Covering Up The Inside [Updates Stalled]

Chapter 3

Bill screamed. He hugged himself and Dipper swore he heard him sob when Stanford inspected him curiously. "Calm down, geez. What happened to you?"

Bill trembled and flinched whenever Ford nudged him with his giant furry paws, or stared at him with his big lion-tiger feline eyes. Heck, he yelped when his tail (gently, no less) tapped him on the side. "Dipper, I will have you know humans are weaker than I originally sought them to be."

He whimpered, trying to shink more than he already was. "Especially against cats and other clawed creatures, such as your crazy, insane siren mermaid sister."

"Pfffft." Dipper began laughing as Ford continued prodding and inspecting the turned demon. "Pathetic. Bill Cipher the insane, almighty demon. Master of Illusion and Bringer of Nightmares reduced to a sniffling human on his own accord."

Bill opened his mouth, about to scowl when he was interrupted by a six toed paw latching itself on his wrist. His eyes widened and he whimpered, his other arm wrapping around himself protectively. The claws didn't sink in, they barely touched the surface, but it still made him cringe.

Ignoring Bill's obvious fear, Ford continued, inspecting Bill's palm. "Bill, what's this scar from?" He asked in his almost scratchy voice. "How'd you get burned?"

Bill winced and tried not to shiver, watching the claw touch his palm without him really feeling it. "Cooking lessons. I leaned against the burner. It was funny until people freaked out about it." He paused, watching Ford poke at his hand, as if it entertained the geezer.

He blinked once, no twice while recalling the memory Bill's mouth twitched into an... almost evil, but no less entertained smile. It was during the end of his first year as a human. It was when he first noticed he could no longer live without eating. It was when his magic stopped sustaining him. It was also nearly a month after he met- "Rika almost cried when-"

He blinked and looked up from his palm, as if remembering where he was. Dipper grunted. "When what?"

Bill freed his hand and cleared his throat. He grinned and put his chin up proudly. "Ah, it's not important. What is, kid, is the fact you don't trust me and yet don't want to kill me. Probably because you can't. Not while you're looking straight in these gorgeous eyes, anyway."

Dipper took an aggressive step forward and practically puffed with anger. His hair stood on end and his breath stilled. He clenched teeth so hard, trying to resist the urge to just- mph. Hurt him. His entire movement screamed murder.

Ford calmly sat between the two, his tail flickering. "Dipper, I assume you haven't done the full 'initiation' your sister spoke of?"

The cervitaur's face straightened, his brows still furrowed as he looked to his Grunkle. "No, I obviously haven't Bill's still breathing." He stole a glance behind him at his target. He missed.

Bill wasn't there anymore. Dipper's ear twitched as he scanned for a second. He was a bit farther off. That blonde jerk was pretending that he wasn't going to die.

Jerk. Dipper thought. He's smiling and snooping around like he owns the place. Well, he doesn't.

The blonde was poking around snowglobes and pulling on the hem of some of the old giftshop T shirts. Dipper almost growled. "Why do you ask?"

Ford sat proudly and smiled. "I think I've found the key to the cure." He pushed up his glasses with a bulky paw.

Dipper's eyes widened. What? No.

What? His eyebrows frowned. He blinked a few times in disbelief.

How'd he manage that?

Bill's hand?

Of course! That's why he was looking at it. Probably. But what did that have to fo with the cure? Did Bill still have magic they could exploit? We probably need to kill him to get it out. Yes! Wait... or am I just crazy? Did he just actually say that?

I'm losing my mind.

Was it something else? Before he showed up, possibly?

He cleared his throat and gave a crooked smile. "I'm sorry, I think I blanked for a second there... what was that?"

"Oh, you heard correctly, Dipper. And the key standing right behind you."

Dipper scrunched his face and looked. Bill had moved while he was thinking.

The mentioned ex-demon was behind him, taking clothes off the shelves with the energy of a toddler. He was smiling brightly. Dipper swore he seen Bill's eyes glint with excitement or whatever.

He stamped one of his hooves impatiently. "Please tell me we get to kill him."

Ford joined his nephew's stare at the odd specimen of a human. "No, we actually need him quite alive."

Bill excitedly dressed himself in an oversized question mark t-shirt and pine tree hat.

Ford scrunched his nose and hushed his voice a bit. "I still can't believe this is the same Bill."

Bill ducked his lips and was posing in the mirror. "Ah, yeah. Rika woulda loooved this."

He posed a few more times before he noticed two pairs of monster eyes on him. Bill faltered and proceeded to cough awkwardly. He looked at Dipper, a little to his right. His eyes trailed leftwards to Ford, then back to his own feet. He smiled. "Hey, we make a triangle!"

The cervitaur leaned closer to the sphinx. "Are you sure you need him alive? Can't we just..."

Ford looked to his great nephew and shook his head seriously. "We need him alive."

Dipper groaned and hit his forehead repeatedly against the counter.

Bill smirked and leaned against said counter. "I didn't peg you for one who'd cause pain unto themselves for enjoyment, pine tree."

Dipper huffed and glared at Bill with red eyes.

Bill coughed and stepped back a bit. "Dipper. Dipper Pines." He smiled, eyes burrowing into Dipper's. He took a breath and his voice lost all of it's amused tone. "I meant Dipper Pines."

Dipper snorted and lifted his head, standing tall. "Where do we keep him anyways? It's not like we can tie him to a leash and keep him outside."

Bill pouted. "I'm upset thay was even an option. Have some respect for your elders, kid."

Dipper's eyes flashed and a vine whipped out of the ground. It wrapped itself around Bill's ankle and pulled. Ford watched him sink underground and his eyes widened at the vague clawmatks he left behind.

"We're keeping him in the basement? All my work's down there! Who knows what he'll do with my information, Dipper."

Dipper shrugged. "He's locked in the old portal room covered in vines."

"Well, how's I supposed to study him? How are we supposed to keep him alive?"

Dipper sighed. "I'll keep him alive, Grunkle Ford. Just. Ugh, words. Just do whatever you do and pull the vines off when you want them off, push him back in when you want him in. I'm pretty sure Mabel still wants to talk to me, so I'll be back later."

Without hearing any other complaints or concerns the sphinx had, Dipper put this morning's flower crown on a hook and trotted out.

Stanford sighed and climbed down the basement stairs. He had work to do.

Sorry this chapter took so long to update. Hope it was good. I also noticed it's a bit shorter than the others. ;(

Oh well. Next chapter won't take a month to update. (hopefully)

There's just a lot less time to write and edit recently. I hope you understand.