"We are so screwed." I told Dipper as Ford came running behind us.
"Kids, what happened?!"
"Weirdmageddon," I mumbled as Ford's eyes widened at the scenery.
He was just as scared as I was...
"So this is how the world ends. Not with a bang but with a... boop-boop." Ford stated as a bunch of birds flew over our heads and a few other animals russtled behind us.
One deer jumped out of nowhere and pushed me to the ground.
"The rift is shattered. Bill's world is spilling into ours, and every minute, his powers grow stronger." Ford explained as Dipper helped me get up. I mumbled a quick thank you as he nodded before something in his mind clicked.
"Mabel! The rift must have cracked inside her backpack. She must be in danger. I have to go find her." Dipper took out his walkie-talkie. "Mabel! Come in, Mabel! Mabel!"
Ford and I shared a look.
"Dipper... Look. I also love Mabel, but... We can find her soon, but first we have to stop Bill." I told him, trying to reassure him stopping Bill first was the best course of action.
"If we can blast him back through the rip he came out of, we just might be able to stop him before his weirdness spreads across the entire globe." Ford added as I nodded.
"Are you sure defeating Bill is even possible?" Dipper asked as I sighed.
"No. I'm not sure. But being a hero means fighting back even when it seems impossible. Will you come with me?" I told him honestly as he embraced me in a tight hug.
"To the ends of the Earth." He whispered in my ear as I hugged him tightly.
"Good. Because that's where we're heading." I gave him a soft smile
"You kids might want to step inside." Ford told us, breaking our hug apart as we quickly ran inside the Shack.
"Now what?" Dipper asked as I practically felt the weirdness wave go around the Shack.
"Our best shot is this. My quantum destabilizer." He explained what it was and how it worked.
The thing is. We had to go to the dead center of the city and shoot Bill for this to work. Which means we had to go out in his field.
Shit.
-------------
Me, Ford, and Dipper climbed the clock tower in the middle of the city. It was a true miracle how none of the monsters saw us.
"I've been waiting a long time to use this. We're only gonna have one chance to take this shot." Ford aimed at Bill. "Steady... steady... and..."
Another wave of maddness went through us as the bell behind us became alive.
"Woohoohoohoohoohoohoohoohoo!! I'm alive now!" The bell hot Ford who missed, instead hitting Bill's hat.
SHIT.
"Well, well, well, and here I thought today couldn't get any BETTER." He fired a beam at our tower destroying it.
"Emma!" I heard Dipper call out somewhere behind me in the wreckage.
"Dipper, are you okay!?" I called out back, but before I got an answer, I saw Ford trapped under some of the destoryed stone walls.
"FORD!" I tried going towards him, not realising the horrible pain my legs were in. In an instant, I plummeted to the ground.
Thankfully, Dipper made his way over to him. I noticed Ford giving Dipper his journals.
"Good old six-fingers. I've been waiting for an ETERNITY to have a chat face to face!" Bill exlaimed, lifting Ford up. Oh no. Oh nonono. This was NOT good.
"Everyone, this armageddon wouldn't be possible without help from our friend here. Give him a six-fingered hand!" Bill proclaimed as Ford grunted.
"This brainiac is the one who built the portal in the first place! Ah, don't look so sour, Fordsy. It's not too late to join me. With that extra finger, you'd fit right in with my freaks." Bill told Ford, who looked disgusted.
"I'll die before I join you! I know your weakness, Bill!"
"Oh, yeah?" Bill's eye became a question mark. "And I know a riddle. Why did the old man do this?" Bill struck a pose, and Ford followed.
"This?"
In an instant, Bill shot out a lazer that petrified Ford.
"HAND OVER FORD!" I shouted out, whIch seemed to catch Bill's attention.
"Now, isn't this INTERESTING? My little play thing and little old six fingers working together to stop me. " Bill mocked me doing the same thing with me and lifted me up next to Ford.
"Let me go, you one-eyed BASTARD!" I tried to wiggle my way out, but the beam was holding me too tightly, he wasn't gonna let me go.
"That's not gonna happen, unfortunately. I am not done with either of you." In an instant, he shot out a the same color beam which petrified Ford.
SH-
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-IT
Wait, where am I?
I looked around the neatly decorated room. And when I say neat, everything seemed Bill styled. Except the old black grandpiano in the corner of the room.
I was immediately drawn to it. Taking a step forward, I noticed my leg was chained. Great, so now I'm a prisoner. The chain was long enough that I could roam freely anywhere in this exact room. How freeing...
Seeing as I could at least move around here, in an instant, my feet dragged me to the piano. I trailed my fingers over the keys.
I played a note. It sounded unreal, like the sounds were made from angels.
I played another note when suddenly I heard that same horrid voice.
"Do you take requests?" Bill's voice echoed as I jumped back. "Didn't mean to scare ya. Not today, at least." Bill said, floating over to me and playing some of the keys.
"I picked up the piano because of you. Wanna listen?"
I nodded a little confused as he started playing We'll meet again by Vera Lynn. His singing voice gave me chills
"Interesting choice..."
"Dont know anything else, frankly!" Bill stated happily as I looked at him with disgust.
"Where is Ford?" I asked sternly as he laughed.
"So eager!" He snapped his fingers. "But if you so want him here!" I turned around to see Ford as a statue. I screamed in an instant.
Bill snapped his fingers again, and Ford dissappeared.
"What do you want from me?" I snapped at him, my voice stern but my eyes prickly with tears.
"I came to see you! Like old pals do!"
"We aren't friends!" I shouted once more as he sighed.
"We used to be." Bill stated as I raised my eyebrow.
"What?"
"Come on, Pianokeys. I've been haunting you for so long, hoping you'd snap out of it. You really don't remember? Even now?"
"What are you talking about?!" I continued to be confused. What was he on?!
"Listen, Emma." Bill using my real name was scary for a split second. He had never used it to address me. "You are nothing more than a vessel for a great dream demon like me." Bill told me as my brows furrowed.
"What?!" I asked once more, my brain couldn't process this. Did this mean I had a demon possessing me?! For how long has this been going on!? How hadn't I noticed-
"His name was Pianokeys. He would sing songs days on end." Bill's voice snapped me out of my wild thoughts. "We used to be two parts of the same coin with dreams of conquering the galaxy. But... We had some disagreements regarding humans." Bill mumbled. "He was fond of your kind. He was evem inspired by some of them, but he always stayed in the shadows, watching people and observing – whilst I was the one communicating with them through dreams. The first time Ford's portal was opened, he told me he had a plan. A plan to escape through the madness wave into the real world." Bill stated, looking at me. For someone as cruel as him, his voice right now was full with nothing but sorrow and... regret?
"He got into this young woman – your mother. Quickly, she lost her sanity because of him eating on her brain to survive, so... He needed a new vessel. Thank god she was giving birth." He explained as my eyes widened. So that's why my mum is the way she is?! Not because of the memory gun or whatnot but because of this dream demon!?
"I didn't want to see him fail like that again, so I kept a close eye on you, monitoring you... But it seems as so your own consciousness merged with his, creating some sort of symbiosis between you two! You are able to enter the mindscape on your own, correct?" Bill asked finally, finishing his rant.
I was speechless...
"I..."
"All this time. I just wanted my friend back. But you, you stupid human, came in between us. And now he's gone forever, most likely!"
"This... this is insane!? I have a dream demon inside my brain?! But-" I got cut off.
"This is why I was against the idea of being inside a human for a long time. Pianokeys is lost. It's just plain Emma." He spoke my name with resentment. "A scared little girl who has the voice and personality of the best dream demon in the universe. But you aren't him..." Bill sounded disappointed and almost... sad? Maybe the two of them were closer than I could ever imagine. And yet... imagining Bill having someone he genuinely cares for seems odd, it seems out of character for a wretched demon like him.
"But wait wait wait. Why tell me all this now!?" I asked frantically, wanting more answers. How was this even possible. Also, why hadn't he just told me that from the beginning. What good did haunting me all this time bring?!
"Because I don't need you anymore. All hope is lost. All this time, I tried to look for him in you, but now I see it was useless. You are nothing but a boring human like the rest of them."
"So what!? You're going to throw me out of here, kill me or worse?!" I asked as he snapped his fingers. The chain moved from the end of the room to the piano.
"I want you to sing for me. That's the last thing remaining of him."
I remained quiet. "No..." Im not singing for some stupid bastard that RUINED my life!
"NO?" Bill suddenly got angry. He turned from his usual yellow form to the grotesque red one that was much more frequent in my nightmares. "Last I checked, I can snap my fingers and move every molecule in your body to a different location!" He shouted, I remained stoic to his anger.
"Last I checked, you saved me from a death fall."
Checkmate.
Bill still had a weakness for his friend, aka for me.
So I was safe... for now.
"Just play me a song." He sounded almost desperate. Bill's pleading voice was not something I even imagined existing.
Maybe out of pity or because there really was a small part of that dream demon in me somehow controlling me, I sat on the piano and played a note.
My fingers swiftly started playing Fly me to the Moon, and soon I started singing as well.
I watched Bill carefuly as he was humming along the tune.
Never in a million years could I imagine this side of him even existed, yet here he was. After this conversation, a lot of things in my mind started to clear up. Every nightmare, every instance I had to talk to Bill – it all made some weird sense now.
Bill's existence in my life made sense now...
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A/N
Ah, and part one is complete. FINALLY the GRAND REVEAL of why Bill has been haunting Emma. Honestly, for the longest time, I didn't know what exactly I wanted that reveal to be and how Emma would be connected to Bill. I didn't want to make the cliche storyline of her being his daughter. Making her some sort of extraterrestrial being also would not fit with the story as she is still human. So possession is what I managed to come up with.
I'm sorry if it's not what you expected or if it's not as dramatic as some of you would have liked it to be, I know some people had theories that the memory gun would have come in play because I wrote Ms. Gleeful and not Mrs., but to be honest, I my first language isn't english, and I just made a grammar error that I've not fixed lmao.
Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed this short chapter that basically served the purpose of completely tying together Emma's character. No more secrets in this book!
And as usual, until next time, where more angst is probably gonna happen. Byeee!