"Man that was fun to watch! Has anyone ever told you how adorable you are when you're terrified, Pine Tree?" Bill Cipher glowed smugly with each word. He floated several feet above the stream from which he had just burst.
Dipper's face went hot, and he lifted himself from the rock-riddled ground.
"Was that your idea of a joke? What's your problem?!" He cried. He was pretty sure at least a few years had been shaved off his life expectancy with that stunt.
"Only a couple hours, actually," Bill informed him. "Nothin' to get too upset over."
Dipper couldn't help himself from shaking slightly: from anger, nerves, or more likely a little of both. "So that's your end game, huh? You're going to slowly drive me into an early grave?"
"Puh-lease, you fleshsticks die off so quick, you don't need any help from me." Bill leaned on his cane in midair, crossing one leg over the other. "Besides, I've decided I'm gonna keep you around, kid! And not just for the entertainment value."
"Keep me around?" Dipper pronounced slowly. "Are you kidding me? Just yesterday you were going to let me fade into… limbo, or whatever!"
"Assumptions assumptions! Besides, life's a roller coaster. Things change, try to keep up."
Bill exploded with a burst of brilliant light that Dipper didn't quite shut his eyes against in time. The light show punched through his retinas to assault his brain.
The next moment he was sitting upright in bed. His eyes were temporarily blinded, but he could hear the even breathing of his sister from across the room.
His sight rapidly focused around the image of Bill sitting cross-legged at the foot of his bed. Dipper pulled his feet up to his body as if they had been scalded.
"Haha! It's like we're having a sleepover." Bill stood up on his stick legs and bounced on the mattress a few times. The mattress didn't seem to notice. On the third jump, the triangle chose to ignore gravity altogether and remained floating in the air.
His eye went wide and his pupil contracted into a round dot. "Ya know, I love sleepovers."
Dipper didn't doubt that. Glancing over, Mabel didn't seem at all disturbed by the noise. She snored on.
Bill's expression evened out again, and he straightened his tie, unnecessarily. "Anyways, back to business. You may be wondering why I've gathered you here tonight."
Dipper just stared.
"Long story short- I need a favor."
Dipper sputtered. "A favor? Are you kidding? I'm not going to help you!"
"Wha? I'm hurt, Pine Tree! I seem to recall you owing me a rather large favor."
"You only helped me because I wouldn't take your deal," Dipper accused.
Bill ignored him. "Sooo, that's a definite no to helping me out then?"
"Yes!" Dipper affirmed, though there was a gleam in Bill's eyes that Dipper didn't like at all. He crossed his arms over his chest.
Bill heaved a great, theatrical sigh and rolled his eye. "Well, in that case…"
Bill's slivered pupil shifted lock with Dipper's. The eye flashed light blue and Dipper suddenly, terribly, felt unable to look away.
He was pulling his covers off, tossing them to the side. His bare feet hit the cool wooden floorboards and his legs and arms lifted him away from the warmth of his bed. He took one stiff step, then another. He was moving in the direction of the bedroom door, and he definitely didn't want to be.
Dipper found control of his mouth. "Wh-what's going on? What are you doing?!"
Bill floated along beside him. "By now this really shouldn't come as a surprise to you, but favors with demons don't work the same way as your weak human ones. Like deals. You owe me a favor, and I want it paid back. Unless you agree to help me out, I'll take what I need."
Reaching desperately for some kind of loophole, Dipper threw out, "What if I agree to help you?"
His feet suddenly stopped short and he nearly fell on his face. He was released from the spell.
"In that case, there's not much I can complain about is there?" Bill lifted his hands in the air.
"S-so, as long as I agree help you, I do this on my own terms and not yours," Dipper stated.
Bill pointed both index fingers at Dipper, and might have winked. Dipper couldn't exactly tell. "You got it, kid! I knew you were a bright one."
Dipper sighed heavily and rubbed at his eyes. He didn't know how much more of Bill's agenda he could take in one summer, especially with the hours the demon seemed to keep. He sure wasn't going to just let Bill take advantage of him like this though.
"What do you need?" Dipper relented. "You aren't going to make me jump off a building or sacrifice a lamb are you?"
"What an imagination!" Bill laughed, and prodded Dipper's forehead with his cane. "No, no. I helped you find something, so I need you to help me find something. Favor returned!"
Reaching up to flatten the bangs the triangle had disturbed, Dipper blinked. "That's it?"
"Yeah! Easy-peasy."
Dipper's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Can't be trusted in the Journal's hasty script flashed like a neon sign in the back of his mind. "Wait… but don't you know like, everything? You shouldn't even need my help in the first place! What are you after, Bill?"
That seemed to hit a nerve. The demon's general impression plunged from light-hearted to impatient in the blink of a single symmetrical eye.
"So many questions! Would it kill you to just trust me?" Bill complained.
Probably, Dipper thought.
"Why don't you be a good little boy and put your shoes and jacket on, huh?" The demon said shortly. He disappeared with a quiet pop and the world abruptly flooded with color.
Dipper's eyes fluttered open, and after a moment of mild disorientation, he reluctantly went to get ready.
One vest, a pair of shoes, and a heavily taped-together flashlight later, Dipper was heading down the stairs. He assumed he was supposed to go outside. A search confined to the shack would have just been too easy to fit into Dipper's life.
Dipper tip-toed past the living room doorway. A late night infomercial quietly played on the old TV, flickering light into the hall. Grunkle Stan lay snoring on his recliner, completely passed out.
You monkeys will trade paper for the weirdest crap! What's a Finger Flexor supposed to do anyway?
Bill's voice seemed to come from every direction at once. Dipper cast the flashlight beam around the front entrance in vain, already feeling his annoyance mounting. Couldn't the demon just walk up to him and say hello like a normal sentient creature?
In here, kid. What sounded like three knocks on wood followed, and it dawned on Dipper that the voice was coming from inside his own head.
Get out of there! Dipper thought back furiously. The idea of Bill hanging out in his head sent him into a lukewarm panic. At least the demon seemed to be back in good cheer.
Dipper slipped quietly through the front door. The cool midnight air washed over him and loosened his tensed muscles a bit.
No way! Bill countered. It's cozy in here- lot's of room for potential too. I think I'll stay awhile.
The ridiculous mental image of Bill unpacking a suitcase flashed through his mind.
Haven't you messed with me enough for one day? Dipper thought back desperately.
Never! Besides, I hate to break it to ya, but this really isn't that different from our usual means of communication. I'm just not bothering to trick your brain into seeing me right now. This way you can keep your eyes open and on the lookout. Make sense?
Dipper shook his head, but decided to drop the subject. Bill would do what Bill wanted either way. Dipper peered around. The three-quarter moon bathed the overgrown yard in soft gray light while the nearby trees formed a dark, oppressive line that neither the moonlight nor flashlight could penetrate. A breeze filled the air with the gentle rustling of pine needles and somewhere, in the distance an owl called out into the night.
Where do you want me to go? Will you at least tell me what am I looking for? Dipper questioned.
How about… that way! Dipper suddenly felt a distinct and irresponsible impulse to wander into the forest. I think we'll find what we're looking for there.
Another vague answer. Dipper didn't like the idea of wandering the woods alone with a demonic guide. He wished Soos or Mabel were by his side. After short hesitation, he slinked off into the evergreens.
Atta boy! Bill praised.
…
Dipper stumbled around in the dark for what might have been hours. The scant light filtering down was fragmented by the dense trees, and it only got darker further in. His beat-up flashlight hardly helped; it seemed that every five minutes he was snagging his shorts on the twiggy underbrush or catching his feet on a jutting tree root. At this point in his summer Dipper didn't feel like a stranger to these woods, but the forest felt like a different place at night, especially on his own. His imagination warned him that the undead, Sasquatch, fishwolves, or basically any other supernatural creature he could envision might be waiting in the shadows or hiding behind the next tree. Reason couldn't even retort that those things didn't exist. They did. It wasn't long before even the sound of a stick snapping underfoot made Dipper jump out of his skin.
And Bill would laugh and tease every time.
First the demon had tried to lure Dipper into what seemed like small talk, which Dipper had stubbornly ignored. Quickly catching on to Dipper's strategy, Bill had then turned inward to his thoughts and memories. Dipper spent half the night hearing all of his most embarrassing memories gleefully described back to him in excruciating detail, complete with running commentary.
Bill also spent quite a long while psychoanalyzing a recurring dream Dipper had of showing up to school late in his underwear. Freud had nothing on Bill. Dipper was half afraid that the dream demon wasn't just messing with him and actually knew his stuff. According to Bill, Dipper had some pent up anxiety that could only be resolved by setting fire to the daycare he and Mabel had attended when they were toddlers. So now Dipper had a voice inside his head telling him to burn things.
Occasionally Bill would break off mid-sentence to tell him to turn this way or that, for seemingly no reason.
Some part of Dipper appreciated the constant distraction because it kept him from fixating on what might be hiding in the dark, even if it made him more prone to tripping. The other part of him was slowly being driven insane.
Eventually Bill lapsed into a conspicuous silence and Dipper thought that maybe, finally, he would have some peace on this fool's errand.
But then he slowed to a stop. Something was different. Wrong. His ears strained to listen for anything out of place. He heard… nothing.
The constant drone of summer crickets had ceased. The owls stayed silent on their perches, and the single woodpecker Dipper had been hearing occasionally throughout the night had paused its work.
It seemed that even the breeze had stopped to hold its breath.
Suddenly Dipper felt very awake and very alert.
Hey, Pine Tree… Can you hear him? Bill whispered in his ear.
An instinctual prickling on the back of Dipper's neck set his heart beating. He slowly, deliberately turned around.
A horrible thrill traveled up Dipper's spine.
Several feet away, a lone figure stood between the trees. It was painfully thin and easily eight feet tall. Its body was the pitch black that you would expect to see at the bottom of a well, stark against the rest of the night. It wasn't there so much as nothing else was present where it was.
It stared back at him with a face devoid of feature.
The head slowly split along the middle into a grin of strikingly white teeth. Oddly human and perfectly straight, like dentures.
Dipper twisted and ran.
Hey! Great job kid! You found him. Or maybe he found you? Hahahaha! Bill's laughter reverberated loudly inside his head. Now, let's discuss who should really be controlling that body of yours right now...
No! I'm not letting you kick me out again… What is that thing?! Dipper wailed.
His heart skipped a beat as he heard the creature give chase. It didn't walk, it slithered: a soft whispering that promised horrible things. If Dipper was running before, he was positively flying over the ground now.
Ok ok, I can see where you're coming from, Bill rushed. Check this out- I'll even let you stay in the body while I'm using it! Mommy and Daddy need to have a little chat.
Do it on your own time! I found what you wanted, now leave me out of it! Dipper pleaded.
He gasped as the creature suddenly appeared in front of him, grinning widely. Out of the body, with loud snapping noises, broke spindly, jointed arms that ended in wicked black claws.
Dipper skidded and turned on his heels. The creature gave a low, rumbling growl that Dipper could feel in his bones.
Kid, make the deal!
"No!" Dipper shouted. He miraculously ducked a sweep from one of the long limbs. He just needed to get out of here, find a way to shake this thing off his trail- maybe he could climb a tree?
PINE TREE!
"Huh-"
A second clawed hand caught Dipper on his left side and raked through his vest and shirt, leaving four trails of searing-wet pain in its wake. Dipper forgot to scream in shear surprise but fell to the ground anyway, hitting hard. The dirt and dry needles beneath him quickly grew damp with warm blood. Belatedly, he brought his hand over to press against the wound. The world around him seemed to slow down to a trickle, as if he were in an action sequence of a movie. Everything went gray and white.
The shadow creature slid into view above him. It leaned over him to stare down without eyes, bright black against the dull background.
But then Bill's yellow form was there instead, or rather, between him and the creature. His expression was unreadable as he thrust a brilliantly burning hand into Dipper's face. In something of a daze, Dipper reached up and grabbed it. The warm fire engulfed their clasped hands.
The abomination struck like a snake, head first and mouth gaping with a hundred tiny white teeth.
Dipper was aware of feeling uncomfortably cramped, as if he were in a packed subway car and squished between passengers. It didn't take him long to realize that the car was his own head and Bill was the one he was pressed up against. Dipper could feel the other, much larger personality quickly wresting control of his body. Dipper gave it up numbly, almost without thought. It was oddly relieving to pass over control of the situation, or lack thereof. The pain in his side faded considerably, though he could still feel the hot blood against his fingers.
Dipper's lips stretched into an almost painful grin without his permission. He burst out laughing in a voice not his own.
The creature stopped dead a few inches from Bill and Dipper's face. The horrible mouth closed into black and it slowly straightened to tower over them. At a glance, it almost could have been mistaken for the silhouette of a man.
It swayed stiffly in the breeze, head tilted down at them.
At last, Bill Cipher.
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Review? Yes? No? Anyways, thanks for reading so far.