TW: Mention of dead animals

Bill Cipher's smile fell, not expecting this stranger's response when he revealed himself to them. Who?! Who?! Did they not realize who they were dealing with, who they were talking to?! This was absolutely disappointing. By now he was certain that everyone knew and feared his name. How come they had zero idea of his existence, though? Maybe they knew him by appearance and not by name, that could be a possibility.

"You know... the yellow triangle guy- Usually seen with a top... hat and bowtie, one eye, has dashing good... looks, and is meant to be worshipped by you and the rest of your... pathetic species. You know, that Bill Cipher."

This did not seem to stir any memories up for the stranger, however, as they started to look not only confused but now a bit concerned for this man's mentality.

"...Sir, I don't know anyone by that name or description. Could you please just leave before I go call the nearest asylum and see if they've lost a patient recently."

"Really- Wait- Really?!" Bill was absolutely shocked by how stupid this person was. Did they hit their head too hard recently and completely forgot about everything that he had done to this town? He didn't think he had been absent for too long between getting erased while in someone's mind and then coming back from within the depths of a lake in a new body. Figuring out how much time had passed was definitely on his to-do list but right now he was going to assume this person has just been living under a rock and that's why they know absolutely nothing of his existence. "Wow... just wow. ...You really are an idiot but that's fine, I can probably still work with that. How about this- you simply point me in the direction of where the Mystery Shack is and I won't kill you and you'll never have to see me again!"

The person Bill was talking to was really starting to regret leaving their phone in their bag in the backroom. A shiver went down their spine at the threat but still they wore this expression on their face that made them seem as though they were still lost and confused about every word that escaped from Bill's mouth.

"...The 'Mystery Shack'? ....There's no place called the Mystery Shack in this town."

Bill didn't react right away, just staring at the figure across from him in the darkness. This... can't be true. No Mystery Shack? That's impossible! Maybe some time did pass since he was brought back from the dead Maybe the shack had been destroyed during Weirdmageddon and they decided not to rebuild it. That had to be the explanation for this. It had to be. He needed to make sense of this, try to figure out what was going on here. They couldn't be that clueless as to not know about the famous tourist trap, right?! It's such a small town, everyone seems to know literally everyone here!

"...No Mystery Shack? Like- you're positive about that? ...Like 100% sure-"

"The closest thing I can think of that sounds similar to that is the Conundrum Cabin. It's an escape room where you have to solve a bunch of puzzles to.... well, escape the room."

"What- No! No, that's not the Mystery Shack at all! It's a place tourists can't escape from because they're too busy being fooled by a greedy old man who is practically stealing all their money while they're being amazed by a bunch of fake- Y'know what, I don't have time for this. What about the Pines family? Stanford or Stanley Pines- are they still here? Did they move? Why is there no Mystery Shack?!"

"How about I ask a question of my own, okay," they quickly intervened, taking a breath as they gripped the lighter a bit tighter the moment Bill started raising his voice at them, "Where exactly do you think we are?"

Bill Cipher was a bit taken aback by this question, swaying a bit as he stood there. "Gravity Falls, Oregon. Where else would I be exactly?"

There was a moment of silence right then, before the stranger burst into a fit of laughter. Bill was speechless, not expecting that reaction in the slightest. He was in the town of Gravity Falls right now... wasn't he? Where else would he be?

"Oh geez- this makes sense now. Kind of- minus the whole 'I'm a demon' thing. Yeah no, sorry man but you are really far from where you thought you were.."

"...I am? ...Where am I, then?" Bill's voice was much softer now as he was trying to process all this new information.

"A small town called Mercy, North Carolina. Not many people even know it's a town that exists, but here we are. Oregon is all the way across the United States- you went in the completely wrong direction if ya meant to get to Oregon."

Bill remained still and silent after hearing this stranger speak these words. Was it really possible? Was he truly no longer in Gravity Falls? Initially, he didn't know how to react. He stumbled slightly, nearly falling over and for a moment he thought he was going to faint as he started seeing black spots everywhere before his eyesight returned to normal. He closed his eyes, taking a slow deep breath in as he processed all of this. It would make sense then why they didn't recognize him, didn't know where the Mystery Shack was, and had no idea who the Pines family were. It was all because he was in a completely different state far... far away from the small town known as Gravity Falls.

...Which meant he was free.

Bill Cipher was finally free. The dream demon was no longer trapped underneath the dome that surrounded the town in Oregon, keeping him from going out and finishing his world takeover. He was free to go out now, do whatever he wanted... and there was not a single member of the Pines family that was close enough to even attempt to stop him from doing whatever it is he wanted to do.

Upon this realization, he reopened his eyes and a wide grin made its way onto his face. Oh he was so sick of shacks and small towns at this point, he could finally go out into the real world and start doing some real carnage. He looked up towards the figure that remained staring at him this entire time, legitimately afraid to turn their back on this psycho unsure of what he would do if they did.

"...If I were wanting.. to leave this town- which way would I go?"

The stranger raised a brow, tightening their hold on the lighter they still held. This crazy man was asking how to leave? Does he not remember how he even entered the town in the first place- You know what... it didn't matter. The guy believing he was some powerful demon was saying he wanted to leave and they were more than glad to kick him out and make sure he was far, far away from them and their town.

"First thing you do: Exit my store through that door behind you. Next you're going to head back to the main road and take a right. Keep going straight and eventually you'll find yourself coming across a sign reading: 'Leaving Mercy, North Carolina.' Okay? Are those clear enough directions for ya? Do I need to draw a map or do you think you can remember all that?"

"Right... Right? ...So I failed that 50/50 chance by picking the left direction.." Bill muttered to himself as he turned around and began stumbling towards the door.

...He was really leaving, just like that? All that threatening and trying to intimidate them and all they had to do was simply tell him which way the exit out of town was to get him to leave their presence? ...He was actually planning on leaving, right? Now they were skeptical about how easy that suddenly was to get him out of here, and the last thing they needed was to wake up and find the town on fire all because this random dude didn't actually leave. Would they be at fault then for any destruction he might cause because they didn't inform the police of his presence? They groaned, rubbing their eyes in annoyance. This night was just getting worse by the second, and their anxiety and second-guessing wasn't helping.

The townsperson walked over towards the glass door and opened it to see Bill Cipher stumbling all over the place before finally exiting the parking lot and making his way onto the main road. It was at that moment that they realized the only car in the parking lot was their own. Had this man walked all the way out here and was now planning on walking all the way back out of town? They shook their head, stepping outside further before calling out to the psycho, "Hey! Bill!"

Bill had just started walking in the right direction to head back where he just came from before pausing and looking up towards the shack, just barely able to notice the outline of the figure in the darkness. "...Yeah?"

"Are you planning on walking all the way to the edge of town?"

"Uh- Yes...?"

"...You don't have a car?"

"If I had one I'd obviously be driving one instead of walking!"

"...Okay, just-... Stay here!" The figure then turned and went back inside.

Bill was incredibly confused, tilting his head to the side before looking back down the road and just beginning his walk all over again... only to be stopped after a couple of minutes when the stranger returned.

"You really suck at listening to directions, you know that? Get back over here, it's too long of a walk and I need to make sure you're actually planning on leaving."

Bill looked back towards them, realizing they now had a bag as well as something small in their hand. Pressing down on the thing in their hand, the lonely car in the parking lot lit up and unlocked. Keys. They must be holding their car keys now.

"You're giving me your car?" He asked, a bit excited at the thought.

"Wha- No, you doofus. I'm giving you a ride out of town. Once we get to the border and you cross the town line, I really could care less what you do outside of this town. Kapeesh?" They started walking towards their car with Bill slowly following behind.

"Uh- Okay then," he muttered, stumbling over towards the passenger's side and going to grab the handle of the door weakly.

It took a few tries before finally getting the strength to pull the handle hard enough to get the door to open. The stranger was already in the driver's seat, having tossed their bag into the backseat. Bill moved to sit down- or really, fell down into the seat awkwardly as he had yet to figure out how to get this new body to sit down properly. He then reached out to grab the inside door handle to shut the door once more, the lights within the car going out before Bill had the chance to look over and see who exactly this stranger was. He began to feel around before smiling as he successfully found the seatbelt beside his seat and grabbed onto it, pulling it over across his body to buckle himself in- after a few tries of getting the belt to actually go into the buckle.

The stranger took a deep breath in to try and relax the ever growing stress that was building up inside themselves at this point. They already had this feeling they were going to have a long night after having gotten a call from their friend/co-worker to go and look after the store with the power in town having gone out so suddenly. They just never would have guessed that this would be the way their night would go. Putting the car into drive, they drove out of the parking lot and took a right onto the main road, ready to get Bill Cipher out of Mercy, North Carolina.

The drive was very quiet, the only sound that could be heard being the faint music that was coming out of the car. The driver was focused on the road ahead and going a bit over the speed limit to get to the town line as quickly as possible. Bill was looking around in the darkness, very curious about the design of the car and all the different buttons and knobs that were glowing just below a little screen that seemed to read what radio station they were listening to. Being the curious cat Bill was, he leaned forward and began to press some buttons and turn some knobs to see what it would do. This caused the stranger beside him to quickly notice and slap his hand away.

"What are you doing?!"

"I was trying to figure out what all these buttons do."

"Well don't! Don't mess with my car, don't touch anything. Just sit there, be quiet, and keep your hands to yourself."

Bill frowned, crossing his arms and looking out the window. "You are the definition of no fun."

"You should be thankful I'm helping you at all. I'm not trying to be fun, I'm trying to get this done as soon as possible so I can go back to the store and make sure no one is trying to break in while I'm gone."

"To be fair, you weren't doing that great of a job while you were present at your store. I mean- I easily walked in-"

"Shut up. Just shut up before I pull my keys out of the car and shove it right through your-"

"Okay, okay! Yeesh, kid, no need to get so hostile."

"If you call me 'kid' one more time, I'll show you just how hostile I can really get," the stranger spat as they pushed their foot on the gas pedal more to speed up a bit.

Bill held his hands up in defense though he had a bright smirk on his face. Humans were so much fun to tease and mess with, he found it interesting to see how each human tends to react when pushed to their last nerve. He couldn't help but to be a bit cocky right now, he was in such a good mood and there was absolutely nothing that could ruin it. He was free, free to go out into the world and do whatever with nothing and no one to stop him. Honestly, what could be better than that?

They continued the drive, neither speaking to the other but both were fine with that. The both of them wanted to get this over with so they never had to see each other again. And so they continued the drive onward, the drive being a much shorter trip than it had been when Bill walked the entire way.

When they got around the area where Bill had originally walked out of the woods, however, the stranger was quick to step on the brakes which caused the both of them to suddenly jerk forward with their seatbelts hitting against their chests and slamming them back into their seats. Bill gasped, having never experienced being inside of a moving vehicle that suddenly stopped out of nowhere so quickly.

"What was that for? Are you trying to kill me?!" Bill screamed, turning to look at the driver only to pause when they saw that look of horror cross the stranger's face. What were they looking at? He turned to look out the windshield to see what could be so horrifying to look at. That's when he saw it: there on the road, covering their path to keep moving forward was a pile of animal corpses.

A multitude of birds and a single deer covered the road, the corpses looking as though they had been dead for months but the townsperson knew that couldn't have been possible. Someone would have surely either moved them out of the way or have reported it to the local police at this point. Witnessing this was a very gruesome sight for them to see, making their skin tone appear a bit more green than usual.

"...Have you never seen a dead animal before?" Bill suddenly asked with a deadpan expression.

"Wh- Of course I've seen dead animals on the road before! But- Not this many! Not this far along in the decaying process..." They began as they trailed off, their headlights shining upon the corpses like a spotlight. "I don't... I don't understand how-... Why are they here- why do they look like this?!"

"Probably my fault." Bill shrugged as he started to fidget with the seatbelt.

The stranger's blood went cold and their face paled as those words were spilled so casually out of his mouth. That couldn't be right... No, there was no way a human could do this, right? Sure a human could kill this many animals in an afternoon- but how does one explain why they look like they have been dead for weeks- months, even? That can't be right, there's no way he could possibly have something to do with this... right?

"...What are you talking about?"

"Well when I woke up, after having just been reincarnated as one does, I noticed everything around me seemed to be... well, dead! Must've taken a lot of life and energy for me to be restored. But voila, here I am! Back again and ready to take over this stupid world already!"

"R-.... Reincarnated?" They whispered under their breath, their brain started to feel like mush as they tried their best to process all of... this. Whatever this was.

Then suddenly they heard the sound of a car door shutting, snapping out of their daze to look over at the passenger's seat only to find it empty. Bill was no longer in the car. They quickly looked out the windshield to see Bill walking over to animal corpses and making his way down the road. They gasped, moving to struggle with the seatbelt buckle before finally unlatching it and jumping out of the car.

"H- Hey! Where do you think you're going?!"

"To the town line. Did you forget you were supposed to be taking me there or something? You were taking too long to start the car again so I figured I'd probably make it there faster on foot. It's been real fun, kid, but I got things to do and people to make into puppets. Good luck with the store!" Bill called back towards them, continuing to face forward as he talked and walked away from the car.

They stared at him in disbelief, starting to reconsider his words when he was claiming himself to be some sort of demon and now saying he was reincarnated. It couldn't be possible... could it be? They glanced down at the corpses on the ground before feeling the bile start to rise and quickly covered their mouth, looking away. This was absolutely insane, all of this was insane. Why was this being thrown into their life to deal with?! They could just turn back now and run... but then they'd be letting either a crazed psychopath or a possible dream demon loose into the world. They were the ones who told him how to escape into the world and out of this town. Would that make whatever came next their responsibility? The death that he would cause, would that be on their hands?

Debating whether to flee or run after him, eventually they came to a conclusion that they needed to go after him and stop him from doing... whatever it was he was trying to do. They didn't necessarily have a plan, not like they ever had a plan doing anything in their life. They've always tended to act on impulse and right now they were doing just that as they jumped over and maneuvered their way through the corpses of animals before rushing towards the town line, hoping they weren't too late.

Bill Cipher was running off of adrenaline at this point. He ignored the pain that was coursing through his body, how his legs were screaming at him to slow it down and take it easy. He didn't care, freedom was just up ahead and he needed to make it. He was so tired of being stuck inside of a small town when there was a whole world out there to explore. Mercy already seemed to have too many similarities to Gravity Falls which was why he needed to get out as soon as possible, maybe find himself in a crowded city where everyone is annoyed with one another's presence and all you can smell is gas and smoke in the air. Or maybe he could go take a trip to the beach, be in an area where people are so relaxed and not caring for the rest of the world while their only focus is on hitting the waves and getting a good tan. He didn't know what he wanted, really. He didn't know where he wanted to go or what to take over first. All he knew was that a change of scenery was highly necessary which was why he refused to stop running now and keep moving forward until he physically couldn't anymore.

Soon Bill saw the sign that the stranger had mentioned earlier in the distance and found himself speeding up just a bit more. He laughed into the air, not caring if he was coming close to tripping on his own two feet a couple of times. He kept running towards the sign, watching as it grew closer and closer. Eventually he got so close to the point he was about to pass the sign and finally enter the outside world that he had been kept from for so long-

Only for his body to suddenly be stopped by some invisible force, slamming against it and falling backwards.

Bill instantly yelped, collapsing onto the ground and groaning in pain. He looked down at the ground for a moment before glancing up and staring ahead of him.

'No...' was the only thought crossing his mind as he forced himself off the ground to stand up again. His legs were shaking badly at this point, causing him to have trouble standing up straight. Slowly he walked towards the town line again, looking to his right to glance over at the sign that he was perfectly aligned with now before looking straight ahead. This had to be a trick of his own mind, right? Something else must've caused him to fall back. Maybe his legs had given up right at that moment, timing it perfectly to make it appear as though he had been forced back by some invisible wall.

Bill reached his hand out, slowly raising it and pushing it forward as far as he could before suddenly it felt something, something cold. It was like glass to him as he touched it while this pink light rippled off of his hand and began to spread out to reveal this invisible wall that was present before the light disappeared into nothingness.

Bill's eyes twitched upon realizing this. This couldn't be happening. Why would this be happening? He wasn't in Gravity Falls anymore so what could possibly be holding him back, trapping him inside of this town?!

"No... No, no, no, NO!" He screamed as he felt his blood begin to boil. This couldn't be happening, that was what he kept telling himself. He lifted both of his hands and began to bang on the wall he could not see, trying to break it or push through. He couldn't be trapped here, he needed to get out! This wasn't what was supposed to happen!

The stranger that had been with Bill on this journey so far had finally caught up, about to scream at him only to pause, their eyes widening as they watched Bill frantically begin to hit the air. They were so confused at that moment, narrowing their eyes to see the faint pink glow rippling off of... something. What was it? And why wasn't Bill on his way out of town, was he... stuck? ...Were they stuck?! Their breathing hitched as they considered that to be the case. Was it the case?! This had to be the strangest night of their entire lives and the worst part of it was that they knew the night was far from over. Why was this happening to them?

As Bill continued to hit the wall, shouting at it to let him pass, his body began to feel more drained. He had been using so much energy while walking around in this very weak and fragile body. His vessel could no longer stand, no longer push on to do as Bill Cipher wishes. His legs finally buckled as the demon fell to his knees, staring up with this tired, defeated expression on his face. His eyelids began to droop, his arm raising up in a weak attempt to reach out but it was shaking too much at this point while his vision started to blur. It felt like the world around him was slowing down all of a sudden when in reality it was only his own movements that were beginning to slow down and tire out.

"I-... I was s-.... so cl... ose..." were the last words that escaped from the man, his arm falling to his side before his whole torso fell over and made contact with the ground. He laid still on his side, his eyes fluttering shut and his body going completely limp.

The stranger could do nothing but stare at the sight.

Their first thought was that Bill had just died right then. A part of them wanted to do a little dance in celebration that the demon was dead and they no longer had to deal with him. But then this feeling in their chest began to grow, this feeling of guilt and concern over the fact he might actually be dead. They slowly approached the body, already feeling the sensation again of possibly puking at the idea that they were now about to approach a possible corpse... again. They already had to deal with the animal corpses, now they had to deal with a demon corpse? They got down on their knees, feeling nauseous but trying to force it down as they reached over to place their index and middle finger against Bill's neck. They waited a minute, holding their breath... until they felt the pulse which caused their body to relax. They weren't touching a corpse, that was nice to know.

They sat back, a long exhale of relief escaping. But that moment of relief was interrupted when they looked ahead and recalled Bill seeming to be hitting something like he couldn't actually leave Mercy like he had planned to. What was keeping him in? Was it... keeping the whole town in? Standing up, they cautiously began to approach where the invisible barrier had been. What if they were trapped inside? Only one way to find out. They reached their hand out, pushing it forward as they expected to hit some sort of wall like Bill had...

...Only to watch it hit nothing. They blinked, pulling their hand back towards themselves to look down at it before looking back up. Were they going crazy? They started walking forward, making it past the town line and going outside of Mercy, North Carolina, with ease. So... there really was no wall. Then why hadn't Bill left? What was stopping him from leaving? They furrowed their eyebrows as their curiosity brought them back towards Bill, bending down and moving to latch their arms underneath his armpits to lift him up. He was surprisingly really light, but they weren't going to think too much of it as they began to drag Bill over to the town line.

They were able to pass the border with ease once again, nothing stopping them. That was until they were attempting to pull Bill across and suddenly they were stopped, unable to pull him through. Their eyes widened, looking down at the limp body in their arms. They waited a moment, loosening their grip on him before tightening their hold on him once more and yanking him as hard as they possibly could. Bill's back slammed against the invisible barrier, though, which caused the pink ripple to appear and spread out across the invisible wall before it disappeared into nothing. Their jaw dropped, unable to believe what they were seeing right now.

There was some sort of barrier surrounding this town...

...and the only person who apparently was unable to leave the town was none other than the one they wanted gone the most:

Bill Cipher.

ZHOFRPH WR PHUFB

Chapter 4: Wednesday, June 15th, 2022