Memories

An Old Friend

     [Narrator POV]

     Stanford was about a quarter of the way through the forest. Frankly, he was trying very hard to hard to avoid anyone else also on a walk, so he wasn't quite following any sort of path. Due to this, he was hating this walk because he had to trek through a lot of snow. While silently grumbling to himself, Stanford suddenly tripped and fell face first into the snow. You have got be kidding me. He thought to himself. As he got up and brushed himself off, he looked behind him, to see not just any rock, but a stone hand slightly sticking out of the snow. At first he was rather confused with what it could be, until he came to the only conclusion.

     "Bill..." Ford whispered to himself. Wendy and her family had come across Bill's statue while playing a survival game preparing for the next apocalypse(even though no one wanted to besides her father). Soos put up some caution tape(although the only reason people stayed away was after they crossed the tape and saw Bill's statue) until Ford could come back and investigate it. After determining it was completely safe and all the potential magic it might've had was gone, people left it alone(besides the occasional tourist). Eventually some visiting teenagers ended up tearing down the tape and vandalizing the statue, not many people noticed though, since pretty much all the town folk would rather ignore its existence.

     Against his better judgment, Ford dug up the snow surrounding the hand. However after only a few minutes of digging he found not Bill's statue, but a severed arm slightly glowing an ominous blue, yellow, and pink right where it had broken off. It was hard to see with the snow still somewhat covering it, but there were slight cracks stretching across the rest of the arm glowing similar colors. Ford took note of his surroundings and tried to see if he was where Bill's statue was supposed to be. It was hard to tell due to the seasons change of the forest, but it seemed like he was in the same place. Ford decided to continue digging to see if the rest of the statue was just buried in the snow and maybe anything else that had covered it over the years.

     After what felt like forever(but was more likely only half an hour), the statue was left broken sitting under leftover snow, moss, and dirt. As Ford wiped the rest of the snow from Bill's eye, he was staring at the same strange glow, but this time splitting the statue in two. Like before, there were smaller cracks that seemed to still be crumbling. Stanford got up, now standing in the(about 2ft deep) hole he dug, he went over every explanation he could think of. He always suspected Bill was never actually dead, but in case he was, Ford had decided to ignore him so he could enjoy time with his brother without the looming threat of Bill.

     Suddenly there was a loud crunching of the snow behind him. Ford whipped around to see a somewhat young, blonde man limping and shivering. Of course the first person his mind went to was Bill, he had the same hair color and(somewhat) similar age, however there were major differences. The man was dressed in what seemed to be a prison uniform(which was soaking wet and most definitely freezing), his hair was very unkept and sprinkled with snow, he had a giant scar over his right eye(which didn't seem to be fully healed), and he didn't have Bill's top hat or bow tie.

     Stanford was rather 50/50 on what he should do about the stranger. On one side, his mind was screaming at him how obviously it was Bill, and he was just trying to get Ford's guard down, or, it wasn't Bill. However even if it wasn't, it still seemed to be some sort of criminal. However Ford knew those weren't the only options. A small part of him believed that it was Bill, but he actually needed help. Even if that very unlikely scenario was true, why would Ford help him? There was no reason to. Every outcome Ford could think of ended with either a knife in his back, maybe literally, or one less criminal in the world.

     "W-Who are y-you..?" The blonde man asked. Ford's train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the unexpected fear and confusion he heard in the man's voice. It was hard to tell with the shivering, but he sounded almost identical to Bill. However he didn't recognize Ford? There relationship seemed to special, regardless of how long Bill might've been gone, there's no way he could forget Ford... right? He decided to try and confirm or deny if this was Bill.

     "You don't recognize me Bill?" Ford replied. With this question, he could find out if it was Bill, and if he knew who he was.

     "H-How do you k-know my n-name?" Bill responded, the fear now very clear in his voice. "I h-have no idea w-who you a-are..." Interesting. Ford was now 97% sure this was Bill. Obviously there's the slight chance it was just some random criminal who looked and sounded exactly like Bill, also sharing his name, but that was crazy. Although, Bill not remembering seemingly anything was just as, if not more shocking.

     "Do you remember anything?" Ford asked the strange man.

     "I-I know m-my name is B-Bill..." Bill answered. As Stanford was about to continue questioning him(as that didn't really confirm if this was Cipher or not), Bill continued. "B-Bill Cipher-r..."

     "Nothing else?" Ford questioned.

     "I-I know everyone in this p-place hates m-me..." Bill replied. Ford showed a puzzled look as Bill shakily took a breath. "I-I woke up w-where your s-standing a f-few days ago..." Bill said as the two stood in silence. "...I-I think..."

     "You've been out here for a few days?" Ford asked. "Have you eaten anything?" ... "Have you slept?" Ford continued, noticing the slightly dark circles under Bill's eyes.

     "N-No..."

     "You've just been..." Ford looked around rubbing his arms trying to warm up. "Freezing out here?" He finished, looking back to Bill, a hint of sadness in his voice.

     "I-I... uhm..." Bill's eyes started to flutter as he struggled more to stand. He suddenly fell to his knees, shaking. Stanford ran to his side, wrapping his jacket around him.

     "S-Sorry..." Bill said, leaning back off his hands, sitting in the snow.

     "It's fine." Stanford replied, slipping Bill's arms through the jacket and zipping it up. "You probably won't survive out here much longer..." Stanford looked in the direction of the Mystery Shack. He sighed, and knew the moment spoke he would regret it. "You can stay with me."