Hey! I'm just going to get straight to the point: I'm going to try and update this as often as I can, which might be everyday, could be once every week. I really appreciate the positive feedback my first chapter received, so, here's chapter two! :)
- Story Begins Below - -
Stan never did fix that sign. Dipper wasn't bothered by it much, but every morning, he'd get out of his bed and look out the window, just to see if anything had changed. It had been a week since the accident, and his memories hadn't changed too much. He got Stan's name down, and his own name, as well. But that was really it.
Today, Stan came in with a small plastic bag. He stared at the empty bed adjacent to it—Mabel's old bed, which made him sting with guilt as he seated himself on it—and said quietly, "Dipper."
The almost-teen looked away from the wall he had been staring at, head tilted slightly in curiosity.
"I, uh, brought you some things.. you might remember them." He handed the child the bag, who cautiously snatched it up in his hands and placed it on his lap. He peered inside, taking out an old, weathered book. It had a red, leather cover, with a six-fingered hand that had a '3' in the middle.
It looked familiar, and just tracing the edges with his fingers made him nostalgic. He opened it, flipping through it. He stopped at a page about Gnomes, then at one about Zombies. He closed his eyes, seeing flashes of the past in his mind—but as quickly as they came, they left. He finally turned to the page about Bill Cipher, staring at the images the author had portrayed him by. He felt his throat tighten and his heat skip a beat, beads of sweat glistening in the light.
"Th—this one. It's.."
Stan leaned forward, watching his great-nephew with wide eyes. "It's what?"
Dipper studied it, his hands almost shaking now as he carefully prodded the picture. He almost felt a burning sensation, and dropped the book onto the floor. He scrambled backwards on the bed, laying his big, frightened eyes on Stan like a spooked animal. "I don't want to read it anymore.."
Stan frowned, but nodded to reassure him. He didn't want to open any old wounds for the youngster. He had been through a lot, already—did he even remember Mabel?
Dipper began to look in the bag again, pulling out a white hat, with a blue pine tree on it, blue sides, as well as a blue bill. He held it in his hands, unsure of what this was supposed to mean.
Stan must have seen the look of confusion on Dipper's face, so he cleared his throat and shuffled his feet awkwardly. "This is your hat. You always wore it.. when you first got here, you got to choose a little gift, and, uh, you chose it. Do you remember that?"
Dipper shook his head, looking at the crappy stitching with a small frown. Pretty stupid decision to choose some silly hat like this.
"Well, you wanna wear it anyways?"
"..no,"
Stan sighed—that stung a little—and took the hat from Dipper. He looked at it for a while, before putting it on Dipper's head anyways.
Dipper didn't protest, but folded his arms. "What else is in the bag?"
It was a few hours before Stan left. He had shown his great nephew a few pictures of Mabel, which made Dipper cry for some reason. He didn't remember his sister, but the way that Stan talked about her.. it made him sad. It made him feel like he had killed her.
It was about nighttime, and the amnesiac had been reading a few mystery novels that Stan had left for him. They were pretty boring—he wondered why he had ever read the things before—and he ended up putting them away halfway through the second chapter.
He glanced at the ground, noticing that Stan had forgotten to take the journal with him. It was still open to the Bill Cipher page, and Dipper couldn't stand it. It took all of his strength to pick it up, and close it, before setting it on Mabel's old bed.
Stan didn't come up to wish him goodnight, which was odd, because he always had. Or maybe it was just since he got out of the hospital? He didn't know.
Dipper drifted in and out of sleep, unable to stay asleep for more than an hour. It was about three in the morning when he had jolted upright in his bed from a nightmare. He couldn't even remember what had been so scary about it—which showed how serious his short-term memory was—and rubbed his tired eyes.
The journal lay on the bed, almost as if it was calling to him. He stood up, walking towards it like he was in a trance. He turned on the lights, careful not to make too much noise. He opened the book back to the Bill Cipher page, breathing heavily again as he read over the notes. He remembered Stan saying something about a backlight(which was a surprise since he hardly remembered anything anymore), and turned off the lights again so that he could investigate those blank pages. Nothing of interest, but when he flipped back to Bill's page, there was a tiny note at the bottom. It read,
"IF BILL IS ALREADY SUMMONED, IT IS POSSIBLE TO BRING HIM TO THE PERSON THAT READS THIS ALOUD:
Malumin triangulum,existunt,
Tremtuumquoniamnon sum
Volo etexáudi verba mea:
Obsecro, oro, mihi optatopotesse
Malumisoscelesardere
NOTE THAT THIS WILL BRING PAIN TO BOTH THE READER AND BILL HIMSELF. USE WITH EXTREME CAUTION!"
Did he.. dare?
Dipper frowned, contemplating this. He didn't know if Bill was summoned or not, but, he.. could try, right? It wouldn't do any harm. He had already dealed through enough pain, anyways.
He stood in the darkness, setting the book on the floor and staring at the words for a while. He wasn't too sure how to pronounce them, but once he started, the lines flowed out of his mouth easily—almost as if he had read something similar before.
He expected pain immediately, but for just a moment, nothing happened.
Then, it came. His body felt like it was on fire, and poisoned from the inside out. He didn't even have enough strength to scream as he fell to the ground, pounding his fist on the floor and body twitching as it continued to burn.
He panted, barely able to breath as he finally looked up to see Bill just floating around, doing whatever. It.. didn't even hurt him? How..
"Easy, kid. I'm a demon. I've been through much worse,"
Dipper sat up, the pain subsiding as he stared up at Bill. Right, he could.. read thoughts. That was one thing he could remember about the triangle.
"Oh.." It was obvious the amnesiac was terrified of him, from his nervous stature, his estranged tone. Bill noted this, a smug look in his eye... his, uh, eye. He only had one, which made him all the more creepy in this dark room.
"So, Pine Tree. What'd you summon me for? Bring back your dead sister? Get that redhead to visit more often? Or maybe it's something weird, like, uh, I dunno.. wanna be a tree.. what's it gonna be? I grant all sorts of wishes. But I'm not really a fairy, sort of like a genie. There's always a twist, amiright? Haha! But, yeah, seriously, if you were interested in what I was doing today—which I'm sure you're not, since you're a concieted little brat-I was just walkin' around, and then.."
Dipper, at first, wasn't sure what he wanted. But looking at those pictures, he had felt guilty for not recognizing them, just as he did with the people that came to visit him. He was disappointed in himself, but, that wasn't all he felt. He felt like Grunkle Stan was hiding something from him—like, why Mabel had died. Was it because of him? The pit in his stomach grew hollower everytime he heard his dead sister's name. And yet, he.. he didn't have any feelings for her. It was just a name that was matched up to a picture; a picture of a stranger, a person he would have not known ever had she not been so close. But she was so far, too. It was so confusing for him.
He looked up, watching Bill chatter away. He had no idea what the triangle was talking about anymore, but at least he had figured out his desires in the time Bill had come to a halt in his ramblings.
"My memories. I—I want my memories back."
Phew! That turned out a LOT longer than I thought it would. I'm not too sure if I'm uploading another chapter tomorrow, but I should be! Please, if you read, review, favorite, or follow. They all mean a lot to me, and let me know people are interested in it enough that they want me to continue! :D Love ya!