The Unknown

6

“You’re gettin’ in too deep,” Bill muttered to himself as he pressed his palm flat against his forehead.

“Hm? Sorry, what was that?” Dipper asked, looking back at the demon following behind him.

“I said you didn’t get enough sleep,” Bill replied, raising his voice a little and changing his tone to a slightly more annoyed one.

“Oh, sorry. I really wanted to make sure I got this to Mabel as soon as possible.” The preteen turned the potion over in his hand. He hoped it would work for her sake. At least then she would get what she wanted after taking a nasty spill down the stairs for that dumb guy.

“Yeah, well…” Bill crossed his arms and blushed. He averted his gaze from the other. “Not sleeping enough will make you sick, and you don’t get a lot of sleep as it is.”

“Why do you care anyway?”

“What?”

“Why do you care how much sleep I get? Last time I stayed up late, you tricked me into making a deal with you so you could steal my body.”

“Your, ah, your dreams,” he mumbled, flicking his eye around the hallway and just anywhere but the kid staring him down. Dipper raised an eyebrow. “Your dreams get…your energy gets all messed up when you don’t sleep and it throws off…you don’t…Get off my back!” And with that, Bill made a dramatic exit in a ball of silver flames.

Dipper stopped walking for a second to process what had just happened before turning back and continuing along with a wide grin spread across his face that was almost villainous.

When he reached Mabel’s room, the door was already wide open and welcoming of visitors. Dipper had only managed to get about three hours of sleep before heading off to the hospital again, so it was still very early and Mabel was having her breakfast.

“Good morning, sister beast,” he greeted with high spirits.

“Looks like someone’s in a good mood today,” Mabel replied. “What’s the occasion?”

She wouldn’t get to know the real reason why, but Dipper hoped the potion would be a good enough answer for her.

“Guess who’s getting the boy of their dreams?”

“Is it you?” Mabel giggled. “You have been spending a lot of time with Bill lately!”

“What? No!” he groaned; though it was technically true if she wanted to think of it that way. “Mabel, I stayed up all night working on a love potion for you, see?” He took his sister’s hand and passed the vial to her. She reeled back, eyes lighting up as she examined the lightly tinted orange fluid and the little red heart drawn on the front. But she then furrowed her brows and looked back up to her brother, clutching the bottle tightly in her hand.

“Are you just messing with me, bro-bro?”

“Unless the recipe was wrong,” which was entirely possible considering the unreliable source, “I’m one-hundred-percent guaranteeing you that that potion will work wonders.”

“Aw Dipper,” Mabel cooed, opening her arms wide, “awkward sibling hug?” Dipper smiled, a light blush colouring his cheeks.

“Awkward sibling hug,” he accepted. After a few seconds, Mabel pulled back to look at her brother again.

“But wait, how are we supposed to get this to Nurse Cullen? There’s no way he’s just gonna drink some questionable fluid on his own.” Dipper frowned and shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know, Mabel. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly swarming with girls,” he said, crossing his arms and puffing his cheeks.