Triple Pines

Tyrone's Sanctuary

"So how was your trip into town today?" Melody asked me over dinner- Abulita's homemade spaghetti and meatballs.

"Great," I replied, poking at a meatball with my fork. I shot Dipper a sideways glance as I added, "and Pacifica told me to say hi to you, for her."

Dipper looked mildly surprised, "She did?"

"She did?!" Mabel exclaimed, "oooh someone's got a crush on Dipper!"

"That's ridiculous." Dipper snapped, "Pacifica and I never got along. Ever."

"What about that time when you helped get rid of that ghost? You two were alone together the entire night- maybe that's where it sparked!" Mabel suggested.

Dipper looked down at his plate and pretended to look fascinated in mindlessly twirling his fork in the spaghetti on his plate. He was done listening to us.

Mabel rolled her eyes, "He's in denial." She leaned against me and whispered, "He likes her, I can tell."

                      . . . . . . . .

We didn't have work on Sundays. With nothing to do, I grabbed my bag and the journal and headed off into the woods.

It was early morning with fresh dew settling in tiny droplets that sparkled on the plants and leaves. The smell of pine was strong enough to make my eyes water as I headed deeper and deeper in the trees. The more you walked the more the trees clustered. Once I reached somewhere in a clearing, the trees were so thick you could hardly see the sun.

My eyes followed the specks of light peaking through the branches until I found it. The statue, cast under a single light as if it were a spotlight.

I suddenly became very aware of my heavy breathing and I realized that I had no idea why I came back.

". . . hi." I mumbled awkwardly- to nothing. I was talking to nothing.

I let my bag fall on the ground and I sat cross-legged a few feet across Bill (it felt weird calling it "the statue" so I decided to call it by who it was, Bill Cipher)

Bill silently stared back at me. No reply. I was talking to myself. To nothing.

". . . so you're a demon. . . that's kinda cool. Well, besides trying to take over the universe."

Silence followed by a breeze. Still no reply. It's not like I was expecting a reply anyways.

"Ya'know, every villain has a motive. A reason why they do, er- did, bad things," a breeze blew my hair into my eyes, I didn't bother pushing the lock of hair back into place.

"But they never understood you, did they?"

Did they even try to understand?

I heaved a sigh and laid down on my back, crossing my arms over my chest and locking my fingers together like I was talking to a therapist.

"Why do I feel like this?" I mumbled mostly to myself this time, "they treat me like family. . . but I don't feel like family. What does family feel like?" I glanced at Bill, then looked down at my hands "yeah. . .I guess that's something we both have in common."

I closed my eyes and sat there in silence. I might've fallen asleep, but I can't be sure. When I woke up I decided to leaf through the journal before I headed back, it may've been my only opportunity to read it in private.

I pulled the journal from my bag and sat it on my knees. Then I remembered that the pages were practically blank from the damage of laying around in the woods for the past four years.

I opened it anyways, and as I assumed, the pages were definitely not legible, at all.

I sank lower into the grass as I quietly flipped through the pages, hoping to find something, anything that was left for me to read.

The next page caught my eye.

On that page was what looked to be a freshly written passage, something written in almost blood-red ink. It wasn't English, or any language that I'd ever seen. Was it like those codes Dipper used to be obsessed over?

But why was the passage in perfect condition while the rest of the pages were in danger of breaking free of the binding?

"Can you read it?" I asked, showing Bill the page,

"Yeah, me neither."