It took a while for Mabel's heartbeat to settle down. She leaned forward, hands on her knees and drawing in sharp, cold breaths. Fall in Gravity Falls, Ha, there's definitely a joke in there somewhere, was much colder than anything she'd ever felt back in Piedmont. Luckily, she had a sweater on, so it was her lungs taking the brunt of the cold, but Dipper didn't. She looked over at him, but if the cold was bothering him he didn't show it. He was looking back at the Not-Mystery Shack, tapping a finger against his leg with his Thinking Face on.

"So…" Mabel said, "Stan recognized the Journal. Does that mean what I think it means?"

"He had six fingers," Dipper replied, "So yeah, it means exactly what you think it means."

"Wow," Mabel said, impressed that Dipper had noticed that, "So Stan really is the Author…" Mabel trailed off, feeling a pang of hurt that Stan had, indeed, been lying to them all summer. Why wouldn't he have told us?

Dipper began to pace, idly rubbing his bare arms. "But there's still so many questions. What happened to him? He looked terrible, and he was rambling about 'Him.' Who's 'Him?' How does it all tie into the device? What's Mcgucket's role in all this?"

Mabel thought about it for a minute, before giving up and saying, "We'll have to figure it out later. We need to get the Journal back. It's gonna cause one of those paradox thingies, right?"

Dipper grimaced. "Yeah, we don't need to give those Time Cops any more reason to be mad at us." He reached inside his vest, saying, "We'll get the Journal back, pay McGucket a visit, and get back to our own-" He cut himself off, face paling as he pulled out the Time Tape. The panel on the side was broken, wires hanging out. "Oh no."

Mabel's stomach dropped. "Can you fix it?"

Dipper looked at it closely, poking it a bit. "Maybe. But we'll need to find some tools." He glanced toward the Not-Shack. "I don't know if Stan still keeps a tool kit in there, but McGucket should have some. But first, how are we going to break in?"

Breaking in turned out to be much harder than anticipated. Whatever the mysterious "Him" had done to Stan, it had caused him to convert the Not-Shack into a veritable fortress. There was barbed wire and barricades scattered haphazardly around the yard, all the windows were boarded up, and Stan himself had told them that all the doors would be locked.

Eventually, Mabel noticed that the attic window was unboarded. "Dipper, give me a boost," she said, pointing at it.

Dipper positioned himself by the awning with a sigh. "Of course, right when your grappling hook would be useful…"

"Yeah," Mabel said, clambering up Dipper's shoulders, "remind me to take 'never leave home without it' even more literally." She climbed onto the roof, then reached down and pulled Dipper up alongside her. They crept carefully over and up to the attic window, Dipper eased it open slowly. It didn't creak, thankfully, so the two of them lowered themselves down, dropping onto the floor below. Dust billowed beneath their feet, softening the noise of their landing, and they paused to listen for if Stan had noticed. As they did, Mabel took in that the attic was also being used for storage space, though this time neither of them commented on it.

Once they were sure Stan hadn't heard them, Dipper led the way to the door. It was standing ajar, and he tried to slip out while opening it as little as possible. The door let out a slight creak as he brushed against it, and Dipper froze. Mabel waited, heart pounding, for Stan to come running. When he didn't, though, Dipper pushed on, managing to get out without making more noise. Mabel followed right after, holding her breath and sucking in her gut. Y'know, maybe Stan eating my cookie was actually a good thing.

After that ordeal, Mabel and Dipper made for the staircase. On the way, they either peeked into rooms when they were open, or listened at the door for Stan. He wasn't anywhere to be found on this floor, though, so they descended the stairs, carefully stepping over the creaky step. Dipper looked into the living room, while Mabel peered around the banister. Mabel finally saw something, light coming from the open door of Soos' future break room, with a shadow moving on the wall.

She tugged on Dipper's arm, making him jump. She clamped a hand over his mouth, just in case, but he didn't make a sound. Mabel let him go, meeting his unimpressed look with a sheepish grin, before pointing at Soos' break room. Dipper nodded, and they crept closer. Mabel was watching the shadow closely, if it got bigger then Stan was probably leaving the room, but instead it just moved back and forth for a bit, before suddenly getting shorter and stopping. She shared a look with Dipper, it seemed like Stan had sat down at the desk in the room.

They risked a peek around the corner, seeing that Stan was indeed sitting at the desk with his back to them. He was leaning forward, mumbling to himself too quietly for Mabel to hear. As they watched, Stan's head drooped, before suddenly jerking up. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Mabel couldn't help but smile. She'd seen that behavior one too many times on a certain other nerd she knew very well, so she knew it meant Stan was on the verge of falling asleep. Dipper seemed to have recognized it too, and he looked at her with a silent question. Mabel gave a thumbs up to show she'd gotten the plan, and settled down to wait.

It wasn't long before drooping stopped being followed by snapping up, and even less time before Stan's head was fully on the desk. A loud snore rang out, and Dipper wasted no time in creeping into the room, looking frantically around for his Journal. Naturally, because of course they couldn't be lucky, the Journal was what Stan had been studying, so it was the thing he was currently sleeping on top of. Dipper visibly held his breath as he got closer, and Mabel instinctively followed suit. He looked at it from a few angles, before reaching closer. He began to ease the Journal out from under Stan's arms, watching closely for signs he was about to wake up, but Stan seemed to be out cold. After a few moments, he had the Journal and was holding it up to Mabel. She let out her breath in relief, before beckoning Dipper to leave. As he began to move away, though, Stan suddenly sprang to life and, before Mabel could even blink, pounced on Dipper.

One second everything was going well, the next Dipper was crashing to the floor. The impact knocked the breath he'd been holding out of him, he barely had time to gasp in another before Stan spun him around to face him. Stan reached out with both hands, and Dipper instinctively held the Journal tighter. The hands skipped right over the Journal, though, with Dipper only realizing his mistake when Stan grabbed him by the throat. Dipper's eyes widened, and he grabbed Stan's hands to try and pull them away, but they were unyielding. Through the mounting panic, Dipper heard Stan speak.

"Well, well, well," he said. His voice sounded a little off to Dipper, and his next words explained why. "You're here early, Pine Tree. You aren't even supposed to be born yet!" He laughed that familiar, hated laugh, and it, more than the words he'd said, sent a chill down Dipper's spine. Bill. he thought, struggling even harder than before, but it was no use. He couldn't get any leverage from this position, never mind that Bill was in the body of a fully grown man. Bill had stopped laughing to look down at him with a wide, cruel smile that looked so wrong on Stan's face. Dipper's vision started to fade, but before he could pass out something flew over him and suddenly Bill was gone.

He gasped, sucking in a few breaths before Mabel was tugging him up. "Come on!" she yelled, pulling him toward the door. Dipper fumbled with the Journal, managing to grab it as he tried to get his feet under him. He made it to the door, but not quickly enough.

"Arrgh!" Bill said behind them. He had been launched back into the desk, but instead of facing them, he laughed again. He snatched something up from the desk, turned around, and for the second time that day Dipper found himself staring down the barrel of a crossbow. Move! Dipper thought, but his body refused. Unlike Stan, Bill didn't hesitate to pull the trigger. Right before firing though, he swayed in place and the shot went wide. Bill clutched his head. "Ugh, really Sixer? One little smack to the head, and your eyes stop working? Geez, you meat sacks really are worthless!"

Dipper and Mabel were both stunned by how close they'd gotten to dying, but as he took a few more breaths, Dipper recovered first. He pulled Mabel along, slamming into the front door trying to get away. He fumbled for the lock, before Mabel pointed in dismay at the setup. There were at least 15 different padlocks stapled onto the door in addition to its regular lock. "Come on, seriously…" Dipper muttered, as behind them Bill stumbled through the door. He crashed into the wall, before lumbering toward them.

"I'm gonna get you kids!" he yelled, as they ran into the kitchen. Dipper had a vague idea of looping through the kitchen, into the living room, and back up the stairs and out the attic window. They'd just run through the door to the living room when Bill came into the kitchen. It sounded like he was crashing into the counters, but then he said, "Oooohh." There was a shink of metal scraping, and Dipper hoped it wasn't what he thought it was as they ran through the living room.

They mounted the stairs, and Dipper's heart sank as he heard an "Aha!" behind them. He looked over his shoulder to see that Bill had come back through the door he'd come in, and that, just as he'd feared, Bill was now holding a large knife from the kitchen. Bill began to stalk towards them, so Dipper and Mabel sprinted for the attic, slamming the door behind them. They ran back to the window, only to draw up short. In the heat of the moment, Dipper had forgotten that the window was very high off the ground.

Dipper looked around desperately, coming up with half baked ideas of what he could do. Maybe we can stack the boxes and climb up? Is there a way to get into the rafters and shimmy across? But every idea he had would require time, and he could hear Bill drawing closer. After a moment, he took a deep breath and crouched under the window. "Mabel, boost up there and get out of here."

"What?!" Mabel said, quickly judging the height of the window. "No way! Even if I can make it, I can't pull you up with me!"

"I know," Dipper said, "but if you get out, you might be able to go get help. Find McGucket or something."

"That's a terrible idea!" Mabel said, "We don't even know where McGucket lives in this time, and by the time I find him, Bill will-" she cut off, breathing heavily and blinking rapidly.

"But if you stay here, he'll kill both of us," Dipper argued, "At least this way, one of us makes it out of here."

"No," Mabel said, "I'm not leaving you. We aren't splitting up ever again, remember? That was the deal."

"It's-That's-" Dipper sighed and looked away. "I just want you to be safe…"

Mabel grabbed his shoulder. "I know. But we'll both make it out of this. Somehow, alright?"

Bill was getting way too close to argue, so Dipper grabbed her hand and whispered, "OK." He pulled them both behind a large box, heart in his throat. A few moments later, the door creaked open.

"Peekaboo," Bill said. He was silent for a moment, then said, "Playing hide and seek, are we?" He laughed. "Well, then, ready or not, here I come!"

Key: Hide

H LHEKTB KHUH SM KDX HVG QVCVI/ZMW MUALHL BKIPZ XRJTH'W OWXWL

Previous code: TIME TRAVEL IS CRAZY, EH?

Notes: So this chapter was a bit more intense than any of the others. I don't think it breaks the G rating, I was trying to keep it at a similar level to A Series of Unfortunate Events, which to my mind is about as dark as you can make something while still being for kids. In fact, Bill getting hold of a knife to chase them with is directly inspired by the second book of ASOUE, because Olaf in that book is especially terrifying. The other big inspiration was stealth horror games, specifically Alien Isolation, though that'll be a bigger part in the next chapter.

I would say sorry about the cliffhanger, but I think we all know that's a lie, so instead I'll just say thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated, as always, and I hope you have a good day!