A/N This is the teaser to my next story which I hope to launch in the new year once "My Sister's Keeper" is finished (for those who are following that I hope to update that as well as "Monster in the Woods" very soon!) This is going to be long and ambitious, with lots of drama, adventure, mystery and action and hurt/comfort and a little bit of romance here and there. I'm really excited about it as the whole story has been swimming in my head for over a year now and hasn't left me alone since.

I really, really hope you guys will stick with me on this and in the meantime, enjoy this teaser/prologue. It's a short chapter by my standards, only a glimpse, a small preview in what's going to be a much bigger story so...yeah. Enjoy!

Don't go 'round tonight, it's bound to take your life. There's a bad moon on the rise.

"Bad Moon Rising" by Credence Clearwater Revival

Friday June 13, 2014

Blood. So much blood.

Oh yeah, and pain too, can't forget about pain. Intense and unrelenting.

He heard a strangled cry and it took a moment to realize the sound was coming from him.

He could taste blood in his mouth and breathing was a struggle for him. He didn't even know what hit him exactly, just one moment he was alone, lamenting his broken heart and the next he was being attacked. He should be dead right now, why wasn't he...?

Mabel. She saved him but where...?

"M-Mabel..."

"Shhh, she's OK, just hang on Dipper, hang on..."

It was Wendy's voice. He opened his eyes after being barely aware that they were closed and he could see her perfect face looking down at him, tears in her eyes. He felt a pressure on his stomach and ribs and let out a garbled moan, "I know, I know it hurts...I have to...have to stop the bleeding," Wendy said, her voice breaking, "just hang on OK? Stay with me..."

I'd never leave you, Wendy...

"Oh god, I'm so sorry..." she continued, "I...this is my fault...I shouldn't have...I should've told you sooner and then maybe...I'm sorry...Stay with me Dipper..."

"Not your fault" he whispered as his eyes fluttered closed. Her voice began to fade and the pain was growing numb, that was good, right? No, wait, that was bad wasn't it? Yeah, it was bad, but the numbness was feeling so nice...

"Dipper!"

Her voice pulled him back and his eyes snapped open.

"I need you to stay awake, stay with me, don't fall asleep..."

"Mabel..." he choked out the word, needing to know. He needed to know she was all right. He remembered her screams of pain followed by silence. Blood spilled from his mouth as he tried to say his sister's name again, he needed to know..."M-Ma-Mabel..."

"She's OK, she's fine..." Wendy cried, her hand lifted from his middle to brush away the hair that had fallen into her eyes and his breath hitched at the wet crimson stains coating her hand and leaving a streak of red on her face. Blood. His blood. "Soos is taking care of her and Stan's calling for help, just hang on. You're going to be OK..."

Something in her eyes told him that she was lying. He needed to see...he needed to know... He lolled his head to the side and he could see Soos kneeling over a body, her body. He was blocking her from his view but he knew, he knew it was her. "Mabel..." he whispered before choking out a wet, bloody sob.

"She's going to be OK, you both will...I promise..." Wendy cried, tears falling freely down her face, "but you gotta take it easy...hold on...you're OK...you're OK..."

He blinked slowly, finding it hard to open his eyes once he closed them but he forced himself to open his eyes, afraid that if he let them stay closed, he might never open them again.

"Just hang on, stay with me, you're going to be OK...it's going to be OK..." Wendy chanted the mantra for his benefit as well as her own as she pressed down on his wound, her lovely face focused solely on him, her eyes filled with fear and concern as tears left wet trails down her cheeks.

"You're going to be fine, both of you...just hang on..."

As her empty reassurances faded and darkness began to flood his vision and he sank further and further away into oblivion he realized that it wasn't going to be OK. They weren't going to be fine.

The attack was swift and vicious and he remembered the icy blue eyes staring down at him, he remembered Mabel swinging the branch at his attacker throwing it off of him before it turned on her, and something deep in his gut told him that even if they survived this, it wouldn't be OK, it would never be OK.

There was no going back from this and things would never be the same again.

A/N Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think! I'd really like to know how many people are interested in seeing more. Also, speculation is always fun...