Ch. 9 (How to walk your pet Demon)
"I can't believe you just let her go," Mabel huffed.
It had been a few minutes since Pacifica's departure, and Mabel continued to lecture her brother about having a plan and how it is ruined. Candy and Grenda now slept peacefully in the living room, while Dipper rested comfortably on his bed, and Mabel paced in front of it.
"You're not the only one who has plans, Mabel. Maybe if you told me your plans," Dipper said, "I could let you know how they interfere with my own."
"You never tell me your plans, why should I tell you mine?!"
"Why don't we just watch how this plays out okay?"
Dipper held up the mirror from Bill and an image appeared. The limo pulled up to the Mystery Shack driveway and Pacifica stepped out, thanking the driver. Mabel sighed and plopped down on Dippers bed right next to him, so she had a better view.
Pacifica raced into the shack and closed the door softly behind her. It was 3 in the morning, and she didn't want to wake anybody up. It didn't matter though, because Gideon jumped up from the living room chair and ran over to Pacifica.
"Oh thank goodness you're back." He pulled her into a bear hug, making it hard for her to breathe for a moment. After a few moments, he held her at arms-length, looking her over. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you? They did, didn't they? What happened to your neck? Oh and your hair!"
Pacifica pulled away from the rambling Gideon and placed her hands on his shoulders. She looked at him directly in the eyes. "Breathe, Gideon. I'm alright."
Gideon did as he was told, but was not convinced.
"What happened?"
"Well, I threw up, was turned into a clown, and received a butchered haircut. Other than that, I'm fine. The party did not get out of hand, and I made sure to get out of there as soon as possible when Mabel started making objects defy gravity."
"Are you sure you're okay? What about your neck? And there's so much blood."
"I'm okay. Just a side effect from the haircut," she said, leading Gideon upstairs, so they could get some rest.
"Did either of the twins ask about the journal?" Gideon asked.
"No. I'm pretty sure both of them are insane, but Dipper was kind tonight."
Having heard this, Dipper set down the mirror for a second.
"See, she's starting to trust me," Dipper said with a smirk.
Mabel rolled her eyes. "She called us both insane."
"Well, either way, I can use this to our advantage."
"What!" Gideon's voice could be heard through the mirror. The twins began to watch again. "How could you possibly think that?"
"He wrapped up my wound. He doesn't seem all that bad," Pacifica said unconvincingly.
Gideon sighed. "The Pines family cannot be trusted! Don't let him fool you, Pacifica. I don't want you to get hurt."
Pacifica just nodded. The two parted ways, she went to her room and Gideon went to his.
Mabel laughed. "Well, it looks like you'll need to do a lot more convincing with Pacifica."
Mabel went over to her own bed and flopped down.
"Yeah, yeah," Dipper mumbled. Then, he remembered something. "Hey Mabel, can you watch Bill tomorrow? I have to take care of something in town."
"What!? Why should I? It's my day off tomorrow," she complained, already snuggling into her pillow.
"I just need you to watch him for a few hours. I don't want him burning any more of Ford's stuff. I found something in the book that can prevent him from burning things, but I still don't want him left unsupervised."
"Why should we care if that stuff gets destroyed?"
"There is a possibility that Bill could find a way out of the contract, and I want to ensure that he doesn't. Fords notes could hold a guarantee that we can keep this demon chained. Now, will you help me or not?"
"Yeah, fine. Whatever."
Then Mabel began to snore quietly. Dipper smirked and then fell asleep shortly after his twin.
"Hey! Give that back!" Bill cried out.
The angry dream demon chased Mabel around the torn up shed. She held the demon's tiny hat above his head, just barley within his reach. When he jumped up to grab it, she quickly pulled it away higher.
"What is with you and stealing clothes?"
"I don't only steal clothes," Mabel said. She pulled something out of Gideon's vest, which she kept as a souvenir, and dangled it in front of the demon. "I also steal car keys." She smiled wide then tossed the hat on the floor in front of the demon.
"Mabel!" an angry voice yelled from inside the house.
"Whoops. Looks like I got caught." She skipped over to the door of the shed, closing it. "Be a good demon and stay quiet for a while."
Bill breathed a sigh of relief. These Mystery brats were starting to get to him, forcing him to project themselves into the dreams of other people and having him possess people. He had no control of his actions. Not only did he feel completely drained, he was pissed off.
Bill summoned a ball of blue fire and furiously tossed it at a stack of boxes. The fire barley singed them, Dipper found a way to make Sixer's research fireproof. Bill needed to think of a plan of escape, and quick. He wasn't sure how much more of this torment he could take. Just then the door creaked open.
"Jeez! Some people just can't take a joke," Mabel's voice wafted into the shed once more. "You toss some keys into a manhole and suddenly it's 'The end of the world', and 'dammit Mabel now I'm going to be late'"
Mabel smiled to herself. She noticed Bill in the corner, chained up. He glared daggers at her. Literally. Transparent daggers flew from his eye and passed right through Mabel's body. Unfortunately for Bill, the contract made it impossible for him to harm either twin physically or mentally. So he gave up his useless feat and turned away from her, expecting the usual bombardment of questions she seemed to have whenever they were alone. Mabel opened her mouth and Bill prepared for the onslaught.
"So what do you want to do today?"
"What?" This was new. He was genuinely confused. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I don't really want to be babysitting you, or is it demon-sitting? Whatever, I don't want to be cooped up in the shed for however long it takes Dipper to run his errand, and I'm sure you're itching to get out of those chains for a bit," she said. At this the Demon twitched, his chains rattling, bringing truth to her statement. "So what do you want to do?"
"Can I go free?" he asked hopefully.
Mabel laughed. "Of course not, silly. Dipper would kill me if I let you go. No, no, but maybe we could go for a walk."
Bill thought this over. He was getting nowhere being locked up in this shed. This offer might just be his ticket away from the twins. He just needed to get to the library.
"You know, a walk doesn't sound half bad, Shooting Star."
Mabel made a face at the nick name. "Why do you keep calling me that?"
Bill stayed quiet. Some secrets he would take to his metaphorical grave. When he didn't answer, Mabel just shrugged it off.
"Well, if we are going to go out, can you change your appearance?"
"Of course, I can change my appearance, I'm an all-powerful Dream Demon!"
"Then do it," Mabel said.
Bill glared at her before turning into a giant ferocious, yet bright yellow velociraptor.
Mabel laughed at Bills attempts to bite her and she commented, "That's fantastic, but can you turn into something less conspicuous, like maybe a dog, or a pig?"
Bill transformed into a yellow pig.
"And can you not be yellow?"
He transformed into his triangular self again.
"I like the color yellow!"
"But a yellow pig will stand out."
"Fine!" Bill said, then he began to transform again. "Why don't I just pretend to be human?"
When he was done, Mabel looked him over. Bill stood about 5 ft. 2 with black hair and brown eyes. He wore a yellow sweater vest and a white button down underneath that popped against his copper skin, with a black bowtie. Black suspenders attached to his black trousers, and his black shoes shone from the light coming in through the cracks in the shed's walls.
"What do ya think?" Bill smiled, pushing his large, wire rimmed glasses up on his face and adjusted his top hat. "I made myself look puny and pathetic because that's what humans are."
Mabel's cheeks flushed slightly at this. He looked kind of cute, but she didn't want him to know that!
"It's a little old-timey, but I guess it will do."
She snapped her fingers, and the chains that weighed down Bill's hands and feet disappeared. Bill rubbed his wrists, where the chains were, a part of him was relieved they were gone, but because he had been chained for so long, his wrists felt too exposed. Before he could even think about disappearing to safety, he felt a heavy weight wrap around his neck. He reached for it and felt a cold metal collar fitted tightly around his throat. Mabel walked up to him and attached a chain leash to his collar.
"Isn't a human, walking another human just as conspicuous as a yellow pig?" Bill grumbled.
"No, silly. Only you and I will be able to see this collar and chain. Now let's go, I've got some hell to raise!"
Mabel tugged at the chain and Bill was forced to follow along. A few minutes along the sidewalk, Mabel stopped, turned to the demon, and tapped her foot impatiently on the ground.
"What?" he asked.
"If you're going to pretend to be human, can you at least walk like one?" she asked.
He hadn't realized that he had been floating this whole time. Mabel felt like she was carrying around a Bill balloon. He stepped down onto the sidewalk, his legs wobbling for a moment. It had been years since he actually had to use his legs. He took a cautious step forward, then another before he felt confident enough that he could continue without toppling over. He grinned, humans certainly were pathetic creatures. When he looked back up at Mabel, she still looked annoyed.
"Now what?" he asked, stepping towards her.
"Being human also means you have to blink both eyes at the same time," she scolded.
He nearly forgot he now had two eyes to control. It took a few moments, but he finally got the lag between the blinks of each eye to a minimum.
"Anything else?" he asked.
"Yeah, walk next to me, so it doesn't look like you're stalking me."
Bill thought this over. He rather liked the idea of stalking, it reminded him of the deadly predator he truly was.
"As you wish, Milady," he said, exaggerating his tone. Mabel rolled her eyes as he stepped up beside her and they continued walking towards town.
Meanwhile, when Dipper had finally fished his car keys out of the manhole, he went to the shed to lecture Mabel again. When he got to the shed though, no one was there.
"Oh no." Dipper looked around for a moment, in case Bill was hiding, but there was no trace of them. Mabel wouldn't let that monster go would she? He sighed and put it out of his head for the moment. He had more important things to attend to, and he was late now. "I hope you know what you're doing." He said to himself, then he quickly made his way to the car and drove off.
"Stop it," Bill whispered under his breath, then he pushed Mabel aside so there was space between them again.
"Oh, come on!" Mabel teased, grabbing onto his arm once more. People on the street started giving the two of them funny looks, and secret smiles.
"This is way more conspicuous than me being a yellow pig."
"Fine," she huffed, calmly placing his top hat on her head.
"What the-? How the hell did you do that?!" he quickly snatched is hat back, and Mabel just laughed and began running ahead. "Not again."
He groaned. Because he was attached to her by the leash, he was forced to keep up. Mabel stopped short, followed by a relieved Bill. She had her sights set on something, but Bill was too occupied with catching his breath to figure out what.
"Come this way."
They found themselves standing in a beautiful green park. A playground full of screaming toddlers was about 20 feet away.
"I love this," Bill stated without realizing. "The utter chaos, the tormented looks on the adults faces, it's beautiful."
Bill looked down at Mabel to see her smiling up at him, a spark in her eye. She held up a flashlight with some weird crystal attached.
"Want to create more beauty?" she asked.
Bill responded with an equally evil smile. Soon, not only were the toddlers screaming, but some of the adults were as well. A child began sliding down a tube slide that slowly shrank around him and he got stuck. Another kid was swinging on a swing, when it grew so large, that the upward momentum sent her flying, then landing in a nearby tree. The two trouble makers were paid no attention as they hysterically laughed at the chaos and confusion.
"Oh, oh! Make that tiny dog smaller!" Bill said excitedly.
The lady walking her dog screamed, as it seemingly vanished before her eyes, when in reality, it just shrunk to the size of an ant. A few moments later, the fire department and police showed up to try to get things back in order. Mabel and Bill took this as their que to move on. Still laughing, they quickly walked away from the park, and onto a crowded sidewalk.
"Where to next?" Mabel said happily.
Bill thought this over. He wanted to go to the library, but he didn't want it to seem like he was desperate. Conveniently, they were walking in the direction of said building, so Bill cleared his throat and answered.
"What about that building?" he asked.
Mabel made a face at him. "The library? Nobody goes there except my dorky brother."
Bill had to think quickly before she would drag him somewhere else. He might not get this chance again. "But what better place to create utter chaos, then the quiet sanction of a library?"
Mabel thought about this. "Hmmm. Well when you put it like that." They were now standing in front of the library. Bill was fighting the urge to drag the Mystery brat by the hair into this building if he had to. "Alright. Let's do it!" she affirmed, then she walked up the steps with Bill on her tail.
The two walked swiftly passed the front desk, with the cranky old librarian, and hid behind a row of bookshelves. The place was nearly deserted, making Mabel frown.
"So what's the plan? Because there's not a whole lot of people here to make suffer," Mabel said.
"This way," Bill responded, taking the lead.
He knew exactly which way to go and what he needed. He led Mabel through the maze of bookshelves and into a dark, dusty and forgotten corner of the library. Suddenly, Mabel pulled hard on the leash, stopping Bill.
"What are we doing back here? I see no chaos to be made."
"That's because you have no imagination," Bill choked out. The collar became tight around his throat and he knelt down due to the pain. Being human sucked. "Can you just trust me on this? I know what I'm doing."
After a moment, the collar loosened, and Bill took in an exaggerated breath.
"You have two minutes," Mabel stated.
Bill got up and nodded. Two minutes was more than enough time for him to get what he needed. Quickly, he scanned one bookshelf, then another until he found the book he needed. He tugged on it, but instead of it coming out, the bookshelf began to rumble. It slowly sank into the floor, revealing an abandoned room behind it. Mabel looked skeptically at Bill as he cautiously stepped into the room. She followed behind him, staying alert for any traps.
The room was small, the only furniture decorating it was a dusty old chair and desk. Bill quickly went over to the desk, knelt down and pulled out a drawer. It was filled with useless papers that he pulled out and tossed in the air, making it difficult for Mabel to see him discreetly open the secret compartment in the drawer and pull out a tiny notebook. He smiled, then quickly hid it inside his vest pocket. Then, as to not cause suspicion, he rummaged through another drawer, and found a few cherry bombs. Mabel kicked through the papers and angrily approached the demon.
"Your two minutes are up," she said.
Bill, while still on one knee, took Mabel's hand and gently placed the cherry bombs in her palm. She glanced at them then smiled wide.
