Dipper swung his legs over his bed and stretched, yawning and rubbing his eyes.

Sitting at the edge of his bed, the young boy remembered last night. It was somewhat blurry, but Mabel's voice flooded back to him.

"Dip, has Bill messed around with you at all?"

That one question.

Last night, Dipper had been wide awake and he hadn't planned on falling asleep again.

But when his sister had asked that question, he slowly felt his consciousness slipping away.

What was the feeling...?

Okay, it was like his soul had been getting tugged from his body, but not quite. Not quite, because he could still breathe fine, he could move his limbs, he just felt asleep while he was awake.

This was getting strange.

Dipper looked over at Mabel's bed where his sister was sleeping peacefully and he headed downstairs to watch some television on a Saturday morning.

Hopping onto the couch, the boy looked around for the remote. He reached under the pillow cushion, grasping it and pulling it out, then immediately dropping it onto the floor with a loud thud.

Stan and Ford were at the table in the other room and they looked over at Dipper through the doorway when he dropped it.

Reassuring them with a grin, Dipper grabbed the remote again and looked back down at it.

He was loosing it.

There had just been a bright yellow triangle right in the center of the device.

But, of course, there wasn't anymore.

He turned the TV on and flickered through channels. All of them seemed staticky this morning and Dipper couldn't get a clear signal. Of course, his uncles didn't notice and kept eating breakfast, but Dipper forced himself to stand up and fix the wires on top of the television.

Situating them in a certain position, still nothing showed on the screen, but the static noise went away completely, only to be replaced by:

"Heya, Pine Tree!"

Dipper leapt backwards, nearly knocking the TV over in his haste.

Ford's head snapped up immediately and he stared at the wall behind his brother's head. Stan paid no attention and probably didn't even hear it.

Nothing was on the television screen. It was a dull, flashing grey.

Dipper was now bright pale from his position on the floor. He gulped. His heart was thumping and his fearful eyes flicked up to the TV again. "Y-yeah...?"

No reply.

Ford was frozen, burning a hole in the wall with his eyes.

Dipper reached forward and slowly flicked the knob, the channel changing and appearing to work perfectly fine.

"Girl, you ackin' cray-cray!" The television woman blabbered.

Dipper stood up, brushing himself off and abandoning the chair in front of the haunting electronic.

He didn't feel like watching television anymore.

~~~~~~~

Ford stomped upstairs, holding the handrail as he whisked by.

The older man walked briskly into the attic, which was now deserted as Mabel had gone to use the bathroom and Dipper having breakfast downstairs.

Stanford began rummaging through Dipper's side of the room, looking for any signs of the nefarious Bill Cipher.

The author got down on his hands and knees and swept his hand under Dipper's bed, just finding a bunch of useless crumpled papers and broken pens.

Then, something caught his eye.

Ford looked down on a small, lone piece of paper that lay neatly on the ground. On one side, he could notice elegant script.

He grasped the note and crouched back into the light.

"Beware the quickly sinking sand,
You must be careful where you stand."

••••••••••••••••••

Uhhhhhhhhh... This was a fun chapter, huh?
I swear, I literally wrote this in a corner. I've been naughty. Sorry, Santa.