Hey guys! Sorry it took this long to upload chapter two—I was so surprised at all the positive feedback it received, I wanted to surprise you guys with two chapters in one day! They might be a little shorter than the first, but I hope you guys will enjoy it anyways :D Alright, alright. I'll stop rambling.. without further ado, here's chapter two! (see what I did there I rhymed because it's chapter two and I—…sorry)

Story Begins Below

When he had awoken, he was in bed. It was odd—he could have sworn he passed out on the sofa. He glanced around, spotting Mabel's sleeping form also in bed next to him. Stan must have brought them up to their rooms while they were sleeping, or something. Hmm. For a tough old guy, he had his moments.

Dipper yawned, standing up on shaky legs. He was still pretty tired, despite having almost a full night's rest. Ah, well.. he groggily walked into the bathroom, quickly brushing his teeth and rinsing out his mouth with a cup of water. He gargled, spit, and happened to look up in the mirror.

He saw a sort of glowing, blue mark just under his shaggy brown hair—had Mabel drawn on him again?—and he flipped back his hair to see..

Oh, god. How could he have forgotten what had happened? The deal.. it.. no. He stared in the mirror, gawking at the glowing pine tree, entrapped in a triangle. It was over his natural birthmark, which made it even worse—how could he get rid of it? Maybe Bill had drawn on him? Did he do those kinds of things..?

He rubbed his eyes and hopped in the shower, hoping a hard scrub on his face would get it off. It had to be some stupid prank. He knew Bill was evil, but this was just.. embarrassing. Not to mention extremely cruel for the little triangle.

He got out, drying his face first and wrapping his towel around his waist. His wet hair covered his forehead, so he got on his tiptoes and pulled it back.

It was still there! Great. He pounded his fist on the sink, which.. hurt. Ow. He sharply inhaled, shaking his hand in pain.

He just had to.. hide it. No big deal, right? Right. He slipped on his clothes and made sure his hair covered it for the most part. He then put his hat on, making sure the bill was as close to his eyes as possible. Perfect—he couldn't see it, so he was sure nobody else could. He sighed and opened the bathroom door, peering around to make sure Mabel or Stan weren't nearby.

He quietly made his way downstairs, figuring he could just grab his breakfast and go out into the forest. Luckily, he brought his journal with him everywhere, so it was in his normal vest pocket. There had to be some way to fix this, right?

He went into the kitchen, not seeing any food ready or.. anything. Huh. Stan must not have gotten up yet? Dipper frowned and made himself some toast—which turned out horribly burnt and bitter—and scurried out the door. Phew, no interruptions.

He made it into a forest clearing, seating himself on a decaying log and taking out his journal. He flipped it open, scanning all the pages to see if there was someway to reverse a demon's branding—but nothing. Nothing! This wasn't the first time his book wasn't helpful, but this was extremely frustrating.

It couldn't be that bad, could it? He took off his hat, walking deeper into the forest. He knew he shouldn't have gone so far, but, he was irritated. And when he was irritated, he was oblivious.

Dipper looked in a puddle, pulling back his hair. In his reflection, at first, he didn't see anything, which made him confused—but as soon as he looked closer, he saw it, glowing brighter than ever before.

"Darn it!" He spat, stomping the puddle so that his reflection rippled away. This was so stupid—Bill was so stupid!

"If I'm so stupid, then why'd you make a deal with me?"

Dipper whipped around, stepping backwards as his vision became black and white. The triangle appeared before him, laughing madly as he floated in circles around him.

"Don't you like the pretty tattoo I did for you? I even made it glow! You have to admit, it's pretty cool," Bill snickered, adjusting his bowtie as if he was proud of himself.

"Bill! I thought I was just.. going to do you a favor, or something. I didn't say you could.. brand me!" Dipper snarled, balling his hands into fists as he gritted his teeth.

"Haha! Favor! Yeah, right. I don't need any favors from you.. because you're going to do them on your own.. right?" Bill's eye narrowed, his pupil beginning to glow blue, just like Dipper's forehead.

Dipper raised an eyebrow, obviously confused—that was, until, he began to get the same burning feeling he had when he had made the deal with Bill.

He howled in pain, hugging his knees to his chest as he collapsed onto the ground. He writhed, squirmed, even began tearing into the earth in his insanity-filled rage. It took him all of his strength to stutter out, "Y—yes! Please! I'll do anything! J.. just.. make it stop, p—please!"

With a snap of the little devil's fingers, the pain stopped. Dipper struggled to get a grip on himself as he stood up, breathing still shaky and uncoordinated.

"Well, now you know what happens when you.. disobey me." Bill murmured, grabbing Dipper's chin to force him to look up into his eye.

"If you don't want to ever go through that again, you'll do what I say, when I say it. Do you understand, Pine Tree?" He said 'Pine Tree' with obvious disgust and hatred in his voice.

Dipper nodded quickly, feeling Bill let go of his chin. He looked down, still trying to steady his heartbeat. He had never experienced anything like it, but.. what Bill said, made him worried. What if he was just going to be used to kill Mabel? He couldn't do it, but.. he knew that Bill would stop at nothing to get him to do it. He'd probably be driven insane enough to the point where he'd do anything to get the pain away from him.

The future looked so bleak, now. He stared down at his hands, imagining all the scenarios Bill could—and probably would—put him up to. His eyes watered as he glanced up to see the triangle laughing his head off.

"Well, see ya later, Piney! It won't be long until I have your first little task.."

With that, Bill disappeared, leaving Dipper back to the harsh reality he now had to face.

Just a man and his thoughts.

As I said before, these next chapters are a bit shorter than the first, but I'm hoping you guys still enjoy them! The next one will definitely be up later tonight, if not sooner. Thanks for reading, and if you liked, a review, favorite, and/or follow is greatly appreciated! 3