Chapter 7

Bill turned at a sound it made and screamed, instinctively throwing his hands in front of his face. "Pleasedontkillme!" The creature suddenly gave a deep booming laugh. "I'm not going to hurt ya!" He said still laughing. "I just heard you calling out and I came to come help ya." He replied with a grin. Bill flushed red. "Sorry..." He mumbled, looking down. "I'm just not used to... Um... Whatever you are." "Oh! Ya new, huh? I'm Ohanzee Molimo. I'm a shadow demon. What kind are ya?" He asked. Bill stared at him. "Demon...?" "Yep! Welcome to the otherside!" He said. "Do ya know what type of demon ya are?" "I'm not a demo-" Bill protested, but stopped, remembering the genie's curse. "I... um... It's complicated."

"Alright, what's your name then?" "Bill," he replied, reaching out a hand. "Bill Cipher." He grinned and shook his hand. Bill's hand was tiny compared to his so he shrunk down some to about a bit taller than Bill used to be so he would crush his hand. Bill stared at his hand. "Wha- what?" "Really not used to this are ya? Since I'm a shadow demon, one of my powers is growing and shrinking in size." he explained. He looked at his own hand now. It was black and skinny. He fell backward in shock. What the heck is wrong with this place? His limbs were black that and his body was yellow? Wh- what? Ohanzee looked at him. "Have you not seen yourself? And if you weren't a demon before then what were you?"

Bill was too occupied with flipping the heck out to answer. Ohanzee watched him. He waited until he calmed down. Bill slowly stopped hyperventilating and calmed down. "H- How? What am I?" He asked. "If you're here then probably a demon, however I don't know what kind without seeing any of your abilities." he explained. "I'm not a demon. This is just a dream. A sick crazy dream." Bill muttered to himself, pulling his tiny knees up to his chest. Ohanzee felt sorry for him and wanted to help but didn't know how. "You should at least come with me and get inside. We'll figure it out there." Bill nodded slowly. A house. That sounded nice and normal. He got up and followed him. He led him towards his home. It was a brick home. The bricks were a deep crimson. Bill tried to ignore the fact that his feet weren't touching the ground.

He led him inside it was relatively normal looking. Bill sighed in relief and turned to Ohanzee. "So... What is this place?" "This is the Otherworld. It's also known as the otherside or oblivion." Ohanzee explained and described it. "Wait, I'm in hell? What did I do wrong?" Ohanzee shook his head. "No, no, no. You're not in hell. Otherworld is different than that." Bill sighed again. "Good." "Make yourself at home." Ohanzee said and sat down. Bill floated to a chair and hovered above it instead. He still wasn't used to this floating thing. Days, or maybe just hours, later, Ohanzee and Bill had become best friends. They spent that time figuring out what kind of demon he was and experimenting with his powers. Ohanzee was teaching him what he knew that would be useful for him. After finding out his telekinetic abilities, he started testing them, lifting heavier and heavier objects. Ohanzee watched him test his limits on his powers and smiled.

Bill had an idea. He focused hard on the ruins around him, pulling them apart brick by brick. Ohanzee watched curious. He quickly arranged the furniture, bricks and other materials around himself, building a castle. Blue fire rippled over the bricks, seeming to burn them into place. Ohanzee stared in amazement. Bill felt exhausted but happy. "How does it look?" He asked, opening the door for his friend. It was a huge castle. It had furniture, decorations everywhere, board games from who knows where, and TV. It even had upside down staircases! Ohanzee stepped inside and was completely mind blown. "It's amazing. You've really out done yourself." Bill smiled proudly. "Yeah! It's really cool!" He agreed. He saddened slightly, adding "Mystie would love this..." Ohanzee smiled softly at him. Bill barely talked about his past but he knew enough to know Bill was in love with "Mystie." "I'm sure she would."

He nodded softly. It had been hard, but he had learned to act happy for his friend, at least on the outside, but at times like these he couldn't help but feel depressed. Ohanzee sat down inside. "Have I ever told you about my abilities?" he suddenly asked. "No, I don't think so." "My abilities consist of changing my size, hiding in shadows, seeing through shadows, controlling the shadows." Bill tilted his, um, triangle in curiosity. "How exactly do they work?" He asked. He felt happier being distracted, but still felt cold inside. "I'm not quite sure exactly. I know is if I focus on them I can control them, have them hide me, or let me see whatever they see." "So... How far do your powers reach?" "Anywhere." he replied, looking at him. "Why?" Bill brightened. "Like, outside the otherworld?" He nodded. "Yeah. That's kind of anywhere."

"Then look at gravity falls!" Bill exclaimed. He coughed softly, embarrassed. "I- I mean, hey. How about gravity falls?" "Alright. What am I looking for?" "Um, a cave in the woods? Just find the town and I'll give you directions." He pulled some shadows over and focused and made an image of what they saw in the shadows where bill could see it too. He looked at him. It showed an area in the town near some stores. Bill thought a bit, trying to figure out exactly where it was. "Um, go that way." he pointed. He had it go in the direction he wanted and also pulled the shadow onto the wall to see it easier. Bill led him to the cave, hesitating near the entrance. "Should I go in?" He asked.

"Y- Yes." Bill replied, shaking all over. He looked inside the cave and Mystine was sitting on her bed reading. Her hair had grown back but it was long and messy and uneven. Bill was speechless. She looked older. He slowly reached his hand out, touching the wall that the image was displayed on. "Is that Mystine?" he asked. He nodded. "Yeah..." "She's pretty." he said. Mystine was reading quietly in her journal when there was soft knock. "Mystine?" a small voice spoke up. Bill stiffened. 'Who was that? Why were they at Mystine's place? What?' He thought, gripping his hands into fists. A small boy with brown messy hair and brown eyes wearing a red t shirt with a blue vest with gray shorts and tennis shoes with a white blue cap with a pine tree on it. Mystine looked up. "Oh, hey." "Supper's ready." he said.

She nodded and put her book in her bag and followed him out. Bill tilted his head and watched. The nerdy kid annoyed him a lot. Ohanzee followed them. They went into an old worn down shack titled the mystery shack. Bill watched carefully, memorizing everything he could. There was an old man, an excited girl who looked identical to the boy, the boy wearing the pine tree hat who was calmer than his sister, and Mystine. Oh, there was a pig too. He might be okay with her staying with them... the pig seemed rather trustworthy. Ohanzee looked at him. "Well, seems like it's been a year or two or...four. Maybe five." He said. Bill looked down. That was plenty of time to get a new boyfriend... "Do you think that she's... moved on?" he asked softly. "Beats me. It's possible but I'm pretty sure you're the only one crazy enough to date her, you know her being a werewolf and all." he said, trying to lighten the mood.

Bill would have smiled if he could. "So who do you think 'pinetree' over there is?" He asked. "I don't know. Friend, family, random stranger who's holding her captive..." Bill tensed up at the last part. "I'm just kidding! They seem perfectly harmless." He said. The boy had left the room and gone upstairs and Ohanzee followed him. He sat on his bed and pulled out a red worn out book with golden edging. Ohanzee changed the view to look at the cover. It had a golden hand with six fingers and a three in the middle. He looked at Bill, unsure of what it was. Bill stared at the book. "It looks just like mine..." He mumbled. "You have one like that?" He nodded. "Well I had one. It looked just like that one, but a 2 instead of a 3." "Interesting." He said. The two watched the group over the next few day-week-somethings giving each of them little nicknames. Pinetree, shooting star, question mark, Red, and old-grumpy-jerk-face. That last one was a work in progress. Even after finding their real names, they just stuck.

They hadn't figured out exactly what connection Mystine had with them yet, but they searched on bravely. They were basically just really bored. Mystine had been staying at the shack more and more. "I bet she's moved on and forgotten about you." A whispery voice said in the back of his head. "Shut up." He hissed under his breath, making sure Ohanzee wouldn't hear. This had been happening more and more as he watched them. "Why should I? I mean look at her. She seems happy and has new friends. She's probably locked away all memories of you." he hissed. Ohanzee looked at him. "You okay?" Bill ignored the voice. "Oh, uh, yeah! I'm fine" he replied, hiding it pretty well. "Just a headache." "Alright...if you say so." He replied. "Of course you are." the voice hissed sarcastically. Bill tensed slightly. "I- I need to step outside for a bit." he explained, rushing out of the room. Ohanzee watched him leave.

Bill sank to the ground as soon as he was out the door. He breathed slowly trying to calm himself. The voice was overwhelming now, screaming and hissing. Ohanzee looked back at the shadows to watch them. Bill calmed down for a few minutes and came back inside after the voice had finally shut the heck up. "Did anything happen?" He asked. "Not much. That lil' psychic boy showed up trying to steal the deed but the old man beat him with a broom." Bill laughed. "The little gremlin deserves it." "At least the 'little gremlin' takes action, unlike a coward like you." the voice hissed. "I decided to see what he did and he said something about getting revenge. I think he had your journal." Bill almost tried to strangle the kid through the shadows.

He breathed slowly and calmed down before continuing. "How... Interesting." He hissed under his breath. The kid was in the forest, surrounded by candles and looked like he was trying to preforms a ritual. "What do you think he's doin-" Bill was interrupted by a sharp pain in his head and the pulling sensation he had felt when first coming to Otherworld. Ohanzee looked at Bill, his eyes widening. "Bill!" He cried out. Bill glowed softly then disappeared.

(Prepare for dreamscapers!)