Never Trust Your Demons

30

"No one is eating or maiming her! Not yet, at least," The square says.
"How about 'at all'?!" I back up a bit, but these demons have me surrounded. Yeesh, Bill, sometime to choose to be out.
"You need to stay away from Cipher, okay?" Rubiks hovers right in my face. "Or something might happen you'd both regret."
"What do you-"
"No questions. Just stay. Away. From. Him," Pink Psycho growls. "You're messing with him too much."
"Let's just say death is a possible consequence. Or worse," The hexagon shrugs.
"Worse? Do I even want to know what that includes?" I shudder.
"No, but you will know if you continue letting him near you."
"And no worries if you forget," Pink tells me, her voice a bit too syrupy. "I'd be more than happy to send you a reminder!" She leaps at me, her clawed hand flaming as it  reaches for me.

"Ah!" I wake with a start, panting heavily. I'm fine. I'm not on fire, I'm unharmed, I'm... I'm okay. That was just a dream.
I push myself up to a sitting position.
"Gah!" I wince. A sharp pain runs up my arm. There's a bit of blood on the blanket where I put it down. My eyes widen as I notice a knife on the windowsill, the tip bloody.
I bite back a scream as I look at my hand. In jagged, bloody scratches, a note is etched into the palm of my hand.
"The dream is real," I breathe out, staring wide eyed at it. Glancing down, a note in black marker reads. "Look what we did to your other hand."
Almost scared to do so, I lift my other hand. Someone, in the same black marker, has outlined my hand and added a beak and eye to my thumb.
"Look a turkey!" The writing in it reads.
"Hmph," I sigh. "Creepy or crazy...probably both." I notice an arrow on my wrist, motioning for me to turn the hand around. In more bloody letters another note is scratched in the back of my hand.
"Don't tell Cipher. We will know, and you will regret it."
Way to pull a page out of Umbridge's book with this. Now I've got suspicious scars on my hands. Just one more thing to hide from everyone.

How am I supposed to keep this from Bill?! He literally can read my mind! Why do I need to keep away from him? How am I messing with him? If anything, he's messing with me.
"Argh!" I groan. "Too many questions!" I clench my fists, and wince as my nails scratch at the cuts. Too many questions no one will answer. Ford doesn't trust me, Dipper trusts Ford, I made a deal with Bill... "And those demons don't appear to friendly..." I grimace as I look at the cuts again.
"Hey Police Box!"
I gasp as I hear him. Bill's back in my head.
Seriously? Of all the times to show up after leaving me hanging, it's when I don't know how to hide-
"What's that on your han-?"
"Nothing," I hurriedly cut him off  hiding my hands in my sweater sleeves.
"Oh, come on. You cant hide 'nothing.'"
"It is just nothing, okay?" I repeat, closing my eyes. Somehow I can see him clearly in my head.
"Fine," He huffs, glancing around skeptically as he crosses his arms. A box unexpectedly appears out of nowhere, a label on it reading the date and "nightmares." "Ooh, whats this?" He reaches for it
Please open it.
If he discovers it for himself, I can honestly say I never told him. I open my eyes and wait for his response.
"I can't open it."
"What?" I close my eyes again and find him struggling with the box, then tossing it aside.
"How'd you do that?" He asks, both annoyed and confused.
"Do what?"
"Lock me out of a thought," He appears in front of me. "How?"
Seriously?I try to do this since he first entered my mind, and now when I need him to read my mind, he can't?
"I'm not sure... I wasn't trying to..."
Something seems to concern him more that just wanting to know what's in the box.
"If you weren't trying to block me out, you can tell me... right?"
"I... i-I can't, no."
"...why not? You trust me right?"
"Of course I trust you, it's just..." I trail off. What do I say?
Bill suddenly becomes much more solemn. "What did Ford tell you?"
"Huh?" I look at him confused. "I... I haven't really talked to Ford for a while,"
He lets out a small sigh. "Okay... then what happened?"
I really should just tell him. What could those demons do to me?
I suppress a wince as I feel something scratch into my arm. Okay, yeah. Let's maybe not tell him.
"Looks, let's just say I'm fine, and you need to go now... Someone might... see you," I try to make an excuse. Really I need to figure out what just happened.
"But you're bleeding!" He grabs my arm. It's true. There's a long blood stain clear on my sweater. Before I can stop him, he rolls up my sleeve, revealing another scratched note.
"'Do you really want to know?' What does that mean?" Bill looks at me, concerned after reading the message.
"I-how should I know?" I stammer. I hope those demons know its their fault and not mine he's worried.
"'The dream is real'?" He read the one on my hand. "Police Box, what is this?"
"It's nothing," I pull my hand away. "I fell asleep and these were there when I woke up. I'm pretty sure it's nothing. Now please, just go away..."
"But did you have a dream about something?" He persists as I pull my sleeve down.
"Not that I remember," I lie.
Something seems to dawn on him. "That's what that box was!" He vanishes suddenly. "That might be why it's closed!" He's in my mind now. "But that doesn't explain-" He grunts in effort. "Why I can't open it!"
Why is he in my head! That's worse than being in front of me!
"Bill, can I, uh... have some alone time? Please?"
"Uh... sure... why?" I close my eyes and see he's still worried.
"I just... I need to do something. Alone."
"Um... okay..." He hesitantly disappears.
As soon as he does, I start to freak out. How am I supposed to do this? If he comes up to me, it's hard to make him go away without explaining why I want him to go away.
And I can't even do that.

That night I go to sleep, hoping that dream was a one time thing.
It wasn't.
"I don't think you were trying hard enough, dear," Pink Psycho says, her flame appearing brighter. "It'd be a shame if I'd have to do this," a knife of pale pink fire appear in her hand as a ghostlike image of my cousins appears.
"Seriously?! You have to bring them in too?!" She throws the knife. It goes right through me and in between them.
"Connie, what was that for?!" Dipper's voice echoes through my mind.
"What?! I didn't-" Another flaming knife flies through me, cutting me off. This one goes through Mabel and she dissipates.
"You killed her!" Dipper screams at me. "Ford said we couldn't trust you! I should have believed him!"
This isn't real... I try to convince myself as a hand flies to my mouth. Cold tears hit my hand. Just a nightmare.
"Yes, just a dream," I turn to face Pink Psycho. A knife flies right in my face.
For now.

"AH!" I sit up straight, panting like earlier this night, the cuts on my hands and arm seeming to sting more intensely as I feel a tear slide down my cheeks.
Thump!
"Ah!" I yelp again as I see a shadow hit the floor.
"Sh! Hey wait!" I sigh as a hand suddenly bursts into blue flame, illuminating an increasingly familiar face. "It's just me!"