Hello again! My wifi is out!! I typed all of this on the notes app on my phone and I don't even think it will post!
If you're seeing this, then it worked!

~~~~~~~~~~

Short Recap:

The lights flip back on, and Bill disappears before he can scream another word.

"Ford!!" I immediately jump up and grab his arm, even though he's holding the device way too high up for me to reach. "Let him have her!! Please!"

"His daughter.." Ford isn't listening to me as he smiles. "I finally have something over Bill's head!"

"Ford-- you can't taunt him with his own daughter!" He picks me up and places me on the floor.

"You have no idea how angry he'll get!" Mabel protests with me. "He'll kill you!"

"Both of you. Upstairs. Now." He points.

"But-!" Mabel protests

"Now! And don't you ever try to pull anything like that again!!" He yells.

We both look at each other, then slowly walk back upstairs to the attic.

Although Ford couldn't tell, we were both already thinking of new plans.

- - -

And those new plans slowly came together and we tried each one, and each attempt to get the remote back from Ford failed.

We kept this up for a total of about five hours, however each of our attempts became shorter and shorter and Ford and Stan stopped us faster and faster. By the end of our seventh attempt, the two just made us sit on the table in the kitchen while Ford watched us, with the remote that controls the barrier blocking Bill hidden away

At first he asked us questions about school and how we had been and how our life was. While at first neither of us were in the mood to talk, Mabel gave in and eventually started talking to him. We had only recently met him, and he was supposedly a relative of some kind, and Mabel is kind by nature, so I suppose it makes sense that she'd pity him
Meanwhile I was listening carefully around myself, for any distraction from Ford's attempts to talk to me

In the other room, I'm able to hear Stan's phone conversation, though it's very quiet through the wall. "Hello??"
From the other side of the conversation, all hear is panicked gibberish.
"Ah right, hello- I thought I'd be getting a call from you soon..."
More panicked gibberish
"Listen listen, They're here, I think the bus broke down and they hitched a ride back here.. Or walked or someth--"
He pauses to listen to the other person. "Oh.. Well... in that case, no I have no idea how they....." He pokes his head into the room. "Dipper, Mabel, Come here."

I look at my sister, and she shrugs. We both hop off of the kitchen table and walk into the living room, Ford following us.
Mabel takes the cordless phone from Stan and holds it to her ear. "Hello...? Mom! Hi! Hello! How are you??"
She pauses to listen while Stan drags Ford over to the other side of the room near the TV.
"Yeah, yeah we're fine, Dipper and I are both here at the shack... Yeah... It's good to head that you're safe with Stan too..." she facepalms. "I mean it's good to hear from you!" She corrects herself. "Uhh... How did we get back to the shack... Wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll..." She holds out the word for way too long as she tries to think of a good lie, but lucky for her, our mother is just happy to know that we're safe and lets it go.
"-is no possible way they were able to make it back here in time." Ford sounds frustrated.
In hindsight..... Maybe I was paying attention to the wrong conversation in the room......

"You're sure?" Stan asks

"If they showed up here anywhere around the time you said they did, then yes, there's no possible way they could have left for home yesterday, arrived there, and then made it back here at the time we saw them....." he pauses. "Even if they arrived right now-- that still wouldn't add up! It's not enough time for them to get from there to here!"

"Really...? Then how...?" He pauses. "It might've been Amanda...." he pauses.

"Amanda....? The demon girl..?" Ford blinks

"Yeah.. Admittedly I spend some time with her when she was with the twins... Though I had no idea she was related to the same demon that sent you away for 30 years...." He sighs

"I need you to tell me everything you know about her!! I need some kind of way to enhance this advantage over Bill! Any information you have would be very appreciated!" Ford smiles. "I tried to ask the twins, but Mabel wouldn't even tell me...." he pauses, then sighs. "I don't think Dipper likes me very much... In fact I'd even say he hates me..."

"Well, you did kind of lock up one of his closest friends and are currently using her as bait against some weird fire guy, which is kinda cruel...." he pauses when he sees Ford's slight annoyance. "Which I know you're doing for good reasons, you're almost always more knowledgeable than me on every subject so I think you're making the right call on this whole situation... Though treating Amanda like she's an organism under a microscope seems a bit far for my tastes..." he admits

"I'm only keeping her in one contained place until I can determine that she can be trusted!"

"Yes but I think she can be! She has feelings and I don't think it's right that we're caging her up!"

"But she's a mind demon! Mind. DEMON. Listen to that name and tell me that doesn't sound dangerous!"

The argument continues as Mabel hangs up.

"Come on!" I whisper, pointing to the gift shop door.

"We don't know the code to the vending machine! or the code to the elevator! Or--"

I interrupt my sister's confused whispers. "We know how to break things and how to climb downwards-- come on! We tried to get the remote to free Bill-- now let's try to free Amanda."

Mabel pauses, then nods.
We both quietly sneak to the gift shop door, while Stan and Ford's argument has gone to a much more personal and harsh.

"They don't seem to like each other very much..." Mabel frowns.

I nod my head in agreement and make my way to the vending machine, Mabel following

"Alright... we've got to be as destructive and as quick as possible..... But we also have to be as quiet as possible.." I whisper

"... Dipper... Dipper that's impossible." Mabel whispers. "Dipper that sounds like a really stupid idea....."

"I know!" I sigh in frustration, then continue. "On three, okay..?"

"One.." I quietly pick up a stool and prepare to throw it at the vending machine.

"Two..." Mabel prepares her weapon of choice, a-- where on earth did she get that crowbar from?! 

Mabel takes a deep breath. Th-!"
A door is kicked open.

"Yo! Stan! Can I just chill on the roof or something?? I'm here waaaay early for my shift since I--" Wendy looks up at us with a spare key to the shack in her hand and a school backpack strapped to her shoulder. "Skipped class..." she blinks. "How and why are you here??" She's confused. "And what are you doing with that-- where did you find a crowbar?!"

Stan and Ford quickly burst into the room from the living room.

"And who is that?!" Wendy points to Ford. "Why do you both look that same--?! ...What on Earth did I miss while I was in my first three classes?!"

Ford grabs the crowbar that Mabel has and tries to get it away from her but she doesn't give up

"Are you guys really that hungry for probably-stale candy?? Smashing into the vending machine using a wood stool really isn't necessary you know.."

I look at Ford, who is still wrestling to get the crowbar from Mabel's hands, then I turn to Stan, who is currently walking toward me

"You guys...?" Wendy blinks.

"Catch!" I throw the lightweight stool at Stan and he quickly catches it.

I quickly sprint to the door, grabbing Wendy's spare key from her hand as I zip past her and away from Ford.
As I run out the main door and exit the Shack, I slam the door behind me and jam Wendy's key in the lock, preventing anyone from the other side to open it unless they come out of another door and walk around to fix this one.
I quickly turn around and start sprinting away from the Shack and toward the woods, where I know a very angry mind demon will be waiting for me.