Wayfarer [Bill Cipher x Reader] [REVISED]

Chapter Twenty-One: No Plan

"Ah, finally!"

Gravel crunched under your feet as you hopped out of the car and stretched for the first time in over a hundred miles. The sun, presenting its beaming face to you, warmed your skin as you inhaled, taking in a long draught of alpine air freshened by the stir of a cool breeze. All around you, the undersides of the aspens flashed, flecks of dull green against a lush background of firs.

Standing before this bright and airy landscape, your heart beat a little slower. It was as if before the immediacy of this view, everything fell away. The anger. The terror. The paranoia. Your body stilled a little, as if yielding to the land.

Beside you, Bill exhaled. "Whew! Pretty place, huh? Not a bad pick, kid. I mean, after this morning... not really in the mood for being around people."

You shuddered a little at the thought. "Yeah, I get that."

"Anyways, what's the plan for today?" he asked. "Just mild trauma management, or we going to do something more?"

"Well, both, I guess," you replied. "I mean, my plan was to come out here anyway, before... you know, last night. I figured that maybe we'd hike a trail or two and see the sights before we head back to town for the fireworks."

"Fireworks?" Bill said. "Wait, it's the Fourth of July already? Ugh. Not this again."

"What do you mean, 'this again'? What do you have against the Fourth of July?" you asked.

"Besides the tackiness of it all? The vomit-inducing hyper-patriotism being bandied about, that's what. I mean, why get so gushy over the artificially separated chunk of dirt you happened to end up on?" Bill scoffed. "Well, at least we'll mostly avoid it out here. No barbeques or bandstands in sight."

"Hey, you do know that appreciating the American wilderness is kind of patriotic, right?" you replied. "I mean, you're acknowledging that at least part of it isn't complete garbage."

"Yeah, but it doesn't involve nearly as much flag-kissing." He grimaced. "Like to avoid that. How long did you say we were gonna be out here, again? I'd like to stay away from as much of the pageantry as possible."

"Pretty much the whole afternoon," you replied. "We'll be leaving around maybe six or seven for dinner."

"Great! What trails are we hitting?"

"Um... I'm not sure. Let's see what trails there are around here." You turned towards the trailhead and made your way over to a large sign, where a map of the area was posted under scratched-up glass. "Hmm. Let's see... "

You mentally traced over the tangle of trails, separating out footpaths and bike trails and horseback trails from roads and streams on the pale tan background. "Which one would you like?" you asked. You pointed to a trail on the list given to the side. "I think this Maple Ridge Trail sounds promising. Just one and a half miles roundtrip. Nice and easy."

Bill narrowed his eyes at the map. "Eh, why don't we pick something a little more challenging? Like this." He tapped the name of a trail. "Five miles. You can manage that, right?"

"Five? That's way more than I was going for! Why the heck do you want to hike that?"

"Hey, we've got a whole day to fill up with hiking. Might as well, right? I mean, I'm not exactly thrilled about the idea of being around people after everything that just happened."

"Yeah, okay, but I don't think that we're ready to go on a long hike right now. I mean, look at you!" You gestured to Bill's pants. "You're wearing freaking slacks right now, for goodness' sake. You can't seriously be considering hiking five miles in those, are you?"