Symbols ~A Gravity Falls Fanfic~

Something's Not Right

Dipper POV

         After Stan and Soos dug a little on the wood pile covering the cellar doors, they called it quits. Between the temperature shrinking to an unusual low and Soos getting ten splinters in his hand, Stan had had enough. So, we started a fire and huddled around it.

        In the meantime, Stan finished the story of our Grandfather Stephen, or, as Stan liked to call him, Stanley: "Where was I? Oh yeah, Bill. Okay, I lost the poker game, Bill possessed me... uh... and, then Bill walked my body down to the lab. Stanley and McGucket were fully prepared to jump into the portal with that fancy rope when Bill got down there. Stanley immediately noticed that something was off: Bill did nothing to hide his voice through my body. Bill stood a good foot away from the portal, fully ready to hop in it. Stanley tackled Bill, commanding him to remove himself from my body. That demon said, 'Only if you jump in.' Stanley hesitated for a minute, but he did it. He hopped right in that thing. That idiot..."

        "As soon as he could, McGucket shut the portal down. It was too late, though. Stanley was gone. That dumb rope they had cut off as soon as the portal was shut down. It actually shorted out the portal itself with whatever wiring and crud it was made out of."

        "Anyway, like Bill said he would, he left my body and pulled my soul back into it. What I didn't know at that time, however, was that my deal with him was still in play. He wasn't done causin' 'mischief.' Bill transferred himself into McGucket's mind afterwards. He really messed that guy up... The only visible damage he did at the time was chop off that extra finger McGucket had. We thought that was it, but as time went on, he just lost it. It turns out that Bill did something on the inside: crossed some wires that shouldn't have been crossed, you could say. When McGucket was in the midst of losing it, he hid the Journals. He told me it was the only way to protect me and everyone else. I figured he meant it would somehow protect me and others from Bill, but, seeing as it is now, no one's safe. Perhaps there was something more- I'm not sure." Whether that was the reason or not, Stan's right: no one's safe from Bill. I honestly thought Old Man McGucket was just crazy in general; I had no clue Bill had a hand in it. The very thought of Bill being able to do such a thing is unsettling. Yes, him sending Eliza into some other dimension is unsettling, but that doesn't necessarily give you that same eerie feeling.

        Afterwards, I showed Stan the spell book. He looked at it with a warm smile. As soon as he said Grandpa would want me to have it, I knew Stan was reliving some kind of memory. It was nice to see him seem so relaxed and happy for once.

        I've got to share the book with Mabel, though. It's sort of a bummer, but it's only fair, and, when you think about it, it's a great strategy. If we both know some attack spells as well as some defense ones, we'll be virtually unstoppable. However, we didn't get to look at it too closely; we all fell asleep sometime around eleven o'clock.

        Something kept waking me up in the night. I couldn't figure out what was bothering me, so that only made it worse. After two hours what I could only describe as the creeping insomnia I'll have in the future, I went for a little walk. My tired pace only led me to what was left of the Shack. When I reached the wooden mess, I flopped on the ground in front of what was left of a mirror. I had dark circles under my eyes accompanying the usual bags I had. My hair was mess, vacant of my hat.

        Speaking of which, Eliza still had my hat. From there I could only wonder how things were going with her and Grandpa. While in thought, I lost my focus on myself in the mirror. I was too busy wondering where they were to may any mind to myself. However, I could have sworn I saw something move in the mirror. I sat up as soon as I saw it, contorting my body to look behind myself, but I didn't see anything; everyone was laying still around the red coals of the fire. It was probably just a bug or something.