There was a fire. A fire that reached up for the sky in a way that seemed almost desperate to burn the stars, only for it to be repelled by the dome-like barrier above. Then there was a quake. It shook the trees and turned the world upside down before righting it again. Sounds seemed to pop and mingle before falling apart and dying. It was a myriad of random reversed screams that silenced within a second. Then, it was calm; empty. Dipper was now standing alone with his uncle, who was passed out on the ground. The statue had disappeared, no trace of it left behind.

Dipper looked down at the hand that shook Bills. He curled his fingers experimentally before pulling it back. It quivered as it returned to his side. He took in one deep shaky breath as he thought about what he had just done. He prayed it was just a dream, a hallucination from lack of sleep.

But, instead, there was a voice; Bill. It could only be Bills. That voice confirmed the reality of the situation. The voice was echoing, multi-layered, and consumed in something naturally enigmatic.

"Wow, that was easy. Look at you making all the mistakes this time. I even made it obvious, but your little mind couldn't put it together huh Pinetree? Not that I really wanted you to, but it would have made things more interesting."

Dippers hands clenched tightly into a fist upon hearing him, he didn't turn to look at who it was. He couldn't even process or imagine how this was possible. Bill was gone, they had made sure of it. He was supposed to be a memory. Just a memory. His uncle Ford had traced and examined every inch of Stan's brain for any signs of that demon.

"How." he asked, his voice thick and quiet.

"I've been in his head for a long time, buried in the back. Just a consciousness with no power. A figment. No machine was going to find me, no spell was going to recognize me. I could fall back at any time into the mind of this guy's empty head and be nothing more than a thought."

There was a snap, it was painfully loud. Quickly both of his eyes slammed shut as he flinched; his ears ringing. Upon opening them he found Bill floating over his uncle's body. His form was small, golden, and glowing. It was almost unreal seeing it. That same classic form of Bills.

"Every night, for ten years, I pushed and searched for a way out. I found nothing. Then, as luck would have it, I ran into an old friend recently. One I had almost forgotten about." The creatures eye widened, his color shifting as he recalled some far off memory. Bill lifted his small black hand over Stan's head, not quite touching it, but getting dangerously close. His fingers elongated and sharpened. The hand now somewhat resembled a spider. A fire started to burn along Bills palm before spreading around those monstrous-looking fingers.

"And he owed me a favor. For a thousand years that favors been on the back burner."

Bills body began to vibrate. It then grew, twisting itself into a broken disjointed mass. There was the sound of teeth grinding, the sound of bones shattering, and the sound of meat ripping apart as he changed. His new shape could only be described as disgusting.

"Anyway, that doesn't matter right now. I'm back in the flesh and I got big plans." The creature's voice morphed and distorted itself. A sick type of laughter crawled at the end of every word. "So. Goodbye Pinetree, you stupid kid. I am going to murder you! Hah! I am going to enjoy watching your flesh pop like a balloon as I paint this place red with your insides!"

The mass that was Bill turned to him, his singular eye sharp and disturbed. His bony looking hands moving closer and closer hungrily. They stretched forward, aiming for Dipper stomach. And then, for no apparent reason, they suddenly stopped. Dippers breath began to come out in short bursts, he wanted to run but he was frozen in place.

He looked into Bills eye, it was huge and inches away from his own now. Gazing directly at it he saw something he didn't recognize or understand. That misshapen thing in front of him began to shake aggressively. There was a flash of peach-colored light that danced along its ends before fading away into nothing. After this Bills eye started to bleed. Or, at least, it looked like blood. A very glittery variant of blood. They stayed like that, frozen, simply staring at one another for a moment.

"What's going on? What are you doing?" Dipper said, breaking the sudden unusual silence.

How Bill answered him shattered any perception of sanity Dipper thought he had left. It was something so shocking, so horrifying, that no nightmare could ever compare to it.

"I love you."