Chapter One
"You can't save them," the voice spoke in his head. "You can't save your family."
"Shut up, Bill!" Dipper shouted. "I can protect them! I can protect my family from you and every other supernatural being out there!" He knew he was dreaming. Bill couldn't communicate with him outside the dreamscape.
"Oh, yeah?" Bill asked. "How are you gonna protect them without that journal with yours. All I've got to do is get my hands on it and you're finished. Sorry, kid. This round is mine," Bill said before Dipper woke in a sweaty panting mess. Well, the sweating was normal.
"Dipper?" Mabel asked from across the room. They always woke at the same time. "Did you have a nightmare?" It wasn't common for Dipper to have nightmares at all. If he did have one, he usually just talked himself back to sleep. He had been doing it since they were very little.
"No," Dipper answered. "Just…a really weird dream." He wouldn't tell Mabel about his dream with Bill. He was sure it wouldn't happen again.
Dipper went on with his day as usual, though was a bit paranoid when it came to bedtime. Grunkle Stan never set a "bedtime" for them. He just wanted the twins out by the time he was going to bed.
"Dipper?" Mabel asked when she noticed Dipper wasn't asleep yet. "Are you having trouble falling asleep?" Dipper could tell by her tone of voice that she was worried about him. He didn't want that. It was his job to worry about her. Not the other way around.
"I'm fine," Dipper responded. He turned over in his bed to face away from Mabel's side of the room. He could feign sleep and she would never be the wiser.
Dipper was up much longer than he expected to be. After he fell asleep, he found himself speaking with Bill again.
"Did you miss me, Pine Tree?" Bill asked. "Admit it, you missed me a little."
"You know I didn't miss you," Dipper responded. "Why are you harassing me? Surely you can think of something better to do with your time."
"I'm immortal, Pine Tree," Bill said. "I literally have nothing else to do in my shattering dimension than to bother you. So here I am – bothering you."
"So, what do you want with me, anyways?" Dipper asked. "I mean, you could be in anyone's mind right now."
"No," Bill said. "We're bonded. You and I are connected because I possessed you. You're stuck with me now."
"For how long?" Dipper asked.
"As long as I want," Bill answered.
"Well, I guess if all you're going to do is stare at me like that, I could live with this," Dipper said.
"Oh, I won't be sitting here," Bill said. "I'll be playing with you."
Before Dipper knew it, he was chained against the wall in his bedroom. He knew this had to be his dream still. Otherwise he would have remembered waking up and being chained.
"I'm going to have fun with you," said Mabel in front of him. Dipper knew it was really Bill. Her pupils were slit like his had been when Bill possessed him and the whites of her eyes were yellow.
"Bill, I know it's you!" Dipper exclaimed.
"Don't worry, you don't need to think it's Mabel," Bill said. "You just need to see her face as she carves into your skin." After Bill said this, he used Mabel's body to begin beating on Dipper.
Dipper let out grunts as he was kicked and punched by the illusion of his twin.
"It's just a dream, it's just a dream," Dipper chanted to himself. Despite it being a dream, it still hurt. And it hurt emotionally for Bill to be using the image of his twin sister to be doing this to him.
"Just a dream" Dipper repeated one last time.