"Mabel, are you alright?" A hand roughly shook Mabel's shoulder. Mabel opened her eyes to see Grunkle Stan's stubbly face staring back at her with a concerned expression. Somehow, she was lying on her back, clutching the Journal. Her foot was jammed at an awkward angle, and pins and needles prickled up her leg.

"Grunkle Stan?" Her grunkle helped Mabel up to her feet. The audience was also dazedly getting up, as if they'd woken up from mass hypnosis. The confused mob looked to the stage for guidance. Grunkle Stan whisked the microphone out of Mabel's hands and worked the audience.

"Wasn't that amazing! Come back tomorrow! Don't forget to pay for parking!" said Grunkle Stan, as if the whole fainting spell was part of the show.

"Woo! Go Mystery Cult!" Soos started clapping and cheering, which spread infectiously until the entire crowd was roaring. Stan and Mabel bowed and bowed as the audience filed out.

"What a charming demon," said Lazy Susan. "I'm going call him about my plumbing!"

"I don't understand how you could have messed this up so badly," berated Shandra Jimenez. "All our footage is static!"

Finally, the curtains dropped, and so did Grunkle Stan's stage act. He fell to his knees and pried open Mabel's eyes, shoved up her sweater to look at her arms, and rifled through her hair, as if he was searching for some kind of mark on her body.

"What happened here?" Stan asked. "I came back from the store to see everyone lying around like they were dead. I thought some psycho had dropped sarin gas on everyone."

"No, it was my fault," Mabel said, looking at her feet. "I wanted a show that would really knock the socks off of everyone, so I summoned a demon." Grunkle Stan grabbed Mabel by the shoulders in panic.

"Which one? Asmodeus? Belial? Furfur?"

"Bill Cipher."

"He's the worst one of them all! Why would you do that?"

"I thought he looked cute! And he put on a great show. You should have seen it! The sky was raining sprinkles, he made an army of knights fight a dragon, and there was even a puppet show. Plus, I guess it was all just a dream?" Instead of calming down, Grunkle Stan only became more furious.

"Oh, he might not seem like a big deal, but once he's in your head, there's no telling what kind of damage he'll do. He can mess up your head so badly you won't be able to tell what's real and what's fake." Grunkle Stan snatched the Journal out of Mabel's hands. "I see you can't be trusted with this kind of power. You're grounded! No more TV for the rest of the summer!"

"Grunkle Stan, no! I won't try to summon any demons again, I promise."

"You already broke your promise not to use the Journal for personal gain. You're just as bad as your bro-mother. Your mother. Who was bad."

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Now help clean up this mess!" Stan gestured to the mess left behind by hundreds of spectators. Pamphlets, soda cans, underwear, and worse. The Shack did not have enough port-a-potties for this size of crowd. In fact, they didn't have any. All they had were trees.

From the ticket booth, Wendy ran up with an entire wheelbarrow full of cash. "And there's more where that came from," bragged Wendy. "I think we made almost one hundred thousand dollars!"

"One hundred thousand dollars! Lets see, add that to last weeks haul, and minus the cost of bribing the safety inspectors …" Grunkle Stan scribbled on a notebook in his pocket.

"Can I have a raise?" asked Wendy.

"No!"

"Why not? We're making more money than ever." Wendy pointed to a bite mark on her arm. "And I've been dealing with obnoxious babies and old people all day! This definitely calls for hazard pay."

"You're not getting a raise, and that's final! Now go help Soos clean up the vomit. We've got another show tomorrow!"

"Uhrg." Wendy stormed off. "Maybe I should have just gone to lumber camp. I can't even remember why I thought working here was so fun anyway."

Mabel threaded between the fold-up chairs, shoving discarded soda cans and plastic water bottles into a trashbag. She had to find some way of getting back that journal. Maybe she could earn his trust back? Or maybe she could just steal it and substitute a decoy made of cardboard. As she worked in the fading afternoon, she felt a prickling on the back of her neck, as if someone was watching her.

"Psst. Hey Mabel." A valley-girl voice called from inside a bush.

"A talking bush!" Set it on fire, and that was tomorrow's show.

"No, it's me. Pacifica." A blond head wearing a headscarf poked out of the bush. "I can't believe I'm sneaking around like some kind of commoner. But I can't let the paparazzi see me in this dump."

"Then I'll join you." Mabel dived headfirst into the bush, and pulled Pacifica down into the underbrush.

"So, what did you think of the show?" Mabel asked.

"I was expecting it to be all cheesy music and lame costumes. But it was actually kind of cool. What kind of projector did you use to get that … Bob Sipper guy to show up?" Mabel looked around, all shifty-eye like, even though they were already hidden.

"Paz, can you keep a secret?" Mabel whispered in her ear.

"Of course. Rich people have many secrets."

"The show wasn't fake. None of it's fake. Bill Cipher was a real demon that I summoned. And even though nothing bad happened, now I'm in big trouble with Grunkle Stan. He's probably going to ground me for the rest of the summer!" The rich girl raised one eyebrow skeptically, like she didn't believe the fantastic secret that Mabel had just told her.

"That's harsh. Because, well," Pacifica tapped her fingertips together, "I told my parents that the Putt Hut wasn't up to my standards, so they commissioned a whole new mini-golf course in the backyard. We imported an architect from Spain to design the buildings. It was finished today, and, well, I was hoping you would play with me in the grand opening." Mabel grabbed Pacifica's hands and held them in her own, gazing into her eyes.

"Pacifica, I would love to play mini-golf with you. To heck with being grounded. I'm sneaking out tonight!"

"Okay, let's swap numbers." From the secret pocket she had sewn into the back of her sweater, Mabel pulled out her trusty old flip-phone.

"Ha, you're still using that old thing?" scoffed Pacifica. "I got the newest earPhone model that just came out yesterday. I even paid Toby to wait in line all night for me." The rich girl pulled out a sleek pink rectangle, case glistening with bedazzled jewels that were probably real.

"Hey, I like this phone. It's been through a lot: camping trips, slumber parties, the inside of a bear's stomach." As she typed in Pacifica's number, her fingernail scraped off a chip of paint. Hmm. Needs more glitter-glue.

Mabel finished typing in Pacifica's number. "Now for the most important part: choosing a ringtone!" Mabel scrolled through the available options.

Bark-bark! Nah. Pacifica was more of a cat person. Beep-beep! Nope, not unless Pacifica was secretly a robot. Was she secretly a robot? Mabel pinched Pacifica's cheek.

"Ow, what was that for?" Nope, not a robot. The girl scrolled through her list until she came to a bell. Ding-a-ling! This had potential.

"Paz, what do you think of this?"

"It's fine," Pacifica said flatly.

"Okay!" Mabel selected the ringtone and hit save. Mabel sent a message from her phone to Pacificas. A generic tone pinged from the sleek rectangle. "You haven't set up your ring-tone yet?"

"I haven't had time to."

"Then we've got to do it now!" Mabel looked through Pacifica's library. It had an interesting selection of classical piano and indie rock, but the most played song on the list was "Sakura Sparkler" by the 70's female punk rock band "Sentenced to Live." Right afterwards, however, was "Minutez of Life," the newest album by Sev'ral Timez.

"Oh my gosh, you have to change it to 'My Heart is (Not) Yours.' Deep Chris is so good in that one!" Pacifica had a pained expression on her face, like she had swallowed a fish bone.

"Sure, that's fine," the rich girl gritted through her teeth.

"Um, okay." Mabel set the ring tone. "So, see you at 10 tonight?"

"Whatever you say, Mabel."

A/N: Uh oh. Looks like Bill's influence is rubbing off on you, Mabel ...

The amazing Levi drew a fanart of this: i-knowyouknow {dot} tumblr {dot} com {slash} post/118105440254/pine-tree-dad-and-me-based-on-scape-escape-by

Give the artist some love!