Phantom Falls

16: Killed

The above artwork does not belong to me. Seriously, it's so hard to find a picture of the shapeshifter!

Something was wrong.

This wasn't Gravity Falls. It wasn't even earth. No, the shifter thought, this is a different dimension.

Mesmerizing swirls of green faded in and out, reminding it of the halfa's fearful eyes. Its lips curled in a sneer. But soon enough it was distracted again by the doors leading to nowhere and everywhere, to the vastness of the nothing.

The entire place seemed enigmatic, mysterious. Impossible, even. It wasn't right.

Something seemed to tug at the shifter's conscious. It followed the impulse to move, to find whatever was calling it. There was nothing better to do.

It floated along, not feeling the need to change shape. A few green, glowing entities looked at it strangely, but it ignored them. They were just dead people. Just ghosts. Who cared what they thought?

Finally, it sensed one of its masters. Bill couldn't come here, but the other one could. In fact, the presence hardly left the Ghost Zone.

Hello, bug, its master sneered. How are you liking the new shape?

What was he talking about?

Suddenly, the memory came back in a flash.

Being terrified. Bill laughing as the shifter's body was destroyed. Its conscious feeling dangerously loose and free, able to dissipate at any moment. Its ghost, appearing in some strange dimension.

Its muscles clenched in anger. "You could be of much more use to us in a new form," Bill had told it in a dream.

"What form? I shall take it, masters," it had promised.

The triangle laughed. "Dead!" He tore its mind from its body and commanded the septem tigris to shred the corpse. It screamed as the beast tore into it.

"And don't forget, you're bound to us forever!" Bill had cackled.

Now, the ghost shifter growled. "You never said that you were going to kill me, master."

It couldn't see its master, but it imagined that he shrugged. We needed a loyal ghost. All of the others refuse to work for us. Besides, being dead is better than being frozen for all eternity, eh?

If only it hadn't pledged itself to Bill and the presence. How foolish of it! Yet what else could it have done? The two had freed it, brought it back to take its revenge. Could it still do that as a ghost?

"How did you know that I wouldn't just die? Not everything becomes a ghost." It hoped for an honest answer.

The presence chuckled. You want to get Dipper back for what he did, don't you? More than anything. We figured that guarenteed a haunting.

The shifter knew it had really been a gamble, and the way it had died had been horrible. Yet it had to make the best of this.

We have a job for you, bug. Now that you're dead, you've gained some new abilites. Intangibility, invisibility, all of those. And then there's the important one: overshadowing.

What was that, some form of possession? If so, why did they need it to posses anyone? They had Bill, didn't they?

As if he could sense the shifter's confusion, its master chuckled.

Overshadowing isn't possesion. Bill planned on getting someone close to Daniel, but they refused the deal. Now we have one option.

He seemed to sigh. Possession forces the spirit to leave the body completely, giving the possessor complete control. When one is overshadowed, however, their conscious is simply forced down to allow for a ghost's entry. This does not require the person to agree to it; that is the advantage. But the mind is still there. It can still fight back. That is why we cannot overshadow the halfa. He's too powerful. I could have done it, once, but now . . .

He left it at that, prompting the shifter to finally ask, "Master, could I not have just taken their form? You didn't have to kill me to--"

No, he interrupted, we need the real body, to kidnap them, as well. We can't kill them; we need them for ransom. Also, you may be able to look into their mind, see how they normally act. It will be easier to evade suspicion that way.

Still, the creature wasn't satisfied. Its death could have been avoided. Yet there it was, glowing as it floated in the Ghost Zone. It had no body to go back to, now.

Slowly, it took a deep breath. "Fine, master. Who shall I overshadow?"

It could tell that the presence was grinning, even if it couldn't see him. Well, it just so happens that they're asleep at the moment. I'll tell you where you can find them.

Half an hour later, it morphed into a ghostly cat and scampered through a window. It slipped into the new body with surprising ease.

Honestly, it was happy to finally be in control of something.

Okay, so I'm a mean, terrible person for putting up a  shapeshifter chapter. I can definitely tell you, though, you will find out what happens with Danny in the next chapter.

Oh, poor, poor Danny . . . He won't like what Bill and the mysterious voice are planning for him and the others. . .