Chapter 6: With Odds Like These

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Tip: lots of references to the gravity falls comic in this chapter, as one of the stories has a destination called the Crawlspace, which is important for this chapter. Basically in the comic (for those who haven't read it) Dipper and Pacifica have to save Mabel, whose face was taken by a demon after Pacifica summoned it to get rid of a wrinkle on her face. They follow it to the Crawlspace, a place where all the creatures gather to buy and sell stuff. That's all you need to know, really.
The comic is available online if you still want to read it.

"And to think I was defeated by someone like you! HAHA!"

Dipper jumped, staring around. He was in the white space again, but this time cracks grew across the world as if it were made of glass.

"At least tell me this, Pine Tree!"

He jumped, flinching violently at the nickname. The world flickered, and in a blink of an eye it was doused in a red light. Trembling, Dipper looked up. His mouth parted in a silent scream at the sight of a blazing eye staring back at him.

"DID YOU MISS ME?!"

~

"Dude!"

Dipper yelled, startling himself awake. He sat up abruptly and gulped in the cold air around him. It took him a moment to readjust, only seeing glaring red eyes in his vision.

"Bill – " he stuttered, feeling his body tremble at the mere thought of the demon. He raked a hand through his hair, trying to distinguish what was dream and what was real.

Once again, he reminded himself that Bill was dead, gone forever, wiped out of existence – his nightmare begged to differ, however. He was tense, sweat beading at his brow.

Bill was gone, never to return – he repeated this thought until he was interrupted again by a gruff voice.

"You with me dude?"

Dipper looked up sharply. He relaxed at the sight of Hank leaning over to him, a little too close for his liking. He noticed dully that bandages and painkillers were being pushed in his hand, but he ignored it.

"Still...here?" Dipper breathed. Hank nodded, sounding a little confused.

"Yeah. Where else would you be?" He moved away from Dipper, giving him the space he needed. "You were tossin' in your sleep right there and I figured you would like me to wake ya up. Besides, I don't know where you wanna go."

Dipper noticed that the engine of the van had been turned off – they were floating in space until Dipper chose to move.

"Thanks." Now coming to his senses, he gestured to the first aid materials in his hand. Hank waved him off.

"You'd be surprised with the amount of things that come in here beat up like you." He answered lightly.

Dipper pulled off his jacket, feeling his heart begin to calm. As he began work on the many wounds he had acquired (he reminded himself to thank Pacifica for the first aid training she had taught him if he ever returned), he tried to push the nightmare away from his mind.

He supposed, as he had done last time, that it really was due to the fact that he had missed his dosages of medication. Grimly, he recalled a time where he was far younger, waking up from similar night terrors. Back then he had also thought they were real, and needed hours of convincing from Mabel that they were indeed his trauma alone.

Dipper was pulled out of his thoughts as his ankle wound gave a painful stab as he began to dress it. Thankfully, it was a close graze. No bullet to remove, which was good. Probably needed stitches, but he did not have the resources and time to do so. He could only prevent infection for the time being.

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