Dipper Pines was a dream demon now.

That was the best solution he could come up with for the strange things which kept happening to him. First, he'd woken up outside outside of his own body in the night, while he slept. He found whenever he tried to jump back into it, he woke up. Telling no one, not even Mabel, to his own surprise, he experimented with the phenomenon. He remembered being distinctly wary. The dreamscape was Bill's domain. What if he wasn't really dead? What if he was waiting for vengeance? Nothing of the sort occurred; Dipper found he could walk around the Mystery Shack unseen and unheard as if he didn't exist, so long as his body was sound asleep.

He glanced down at his fingers. They still looked human. The creases and pores remained. He wasn't some ghastly triangle, or any other geometric shape. Above all he was thankful for, he wasn't Bill Cipher. Whatever happened to him the week previous hadn't made him a monster. He was Dipper, the brainiac boy, the nerdy twin. He didn't want this. If he knew how he'd get rid of the powers. He hadn't done much else besides roaming and watching other peoples' dreams—he was afraid to.

Dipper soaked in the rain. Stan had an opened umbrella above their heads; he didn't speak. Dipper didn't know what he expected his great uncle to say, anyway.

He breathed in deep—he didn't really want to be out here, but then again, it was too stuffy inside. The bus would be here soon. He wondered if all demons could feel uncomfortable or if he was a special case. Cipher was always the very picture of whimsical terror, he never seemed to feel the world around him at all. He existed in dreams—and those could be manipulated at will. He wondered if there were other demons out there. Bill was a dream demon—did that mean there were more out there, of different types? It seemed like a no-brainer, but no one could tell for sure in a town like Gravity Falls. He swallowed a knot in his throat, which had a suspicious burning; tears forming? The summer was over, he was going home. Autumn was arriving, the leaves just beginning to brown. His belongings leaned against his leg in stickered suitcases.

His twin stood beside him, for someone like her, she was eerily silent. She had taken special time the day before and this morning to travel around the whole town and say goodbye to everyone she knew, and everyone she didn't, though it was hard not to know everybody in Gravity Falls when you lived there for any amount of time. Dipper was determined to ask his parents to send them back here next summer, if they didn't, he may have to behave out of character and throw a fit. It was that important to him. He was sure Mabel would do the same, they hadn't talked about it, but it was obvious to him. Where else would they go? Gravity Falls wormed its way—a little bit like a wrecking ball—into their hearts, he'd never forget it. In the back of his mind a voice whispered, Grunkle Stan won't live forever, and other things like, He's getting older with every passing day; he ignored them with determination.

Stan was right there, but surely the guy would understand if Dipper had to talk to Mabel...

"Mabel, uh, there's something I wanna tell you..."

"Do you mind if I try guessing?"

He cut off his sigh. He couldn't deny her her games. They were what made her Mabel Pines, "No, I don't mind."

"Is it your sleepwalking?"

It took him a moment to register what she'd said.

"What do you mean?!"

"I watch you get up in the middle of the night, no one else ever notices. I tried following you once," she confessed.

He gaped.

"Sleepwalking?" Grunkle Stan spoke up, "I haven't noticed anything like that, and I stay up until unholy hours of the night!"

He was lying. There were some nights he stayed up later than usual—but he normally grew tired and went to sleep not long after Dipper and Mabel. Had to keep up the sleazy image, Dipper supposed.

"Uh...it doesn't happen every night..." he said.

It did.

He thought Mabel would contradict him; she didn't.

Dipper didn't meet his grunkle's eyes, "I'll just ask my dad for sleeping pills..."

He could feel Stan's gaze on him, "Sounds like a plan, kid."