Mabel felt like she had been hit by a bus. She cracked an eyelid open, brain completely blank except for a mounting feeling like somebody had betrayed her. Aric's face swam into view. She blinked until it came into focus. He gave her a small smile.
"Glad to see you're awake."
"That makes one of us." She slowly sat up, accepting one of Aric's offered helping hands. He gently tugged her into some semblance of verticality.
"Seriously, you've been asleep for two whole days. I was getting worried."
Well, that explained the gnawing feeling in her stomach. She glanced at the refrigerator as her mouth filled with saliva. She blinked at it a few times. Aric caught the hint and stood to grab her a sandwich or something.
Memories flooded her frontal lobe, visions of fighting and carnage popping up so fiercely that she almost had to lay down again. That last thing she saw was Pacifica's face, apologetic and guilty.
"Where's Dipper?" A plate crashed to the floor across the room. She didn't bother to look over. Aric cursed and fussed for a few minutes, avoiding her question. She knew what that meant, but she didn't want to believe it. Icy fear dripped down the back of her throat and into her empty gut.
"She killed him."
Aric was silent for a while. Mabel clenched her hands into fists, glittery fingernails digging into her palms. She had trusted Pacifica. Dipper was all she had.
Now it was just her. And Aric. Wait….
"You didn't stop her."
"Mabel, there was nothing I could do."
"You're an elemental, Aric, there was plenty you could have done." Tears spilled over her cheeks. The brunette furiously wiped them away. Aric opened the fridge again, then his quiet footsteps padded over to the pile of blankets on the floor. Where Dipper had been staying before he died. She threw the blankets off, scrambling to get away, to go somewhere he hadn't lived. Everything smelled like the shampoo he used. Aric caught her arm, steadying her before she fell over backwards in her desperate scramble.
"Don't touch me!" Her voice cracked. Fat tears escaped her dripping hands and plopped onto the floor.
"I'm sorry, Mabel."
"No you're not! You let him-" A sob choked out the rest of her words. Another one kept her from trying to speak again. She just stood and cried, alone even though Aric was standing right next to her. Alone because her brother would never be able to comfort her again. Her chest felt like it was on fire. When she was reduced to nothing but hiccups and stale air, Mabel tried speaking again.
"Where is she?"
Aric shrugged. The brunette wiped her eyes with her wet sleeve.
"I know you know. Where is Pacifica?"
"See, I don't know. She left after the battle and I've been in this cave tending to you ever since. I was too weak after being ripped in fucking half to be able to do anything about anything. If she hadn't been there, we would have all died."
"So you're saying that killing Dipper was the right choice."
"What the fuck, Mabel."
"You're saying that if she hadn't murdered my brother we would all be dead."
"To be entirely honest, yes. I don't know if there was a better option, we didn't really have time to look into it. But you're sad and upset, I get that. It's not my fault, though. There was literally nothing I could do."
She took the sandwich he was holding, and glared right into his buttery yellow eyes.
"Fuck you." A more rational part of her brain told her that she had been asleep for the whole thing and that it wasn't fair to blame Aric in place of herself. She angrily told herself to shut the fuck up.
"Mabel, please-"
"I don't want to hear it!" Her voice was cracking again. She had a death grip on the sandwich. Her guts twisted and roiled in agony. Aric curled into himself, his strong arms wrapping around his torso like he was expecting her to hurt him. She shook her head and backed away.
"I don't want to live in a world without my brother…" She turned and ran blindly from the room, bumping into the walls of the corridor that led to the outside world. Small cuts stung her skin as she sprinted into the night air. Breathing was hard. Staying vertical was hard. She tripped over a tree root and curled up on the ground, cradling the sandwich to her chest.
What was she supposed to do now?