It's still us (BILLDIP)

Chapter 4 - Midnight Phone Call

It was dark outside when Bill reached his home. Perhaps because he lived on the other side of the city, about an hour and a half drive from Gravity Falls. It was not a posh neighborhood, as Pinetree thought. At the same time, however, it was not a poor district. Nothing similar to the one in which Pinetree lived. No, it was a pretty neighborhood for middle-class people.

Bill lived in a smaller attic apartment in one of those old townhouses whose distinctive charm had always worked on him. He felt very satisfied there. The atmosphere of those houses with brick facades, with trampled stone steps, intimate space in the corridors, and high wooden doors, was closer to his soul than the uniform look of modern buildings. Somehow he felt that the coziness of the human abode needed a pleasant and soothing gloom. And that his apartment had more than enough.

Overall, his apartment was a fascinating place. It was a studio with one bedroom, a small kitchen, and a bathroom with a giant bathtub, which he liked to go to relax in after hard work. Despite the lack of space, the interior was very well furnished and smelled like a mixture of Bill's cologne and cigarettes.

It was a pity that sooner or later he had to leave this place...

"Fuck, I really need to smoke now." With an irritated sigh, Bill sat down on the bed. He really needed to calm down. Although Bill always tried to be a calm man, he could not suppress the panic he had gained by looking at Pinetree's house. He knew that escaping wouldn't solve anything, but what else should he do in that situation?

He took a box of Lucky Strike cigarettes from the bedside table and lit one. Then he lay down on the soft mattress of the bed and stared thoughtlessly at the ceiling. How long did he actually live in this apartment? Three months, maybe four? Time seemed irrelevant to Bill, so he didn't even notice the sound of the pendulum clock just striking midnight.

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After a moment of quiet smoking and finally calming down, he got out of bed and picked up the bag in which his new suit was. He didn't even have time to look at it or thank Pinetree in that hurry. He slowly pulled his clothes out of the bag and held his breath as he looked at them.

It was perfect. The size, the color, the quality of the suit... it was so beautiful that he couldn't take his eyes off it. The jacket and trousers were completely black, with embroidered initials B.C. above the left breast pocket. The vest was yellow tartan with a small black triangle on the collar. There was also a pure white shirt and a new black bow tie. It was just as Bill had imagined. No, the young seamstress exceeded Bill's expectations. The man was pretty sure he had never seen such a beautiful suit before in his life. He felt all the more guilty now that he had run away from there.

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As if he was stung by a bee, Bill suddenly jumped out of bed and walked over to the closet. Not to make room for his new clothes, but for something completely different. Something that had to do with why he actually ran away from there in the first place. He wanted to make sure he was wrong. That it was just a stupid misunderstanding, that he was just dreaming, and this wasn't real ... He needed evidence.

This wardrobe was not as ordinary as it might seem at first glance. Because if one knelt on the floor to the cabinet in which Bill had his underwear, they could notice a small hole close to the ground on the lower faceplate. Nothing suspicious at first glance. But when the man took the curved wire and pushed it into the hole, they could unlock the secret lock and remove the board. This revealed a secret space that only Bill knew about.

He pulled everything out of there and spread it out on the table. There was a lot of it: fake passports, secret state documents, money, two pistols, a pocket knife, and a collection of photos...