"...Dipper, do it!"
"C'mon, dude!"
Even with Mabel and Wendy's impatient yells ringing in his ears, the boy struggled to swing into action. He could bring himself to do it. For one who had faced so many living terrors and eldritch horror in his short lifetime, he suddenly found himself coming up miserably short of extra courage.
"Dipper!"
"What are you waiting for?"
As each second ticked by like a painful eternity, their cries grew increasingly urgent. Yet still he didn't act. A deep fear held him back with the strength of a set of steel manacles. His gut churned painfully with dread. He felt like the moment that he opened the ancient metal door looming up over him, then there was a powerful chance that he wasn't going to get out of this alive.
This wasn't just his regular anxiety holding back. Dipper knew for a fact that waiting for him on the other side was a wretched abomination so terrible, so revolting, so awful, that its very blasphemy of an existence defied any description. Just biding its time. Waiting for him. Ready to unleash a horror beyond horror.
His breath came in short, ragged gasps. His heart thudded against his ribcage. The girls continued to call to him.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" Wendy urged.
"Dipperrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" His twin sister yelled.
He took a hard swallow. Finally, he raised a thin arm and reached out with a shaking hand.
Fear be damned. It had to be boy swung the door open and faced his destiny.
Immediately a solid wall of putrid stink assailed his senses. Dipper bit his lip tightly while he struggled to hold out against the fetid pong. Soon his eyes were tearing violently under the strain. His entire digestive system bunched up together in violent protest and threatened to expel itself in one go. As he desperately tried to hold his ground, he began gagging so hard that he managed to strain his own throat.
There was only so long that he could endure the torment of the hideous odor. As a dry heave attempted to force its way out of him, he took that as his sign to pull out. Frantically he hurled the door back shut. The instant it was closed, he started sucking in gulps of fresh air as fast as he could.
"All right! Ten seconds!" Wendy whooped. Although he felt like he was on the verge of passing out, Dipper nevertheless greeted the time with a weak smile.
"N-new high score." He wheezed. .
"You ruled, dude!" His lanky friend congratulated.
"It w-was nothing." He managed to flash a cocky smile, and immediately earned himself a playful knock in the shoulder.
"Enjoy it while it lasts, bro." Mabel cracked her knuckles did a few stretches, then finally took her place in front of the old refrigerator. "It's Mabel's time to shine now! I'm getting eleven seconds, at least."
"Fine, then I'll take the lead with twelve when it's my turn." Wendy announced.
"Pffft! You just barely got to eight last time, and you looked like you wanted to puke everywhere!" The little brunette joking ribbed. Mabel laughed as the teen messily ruffled her hair. "Watch out, I'm rocking both of your worlds with my amazing breath-holding abilities!"
"I'm calling it, I totally just set the record of the day." Dipper boasted. The three continued to fill the kitchen with their playful trash talk, all to the immense chagrin of the old man rooting through a nearby cupboard. After all, the entire spectacle wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement of the cooking skills he had tried to put on display at dinner two nights ago.
"Aw c'mon." Stan griped as he nursed his bruised pride. "The chili isn't keeping that badly…"