Wayfarer [Bill Cipher x Reader] [REVISED]

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Old Pine

Finally, a day later than you had planned, you pulled up to the southern entrance of Yellowstone.

Or, more, accurately, you pulled up to the end of a long, car-choked line in front of said entrance. Scratched-up minivans full of yelling children, dusty hatchbacks with thirty-year-old hipsters at the wheel, and hulking RVs crammed together around you. Waves of heat rolled off of their metal exteriors as they crawled forward inch by inch.

You sighed and leaned against the steering wheel, staring out at the sea of vehicles. "Of course the line is long," you muttered to yourself. "I mean, it's the height of summer vacation. Of course everybody's trying to get in at exactly the same time we are!"

In the passenger seat, Bill echoed your sigh. "Hope you didn't have any big plans for today, then," he replied. "'Cuz it sure doesn't look like we're gonna make it in 'til it's late."

"Oh, come on, it's not that long," you replied. "I mean, yeah, there's a lot of people out here, but it's only 2:30. We should be able to get in in time to get something done before dinner. Don't worry."

He yawned and laid back in his seat. "Be as sunny about it as you like, but these cars?" He gestured to the line. "Ain't movin'."

"Hey, they move sometimes," you shot back. "They moved just now, see?" You pointed to the car in front of you, which had shifted forward a couple of feet. "I'm telling you, we're going to be able to make it in time to get something done. I promise!"

"And what's that 'something'? A museum visit? Another hike?"

"Yeah, I figured that we could go hiking again." You sucked in a breath. "I know that after that whole hike thing back in Colorado, you might not want to try that again, but I swear that this time, there's going to be no super long hikes. Either we're going to go on a couple of short hikes, or we're going on a medium one. I don't really care which. Which one do you want to do?"

"If we can make it? The short ones," he replied. "Harder to have a repeat of Colorado that way. Plus, we can see more stuff. What kind of trails do they have up here?"

"Well, it's Yellowstone, so they have a lot of different trails. Ones through the mountains, the forests, the prairie... There's quite a few that take you through the hot springs and geysers and things like that. I even heard that there's one that takes you to a petrified forest, too! That sounds fun, right?"

"Then let's go to that one. Also some of the ones with geysers. Not every day that you get to see those, right?"

"Sure! I'll be sure to get a proper trail map this time around, then," you said. "So we can figure out how to get to both of them... and not have to spend the night in the woods again." You shivered at the thought. "There's too many bears here for that to work out well."

He nodded. "Being bear food ain't the most appealing right now."

The two of you lapsed into silence. That night in the woods really had been hell on both of you, hadn't it? You shuddered. Never again would you leave a trailhead without a trail map in hand. Or go hiking around twilight. The setting sun in the woods just set off too many alarms in your head now.

Someone honked behind you, and you flinched. Oh, crap. The car in front of you had just moved two cars' lengths forward! Better take advantage of the newfound progress. You moved to close the gap.

After that, it seemed, the line unclogged, for now the cars shifted forward much more frequently. Car by car, the distance between you and the entrance got shorter until all of a sudden, the last car in front of you cleared out.