They passed by water. He could hear it, the gentle burble of a nearby spring or a creek. Dipper, though he had traveled this forest many times, had no idea where he was. It could be because he hadn't really explored this place in years. It could even be his anxiety fooling his memory. They had been walking for a few hours now, mostly in silence. Stan seemed to fall in and out of consciousness during this time. Dipper, more than anything, was worried about his uncle. The man was old when he met him and he was even older now. He thought it could be a psychological thing.
Perhaps it was a split in personality. It's not like he was completely different. In fact, this could just be something that had been building up for years now. A type of half-consciousness born from something locked away deep inside. That's what Ford would always imply in the past anyway.
It was never this coherent before. What was triggering this now, Dipper couldn't say.
Dipper watched the way his uncle walked. It was odd, you know. Like he didn't really know how to use his feet. But as they continued forward it became more assured; more steady. Each step was disturbingly elegant and confident.
Hah. Elegant Grunkle Stan. He let out a snort.
"Hey. How far is it anyway?" Dipper asked.
His uncle waved at him in a motion telling him to come closer. Dipper ran up to walk beside him.
"We are going to pass a statue soon, it's just over there. But you're going to want to see it. This statue."
"Oh. Okay. What is it?"
Stan looked away from Dipper to something in the tree line, then he began to hastily walk ahead. Dipper kept up pace with him, they were approaching something. He could feel it. Suddenly, his uncle stopped and placed one hand on a nearby tree, the other on the end of his hip lazily. Then, he looked back at Dipper, his head tilted at an odd angle; this allowed the glasses to fall slightly down his nose.
He could have sworn he saw gold, just a hint of yellow maybe, before his uncle pushed them back and smirked. It reminded him of a wolf.
"Its like a corpse."
"What? Who puts a statue of a corpse in the woods?"
His uncle just chuckled in that way again.
"Yeah, it's a real mystery that one."
There was something about his uncles face. Dipper felt like he was missing the punchline of an inside joke. His uncle looked back into the darkness ahead, the moon seemed to be moving; lighting up the view. He could make out a strangely shaped rock formation, he couldn't see it clearly though. He walked up to stand beside his uncle.
And what Dipper saw scared him half to death.
"Bill! It's Bill?!" He cried out.
"It's just a corpse." Stan assured.