So here's the deal.
I was thinking about Gravity Falls theories this weekend.
And I thought a lot about how Alex said there was going to be a huge cliffhanger at the end of season one.
Then I started thinking about Dipper, and about symbolism.
And I came up with the idea that Dipper is going to sacrifice himself. Because it would make a good cliffhanger, and because he is a sacrificial lamb.
Lambs are a thing he is referenced with a lot.
But the question remains why he would sacrifice himself, and who for? The obvious route is Mabel, but how used to that are we?
I started thinking about Wendy, wondering why Wendy would be in danger, and that brought me to the other theory I'm fond of-where Robbie is a zombie.
This fanfiction was actually very hard for me to write because I don't like depicting Robbie as a bad guy. All the reviews I get say things like 'you made me feel sympathy for Robbie!' or 'Oh man, it's like your write Robbie to be a good dude!' and while I appreciate the reviews, they infuriate me a little.
Why wouldn't you feel sorry for Robbie? All he is trying to do is date a girl his own age and some 12 year old who just pops up one summer insists on being Captain Cockblock and constantly humiliating him in front of her.
So, yeah, it was hard depicting him as an antagonist. Because he isn't an antagonist. He's a stupid hormonal teenage boy.
And even as a zombie, I like to make him a victim who fell ass-backwards into being undead.
So there's my little speel, this is one of the ways I'd like to see season 1's finale go down, albeit a little Disney'd up, haha.
Enjoy!
It always began with the new moon.
The sky was a dark blanket as it hung over the forest that covered most of Gravity Falls, the moon that so often guarded over the forest and all its creatures retiring from the open heavens.
Yeah. It always started with that unsettling blackness, not a light in sight across the mountainous terrain. And it was quiet, dreadfully quiet, a quiet that chilled the observer to the bone and made them wonder why not even the owls were hooting, or the raccoons scavenging.
And then the scream came, and suddenly, you long for that silence to come back.
There's two shadows running through the blackened forest, that much is always evident. No defining characteristics, other than the one running away in terror is bleeding profusely from their arm. It spills from their limbs as they pant and scramble through the fallen fir on the loose soil-kicking rocks and pine cones and desperately fleeing from some terrible force, a shrill scream echoing through the trees and bouncing against the mountaintops.
Oh, yeah, and the first shadow is female.
The second is always hot on her trail, snarling and hunched over in a contorted, predatory stance. He drools and growls and chases her with glowing green eyes. She keeps staring back into the night, praying that she won't see those tiny chartreuse headlights blinking as they bob up and down in pursuit of her. The shadow never falters, even when the girl climbs to the trees and jumps across the branches like she was born to do it.
She's lost in a mess of pine needles, but only stops when she loses her foothold and tumbles to the forest floor. She hears an apprehensive crack, but stumbles to her feet regardless, something more than fear driving her through the wood. Limping and bloody, she's gazing down at the water, backed up against a fallen tree at the cliff's edge. As the shadowed beast bares his fangs, she lets out another horrified scream, her voice muffled by the gurgle of blood completely suffocating her when his fangs penetrate the pale flesh of her neck.
Dipper awoke in a cold sweat, his shoulders trembling and entire frame shaking as he gasped for air. The boy's fingernails ached with a dull pinch, and he stared knowingly at the bunched up sheets where his hands had been clawing. This was real life, now, got it, he made a mental note of his twin sister sleeping soundly on her bed with her pig next to her as he snapped back to existence. Dipper slicked a handful of greasy hair away from his soaked forehead and stared precariously at the open window, hoping some miraculous breeze would drift through it and melt away his nausea. Nothing came, and he stumbled to the tiny bathroom, collapsing on the floor and hugging the porcelain bowl like a long-lost friend.
As soon as his hands touched the seat he lost what little food was in his stomach, retching until the only thing that came out was acid and a liquid personification of his preteen anxiety. The boy panted, miserable and shaking and cold, and rested his flushed cheeks against the cold material as he sniffled in a poor attempt to clear his sinuses of held-back tears and sour acid. He shut his eyes and drifted away for a moment, but was immediately shuddered awake at the feeling of a hand rubbing circles into his back.
Dipper's eyes weakly opened, half-lidded, and a pleasantly cold glass of water was pressed lightly to his lips.
"Drink up, Broseidon," A metal-clad grin ordered.
He nodded woozily and complied, his voice a dull whisper when it came out. "Sorry about that, Mabel, I didn't mean to wake you."
"Shut up, goofball," She rolled her eyes at his statement, enthusiastic grin turning into a worried, near-maternal expression as she peppered him with inquiries. "Are you alright, Dipper? What's up, are you sick? You look like you got a fever..."
The boy sniffed again, rubbing his tired eyes and looking at his sister. "I'm fine."
"Nuh-uh! I can smell your vomit-covered lies from a mile away, genius, now fess up and tell Dr. Mabel what's going on."
"Do you ever have a dream that just kind of rubs you the wrong way?"
She tilted her head. "You mean like a premonition?"
"Yeah, exactly!" He livened up, his eyes glinting as they always did when something strange happened around town. "I keep having this nightmare, and I don't understand why it feels so foreboding... it doesn't make any sense, it just seems like a typical night terror... but I have it every single night, and each time it feels less and less okay."
"What's it like? You wanna talk about it?"
He shook his head. "Not much to say, Mabel. It's just a girl, running through the forest on a new moon, and this creature I can't see is chasing her... and it attacks her, and I just feel so... terrible. Like I should be saving her. Is that weird? I mean, wanting to save someone who doesn't exist?"
"Haaa," She laughed. "Typical, even in your dreams you're trying to be all chivalrous and brave!"
"I'm serious, though!" He interjected. "I feel so scared and helpless just watching her die like that... you're right, it is silly, but I just... I don't know, It's stressing me out enough to make myself sick, so it must be important, right?"
"Important or not, it's 3 am, you are sick, and we're getting you back to bed." She stood up, taking his hand, and yanking him up off the cold tile floor.
Mabel pulled him back to their room, opened the window just a tiny bit more, and pulled the sheets back onto her brother's bed. He climbed under them, curling up and trying to forget, but that scream stayed in the back of his mind and he felt chills run down his spine once again. Mabel turned to her own bed and grabbed a couple stray stuffed animals.
"Sorry, Waddles!" She kissed her pet pig/closest friend on the snout as she whispered. "I can't sleep over here tonight, got important stuff to take care of."
And with that, she cannonballed into Dipper's bed, wrapping her arms around him and holding him close for the first time since they were toddlers.
The boy buried his face in his sister's shoulders, memories of home and childhood and an undying feeling of complete safety washing over him. He breathed a sigh of relief, and let himself drift off.
"Thanks, Mabel."
"Anytime."
Dipper fell into a dreamless, peaceful sleep.
o0o0o0o0o
The clock struck six and Wendy unclipped her nametag and pushed through the Shack's creaky door. The sound of loud music resonated from the T-Van and she enthusiastically knocked on the window, the faces inside brightening up as she entered the luxurious vehicle.
"How goes it, Wendy?" Nate asked as she tumbled into the seat next to him.
"Same old," She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking around the van. "No Robbie, again?"
Nate shook his head, and Lee peered over the seat in response. "Dude's been out forever. He's not answering his calls or anything."
"I'm kinda getting worried..." Resonated Thompson as he revved the engine. "It's like him to disappear, but not for this long."
Wendy looked out the window at the barely setting sun, a small pang of worry infecting her chest and making her shuffle in her seat. The trees danced across the windows as shadows slowly shifted and she got lost in the sound of Tambry's fingers hitting the keypad of her phone in the seat behind her, and the soundtrack of an unnamed radio station fading into static.
"Yo, Thompson," She suddenly ordered. "Drop me off at the mansion up the Mountain Loop."
"You're not coming with us into town?" He asked, slightly dismayed.
She shook her head. "I'm gonna go check on Robbie."
Lee and Nate made some 'oooooh!' noises but were quickly shut up by Wendy's glare.
"Shut up, guys, I'm actually really worried about him. Dude's my boyfriend."
"Fiiine," They rolled their eyes in synchronization like they so often did as Thompson exited onto the mountain and into the forest. He pulled up to the large white doors, and Wendy almost immediately sprung out onto the dirt. She ran up to the mansion, flashed a thumbs up at her friends, and watched them zoom away down the gravel road.
Taking off her hat and scratching the back of her head, Wendy breathed a sigh of relief and knocked on the large pearl coloured doors.
o0o0o0o0o
Dipper Pines lay awake in bed, eyes drooping with lack of sleep but pinned open just barely as he sucked every possible inch of knowledge out of the dirty tome he spent so many of his days reading. He looked for something, anything that could provide some insight as to the people he was seeing in his dreams, or at least the creature. He was sure he had read it thousands of times over now. He'd seen ghosts, psychics, gnomes, even dinosaurs but none of the likenesses seemed to match up with the beast stalking the damsel in his dreams. He'd admit, she wasn't totally a damsel, jumping so proficiently through the trees like that, running and holding her own, but he still considered her someone he needed to save, even if it felt crazy for even insinuating that this dream was anything more than that.
His eyes fell again to his sister, asleep on the floor in a neon-blue turtleneck, her pig nestled up and softly snoring next to her. He lightly jumped off his bed and pulled a blanket over her as she clawed playfully at the floor like a sleeping animal. Dipper grinned, and went back to his reading while he nervously chewed on the eraser of his pencil.
He was frustrated beyond all belief at how vague his pseudo-premonition had to be. There was nothing to work with, he was screwed, and he knew it. Sighing, he flipped to the front of the book again, burying his face into the pages and re-reading the words he'd nearly memorized on the first night of having them. It was hopeless and he felt like shit, but suddenly he was too tired to care.
The young boy's eyes finally dropped shut and he fell asleep, cuddling the lexicon like it was a big stuffed toy.
o0o0o0o0o
There was a long pause as Wendy lounged outside the massive mansion, still a tad worried when no one answered the door. Curious, she peered over the railing to Robbie's massive garage and noticed that his grandparents' cars weren't parked, but almost immediately perked up when she saw that his big dumb purple shaggin' wagon was where it always was. Slightly more motivated at the prospect of him being home, she didn't hesitate to climb her way to the first open window she could find and push herself in.
Her feet touched expensive, perfectly-laundered carpet and she dusted herself off, grinning an accomplished grin. "Robbie!" She called out. "Hey, Robbie, I know you're here!"
When no response came, she crossed her arms and made her way up the dumb cliche winding staircase where she knew his room was. She yawned slightly, wondering when it had gotten so late, and knocked rhythmically on a door that brandished a big sharpied sign only reading "get lost."
"Dude, you in here?" She pushed open the door, looking around and content with the invasion of privacy as there really wasn't any boundaries between her and her friends, let alone the guy she was dating.
She found him curled up in a corner, hoodie adorning his head (as always) and trembling slighty. Her heart dropped, and suddenly she felt very wrong about being here.
"Robbie?" She took an uncharacteristically timid step forward.
"S-Stay back!" She heard his dull rasp of a voice choke out, coated in a terrified octave.
Unconvinced, she walked closer, placing a cautious hand on the teen's shaking shoulder. "Hey, are you alright?"
Robbie whipped his head around, his eyes an unnaturally luminous shade of green as he hissed at Wendy. "DON'T TOUCH ME!"
Not seconds after the outburst he moaned in pain, falling momentarily faint as Wendy's strong arms kept him from crashing to the floor. He opened his eyes-blue again, like she was used to seeing-and gazed at her with a helpless look. Wendy could feel him barely breathing, his face far more sickly pale than she'd ever seen, hair stuck to his sweating forehead, his entire frame still shaken with tremors.
"You idiot," She scolded. "Is this where you've been? Why didn't you tell anyone you were so ill?"
"M'not ill..." He mumbled through clenched teeth. "Just... really... urgh!"
He clenched his eyes shut, an obvious bout of pain eating away at him, and Wendy took the time to worriedly brush his bangs away from his face. He jolted, eyes snapping open, the same unearthly glow he had bared before, and when he spoke, it was in a low hiss that made all the colour drain from Wendy's face.
"Hungry..."
Wendy had no time to blink before the limp boy in her arms leapt to his feet, a predatory gaze completely engulfing what little sanity he was left with. Robbie stared at her ravenously, his normally dull teeth turned to sharpened fangs, gnashing wildly as he panted and slowly stalked toward her.
Completely unperturbed, she grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him hastily. "Robbie, snap out of it! You're acting like a psycho!"
She clenched her teeth and cried out in pain as he dug his claws (...claws?) into her shoulders, burying his razor-sharp fangs into her forearm and biting hard until her screams near-deafened him and she fell backwards.
She laid on his floor, clutching her arm as waves of pain pulsed through her and made it impossible as all hell to think. She watched Robbie fall to his knees pathetically on the floor next to her, glint in his eyes dying down as he buried his face in his hands and bawled.
"Wendy, Wendy... get away, please..."
She stared, mouth agape at him as blood-her blood dripped down his chin and stained his quivering hands. She stared at the last shred of humanity beckoning from his giant crystalline blue eyes as he cried and begged. "Please, Wendy, run... I can't... stop..."
Wendy swallowed, tears welling up in her eyes, and nodded sagely. Robbie's starving screams were the last thing she heard as she fled into the forest.
o0o0o0o0o
The blackened moon hung forebodingly silent above the forest and Dipper's consciousness sighed in frustration.
3, 2, 1... and... yep, there we go. The girl's scream.
Something was different. He could see more than just her shadow as the nightmare played itself out again. There were tones, colouration to her contour, as if the nonexistent moon had been illuminating her form. Had he been sentient in the dream, Dipper would have squinted in a feeble attempt to peer into the fleeing figure, but all he caught glimpses of was her long hair, which looked like fire trailing behind her in the night.
It was only when she inevitably fell from the trees that there was a lingering shot in his mind's eye of her. A familiar face, blanketed in bright red hair that was festooned with leaves and sticks from jumping through trees. Freckles bunched up against her cheeks in what was less of fear and more of agitation as she screamed, blood gushing from Wendy's neck as the still shadowed hunter ripped out chunks of pale skin.
Dipper jolted awake, Book 3 falling off his bed onto the wooden floor, precariously opened with its spine facing the ceiling. He didn't have the urge to puke his guts up this time, but he was riddled with adrenaline, eyes darting in all directions.
"Wendy?" He whispered, stricken with worry. "No... is that why...?"
Dipper bit his lip. Sighing for what must have been the billionth time this week, he walked to the window and just barely fit his head out of it, trying to calm himself with the cool mountain air. His gaze fell skyward in an attempt to relax, but was only met with a blackened abyss where the moon would've been. He slammed the window shut, heart sunk, and picked the book up off the floor, gazing on a page he had once studied obsessively but paid no mind to since.
The Undead-
The tween stared at the page, every ounce of composure completely escaping him as life drained from his face.
He looked back out the window to the darkened moon.
And when he heard a familiar scream echo through the night, Dipper taught himself once again how to hijack a golf cart and weave through the trees on the darkest night of the month.
"I'm coming, Wendy!"
o0o0o0o0o
Wendy fought branches and blinked the sting of cold air out of her eyes as she jumped from tree to tree. When you're being chased by a ravenously-hungry-undead-creature-who-is-also-your-boyfriend-except-we're-probably-gonna-have-a-talk-about-this-when-we-stop-acting-so-crazy, you admire the little things in life-like an upbringing in a house full of testosterone-pumped lumberjacks that accurately prepares you to know your way around the art of trees and tree parkour. Wendy was a girl who was admirably brave in the face of any adversity, but she was a lot more worried about Robbie than she was herself. Mainly, what the hell was wrong with him?
She continued to make like a squirrel but only faltered when her foot slipped and she fell tumbling to the ground of the forest.
"Shit," She hissed, standing up. "Ow! Damnit..."
Wendy limped, each step spreading more and more pain throughout her as it resonated from her ankle. Her arm was still bleeding and she was just barely lightheaded, but she ran on toward the tiny light illuminating the edge of the forest. The stars were covered in large obsidian clouds, the sound of rushing water the only noise besides her dull breathing and the low growl resonating from her pursuer's throat. She tripped against a stray root, falling ungracefully onto the golden browned grass. Turning onto her side, she closed one eye in pain, groaning as Robbie leered, hunched over her with fangs and claws bared.
She sighed in agitation, pissed off that of all the fucking ways to go, she was gonna die from her flesh-deprived zombie boyfriend. Not even a fucking zombie apocalypse. No guts or bloody chainsaws or double-barrel shotgun romances, nope, just some teenage undead alone in the woods where no one would see it. And she wasn't content to just give up, but at the same time, Wendy was caught in a situation she couldn't see a way out of, and was hoping for a miracle.
A miracle promptly came flying out of the trees in the form of a prepubescent boy driving a golfcart and screaming her name.
"WEENNNDYYYYY!"
The teenager stared, mouth agape as Dipper Pines drove the Mystery Cart straight into her attacker and sent him flying across the floor in an unconscious, twitching heap.
"Dipper!"
"Wendy, Wendy!" He frantically chattered. "Ohmygosh, are you okay? Stay right here, I brought bandages!"
"Dude, how did you...?"
The brunette was stuck somewhere between hastily running from the cart to her, wrapping her bloody arm up, and nervously muttering to himself while he attempted to remedy the situation.
"No time to talk about it!" He interjected. "I just knew this was gonna happen, and I tried to prevent it, but I didn't know how, and now you're hurt, and ahhh! Stupid, stupid!"
"Dipper, dude, calm down," She hugged him suddenly, a long hug, one he wasn't expecting at all. "You saved me, man. That's all that matters."
"Wendy, what did this to you?" He asked in a desperate attempt to confirm any suspicions.
She didn't speak. Her lip just quivered ever so slightly as she pointed toward the knocked out boy several feet away.
Dipper cautiously traversed toward the body, arms raised in front of him like a protective ground and brown eyes peering curiously at the specimen. He looked into the monster's face, so completely pale and covered in Wendy's blood, and his world slowly collapsed.
"Robbie?"
Wendy walked up behind him, rubbing her arm shyly as she lowered her gaze to the floor.
"Everything makes sense..." Dipper said, resting his chin on his hand. "Why didn't I see the signs sooner? Ugh! I was so done with the Undead once Norman turned out to be a coat full of gnomes, I'm so stupid!"
"It sucks, you know?"
The younger boy tilted his head, and was completely taken aback to see Wendy actually crying. The most brave and strong individual he'd ever met, and there were tears running down her face as she messily wiped at them and talked with only the slightest waver in her speech.
"He was... the only guy I actually... liked," She lamented. "Like, I dated so many guys, but he was the only one I wanted to stick around for more than a few days..."
"Wendy..."
"I really liked him! And it sucks. It freakin' sucks, okay? Because he's the first guy who didn't annoy me after 24 hours, the first guy who actually had a personality. The only dude to keep me entertained, and he only wants me for my brain," She kicked a stray pinecone, unsheathing her tongue that she kept so nicely under wraps around the kids. "Fuck this."
"Hey, c'mon." Dipper held his hand out, eager to work as the shortest crutch in the world as he beckoned her back to the cart. "Let's go home."
She wiped the tears from her eyes and rainclouds slowly started emptying against the backdrop of a slow descending grey. Forcing a smile, Wendy leaned down on Dipper, and he nervously swallowed. He could feel himself blushing intensely but it was dark and Wendy was with him and safe and he really didn't care about anything because things were gonna be okay.
The was a boom of thunder and the whole forest shook, Dipper and Wendy froze as a dull animalistic growl revved back up from behind them, and the boy squeaked out a tiny "Uh-oh..." before he was thrown to the ground violently by a surprisingly strong arm.
"Dipper!" Wendy cried out. His vision blurred and when his focus came back there was a deafening roar and the smell of decomposing flesh slammed into his face at full force as Robbie pinned him down beyond any possible escape.
Wendy panicked, desperate for any way to save the boy in return for him rescuing her, but when she rose to her feet the pain burned and she'd lost so much blood that she could barely even see. When Robbie lunged toward Dipper, she closed her eyes and grinded her teeth and waited to hear the horrible sound of the poor kid crying out in pain.
It never came.
All that came was the acoustics of a spring-loaded chain whistling through the rain. Wendy opened her eyes just in time to see its prongs connect with the still-crazed Robbie, tearing his worn black clothing to shreds and sending him flying back again.
"Grappling hook!"
Dipper lowered his hands from his face at the sound of his twin's voice. She stood confident in the clearing, hair a soaked mess from the rain, smiling a huge triumphant grin with Waddles by her side. The chain sped back to her hand, taking bits of heavyweight cotton trophies along with it like dysfunctional girl-scout patches.
"Grappling hook."
Dipper honestly couldn't believe his eyes. "Nice save, sis."
"I'm a natural!"
"Mabel, you gotta get out of here," He suddenly spat. "It's too dangerous!"
"Oh please, brother!" She scoffed. "We've done everything together up until now, don't think you can suddenly go solo on me!"
Dipper considered arguing with her for a brief moment, but quickly reminded himself that arguing with Mabel never ends due of the age-old Pines family curse of always believing you're right about everything. He just looked into her eyes, the ones he proudly shared with her, and nodded.
Behind them, there was an angry teenage zombie (who was now an angry shirtless teenage zombie) snarling and hissing as he bared what he'd been hiding all along-mangled and rotting skin just barely hugged his ribs, an ugly metaphor for the hunger-induced rage he was currently succumbed to. He looked at the twins, beastly eyes aglow, and spat words that were nearly dripping with venom.
"That was my favourite hoodie."
Almost on cue, Dipper dodged him as he lunged forward, mouth foaming with vitriol. The younger boy took his precious book, bound in leather and festooned with thick paper, and slammed it will all his strength into the Undead boy's stomach, barely knocking the wind out of him.
He landed back to back with Mabel as she fired her grappling hook into a low tree branch, pulling it down so that it fell into Robbie's path and sent him toppling to the ground. He scrambled to his feet, eager for revenge, but was halted by a shrill oinking and the pull of dull (yet vicious) teeth pulling on his leg, weighing him down.
Wendy stared frozen, more frustrated than she'd even been in her life that she was stuck indisposed in a situation she'd normally excel in-beating the living shit out of someone who messed with her friends. She wondered if she really could fight Robbie at all were she not injured and useless-regardless of how fucked up this was, regardless of the pain she was both emotionally and physically feeling, she couldn't help but noticed how horrified Robbie had been when he realized he would hurt her if she stuck around. She didn't understand why he snapped like this, and she almost wanted to slap herself for being so hopeful that there was a way to snap him out of it, too.
She fell back to reality when the zombie kicked Waddles aside and the animal fell into a clump on the ground. Mabel fell from 0 to blind rage in a single millisecond and jumped on Robbie's face, punching him as much as a 12 year old girl could, screaming and yelling and telling him to back off and using words that a girl her age shouldn't even know. He grabbed her like a baby cat at the neck of her sweater and chucked her next to the animal where she coughed and tried to jump to her feet, but she was thoroughly winded and in pain.
"No! Mabel!"
Dipper's sneakers scraped the dirt as he charged at the monster, but his only weapon was smacked out of his hand, and as he bared his fists, Robbie looked at him with his eyes intense and mystifying and suddenly Dipper was stricken with fear. Paralyzed to the spot, every move he attempted to make was blocked out by whatever sort of spell Robbie's undead form had cast upon him.
The rain got heavier and heavier as Robbie trudged slowly toward Wendy. Much more stereotypically undead than he'd been all evening, slowly and tormentingly to everyone around him. The girl stared hopelessly with her back bunched up against the fallen tree resting between her and the cliff, and she gazed into Robbie's-no, that thing's eyes-and tried not to go out crying.
He raised his head to feast upon her-like he had so many times in Dipper's nightmares-with his painted teeth dripping with hunger as he stared upon her like she was a meal to be had, and Dipper wished so badly in that moment that he could only move his eyelids.
Robbie stopped.
Dead in his tracks, the boy clenched his temple in pain, hunched over and spasming violently.
"Stop!" He growled at no one in particular. "You can't do this! I won't let you hurt Wendy!"
His eyes snapped back to a sickly refulgent green. "Quit your resisting!"
"No! This isn't... who I... am..." He groaned, fighting desperately with the beast inside of him.
"You're a creature of the night and you were meant to live the life of a beast!"
"I AM HUMAN!" He wailed. "And I'm sick and tired of feeding on innocent people!"
"You will eat or you will die!"
"I'd much rather die than hurt the only human I've ever loved!"
When his guard dropped, everything moved in slow-motion, because it all happened too fast to recall.
The world became quiet, the way it does when your ears pop at a high elevation.
Mabel's eyes slowly shut.
Wendy's eyes barely opened.
Dipper's feet slowly propelled him off the ground and he was sent flying into Robbie's back.
The boy's hat was pulled off his head from the force of him snapping out of the catatonic state he'd been put in, slowly floating down onto the ground where the two boys had been standing only moments ago, as they both tumbled off the cliff and into the murky river below.
Sounds picked back up.
The rain generated a low hum in the background as Mabel ran to the cliffside and stared awestruck at the churning waters below. Without a second of thought, the girl fell to her knees and broke down completely.
There were tiny hoofprints beside her, and Waddles made an oinking so low and mournful and heartbroken that it was only comparable to a dull howl.
Wendy stood up in the pouring rain, ignoring her sprained ankle, ignoring her bleeding arm which may or may not be infected with freak zombie venom, ignoring the fact that two of her closest friends just fell to potential death over the cliff, and she screamed.
The angriest, loudest, most intense scream she'd ever churned out-one that came from every bit of her shoulders, lungs, stomach, and heart.
And then she picked up the fallen log below her feet, raised it to the heavens, and chucked it to the other side of the cliff in a fit of rage and completely unadulterated misery.
Boyishly, the teenager turned around to the cart. The rain grinded to a slow halt. The clouds moved away from the moonless sky, and she ordered through gritted teeth "Mabel, get up."
Mabel just cried harder and harder, clutching her fallen brother's hat like it was all the had left, sobbing despondently into her pig.
"C'mon, Mabes, we're going."
She looked up at Wendy with twigs sticking out of her torn sweater and snot running down her dirt-covered face. "Where?"
"To find the boys," She stated simply, taking the younger girl's hand and leading her and Waddles to the golf cart as the stars blinked in the sky. The engine started up and Mabel leaned on her surrogate older sister, her brother's hat adorning her head as quiet tears ran down her face. Desperately, she raised her eyes up to the stars and frantically darted them back and forth, whispering to herself.
"Find the pole star... find the pole star..."
Wendy raised an eyebrow as she drove. "What's that about?"
"When we were apart and I felt lost he always told me to find the brightest star in the sky, and look at the stars surrounding it..."
Mabel wiped at her eyes. "And he's right there."
Wendy stopped the cart, staring at the sky, and felt herself getting choked up too.
"The Big Dipper."
Mabel didn't take her eyes off the heavens as she clung to Wendy's arm.
"We'll never be alone."