You were shambling through the woods, clutching your side. It was hard to tell what was left and right. Your vision was blurred, blood gushing from your wounds. Just a week ago life was normal. As normal as it could get in Gravity Falls, anyway, with its gnomes and gremlins and bizarre occurrences. And then, Bill — a dream demon. Whatever the hell he was. Terrifying? That’s the best word your frazzled mind could conjure up.

You narrowly avoided a floating eye. You didn’t know what they were called. You didn’t care. All you knew was they turned people into stone, their faces frozen in expressions of eternal horror. You had seen it happen. Your dad, frozen mid-sentence, his beard petrified, a silent monument to Bill's cruelty. You had nowhere safe to go, the streets were sacked. Buildings leaned at impossible angles, crushed by unseen forces. Gravity Falls was a twisted carnival funhouse of destruction. This felt like such a historical event, a cataclysmic shift in reality, but nobody would ever know. The world outside Gravity Falls was oblivious, blissfully unaware of the nightmare unfolding within its borders.

You stumbled over a root, nearly collapsing. Your hand scraped against the rough bark of a pine tree, leaving a bloody smear.

“Well, well, well,” that voice. A smooth, lilting voice that dripped with malice, like venom coated in honey. Your head turned over your shoulder, almost inhumanly fast, propelled by a desperate surge of adrenaline. You recognized that voice. Bill Cipher, but…he wasn’t a triangle. He was… human. Or at least, appeared to be.

He strolled towards you, each step measured and deliberate. "Looking a little worse for wear, aren't we? Almost…defeated." He chuckled, a low, rumbling sound that echoed through the trees. "Such a shame. You almost made it. You almost escaped."