowing that if he protests Elise will just shut him down once again. Elise nods and dashes out of the room. She makes her way back to the power room, a trail of ink leading behind her. She looks at the glowing sign next to the lever that says, "Ready." She smiles. It's time. She pulls the lever and she can hear the machine activate from down the hallway. "Let's go check it out!" Elise said excitedly. Tattletail sighs, "Yeah yeah." Elise picks up Tattletail and dashes over to the ink machine room.

  But... It was different than before. The entrance to the machine was boarded up. "Well, that's troubling..." Tattletail murmurs. Elise nods with a frown and walks toward the boards to try and knock them over. Before she could do that, Elise felt something grab her by the shirt collar. It was a tall, grinning, demonic version of Bendy. Ink was covering its face and it was wearing a brown jacket with a plain white shirt and some pants. The most concerning was the giant hole on its chest with a red 'X' over it. That wasn't normal. The creature lets out a bloodcurdling shriek and throws Elise to the floor. It begins to pull away the boards. "Elise, it's time to GO!!!!!!!" Elise nods and grabs Tattletail as the demon chased them around the studio. "TO THE EXIT!!" Elise shrieks. Elise ran like her life depended on it, (which it did). She could feel the floor giving in underneath her. But she couldn't give in. She had to go. She had to esca-

The floor fell through. The last thing Elise remembered before she hit the floor was seeing the demon's stare. Watching them fall to their deaths.