Ghost in the Falls

Chapter 6

Danny was perplexed to say the least, they seemed shocked to see a statue out in the woods after all their tales of monsters and adventures. It seemed rather unextraordinary, made of a plain grey stone with smooth sides, but had a faint aura of danger about it.

"Who the heck is Bill?" asked Danny, looking over to the Pines trio.

Stan looks over his shoulder before speaking. "We're not really supposed to talk about it, some stuff about acting like this town isn't weird, but Bill is an evil dream demon, who caused the Weirdmagedon last year, he nearly took over permanently, but we stopped him. He's bad news, and that's what's left of him." He finished his speech by gesturing to the triangle husk.

"We should get the heck away from here," said Stan, assuring the children on their way, and stealing a glance back at Bill's remnants. "It gives me the creeps."

Mabel and Dipper seemed completely okay with leaving the statue behind them, but Danny was a little harder to shift, the statue had an eerie feeling about it, but was oddly intriguing. Jazz followed without needing to be pulled away, quickly becoming bored with the petrified triangle.

After a while of trecking through the forest, with a lunch break of squished sandwiches, courtesy of Stan. The sun began to set, casting a an ashy orange hue across the trees and sod. Instead of the usual day time critters, which included the occasional gnome, there were now bats with cape-like skin flaps and the discordant symphony of crickets and owls, along with the rough scamper of diurnal beasts running for shelter.

"I hate to be a killjoy, but we should probably start going home now. Although from what I've heard, your parents are used to late nights, Danny, you little scamp," hollered Stan. Danny took some time to understand what had just been suggested about him, but when it hit him, his ears practically glowed red.

"But Grunkle Stan..." whined Mabel.

"C'mon, just a bit longer," Dipper joined in, tugging on Stan's arm to guide him further into the forest.

"Um, guys?"

"Fine. When's your curfew kid?" Stan complied.

"Guys" Jazz was getting a bit agitated at being ignored.

"Ten. Does that mean we get to stay out until then?" said Danny.

"GUYS!" shouted Jazz, grabbing everyone's attention. "Is it just me, or is it too quiet?"

A deathly silence hung over the forest, coverig it like a thick blanket. A warm blue glow emanated from the distance, getting closer, engulfing the trees in dancing flames that licked the bark sucking the life from it.

"That, is the Basan," announced Dipper, torn between pure fear and uncontained joy.

Danny dumped his bag on the ground with a metallic thud, and withdrew several guns and a thermos, shoving the guns into the others' hands. His eyes remained fixed in the inferno the entire time, unblinking. "Use these when it comes into range."

Mabel twiddled with the gun, sending a shot into a nearby tree and barely missing Danny's head, as he had ducked to avoid it. "Cool!" she cried exuberantly, and began shooting seemingly at random into the blaze. The fires died down slightly when they came into contact with the ectoplasmic blasts. Danny activated the thermos and a small gun, as a cry pierced through the silence, like the unholy fusion of a rooster and a banshee. The owner of said cry was not far behind, parading through the flames. It must have been at least a metre tall, with scales in the place of feathers, not so much a rooster as a bird-like dragon. No sooner had it poked its beaked head out of the flames than a flury of blasts hit it, and all its surroundings. Scorches brandished the trunks and the leaves turned to ash, crumpling, but the Basan seemed not to take much damage, just sustaining a few burns.