Disclaimer: Gravity Falls is property of Disney and Alex Hirsch
Chapter 2: Let's Make a Deal
Wendy stared at the floating pyramid, wondering if she had snapped as a result of watching everyone she knew and cared for be murdered. The pyramid kept its hand out for several moments longer before withdrawing it.
"What, is there something wrong with my face?" Wendy shook her head, not really knowing how to answer. The pyramid brought its hand to his face as he hemmed. He then snapped his fingers.
"I know, there must be something wrong with your face." He exclaimed, pointing at Wendy. "I can fix that." Wendy didn't know what he did, but when she felt her face start to melt and shift around, she screamed and stumbled backward away from pyramid, tripping over Dipper's body in the process. It laughed and slapped its knee at her plight.
"Oh man, that one's a classic. You should see the look on your face, its melting!" he chortled. With another snap of his fingers, Wendy felt her face revert to normal. She touched her face, making sure that everything was back where it belonged, she returned her gaze to the floating being.
"Who, what are you?" Wendy asked, afraid of the response. The pyramid smiled, or at least, she think it smiled. It was difficult to tell when the being had only an eye for a face.
"Why, I'm glad you asked. People around here call me Bill Cypher, and in case you couldn't tell, I'M A DEMON." Bill replied, his eye turning a crimson red at the end of his statement.
"Th-that's impossible, there's no such things as demons." Wendy denied, shaking her head frantically.
"Pft, and shape-shifters are an everyday occurrence." Bill retorted, "Speaking of shape-shifting, watch this." Bill snapped his fingers, and Wendy watched in horror as her father's body was levitated over to her, and Manly Dan's body began to contort and change shape with the cracking of bone and snapping of sinew into a grotesque parody of a balloon poodle.
After several moments of silence Bill shrugged, "Eh, balloon animals aren't really my thing," with that Dan's body dropped to the ground. Wendy started to back away, shaking her head in denial.
"Nononononononono, this isn't happening. This is just a bad dream you're in from falling asleep at Mabel's show. Yeah, that's it, I'm going to wake up any moment now." Wendy clenched her eyes shut for several moments before opening them again. Nothing changed. Everyone was dead or dying, and Bill was still floating over Dipper's body.
"You know, I heard that pinching can wake you up. Let me help." Bill stated, snapping his fingers. Wendy screamed in pain as she watched the skin around her elbow pinch over the joint until her forearm popped off, leaving smooth unblemished skin. "Oh, that looked painful. Do you need a hand?" Bill chuckled. If Wendy wasn't so terrified, she probably would have groaned at the lame pun.
"Why are you doing this?" she screamed, wanting the nightmare end, if only for as long as Bill was willing to talk. Bill gave her that weird eye smile again as he twirled his cane in a relaxed manner.
"If you really must know, I want to escape Gravity Falls, explore the world, gain some creepy cult followings; you know, the usual stuff. But so long as there are people living here in Gravity Falls, I can't leave without some long, convoluted ritual that Pine tree here was close to learning about. And knowing him, he would try to stop me. So I originally came here to destroy that journal of his, but I realized that there's a much quicker option. If half the town were to suddenly be killed, then the other half would flee as soon as possible, thus allowing me to leave. But I can't just kill people that easily, it takes a lot of energy to make the physical manifestation necessary to allow me to kill people in a more…personal manner, so I needed a vessel, and that's where my deal with Pine Tree came in." Wendy stared at him in confusion.
"Why would Dipper ever make a deal with you?"
"When people are told that they can't have something…they get…desperate." Bill told her, staring straight at her. Wendy felt her heart twist in her chest; surely he couldn't be referring her and Dipper's talk outside of the bunker. Their stare-down was interrupted by the sound of a cough echoing throughout the theatre. Bill turned to the sound, gazing over the dead bodies.
"Hmm, it appears that you're not the only one I missed Red, I'll be back in just a moment. There's someone I HAVE TO KILL." But before Bill could float over towards the sound, one of the previously dead bodies stood up and took off towards the exit. Bill paused, and idly watched the figure, who Wendy now recognized was Robbie, try to push the exit doors open. They rattled, but ultimately refused to budge. Robbie turned and took off for another exit, but before he could get there, Bill snapped his fingers and Robbie's leg turned with a loud pop, his knee dislocating. Robbie screamed in pain as he fell to the ground, curling up as he held his leg. Bill snapped his fingers again, and an invisible force dragged Robbie back towards the pyramid. Robbie clawed at the ground in desperation, only to scream in pain as several of his nails popped off. Once he reached Bill, Robbie was floated upside down in the air to Bill's eye level.
"What to do with you," Bill murmured to himself, "I mean, I'm obviously going to have to kill you, but how to do it?" Wendy, seeing an opportunity, picked up her disconnected forearm.
"Fore!" Bill turned in surprise, only to see the Wendy's forearm pass through his being. Bill looked at the forearm and back to Wendy, before pointing back at the forearm.
"Did you just yell fore while throwing your forearm at me?" Wendy glared at him defiantly.
"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Bill stared at her for several moments before he roared with laughter.
"Oh, geez, that," he paused to take a breath, "that was a good one. I mean, yelling fore while throwing your forearm? That's priceless." Bill's laughter tapered off, he sighed and then pointed at Robbie. "Why would you protect him anyway, I mean, you guys broke up on some pretty bad terms if I remember correctly." Wendy nodded.
"That's true, and my relationship with him was probably one of the worst mistakes I made all summer," she ignored the cry of protest from the upside down Goth, "but he's still my friend, and friends don't just stand around when other friends are in serious trouble." Bill rubbed the back of his pyramid head in a sheepish manner.
"Well then, this is about to get awkward really quick." Bill snickered, before snapping his fingers. Instantly, like some invisible arm had a hold of him, Robbie was bashed against the ground several times before his body from the waist down was twisted in one direction with his upper body being twisted in the other until the two halves separated with a meaty pop, spilling blood and organs everywhere.
"Sorry about that, I had to make sure this time that he was really dead. And I mean REALLY DEAD." Bill chuckled. Wendy stared at Robbie's remains with a tide of anger rising inside of her. She had been telling Bill the truth, that while she utterly regretted starting a relationship with the insecure boy, he had still been her friend. And she had been powerless to help him in his time of need. Her eyes returned to Bill, who had remained where he was, still nonchalant as when he appeared. Wendy was torn, she wanted to hurt Bill, to scream at him and make him pay for what he had done; but she also wanted to run away, escape from any further madness before the demon got bored playing with her. Bill took the decision away from her.
"You know, you can save them. All of them." Bill stated as he inspected his non-existent nails. Wendy stared at him, confused; as far as she could tell, nearly everyone in the theatre was dead, and the ones that weren't, would be dead soon.
"I don't understand." Wendy questioned. Bill snickered.
"I want to play a little game, Red. I'll use all of the magic generated here, and I'll send you back to before this whole "sock opera" even started. Your goal is to stop the plans I made for today. You do that, everyone here lives."
Wendy narrowed her eyes at the floating pyramid. "And if I lose?"
"Then you hand over your body to me; just for a little while." Bill drawled, "Of course, there are some rules you have to follow. You can't tell anyone what you're doing until after today, and you can't kill anyone you didn't already kill; time continuity and all that boring stuff. If you break them; well, we end up back here."
"But I haven't killed anyone." Wendy retorted.
"Then you shouldn't have any problems." Bill chortled. Wendy went to message her temples from the headache that was forming, only to stop when she remembered that she was still missing half of an arm.
"I need a moment to decide." Wendy sighed. Bill tsked in response.
"Just so you know you don't have much time. In about a minute, those explosives Mabel stole for this show of hers are going to go off, killing everyone still here." Wendy gaped at him.
"What!?" she screeched, "How the heck did Mabel get her hands on explosives."
"You have a decision to make here," Bill stated, ignoring her question, "You can either opt to save someone that is still alive," he snapped his fingers, causing the once sealed doors to blast open, "I personally recommend Pine Tree, he might be in terrible shape, but he could still make it, or you can play my little game."
Wendy worried her lip, uncertain of what to do. All of the movies and books warned against making deals with demons, because they were tricksters by trade, but the deal he was offering seemed pretty straight forward. When he sent Wendy back to before the Sock Opera, she could simply tie Dipper up until everyone got back from the play; no killing needed, and she wouldn't have to tell anyone anything. Seemed simple enough. She looked up at the patiently waiting Bill, and extended her hand to him.
"Alright, you have a deal." She murmured.
"Excellent. Have a nice trip, try to not fall on your face." Bill sniggered as he took her hand in his flame covered own. Before Wendy could question what he had said, the world started to spin, slowly at first, gradually accelerating to just a blur, and then darkness.