Not On The Wheel (Bill Cipher x Reader)

Chapter Twelve: Fire Pokers and Fire Places

He still was missing his head— by far the most established link between the figure and his twin brother— but even without it, his mind couldn't help but place Poindexter's lifeless body in the casket.

"Wax Stan," Stan stammered, already losing his composure. He couldn't look away from the open coffin, and the longer he stared, the more he started seeing his brother's body in there. "I hope—I hope you're picking pockets in wax h-h-heaven."

Stan tore his gaze from the coffin, frantically rubbing at his eyes. Y/n sat up a little bit, unsure of what to do to help him.

"I'm sorry," he gasped, tears starting to escape and stain his suit. "I-I can't do this!" Stan ran out of the room, face buried in his hands, not daring to make eye contact with anyone.

Y/n stumbled to stand up and follow, but Soos was faster, already running after him.

"Wait, don't—" Y/n heard a door slam shut from somewhere in the shack. "Go," she finished softly, steps away from the door. She let out a small groan, turning back to sit down.

Her head was pounding— it had been since she woke up— and all she wanted to do was lock herself in her room and sleep for a week straight. Yet even in her zombie-like stupor, Y/n was the same attentive girl as she always had been. So when she noticed a particular detailing missing from Wax Lizzie Borden, she had to pause to make sure it wasn't her tired mind playing tricks on her.

"I can't believe it," Dipper interrupted from the front of the room. "We considered everything. The suspects, the clues, the motive—!" He walked towards the open casket, Mabel following behind him.

Y/n was too busy trying to process what was missing from Lizzie to pay attention to them.

Mabel was the one who had set up the wax figures on that side of the room, so she hadn't had a good look at Borden since Soos had first found the hidden sculptures. Her mind was still foggy, so it was taking longer than expected to find the difference, but she definitely knew something was off.

"Dipper," Mabel said, nudging him slightly with a smile, "we've come so far. We'll get them, I promise."

The boy only grumbled in response. "Maybe those cops were right."

"Dip-dop!" Mabel playfully scolded him. "You're way better than any of them! They don't know who they're messing wi—"

"Guys," Y/n interrupted suddenly, voice hoarse, stepping back from Lizzie. It finally hit her, and the implications of the missing detail were raising all sorts of red flags.

Wax Lizzie Borden— the woman rumored to have murdered her parents with an axe— was missing her axe.

And suddenly everything was connected in Y/n's mind in the weirdest way possible.

Think outside of the box.

If Y/n had just applied Bill's advice to this, she would have had the answer days ago! Hell, Soos had said it the moment they found the figures. The answer was in plain sight; it fit the evidence and also corroborated Y/n's inner ring approach. She knew it couldn't have been anyone outside the shack, so why didn't she turn to the supernatural sooner?

"I-i-it was the wax figures," she breathed out, tired eyes widening.

The twins snapped their attention to her. "What?"

As soon as Y/n finished her sentence, Lizzie's head snapped towards her, her once static expression turning sour. Wax brows— originally thought to be ornate details sculpted on— furrowed in resemblance to a real person. Her limbs flexed, and in a split second she lunged for the eldest girl.