-First Person-
"All I want is for you to get me the journal!" Bill says.
"What? Why would YOU want the journal?" I ask. "What for?"
Bill sighed. "It's not that I want the journal, M- Y/N. I simply don't want anyone else to have it. Now, is it a deal?"
Bills hand bursts into blue flames as he holds it out to shake.
'On one hand, Bill said he'd give me anything. On the other hand, if I give him the journal, then I won't be able to read it either.'
"Deal."
I reach out and shake Bills hand. "Wait, do I have to get the journal to you within a certain amount of time?"
Bill pauses. "As long as you get it to me, I don't care. Bye!" He disappears in a flash of light.
I open my eyes and see that the world is to longer black and white. I look around and see... a bunch of gnomes attacking Gideon while Dipper and Mabel are cheering them on.
"Why am I not surprised- WAH!"
A loud high pitched noise makes me jump, I look around and see that Gideon is blowing into a whistle.
"Stop! We'll do anything! How can we serve you, your majesty?" One of the gnomes say, all of the gnomes begin to bow. I run over to Dipper.
"Hey Dipper, this might sound weird, but can I have your journal?"
"How do you know about that?!" Dipper takes a step back.
"It doesn't matter, but if you give me the journal, then Gideon can't steal it."
Dipper looks around, and takes the journal out of his coat. "Just promise you'll give it back?"
"I promise."
Dipper gives me the journal before shoving me away from Gideon. "Now get out of here!"
I take the hint and run as fast as my legs can carry me voices are shouting from behind.
"That girl has the other journal! Get her!" Gideons voice yells.
I look over my shoulder and see a bunch of gnomes assembling themselves into a big gnome monster.
"Run Y/N!" Mabel's voice yells.
"Don't need to tell me!"
The giant gnome stomps its foot, shaking the ground. I nearly lose my balance, stumbling before I continue to run.
"What do I do? What do I do?" I look around, searching for something that can help.
'Wait, if Bill just doesn't want anyone else to have the journal then-'
I grab a lighter out of my backpack and flick the flint wheel, a small flame appears and I hold the journal above the flame. The pages and cover catch and burn. Soon enough, the whole book crumbled into ash.
Luckily, by now I was far enough away so that no one saw this.
Bills laughter echoed throughout my mind, and everything went black and white once again.
"Well, wasn't that quick?"
"Bill, I want to redeem my end of the deal."
Bill circles around me. "Also quick. Fine, whatcha want?"
"You said you could give me magic?"
"That's what you want? Fine. I'll teach you."
"Teach me?"
"What are you, ear blind? Need me to say it again?"
"Ear blind? You mean deaf?"
Bill ignored me. "Then we'll start now." He snaps his fingers and changes the surroundings into a large flat area with the occasional grotesque monster roaming around.
"First, illusions." Bill waves his hand around and makes u bunch of random things appear, from a pizza box to a pond. He moves his hand through the illusions, and his hand passes right through.
"Ok, now you try."
"Sure, but HOW!?!"
Bill sighs. "Illusions are simple, just the bending of light to make it seem like something that isn't there is there. In order to bend light, you need to change the refractive index of the medium it is traveling in. Glass, for example."
"Ok ok, I get it. But how do I do that?"
"Didn't expect you to understand, you are only human, after all. No natural connection to magic and all. Give me your hand."
With a sigh I hold out my hand, Bill grabs it and pokes it with something.
"Ow, Ow, OW!" The palm of my hand suddenly feels like it's on fire, I pull my hand back and look at it. There is a burn in the shape of Bill, surrounded by a wheel of symbol.
"What was that for?!?" I yell.
"Yeesh, calm down. With that marking you now have a connection to my magical ability. Try making an illusion, just imagine what you want it to be, and focus."
I close my eyes, thinking. 'What to make, what to make... Maybe a... Got it!'
I hold out my hand and focus. I open my eyes and see that trees begin to sprout up from the ground. I walk over to one of my trees and hold out my hand. It passes right through.
"Not bad Mi- Y/N."
Suddenly, a thought spikes through my mind. "If this is the mind, then am I just asleep while being chased by the gnome monster?!?"
"Nah, time moves differently in the mindscape. Your body hasn't even hit the ground yet."
The illusion around us begins to fade away like mist.
"What now?" I turn back to Bill.
"Now? Now is when I leave and you fight a bunch of murderous gnomes. Good luck! Wait, no. Bad luck!" Bill disappears on a poof of blue light.
I let out an exasperated sigh, and wake up. Bill was right, I hadn't hit the floor yet. I stumbled slightly and turned to the gnomes, who were still chasing after me. I look down at the ashes of journal three, and scoop some of the ashes up.
"Queen Gideon told us to take you in! Give up and we won't hurt you!" Said one of the gnomes. They seemed to be the one steering the rest.
I look at the palm of my hand. The marking is still there. I look back at the gnomes and think as hard as I can. A wall of trees sprout up i front of me.
"Wait, what the-!" The gnome says.
I don't wait any longer, I run towards the town again. As fast as I can. I hear a commotion behind me.
'Has my illusion already worn off?'
I look back and see that the illusion is shifting and fading. Yep. It's worn off.
"Well, no time to waste..." I mutter to myself, forcing my legs to move faster. I was beginning to get a side ache.
"Oh, come on not now- AH!"
A giant boulder gets thrown in front of me. I have to stop running to avoid getting hit. It lands in front of me, missing by a hair.
Around it is. Or...
I run around the boulder and sit on the other side of it, hoping the gnomes will think I kept running.
Luckily, they did.
"Jokes on you Bill, your "bad luck" didn't work."
I look over the boulder and run back towards the Mystery Shack. The trip back felt faster then when I ran away.
By the time I get back, the twins are gone, and so is the giant Gideon statue I saw before.
"Oh good. I don't want to explain to Dipper that I burned his journal. He'll be- Wait!"
I take out my phone from my backpack and go to the photos app. When I looked through the journal during the night, I had taken pictures.
"Oh, thank you past me!"
I close the app and put my phone away with a sigh of relief before looking around for the twins. After a few minutes, I give up. I'll just wait for them to come back. But what to do in the meantime?
I take out my phone again and browse through the apps and games I have. Of course I had to be in a mood where nothing seems interesting, so I go to the App Store and browse there instead.
This went on for a while. After about 20 minutes of this, I put my phone away and look around when something catches my eye.
The Gideon robot was on the bridge by the mountains. I look closer and see two small silhouettes also on the bridge. The twins.
"Oh no! Wait, why am I worried? Mabel has a grappling hook, everything will be fine." I sarcastically say to myself.
I summon some illusion popcorn and ate it while watching the scene unfold. The popcorn, being an illusion, was just me eating air. I didn't care though, I summoned it for the laughs.
The Gideon robot fell off the bridge.
Took long enough.
I un-summoned my illusion popcorn and waited for the twins. It didn't take long.
The twins and Stan are walking over, all of them with happy faces. Dipper looks at me, and the absence of something on my hands.
"Uh, Y/N? Where's my journal?"
I sigh. "I had to burn it."
"WHAT!?!"
"Don't worry! I might have looked through it secretly one night and took pictures of all the pages." I show him the pictures on my phone, and he calms down a little.
"Ok... But why did- What's that in your hand?" Dipper looks at my palm while I put my phone away.
"Oh! It's nothing. Probably mud from when I was chased. I'll go clean it up now." I run into the Mystery Shack and into the bathroom.
"Crap how do- Illusions!"
I focus on my hand and the mark slowly fades away, making my hand look normal again. I let out a sigh of relief.
"Y/N!" Mabel walks into the bathroom. "Do you want to hear about our heroic deeds?"
I laugh. "Sure."
She grins and walks into the living room. I follow her and see Dipper and Stan waiting. "By the way Y/N, where did you sleep when we lost the shack?"
"Oh, uh. I slept in a tree."
"Woah! That sounds fun!" Mabel says. "Grunkle Stan! Can we sleep in a tree?"
"No."
"Aww."
I laugh and look at them all. "I'm glad you guys are back. It was... Actually no. Not that lonely. But I still missed you guys."
"I don't know you, but you're an employee, so I guess I missed you." Stan says.
"I missed you!" Mabel joins in.
"Yeah, me too." Dipper says.
"Ok stop. This is awkward. I'm going upstairs." I look at them for a moment. "So the Mystery Shack is back in business?"
They all nod. I grin at them.
"Well, then I still have a job, and I have a place to sleep again! Speaking of sleep, I'm going to do that." I run up the stairs and lay down on my sleeping bag. After a moment, the twins come into the room.
"We're reopening tomorrow, and Grunkle Stan says we should sleep as well." Dipper says.
"Oh, feel free. You totally need my permission to sleep in your own room." I say sarcastically.
The twins get into their beds and turn off their lamps. The room goes dark.
I'm not tired yet, so I take out my phone and scroll through the pictures of the journal. I stop at Bills page. I mutter the notes to myself.
"Never let him into your mind..."
Well, too late. It gets me thinking though.
'Bill could have easily gone through my memories, why didn't he?'
Even trying to figure this mystery out made me tired enough to sleep. So I put my phone away and closed my eyes. Just as I drift off to sleep, a voice echoes throughout my mind.
"Oh Miracle, you have no idea how deep this goes."
1835 words
Authors Note: Thank you for over 140 reads! This story has gotten so many more reads than I ever thought it would, and it's all thanks to you. Chapter six will hopefully be out soon. Thank you.