This chapter is from Dipper's perspective! But it'll be the only one.

Chapter 8

It was a pretty basic day. Normal, and normal meant boring. Dipper went about his slightly too easy classes. When he could, he rendezvoused with Mabel. He didn't have many other friends here.

Piedmont was soul sucking. Every day just seemed another drag. He missed his friends back in Gravity Falls. He worried about dumb things, like having lost that sense of adventure, that sense of anything could happen, forever.

But it wasn't gone.

Not yet.

He didn't know it. Didn't see it, couldn't tell. But something was happening.

He went to bed on that pretty basic day and woke up in the middle of the night feeling like he was being watched. His throat closed up. His first thought was Bill.

"Mabel!" He hissed into the darkness.

"Go back to sleep bro bro..." She groaned back.

"Mabel something's watching us!"

"You're crazy, you had a bad dream."

"Yeah. A bad dream, sure. I'm serious Mabel, what if it's Bill?"

"We've been having Bill dreams since the falls. It's not Bill."

"You just don't want to admit there's a chance he's still out there."

"Dipper nothing ever happens in Piedmont. Go back to sleep."

"I'm not crazy, I swear."

"Just a little bit. I'm going back to sleep. If you want to stay up and be paranoid by all means go for it." He stayed up a little longer, wallowing in uneasiness. Finally he managed to fall back to sleep, Mabel was already out like a light.

It was a normal day in Piedmont.

"Hey Dipper? Can we talk?" Okay, maybe not. Ethan usually didn't single him out. Ethan and Mabel were going steady after all. They were happy together.

"Yeah, I guess so. Is something wrong?" Dipper wasn't a fighter, but if this guy had broken Mabel's heart he would be quick to break the taller boy's face.

"I know you're really into that cool supernatural stuff right? Like Zombies and Psychics and the lot?"

"Yes. And gnomes."

"W-what? Actually, never mind. I've been having these weird feelings that I think might be related to all that paranormal junk."

"Weird feelings? Like being watched?" Dipper asked, suddenly on high alert.

"H-how did you know? That's exactly how I've been feeling, All spidery and squirrely..."

"Paranoid." Dipper said.

"Hey! My boyfriend and my brother getting along, this is great!" Mabel said, clapping both on the back. Ethan flinched, clearly more uneasy then Dipper. Of course, Dipper had way more experience with the paranormal than Ethan did. He'd hosted a demon, and so he could handle a slap on the back.

"Mabel, Dipper was just telling me about paranormal stuff."

"Not the nightmares from last night again," Mabel said, sounding a little condescending but also a little concerned. In daylight she wondered if there was anything to her brother's claims. At night, when it was the most terrifying to admit that Bill was still around she had refused, but now, with the guys she was closest with next to her in full view of the sun she was able to let that thought in.

She reached for Ethan's hand, frowning when he hesitated.

"I don't know about any nightmares, just that things have been rough around here for awhile." She grabbed his hand and squeezed.

"Things'll get better."

"I hope so."

"We'll talk later Ethan, I have to get to class." Ethan nodded and went off with Mabel, inwardly trembling.

Before the day was up Dipper had his paranormal journal in hand and was facing unimagined dangers. He was taking an Uber. Alone. Using leftover Christmas money to cover the cost he rode down to the pier two towns away where Gideon was still promoting his movie.

"Well, hello there Dipper Pines. Have you come to speak about what I've seen?"

"Not quite Gideon. Not that I don't believe you, I just happen to believe that there's a little something more going on."

"Whatever do you mean Dipper?"

"Are you spying on us Gideon? Again?" Gideon looked shocked.

"Dipper I am a changed man I have done away with my shenanigans of old I don't spy on people anymore."

"Are you sure because I'm not the only person who has had the feeling of being watched and you have a track record of illegally recording people."

"Well I never. It was not little ol' me. You're sure it wasn't her new boyfriend?"

"No, because he's being watched too."

"Or it's an elaborate ruse to trick y'all into trusting him."

"He's not a bad person, Gideon. I really don't think he is, at least." Gideon turned to Dipper and examined him.

"Are you a bad person, Dipper Pines?"

"What? Of course not... I mean I try not to be, I'd say I'm as good as human nature allows..." He rambled.

"Now now, don't fret about the moral dilemmas. I just mean to say that good people shake his hand too. I did, you did. We were both foolish back in the Falls, weren't we?"

"No, no, he knows nothing about Gravity Falls or Bill."

"Oh I'm almost sure you're right Dipper. For her sake I really hope you are, now let's get down to the bottom of this being watched problem, alright?" Gideon dragged out a high tech laptop from essentially thin air and began to tap in some numbers. Coordinates.

A screen popped up, showing Mabel in their room back in Piedmont braiding her hair.

"I knew it! I knew you'd been spying on us."

"On the contrary Dipper I only knew how to spy on you if I ever so chose to do. I located your coordinates on this camera from a government drone. Something big must be happening to get them interested in your family again. It's nice to not be on any radars, pardon my language, it sucks to be you."

"You're on plenty of radars Gideon, your face is plastered on billboards in every county from here to the Falls."

"Yet I'm not the one being monitored by the government. Though I might be if you stick around here any longer. If this about Bill, let me know, but until then, don't come back now, you hear?"

"Thanks Gideon," He grumbled sarcastically.

"Oh and Dipper?" The squat ten year old added, halting Dipper in his tracks.

"Yes?" He said with a sigh.

"Here's a twenty for the uber. Watch your back."

"Oh. Thanks... Gideon."

"I truly mean it when I say, don't you ever mention it."