Bill POV
Silence pressed against the emptiness, I fucking hate emptiness. I had to squeeze my eyes shut to focus.
There is always so much noise going on in my head to keep back the wicked silence and now having to force myself to sit in it was physically taxing. Fuck I hate that I need this.
I hate it so much I was shaking with the need to scream. Instead I trapped it in my chest and shoved back behind my teeth because if I did, if I gave in and filled this aching emptiness, I wouldn't be able to hear him.
All I need is something, my name, anything.
I'd heard him earlier, amongst the noise of the fearamid and my own thoughts, just a blip in the sea but he was there. My name on his mind in such a brief second I brushed it off as a mistake.
Answer me.
I'd been dragged back to the fearamid, enraged and spiraling, by Ana. I could barely fit in the throne room, teeth still barred at nothing in particular.
Answer me.
My veins sizzled, these stupid human bones creaked with every flinch and tiny movement, and the fucking lungs rattled loudly with each draw of breath through a clenched jaw.
Please.
Bill?
Everything, everything, came rushing to my head at the sound of his voice.
There you are. Where are you? Adrenaline was a new experience, different and nowhere near as exciting as I thought an overload of information and senses would be.
God I'm sorry I'm so sorry. He said instead.
Where are you? I pushed harder, I needed to get to him, we could talk about it later.
A dark room. I don't know. There was a long pause, long enough from the room to grow in size as my form shrunk back down. Outside the weirdness field, the sky- it was night. Every instinct I had gnawing at my insides, tearing at the seams.
I'm sorry, Bill I was hit with something- I don't know what. I'm sorry I couldn't finish decoding the spell. I should have left enough notes for you and Ana to-
Dipper stop. I don't care, no matter what he did I will find you. Sixer can't stop me. I cut him off, tempted to bang my head against the weirdness field again. His mind pressed into the empty spaces of mine, taking away the pressure of silence, I could feel myself relaxing into him. Dipper's heartbeat, strong, fast, and full of panic was nothing like the annoying dulced hum of my own trying to pump blood through my body. I itched to reach out to him, I wanted to be able to see him, but the stupid fucking weirdness field was already making it hard for me to be able to hear him.
I thought- He cut himself off, I could feel his presents pulling away, something must have changed.
I reached out for him, but it was silent again, the press on my mind gone, his heartbeat in my ears was now quiet. He was ignoring me, or maybe the weirdness field between us was making it harder to reach into his thoughts or for him to hear when I did.
Ana made her presents known, slowly. "Were you able to talk to him?"
"Yes." I sighed, voice reverberating through my vocal cords in a way that sounded way too loud compared to the conversation in my mind. Everything felt too loud, too bright, too much.
Ana shrunk, her shoulders pulled up, "So what do we do?"
"We kill someone."
Dipper POV
The walls aren't sound proof. I can't tell how much time has passed but I could feel it.
Ford had locked me into the little room, plunging me into complete darkness, but I could hear the raised voices of both my Grunkles as they fought though I couldn't make out what about.
I was in the middle of a self hate party when a voice I never expected to hear again filled my head with a shout. It shot a pick of pain through my brain but I could have cried in relief anyways from hearing him. More so when Bill insisted he'd come for me. He was coming to get me. To top it all off, like I haven't been on the worst emotional rollercoaster of my life, he called me by my name. It echoed through my thoughts in a way that made my lungs tighten and my heart pound harder.
I had been so distracted that it was too late by the time the next sound pierced through the closed door. Screaming.
So much screaming. Suddenly I couldn't hear Bill anymore, only the cries from somewhere across the hall and I could guess who they were. It was Wendy. It had to be her, fuck what are they doing to her? My head pounds hard with a headache threatening to smash my skull.
Light flooded across the floor, if the door squeaked when it opened it was drowned out by another gut wrenching scream this time much louder. I flinched away from the footsteps that came closer as the door closed again. Sudden light filled the small room, Mabel stood in the center of it right in front of me with her hand still reaching up on the cord connected to the small light above her. "Dipper?" She asked, and my vision spun a little under the new light, maybe I'd been sitting here in the dark longer than I thought. Her hair was messy, knotted in waves over her shoulders like she'd been wearing it up all day and just tried to take it out of a pony tale.
I flinched as another scream echoed through the small space. Mabel flinched too, her eyes flicking up to the door worriedly. She stepped carefully closer to the chair, crouching down in front of me and tentatively touched my knee.
I didn't want her here. I don't want her to touch me, not after everything that's happened. I'd rather sit in the dark and talk to Bill till he could bring down the weirdness field and come for me. Her hand on my knee was as heavy as a brick, and that look of pity in her eyes dug holes in my skin. "Dipper?" She asked again.
She was asking, as if I wasn't sitting right here, as if she wasn't fucking touching me.
Another much more broken cry came through the walls, "What is he doing to her?" I asked hoarsely.
I could think clearly again and felt more comfortable in my own body, which was a small relief, at least I don't have to worry anymore about being impaired by the drugs.
Mabel's face fell a little as I avoided her question, "What he has too." She said and it sounded like she was repeating it.
"Mabel," I pleaded, "this isn't right, you have to know that. He's hurting her, please help us." I hated the words as they spilled from my mouth. But I hated the muffled sobbing more.
"I can't." She whispered this time, tears quickly filling her eyes, "I can't." She repeated, again looking at the door, "we need to get you back. I have to trust what he's trying to do."
I jerked forwards, as far as the restraints and the back of the chair would let me, "You have me, I'm right here! Mabel, it's us! He's hurting Wendy!"
She pushed back, squeezing her eyes closed and shaking her head, "I know! I know" tears fell freely, "but you made a deal with Bill and he still has you because of it, we are just trying to save you both!"
She wasn't listening, of course she wasn't, and she wouldn't. I feel back against the chair. She wouldn't listen.
"Dipper." She cried, "I just want my brother back."
I couldn't answer, instead I closed my eyes trying to call out again for Bill, to feel him in my mind again so I didn't feel so alone. I was met with quiet stillness.
Mabel stayed in the room with me as she cried, kneeling on the floor with her head in my lap. Finally Mabel slowly came back to herself and her breathing evened out. Everything fell into heavy uncomfortable silence, that was, till the door opened again.
Mabel's head shot up and she scrambled to her feet and scrubbed her hands down her face. "Sorry I just- miss him." She cringed. I couldn't turn my head enough to see the door but I didn't have to, I knew it had to be Ford.
"It's fine." He sighed, proving me right when I so badly wanted to be wrong, "Get out."
Mabel shot me one last pitiful look, she ducked out of the room leaving me with him.
My eye's burned, he still stood behind me leaving me with nothing to stare at but the wall, I forced my breathing to be even, taking deep drags of air in and then out my nose. He already knows I'm scared of him but that won't stop me from trying to put on a brave face.
"What did you do to her?" I asked, willing my voice to not shake.
He didn't say anything, of course the silence treatment was just as effective as yelling was. My traitorous heart was pounding in my ears, setting off every alarm bell my brain had to offer. He moved from the doorway, heavy boots against floor boards. Then he was there to my left approaching a table I could barely make out in the dark before.
"Ford," I tried again, forcing back the lump in my throat, "What did you do? Just tell me she's ok?"
He was looking down at the table, without making eye contact he asked, "When did the deal happen?" He pulled something from his jacket, placed it on the table before pulling the jacket itself from his shoulders and draped it over the back of a second chair.
I clenched my jaw, while I could pretend to be brave, I wouldn't answer his questions until he answered mine.
"When was the deal made? How long have you been in contact with Bill Cipher?" He asked with the hard edge of a command, he stood blocking the table and whatever he might have stored on it.
Probably what he used to make Wendy scream like that, my stupid brain started jumping through conclusions and feeding me ideas as I was helpless to just stare at his back.
I pinched my lips closed, hoping to still have some air of confidence even as my hands shook.
"I'd prefer if we had a simple civil conversation." He looked over his shoulder, and any confidence I fend to have dissipated. Pure, unchecked hatred contorted his face. "However I am fully prepared to go the other route. I will say though, a conversation will be easier on both of you so choose wisely." He turned his attention back on the table, metal clanked against metal just out of view, "I will only ask one more time. When was the deal made?"
He was threatening Wendy too and with her screams still ringing in my ears I answered, "Almost three weeks ago, the day Mabel got back in town."
He nodded, turning back to me he leaned on the table, to look at him I had to crane my neck to the side uncomfortably. "How long have you been in contact with Bill Cipher?"
"The same amount of time."
His brow furrowed at this, obviously he didn't like that answer, and he wasn't about to like the next one.
"What did he say to you to get you to make the deal? You were a smart kid Dipper. I don't understand how, with everything you know, he was able to get in your head in one day."
Were. He doesn't see me either, both him and Mabel think they are just looking at a shell without me in it. My jaw aches from clenching and unclenching. There is no way this ends well. "He promised me freedom." It wasn't enough and at the same time it was too much for him.
I could see the wheels turning as he took in my answer and thought about it, his jaw twitched and his fingers clenched into fist, "You call this freedom." He growled so low I could feel it in the back of my own throat ripping out my lungs. He practically lunged forwards, "You stupid fucking child how does any of this seem like freedom to you!" His hands came down on my shoulders, slamming me back into the chair digging the wood into my shoulder blades. "Tell me what the Fuck were you thinking."
I choked back a hiss of pain, bracing for what I knew was coming, "I needed to get away. He gave me an out so I took it."
"I should have sent you back to California years ago. You squandered all your potential on nothing and became a weak useless waste of space. Bill lied to you, and you fell for it and now I have to clean up your fucking mess." One hand reeled back and came down in a lash across my face, leaving a line of scorching pain from my eye to jaw.
My eyes watered against the sting, I bit down on my lip to keep from crying out or letting it quiver. "He offered me more than you could ever." Another quick lash of pain punctuated the bad decision I'd just made.
"On second thought I don't want to fucking talk to you like this. That monster is in your head and I will get him out."
He stepped back to the table, growling something under his breath as he went. I wanted to turn away so I wouldn't have to see what he picked up, but I wasn't brave enough for that so instead I watched him choose a large pair of scissors and a new round of rope.
"Move and I'll dislocate both your shoulders." He warned, dropping both the scissors and rope in my lap as he disappeared behind me. I bit back a sigh of relief as he untied the knot at my wrist. It was short lived anyways.
My left arm was jerked to the side, slammed into the arm rest as he used the rope to secure it in place. He picked up the scissors before approaching my right arm. My knee shook in concentration as I tried to not flinch away. I wasn't sure what counted as moving and really don't want him to dislocate my shoulder over something I have little control over.
Ford sliced through my shirt right at the shoulder. He twisted my arm up by the wrist to guide the scissors around in a full circle to remove the whole sleeve. I couldn't stop the gasp of pain that came with that, but it didn't seem to matter to him as he ripped away the now detached fabric leaving my tattoo on full display.
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Damn this chapter took so long to get out. My bad- not only was this chapter itself really difficult to write (I had a bit of writers block when I was working out it, the comments on my doc from past me are wild lol) I also am back in classes and with the holidays this month has just felt so fucking long. I didn't mean to leave it on such a bad cliffhanger, I shall try my best to get back into the swing of publishing on time.