Phantom Falls

Chapter 4

Dipper sat up suddenly in his bed. He rubbed sleep from his eyes as he looked around the attic room he shared with Mabel, searching for the source of the noise that had woken him up. He had thought he heard a strange, futuristic noise like a laser gun being fired.

Dipper tried to remember what he had been dreaming about. A faint echo of insane laughter came back to him and he shuddered. Bill Cipher.

"Mabel!" He hissed. This could be important. "Mabel! Wake up!"

"Uhhh..." she groaned. "Dipper, if this is about Waddles again-"

"No! I think..." Dipper hesitated, but he had learned never to trust strange noises or dreams. He hurried to her bed and whispered quickly. "I think Bill is somewhere close."

Mabel yawned. "Come on, bro. Stop being so paranoid."

"But Mabel-!"

"Tomorrow, Dipper. G'night." She rolled over. Dipper sighed and went back to his bed. Maybe it was nothing. Probably just an after effect of Bill inhabiting his body. He went back to a fitful sleep.

Danny exhaled slowly, and wiped his forehead. That was a bit too close. When he had been awoken by his ghost sense and come up to the attic to check it out, he hadn't expected to be led straight to Dipper. He was sure the boy was no ghost, but clearly something was interested in him. It didn't feel like a normal ghost, either.

When Danny had changed into ghost form to investigate and Dipper woke up, he barely had time to turn invisible before Dipper saw him. Danny had flown up to the ceiling to watch what happened. While the kid talked to his sister, Danny had distinctly felt another presence in the room. And he knew the presence felt him.

Dipper said something about a Bill. Did he know what was going on? This went deeper than Danny had anticipated. It was going to be harder than landing a few punches and sucking the fiend into his thermos. Something here was... different.

The next morning Danny woke up much later than everyone else. He entered the kitchen as Dipper and Mabel were cleaning up breakfast.

"Morning." he yawned.

"Oh, hey Danny." Dipper said. "What took you so long?"

"Didn't sleep so well last night."

"Want some Stancakes and Mabel juice?" Mabel asked, holding up a plate of pancakes. "It'll wake you right up!"

"Um, I think I'll stick with my granola bars." Danny said, eyeing the suspicious pancakes.

"Good choice." Dipper muttered.

Danny looked at him. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask. That chubby guy said you guys have some experience in the weird stuff around here."

"Uh, yeah. I mean, what do you know about it?" Dipper asked, slightly suspicious.

Danny thought for a moment. How much should he tell? It was clear this kid wasn't going trust or help him if there wasn't a good reason. "Well actually, I came here to do a bit of investigating. I was hoping you could help me."

Dipper's face lit up. "Wait, you're investigating the paranormal stuff in this town? We should work together!"

"You're checking it out too?" Danny asked, playing hesitant. This was perfect, if Dipper was already in this than Danny would waste much less time.

"Yeah! I've got this journal that's got stuff documented in it and everything!"

"Cool!" Danny was in luck. This was just what he needed.