Oo, there is plot happening! You always have to love when there is a plot lurking around the corner, waiting to jump out and jump scare startle you into screaming your lungs out in terror and fear.

Enjoy!

Chapter Three

::

"So, he just wants us to read a book. How hard can that be?" Dipper gave his sister an incredulous look, opening the book she was talking about to a page that was transcribed in, what looked like, another language. One that looked nowhere near anything the two had seen before. "Oh...that hard, then."

"I mean, most of it is in English, but it looks like the guy disappeared before he could finish," Dipper explained, flipping halfway through the book to the back, where the pages were all empty and blank. "It's like he just...stopped writing. I mean, the author of this journal was obviously studying some pretty dark stuff...maybe something bad happened to him..."

"Or he got bored," Mabel suggested, sticking her tongue out at her brother's scandalized look. "Admit it, he could have just gotten bored, or maybe moved to a different town! I mean, we don't know anything yet!"

"Well, we can start educating ourselves by reading. I mean, listen to this. 'It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began studying the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon.' Mabel, can you imagine everything that's lurking in those woods? I mean, look at Bill! We've already met a demon, who knows what else is out there!"

"Adventure, mystery, romance~ It sounds heavenly~" Dipper shook his head, flipping through the pages and staying silent. He had really hoped that Mabel had grown out of her dating craze phase, too. Hopefully it would mellow out as the summer went on. "Hold on! Go back!" Startled, and doing as told, Dipper stopped on the page his sister had pointed out. "Trust no one...isn't that what Bill told us, before he ran off somewhere?"

"Floated off, is a more accurate term, I think," Dipper snorted, fingers absently trailing over the thick, bold words. "But, yeah...that's what he said. Or at least, sort of..." Trust no one but each other, got it? That's the most important thing! It made Dipper wonder...had Bill been warning them about the dangers of Gravity Falls?

Or the danger of himself...

"Huh, hey, listen to this. 'Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide the book before she finds it. Remember, in Gravity Falls, there is no one you can trust.' I wonder who 'she' was...or is? Hm..."

"Oo, looks like someone has on their mystery solving face!" At Dipper's raised eyebrow, Mabel giggled. "Oh, come on, you always get that look when trying to solve a mystery! You've had it ever since we used to watch Scooby Doo!" Sliding down from the arm of the chair she was sitting on, she sat next to her brother, who automatically moved over for her. Once comfy, she lowered her voice, "Hey, Dipper...

"Do you think we can trust Bill? I mean, it's not like we know much about him- Or anything, for that matter! I know you're usually the paranoid one-" Ignoring the jab to her side, she continued. "-but, maybe...I don't know. Maybe we should think about this-"

"Hold on, hold on. Let me just...let me take this in for a moment. I want to forever remember the exact moment that my sister, the most impulsive girl ever, suggested that we sit down and think about things logically-" Half wincing, and half laughing, at the jab he got to his own side, Dipper wrapped his sister in a one-armed hug. "Hey, don't worry about it, Sis. Like you said, you have a good feeling about him, right?"

"I guess...but aren't you usually the more skeptic one of new people? I mean...it's not like we have the best track record, after all." Friends of the twins never lasted very long, either driven off by their morbid attitudes, or just downright strange behavior. It had taught them the lesson Bill had already given them. "What if...I mean...what if this goes wrong?"

"I think...that things might be okay." Dipper was the first to doubt people, and shove them under the bus when things got rough, but when it came to Bill Cipher... He was at least willing to give the demon the benefit of the doubt. "I can't explain it, but...I think he might be okay. So, for now, at least, we can try trusting him, right?"

"Fine, but only because I like to uphold my promises, and deals," Mabel drew herself up haughtily, managing to maintain the illusion of grandeur for only a few seconds before both she, and Dipper, were laughing. "Alright, alright, so we have to study this book. Where do we start- Dipper? What's wrong?"

"One of the blank pages...it isn't blank." Mabel leaned against her brother, looking at the scribbled and frantic writing that spoke of rushed and shaky hands. There were three words, and they sent a chill down both teens' backs. "'She found me.'"

"I guess the 'she' wasn't very nice, huh," Mabel muttered, eyes narrowing at the red words, before carefully running a finger over them. The 'ink' was crusty and easy to pick at, as well as a faded brownish red color, which gave away what it was in seconds. "I don't think the author got bored and stopped writing..."

"No, I don't think so, either..."

::

"Wait, wait, run that by me again...why are you going to the graveyard?" Mabel sighed, looking away from the mirror where she had been adjusting her sweater and skirt combo. "I told you, I met this really cute guy there this morning, and I want to see if he's still there! If I'm lucky, I might even get a date~"

"Oh, yeah, sure. That makes perfect sense. We just found out this town is crawling with evil creatures, who are out for everyone, I might add, and you want to go on a date. Sure. Fine." Huffing at the flat look he was given, Dipper retreated behind the journal. "When you end up dead in a ditch, don't come crying to me."

"I won't, I'll just haunt you until I'm avenged." Bouncing over, Mabel gave the other a sloppy kiss to the cheek, which he quickly scrubbed off while looking annoyed. "Besides, this is a good chance to see if there's anything supernatural around there. I mean, graveyards are kind of beacons for that stuff, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Have fun stalking after innocent emo teenagers." That earned him a flick to his forehead, Dipper sticking his tongue out as the girl flounced off. "Annoying sister." Deciding that he wasn't getting any work done laying around, he rolled off the living room chair, heading for the door. He was stopped in seconds by a hand grabbing his collar and jerking him back.

"And where do you think you're going? Weren't you and your sister supposed to be putting flyers up around town?" Oh, yeah, right. The flyers. The flyers that led to them finding Bill and the jouranl, and were now rotting in the woods somewhere. Those flyers.

"Um...we finished?" Right, yeah, no, he was so getting caught now, as evidenced by the slow raising of Stanford Pines' eyebrows. "We did a really good job. Lots of customers will come. I'm sure of it. Heh." The eyebrows only climbed higher. "So, okay, a few of them might have gotten lost in the woods-"

"The woods? You didn't go in there, did you?! Didn't I tell you two to stay out of those woods! Or- Wait...no. I meant to- Either way, you didn't go in, did you?!" Well, that just complicated matters... Dipper hoped he was as good at lying as his sister was, otherwise he was screwed.

"Of course we didn't! They blew out of our hands, but we stopped when we got to the treeline. The ones we managed to save, though, went up around town." Truthfully they all had blown into the woods, leaving the two twins to chase after them and tumble right into the secret hiding place of the journal. "Can I go now? I was gonna head to the library and look something up."

Stan let out a deep sigh, releasing his great nephew and shaking his head as the boy was out the door in seconds. He knew taking in two teenagers for the summer would be difficult, but the didn't expect it to be this bad. Antisocial behavior where they hated the world? He could deal with that, hell, he encouraged it! Curiosity over everything?

Now, that could end badly...

::

"What. Language. Is. This." There were sections in the journal that were obviously ciphers and codes, but there were other sections that was another language. It was one he couldn't figure out, either. He had been through the more common languages, as well as the uncommon ones of Latin, Sanskrit, and other dead languages. And yet...nothing. "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid."

He was no longer sure if he was insulting himself, or the author. "What kind of author writes in another language that can't be decrypted! Sloppy!" Realizing his voice was getting just a tad too loud, as evidenced by the shushing thrown his way, he gathered the journal and language books scattered around him, and headed towards the back areas. Maybe there he could get some peace and quiet.

Settling down, and spreading out his books, he didn't notice the creaking sounds behind him until he saw a rapidly approaching shadow. Doing what years of bullying had taught him, he dived under the desk, arms covering his head as he heard the sound of books crashing down around him. Peeking his eyes open, he let out his breath, stunned at seeing just how many books had almost fallen on him, instead of the table.

And, as much as he would have liked to believe it had been an accident due to faulty woodwork, he knew better. Unfortunately, with the librarian now stalking towards him and holding the wrath of a viking shield maiden in her eyes, Dipper wisely chose to grab the journal and sprint to the door.

"Almost getting crushed by falling books...not exactly how I wanted to spend my day." He really hoped his sister was having a better day than he was. She probably was, since he had always been the focal point for bad luck when growing up. "So much for looking this stuff up in the library."

"The library is rather boring, anyways." Squeaking at the sudden voice in his ear, Dipper spun around to see an amused Bill, who looked chipper as always. "Heya, Pine Tree! Get kicked out, already?"

"No, I just didn't want to explain to the pissed librarian why a shelf full of books were trying to kill me." Sighing, Dipper slipped his hat off and ruffled his hair, looking around the empty area, devoid of the usual townspeople. It made sense, since it was still rather early morning, and this area of town was rather secluded to begin with. "There has to be another library in town- Oh! There's that bookstore!" Rushing off, it took a few seconds to notice that his new demon friend wasn't following. "Hey, Bill, you okay? And should you be out in the open like this? I mean, there may not be people around, but somebody might spot you..."

"You said...a bookshelf fell on you? How, exactly, did it fall?" Unnerved at the sudden echoing tone, Dipper remembered that while the other may be rather strange and harmless looking, he was still a demon.

"It just...fell. One second I was about to sit down, the next I saw a a shadow, heard creaking sounds, and scrambled under the table. I mean, someone just probably pushed it on me as a joke, or maybe it really was an accident. It's over, though, so not like it matters, right?"

"I would like to think so..." Dipper raised an eyebrow at that, blinking as Bill scurried to hide under his hat. "I'll just stay here. Out of sight, and all that."

"Great. My demon bodyguard is tiny enough to hide under my hat. Wonderful. I feel so safe and protected, right now." Dipper felt a harsh tug to his hair for his troubles, which made him not so accidentally drop his book on top of his head. "Whoops, must have slipped." It was a few seconds before he smelled the scent of something burning, almost like...fabric? ...shit.

Jerking his, now flaming, hat off, Dipper quickly threw it to the ground, stomping the fires out and glaring at the demon that was innocently sitting on his shoulder, "Whoops, powers must have slipped." Glancing at the now singed cap, Dipper quickly scooped the demon inside with a smooth motion, immediately tossing it as hard as he could into the nearest brick wall.

"Whoops! My hand slipped!" He blinked at the sensation of static rolling across his skin, a glance down showing that blue fire was wrapped around his ankle. Realizing what was about to happen, he cursed, thankful no one was around to see as he was jerked up to hang in the air, upside down with a demon bouncing around his head.

"Whoops! My powers must be on the fritz, how terrible. I'll be sure to look right into that." Dipper only narrowed his eyes as best he could. Once he was just enough in range, he swung the journal to swat at the demon as if using a bat. The yelp and blur of flying gold was satisfying, even as he went crashing to the ground. "Oh, is that how you want to play it?"

Feeling the rolls of static across his skin, Dipper looked down, twitching at seeing his worst fucking nightmare. A warm, fluffy lamb costume was now on over his clothes, complete with bright pink bow. The teen slowly looked up at Bill, who looked as smug as could be. "Alright, demon...

"This means war."

::

"What happened to you two?!" Mabel Pines had just arrived back at the Shack after a wonderful outing with her, now, not so mysterious, crush turned potential boyfriend. She had immediately sought out her brother, shocked to find both him and Bill had looked like they had just left a war zone. "Did a nuclear bomb fall down while I was out?!"

"Things...got out of hand, I guess you could say," Dipper coughed, scratching the back of his neck as Bill floated around him, working on opening a neon colored bandaid. "It sort of...escalated, after a friendly gesture of annoyance." Wincing as the bandage was slapped over a scratch on his cheek, he looked to Bill, who crinkled his eye in amusement. The teen's only comfort was that the the demon looked as bruised and battered as he felt. "I've learned a valuable lesson, however."

"Dare I ask?" Mabel questioned, already digging around for a nearby first-aid kit. "Actually, yes, I want to know what you've managed to learn from this, what looks to be, incredibly stupid venture."

"Never start prank wars with demons."