'Finally the next part of Not a monster' eh? :D
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The week passed quickly, since there wasn't many things happening. So he soon found himself called inside Joey's.
Just like the first time, the mad man gave him the mixture with a disturbing smile on his face.
After a few minutes, he finally arrived at the door of the ink demon's prison. This time though, he didn't hesitate and pulled the lever without a second thought.
When he entered the big room, he was greeted by the sight of the young ink creature, who smiled wider when he noticed the man's presence. But, couldn't help himself from flinching when he noticed the bottle on Tom's hand. So the mechanic immediately opened the bottle and poured its content on the ground to ease the poor demon.
"Remember, I'm not going to hurt you. So you don't have to be afraid." he said softly.
Just like last time, Tom then approached him slowly, carefuly scrutenising his face for any sign of discomfort. There wasn't any. The kid fully trusted him.
When was a foot away from him, the man outstretched his hand to pet the demon between his horns. Just like last week, Inky seemed to lean into his touch and began to let out a purring noise.
'Huh. Maybe I should ask him what he thinks of that name.' Tom thought, half expecting the young ink demon to not like the name because of how silly it sounded.
"Hey." The man said, immediately getting the demon's attention. "How about I give you a name? Would you like that?" he asked the demon.
At that, the ink creature smiled excitedly and tried to nod but was quickly stopped by a wince of pain.
"Woah! Careful there bud!" exclaimed Tom, worried about the demon's already injured neck getting worse. After making sure that the ink demon's neck hasn't gotten worse, the mechanic added "I guess I'll take that as a 'yes'."
The ink creature then looked at him expectantly, his tail wagging like an excited dog. He was excited to hear what name Tom came up with. The latter chuckled at that. He then hummed thoughtfully and brought his right hand to his chin to rub his goatee, pretending to think of a name.
"How about..." he said, taking his time to torture the poor young ink demon with the suspense. "Inky!" he exclaimed, finally deciding to end the demon's torture.
The ink creature, if it was possible, smiled wider and wagged his tail happily at that. He even purred!
"So you like that name, don't you?" Tom rhetorically asked, smiling warmly at how happy the ink demon looked. "Alright, Inky it is then!". He said, petting Inky's head.
The man's face then became serious, and somehow still stayed gentle.
"Inky? Can I ask you a few questions?" he asked but when he remembered that he couldn't respond, he brought his hands in front of him and added:
"Point your tail to my right hand if it's a 'yes' or point it to my left one if it's a 'no'." he explained, motioning to each of his hands in case the demon didn't understand the notion of left and right.
Inky pointed his tail to the man's right hand, showing that he understood.
"That's great!" he exclaimed, making the demon smile proudly.
"Alright, where should I start?" he asked himself. "How about... Do you know why you're locked in here?" he asked.
Left hand. 'no' The demon's smile was replaced by a sad and guilty frown.
'Is he feeling guilty because of not knowing why he's here?' the thought made his blood boil. The poor kid probably thought he did something wrong! He decided to ask him if he did thought that.
Right hand. 'yes'
He decided to take a deep breath to calm himself down before he does something that might scare the poor kid.
"It's not your fault Inky, you didn't do anything wrong. Joey just put you here because you didn't come out pe-" Tom stopped himself before sighing and saying "Because you didn't come out the way he wanted" It seemed to still hurt Inky, but he knew that it was better than to say that he didn't come out 'perfect'.
"Speaking of him, did he hurt you?" he asked, regretting it immediately when Inky began trembling. But he still responded.
Right hand.
"Was he only hurting you with the Bad Water?" He knew he was speeding through it, but he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible or else he might get angry and end up scaring the young demon.
Left hand...
Tom pursed his lips. It took all his will power not to abruptly go to Joey's office to strangle him.
"Is... Is he still hurting you?" he said between gritted teeth.
Right hand...
He didn't if he even wanted to know the answer, but he still asked:
"Without the Bad Water?" He was having more of a hard time at controlling his anger. He closed his eyes and thought told himself: 'Calm down Connor! You don't wanna scare the poor kid! Besides, maybe Joey wouldn't use the mixture because he thought that you're already using it on him!" He opened his eyes and immediately wished he hadn't...
Left ha-
"THAT BASTARD!!!" he yelled. He then went to the nearest wall and punched a sizable hole into it with his prosthetic arm.
After a few other cursing and punches to the wall, he finally calmed down. He was panting, but at least he was calmer. He then looked back towards the demon, only to remember why he wasn't supposed to let his anger get the best of him...
Inky was now shaking like crazy. He had his tail wrapped around himself and was a whimpering and shaking mess. He looked terrified.
"No, no Inky... Don't be-" he took a step towards the terrified ink demon, but stopped himself when the latter flinched.
Ouch... That had hurt... He had Inky's complete trust... Only for him to screw everything because he wasn't capable of holding!
Tom decided that it will be est if he stayed where he was and first try to calm the demon down.
"Hey, I'm sorry for that. I didn't want to scare you..." he softly said, bowing his head in shame. "I was just angry towards Joey. Not you." he added, brushing his hand through his hair. He then looked back at Inky with a hopeful look and asked: "Will you give me another chance? I promise I won't scare you like that ever again."
Inky stopped shaking and seemed to contemplate the offer. Everything was silent and for a moment, Tom thought that he had completely lost the ink demon's trust.
But then, Inky smiled warmly, though still shakilly, at him and his tail seemed to be pointed to a direction...
... It was pointed to the right.
Which meant 'yes'.
He was so happy! But he still approached him slowly, carefuly scrutenising his face for any sign of discomfort. There wasn't any.
This time, instead of petting him, he decided to hug the demon and gently whispered to him that everything will soon be alright, that he's going to make sure that the Bad Man won't hurt him ever again and that he's going to set him free.
Inky began to tremble again. But this time, it wasn't because of fear. But because of relief. The demon was relieved to finally have a hope of getting out of these painful chains and of this horrible place. Then Inky began to cry.
After almost an hour of staying like this, Inky finally calmed down and fell asleep. Tom smiled warmly at the sleeping demon, inky tears still stained his cheeks. The man then looked at himself and saw how much his clothes were a mess. Ink stains covering almost all his clothes. But strangely enough, he found not caring at all.
He took the empty bottle and went back to Joey's office. He gave him the bottle and was about leave until...
"Tommy? Why are you covered in ink?" Joey sounded suspiscious about something...
"A pipe burst." Tom automatically said.
"I see... Did you fix it?" He didn't seem to believe at all.
"Yes. Can I go now? My wife is waiting for me." Tke mechanic replied, almost too quickly.
The studio's boss looked and didn't say anything for a few seconds until he dismissed the other man.
When he saw his wife, she hugged him and they went back to their house. Tom first took a shower and after getting ready he went to bed beside Allison. He decided, starting by tomorrow he was going to start his plan into action.
He wanted find a way to blackmail Joey into freeing and never hurting Inky without him being able to find a way to turn it against the mechanic.
He needed to find solid evidences and to make a report.