Chapter 1: New life, new problems.

It had been one year since Henry escaped the studio with Alice, Bendy and Boris.

Since the toons had nowhere else to go, Henry brought them to his home, where he could take care of them. Henry loved the cartoons as if they were his own children: in a way, he actually felt like he was their father since he created them. At first it was a little hard for the toons to adjust to their new lifestyle, but Henry taught them everything he knew and they learned fast. Once Henry felt the toons were ready, he would let them go outside the house. He wasn't really sure how the neighborhood would react to his new three inky children, but he couldn't lock the toons in his house forever, they were living beings and deserved a normal live.

Henry wrote a letter to everyone in the neighborhood:

Dear neighbor,

I know that some people wonder where I was that month when I disappeared in the past year. You are invited to a neighborhood meeting where I will give an explanation.

I would also like to introduce you to a few new local residents. I am also going to warn you that these new residents are a bit different, but they are my family.

The meeting goes through this Friday in The Black Swan banquet hall at 17:00.

With best regards,

Henry Stein

It was evening. After Henry had posted the letters, he returned home.

He took a deep breath and called for the toons; "Alice, Bendy, Boris, can you come here please? I have an important announcement."

Alice was first to enter the room, followed by Boris. Bendy came out of the kitchen with a can of soda in his hand.

"What's up Henry?" the little demon asked, taking a long sip of his soda.

The toons noticed that Henry was kinda nervous.

Henry sighed and just blurted it out. "It's time… I'm going to introduce you to the neighborhood."

Alice and Boris jumped in surprise while Bendy spat out the large gulp of soda he had just taken.

"Does this mean we can go outside now?" Alice asked.

"Well, not yet, no. You do have to wait till I've introduced you to all these people and we still need to wait for their reaction when they see you," Henry replied while scratching his head. "If they don't mind that you three are living here you can go outside, but keep in mind that it will take some time for people to completely trust you. Some neighbors may be actually scared of you and will never accept the three of you. We're just aiming for the majority of the neighborhood to accept you. Do you three understand?" Henry continued.

Boris nodded. Henry saw that Bendy wanted to say something, but he just stood there with wide eyes and soda still dripping down his chin.

Henry wanted to ask Bendy if something was wrong when Alice started to talk. "Henry, why would the neighborhood be scared of us? We didn't do anything wrong, did we?" Alice asked.

Henry was kinda surprised by the question.

He walked over to Alice, knelt on one knee and placed his hand on her shoulder when he started to explain. "No, no of course not. You three are the kindest and most lovely people I have ever met. You are my family and I couldn't go on without you three. The truth is, it's not only the neighborhood that might be scared of you. I'm talking about all humans."

The toons looked hurt by Henry's statement. Boris walked over to a desk that was standing in the corner off the living room and grabbed a notepad and a pen. He wrote something down and gave the note to Henry.

The old animator looked at the note to find one simple question; Why? He looked up at Boris, then to Alice and Bendy when he continued. "It's nothing personal, humans have never seen living cartoons before. It's human nature to be scared of the unknown. In all honesty, the first time I saw Boris walking towards me in the studio, I was scared too."

Alice and Bendy looked at Boris, who was staring at Henry with drooping ears.

Henry stood up and gave the cartoon wolf a sad smile as he continued to explain. "But it didn't take long for me to notice that Boris was just trying to help me, even though he can't speak. I felt that he was good."

Boris's ears swung back up, and he had a wide smile on his face. Henry could swear that his cheeks began to glow, and he couldn't help but wonder if the cartoon wolf was actually blushing.

"Besides, I've known our neighbors for a while now. I'm pretty sure most of them will accept you," Henry added.

His last statement seemed to put the cartoons at ease, though he wasn't sure about Bendy. Bendy's smile was a little off, and he was continuously entwining his fingers. He wanted to ask the little demon if he was okay, but Boris started to yawn. The old animator looked at the toons and noticed that they seemed tired.

"Okay you three, time for bed," Henry chuckled.

The threesome went upstairs and Henry soon followed to tuck them in. He first went to Alice in her room. The walls of her room were pink, she had old episode posters of herself hanging on the walls and a cardboard cutout standing in the corner of the room.

When the toons first started to live with Henry, he had some merchandise from the studio remade and put it in the toons' rooms so they would feel more at home. Alice was lying in her bed with pink sheets and white pillows. He gently draped the sheets over Alice and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Good night, sweetie," Henry whispered.

"Good night Henry," the angel replied as she drifted off to sleep.

He turned off the lights, closed the door, and went to Boris and Bendy's room. Henry still had one room left, but Boris was too scared to sleep alone, so Bendy had offered to share his room. There were two beds standing on the left side of the room with one nightstand between them. The walls of their room were yellow, their sheets were green, and the pillows white. There were also old episode posters of themselves on the wall above their bed and their cardboard cutouts leaning against the wall on the other side of the room. Bendy slept in the bed closest to the door while Boris slept in the other bed.

When Henry entered the room he saw that Boris was already lying in bed while Bendy was sitting up. First, Henry went to Boris. He draped the sheets over the cartoon wolf.

"Good night buddy," he whispered while he gave Boris a kiss on the forehead.

The toon gave him a hug in return before lying back down. Henry smiled at Boris before he went to Bendy's bed.

Bendy sat on the bed with his legs pulled up against his chest.

Henry sat down on the edge of the bed. "Okay, what's wrong?" he asked, worried.

Bendy looked up at him. The little devil looked as if tears were about to run down his face. "N-nothing," the toon replied.

"Are you sure about that?" Henry asked with with a raised eyebrow.

The little devil just nodded. Of course, Henry knew Bendy was lying, but he decided that he would leave it be for now.

"Okay then," Henry replied with a sigh.

He helped the demon to lie down, draped the sheets over him, and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Good night, darling," he whispered to the little devil.

"Good night Henry," the toon replied.

Henry turned off the lights and left the room. The old animator walked downstairs to the living room and turned on the tv, where a movie was about to begin.

After the movie he looked at the clock. It was one in the morning.

"I need to stop staying up so late," he muttered to himself.

He went upstairs to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and put on his pyjamas. On the way to his room he checked on the toons one last time; Alice and Boris were sound asleep while Bendy was tossing and turning a bit. Henry decided to let the demon sleep—he figured the little devil needed his rest.

He went to his room and crawled in bed, and it didn't take him long to drift of to sleep as well.

One hour later the house was filled with a terrified scream. Henry jolted awake. He turned on the lights and jumped out of bed. The scream came from Bendy and Boris's room. He rushed into the hallway and saw that Alice was standing in the doorway of her room. She was rubbing her eyes.

"Henry, what's wrong?" the angel asked.

"It's nothing sweetie, go back to bed, okay?" Henry said in a comforting tone.

The angel nodded and went back to bed.

Henry opened the door to the boys' room. Boris was standing next to Bendy's bed. Bendy sat upright, his body shaking like a leaf. The little devil held his hands over his face, but Henry could see that he was crying. He also noticed that the little devil was hyperventilating.

"What happened here?" Henry demanded while he ran to Bendy's bed.

Boris looked at Henry with a worried expression on his face. He pulled up his shoulders and shook his head.

Henry sat on the edge of the bed and started to rub Bendy's back. "Bendy, it's okay. Stay calm, take small breaths," the old animator instructed. Henry showed the cartoon demon how he needed to breathe, and Bendy tried to mimic him. The little devil finally seemed to calm down.

"Can you please tell me what's wrong?" the old animator begged.

"I-I'm s-scared," Bendy admitted.

Henry was surprised by Bendy's answer. Bendy wasn't really the type to get scared.

The cartoon demon continued, "What if the neighborhood doesn't accept me?"

"Is that what you're worried about? Oh Bendy, I can't promise that people will like you, but no matter what happens, I'll be here for you, Boris, and Alice. I will protect you and take care of you. I won't let anyone hurt you or the others. If necessary, we'll go live somewhere else, okay?" Henry tried to comfort the little devil.

"P-promise?" Bendy asked.

Henry folded his little finger around Bendy's. "I promise."

He put the cartoons back to bed and then went back to bed himself. The rest of the night went by without any trouble.

The days flew by and to Henry's reluctance, it was soon Friday. The alarm went off and with a loud moan, the old animator turned it off. He dragged himself out of bed, went to the bathroom, and got dressed. Henry went down the stairs, into the living room and was surprised to find the toons already wide awake and sitting on the sofa. He took a deep breath and sighed.

"Okay, did any of you actually sleep last night?" he asked.

"Oh, keep your pants on old man. We're just nervous, can you blame us?" the little devil retorted.

The toons heard a faint "No" from Henry who was rubbing the back of his head and staring at the floor.

Without saying anything else they all went to the kitchen. Alice, Bendy, and Boris set the table while Henry prepared breakfast, but to no one's surprise, they didn't have much of an appetite. It was awkwardly silent at the table. Henry took a sip of his coffee and he saw it was almost time to go make the preparations in the banquet hall for that evening.

He looked up at the toons, and with a shaky voice he asked, "Are you mad at me?"

Boris and Alice looked at each other, then to Henry, and they shook their heads. The old animator was relieved, until he noticed that Bendy hadn't answered his question yet. Alice and Boris had also noticed. The three of them looked at Bendy, who was in turn staring at the table. Bendy lifted his head, looked around him, and was astonished to find everyone staring at him.

"N-no, no of course not. It's just…"

"…You're still scared," Henry finished Bendy's sentence.

The cartoon demon nodded.

"I know darling… me too. But if you three ever want to live a normal life, this needs to happen," the old animator replied with a sad smile.

The cartoons nodded in agreement. Henry stood up, went to the hallway, put on his coat, and left for the banquet hall.