Heartless, right?

Chapter Fifteen

When Mabel enters the Shack, Dipper is nowhere in sight. It's 8:30 in the morning, he should be more than ready to go by now. Before she gets the chance to ask where he is, her twin enters the kitchen. But something is off. He looks like he got actual sleep. And normally, that would be a good thing if he wasn't two shades paler than usual.

"Bro-bro, you good?" Mabel asks.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah." Dipper replies, gripping the coffee pot tightly in his shaking hands.

"Nightmares?"

"Yeah."

"The usual or Bill-induced."

"Neither?" The question in his voice throws Mabel off. What happened?

Stan and Ford burst through the gift shop doors, arguing about what the family should do for the remaining three hours they have together. Mabel doesn't fail to notice the look Ford gives his brother when they see Dipper spacing out next to the window.

"He does that all the time, Ford. Get off my back." Stan looks at Mabel. "You try to be helpful, and suddenly you're the bad guy, am I right?"

"I don't know, Grunkle Stan, he doesn't normally space out like that. It's usually more of a, you know, not starting into invisible people's souls."

"You guys do realize I'm standing right here, right?" Dipper interjects. "I'm fine. Mabel, what do you wanna do?"

Although she isn't convinced, Mabel knows there's no use in arguing. "Since today's my last day, I vote we stay home and watch Ducktective reruns."

So for the next two and a half hours, the two sets of Pines twins rewatch Ducktective.

●●●●●

Bill watches the family bid Mabel goodbye. Dipper is concerningly good at hiding his thoughts. Their shared mindscape has been a mess. Hurricanes of anxiety, tsunamis of self-loathing, and the general sense of panic multiplied by a million. Yet, here he is, laughing with his friends and family like he's perfectly fine. Finally, the bus pulls away.

"If you kill the boy for us, I promise you will have a home in our dimension. All past trangressions will be forgiven." Chasm's offer has been tempting the chaos god for two days now. But as much as he'd love to tear that shit hole into a million pieces, Pinetree is his victim. A new toy to learn about, and there is a lot he'd like to learn about this boy's strange mind. Besides, the Phaeloxians are assholes.

Red's voice pulls Bill out of his thoughts, "Yo, Dip, there's gonna be a party at the cemetary tonight. You should totally come."

Dipper shrugs, "I think I've had my fill on parties this week. But you have fun."

"Suit yourself. Shit, I gotta go."

"Yeah, me too. See you later."

Bill teleports to the Mystery Shack and waits for Dipper in his room. As much as he wants to kill the kid, it's going to be extremely difficult with the Phaeloxians in his way. Those brutes will completely spoil the mind breaking process, and the dream demon doesn't exactly feel like fixing his victim just to redestroy him.

"Fuck." Dipper groans when he sees Bill sitting in the window seat.