"Grunkle Stan! Weirdmaggedon is gonna happen again!"
"What?" Stan said, his eyes narrowing. "Get Stanford. Now!" he yelled when neither of us moved. Mabel took off running. "Dipper, tell me more." It was a command.
"Well, we went to visit the Multi-Bear, 'cause he sent Mabel a letter, and he told us that the Hand Witch told him that she had been having a lot of predictions about Weirdmaggedon, and she thinks it's gonna happen again, and it was gonna be worse than before. That's all we know for sure." Grunkle Stan just nodded gloomily, staring at Dipper like he might have just killed him. Mabel and Ford raced into the room, Ford nodding as Mabel explained it to him.
"Okay children. This is bad. That is a word for this situation. First, we need to figure out who is going to cause it. If it's Bill, we need to figure out how he will come back, and if it's one of his other friends, we need to figure out how to stop them. I will start preparations immediately. I think I still have some technology I can modify to sense when Bill Cipher or one of his cronies emerges. I, of course, can rebuild the memory gun if we need it... but other than that, I've got nothing. My life's work was in those Journals, so unless we find them again there will be almost no way to stop anything from happening. It should only be our last resort, though. Does everyone understand?" Ford asked, seeming the slightest bit like he had been expecting this for a while. Dipper would've laughed if the situation wasn't so serious. Everyone nodded and Ford put his hands together. "Final order of business. No one is to talk of this outside this house with the people in this room. No one else needs to know." Everyone nodded again, and Dipper glanced at Mabel. She smiled at him. Dipper glanced behind him after she returned her focus to Ford. He was half expecting Bill to show up behind him and kill them all.
"Can we start this all tomorrow, Sixer? I'm an old man and so are you, and it's past seven so I'm pretty exhausted." Grunkle Stan said, and his brother nodded.
"The human mind runs exponentially better on sleep."
After that, almost everyone in the house was asleep. Almost, because Dipper was kept awake by his pounding heart, which seemed to fill his ears with it's incessant need to pump blood through his veins. Sometimes he wished it would just stop. Then everything else would stop, too, and it would all seem a little more okay. He was consumed by thoughts of guilt. He shouldn't be keeping these kinds of things from his one true love. It was just that his one true love was the instigator of the apocalypse, nine times out of ten. He wanted to tell Bill of Weirdmaggedon. Make him think. Not telling Bill gave him a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that he didn't want to face. He laid awake for hours, contemplating how he would manage not to tell Bill, but every scenario he thought through just led to grief, one way or another. It was infuriating, but totally plausible. That's what made it so infuriating. By the time he fell asleep, he was awash in posiBILLities, dripping with sweat. But, he did find his way to sleep and when he woke up, he felt a little soothed.
He got up to go make breakfast for himself, but instantly something was wrong. He couldn't move. He tried to look around, but he couldn't get his neck off the pillow. He tried to lift his arms, or even to bend them, but it was no use. He tried his legs, too, but there was no hope. Finally, in one motion of desperation, he tried to thrust up his torso. It did not move. He thought about screaming, but that seemed like a bad idea. This all could be a dream, and he wasn't in any imediate danger. Scratch that. Bill's shadow covered his face in darkness.
"I see you've finally woken up." His voice was cold, emotionless. Dipper noticed as Bill leaned over his face that his hair, once grown past his shoulders, was now sticking up in odd chunks like he had cut it with scissors without looking. Somehow, it increased his beauty, but that was beside the point.
"Good morning, Bill. Can you... get these off me?" Bill shook his head. "Why?"
"You have something I need, Pine Tree..." The man glanced over his shoulder with a look of utter surprise on his face. "No!" he screamed, seemingly at the corner of the room, right where the door attached to the wall. "But I would like to have a conversation with my beloved beau first, of course," Bill said, sitting on the edge of the bed and patting Dipper's leg tenderly. "Do you ever feel like no one gets you, Pine Tree?" The way he said it was so sincere, so caring, but there was something in his eye that told Dipper he wasn't asking because he cared.
"Um... sure, I guess. Doesn't everybody?" Dipper decided to take a risk and be honest.
"No! Not everybody feels that way! It's only me and you, sometimes, Pine Tree, and today is one of those times. Your poor, poor family is all sleeping peacefully. They'll go about their days, unaware. Today, they don't remember you and it will be perfect. Just you and I. We needed a day, didn't we, Pine Tree? Weren't you getting a little sick of them?" Bill seemed to actually want an answer.
"No, I really wasn't, Bill. What do you want?" This conversation reminded him of their first year in Gravity Falls, but this time he didn't have Mabel by his side.
"I heard your conversation last night. Is there something you want to tell me, darling?" Dipper's mouth went dry.
"No..." he said, but his sides ached as he did.
"Are you sure?" Bill leaned in close to Dipper's face and he winced.
"Yes, I'm sure." He felt so bad, he wanted to rip his eyes out.
"You can't do that, Pine Tree! Then I wouldn't be able to do this!" Bill smacked him hard, right over his eyes. Dipper was sure it would bruise.
"I forgot you could read my thoughts..." Dipper said, smiling with his lips slanted.
"Would it be easier for you to tell me that way?" Dipper shook his head.
"It's never going to be easier when there's nothing to tell, Bill."
"You really need a pet name for me, Pine Tree," Bill spit like it was an insult.
"I don't wanna be that creepy person who calls their paramour "Rubber Ducky." Dipper said, glaring at Bill.
"Well, you don't have to use that, all you have to do is think of something you like a whole lot... I just love Pine Trees, and so it's your name," Bill said, trailing his hands over Dipper's chest, stopping on the bonds that held the boy.
"Okay, let's see... what about The Author?" Dipper said, almost laughing. Bill started laughing too.
"That's not half-bad, Pine Tree." Bill almost sounded normal again.
"Or maybe Disco Girl?" Bill laughed again, then suddenly stopped.
"What have I done to you?" He asked, mostly to himself, then shook his head. "I'm sorry Dip. Sometimes... sometimes I'm a horror show. I warned you." He stood up from the bed and snapped his fingers. Dipper felt the bonds release and he sat up.
"It's okay. Well, it's not okay, obviously, but I- I understand." Dipper said, standing up as well. "Man, it feels nice to move again." Bill nodded slowly.
"Now, I should have just asked you calmly. I know you're hiding something, which hurts, but assuming it has to do with my powers I can understand. Care to tell?"
Dipper shivered involuntarily and Bill hugged him, whispering an apology followed by a "I love you."
"Um, I shouldn't say. I can't say anything at all." Dipper said, and felt a pang of hurt.
"Oh, well, I guess it won't matter then if I just JUMP OFF A CLIFF?!" Bill asked, his eye turning red at the last four words.
"Wait, Bill!" Dipper shouted as Bill walked toward the window, looking out wistfully.
"You really won't tell me?" Dipper shook his head. "Oh, well." Bill turned towards Dipper, then did a back flip out the window. Dipper stared at the broken glass of the triangle window in sheer silent horror. He couldn't find the words to scream, couldn't find the words to whisper, he couldn't get anything in his system, not air or water or whatever he was supposed to breath at moments like these. He felt his heart speed up too much and his movement slow down tenfold. He walked all too slowly to the window and looked out from it, holding everything in before he saw the ground below.
No broken bodies, no blood. This was good. But now Dipper had to get to a cliff. Unfortunately, there were quite a few cliffs in Gravity Falls.