Hello my beasties! It's time for another chapter of my Bendy x Maria story for Maria37321!

Maria continued down the hallway, using a flashlight from her backpack to light the way in the darkened hall. She had no idea where exactly in the studio she was, but she knew that she couldn't find her friend anywhere. And thankfully, whatever that thing was wasn't down here....

As she walked she absentmindedly reached down to brush dust off of her red blouse....

But instead of her normal blouse she felt a material like silk or satin. She was wearing a beautiful black and red dress, and was now wearing a pair of black ballet flats on her feet instead of her normal shoes. She still had her necklace and bracelet though.

"How did my clothes change?" She muttered as she looked at her new outfit quizzically. She couldn't have changed clothes without noticing, so was it the ink that had changed her clothes....

She shook off the thought. Nevermind, she'd think about that later. Right now, she needed to find a way out of here.

After walking for a while, she came to a sort of shrine that looked like it was dedicated to Bendy, due to the cutout in the center. Beside it, there was a tape recorder. Maria pressed a button and listened to the voice.

"He appears from the shadows to rain his sweet blessings upon me. The figure of ink that shines in the darkness. I see you my savior. I pray that you hear me. Those old songs, yes, I still sing them, for I know that you are coming to save me. And I will be swept into your final loving embrace." Then the voice paused, and what it said next sent a chill down Maria's spine.

"But love requires sacrifice. Can I get an amen?" Then the tape stopped, leaving Maria to wonder what exactly the voice had been talking about. Was it something to do with the creature she had seen upstairs?

Then, she heard the same voice echoing around her. "I said, can I get an amen?" Maria jumped at the sound, clutching her flashlight tightly in her hands.

"A-amen??" She squeaked nervously. Thankfully the voice didn't respond to her, so she continued on down the hall.

As she swung her flashlight around, she noticed..... coffins?

"This place just gets stranger and stranger." She muttered to herself.

Eventually she came to a part of the hallway that had ink lining the bottom. Maria took a deep breath and lifted up the skirts of her dress and began to slog through the thick stuff. It felt like mud, only more smooth and fluid.

 At the other end of the hallway, she saw somebody walk past the doorway, carrying a Bendy cutout. She couldn't tell, but she could have sworn their skin was the same color as the ink....

"Excuse me? Can you help me?" The person didn't seem to hear her. She finished her slog through the ink only to find......

Nothing. The person had passed by her, and they couldn't have gone back the other way, and there was nothing but wall on the other side....

She shivered and continued on. The hall eventually evened out until she came to a larger room.

"Music room." She read from the side of the wall. "Maybe there's something in here that can help me."

She found two tapes in the room, one by the same guy she had heard before, and another with a woman she remembered to be the voice of Alice Angel, but noting that looked like it would give her a way out.

Looking around again, she found a metal door, which she couldn't open. "Maybe there's a key somewhere...."

Out of the corner of her eye she spied something resting against a chair. An axe. She took it and grinned.

Well, at least she'd have something to defend herself with.

She went into the hall again, and absentmindedly flicked the power switch. Then she realized what she did. She'd done this task so many times at home with little thought, but now... Nothing bad seemed to happen at first, other than it getting a little brighter in the hall.

Then, these puddles of ink seemed to elongate into human shapes and try to reach for her. She eeped in fear, then swung the axe at one of them. The human figure went down, back into an ink puddle.

She got the other two mostly the same way, the fourth had just gone down into a puddle by itself.

Breathing heavily, she looked at the scene in shock. What had just happened. Nevertheless, she continued on until she found a small room with a organ in it. She pressed down on one of it's keys to see if it would work.

As the sound came out, Maria could hear someone who seemed to be mimicking where she had pressed. Nervously, she pressed a few different keys on the organ.

More of the same sounds, coming from seemingly all around her. Maria got scared and left the room.

Soon at the end of the hall, she came to a door that was blocked by ink in front of it. "How am I going to unblock the door?" Then she saw another tape recorder........

Timeskip

Maria returned to the music room and looked up at the projection area. She had noticed cutouts of Bendy up there before, each time there being a new one up there. Right now there was about nine or ten of them.

It was almost like they were moving.......

Never mind, she needed to get into the room at the other side to turn off the ink pressure. After playing the correct instruments, that she had heard were needed to open the door from the tape, she waited.

Nothing happened.

Maybe she needed to do something else?

Just then, she thought she saw something move up in the projection room upstairs. Curious, Maria went up the stairs, but when she got up, the cutouts of Bendy were gone and now in the orchestra pit, and the booth was empty.

Confused, she looked around until she saw the projector. Maybe she had to have it on in order for the door to open?

She clicked on the projector, ran down the stairs, and completed the same ritual with the instruments again. This time, the door opened. Inside, Maria found the pump to turn off the ink flow. "Okay, that's done." But after she was done, she saw a Bendy cutout peek out from the side of the door, which startled her.

When she came out, the room was quiet, but she had the eerie feeling of being watched by someone........

Looking around, she soon spied the same figure she had seen before, but now with a Bendy cutout head over its face. It was up in the projection box, watching her.....

Maria booked it out of the room as fast as she could, thankfully not running into any ink beasts. Eventually she got to the door, now unblocked by ink.

After opening the door, Maria continued into the next area of the studio. Suddenly, something heavy smacked against her head, making her gasp aloud.

She fell to the ground, the axe sliding from her grip to her side as her vision blurred with pain. A pair of hands grabbed ahold of her and rolled her onto her back, leaving her to look up at the same figure she had seen.

"Rest your head, it's time for bed..."

Then, she blacked out.

Time skip

"There we go, nice and tight. We wouldn't want our sheep running away now, would we?" Maria opened her eyes groggily and regarded the figure in front of her. She tried to speak, but her words came out muffled, as if something was covering her mouth.

Looking down, she saw that her hands were tied to the floor, leaving her in a kneeling position.  Due to her arms being tied to the floor, she couldn't stand up, but was forced to stay in her current position.

What was going on? Why was she tied up? Her eyes widened in fear as she looked at the man who seemed to have ink skin. "No we wouldn't." Something in his voice sent a flare of recognition through Maria. He was the man from the tapes she had listened to! But why did he have her like this?

The man paused before continuing. "I must admit I'm honored you've come all the way down here to visit me. It almost makes what I'm about to do seem cruel." He reached up an inky hand and touched Maria's face, causing Maria to flinch at his touch.

He withdrew his hand, leaving a sticky print on Maria's cheek. "But the believers must honor their savior. I must have him notice me." Maria looked around frantically, eventually spotting her backpack a few feet away from her. She couldn't reach it, she had no way to get free...

Then the man paused. "Wait... You look familiar to me... that face...."

Then he continued. "Not now. For our lord is calling to us my little sheep. The time of sacrifice is at hand! And then I will be finally free from this.... prison. This inky.. dark.. abyss that I call a body."  Just then Maria could hear something in the ceiling above them. It sounded wet, but scuttled like spider legs.

"Shh.... Quiet! Listen! I can hear him. Crawling above, crawling." Maria grew panicked and tried to struggle, but it seemed hopeless.

"Let us begin, the ritual must be completed. Soon he will hear me... he will set us free." The man turned and walked away from Maria, towards a open door. As he went in, the door closed, and Maria could hear the click of the lock.

Then, sound came over the speakers above her, making her heart skip a beat.

"Sheep, sheep, sheep. It's time for sleep. rest your head. It's time for bed." Maria struggled against her bonds, growing more scared.

"In the morning, you may wake. Or in the morning, you'll be dead."

Maria shut her eyes tightly as she heard the door in front of her begin to open, terrified of what was going to happen.....

"Hear me, Bendy! Arise from the darkness! Arise and claim my offering! Free me I beg you! I summon you ink demon! Show your face and take this tender sheep!"

Bendy's P.O.V

Being a demon, when you're summoned by someone, you usually appear in the place where the person wants you to appear. In this case, Bendy was summoned to one of the lower levels, and now he was back in his twisted form that he had specifically shifted out of to avoid scaring the cute girl any further than he already had.

And who had summoned him?

Sammy Laurence, the studio's local nutjob with some sort of fantasy that Bendy was some sort of god.

Bendy had appeared behind a sort of metal door, then had phased through the opposite wall until he was in the room where Sammy was.

The inky man seemed surprised. "My lord, you've come! You've finally noticed me!" He pressed a button on the speaker system, causing it to turn off.

"Um, yes. I have." Bendy spoke hoping Sammy couldn't tell there was utter disbelief in his voice. "Now, why have you brought me here?" Bendy decided to play along for the time being, hoping he could distract the man so he could get away and find those girls......

"Oh this is so wonderful!" The man was practically bouncing up and down with glee. "Once you take my sacrifice, you can finally give me my reward!"

"What sacrifice?" Then Bendy caught himself. "I mean, what have you brought me, my most loyal servant?"

Sammy looked like he could barely contain his glee. "A girl, dressed in red and black, with raven locks, to be your sheep!"

Oh great. So now she was tied up somewhere, even more scared, thanks to this nut. Bendy knew he had to do something...... Then, a puddle of ink nearby on the floor caught his eye.

Now he had a plan. Get Sammy to the puddle of ink and put him in. It took ages to get out of that stuff, so by the time he would get out, he ad the girl would be long gone......

"You've been so loyal to me, now it is time for your reward."

The man looked excited. "Oh my lord, how I've dreamed-"

Bendy cut him off. "Yes, yes. Just come here, I want to give you your reward..."

Maria's P.O.V

She waited for what seemed like an eternity for whatever creature to come up and take her away into the darkness.

But nothing happened. Opening her eyes, she surveyed the space around her. Nothing seemed to be coming out of the open gateway....

Just then, she heard the speaker system click on again. "No my lord, stay back! I am your prophet-" The voice was cut off by screaming then complete and utter silence except for the sound of static.

Now, Maria could feel something behind her. She felt it run its fingers over her arms, and she shut her eyes in fear.

But instead she felt the ropes that had tightly bound her hands to the floor slide off her wrists. Opening her eyes, she looked into the face of the creature she had seen earlier.

It removed the gag from her mouth. "You saved me..." Maria said, unable to keep the surprise from her voice.

The Bendy creature merely smiled-she recognized it now, the creature had features like that of her favorite cartoon character- and its skin seemed to bubble and melt as it changed form.

Soon, she was looking at a very different figure from the one she had previously seen. And he was.....

Sort of cute....

He looked human, except for the tail with a little fork on it that was twitching lazily at his side. Then he spoke. "Hey, are you okay lady?"

Maria nodded. "I am now. It was a good thing you got here in time....." She trailed off, unsure of the boy's name.

He smiled and stuck out his hand. "I'm Bendy. Pleased to meetcha!" Maria took his hand and shook it. "I'm Maria." She said, introducing herself.

Just then, a loud banging noise was heard from the other room, causing Bendy to look worried. "We better get going. It sounds like Sammy got out of the puddle...."

He pulled Maria to her feet. "But where? I didn't see any way out..."

Bendy pointed off in another direction. "That way, we'll loose him and then I can take you somewhere safe."

The two of them ran off down the hallway, leaving the sacrifice room behind them...........

????  P.O.V

So, the girl had escaped. Curse his copy for helping her! That entitled snip thought he could do what he wanted just because the creator had deemed him the better version of Bendy instead of him......

But no matter. Soon, they'd see, they'd all see, and soon he'd be free to continue the creator's work........

Well beasties, I'm done this chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! Next chapter we will catch up with what happened to Orianna, and let's just say it will be quite interesting......

Anyway, see you soon my beasties!