The Hole In The Ground

Chapter 3, Dipper

*Why is he here? Did he get out of the mindscape? Is he here to take over gravity falls again? It doesn't make sense*

My thinking pen breaks as I was chewing on it, spurting ink everywhere and getting all over my mouth.
"Ahh gross!" I grumble to myself, having to wipe off my face and spit ink. I throw the pen away and pull out another one. Laying on my bed in the early hours of the morning was starting to take it's toll on me, I hadn't slept. After bill passed out, Mabel and me ate dinner then we did nothing but talk about what bill is doing here. After we stuffed him away of course, couldn't just leave him outside. It was definitely him though. Pine tree, shooting star. Only he calls us that. I set my pen on the nightstand and sigh, figuring I had to sleep. Having practiced how to calm my mind and have some semblance of awareness in my dreams I figured I had a chance in case bill attacked. Hesitantly I closed my eyes and drifted off.
............
I wake up with the sun shining brightly through the window. Surprisingly bill wasn't in my dreams. I didn't even have any dreams. I stretch and sit up, Mabel isn't in her bed so she must be downstairs. I get up and go down to the kitchen to get breakfast. Bill and Mabel are sitting at the table.
"Hey pine tree!"
"Dipper! We're having pancakes!" Mabel yells. I just about jump out of my skin. Why was he here, *in the kitchen?* we had specifically discussed about how to hide him!

"Mabel get away from him. He's dangerous!"

"I'm not dangerous! I'm just waiting to try your weird food." Bill states flatly. Mabel rolls her eyes.

"Will you just try to understand him a little? He's trapped as a fleshy person remember? That's what you call it right?" She looks towards bill.

He smirks "flesh sacks."

"How can you possibly trust him mabel!" I demand, terrified and angry at the same time. Bill was a monster!

"Well he made have uh.. Shown up in my head-on" she starts

"He was in your head?!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"It's fine! He mainly just asked a lot of questions, I got to say hi to my flashy colored boys, nothing happened!" She brushes me off. I just.. Couldn't. This had to be the nightmare I was waiting for.

"If I had ill intent I'd have acted by now kid" bill sips at a cup sitting in front of him "besides, you wouldn't sleep last night so I had to talk to *someone*. I got bored pretty quickly once I found myself stuffed in that disgusting fake person room"

I go a little red, as putting him in the wax museum was my idea. I figured he could just lay there like a melted wax figure.

"What do you want?" I ask him plainly. He just shrugs, looking into the cup before tipping it upside down as he'd emptied it

"I dunno. Haven't figured that bit out yet. I can't transform, I'm sure a lot of my other abilities are gone, so I'll see what interests me for now" he had that annoying casual tone in his voice, like everything he was stating was a fact. I hated having to hear it again, listening to him be so smug.

"So you're just... Here?"

"Pretty much" he says in that same grating tone.

"OK." I plainly say, taking a seat beside Mabel and away from him.

"After breakfast can we go mystery hunting?" Mabel asks.
"Whose ready for pancakes" Stan comes into the dining room. His vision had gotten worse over the summer and I'm wondering if he just didn't put two and two together yet.

"Meeeee!" Mabel squeals. Stan sets three plates of pancakes in front of us. Bill gives them a weird look, he then picks one up and shakes it.
"What is this thing?" He tilts his head to the side.
"Pancakes" I reply sourly.

"Never tried it." He sets the pancake down and rips a small chunk off, before he stuffs it into his mouth. His eye lights up. I cut a bite out of my own pancake and eat it to cover my little chuckle of amusement. He picks the pancake up and rolls it into a burrito, then takes a huge bite. I hand him the syrup.

"It's even better with this.." he sets the pancake down and pours syrup all over it, then tries a bite. His eye got even bigger. I laugh. He looks at me, eye narrowing.

"What? Human food is really good."

"Compared to...?" I ask.

"I dunno. I didn't really eat much when I was in my demon form." He takes another bite "except for souls" I couldnt tell if he was joking, just staring at him. He didn't elaborate.

~

"Dipper, I'm bored." Mabel whines, even though her and I.. and unfortunately bill are out in the woods looking for the fabled gigantic cat.

"It's a very large cat Mabel. How could you possibly be bored" I reply.

"What if it doesn't exist?" She asks. I sigh.

"It exists" I assure her, taking a wrong step in my distraction and almost fallling into a deep hole. Bill surprisingly grabs my arm and pulls me back.

"Careful pine tree. Sheesh." I look down; a large, square hole leads down into large, black, nothingness below my foot.

"Whoa" I say as I bend down. I pull a flashlight out of my vest and shine it down the hole, but still can't see anything except for a ladder.
"I'm going down there!" I announce with intense curiosity, already on the ladder.

"But dipper! What if its not safe?" Mabel quickly objects.

"I'll be fine" I reply, still going down into the darkness with excitement in my bones. Finally an adventure!

"Watch out pine tree!" Bill calls. I look up, and flatten myself against the railing as he comes sailing past me like he jumped head first. He starts to float upside down, my breath releasing in disappointed anticipation. I stop hugging the ladder and keep going down, a little sad he hadn't gone sailing and flattening himself. He waves at me and I roll my eyes, trying to ignore him ad I pass. He then flips over and begins flying around randomly.

"You're going to set something off bill." I say annoyed. I look up, Mabel is right above me. I look back down at what I'm doing, sighing as now I had her to worry about down here. My foot misses the bar, and suddenly, I'm free falling. I open my mouth to call out but only a scream that's not very manly comes out. The ground comes racing towards me. I'm about three feet away when I feel arms wrap around my chest and we fly up, my hat falling off.
"You okay pine tree?" Bill asks. I nod, shaken by how close I just came to death. Mabel calls out my name from above. I can't even see her, that's how far I fell. Bill sets me on the ground on my feet. He touches down next to me, grabbing my hat. He is about 5 inches taller than me, which I didn't notice beforehand because I didn't have plans on being that close to him ever.

"I didn't realize how short you are till now kid" he says, using my head as an arm rest. I take my hat and put it on, pushing his arm down. Mabel reaches the bottom of the ladder, she instantly tackles me in a hug.

"Oh my goodness Dipper! You need to be more careful! What were you doing?" She says loudly in my ear. I laugh.

"I don't know. My foot slipped. I'm okay though, promise" she hugs me tighter, then she starts tickling me to difuse the situation. I roll around laughing, trying to get away. Suddenly, there is a loud bang in the distance.

"We should get out of here." Mabel says.

"I agree." I nod, Mabel helps me up and I brush off the dust. We both look up at the very small light above us, the hole we came through.
"This is going to take awhile."