Chapter 9: Holding

Well, this wasn't exactly part of Bill's 5-year plan.

His body had been healing steadily, an incredible feat if he was honest, and his speech had been improving greatly with the amount of practice he got in.

It was a charmed little life for a human-bound lord of ultimate destruction. He got two meals a day, his own room, and was even allowed to talk to waddles once in a while, although Shooting star probably didn't know about that part.

He wasn't allowed to leave his room, except to use the bathroom of course, but compared to what Bill had expected to receive in terms of hospitality his setup was nothing to sneeze at.

He should be upset, he knew that, he should be mad about being treated like a prisoner, or scared of what 6er will do when he finally answers Shooting star's calls. But he had already spent a few weeks there and Shooting star was off at school most days so with that much alone time to stew about it, he just didn't have the energy to rant at waddles anymore.

It's not like there wasn't anything to do locked in a room, Bill made due with what he had.

Killing and tearing apart bugs, nothing unusual.

Shooting star never spoke to him.

She had been so distant, and she had to be to keep the suspicion from her parents low but still, Bill couldn't shake the feeling she was just kinda scared of him.

However, when she went to school she could never stop a certain swine from sitting at the door.

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Waddles didn't know what to make of the boy human. He was definitely the same human but he smelled different. His human hadn't been as happy to see him as Waddles had hoped.

He knew she had a name, doorbell or something, but Waddles was a simple pig with a simple knowledge of language.

The boy human didn't seem to know language either since he talked way less than Doorbell.

Oh, now Waddles was getting ahead of himself.

It all started 4 years ago when-no no that's too far…

A fortnight! Yes two weeks ago, that's when it started.

When the boy human gave Waddles his potatoes when Doorbell wasn't looking. Waddles started hanging out with him more often, and the first thing waddles learned was the boy was creepy.

He made sculptures out of spiders and bugs he found in his pen. And he would do nothing but talk to himself for hours sometimes repeating the same phrase over and over.

But Waddles didn't mind, he was just a pig who wanted potatoes, who was he to judge?

Sometimes Waddles wondered if the boy did creepy things just so people would ask him why he did them. No one really paid attention to the creepy boy or talked to him ever. Maybe he just wanted people to pay attention to him?

But that was enough wondering for one day, Waddles smelled pot roast! Cooked carrots and cabbage, yum!

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Mabel was distraught.

She knew her Grunkles were busy in the north having the adventure of a lifetime, but she needed Grunkle Ford's nerdy wisdom now! And she really just wanted to talk to Grunkle Stan, he always knew how to make her feel better.

Bottom line, she needed an adult. Sure that demon was trapped and couldn't do anything, but he still freaked her out. Who knows how long she could keep him locked up? Should she be doing more? Questioning him?

Mabel sighed as she put the phone back onto its stand after leaving her 40th message.

Dipper would know what to do.

He always had a plan or some insight that could help. He was the smart one, not Mabel.

Mabel couldn't help but feel like she'd taken that for granted.

Well, nothing could be done for it now, she decided. She scooped her backpack off the floor and ran to catch the bus to school.

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-Somewhere near the Arctic Ocean-

Stanly Pines was getting too old for this.

Living on a boat was hard work what with all the chores and the rocking and the small living space. Not to mention all the monsters they encountered for Ford's research.

It was cramped and smelly and bad on his back.

He wouldn't trade it for anything.

Ford was in his study cataloging the giant squid thing they'd encountered that afternoon when Stans pocket radio went off.

"Tony whaddya want?" Tony was a friend they had check on their stuff back at camp to make sure no one stole anything.

"Uhh, look, Stan, you gotta 'bouta 'undred calls froma little gurl, sayin she's your niece?"

Stan would love to talk to Mabel, not that he'd ever tell her that of course, but he and Ford were in the middle something big.

"Save em, we'll be back in about a month." Stan decided.

"Look chief, this sounds pretty importan', demons an' people comin' back froma' dead and all that...you should really 'ear sommat this stuff."

Stan froze.

No, there was no way, that triangle piece of shit died along with….nevermind, he had to tell Ford.

He hung up pretty abruptly on Tony, but there were bigger things at stake.

He rushed into Fords office.

"Not now Stanly I'm busy"

"You're gonna wanna hear this bro" Ford looked up from his work briefly.

"This had better be important."

"It's Mabel"

Ford was immediately all ears. After Dipper well...he couldn't think of anything bad happening to Mabel too.

"What is it, Stanly? Is she alright?"

"I dunno Ford, Tony says she's been tryin to get ahold of us. Talkin about demons…" Fords stomach dropped.

"You...you don't think..?"

"I dunno what to think, this is your expedition, what do we do?" Ford thought for a moment. If that...that thing was still around it could spell disaster. And if it had Mabel? Research be damned.

"We head back to camp, we can't let this one go."

Stan ran back to the wheel of the ship, a huge grin spreading over his face.

Great minds think alike.