I gulped.

People were going to notice me, no matter how much I didn't want them to.

I opened the door a crack and slipped inside. The bar reeked of sweat and unwashed clothes. I felt the urge to vomit.

A few people glared or snarled at me; no one bothered to hide their hatred.

I crept silently to the back of the bar, attracting almost no attention. I wanted a quick talk with the owner.

A horribly familiar odor snuck up on me from behind. I froze, sensing the presence of my nemesis.

"CIPHER!" he barked.

I flinched and slowly swiveled around on my heels to face him.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Mr. Fancy Pants himself!" the boy laughed, a nasty, phlegmy sound that made you feel as if he was going to hock a loogie on your face.

"What do you want, Cade?" I spat. This is exactly who and what I was hoping to avoid.

He flashed a menacing grin. His fanged teeth were crooked and yellow. I felt the need to punch them out of his mouth. "Where ya goin'?" he questioned in his usual deep, raspy voice.

"Uh, nowhere," I stammered.

"Uh, nowhere!" he mocked. "I'm not stupid, Cipher!"

"None of your concern!" I demanded authoritatively.

"Oh, I think it is," Cade whispered. Bursts of hot, foul breath bombarded my face. "Hangin' out with your puny mortal friends?"

"Hey! Not everyone's eight feet tall!" I defended. The guy was a giant. He was literally eight feet tall. He had to hunch over as to not scrape his head against the roof with every step. "I mean, I'm 6' 2" and I'm the shortest one here! Oh. I see your point."

"Have fun!" he sneered. "Make sure to kill someone for me!" More laughter. He shoved me backwards by my shoulders and swaggered into the crowd.

Cade Balsamo. Hated that guy.

"You okay, Cipher?" a voice asked from beside me.

I turned to see Oswald Boyer, the only one in here who seemed to like, or at least accept, me. He ran this place.

"I'm fine," I retorted, more snappily than I wanted to say it.

All will to have a conversation with the man had been drained from me and replaced with hatred and anger. Directed towards Cade.

I stormed out the back entrance.

Sure, I went to highschool. Yeah, I almost had a girlfriend. But that really wasn't very important to me so much as my personal life.

I'm a demon.

So was everyone else in that bar. Including Cade.

I had to control my anger. But maybe not my anger so much as my fear. As much as I hated to admit it, Cade intimidated me. Tall and scrawny, but still plenty muscular. Dark, ragged hair that hung over his pale face. Incredibly dark circles under his black, soulless eyes. Even the way his grease-stained tank top and loose, black athletic shorts hung off his bony frame. Not only that, but he could talk to the dead. A necromancer. That's all he could do, though. Just have a nice little chat with a ghost. He can't summon the dead, he can't order them around. He's always been jealous of me. For basically my entire life. He's a couple hundred years older than me, so he didn't know me for most of his life.

But I'm the most powerful demon in Gravity Falls. And that's saying something, because all the world's demons congregate here, in Gravity Falls.

You might've heard of me. Golden blonde hair that flips up in the front. An eyepatch over my left eye. Light skin to contrast my jet black suit and bow tie. I'm sure that's not the me you know, though.

Bill Cipher.

The name popped into my head for no reason. The name that is either respected, feared, or both to magic users around the globe.

My name.