A shadow flickered through the room.

It floated across the walls and between the hundreds of jars and objects that filled the shelves. The shadow's owner was looking for something.

A journal, to be exact. Or two.

He knew he couldn't take them. There were thousands of spells and enchantments keeping him from laying a hand on them.

But he was not here to steal them anyway. He was here for something inside them.

The shadow leisurely drifted past the strange things in the room and stopped at a desk. The two journals were on it, propped up against a rack.

He didn't like the good magic keeping him away. But all he needed was a small breeze…

At his command, a gust of wind pushed the second book open. The shadow hovered, skipping through the journal, until he found what he needed.

"Ha," he said aloud. "The game begins."

And suddenly, the owner of the shadow made himself visible. He was ready to put his plan into action.

What was he? Not a human, no.

A dream demon by the name of Bill Cipher.

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"DIPPER!"

Dipper winced at Mabel's voice. Here he was, minding his own business in the attic, and something just had to go wrong.

He poked his head downstairs. Mabel was walking backwards out of the kitchen, holding a brownie pan over her head.

"DIPPE – Oh, there you are!" she said, looking over her shoulder. Just then, a muffled sound thumped in the kitchen. It happened again. And again.

"Uh, by any chance did you pour the special syrup I got on your pancakes?" Dipper asked.

"Pfft, no," Mabel said, lowering her pan. "Waddles took the jar when I was getting it out of the fridge."

Dipper clenched his fists. "And what did he do with it?"

"Umm," Mabel started, but his question was answered for her. As the thumping got louder, a small grey object appeared in the doorway.

It was a rock.

"Waaaaahhh!" Dipper cried, recoiling more from surprise than fear.

Mabel whacked it with her brownie pan, but it didn't do anything.

"You're the nerdy one, what do we do?" she yelled.

Dipper calmed down and laughed. "Mabel, you should be glad you didn't drop the syrup on a more dangerous object. It instantly brings life to whatever it touches."

"What does that mean?"

"You have a pet rock."

"Oh." Mabel smiled and dropped the brownie pan. "That's wow!"

She picked up the rock. It hopped up and down in her palm.

"What should we name it, Dipper?" she asked.

Dipper shrugged. "Gideon?"

Mabel scrunched up her face. "No way!" she said.

Dipper thought about it. He didn't especially care what they named it as long as it wouldn't attack them, but it was for Mabel's sake. "How about Marquavious?"

His sister brightened. "Sure! I'm going to go find Marquavious a birdcage!"

With that, she bounded out the door.

Neither of them noticed the triangle-shaped shadow follow her outside.