Chapter 12

Author's Note: such a shame. I make the code harder and no one is able to crack it. Pity. Must I always bold things so you know which letters are to be used in a code? I'll give another hint for the last chapter's code, just to be nice. Do you remember doing those poems where you spell out a word like your name or a season vertically and then you had to pick a word that starts with that letter?

Same basic principal with the next few codes as well as the last one.

Just remember that the code will not be in the dialog: just in the describing paragraphs.

Same rules apply as usually: you have to crack the code in order to get the next chapter, but in this case you have to crack two chapters worth of codes.

I am nothing if not a man of my word.

Chapter 12:

Will (Bill) was having a wonderful time at work, as usual.

It was Saturday night: one of the busier nights. Will was busting tables, taking orders, and trying not to get food spilled on his white shirt all while smiling from ear to ear. He loved his job. Being around people all day was exhilaratingly fun. He would always be talking, using words to put the customers in a good mood and, more importantly, making their tips larger.

Life seemed to be going his way.

"Hi dad!" A familiar voice said as she entered the restaurant.

Looking around, Will saw Mabel, Dipper and a few of their friends walk into the restaurant. Will couldn't be sure but he thought that their names were Candy and Grenda with the third one definitely being Pacifica.

"Hi, shooting star." Will said.

Shooting star? Where did that come from?

Mabel seemed to be equally confused at his sudden new nickname. And a little worried by the looks of it.

"How was your day, kids?" Will asked as he wiped down a table near to them.

"It was pretty great! There is going to be a school dance next week and Dipper refuses to go though."

"Mabel!" Dipper said, blushing, "He doesn't need to know that."

"Aw is Dipper all shy at parties," Will teased. "Kid, don't worry about it. Parties are fun. Someone always spikes the punch and you don't remember a thing. I think. I don't remember if you remember anything after a party."

Instinctively, Mabel laughed. Dipper was not really impressed. The rest of the group chuckled a bit but mostly just at the face Dipper was making.

"Don't be so serious, kid." Will said as he ruffled Dipper's hair.

"Will!" A woman shouted "Table two!"

"That would be my boss." Will said to the twins. "Tomorrow we go shopping, ok? Maybe see a movie or something."

"Promise?" Mabel said. "I need a dress for the dance and Dipper needs some party clothes!"

"Mabel. I've already told you that I am not going."

"Shush. You don't decide that." Mabel put her finger to Dipper's mouth, preventing him from speaking. "So you promise you'll take us out?"

"I'll shake on it." Will said holding out his hand.

Looking at Will's out stretched hand, Mabel looked a bit frightened. Dipper looked utterly terrified. Bill couldn't understand why.

"Pinky promise." Mabel said holding out her smallest finger.

"Fine. Pinky promise." Will said, sealing the deal that way before the twins and their friends exited the restaurant.

Every moment spent with his kids felt like heaven to Will. But even he could noticed that something was not right.

Sometimes strange things happened in this town, Will began to notice. There were drawings of triangles everywhere throughout the town but the town avoided these drawings at all costs. As well as all of the superstitious stories the town made up about not going into the birch forest at the edge of town.

More worrisome is that most of the stories he overheard were stories involving his kids.

Overall, Will felt safe in the town. But he still had this nasty feeling in his stomach whenever he stayed in one place too long. It all seemed to be familiar to him. He could almost sense the danger in the town. Every story the town folks told seemed to almost involve Mabel and Dipper almost dying. What parent wouldn't be concerned?

Realizing that he had been drifting off into space for the past few minutes, Will jolted and then quickly went back to work.

Eventually, Will's shift ended and he began walking home. He walked through the birch wood forest, it being the fastest.

Then he saw something that he almost couldn't believe.

He almost mistook it for a bear (although that would have been terrifying as well) but after a few seconds, he realized that it was definitely not a bear. The creature looked almost alien with a slimy pink body. It was twice his own height and width and had long claws. It almost looked insect like.

"Ah Bill Cipher: the king of chaos himself. Come to take over the world I see." The creature said, his voice deep and menacing with a hint of laughter in its throat.

"Wha...What?" Will looked at the creature in confusion before closing his eyes and talking to himself. "I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming. This isn't real. I will open my eyes and Mabel will be jumping on my stomach to get me up. I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming."

"Dream demons can't dream." The creature said, drawing closer.

"Wha...dream demon?" Will asked as he looked around.

Another thing was in the monster's place. Not a thing: a person. A very important person.

"Mabel!" Will called, running towards her. "What are you doing out here? You know it's not safe after dar…"

No more was Mabel. She was morphing into another shape in a horrifying manner before Will's eyes. Within a matter of seconds she had changed into Dipper.

"Dip...Dipper?" Will asked, his head seeming to spin like a top.

Then the figure changed again and again: so fast that Will could barely process what was happening. First he was a small man with a white beard and pointy hat. Then a tall slender man. Then what appeared to be a cross between a unicorn and a leprechaun which was probably the most horrifying thing he had ever seen. All the rest went so fast that he couldn't even make out what they were.

"Do you recognize me now, all powerful one?" the creature said, now appearing as a triangle with a top hat and bowtie.

"I am insane." Will said.

"Right you are." The creature's low voice told him. "But that's what makes you powerful. You never know the limits so you always break them. So who are you going to torture first? I would love to join in. Of course I would let you kill the Pine's family."

"Kill the Pine's?" Will was going into shock, his brain overwhelmed with information and weirdness. "What? No. Never. They are my family."

"You hate them." The creature said, transforming back into his original pink insect form. "You hate all humans."

Hallucinations, Will decided. His car accident was making him see and hear things that weren't there.

Everything he was seeing wasn't there. It couldn't have been there.

Just close your eyes, Will told himself, and he'll be gone.

Opening his eyes, Will saw himself staying back at himself. Same face and height and body style but there were a few differences.

Key differences including: his double's blonde hair had black in it, his eyes were gold and not blue and his outfit was what appeared to be a bright yellow tailcoat with black pants and knee high black boots.

"You...you've lost your memory." the creature said. "You were beaten by those kids!"

"Beaten? Wha...What?" Will said before shaking his head. "This isn't real, this isn't real."

"Oh this is real alright." The creature said, pointing to his Will-like body with its flowing tailcoat. "It's you who are fake. The all-powerful Bill Cipher is gone with only his shell remaining."

Everything was confusing and strange in Will's mind. He didn't remember fainting but he must have. When he woke, he was still in the woods just now he was surrounded by members of the Pine's family.

"Dad? Are you alright." Mabel said, her eyes full of concern.

"Nope." Will said as he turned to his side and threw up. "Ah that's better."

"We got worried when you didn't come home last night." Dipper said, "We...we didn't know what happened to you."

Relieved to see his family, Will smiled a bit though his head still hurt.

"Yeah...I start hallucinating I think." Will said, putting his hand to his head. "There was this creature...he kept changing forms and stuff. Man what was in that burger I ate at the restaurant...he changed into all sorts of different creatures that looked like rejects from Alice in Wonderland or something. Then he turned into me...except it didn't look like me...I had gold eyes and I was wearing a tailcoat...and a bunch of yellow. And then he called me...what was it...a dream demon. Yeah. A dream demon. What the heck is a dream demon anyways?"