Chapter 1: A peek through the window
"Man, what a weirdo," Bill said to himself as he slipped through the walls of the "Gravity Falls Gossiper" office. "Ah well, let's see if that carnivorous hydra woman I slipped into his dream makes it into the papers."
He had decided, late into the night, to have a little fun with the townspeople while they slept- stir up some nightmares, give them a little trauma, just some harmless fun. After all, he needed a break from his work every once in a while. What better way to spend it than by messing with folks under the full moon?
"Let's see, who's next?" His single eye scanned above the treetops until it settled on a large building secluded in the woods. The Mystery Shack.
"Ah! Perfect," he said with just a hint of glee.
Bill floated leisurely toward the Shack, high above the ground. He filled up the large triangular window of the attic, where he looked on at the twins, splayed out in piles of blankets atop their beds. Dipper was fast asleep with the journal resting on his chest. The six-fingered gold plaque shone in the moonlight where its surface peeked out from beneath his closed hand. Mabel was smiling in her sleep, arms wrapped tightly around that pig of her. Her head rested against its back like a giant pink pillow. The both of them were quiet as they slept like a couple of angels, completely unaware of the demon in their midst.
"Hmm, on second thought," Bill said. "Maybe not tonight."
No, not tonight. He would mess with them later, but not just yet. Why put them on edge too early? From the window, though, he couldn't take his eye off Dipper's journal. Journal number 2 had dissapeared when Gideon was arrested, and who could even guess as to where the first one might be. (Bill had a hunch but he decided a while ago not to seek it out just yet).
Oh, what fun he could have been having right now in those twins' heads! If only they were not necessary for later. Bill let out a sigh. He loved this strange little town, he really did, and he sought its secrets with an unrelenting, ravenous appetite. Though he hated to admit it, even Gravity Falls could get a bit boring after a while. The last really fun time he had was taking over Dipper's body not quite two weeks ago. It had been ages since the demon had had a host body, so even the most unpleasant pains were somehow invigorating. It was the first time in a long while that he had enjoyed himself so much.
"Man, how great will this place be again once I've broken this tedium?" he mumbled.
His eye was still locked on the journal, but he forced himself to move away from the glass to once again roam the empty streets. Thinking about his constant boredom only made him feel worse. Oh why must preparing the stage for his plans take so long? As he pondered this, an awful stench surrounded him. Ah yes, there was one downside of being a disembodied dream demon: you can't feel a thing, but boy can you smell things. (How he managed to smell without a nose, however, Bill was not really sure of).
He looked up to see a an open-hooded car far past the point of repair butted up against a ramshackle wooden shack. Of course he had come to the dump of all places. Who better to torment than good Old Man McGucket? Bill crept into the shack with an almost giddy feeling. The inside of the building was a total mess. Various metal parts, tons of papers, and plain old garbage littered the dirt floor in unstable heaps. McGucket himself was asleep on an old mattress in the corner of the room, snoring away. He looked surprisingly comfortable all things considered.
Bill chuckled under his breath and went for him, blue flames blazing in his hands, only to be blown back in a flash of light. He flew across the small room into the piles of junk with a cry. The old man did not stir. Bill scowled with his one eye and returned to the man's bedside carefully. He cleared a bit of the garbage on the floor surrounding him to reveal painted lines of bizarre symbols. Of course, even thirty years later with his mind gone, the man somehow remembered to arm himself. He probably couldn't even remember the significance of the barrier.
"Hmm, I hate to say it, but I'm impressed." Bill backed away toward the opposite wall. "You haven't lost your touch Fiddleford."
Bill slumped down into a pile of papers. Boy, McGucket sure had an awful lot of research material here. Poor guy probably couldn't tell what any of it means now though. Bill sifted through a few of the papers out of curiosity, but there was nothing pertaining to himself and almost nothing of any value in general.
"Lesse, gnomes, magical squash, "truth teeth"? Yeesh, talk about no competition."
He sighed and began to shuffle the papers into a stack. How boring. Just then, a few sheets slipped from the bunch. These looked somehow better kept, Bill noted, compared to the other dog-eared and coffee-stained notes. They all seemed to be part of the same document; Each page had an identical heading TENTATIVE PORTAL OPENING across the top.
"Wait just a minute, now what is this?" The demon skimmed the first page curiously, and his eye grew wide as he read further.
"No, that can't be right. How on earth is this possible?" Bill snatched up the other papers and read them at a ravenous, fast pace. He read them cover to cover, notes and all, two or three times over as if in disbelief.
"So even without the incantation...and if the ritual is done this way...I've never even thought of this before! And if this is true-" his ramblings soon gave way to raucous laughter. "Hahahahaha! Oh, Fiddleford you brilliant old fool! I knew you still had it in you!"
He looked at the sleeping elder almost tenderly. The old man simply turned over, blissfully unaware of the hysterical demon's presence.
"Forget messing with dreams, this- this is something special!"
He was actually feeling excited as he gathered the precious documents together. Oh, those precious papers! He had to get going soon, for there was work to be done now. Those dusty old notes were going to change everything! With another string of giddy laughter, Bill fled the disheveled shack and sped off into the night.