It's October, and I felt in the mood for some Depravity Falls.
There were creatures far more depraved and heinous than one would hope to find that roamed the earth, deplorable things that came from worlds one only had nightmares about. Some of them make their way to the mortal world to feed their desires.
One such creature was considered the lowest of the low, even by the standards of demons. Demons worked with a code of ethics and laws…the better ones, anyway. It was always better to watch humans destroy themselves before taking the spoils, and working with the innocent was even more delicate.
This creature and its ilk cared nothing for ethics. It desired only the flesh and soul of children, and would directly influence them to make it thiers to devour. It would take their minds and make them do terrible things while they sat in the passenger seat and screamed until they broke. What fun was it to wait until they defiled their own souls when it could do it itself?
It was especially impatient this time. It could have used any child, but THIS one was special. Already teetering on delving into things no child should know, and just ripe for the picking. It stalked the child, watching him from the shadows, thinking 'Yes, this is the one. Tonight'.
And tonight it was.
It waited until the boy was asleep before reaching out into his mind, almost reeling back when he felt the mark of another, greater demon branded into his mind. It knew that scent. This child was marked and off-limits.
Well. Fuck that.
It ignored the mark and pushed past, taking control of the boy's mind. Control was taken with some difficulty; this boy's mind was strong and resistant. But they all fell eventually.
In control, the creature had the boy slip out of bed and walk silently out of the bedroom and out of the house, taking a detour into a closet to grab a rope.
Mabel jerked awake, her instincts screaming at her that Dipper was in trouble. She turned to Dipper's bed and found it empty. Before she could call for one of her Grunkles to help, she heard the front door shut from downstairs. She hurried to the window and saw her twin walking across the lawn and into the woods.
No time to call for help. Mabel grabbed a flashlight and ran out of the room, jumping half the steps to grab the door and jerk it open, running off in the direction Dipper went, shouting his name frantically.
The woods were fifty times scarier at night, with or without a flashlight, every dark shadow cast by the moon seeming to reach out for her. She kept her fear to herself, her concern for her brother overwhelming everything else. She called his name over and over, swinging her flashlight back and forth, hoping to catch the red of his night shirt in the beam.
Ten minutes of searching led her into a small clearing, and she was in tears by this point. She screamed his name again, spinning a 360 to try to spot him, any sign of him. A sound above her made her jump, and she slowly turned her flashlight upward, hoping it wasn't some bloodthirsty creature about to tear her to pieces.
Instead of some monster, she instead saw her brother fifty feet up a pine tree, sitting on a thick branch fumbling with something. Mabel felt her heart hammer in her chest, setting the flashlight down so it pointed upward, and grabbed the lowest branch to start climbing. She was always a fast, accurate climber, but right now she seemed too slow, fumbled too many times as she made her way up to her brother, blinking hard to get the tears of terror out of her eyes.
She called his name again, sobbing as she finally reached his level, clinging to the trunk of the tree. She asked what was wrong, begged him to answer her. In the light of the moon, she could see he had a rope in his hands that was tied to the thick branch, the end in his hands making a loop.
He slowly looked up at her, and Mabel could see the shining reflection of tear tracks down his face as he raised the loop and pulled it over his head, making soft choking sounds like he was trying to speak but his words were being muffled.
Mabel saw the implications of what was about to happen, and let go of the trunk of the tree, scrambling over the branch like a squirrel, reaching out for him. In that moment, Dipper let go of the branch, his body pitching forward. Mabel grabbed for him—missed—lost her balance—
Her scream lasted for less then two seconds before a sickening crack silenced her. Her motionless gaze forever pinned skyward at the twitching form of her twin, whose in turn was forced to look down, the last thing he saw being his sister staring back up at him. His internal screaming was overpowered by horrible, disgusting laughter as he felt life leave his body, wishing more than anything in the world that he could reach his sister.
The creature stepped out of the shadows, practically shaking with glee. Not one, but TWO souls for it! This could not have gone better! It crawled up to the girl, taking note of what a pure, innocent soul she had. It had not defiled her, but that only made it all the more of a forbidden fruit to devour.
It dragged a foul claw across her ashen face, her wide, terror-stricken eyes, the mouth parted in an eternal silent scream, and coaxed the soul outward, internally marveling at its beauty. A soft white flickering in mother-of-pearl coloring, something that would sate its hunger for so long.
Its jaws opened wide, ready to devour that precious young soul, and in an instant, it found itself thrown back with all the force of a Peterbilt, getting a full-body sense of who it was before it even saw.
Bill Cipher hovered in the air between the two dead children, his body red and eye black in rage, glowering at the loathsome creature. "YOU DISGUSTING CREATURE!" he screamed, everything shaking with the force of his voice. "THESE SOULS BELONG TO ME! YOU WOULD DARE TO TOUCH WHAT IS MINE!?"
He gave no time for the THING to make excuses, his body turning pitch black and expanding out in a hellish mess of formless limbs, eyes, and gaping mouths, all screaming with rage as they tore into the creature and devoured it, leaving nothing behind.
The forest went quiet again as Bill reshaped back to his simplest triangular form, shifting over to Mabel's exposed soul and taking it in his hands. He could feel it trembling in his hold, getting a sense of despair and fear and a yearning for its twin. Bill floated upward to Dipper's body, watching it sway midair for a moment before reaching his free hand into the boy's still chest and bringing it out, taking a light blue soul with it.
He held the two souls in his hands, watching them shift and wisp out for the other before looking up, seeing through the veil of worlds as Stanley and Stanford rushed up, having heard Mabel's scream. He watched as the older twins found Mabel's body, Stan breaking down and shouting for her to get up, unable to bring himself to touch her as Ford looked around wildly for Dipper. He finally seemed to notice the flashlight pointing upward, and followed its direction, dropping to his knees when he saw Dipper's body swinging from the branch almost fifty feet up.
What a shame, Bill thought as he glanced between the panicking brothers and the twin souls in his palms. He had been hoping to take all four together as a set. Oh well. He could divvy up the spoils when the time came. He was sure Stanley would go first, having known the younger twins best and would lose his mind over losing them. Stanford would probably have to have his torn right from his body.
Bill gave an indication of a smile at the souls before opening a rift in his body, depositing the souls safely inside. He could wait, he thought.
He could wait.