UnWanted Reunion (UnWilling Roommates book 2)

Chapter 4: Pull Yourself Together

And then fall apart again.

(Will's POV)

I sat on the floor in Bill's room.  He lay in a circle with candles and magic symbols, both of our powers strained to the limit in an attempt to reach Y/N's dreams.  I waited, holding my breath, until Bill finally opened his eye.

"Did it work?" I asked urgently as he sat up.  His tuxedo was wrinkled from lying on the floor.

"As well as it's ever going to," he answered drowsily.  We were both exhausted from the effort of breaking through the barriers Strange had put around Y/N.

"What does that m-mean?" I asked, suddenly frightened.

"I got through.  I told her to come here," he explained.  "But getting her here is the easy part.  We still have to break her deal with Tad Strange, and our deal with the Gleefuls while we're at it."

"Oh.  Right."  For half a second, I'd forgotten about those little details.

"Ideally, we could convince Y/N to kill the twins again, so our contracts would transfer straight to her.  We're forbidden to harm them directly, but they have to die some way or another."  Hearing him talk so callously about murder, even of the two people I hated and feared most, made me cringe.  He continued, oblivious.  "And I don't know where to start when it comes to getting Y/N away from Strange.  Once she's here, we might be able to talk to her.  If we can convince her that we used to be friends, then she might take our side against Strange and help us kill him."

"Seems... farfetched."

"I don't hear you coming up with any brilliant plans," he snapped.

"S-sorry," I muttered, looking at the floor.

"Whatever.  I'll figure something out.  Now get lost, I'm tired."  Without another word, he waved away all of the magic junk on the floor and climbed into his bed, intending to sleep off the fatigue.

Without another option, I stood up, swaying slightly, and made my way back to my own room to get as comfortable on the hard floor as I was able.  The tuxedo jacket wasn't nearly as warm as my sweater, and the cold seemed to seep into my bones, but I found myself falling asleep almost instantaneously...

...Only to be kicked awake scarcely ten minutes later.  I reflexively flinched away from whoever it was before even opening my eyes.

"What are you doing?" Dipper asked, kicking me again for good measure.  "Did you forget we have a show this morning?"

Oh no.  I froze in panic.  I had forgotten, in fact.  I scrambled to my feet as Dipper swept brusquely out of the room.

"Lights up in five minutes," he called over his shoulder.  I stumbled after him, head spinning.

This is bad... What am I going to do?  The Gleefuls would expect me to boost their powers during the show and participate from the sidelines, adding an extra bit of pizzazz to their already ostentatious display.  But I was still so drained from last night that I could barely sustain my human form, much less perform any other magic.

I have to try.  I have no choice.  I hurriedly took my place behind the curtain, with a view of the stage but not the crowd.

Just in time.  "WELCOME!" Stan's voice boomed like it did at the beginning of every show.  I jumped like I always did, even though I knew it was coming.  I braced myself, calling up the last of my magic.

Fifteen minutes later, my strength was giving out.  I'd had to conjure fireworks, which in itself had taken nearly all my power.  Then I'd had to teleport Mabel from one side of the stage to the other while remaining out of view of the crowd.  When I returned to my place behind the curtain, I fell to my knees, gasping.  My vision was blurry.  I grabbed the curtain for support, trying to discern what was happening on stage.

This is bad... The twins were doing some complicated trick involving juggling flaming objects on a swaying platform on the stage.  I knew it was my job to keep everything in order, but I could only watch as two of the objects collided in midair.  The twins used their own powers to bring them to a safe landing, but a flaming fragment broke off and fell, unnoticed, to the underside of the platform.  Immediately one of the supports caught fire.  It was on the side that was obscured from the audience, so they didn't notice, but the platform began shuddering dangerously.

Mabel, who was facing me, shot me a look that promised a painful death.  I tried to do something, anything, to stop the fire before it spread, but I had nothing left.  Then I felt a hand on my shoulder.

Bill was standing behind me, boosting the remains of my magic with what was left of his.  Together we managed to put out the fire and keep the platform steady until the trick was finished.  Fortunately, the rest of the show consisted of flashy but relatively easy illusions that the twins could do by themselves.

The moment the curtain fell, Mabel rounded on me, storming across the stage in a heartbeat.  I scrambled backwards in a panic, noticing that Bill was suddenly nowhere to be seen.

"What.  Was.  That?" she hissed, advancing on me as I frantically retreated.

"I'm sorry!  I'm sorry!" I squeaked, curling up on the floor and covering my head protectively.  I couldn't stop thinking about the last time I had slipped up during a show.  I would have died that night, and Y/N wasn't here now to rescue me.

I shrieked as Mabel grabbed me by my hair, yanking me to my feet and pulling me down the hall.  I froze up when I realized where we were going, and she jerked my head around, throwing me off balance as she shoved me into the storage room in the depths of the tent.

What is she doing?  Is she going to kill me this time?  They'd need Bill to activate the portal... Would he do it if they asked him?  I didn't want to think about it.  I wanted to believe that Bill had changed; that Y/N had been enough of a softening influence on him that he wouldn't be willing to kill me.  He'd already helped me twice... But then again, this was Bill.  I knew what he had done to the Gleefuls of his dimension, except they were the Pines there...  I knew his long and bloody history of mayhem and insanity.  He had left his entire dimension in absolute ruin.

The trapdoor opened on its own.  Mabel had one hand on my collar, the other still gripping my hair.  In one smooth move, she yanked off my tuxedo jacket and threw me down the ladder.

I hit the ground hard, feeling the air get knocked out of my lungs.  Mabel landed lightly next to me, grabbing my hair again and dragging me behind her.

To my relief, she took a branching path instead of heading straight for the portal.  She wasn't heading for Stanford's lab, either.  I knew firsthand that death by portal was preferable to the horrors that awaited in there.

She kicked open a metal door, revealing a dimly lit room with racks of weapons in the corner.  Enchanted chains shot out of the wall, wrapping around my wrists and pulling tight.  I ended up sitting against the wall, arms above my head, as Mabel selected her favorites from the rack.  I felt frozen, and from more than just the cold stone I was pinned against.

I squeezed my eye shut as she approached me slowly, a smile on her face that spoke of a mind so far removed from sanity that reasoning with her would be pointless.  Still, I couldn't help the words that spilled out of my mouth.

"I-it wasn't my fault!  P-please... don't do th-this!"  Eye still shut, I felt her begin to cut the buttons off my shirt one by one.  I froze as her knife reached the top button and brushed against my neck for just a moment.

"Oh, Will," she giggled breathlessly.  "We're going to have some fun today."

Eye still tightly shut, I could do nothing but brace myself for what was about to happen.

(A/N: Bill gives a brief explanation about how demon contracts work in chapter 10 of book 1.  Also... I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I HATE MYSELF FOR WRITING THIS!!!)