Chapter 1: The Bottom of the Bottomless Pit
? Years, 24 days, 31 minutes earlier (it's hard converting time between dimensions…)
"I'm not a scaredy-cat!" Irene squeaked defiantly. "I just don't want to."
The teenagers sniggered. "That's exactly what a scaredy-cat would say. Should've known you weren't cool enough to do it….."
They continued to mock the flushed nine year old. It was a warm, regular Saturday in Gravity Falls, Oregon and the four orphans had snuck away to the edge of the forest. The forest had always been a mysterious element in the small town. While the town was sleepy and painstakingly boring, the forest was its opposite. More than once had Irene heard townspeople talk of…. weird happenings they'd seen in the woods. These stories both excited and scared her. One claimed that there was a huge crystal to the west, capable of shrinking or enlarging anything. Surrounding it, were tiny deer that fit in your hand and huge butterflies the size of cars, victims of the magic. Another spoke of a civilization of gnomes with a queen as their ruler in the east.
But that wasn't where they were. Facing them was an ominous black. Replacing the tall, green pine trees and sycamores were dark, dead branches and unearthly silence. Not a chirp or rustle issued. It's rumored that anyone who went into these parts of the woods, never returned.
Irene wouldn't say it, but she was scared. Who would want to go into a creepy, dark forest alone? The idea was stupid, she wasn't suicidal.
But, on the other hand, if she did this, Don, Ava, and Ella promised to let her into their gang. Isn't that what she wanted? To have some friends? A few minutes of fear wasn't that bad, right? She sighed. She had always been a pushover.
Irene took a deep breath. "Fine, I'll do it," she mumbled.
"Woo hoo! The little pipsqueak doesn't have cold feet after all," Don said. He leaned an elbow on Irene's head. "Remember, it's only ten minutes, you stick it out, you can hang out with us."
"Yeah, if she survives," Ella joked.
"Whatever," Irene said, puffing out her chest, trying to look braver than she felt. "This is going to be a piece of cake."
She stepped cautiously onto dead grass. It crinkled underneath her loudly and she turned to look back at her new friends.
"What are you waiting for?" called Ava. "Hurry up!"
Irene continued walking deeper into the forest. She didn't notice the three teenagers darting away the opposite direction, grinning and giggling softly.
Bill Cipher was tired. He'd spent all day studying and practicing his magic. His fingers ached from getting burned too many times and his vision a little blurred from reading the small print of the worn textbooks in the library.
That's why he thought it was totally unfair that he had to go on watch tonight. He rubbed his eye groggily, hovering over the desolate cliff. Why couldn't Will do it? He was much better at it, better than Bill could and would ever want to be. He actually liked being a guardian. Oh right, because he's the favorite. He picked up a nearby stone and thrust it over the edge. There was a moment of silence before it reappeared again hitting Bill in the forehead.
"Owww," he said, rubbing the tender spot. He looked under. Scattered images of random scenes, animals, and humans flashed quickly across the bottom like scattered scenes of a movie. The third dimension. Since the time it was born, the Cipher family had been the guardians of it. They were the ones that kept everything in check, from the laws of physics to the gravitational forces of earth.
Bill scoffed. He'd never admit it aloud- his father would incinerate him on the spot- but their guarding was absolutely useless. What good was it if demons couldn't interact with their dimension? Sure, they could wander the mindscape, but even then talking to humans was illegal, punishable by exile. And also, like all rules, the third dimension's laws were plain stupid. Too restricting, no room for fun. Nope, it was just watch and observe. Why he even had to study for this job was a mystery to him.
Bill carelessly juggled an orange flame, adding one more each minute. The more distracted he was, the better. All he had to do was not die of boredom for the next few hours.
Irene shuffled through the decaying foliage, pushing back dry branches that block her way. It had been much longer than ten minutes, however, she couldn't find the path from which she came. Irene tried not to panic, but after crossing the same tree again the third time, she knew she was hopelessly lost.
"Well… maybe they'll come try to find me," Irene said, trying to comfort herself, walking again, this time in a hopefully different direction. Her hand clenched the gold locket around her neck, a habit she'd formed when she was scared or stressed. "Maybe they're already looking for me."
A dim, yellow light caught her eye. She turned her head to see it shining through one of the gaps in the trees. Sunlight. She grinned, maybe she wasn't so lost after all! Irene started running. "Guy! I'm here! I did it! See, I told you I could-"
Irene stopped abruptly. This wasn't where she'd started. She looked around. What was this place? The clearing was huge, not a tree in sight. It was hauntingly beautiful. Warm light beamed on her and she squinted from its brightness. In the middle of the field she then saw, was a huge pit.
"Whoa," Irene breathed, pacing towards it. Even from here, she could see it was deep. Maybe over a hundred feet. Why was it in a place like this? Was it man-made? An abandoned construction project? Why would someone need such a ginormous hole?
Irene knew she should stay back. The last thing she wanted was to fall in. But something about this pit intrigued her, like an unknown force was beckoning her to come closer. She felt an irresistible urge to see what this phenomenon was. Now at the foot of the pit, Irene observed it. Pitch black. It looked like a mouth ready to swallow her up, so deep, she wondered if it even had an end.
A flash of orange light appeared faintly illuminating the dark. Irene's eyes widened. What was that? She looked harder. There it was again, then another, and another. She got on her knees. The supernatural interested her and theories began to form rapidly in her mind. She leaned in closer.
That's when her hand slipped. Irene's heart jumped in her throat and she stumbled to regain her balance. But the dirt was loose and Irene's hand clenched at air before she was engulfed, screaming, by the darkness below.
Bill was adding the twelfth fireball to his juggling act when an unknown force knocked him to the floor. "What the hell?" He groaned in pain, the fire extinguishing in thin air. He was sure he hadn't thrown a boulder down that cliff. "Ughhh…" he said, rubbing his right side.
Then he saw her.
Bill quickly straightened up. His eye full of shock. "What are you- how are you get- why are you here?" He stuttered. Demons were fluent in almost every language, it was just something they learned. For once, he was grateful for it. Of course, of course when I'm on duty something like this happens.
The human looked more scared than him. She stared at him for awhile and silence fell upon them. The only sound was the rustling of the pine trees overhead.
"Wow, let's just stare at each other in awkward silence," Bill said sarcastically.
The human looked taken aback by his tone. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then asked in a curious, but bold voice,
"Are you a talking Dorito?"