#sorry for the lame chess board. I got bored in the middle

[asmilethatshines]

Checkmate!

[asterkiss]

Prompt for Velvetchesire. Sort of freeform writing, I didn’t go into this with any plan and just let it write itself.

I realised all my latest works either have sadistic Mabel or Bill. I can write happy stuff, I swear! (You just might need to specifically request it).

P.S. - I haven’t proofread this yet but I wanted to post because I’m seriously so busy all the time. I’ll check for typos the next chance I get.

20) “You were right.”

- WRONG

She’d lost count of the number of times they went up against the demon over the years. Bill Cipher was like a cockroach. No matter how many times you stomped down on him, he just kept on coming back.

“Urgh, I swear… I don’t have time to deal with Bill right now, I have exams to study for!” Dipper cried, rubbing exhausted eyes as they sat on the sofa.

Mabel gave him a sympathetic look. “Sorry bro… but hey!” She grinned. “At least you’ve got me to help.”

He chuckled, unable to refuse offering a tentative smile in response.. “Yeah, that’s true.”

“And besides,” she added, scooting close besides him, “we’re gonna defeat him for good one of these times. Just you watch. Seriously, come this time in a couple of years we won’t even remember who Bill Cipher is.”

She was wrong.

.

“Jeez, don’t you ever get bored of messing with us?” Mabel snapped, glaring at him as she stood on a boat in a sea of crawling insects. Her lakeboat date with Chris Hemsworth had been going so perfect until he had to ruin it.

“Oh, I think you know the answer to that, Shooting Star~”

Mabel glowered. She’d made the mistake of falling asleep at school. Usually she and Dipper each had a dream catcher in their possession when sleeping in order to keep Bill away but due to her late nights working on art projects she’d been more forgetful lately.

“You know, I feel sorry for you,” she stated, folding her arms and trying to ignore the few creepy crawlies that had managed to get into the boat. Ew.

“Oh yeah, why’s that?”

“Because you must live a really sad and lonely life if you keep coming after me and my brother like this,” she retorted, narrowing her eyes.

Bill let out a loud laugh. “Hah! Yeah right!” Suddenly the demon was right in front of her, his large eye taking up her entire vision and bleeding red. Mabel took a step back, the boat rocking and more insects clambering into the boat and  crawling over her feet. “I’m not a pathetic human like you, kid. I don’t feel lame stuff like that. You wanna know why I’m taunting you twins?” He didn’t even give her a chance to respond before he leaned back. “Because I want to! That’s why! Bit of advice for ya, the secret to a happy life is that if you see something you want, you take it!”

He fell into cruel laughter and Mabel felt goosebumps on her arms. For a brief moment she’d thought she could apply some form human morality to him.

She was wrong.

.

Mabel frowned down at the table before her, staring at the chessboard upon it with a look of frustration. She hated chess. It was so boring! As she simmered in misery, Bill sat across from her, a cup of tea in hand and amusement in his eye.

She really needed to stop forgetting her dream catcher.

“I hate this game,” Mabel muttered eventually. “Why do I have to play this?”

“Because,” Bill replied, wagging a finger. “If you win, I promise to leave you and your brother alone forever.”

Which is why she’d agreed to this.

“But for every piece I take from you, I get to show you one of your most hated memories!”

She groaned, staring down at the stupid board and its stupid pieces.

She’d lost 10 pieces.

He’d only lost 1.

After a long while, Mabel eventually moved the horse piece after deciding it was her best bet. Bill chuckled at her move and simply took it with another of his own that she hadn’t spotted. Like clockwork a screen appeared beside them and Mabel winced as she was forced to watch her fourteen year old self get dumped and heartbroken in high school.

Tearing her eyes away as it began to play from the beginning, she looked upon the board with anger. She could feel Bill’s eye upon her as he took another sip of tea before speaking.

“You let your guard down too easy, kid.”

Mabel scoffed. “I don’t even care about Chess. It’s a stupid nerd game.”

“I wasn’t talking about the game.”

She paused, meeting his gaze.

She and Dipper had been butting heads with Bill for years since they were twelve. After Stanford’s return it became easy to defeat the demon or at least keep him at bay from complete destruction. As the years went on the threat of him had mitigated to something small and they’d come to consider him more of a pest than anything else. In fact, that was why Mabel was able to sit across from him now and play a boardgame without being terrified.

She’d thought she’d outgrown the experience of feeling genuine fear of the demon.

She was wrong.

.

“I haven’t seen Bill in a while,” Dipper mused aloud one day, turning a book over as he laid out on his bed studying more.

“Isn’t that good?”

“....I guess,” he muttered. After a moment he looked her way, a wary expression on his face. “But it just makes me worried he’s planning something. What do you think?”

Mabel thought back to the conversation with the demon a few days  prior. She hadn’t told Dipper because he was in the middle of the most important exams in his life. If she told him, he was sure to freak out.

“I think you’re being silly. Everything’s fine.”

So Mabel figured it was best not to tell him for now.

She was wrong.

.

Mabel twirled around, giggling as her dress billowed out in front of the mirror. It was her first date in a while so she was excited! Plus this dress made her boobs look huge which was always a plus.

The girl was putting on a unicorn necklace when she paused abruptly, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.

She quickly turned her head, staring out the open window into the evening dark sky.

Approaching the window, a cold breeze blew in against her skin as her eyes roamed the empty streets outside.

She could have sworn it felt like somebody was watching her.

Eventually, the teenager shrugged and resumed getting ready. She assumed it must have been her overactive imagination in wake of her excitement.

She was wrong.

.

“Why was Bill looking at you like that?” Dipper asked as the pair walked down the street, having just survived another low-key Bill event. Mabel had been worried about the demon for no reason, he was still easy to defeat. Honestly he was like a hyperactive pet at this point.

“Like what?” Mabel asked, currently eating a packet of doritos.

Dipper frowned. “I’m not sure how to describe it but... he was looking at you weirdly.” Her brother turned his head her way. “Did something happen with him?”

Mabel snorted, throwing another dorito into her mouth with an audible crunch.. “As if. Me and that evil triangle are exactly the same as we always were.”

She was wrong.

.

“You should just give up,” Mabel said, standing beside Dipper following a very brief altercation. “You’re never gonna beat us, we’re just too good.”

“You can’t even put a finger on us,” Dipper said haughtily. “What makes you think you can kill us?”

Bill blinked. “Now just what made ya think I wanted to kill you both?”

Mabel and Dipper exchanged confused looks at that.

“Because that’s what you’ve always wanted!” Dipper yelled. “When we were twelve, you said so yourself!”

“Hmmm? Oh yeah, maybe I did say something like that,” Bill agreed dismissively. “What can I say, people and demons change over time as does what we want.”

“Then what do you want?” Mabel asked, frowning in confusion.

Bill rubbed his chin - or where his chin would be - with a thoughtful hum. After a moment he snapped his finger and shot her a look. “How about a date with you, Shooting Star?”

Mabel made a disgusted noise and Dipper replies with ‘piss off’.

She figured Bill was just joking.

She was wrong.

.

She could feel his gaze on her every time they went head to toe and it became harder to ignore. She wasn’t sure what game he was playing but as she looked back over their past conversations a sinking feeling fell in her gut.

‘If you see something you want, you take it.’

‘You let your guard down too easy, kid.’

‘How about a date with you, Shooting Star?’

Except no, there was no way that was possible.

At least, she told herself that.

She was wrong.

.

“I win.”

Mabel could only stare in horror as Bill stood before her within Dipper’s body. Her brother had blood dripping down his head from the large laceration in his head and she was certain from the cracks she’d heard before that his ribs were broken.

Apparently Bill was capable of coming at them seriously when he wished.

The past years were simply him toying with them.

“Get out of him...” she whispered, face pale.

Bill - Bipper? - cut off in the cruel laughter he had been engaging in to waggle a finger in her direction. “Ah, ah, ah. If I did that, dear Pinetree would die from this ol’ head injury here. I’m the only thing keeping this body alive right now.” He approached her as he spoke, coming to a stop in front of her.

She narrowed her eyes as she gazed up at him, refusing to step back even if she was scared. “What do you want?”

A smirk as he brushed one hand along her arm. She grimaced at the sensation until he eventually slid his hand into her own, the other taking light grasp of her waist as if he were to initiate a dance. “What do you think I want?” he replied, meeting her eyes with a wry smile.

She swallowed at the tone of his voice. He moved a foot forward, guiding her into a dip that she went along with until her hair was brushing against the floor as he held her aloft parallel to it. Mabel gripped onto his shoulders tightly for balance—a bit too tightly perhaps as her nails sunk into the material.

His eyes were filled with the reflection of the despair on her face.

“Me,” she whispered.

His smile grew. “Would you look at that,” he said, eyes shining in delight.

“You were right for once.”