Guess what guys? The story hit 30,000 views today! I can't even comprehend that people took the time to visit this story that many times. It's unbelievable... I just want to thank all of you for sticking by me for all this time, and I hope you are all still here enjoying this story when we get to 50,000 views. ;)

Chapter 33

Getting Used To The Situation

The tension was high a while after Stanford dropped his gun, and it started when Dipper disappeared.

Well, of course he hadn't disappeared for Mabel, but the look of sadness he gave her as his feet left the ground told her instantly that he was nothing but a ghost again. It had happened as soon as he'd gotten fully to his feet, as soon as the wound had healed, he'd been pulled back into the mindscape, and he bet soon he'd be yanked back to the Nightmare Realm, which might of actually been a relief from this atmosphere.

Ford's eyes had squinted as the demon had just disappeared into thin air, his body tensing, but Stan put a hand to his shoulder to try and calm him, even if he was tense himself. "Relax, he's still here." Maybe not the best way to calm him down.

The Author's eyes narrowed as he instantly looked around at them all, he had to have just possessed one of them! But the girl didn't seem different, the eyes weren't giving anything away, neither for his brother or the young man who accompanied them. Then where...?

"Dipper's just invisible, see?" Mabel said, before frowning. "Wait... I mean don't see? Wait... Um..." Before she shook away her confusion. "Dipper can't stay physical very long, so right now he's just... here. But, for some reason only I can see him."

Ford looked around, still uncertain. So, did they make a deal for physicality with this demon, or was all that just a trick? No, he has to be possessing them or something. Come on Ford, think. Which one of them looks different? For a moment he looked at them like a mad man, which didn't help to release any of the tension between them all.

Dipper couldn't help but feel uncertain about the man in front of him. His thoughts were... difficult. So this is the man I've been searching for, all this time he was my great uncle? I should be excited, overjoyed even, that I can finally get the answers I deserve. But why do I feel such unease? There's something about him that doesn't feel right, he definitely didn't tell us everything of his past, he's hiding something. I don't like that. How could he hide something from us, from me? Stan spilled every secret he had. How ironic, the con man is the one being honest.

Ford seemed to relax somewhat, though his eyes were still searching, most likely for Dipper. But he'd never find him, no matter how hard he tried to focus, he didn't have the link that Dipper and Mabel had. And Dipper was somewhat thankful for that, this man wasn't someone he wanted to be able to interact with twenty four seven, he wanted it on his own terms.

"It's... been a long day. Mabel sweety, why don't you hit the hay? I need to have a little talk with my brother." Stan rubbed his eyes as he sighed for a second, his gaze concentrated on Ford to make sure he didn't do anything drastic again.

Mabel hesitated, but nodded, quickly hurrying to the door, her movements slowed slightly by the cast that no longer had any use to her. She'd need to go and get it taken off the next day. She glanced over at Dipper as she walked, biting her lip. "Are you... okay?"

"Of course I am, the wounds all healed now." He murmured as he floated by her, too sucked into his thoughts to bother walking.

Mabel showed a small smile. "You know what I mean."

He let out a sigh, he knew she was going to say that. He'd just tried to avoid the question, but now he couldn't stop himself from answering. "I don't know. Shouldn't I be happy about all this? Like, really, he's the Author! The one guy I've been trying to find for so long, and the first thing he does it put a gun to my head. How... How can I react to that? Then afterwards he really does shoot me. How... how could he do something like that to me? He didn't even give me a chance to explain, to tell him what happened. But now I'm not even sure if explaining it all would make a difference."

Mabel was walking up the stairs now, biting her lip. "Hey, I'm sure he'll come around, okay? It's just... he's probably been through a lot and just jumped to a bit of a conclusion. Once he's gotten to know you, he'll see that you aren't all evil and dangerous like a demon." She smiled when they got to the room. "Come on, I have some stuff to talk to you about."

Dipper looked at her for a second, not sure if he could believe what she had said before frowning. "Talk about what?"

"What sweater design I should knit now that I'm back here, duh! I only had a few colours of wool in the hospital, but here I have everything!" She giggled as she jumped onto the bed, Dipper sighing as he followed her in. She's lucky she can think about stuff like this with everything that just happened, sometimes I wish I was more like her.

Meanwhile, Stan and Ford were downstairs, having one of the most awkward talks ever.

Ford was definitely not as tensed up anymore, they'd actually shared a small joke about Stan looking like their father. But now he had to get to the fact at hand. "Okay Stanley, here's the deal. You can stay here the rest of the summer to watch the kids." He said the last part with a slight break in the sentence, he wasn't going to have an argument with Stan about whether or not that demon could even be called a kid, so he might as well play along with their fantasy. I'll stay down in the basement and try to contain any remaining damage." Including find a way to destroy that monster that's infected your minds. "But when the summer's over, you give me my house back, you give me my name back, and this Mystery Shack junk is over forever. You got it?"

Stan looked at him, hurt evident in his eyes. "You really aren't gonna thank me, are you?" Looks were exchanged, Ford not giving him an answer, just a look that told him he was right. The man narrowed his eyes slightly, pointing a finger at his brother. "Fine, on one condition: you stay away from the kids. I don't want Mabel or Dipper to get in danger because of you, 'cause as far as I'm concerned, they're the only family I have left." He started to walk upstairs, but stopped, looking back at Ford. "And you aren't fooling anyone, I know you aren't okay with my nephew. And remember he's your nephew as well, and I'm sure family don't hurt each other for no good reason." Stan watched Ford for a second, letting that sink in. "And if I even find you plotting to hurt him in any way, then I won't hesitate to fix that portal back up again and send you right back where you came from." And on that harsh note, Stan disappeared up the stairs.

Ford was actually taken aback. Had he just... threatened me? Are they really under that much influence from this demon? Maybe this is worse than I thought... But I'll have to work carefully, if I try anything that becomes obvious to Stan, well, I'm not ready to have to kill him. I'll have to get rid of this thing in complete secrecy.

He slowly began moving to the vending machine, opening the door quickly and closed it behind him, going to his underground bunker to see what damage had actually been done. He feared the worse. As he walked into the area where the portal was, he noticed the energy that still surrounded the portal, that was definitely not good.

He crouched down, touched a six-figured hand to the busted up metal, running his hand across it, feeling how warm it was. If the portal had truly shut off, it would have been cold, or at least only slightly warm to the touch. Right now it was hot, not enough to burn his skin, but definitely not lukewarm.This is bad... It was strange, he would normally say his thoughts out loud so he would be able to talk to himself, it was the only way for him to keep himself in the thirty years without contact. But he felt paranoid, was the demon here right now? Floating near him invisible and listening in on what he would say? Or could it read minds too? Should I even be thinking about this? Is thinking or talking not an option? Calm down Ford, think this through. First things first, I need to dismantle this portal. It's not fully deactivated yet, and that could cause a lot of consequences if it remains operational. To think what that creature could do with it...

He shook his head, trying to think in the present, too not delve too deep into the memories of his past that he'd wanted to forget for so long. He got up from his position and stood back, thinking. His eyes would dart around from time to time, making sure nobody else was there secretly watching him. After a careful amount of thinking, he walked to the place where he had spied his journal lying on the floor. He'd noticed it earlier, but had been too busy having a heated argument with Stanley at the time to pick it up.

Ford reached out to it, placing his hand against the golden copy on the cover, the number 3 evident on it. He picked up it, before walking to the area closed off from the portal, where number 1 and 2 rested, and placed it by them. His fingers itched to open one of them up and see how they had fared over the years. He wondered if anything had changed, but then he wondered if he even remembered what he'd written in them in the first place, it had been so long.

Taking a calmed breath, he opened number 3 to see it. He took a sharp breath as he flicked through the pages. It was all still there, obviously not in perfect condition after thirty years, but all his notes were still readable, all of his sketches still as great as they always were. But one thing made him pause, the fact that there were blue inked writing covering the different pages. He first noticed it on the pages covering the gnomes. It was curious, someone had written 'leaf-blowers' for its weakness, when he had never been able to find one. When he looked closer, the hand-writing was obviously that of a child, did that mean the girl had found this book? He flicked through the book too the end, almost startled to see whole entries written in the same handwriting.

Out of curiousity, he started to read them, trying to figure out who the author was, how ironic. But as he read more into it, it decided it couldn't be the girl writing all these notes, the author would refer to her in the third person, so there had to be someone else writing. Who...? Then it struck him, whoever had written this was the child's sibling, no, brother. But the girl had called the demon her brother, and the affection she had for him seemed real... Maybe the demon is taking the form of her brother, and has killed him and taken his place? It would explain how they defended him so quickly.

He sat down, reading more into the book. What happened before I arrived? What led to this monsters arrival? "Was there a boy before the demon?" He said a loud finally, listening as his voice echoed around the room slightly.

So heres the next chapter. ;) I hope you enjoyed it. I have a big arc that I plan on implementing, though it probably won't come up till December. Me and LainaFantasyGirl have been discussing it, and I think I'll have it all sorted out soon, and I'll start building too it, but you'll have to try and figure out what it is by yourself, this is something I ain't gonna spoil. ;)

Another thing to note is that I'm in the process of drawing a cover for this story. Now it won't be a great piece of fan art I found, and instead it will be something I'll have drawn which will probably be terrible. I'll have it ready by the next update, so it'll be great to see what you think ;)

And I'm glad that you all enjoyed the code last week, so I'll be continuing them in the same style. Last weeks was a bit general, but from now on the codes will be specific for that chapter. For any of you who struggled to decipher it, you first need to decode it using the A126Z cipher, then the Atbash, and then Caeser. Let's see if you can crack this one!

4-16-19 11-23-10 1-15-4-16 16-15-5 22-9-9-13-5 16-23-5 11-23-10-25 18-19-23-6-5, 22-3-4 16-19 16-23-5-10'4 11-19-12-12-9-1-19-20 15-10 23-12-12 4-16-19-5-19 25-19-23-6-5

1-15-12-12 16-19 3-10-20-19-6-5-4-23-10-20 1-16-23-4 16-19 21-23-10-10-9-4 5-19-19, 9-6 1-15-12-12 4-16-15-10-17-5 20-15-5-5-9-12-2-19 15-10-4-9 21-23-4-23-5-4-6-9-8-16-19?