Chapter Thirteen
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Bill asked as he swirled his cane around. "It's been far too long, Pine Tree. Why don't we make up for lost time?"
"W-What?" Dipper's eyes widened and he looked around. This must be a dream, but… "How…how are you here?!"
"Well, once upon a time, a dream demon took pity on the twelve year old." Bill began. Dipper could tell that if Bill had a mouth, he'd be grinning. "You're like a toy! I had to build you up enough to bring you back down. Now you can finally understand that you'll never be rid of me. That medication you're taking is doing nothing but destroying your liver."
"No…Everyone said you weren't real. You're not real!" Dipper exclaimed.
"Oh, but I am," Bill said with a laugh. "You'll never be free."
Dipper jumped out of bed covered in cold sweat. He was finally free of Bill and now he was back. He was real. Dipper needed that journal.
"Mabel!" Dipper exclaimed, running downstairs to the kitchen where Mabel was eating 'stancakes' at the table beside Stan. "Mabel, where did you put the journal?"
"What?" Mabel asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Just the day before her brother was saying that he couldn't handle it, and now he was desperate for it?
"No, no, no," Stan said, standing from his seat. "There's not going to be any journaling or adventuring when you're under my care. Not after what happened last time."
"No, you don't understand!" Dipper said desperately. "I need it so that I can sleep safely!"
"You can sleep safely," Stan told Dipper. "You don't need some stupid journal to go to sleep. Just do it, okay?"
Dipper realized that he wasn't going to get the journal with Stan around. He would have to find it on his own.
"…Fine…" Dipper trailed off.
"Now sit down and eat some breakfast," Stan said as he placed a plate of 'stancakes' on the table at the empty seat. He also put down Dipper's favorite syrup beside the plate. Dipper and Mabel never ate the same type of syrup, Dipper preferring no added sugars with Mabel preferring the opposite.
Dipper frowned, sitting in front of the plate and beginning to eat. He watched as Stan left the room and made it his personal mission to find that journal.
"Dipper…" Mabel trailed off when the twins were alone in their room. Dipper had been spending a lot of time in there recently, and Mabel just wanted to be there for her brother. "You're not having…problems, are you?"
Of course he was, but Mabel didn't need to know that.
"Not at all," Dipper said. "I just wanted to find that journal. You know, for…maybe I'll do some paranormal stuff over the summer."
"But what about what you said about sleeping this morning?" Mabel asked. "Maybe it's not such a good idea to have the journal around."
"Mabel, I really need it," Dipper said. "Now, where did you put it?"
Mabel hesitated before digging underneath her mattress and bringing the book out.
"I didn't want it to be too far away in case you wanted it back, but…I'm worried about you, Dipper," Mabel said.
"You don't need to be," Dipper responded as he took the journal from his sister's hands. He skimmed through the pages, trying to find a way to get Dipper out of his head.
"Dipper…" Mabel trailed off.
"I'm fine, Mabel," Dipper said firmly. "You can go now."
Mabel sighed and left the attic.
"I'm gonna get you out of my head, Bill," Dipper said to himself.
I'd like to see you try, a voice in his head said. Bill's voice.
"Dipper?" Mabel asked as she peeked into the attic. She saw her brother, hunched over the journal that he had been staring at since she left. "Dipper, I don't think this journal is such a good idea."
"Don't worry about it, Mabel," Dipper said. "Besides, I'm almost done for the night. Go to sleep and I'll knock out soon."
"Okay…" Mabel trailed off. She got into bed and tried to ignore her brother, though it was hard. After years of making sure he was doing all right after his diagnosis, it was hard for her to pretend he was completely normal again.
Dipper hadn't been normal since the last time they had been in Gravity Falls.
Dipper stayed awake much longer than he had intended to. He had ended up staying awake until midnight, when Mabel was definitely fast asleep, and so was everyone else in the house.
After not finding a way to stop Bill just yet, Dipper decided to go to sleep.
"I thought you would have remembered better," Bill said. "You know, since I tortured you last time you were here."
"I guess I'm just not sure I believe you're real yet," Dipper responded.
"Oh yeah?" Bill asked in an amused tone. "So that's why you hunted down the journal again? Because you're not sure if I'm real?"
"Oh, shut up," Dipper spat. "Maybe I just feel like doing some paranormal investigations because I'm in Gravity Falls again."
"Or maybe you want to get me out of your head," Bill said. "I know how to get rid of me."
"Of course you know how to get rid of yourself," Dipper said with a roll of the eyes. After a moment, he asked, "So how do you do it?"
"Oh no, this isn't information I give easily," Bill answered. He held out his hand, which held a blue flame. "Unless you want to make a deal for it."
"I'm not making a deal with you!" Dipper exclaimed.
"Very well then," Bill said. Everything went black.
"Hello?" Dipper asked to the darkness. "Bill, come on, this isn't funny."
"It's not funny," a familiar voice said from behind him. Dipper spun around to see Mabel giving him a blank stare. "You're right; it's not funny at all."
"Oh, come on," Dipper groaned out. "Bill, this thing with my sister is getting pretty old."
"Dipper…" Mabel trailed off. She bit her lip and looked genuinely upset; tears welling up in her eyes. "I told you I was worried. I told you that I didn't want you to be near that journal."
"You're not real," Dipper said. "You're not real."
"I'm real, Dipper!" Mabel exclaimed. "Have you been taking your medicine?"
"Shut up; you're not even Mabel," Dipper responded.
"Of course I'm Mabel," Mabel said. "Please, Dipper, get rid of that journal before you start to hurt yourself again."
"You mean before Bill uses your image to hurt me?" Dipper asked. "No thanks."
"Dipper, please!" Mabel exclaimed. "Please, for once, just listen to me! If you don't get rid of this journal, it's going to kill you!"
"The only thing that's going to kill me is Bill," Dipper said. "And, no, Bill, I won't make a deal with you." Dipper knew that Bill was the one controlling this Mabel. He had to be able to hear everything he was saying.
"You'll see what happens if you don't get rid of the journal, Dipper," Mabel said. "You'll see."
Dipper jumped up in bed. He had slept for too long, and knew it was because he had been up way too late. Mabel must have just assumed he took one of his sleeping pills, which helped Dipper's case. She would definitely insist that he get rid of the journal if she knew how late he had stayed up the night before.
Looking at the clock on his nightstand, Dipper saw that it was noon.
"Oh, gosh," Dipper said as he tumbled out of bed. He was quick to dress and run out toward the gift shop. Mabel was playing cards with Wendy at the register while Soos was fixing up the vending machine – the light had broken inside.
"Morning, Dipper," Wendy greeted when she saw the teenage boy.
"Dipper!" Mabel looked in the direction of her twin. "You looked like you were having trouble sleeping last night." She must have seen him tossing and turning when he was confronting Bill in his nightmare.
"I'm fine," Dipper said. "Just some stuff. I just came down to see if Stan was around."
"He said something about seeing someone in town," Soos answered.
"In town?" Dipper asked. "He hates everyone in this town."
"He goes out and does advertising every once in a while," Wendy said. "I think he has something set up with Lazy Sue. She lets him put some signs in front of the diner or something."
"That's great," Dipper said before darting out of the room.
"What's great?" Wendy asked.
"He has the journal," Mabel said, worry in her voice.
"Oh no…" Soos trailed off. He remembered what happened last time, and when he had asked Stan what was going on after the twins left, all Stan had told him was that Dipper was in the hospital and that he had caused those bruises himself. He assumed that was all Stan knew.
Dipper got to work on the journal.
He was going to stop Bill.
WKH IRUHVW LVQ'W VDIH.
Okay, guys! So I've been writing this book forever and I'm revising it for the fourth time now. I was wondering if anyone would be interested in getting a sneak peak and letting me know what you think? First three reviewers get a sneak peak (and all of them get a different one).
I wanted to tell you guys why I took so long at posting this next chapter. So, I've also been posting this on Ao3, but someone basically told me that this story was written really horribly. My first mistake was that I took it personally, and refused to post another chapter for a while. Now I'm kind of getting back into writing it, so I wanted to post this chapter for you guys!
Hope you all waited for me during my little temper tantrum :)