Sacrifice
Summary: "I'm nothing without her." / Dipper loses his sister in an abrupt zombie apocalypse. Contains dark themes, and suicide. Angsty one-shot.
A/N: Well, to start, there are a few warnings: this story contains suggestive images (blood, slight gore, not too much), and suicide. And it's very dark. This is definitely one of the sadder Gravity Falls fics. However, I hope you enjoy.
"Stay in the basment, Dipper!"
"NO! My sister is out there!"
Dipper recoils from the beaten shrieking, tormented voices richocheting around his skull, the images of the terror-stricken expressions on the faces of the citizens floating around his brain.
And the large pools of scarlet blood staining his sister's lifeless features, her silken brunette curls, and her brightly-colored knitted sweater.
"Mabel? Where are you?"
"Dipper! DIPPER, HELP!"
"MABEL!"
The screeching caterwauls begin to assemble and sprout a pounding headache in the poor boy's head. His cheeks are stained with rivers of dried tears, and his chocolate eyes remain bloodshot, slithering fingers of red protruding veins showing under the expanse of the white pallor of his orbs. Deep pools of onyx sit beneath his eyelids, revealing the heavy burden of demise and sleep deprivation.
Because he can't slumber. Not without her sleeping right next to him.
His feeble heart slowing down with exhaustion, he moves to examine himself in the mirror. He quakes at the hideous sight. A forest of bruises and blithes blanket him from head to toe, and his arm is wrapped carefully in a bulky cast that is burdensome to his daily-life-doings. And, despite all that, a thick sheen of grief and dysphoria burble beneath his pallid skin.
Thick memories lace through his bones, bristle, tendons and internal organs as they swarm to the surface and trap him under their unbearable weight.
The town was filled with them. Thin, grotesque, writhing bodies filling the square and the woods. Their rotting, colorless skin peeling and the horrifying smell wafting through the hectic town of Gravity Falls. Citizens fled for their lives, and some were haughtily reduced to a heap of blood and twitching limbs.
Dipper Pines weaved through the hysterical townspeople and decaying zombie flesh, his heart hammering deafeningly in his ears. Blood dribbled from a wound in his cheek, and he gripped the metal shovel he carried in his hands until his knuckles turned ghostly white.
A semi limb-less zombie hobbled in his way, momentarily leaving him flailing with panic swelling in his chest. Without a moment's hesitation, he wielded the shovel and swung it into its face, beheading the boorish creature and kicking it out of his path. He burst into a sprint, coordinating himself through the crowds of rushing people and looming zombies once more.
Then he saw Wendy in fierce combat with a menacing, carnal phantasma that seemed to be doing a good job of ripping out her lucious red hair like it was a large expanse of grass. Her flawless, freckled skin was obscured by plentiful cuts and bruises and blood, and fresh tears tainted her cheeks.
Dipper would've helped the poor teen if his sister wasn't on his mind. He needed to find her, before it was too late.
He let a shriek rip from his throat as a battered, destroyed body was flung in his direction. It landed with a digusting thump right in front of his shoes, and the boy recoiled briskly.
The body had shaggy, raven hair with thick layers at the top. And, even though the face and sweatshirt were both caked with crimson blood, Dipper could recognize the features anywhere. It was Robbie.
As much as Dipper didn't feel for the older teen at all, he couldn't help but to feel sorry. He took a brief moment to look over the body and brush away the wet hair clinging to its face.
He couldn't afford to reminisce any longer, and with sudden adrenaline layering him, he broke off and darted over the hillside.
"Mabel? Mabel! Where are you?!" he called desperately, eyes wild and frenzied, face contorted with brimming fear.
"DIPPER! DIPPER, HELP!"
Mabel's voice.
Dipper's heart began to pick up as much speed as a runaway train. He willed his aching bones to maneuver, and his feet thundered on the grass, kicking up blades as he dashed towards the distressed voice that was his sister's.
"Don't worry, Mabel! I'm coming!"
The need for his sister bounced through his system, creating him to run like he's never run before, causing his heart to nearly explode out of his tender chest. His bones clacked and the excruciating burning sensation in his his calves and thighs ached like nothing else; but he had to go on.
"DIP-" a voice screamed for him, but it was precipitously snipped short, and nothing followed.
Dipper's face contorted into capacious puzzlement. "Mabel?"
Just as he came up over the hillside, he analyzed a teensy body lying on the blood-stained ground. Dipper squinted, and he hoped, he hoped and hoped and hoped and hoped it wasn't who he thought it was.
A nearby zombie began to amble over to the body splayed on the ground, and its beady, fiendish eyes were thirsty for flesh. Dipper, shovel at the ready, let loose an ear-shattering battle cry and paraded down the hill towards the monster. He struck the zombie in the ribs with the tip of his shovel, causing its shabby skin to rip. It gave a shrill wail, one that will remain imbedded in his brain forever, and crumpled to the ground, mangled flesh and all.
Dipper let the shovel drop to the ground, and he bent over to vomit. Tears sprung the corners of his eyes as he continued to retch, his throat rubbing raw and the back of his eyes burning.
His eyes shifted to gaze at the butchered body next to him. His heart wrenched and seemed to plummet into an aphotic abyss, never to be seen again, as his weary eyes skimmed the body with horrified dismay.
Flowing, dirtied hair that used to shimmer in the broad daylight was splayed out like a halo around her head; her ashen skin was clotted with lakes of blood and torn skin, and her neck was twisted in an extremely disturbing fashion.
But, despite all that, Dipper realized that she still looked amazingly beautiful. Her gorgeous, delicate face turned to him, the blinding sheens of light filtering through the puffy clouds highlighting her beauty. Her usual exhilirating eyes were no more; they have slipped shut, her long dark eyelashes brushing against her blood-soaked cheeks.
Dipper felt salty tears spill over his eyelids and onto his cheeks as he dove beside her lifeless corpse, gripping onto her narrow shoulders and shaking her roughly. Violent sobs racked his body as he howled in misery.
"Mabel, come on, wake up. Come on, please. Please please please. I need you I need you I need you I need you I NEED YOU!"
His tears shed onto her skin, washing away some of the scarlet coating her gorgeous features. He cupped her face in his temoring hands and brushed away a couple strands of chocolate hair to plant a kiss on her forehead.
"I'm so sorry this had to happen to you, Mabel," he whispered against her skin, his voice choking on oppressed hiccups. "I love you."
"Mabel..."
Bland, salty tears cascad from Dipper's lifeless eyes as he regains consciousness from the horrid flashback. Curling the blankets tighter around his quaking body, he refuses to acknowledge his existance- his very core, for he knows he can take it no longer.
"...I'm nothing without you."
Dipper's heart instantly shatters, eyes blurry and swollen from the flooding of miserable tears. He can't live without his sister. They were one in the same. And, ever since her untimely demise, he felt that a live wire has been snipped clean. He wishes that he can embrace her and hold her tightly, for hours on end, and just feel her, feel her charming presence. He longs to bury his face into her silky, smooth hair and breathe in the scent of her alluring mango-pineapple conditioner. And he craves to caress her flocculent, supple skin and tell her that he'll be there for her through thick and thin, whatever the situation may be.
She was his whole life. And now that she's dead, he has nothing to live for anymore.
Dipper untangles his hips from the snug blankets accommodating him before reaching weakly for the pillow laying nonchalantly on the bed. For a few moments, he turns it over in his hands, the never-ending river of teardrops besmirching the ivory material.
It'll be painless, right? There's already a piercing agony clawing at his heart. The agony of grief, depression, and guilt. The guilt of not being quick enough to save her. He could've saved her. He could've saved her. If only he was quick enough. And now, he can't bear to stay behind in this life without her.
He inhales and exhales, slowly, but at the same time with force. His mind latches on to what he's about to transact, and tries to thwart him, but they both know that he's going to propose it anyway.
And, without a final hesitation, he presses the pillow to his face. He bashes the pillow with his fist until it catches in his throat, choking him until his breath vaporizes, and he feels the last morsels of life drain from his body.
I am nothing without her.
A/N: Lots of angst. There was some slight DipperxMabel pieced in there, which I'm happy to leave. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Oh, and before you leave, don't forget to drop a review. :)