There was nothing sweeter than the sounds of a child's laughter. That is unless one is not in your home, or at least not one that laughs in such a way. Upon the first time he had heard the sound that day, Stanley knew that the laughter was not from one of the twins. Their laughs were sweet and truly innocent, but this one was hallow. Hallow and echoing in even the most crowded of places.
It had been going on for a good portion if the day now, happening at strange times during the day, often nearby to where Stan was. Soft and scattered at first, it had been getting louder and more frequent ever since the great uncle had spoken to Dipper and to that dream annoyance, Bill just a few hours earlier. Now, it was going on one in the morning, and Stan felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up in anticipation of the being who should not be. He was even more on edge than ever now, worried mainly for his great-nephew, Dipper, especially in the state that he was in. With Dipper's mind and sanity in a fragile state, he was even more of a target for whatever was there.
'Hahe!' It echoed from beside Stan's bedside, just as the grandfather clock down the hall began to chime wildly.
The echoes of laughter and chiming of the clock were enough to wake the dead, and if Stan had been any other person hearing the sounds, he would have thought that he was slowly descending into madness. However, he knew better, so here he now stood, with the journal that he had first obtained clutched tightly in his hand. Reaching into his bedside table, he withdrew a packet of salt, ready to take on whoever it was within his bedroom.
"I swear, if this is who I think it is... Then Bill's gonna have the fury of a Grunkle to deal with..." He said lowly as he drew his finger down the page slowly, searching for a chant of sorts to use.
In his time in the Mystery Shack, he had learned a thing or two about expelling unwanted guests from his home.
Feeling a weight soon settle back into the room as the chimes ended, Stan's heart began to hammer in his chest as he began to work faster, quickly slashing a small line across the side of the circle he had created on the floor, leaving a small section of it open.
'Inopinatum aperire de existentia!'
The moment he did this, he heard it, and if he had to take a guess, he knew that he would be correct in guessing exactly who it belonged to. Before it ended, he closed the circle just as everything around him went blank.
The grey backdrop of the dreamscape overtook that of Stan's bedroom, alerting the old man that he was asleep and no longer in his room. Usually, he would have been startled or even mad for waking up here, but today it was exactly where he wanted to be. He had a hunch about what Bill had said earlier, and now he was going to act off of it. Stepping forward, he began to walk slowly around the dreamscape in any direction that he felt the weight of another being in, all while listening for the giggling to start up once more.
"Oh, so you're a dream demon..." Stan muttered, his mind quickly going back to Bill for an instance and what he had said earlier, about how everything was going to change.
"Okay, so let's find out what the hell bowtie was yammering about." He muttered, but was soon growing frustrated when he couldn't find who he was looking for.
"Hahe-hehaha!" The giggles were getting louder now, and Stan's fists began to clench slightly.
Directly ahead, he could feel the childish joy that often came with a small kid at play still, but it was quickly fleeing from him the closer he neared.
"A kid dream demon..." Stan muttered, simply taking a stab at what was before him. "Whoever it is, I wonder if this kid is just trying to play or something..."
"Haheheaha!" Pausing, an idea suddenly came to his mind, and he made quick work of closing his eyes , covering them with his hands, and then waiting for the sounds of giggling again.
The moment he heard them, they were closer to him, just a few inches away and still within his basic earshot. Quickly, he opened his eyes quickly and looked up to find that nothing was there. Frowning, he covered his eyes once more, now playing a mock version of the peek-a-boo game with a seemingly invisible dream demon. Each time, he would hear the giggle, but would not see its owner.
"This isn't working..." Stan muttered, before smacking his forehead with his palm. "Probably because you're not playing it right, genius. How does it go again...?"
This time, he was going to play the game right, but with a twist added, for the baby dream demon's sake.
'Vidi te!' After yelling that at the top of his lungs, he uncovered his eyes quickly and before him, there was now a maroon mist floating about the room.
It had no form, but the moment it 'saw' Stan, it began to move about, forming half-hearted shapes and then ending with a little heart shape. From around them, the walls of the dreamscape began to melt into a murky grey and black, only to suddenly turn a light shade od baby pink with the craziest flowers growing all around, making the once grey scape now take on the form of a baby's colouring page. However, it soon stopped changing and the flowers reached their large size before everything went still. The moment it stilled, the child's giggle from before began to emit from within the mist, and the sound caused Stan's heart to sink.
"I knew it..." Stan mumbled, walking slowly towards the mist.
"S-st-s-" The mist gurgled at the sound of his voice, causing Stan to wince just a little.
"Yeah, it's me. Now why don't you just-"Growling, he reached into his pocket, fabricating a glass jar with a lid before scooping the mist up into it with a seemingly good amount of ease.
He didn't expect it to be so easy, so he just stood and held the jar firmly as he waited. He had been expecting a catch, so now all he had to do was wait for it to come.
"Stanny!" The mist suddenly wailed, the jar now shaking in his grasp.
"Zip it, kid." Stan spat down at the jar, now holding it up so that he could see the mist. "I'm not letting you out until that son of a bitch triangle gets here."
"He wit momma!" The mist cried, the shaking suddenly stopping as the mist formed two little eyes.
They were deep brown in colour, with little eyelashes flicking upward from the strange lids above and below them. For a moment, Stan felt a weight settle into his chest, as he found that the eyes now matched the trait that the members of his family shared.
"Oh, so you're a girl this time? That's a first." Stan grunted, suddenly shaking the jar rapidly. "Cut the crap. I've seen you take on a better form than this. And we both know that Dip isn't your 'momma'."
"Can't!" The fog grunted in a similar fashion to Stan. "Not big enough."
"Then at least talk like an adult. I feel like I'm beating up a kid and its making me uncomfortable." Stan muttered, frowning at the jar once more.
"Ca-" The mist was cut off suddenly but a shrill gasp from who could only be Bill.
Stanley looked around quickly, and found the triangle demon just a short distance away with his own mass of mist, only his was black on colour and just a bit bigger than what Stan had trapped.
"Stan Pines!" Bill growled, clenching his noodle limbs into a tight ball of fists.
"Hello, Bill." Stan shot back, slowly lowering the jar from his face. "Fancy seeing you here, and by that I mean that I totally expected you."
"No duh, but tell me why the heck you have Pinetree's kid in a jar!" Bill snapped lowly, trying to float closer to the pair, only to be stopped by a field of some sort. "W-what the heck!?"
"I'm not an idiot, Bill. Even this old hack knows a thing or two about salt circles." Stan snapped, holding the jar containing the maroon mist from before. "Now tell me why 'shes' back in here! Last I checked, this thing should have been completely obliterated from existance from the last time."
"I don't have to tell you anything, Stan!" Bill snapped angrily, his fists tightening as his own mist began to writhe in what seemed to be pain.
"Oh really, then how about I just exercise this little bastard again an-"
"Stan! Don't!" Bill suddenly yelled sounding distraught for once as his shoulders slumped and his head bowed. "Fine, you got me there..."
"Good, but since you can't reach me from here, I think I might just do it anyway for fun, you know? Since you broke your promise you Isosolise terd!"
Bill's head remained bowed as Stan spoke, and for a moment the con man felt as though he had won this round, however, what Bill did next shook him to his core. The triangle began to snicker softly, the sound growing louder and louder until he was soon howling in his amusement.
"What's so funny?" Stan demanded, his free hand clenching into a tight fist as his eyes darted over to the black mist besides Bill.
"Stan, Stan, Stan. You realize that if you kill the 'baby', then you also kill-" He paused, gesturing to the dog as it cleared up just enough for Stan to see a pair of deep brown eyes filled with fear staring back at him. "Your great-nephew."
"Damn you, Cipher." Stan hissed, suddenly tucking the jar into his pocket and glaring at the other.
"Its your choice, Stan. Either you let her go, or I hang onto Pinetree here for a little while longer." Bill snickered.
"Hand over Dipper first and then I'll give you the brat back." Stan said in an honest tone. "Deal?"
"Well, I do like a good deal." Bill replied, suddenly casting Dipper's body from the mist and into the circle near Stan.
Stan looked quickly down at Dipper to make sure that he was alright before taking the jar back out and slowly unscrewing the cap. Bill was a dangerous and crafty one, so Stan was not going to take his chances and try anything funny, especially with the hold that Bill still had over Dipper. Slowly, he removed the lid and let the mist float out and then back over to Bill.
"Here's the kid, now leave mine alone before I come back in here and kill you both!" Stan shouted, shaking a fist at them both angrily. "If I hear about one more dream from Dipper then I'm killing you twice, Cipher!"
"Oh, I doubt that, Stan." Bill snickered, suddenly gathering the mist into his hands until it took the form of a little baby, still developing. "Now say bye-bye to your great Grunkle Stan, sweety."
"G-gre-!? Just what exactly are you getting at, Cipher!?" Stan barked, bending slightly to gather up Dipper into his arms.
"Oh, I think you know exactly what I mean." Bill cackled, only to disappear in a flash as he always did.
As he did, Dipper suddenly stirred as his eyes, which had closed at some point since his fall, flashed open. At first, Stan was relieved that Dipper was alright, but then he was downright terrorized by what had just happened. Looking down at the boy, he saw that his lips were moving slowly.
"I-In- Inopinatum..." He kept muttering under his breath, causing Stan's blood to chill as he watched Dipper's skin beginner become transparent.
"We're waking up, kid. Don't worry, it's just a dream." Stan lied, though now he wasn't sure if Dipper would believe him when he woke up for not- It was something he'd have to wait for...