Never Trust Your Demons

56

"Just play it cool," Bill calms the slightly panicked demons. "Ditch the time-punch. Let me do the talking."
BOOM!
The down is blown down and some force pushes me behind the podium as huge chunks of rock whiz past where I was just standing. Peeking back around, a whole army of those time guys Bill said didn't exactly like him stand in the large doorway... And behind them is a gigantic baby with an hourglass shape on its forehead.
"Bill Cipher," One of the officers says. "You are in violation of the rules of space-time, and possessing the body of a time officer."
"My body is a temple!" Oh right, the blah-blah time guy. I didn't exactly like him. "How dare you!"
"Hear this, Cipher," The baby booms in a deep voice, startling me. That was the opposite of expected.
"Ugh, Time Baby," Bill groans.
Time Baby projects a purple image of what looks like a galaxy, a tall skinny hourglass through a sphere in the middle. "If your rip in this dimension continues, it could destroy the very fabric of existence!" The universe in the hologram explodes and I jump back in surprise. "Surrender now, or face my tantrum."
"Oh, no, a tantrum," Bill says in mock fear. "Whatever will a do about that-HOW 'BOUT THIS?!" He suddenly shouts, an orb of energy fluctuating at his pointed fingertip. "BOOM!" A bright light forces me to shield my eyes as the orb flies at the time police. When I open my eyes, Bill's eye...mouth thing blows smoke off his "finger gun." Looking back at the doorway, not one person remains.
"Aw, snap! He just killed Time Baby!" Kryptos screeches.
"All of them... were just vaporized....just like that..." I mumble to myself as the demons cheer and resume partying.
Okay, this is getting crazy. Crazier. An odd-pocalypse I can deal with. Being surrounded by crazy nightmare demons I can handle.
What I can't handle is the idea of just vaporizing a ton of people with no second thought and ignoring the fact that his level of partying could destroy the entire dimension.
I have to get out of here. I have to find Dipper. He'll definitely know what to do.
I manage to convince Bill to give me a way back down to the ground to "clear my mind" and "explore the weirdness."
That was a lot easier than I expected.
He snaps his fingers and I'm back on solid ground, surrounded by ruins, flames, madness and monsters.
I don't think I entirely thought this through...

"I have no idea where my cousin is and a giant one-eyed creature with arm-tusks wants to eat me. On top of that I'm surrounded by a bajillion bubbles of pure madness and eyebats. Yeah... finding Dipper should be a cinch..." I mumble to myself breathlessly as I lean against a tree. I'd made my way through town and to the woods. "I think the shack is right through here..." I continue to talk to myself, starting once again.
"Mabel-FZZT!- me," I freeze when I hear a voice and static. "So far I-BZZT!-apture but I haven't been able to find you or Stan anywhe-" The voice is cut off by more static.
"Dipper!" I try to find the source and end up tripping over a backpack. The static-y voice is coming from inside. Digging past a few notebooks and pens, I pull out a walkie-talkie with a flashing red light. The static is still garbling his voice, but once I hit it, the static clears.
"-atever happens, I'm going to find you, Mabel," Dipper's voice continues its message.
"Dipper!" I can't hold back a relieved laugh. He's alive an okay. "Dipper, are you still there?!" My only reply is more static. "Dang it," I huff, shoving it back in the backpack and shouldering it. With the journals burned, we may need some of Dipper's notes. Hopefully they're somewhat relevant. I can check them out when I get to the shack. Hopefully that unicorn spell works against weirdmaggedon.
While walking through the woods, however, I get turned around and find myself back in the middle of town. As I pass by Gravity Malls, I see a giant head with an arm protruding from the top trying to force its way in. I'm about to sneak past, when I realize it's talking to someone.
"C'mon, kid, come back here!" It says, reaching for something inside. "Seriously, stop ignoring me and get into my mouth!" It groans in frustration, pulling itself out. And spotting me. "Hey you!" It starts to pull itself towards me. "Why don't you come get in my mouth?"
"Uh.." I take a step back as it gets closer. "Because being eaten isn't exactly what I had planned today...?"
"Come on," It continues towards me quicker then expected. "It's just climbing into my mouth."
"I believe you," I hit a wall. Are you kidding me?! Every time! "Then you'll 'just' crush me with your teeth," The are walls to my left and right too. What'd I do, back into an alley way?! "And then-Ah!" The hand flies at me. I dodge it narrowly, my hands sparking. "Leave me alone!" I demand as purple flames flare up. The head backs away, giving me enough time to get in the mall and barricade the door. Despite a gaping hole in the ceiling, it's pretty dark in here, especially in the different rooms and halls off the mall center.
After a few failed attempts to do so, I manage to hold a small purple flame in my palm to light my way.
"Hello?" I call, looking around. That head was trying to convince some "kid" in here to come back out, meaning a human is in here. I try to not get my hopes up, but even if it isn't Dipper, seeing an actual human who isn't part of a stone throne would be great.
"...you hear something?"
I gasp when I hear muffled, hushed voices. I peek into yet another abandoned store, where I think the noise came from. A sign on the wall reveals it's the food court, and my stomach growls at the thought. I haven't eaten since who knows when. Bill's idea of food is a bit sickening.
However, the only actual food in view is a tray of nachos splattered on the ground under the one flickering light...and a ripped net lays on top.
"Huh?" I start bend down to inspect it, when something long and thin flies at me from the darkness.
"Ah!" I dodge, but a sharp point grazes against the bullet wound on my leg. "Seriously?!" Another wave of somewhat familiar pain rushes though my leg at the memory. "You've got to be kidding me..." I grumble, glancing at the arrow stuck in the wall behind me.
"Wait, Connie?!" I gasp at the familiar voice and turn to find a bruised and battered, young, brown haired boy in a cap.

"Dipper!" The purple flames extinguish as I wrap my arms around my cousin, hugging him tightly. "Thank goodness you're okay..."
"Wait, how are you not stone?!" I look over to the shadowed corner and spy Wendy holding a crossbow. "That eyeball carried you off!"
"I'm... a little unsure on that myself..." I shrug.
"Wait, I though Bill captured you when he got Ford!" Dipper says.
"Well, yeah... but-" I stop at a screech overhead. I pull Dipper back into the shadows and out of the eyebat's view.
"We shouldn't stay out in the open for too long," Wendy says. "Let me show you my hideout."
She leads us and Toby Determined to the Edgy on Purpose store, pulling down the metal door just before another eyebat flies past.
"We were playing Truth or Dare in the cemetary when this started..." Wendy starts to fry the bat she shot. "The eyeballs froze Nate, Lee, Tambry and Thompson. Robbie almost got away but had to pause to take a selfie," She rolls her eyes. "What about you?"
"I... was kind of almost beating up KC for bringing up Cy and getting on my nerves..." I avoid eye contact with Dipper, leaning against the wall. I can almost feel his judgement as I pretend to look over the merchandise next to me.
Yes, I fell in love with the triangle currently threatening our very existence. Can we let it go already?
"Oh finally," I pull a headband and spiked hair ties off a rack, as well as a brush. I haven't brushed my hair in the days, and it's seriously getting in my way with only a hat to sort of hold it back.
"I was in a fight with Mabel when it happened..." Dipper sighs. "Uncle Ford asked me to be his apprentice once the summer was over. But that would mean I wouldn't go back home. It would mean growing up without Mabel."
"Oh, dude."
"Mabel didn't take it well," I'll bet she didn't. I can't even imagine those two apart for more than a few of hours at a time...  "...and she ran off into the forest. She couldn't even look me in the eye..." Dipper looks down dejectedly.
"Oh, Dipper..." I sit on the makeshift bench next to him.
"Come on," Wendy gives him a sympathetic smile. "Let's get some fresh air. Toby, you watch the camp."
"Don't call me 'Toby' anymore." I look up as the owner of the nasally voice pushes a curtain aside. His hair is now a green/blue mohawk. He's wearing a spiked belt, bracelets, and boots. He also has elbow-length fishnet gloves and a hot pink "Sassy girl" t-shirt. I don't know whether to cringe or break down laughing. "Call me Bodacious T!"
Okay, definitely laugh.
"No one will ever call you that," Wendy replies adamantly as I clutch my sides, trying not to fall over with suppressed laughter.