Prologue
I remember... My vision had gone dark. I knew I wasn’t dreaming, I had settled down for the night, just like everyone else, and yet, I was no longer sleeping… That’s when I woke up. It took me a moment to realize… I was lying on the ground. My eyes opened slowly. I was lying on white sand.
I immediately knew I was no longer where I should be. Back in the house with everyone else who had also settled in their own beds, dreaming away. But this wasn’t a dream. It couldn’t be.
My body struggled as I brought myself on my feet. I was startled at my surroundings. The white sand beneath me spread for miles to… however big this unknown place was. In the distance, I spotted some cactus. They appeared odd, but I couldn’t make out their details from where I stood. The sky… was empty and dark, void of any light, stars, moon, or any life at all.
Everywhere I looked, there was nothing but a variety of a black and white palette… No… it was a complete lack of color, shade, everything. Everything seemed lifeless, empty, and depressing.
‘Where was I?’
Looking down at myself was a simple mindless action in that moment, but I suddenly froze at what I saw. My appearance… changed. My body became lankier than my original model, shinier, and bulky. My finger tips had claws, painted in a bright blue. The rest of me was a mix of a lighter orange, black, neon blue, and red. Two stars were arranged down my chest, big bright red shoulder pads on each side of me, and spike bracelets wrapped around both of my forearms.
My appearance reminded me of the 80s… A fun era for children and adults alike. What a time to be alive in those days… Brings back memories…
I stood in place, and wondered to myself. ‘Why do I look like this? Where am I? What’s going on…?’ Question after question overwhelmed my head, questions I didn’t have the answers to yet.
Suddenly, I heard a muffled groan behind me. I turned around, and my eyes widened.
“Bendy…?”
I bent down and gently shook him.
“Bendy… Bendy wake up…” His eyes steadily opened, then looked up at me. “F… Fred…?” Bendy paused. His eyes silently scanned my new appearance, and I did the same for him.
His style had changed from a simple bow and shiny black shoes to a cool colored appearance. His colors were no longer an aged yellow and black, but a lightly tinted yet dull blue, a lighter black that was almost gray, and other colors of blues and navy. Every piece of clothing combined together gave off the impression of a knight, mixed with an old fashion tailored suit.
“That… really you?” He asked me, lifting his head from the sand. The look on his face held confusion, yet amazement for my new look. The demon silently took in every aspect, from my feet to my small hat on my head, wrapped with a red ribbon. I nodded to his recent question, and offered him a hand.
“Now who else who I be if I wasn’t?” I said, the demon’s smile returned, letting out a small laugh.
He took my hand, and slowly stood on his feet. His eyes widened in bewilderment when he finally realized the place he had woken up in.
“Fred, where are we…?” The demon looked up at me for answers. I kept my composure, despite not knowing anything myself.
“I can’t say for sure, but it looks like we have found ourselves somewhere unusual.”
“But… we were sleepin’… How’d this happen? All of us went’ta bed last night! How did we end up here!? And… where is here!? What’s goin’ on!? Why do we look like this!? Did somethin’ else happen last night and I can’t remember!?”
Bendy continued to ramble to himself, his panic slowly rising more and more. He started becoming frantic, and I could visibly tell his breathing had picked up at a quicker speed. That sure wasn’t good… The last thing we both needed was for Bendy to go into another full panic mode.
I placed a hand on shoulder. He flinched, and his rambling abruptly stopped.
“All this worrying won’t get us anywhere. There will be a way back, even if it takes us all night or longer. We’ll get home somehow.” I reassured him, watching his breathing slow down slightly. “Remember, deep breath in, and deep breath out…” He obeyed, placing a hand over his chest. His body eased with every exhale, chest rising then slowly falling. Moments passed and the demon was breathing at a calmer speed again.
“Feeling better?” I asked. He nodded.
“Thanks, Fred…” Bendy smiled at me, then intensely faltered when his eyes landed back on the black and white world around us. “But seriously, where are we right now?” I patted his back. “I’m not sure, but we should start moving.” “To where exactly? Seems there’s no end’ta this place.” “Avoid thinking like that, we need positivity in a time like this, don’t you think?”
Hesitantly, he nodded in return. “Alright… Ya right… So, which way we heading?” The demon asks. We glanced in both directions, and agreed to walk towards the right.
We walked in silence, examining our unusual surroundings. We walked by the cactus similar to the ones I’ve seen in the distance. I got a better look at the plant. It was made different, untidy fabrics that aged with time. Its needles were replaced with various sewing needles and pins that were rusted. They almost reminded me of Hat Kid’s pin cushions for her sewing. She enjoys knitting most of the time, but there are other times where she hand-sews.
“So uh, Fred… Whatcha think this place is anyways?” Bendy asked in a more calmer, and curious tone.
I shrugged. “For all we know, someone would have been responsible for us being here.” More of my thoughts were spoking out loud, but it could have been true. Someone might have brought us to this place for a reason. But why us? Why here? And for what reason? Bendy gave me a smile, most likely trying to ease the mood for both of our sakes. “Ya know… For a moment, I’d liked’ta imagine we on some sort of hidden movie set.”
“Wouldn’t that be hilarious...” I replied in a less enthusiastic tone than the demon. “We could only hope their intentions for doing something like that are reasonable. Bringing us to a place such as this, then secretly recording our every move and conversations, in a place they would never suspect us to look…”
My response made the demon look around, feeling unsettled.
“Alright, now ya freakin’ me out.”
“You brought the idea up first.” I smirked, enjoying Bendy’s reaction. “Yeah, but I wasn’t gonna think ya would say all of that!”
“I’m sure we’ll be okay. I have a feeling this place might have other reasons for us being here.”
“That kinda didn’t help, Fred.”
I chuckled. You would think a demon like Bendy would be the one enjoying making others on edge, scaring them, or intend to do bad things for their own benefit. But that wasn’t Bendy. Yes, there are times where he liked pulling pranks, sometimes with Cuphead, but they were harmless and usually always ended with a good laugh, or an annoyed glare.
Bendy was not your “typical demon.” He’s never forced anyone to make a deal with him, as most people would assume lots of demons to do. He never once attempted to hurt anyone, and he’s even scared of dark places. Luckily, as much as this place is eerie and dim, he no longer felt the need to worry with me by his side. He wasn’t alone, and I can tell he was grateful for that.
If anything, I was likely the one to make others feel uncomfortable. I remember the times I’ve creeped out a reasonable amount of residents in our home with the stories I would come up with during stormy nights. Sometimes, they weren’t able to sleep properly for a few days. I know Kris was the second person to successfully scare others, but I had heard from Mae they wouldn’t do that as much anymore.
“How far ya think this desert goes on for?” Bendy asked. I pondered at the question, “Let’s hope not as long as we both think. I don’t want to believe in the possibility we’ll—“
“Bendy!! Freddy!! Over here!!”
A voice in the distance stopped me mid sentence. Meeting our gaze… was Cuphead, smiling wide and waving at us. Beside him was his brother, Mugman, who appeared less excited than his brother.
“… Run in’ta Cuphead and Mugman out of nowhere?” The demon finished my sentence with his own words, watching the brothers quickly head our way. We stood shocked. They’re here too!? But why…?
Once they approached us, Cuphead’s brows flew up. “Whoa gee Fred! Did’tcha worked out or somethin’!?” Cuphead questioned, taken aback by my new appearance. He didn’t seem as worried or confused about the situation, he was just as carefree and bright as ever. Mugman on the other hand… he looked more stressed and disoriented about all of this than Bendy was.
“WHERE ARE WE!!?” Mugman shrieked, his voice echoing through out the empty desert. “Mugsy calm down! I told you, it’s gonna be okay!” His brother assured him.
“Cuphead, don’tcha see we have a problem here!? One moment we’re sleeping in our beds, the next, we wake up in a place where there’s nothing but sand and cactus!! How could any of us be calm at a time like this!?” Cuphead frowned. “Well, at least we’re not the only ones here! We found Freddy and Bendy, didn’t we?”
“But that doesn’t help with the real issue! What are we going to do!? We’re stuck in the middle of an unknown location with no other sign of life around for miles! Now try and calm me down about thatfact with an explanation!!”
“How should I explain what’s going on!? I don’t even know where we are right now! But at least I haven’t been you! You’ve been freaking out the moment we woke up!”
“WELL YOU SHOULD HAVE—!!”
“Wait wait!” Bendy put his hands up, interrupting the argument. “Maybe we should think why the four of us are here in the first place. Me and Fred thought we were the only ones, but ya both here too…”
Cuphead shrugged. “I haven’t got the slightest clue why we’re here ourselves, but we sure do look pretty awesome!”
Mugman sighs, he took a moment to breathe, resetting his mind and rubbing a hand over his forehead. He looked down at his fancy blue attire, along with his brother’s new purple look, then glanced at me and Bendy. “I guess I’ll admit… we do look really cool.” Mugman said, working up a small smile.
Cuphead grinned at his brother’s more positive remark.
“I know right!? But now, I do think we should think of a way to get out of here. Any ideas on how we got here, or what this place is?” We explained to the brothers that we didn’t, we told them when me and Bendy had just woken up. Cuphead begins to think.
“Maybe we should remember what were we going last night first! That could help us figure out what’s going on!”
“We were watching tv on the couch, weren’t we?” I asked, recalling the night’s previous events. “Everyone was together in the living room. We tried to pick a movie all of us would enjoy, but we couldn’t find one. Then we decided to watch more episodes of Playtime ‘N Friends for… about two hours, am I correct?” Bendy nodded, crossing his arms. “Then we all hit the hay after that...” “Yeah that’s right! We all went to sleep, and then woke up here!” Cuphead exclaimed.
Mugman suddenly snapped his fingers. “That’s it! We must be dreaming!” He leans his shoulder closer to his brother. “Cuphead, hit me!” The brother did what was requested, throwing a hard punch at Mugman’s arm. “OW! Cuphead what the heck!?” “You said to hit you!” “Not THAT hard!”
“None of us… can’t be dreaming.” I explained to the toons, their attention shifting towards me. “How would it be possible for the four of us to dream the same thing, at the same time?” “But… that’s possiblesomehow, ain’t it?” Bendy asked. “Not as likely as you think… It feels too real to call this a dream, wouldn’t you agree?” I replied. The toons silently pondered to themselves. By the look on their faces, I could tell they all were slowly accepting this fact. “So if we’re not dreaming then…” Cuphead’s words trailed off.
He suddenly gasped, an excited smile spread across his face.
“We could be in another world!” The rest of us froze, staring at him like he had a third eye.
“… Ya takin’ crazy! What makes ya so sure about that?” Bendy asked, almost dementedly. Seemed he didn’t want to believe in a crazy idea like that just yet. But most likely, I didn’t either.
“I know it sounds far fetched, but hear me out! What other place do you know of that looks as colorless and sad as this? And what’s up with the sky? Don’t you think that’s extra weird?” Cuphead’s words were proud yet curious, his face and body held confidence.
“There ain’t no way we would be in some kind of cave because, look around! It’s way too big’ta make it seem like some underground tunnel, or some other secluded place for the moon, sun, and even the stars’ ta not shine! And just look at ourselfs! How else would we have changed to look like how we are now?”
It all almost seemed… likely, the more I thought about it. The more we all thought about it. Was it true…? If it was… the first question would be how have we’ve gotten here? None of us remember a thing that would help us determine this, or where we might be. Unfortunately, it’s seemed to be a question that will be answered later. And all of us knew that.
“… Ya know… I just thought of something else.” Cuphead reluctantly spoke up after thinking some more. “What if everyone else is here too!?”
All of us paused.
“What makes you think everyone will be!?” Mugman exclaimed. “Where would they be? What if you’re wrong and there’s nothing here but desert? What if there’s no end to this place!? How would we find everyone if they were here!?”
Cuphead’s idea made Mugman’s panic resurface. I quickly tried to once again, reassure him.
“I wouldn’t think too hard about it. Eventually, everything will have an end… just like all things in life.” I quietly muttered the last part to myself.
“Yeah Mugsy, ya gotta think positive! Maybe they ain’t far from us! Afterall, we did find Fred and Bendy pretty fast from the moment we woke up! So what’s stopping us from finding everyone else sooner than ya think?” Cuphead said to Mugman, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “And even if we realized they not actually here, we’ll still find away outta this creepy desert!”
Again, Mugman sighed, gently slipping Cuphead’s arm off of him. “Oh alright… What do we do now?” “We just keep walkin’.” Bendy shrugged. “It’s the only thin’ we can do, least right now.”
And so we did. We walked in silence for minutes, none of us speaking a word to each other. Instead, we continued to survey the unsettling scenery. If I were honest, the silence was becoming a little overwhelming, not even the sound of wind blowing the white sand could be heard, so Cuphead decided to say something.
“Ya know Mugs, I realized you haven’t been that worked up since we met Bendy for the first time.” The cup mentioned, more to both toons than just Mugman. Being the unique demon Bendy was, there were still times where it’s not easy to live among others.
In the past, Cuphead and Mugman dealt with demons who weren’t compassionate or friendly as Bendy. I don’t know the details, but I heard it was a very unpleasant experience, so much so that meeting Bendy resurfaced the traumatizing fear on the horned creatures.
Cuphead has always been the adventurous, curious, and reckless older brother. It’s what gotten him and his brother in trouble a decent amount of times. Cuphead wasn’t one to sit around and wait, nor was he scared to face challenges head on, looking before leaping as some would describe him. Mugman on the other hand, was known as the younger hesitated, responsible, and more “mature” brother. Often, he’ll think too hard about decisions, or things that feel concerning to him— Like Bendy at first.
Cuphead was the first to open himself up to Bendy. It wasn’t long for both of them to find enjoyment in each other’s company. Of course, Mugman wasn’t easy to give in, keeping his suspicions, staying on his toes, and trying desperately to convince his brother that Bendy couldn’t be trusted. But Cuphead didn’t want to believe him… and he was right about trusting his new friend. Even so, he understood Mugman’s worries. After everything they had both gone through, it was understandable. But overtime, both brothers had gained Bendy’s trust, and became more open with each other. That was possibly the first time Bendy had felt welcomed.
Bendy had finally spoken to me about how less confident he used to be, and his hard life before the house. He told me, as well as the brothers, that he had been created to bring joy to children everywhere. His creator, Joey Drew, was a man who stride for greatness and success. He ran his own animation studio called “Joey Drew Studios” for a good amount of time before it became abandoned.
Before Bendy, the studio conducted cartoons about the little devil himself, and he was known to be quite popular for his time. Until one day, Joey began creating life, using books describing the unknown, rituals, theories about the other side, and dangerous practices that have been long forgotten.
He started small, creating objects he could hold in his hands. From an ink bottle, cards, tape recorders, gears, and even small weapons. He then moved onto bigger things like furniture. Then one day, he had an idea that would changed him and his company forever. Joey had been creating many things from the “Ink Machine,” a giant machine he made to use and bring just about everything to life with ink. As bitter as the man was, Joey believed he’d create the impossible. He decided to create a living being. He decided, to create Bendy.
However… it didn’t go as planned. Bendy wasn’t Joey’s greatest, and perfect creation that the man had envisioned. The demon was viewed as a menace in Joey’s eyes. His very first appearance looked beastly, confused, and horrific to Joey. Bendy was deemed a failure, until Joey could fix what went wrong.
At that moment, Bendy didn’t want to explain his story any further for the time being. He broke down in tears at the dinner table. To his relief however, he had spoken to us late at night, so no one could disturb us. I remember one other thing he told me. He said he was scared to change back into any large, horrifying forms he has before. He told me he didn’t want to hurt anybody again, and not to be feared by others anymore. All he wanted, was to feel loved and accepted for who he is.
My thoughts abruptly stopped, hearing Cuphead gasp loudly. He pulled Bendy and Mugman closer, eagerly pointing to what had caught his attention.
“GUYS LOOK! DO YA SEE THAT!?” He couldn’t contain the joy he felt. Turning my gaze from the three, I saw it too.
In the distance, was an old, rundown village. Abandoned and colorless, just like this desert.
“We… found something.” Mugman commented in disbelief. Bendy’s smile grew with hope.
“Ya think anyone could be living there?”
“Let’s go find out! Race ya!” Cuphead let go of the two and without hesitation, he sprinted towards the houses.
“CUPHEAD!!” Mugman called out to his brother. He scoffed, knowing he wasn’t going to listen.
Soon enough, we followed close behind, heading into the mysterious, and lonely town.