He has returned (Gravity Falls fanfiction)

chapter eighteen

After they were all finished eating, Dipper and Ford put the dishes in the sink. Mabel and Stan would either later or tomorrow clean the mess up. Thats how they had always done it when they were alone, a time before Melody and Soos and his mother had moved in and the Shack was always so full now. Not in a bad way, just full of life. Sometimes Stan wished for the old times back, when he was still the only Mr Mystery. But Soos was the only one that Stan had been fine with taking over his position.

Now that Bill was there, eating their food, Stan thought that Bill should clean the dishes for him. As payment. At that thought he looked over to the demon. The boys head was hanging wide over the back of the chair. He would most definitely have a sore neck tomorrow if he kept sitting like that. Sitting? That word did not really describe what Bill was doing there. Both his arms were hanging down on each side and his right leg was weirdly under the chair and the other spread out as long as possible. What Stan couldnt see was that Bill had spit running down his cheeck and it was soon going to hit the floor, forming a small puddle.

"I think we should get him to bed!", Stan said to the others as quietly as possible so Bill wouldnt wake up. The others nodded in agreement.

„Should we carry him?...", Mabel asked, smiling about Bills position. She was fully aware of the spit on Bills cheek and found it absolutely hilarious. She nudged her brother with one elbow and pointed at it in a way that Stan still could not see it. Stan really wasn't a neat freak but he protected his floor like it was a goddess. Nobody knew why but the twins made fun of that ever so often. Dipper giggled. They both wanted to have the spit hit the floor to see Stans reaction. Sadly, the demon regained a bit of his consciousness and sucked the spit around his mouth in again, leaving the wet part on his cheek with no more fuel to run down.

„No, we will just wake him up!", Ford answered and stood up. He slowly approached the kid and as he was about to put his hand on the boys shoulder, Bill mumbled something.

„Leave me... alone...no. I dont want to!". Ford hesitated. He waited if Bill had more to say but the boy stayed silent so Ford shook him. The boy awoke with a start, screaming:" NOOOOO!". Then he looked around in a panic. Only when he saw Fords face he seemed to calm down. He was fixated on his face. When Bill realized he was staring at the old man, he dropped his gaze and tears started filling his eyes. The others in the room could not see that but they noticed something was wrong.

„Bill, what happened? Did you have a nightmare?", Mabel asked, her voice being filled with honest concern.

Bill didn't look up:" I dont know. I think. But I can't remember. Everything was fast and so real, like I was really experiencing that. I was talking to someone like I am just talking to you! Is that normal for humans?".

"It can be.", Ford answered. He wasn't as concerned as Mabel, but Bill did sound very scared and he felt pity. He did not expect such feelings for Bill Cipher.

„Humans can have weird dreams. It surprises me that you, as a dream demon, have no clue about that!", Ford added.

"I'm a dream demon, that doesn't mean I dream, Sixer!", Bill immediately realized his mistake and fastly continued:" I am sorry, I mean 'Ford' of course, force of habit, sorry!".

Ford didn't care about Bill calling him Sir, he just found it rather satisfying that Bill was now the one being scared of Ford, not the other way around. Anyways, Ford was now really invested into what dream demons actually know about the human sleep and he would later add that into his journal.

„You must know, human dreams are very complex and no one really understands them. Often you dream about what you have experienced over the day to process everything. Normally those dreams are not nightmares, that only happens when you are stressed or worried about something. Also when something bad or traumatizing happens to you and your brain tries to cope with that. Then there are lucid dreams which maybe was what you have experienced just now. You can control your body, actions and thoughts in such dreams and when you try hard enough, you can control the dream fully to your own wishes. That is hard and not everyone succeeds. Getting conscious in your dreams and not waking up is rather difficult.", Ford explained to Bill who now finally looked up again, his eyes widened with fascination. Bill had been born with the gift of controlling other beings dreams. He had grown up with that and because of that, saw it as part of his everyday life and as completely normal. He had not made the effort of learning more about this power because he had just never needed to. The only thing he knew about dreams was how to control them, what humans dreamed about when he was not doing that had never been of interest for him. Now that he was human, he thought that it was time to finally understand human dreams. One question in particular had formed in Bills mind while Ford had explained different dreams to him.

„How does it feel when a demon controls your dream? You should know best about that Ford, shouldn't you?", Bill asked, a hint of amusement in his voice. Ford decided to ignore that.

„That is like a lucid dream, but you can only control yourself and nothing else about the dream. Sometimes, not even that is possible, so for example you can only hear or speak. That kind of control is for the stronger beings. Demons like you Bill, can only appear in dreams and shape them, but not control the dreamer themselves.". With that sentence Bills smirk was wiped form his face. What did Ford mean with 'stronger beings'? Bill was sure that he had been the only demon ever appearing in Fords dreams, or he hoped he was. A sinch of jealousy rushed through him and made his heart pound a little harder. Bill took a deep breath and the feeling was gone again. That thought would definitely give him sleepless nights!

But Bill had a the bad feeling that he had not experienced a lucid dream but that someone or something had been there with him in his dream. He was trying hard to remember his dream but it was hopeless. He remembered the fear he had felt though. All of this did not ease his anxiety about falling asleep. It had surprised him that he had actually dozed off at the table so quickly. But now he was awake and never wanted to fall asleep again. Ford noticed the worried look on Bills face but did not think of it as a good idea to ask him what was wrong. The boy had a lot to deal with and adjusting to being human surely was not easy. Mabel seemed to gladly help Bill and Ford really believed in her, that she was the one that would make the most progress with Bill. But he knew that they all would have to work together and teach Bill individually what qualities he had to learn. It would not have been easy to redeem a demon in general, but to redeem Bill Cipher was going to be the family's hardest challenge yet. Ford did not know if they would succeed.