WARPED

Chapter 18

Lucy woke up in the middle of the woods.

She was lying in the middle of a circular clearing, with no memory of how she got there. She didn't even remember falling asleep—or unconscious? Her head thumped with every beat of her pulse and her limbs felt too loose. Something was up.

Lucy slowly sat up and looked around. It was dark out, and she could see a billion stars. This struck her as odd: the last thing she could remember was leaving the room after Jocelyn woke up. The rest was a blank.

Lucy stood up and looked around, strangely calm after waking up in the middle of the woods. Was it possible she was starting to get used to the odd things that crossed her path in Gravity Falls?

She shook off the thought instantly with a stubborn frown. She could feel herself being watched—that wasn't something you got used to.

"Hiya, Pen!" came an amused voice behind her.

Lucy whirled around, and there was Bill Cipher, floating in front of her with his abnormal golden glow. Shocker. She rubbed her eyes, thinking she was still asleep.

"Don't worry, Sleeping Beauty, you're awake!" Bill exclaimed, answering her thoughts. "I'm here, with you! Don't expect any true love's kiss, though. That's gross."

"How…" Lucy began, lost for words.

"Did I get here?" Bill finished. "That necklace in your pocket!"

"The neck—you mean this thing?" Lucy asked, fishing out the triangle-shaped stone. "I don't even know where this came from!"

Bill chuckled. "That's cause I had you walk out here last night to get it!"

Lucy froze. "You what?"

"Ever play with a puppet, Pen?" With a flick of his wrist, Bill created a mini-Lucy, complete with the short, curly hair, matching outfit, and wide googly eyes. "They're really fun, ya know. You can make them do whatever you want and go wherever you want. This is especially fun with life sized puppets!" He held it out to her. "Wanna try? Don't worry, she won't bite. Unless you want her to. That's what's so fun about puppets—they can't do anything you don't like. We could have a puppet show one day!"

Lucy smacked the puppet version of herself out of Bill's tiny hand, and it sailed into the dewy grass. "You're…you're sick," she snarled. "How dare you think you can treat me like some stupid little doll? I'm a real person, you freak! And I want you to leave me alone!"

"Hmm. So I guess you're not up for the puppet show," Bill remarked. "That's a shame. I needed some practice. Anyway, you and me both know I can't leave ya alone, Pen."

"And why's that?" Lucy growled.

"You want answers!" Bill said. "You're desperate for them. And you're not gonna get any hanging around with Caduceus and Music Note. Especially when they're out having their own mystery adventures and leaving you out."

Lucy narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"Just what I said, dummy!" Bill replied, flashing Lucy an image of Jocelyn and Hazelle entering the room behind the vending machine in the Mystery Shack. "While you were gone earlier they paid a visit to Stan Pines!"

Lucy felt like she'd been punched in the gut. "No. No way. They'd never do that. You're lying!"

"Now would I lie to you, Pen?" Bill asked innocently, twirling his cane.

"Well, seeing as you're a demon, yes," Lucy quipped. "And my mom always said to never trust a demon."

"That doesn't make me a liar!" Bill protested, eye glowing red. The air crackled with energy. Lucy winced and held up her hands in surrender.

"Okay, okay," she replied, backing away. "Well, fine. You've got my attention. Especially if you're not gonna leave me alone, any time soon. What do you want?"

"Nothing really, Pen," Bill answered, regaining his composure. "I want to propose a deal!"

Lucy shook her head. "Uh uh. There is no way in hell I'm making a deal with a dream demon."

"Why don't you wait to hear me out? I have a feeling you might like my terms."

Lucy wanted to get back to the shack, but she was curious as to what Bill had to say. Curiosity had always been one of her weaknesses—not as bad as Hazelle, though, whose curiosity Lucy was sure would get her killed one day.

"I knew you'd come around!" Bill exclaimed, reading her thoughts. His arm extended to curl around her shoulders. "So here's the deal: you want to get home. And that thing that Music Note can do? All three of you can do it. I can make that all go away, and send you home to boot!"

"We have those powers too? And you can get rid of them?" Lucy was still uneasy, itching his arm off. "What's the catch?"

Bill twirled his top hat. "No catch. All I need you to do it get yourself, Music Note, and Caduceus together, alone, in this clearing. You can use that necklace to summon me, but it won't really be necessary, because I'll be watching you, so I'll know either way!"

Lucy thought for a minute, her mind flip flopping back and forth between home and danger. "But what do you get out of this?"

"Sheesh, Pen, does everything have to have a catch with you? I'm helping you get home!"

Lucy bit back the first thing that came to mind: You're the only one offering to help. "Can I think it over?"

"I suppose that seems reasonable." Bill pulled out a large pocket watch. "I'll give you until sunset tomorrow."

"That sounds… fair." Lucy made a face. "I think."

"Then I'll see you then, Pen!" Bill laughed. "Don't get into too much trouble! Oh, also, if I were you, I'd go see what's up with Caduceus and Music Note—looks like they're really getting' into the Gravity Falls secret-keeping spirit!"

Bill's laughed lingered in the air after he disappeared, leaving Lucy alone in the clearing with her fears.

XxX

By the time Lucy had made her way back to the Mystery Shack, the sun had risen. She was no expert at telling time by the sun, but it had to be at least eight in the morning. She apparently slept through the night (not in her bed, anyway), but she felt like she'd pulled an all-nighter.

Even though she had clearly seen Bill vanish with a swish of his hat and cane back in the woods, it still felt like he was around. And the scariest thing about it all was that it didn't freak her out like it had used to. In fact, it almost felt comforting.

Lucy knew that was crazy talk. But in reality, Bill was the only person who kept checking up on her. The Pines family did it because they were nice, not because they cared. Hazelle was the world's biggest worrywart—it had begun to annoy Lucy, how often Hazelle asked if she was alright, because it didn't feel genuine to her, almost like Hazelle was carrying it out like a chore. And Jocelyn? As long as she was in Gravity Falls, Lucy could've very well not existed.

But Bill…interacted with her. He was trying to help, even if he did have a darker purpose behind it all. Bill was trying, which was more than Lucy could say about her so-called "friends."

Lucy's face hardened. She tied Bill's necklace around her neck, and for the first time since she'd landed in Gravity Fall, she felt calm.

She walked in through the kitchen door of the Shack, and found Hazelle, Dipper, and Stan sitting at the breakfast table. Hazelle looked concerned, and jumped up when Lucy entered.

"Lucy! Where have you been? Are you okay? And why are there leaves in your hair? Where were you?"

The fussy questions did nothing to help her mood. Leave it to Hazelle to freak out over everything. "Out," Lucy responded, pushing past Hazelle dismissively, the image of her and Jocelyn sneaking down to Stan's lab still fresh in her mind.

Dipper looked up from his journal. "Are you sure you're okay? You look kind of…awful."

Stan snickered from behind his newspaper. "At least the kid's honest."

Hazelle shot the two of them a look. "Are you really sure you're okay, Luce?"

"Yeah," Lucy mumbled, not meeting Hazelle's gaze. "I just need to shower."

"The bathroom's upstairs, you can go ahead and use Mabel's shampoo and stuff," Dipper supplied, turning back to the journal.

Lucy muttered some thanks and made her way up the stairs. She figured she was safe from seeing Jocelyn for some time, because Jocelyn made it a personal rule to never get up before 10 unless she absolutely had to.

As the cold spray hit Lucy's back (did the Shack even have warm running water? Freaking Stan!), she mulled over Bill's offer. It didn't seem like that big of a deal to get Jocelyn and Hazelle to the clearing. Bill would get rid of their powers, and send them home. What was there not to like?

There was some small part of Lucy that felt like Bill couldn't be trusted. He was a demon for Christ sakes. Lucy didn't believe that there wasn't a catch. She wasn't sure what to do.

But she realized that she hadn't wanted to remove the necklace for her shower. She somehow felt better with it on. And anything that made her feel better in this messed up situation couldn't be that bad.

By the time Lucy had dried off and made her way downstairs, the sky had turned a gloomy gray, and a steady drizzle was hitting the windows and leaking through some ceilings in the Shack. It made for a depressing feel, and everyone in the Mystery Shack was silent, as if the clouds had muffled anything they wanted to say.

Lucy was pushing some oatmeal around in a bowl when Jocelyn stumbled down the stairs, rubbing her eyes. Lucy looked up, but then quickly looked down again, not wanting to start anything.

"What time is it?" Jocelyn yawned. She stretched, cracking her back and elbows. Lucy cringed. She hated that noise.

"Ten-sixteen," Lucy mumbled in reply, glancing at her phone.

Jocelyn paused and looked at Lucy before grabbing a cold pancake from the counter.

"Thanks," she said before heading to the den to join everyone else in front of the TV.

This one word was more than Jocelyn had said to Lucy in more than 24 hours, and Lucy couldn't help but feel a glimmer of happiness that Jocelyn had decided to bridge their friendship. Jocelyn could really hold a grudge, but when she decided to forgive, she was the most loyal friend you could ever find.

Lucy began to rethink her position with Bill. If her friends were ready to be her friends again, maybe they didn't need a dream demon. The three of them could find a way home by themselves.

She reached up to take off the necklace, but the sound of footsteps made her hand freeze. She heard Hazelle and Jocelyn start up the stairs, talking in whispers.

Lucy's eyes narrowed. She followed them up, taking extra precautions to stay unseen. They ducked into the twins' bedroom, and she hovered outside the ajar door, listening.

"She's getting worse," Hazelle hissed.

"Did she even say where she was last night?" asked Jocelyn, biting down on the last piece of pancake.

"Of course not! Now she's keeping secrets, Joss. Something's really wrong."

"Look, I don't want to be that person, but don't you think you're being a bit hypocritical? We're keeping secrets, too."

"For her own good! She started all this…secret-keeping when she didn't tell us what was wrong with her! Now I'm too worried to tell her about Stan's lab and all the info we learned. You know how it works here—in Gravity Falls, you don't just keep a secret. You guard it with your life."

"So, what, you think Lucy's out causing trouble? Getting mixed up with bad people?"

"I just think she's keeping something big from us. I think she has been this whole time. I know we should have brought her when we tried to spy on Stan, but there's something about her that's worrying me."

"Hazelle, everything worries you."

"I have to worry! Lucy's AWOL, you're a portal jumper—what's next, I'm Santa Claus?!"

"If only."

"JOSS!"

"Okay, okay! Jeesh. Look, how 'bout this…"

Lucy didn't hear the rest. She was already flying down the stairs, out the door, and back into the woods, feet a flurry against the ground. The blood roared in her ears and her heart burned with rage.

Bill had been telling the truth. They had gone and seen Stan! Without her! And they were going to treat it like their special little secret. Stupid Hazelle, treating her like some fragile little flower. Stupid Jocelyn, so committal that she probably really couldn't care less about Lucy. They were sneaking around and keeping secrets from her, lying to her.

Lucy was back in the clearing, panting and teeth gritted. The betrayal stung like a slap slathered in snake venom. How could they do this to her? Exclude her like she was some secondary character—unimportant, underdeveloped, useless?

The scream ripped from her throat.

"BILL!"

After a few moments of gloomy silence, the dream demon reappeared, checking out his nonexistent fingernails. "Back so soon? I thought we agreed on tomorrow." But he didn't sound surprised—he sounded delighted.

"Screw tomorrow," Lucy snarled. She stuck out her hand. "It's a deal. I'll get them right where you want them."

Despite missing a mouth, Bill was positively grinning. "Clear your schedule, kid—you're all mine now."

His hand grabbed hers and they shook, their interlocked fists erupting into blue flames so bright they lit up the gloom like lightning.