Silence. There was nothing but, horrible, horrible silence. If Dipper could move, he might have been able to sit like Bill had told him to, but his body refused to do anything. His breath was caught in his lungs and his mouth hung open slightly, no words coming to them.
"I said," Bill stood up and the fire around him rose "sit!" His voice came out distorted and his eyes looked like they were turning red.
Dipper found it in himself to fall into the chair, but his gaze dropped from the demon and he stared down at the table with wide eyes. He was going to die.
"You know," Bill said, his voice returning to normal "at first, I thought, maybe the kid isn't some sort of cop. I mean, who could be that bad at their job?" He laughed a little, making Dipper's insides shake. He sounded like a maniac. "But I played along. You played it off really well, I have to admit. I'm not even mad about the lying part. Because I knew." Bill walked over to him, a tail that Dipper hadn't noticed before flicking back and forth. "I'm an ancient demon who can stare into your soul, how could I have not known?"
Dipper gulped as the heat from the demon got closer. Oh god, oh god. The blood on Bill, the flash drive. Ford was probably dead. Did Bill know about Mabel? Oh, god, oh god, fuck.
"No, the thing I'm mad about," Bill stopped next to Dipper and put his index finger on his chest, slightly digging his nail into him "is that I thought you were afraid enough not to fuck yourself over this badly. And smart enough." He dragged the nail downwards, cutting Dipper's shirt and chest open.
He clamped his jaw shut, trying not to let out sounds of anguish. Fuck it hurt.
"A lot of your life seems to be already decided, seeing as us meeting was an accident, and me finding out about your fuck up was as well. Shawn just happened to be in a random neighborhood, looking for new humans to use, when it just so happens that you were there, talking with your uncle. Nothing about that seemed too suspicious, since like I said, I've known about your stupid fucking lie for a while, but when he saw you handing something off to him, he knew he'd better tell me." He stopped dragging his nail down his torso, just before his jeans, then snapped his fingers.
Dipper's hands were suddenly tied behind the chair, and his shirt was off. Bill was going to torture him.
"Fate has a sick fucking sense of humor, don't it?" Bill grabbed Dipper's hair and pulled his head up, making him meet his stare.
It was so strange that Bill's form looked mostly human. It made the non-human features that much creepier. Dipper hadn't really gotten much of a chance to examine him very closely while he was like this, since each time he was either too scared to look or it happened so quickly that he didn't get to.
Bill's hair had flecks of black in it now, and his eyelashes seemed longer and ink black, making his pure yellow eyes pop from his face. His lips seemed thinner, as if to show off the razor sharp teeth inside his mouth, and his ears came to a slight point.
He used another one of his sharp claws to dig into Dipper's skin, just above his collarbone, and dragged it up his neck, making blood start to ooze out and trickle down his chest. "I'm going to make you regret what you've done. Crossing me like this will never be forgotten."
"You're not going to kill me?" Dipper wasn't sure how he managed to speak, but he was pretty sure it was because he was so shocked about Bill's decision to let him live. He cringed at the nail in his throat, and resisted letting out loud cries, since he was sure Bill would find a way to silence them.
The demon laughed and took his nail away from him, licking off the blood. "Oh, no. That would be letting you off too easy. No, I have plans for you. Besides, your death would be a blow to my presence in the media right now."
A sharp pain went up Dipper's spine, and that time he couldn't hold back a loud cry. The demon had used his knuckle to press into his lower back, hard enough that there was a popping sound.
"I can bring you so close to death, my little Pine Tree," he whispered in Dipper's ear. In a quick motion, Bill used his hand to grab Dipper's shoulder, and he pressed on it, hard, until there was another satisfying popping sound.
Another loud cry came from Dipper. The pain was so sharp at first, and he felt like he was going blind and couldn't breath, but it shortly became dulled, and Dipper felt himself go limp.
Bill was still holding onto his hair, making sure to keep the struggling man in place, and laughed at his cries. "What's the matter? Can't take what you knew was coming?" Bill sat on Dipper's lap, facing him, and let go of his hair. He put his hands on Dipper's cheeks, pulling them upwards so that Dipper was looking him in the eye. "Don't look so down, kid. Look on the brightside! I can heal you after this." He dug his nails into Dipper's cheeks, then pulled them downwards, tearing open the sides of his face.
Dipper was almost as bloody as the demon at that point. Most of him had gone numb, the only thing still really hurting being his shoulder, which felt like someone was still pushing their hand into it.
"Not going to to beg for mercy, huh?" Bill leaned forward and dug his teeth into Dipper's hurt shoulder, making him scream.
He tried to kick and move around, but, he couldn't move his legs. And trying to move them fucking hurt. Even though he was in more pain than he ever thought, the most prominent thing he could feel, was the blood, slowly oozing out of his wounds. Down his cheeks, his neck, and pooling down on his lap. It was so warm on his cold skin, and he almost felt like if he focused on just that, he could endure the rest of the torture.
"No sorry either? You know, I was kind of starting to actually like the idea of having you around. You're going to have to earn that back. Until then though, I think we should move this to an area with a bed. I have so much more to do to you."
Whatever was in this flash drive, it was big. Ford could feel it. As soon as Dipper had rushed off, he figured he'd better do the same, so that he could watch it and see what had the boy so freaked out.
He ignored the hello's from his co-workers, and went straight into his office, and plugged the small thing into his laptop.
There were about six files, all mp4s, labeled by date only. Dipper had told him to watch all of them, multiple times, so he did.
Over and over he watched as people were lead into the room, closed behind a curtain, then murdered. By. . . by things. Inhuman, horrible things. This couldn't be real. Why the hell would Dipper have given this to him?
Again, he watched the videos. He copied them to his laptop so that he could take them apart and see if they had been edited. They hadn't. At least, as far as he could see, and he was a damn fine detective.
He emerged from his office in a bit of a panic. If what he was seeing was real, then Dipper was in huge, huge trouble, and he needed to prove it to get help so that they could pull him out.
"Wendy, have any of you found anything more on the recent murders? Do they look like they've been eaten at all?"
The red headed woman eyed him with a skeptical look. ". . . No? Not really. You need to sit down though man. You look like you've seen a ghost or something."
Ford shook his head. "I need to get this," he held up the flash drive "to someone who can look at it. Dipper gave it to me, and it's got hard proof of the murders, if it's real. I have to get it to someone who can fully verify it for me though."
"I'll hold down the fort," Wendy saluted in a lazy manner.
"Good. Keep an eye out for anything that may be from Dipper. Calls, emails, damned smoke signals, I don't care. If he needs help, we're going to help him."
"Yes sir!" She faked saluted again, though her voice had a serious tone, since she was also worried about her childhood friend. She went back to her computer as Ford rushed out of the building, immediately getting back to work on the recent murder files.
Dipper's bag was still in his car, and he took out his badge, placing it on the dashboard. He kept it open so that he could see his nephew's face.
"I'm going to help you Dipper. That thing isn't going to lay a hand on you."
His video guy, Jason, that he had been working with for years, was at his house, as usual, so he wasn't surprised to find him in his basement, surrounded by his many computer screens.
The room he used for his computer was fairly small compared to the rest of the house, and it was cluttered with papers, junk, and soda cans and wrappers from the man's poor dietary choices. It looked more like a teenage boys room rather than a forty-something full grown man's.
"Jay, need you to look at the files on this thing." He lightly tossed it onto the sandy-haired man's lap. "It's freaky stuff, but I need to know if this was computer generated or not. My inside guy gave it to me for the Cipher case and I'm having a hard time believing I can use this is court without knowing if it's real."
The man grabbed it and examined it, scoffing at the amount of space the thing had. "What is it, a picture or two?" His voice was harsh, and it was obvious that this was the first time the man had spoken in a while.
Ford rolled his eyes and let out a chuckle. "Some videos. I really can't tell if they're fake or not. The quality itself seems just fine, but the objects in the video. . . well, you tell me."
Jason put the thing on his desk and nodded. "Think it'll bring the rich asshole in? I knew that guy was dirty."
"I hope so. If what's on this is real though, then we need to worry about more than just Cipher." Ford took Dipper's badge from his pocket, and stared at the picture while he spoke. "I hope my nephew comes out of this okay."
"Ya old sap, carryin' his picture around. If he's as sturdy as you are, the kid can survive living with this rich douche."
The room suddenly went dark, all of the electronics turning off, then back on for a moment, before dying again, causing the humming room to go silent as well.
"The fuck? Something just zapped my juice, and my backup juice!" Jason turned and typed at his keyboard, trying to get his system to respond in anyway.
Ford could feel a warmth in the room, and pulled his gun. "Who's there? Show yourself!"
A soft, blue glow slowly lit up the room, and he could hear a strange laugh.
Jason stood up from his chair and tried to face what was behind him, but was quickly knocked back into his desk, smashing into the screens.
Even with the blue lighting up the room, it was still hard to see, so Ford didn't know what to shoot at. Something was clearly in there with them, but he couldn't see it.
"God dammit, I said show yourself, you coward!" Ford backed into the wall so that he didn't have such a huge blind spot, and aimed his gun forward.
Two yellow, glowing. . . eyes? Ford couldn't really tell what they were, but they were staring right at him. Should he shoot it? Before he could, he felt a cold grip on his wrists that yanked him down onto the ground, hard. After he hit the ground, something hit his head, and made it impossible for him to pull himself back up.
As his eyelids slid closed, he could see a hand pick up Dipper's badge, which he had dropped when the lights went out. Then, that same hand went over to the desk, and began ripping into his screaming friend.
He could hear the cracks and splatters of blood and bones, but the pain in his head made him black out before he could call out to his friend.
Hours later, Ford opened his eyes, unsure of where he was. Well, on the floor, that was a start. He shook his head and felt a sharp pain in his temple. Cringing at it, he forced himself up and felt his gun slide out of his hand. Why was his gun out?
The pool of blood had seeped close to him, and his eyes followed it to the desk, where what was left of his friend was draped over it. Bones were sticking out in all directions, and the monitors were soaked in the spray of blood that had exploded when the man's chest was cracked open. Most of the organs were gone from the inside, but what was left had either dropped onto the floor or was hanging from the leather office chair.
He resisted a gag at the sight, and suddenly random sounds and images rushed back into his head. The power had gone out. Then. . . then what? Someone, or something had attacked them. And took the flash drive.
And Dipper's badge.
If it were one of the things on the video, then Dipper was in trouble. Big, big trouble.
Ford couldn't go to the police force with the monster thing, since his proof hadn't been verified by one of the only people that could do it, and right then he would just sound like he was in shock, and was trying to make up something to cope.
Regardless, first thing was first. He had to call in help and get this bloody mess looked at. Maybe they would be able to find something here that would help prove that a monster did it. Hopefully. After he made sure to get this mess sorted out, he would need to contact Dipper. He didn't care if he had said not to. If Cipher was behind these monsters, then Dipper was about to get caught, and very likely hurt.
"I'll get you Cipher. One way or another," he looked at the bloody mess of a body in front of him and cringed "I'll put you away for this."
AN: Go to Bloodbathsmut on Tumblr for the smut interlude for this chapter ;p