Cipher [A Gravity Falls Tale] #Wattys2016

Twelve

Ford stumbled into his bed and flipped through his journals, looking for something, anything. What had happened? What had Fiddleford seen that scared him so badly?

Frustrated and panicked, Ford threw down his journal and called out, "Bill!" No answer. "I need to talk with you!" Where was he? Had he been abandoned?

Sleep came slowly for Ford. There were too many thoughts and anxieties rushing through his mind, ramped up by the seven cups of coffee he had consumed that day. Eventually, though, sleep did come, and Ford's reality faded away to nothing.

Suddenly, he was in his strange dreamscape again. "Bill!" he shouted. "Reveal yourself. I need to speak with you!"

He heard strange laughter around him. Where was it coming from? Ford whipped his head around to try and find his muse. There! Ford rushed forward, using the hovering books as footholds. Something had gone terribly wrong. He had begun to form a suspicion about Bill.

"Bill!" he called. "You lied to me! Where does that portal really lead?"

In front of him, he beheld Bill floating in front of him, a strange rip in space behind him. Wherever this hole led, there were dark figures hovering. Ford had an increasingly bad feeling about this.

"Oh ho!" chuckled the triangle, floating closer to Bill. "Looks like Mr. Wise Guy finally got smart! Let's just say that when that portal finishes charging up, your dimension is really gonna learn how to party! Right guys?" The figures behind Bill gave a sinister cackle.

"I'll stop you!" threatened Ford. "I'll shut it down!"

Bill narrowed his eye. "A deal's a deal, sixer. You can't stop the bridge between our worlds. But it'd be fun to watch you try. Cute, even!" Ford took a step back as the eerie laughter reverberated around him.

The young scientist struggled for words. "Who-- what are you?"

"You are such an ignoramus, sixer!" insulted Bill. "Did you really think you had been chosen by a muse? You're an idiot, and a prideful one at that. I mean seriously, even your mosquito bites spell out 'Watch out for Bill'!"

Ford looked down at his arm and snapped back, "That says 'Batch out for Will'!"

"Well, those poor bugs never were good spellers, but that's beside the point! I didn't choose you to show you new discoveries, but rather to use you to perform what I couldn't do directly. I used you. You were my puppet! Even though, now that I think about it, you might be helpful in the future. How'd you like to join me, for realsies?"

"You used my machine to open a rift in space and time!" protested Ford. "Are you going to destroy my world with it? Why should I help you?"

"It was worth a shot," sighed Bill. "You really wanna know who I am?" Ford nodded impatiently. Suddenly, Bill grew giant and glowed blood red. "I'm a demon, Stanford!" he roared, his voice now thundering around them. Ford quaked, feeling actual terror for the first time in a long while."I've come from the depths of the netherworld to destroy your dimension, and there's nothing you can do about it!" He jabbed a fiery finger at Ford. Everything went red--

Ford cried out and sat up. Somehow, he had gotten from his bed to his meditation chamber during his slumber. An all new wave of panic rushed through Ford. He had been lied to! Bill didn't want to help his world, he wanted to destroy it! Was he really some kind of demon? Had he really just been using Ford?

He gasped as he realized his journals lay spread out in front of him, ink staining his hands. He frantically flipped through the third one, finding ramblings and codes scrawled in the margins.