Bad End...Friends?¿

Stranger's Deterrent

"E-Excuse me, Sir, Have you seen Bill Cipher?"
"Ma'am do you know where I could find a Mister Bill Cipher?"
Finn had sat on the sidewalk asking passers by about Cipher for about half an hour to no avail.

Nobody seemed to have heard the name, or they simply ignored Finn's existence.

Finn was beginning to grow tired and he knew that eventually...The Lantern Bearer would come looking for him.

The sky was clouded and it looked like rain may come soon. Pedestrians were beginning to disappear into the small restaurants and apartments in the town's heart. If Finn had money he would eat something, hunger rippled through him, perhaps Bill would have a dollar to spare.

He reached up to tap the shoulder of an elderly man.
Old people are sweethearts.
"Sir, have you seen Bill Cipher-"

The man whirled around whipping Finn in the face with his tan trench coat. Finn was shocked to find himself at gun point. The man had a bulky matte handgun pressed against his chest.

It was most certainly loaded.

"Holy Crap-!!"
The man looked like he hadn't slept in weeks, he had dark bags under his reddened eyes, were they red from crying or exhaustion? Finn wondered. The glare in his unforgiving eyes didn't seem like the type to ever be graced by tears.

"What do you know about Bill Cipher?" The man asked monotone.

Finn tried to sort through everything he had heard, it's hard to think straight with a gun against you though.
"H-he has a...lantern..?" Finn stuttered, Really, that was all he knew.

The man moved his finger to the trigger.
"Wrong answer. Where did you hear about him?"

Finn put his hand lightly over the gun's muzzle, maybe he could freeze the barrel well enough that if the man shot the bullet wouldn't come out.

"There's this...monster in the woods..." he stuttered.

To his surprise the man seemed to believe him. He loosened his grip on the trigger ever so slightly.

"Continue."

Finn wanted to call out, there was hardly anyone on the street but surely someone would hear...he'd most likely be shot before anyone could act though.

"The...Lantern Bearer. He told me to go find him...we had a deal..."

"A deal? A deal?!" The man laughed, it sounded deranged, genuine yet depressed and...knowing.

It was at this moment Finn realized something was wrong with this man. Something deeper then simply being trigger happy.

"You shouldn't go around making deals with people you don't really know. How foolish."

Finn took a deep breath in, he decided to ask the question he came for,
"Do you know Bill?"

The man looked taken back by the question, he clenched his fist and -subconsciously- tightened his grip on the gun.

Why did I say that? I'm dead!

Will Wirt be glad? Or upset it wasn't him pulling the trigger?

Finn held the gun's end, his hand was shaking of fear but he tried his best to firmly grasp it.

How is it that nobody has come to help?

The man pursed his lips, he focused only on the question, trying to put his feelings to words. After a while he spoke
"I'm afraid I have met Bill. And I wish I didn't. You would do well to avoid him, lest you wish to meet Mason's fate. So I tell you, stop looking...You won't like what you find."

"Who's Mason?" Finn asked, still nervous, but feeling a lot safer after the man let his guard down.

The ice was down the bullet shaft by now, thick ice, ice that would take hours to break, especially on this cold autumn day.

The man laughed sadly
"He was going to change the world."

He looked at his gun for a moment and slowly lowered it.
"And...He wouldn't want this." He whispered. Finn could have sworn he saw at least a single tear.

The realization of how open he was being hit him like a thousand knives.

He swallowed his tears, and stood up straight.

"If you find him, I want to be the first to know. But Please, stay out of this."
Finn nodded as the man put his gun back into its holster.

Finn was about to ask the man's name but before he could even speak the man slid a business card into his pocket.
Stanford Pines; Paranormal investigator.

The man began to walk away turning one last time to make eye contact with Finn,
"And...Trust no one."

They went their separate ways, Stanford continuing down the street and Finn departing into an ally to think.

Should I stop looking?

Will I be in more danger with Bill?

A/N I'll probably release the next chapter very soon bc I'm not a huge fan of this one; there may be a short hiatus after that because the next chapter may be hard to write.