A blonde teenage girl of fourteen years walked into the living room and sat down. As she laced up her black converse, preparing to leave with her father to go to the grocery store, a young boy came in through the front door, where the garden was on the outside of.
He was only seven, and he held a crown of magenta roses in his small hands.
"Howdy little brother, what do y'all got there?" the girl asked in her southern accent.
Her brother held out the crown and said, "I made this for ya. Do ya like it?"
The little boy became worried when his sister looked a bit critically at the flower crown.
"Well," she said, still staring at it with what seemed to be blatant disinterest. She then brightened up, which killed the boy's doubts. "It's amazin'! I love it!"
She gently took the wreath of roses and placed it atop her short blonde hair. As she worked at adjusting it, the boy told her, "I even took off all the thorns. It took me a while, but it was worth it!"
The girl immediately hugged her brother, then ruffled his brown hair.
"Y'all are the best! I love you and this whole family!" the blonde exclaimed. She then pulled her younger brother close and hugged him again. She whispered, "I love you."
"I love you too, Ramona." he whispered back.
As she pulled back, the boy asked, "Hey, Mona, y'all wanna go out back and play tag?"
"Sorry Gideon, I can't right now. But I will as soon as I get back, I promise." she responded.
"Ramona! Darlin' it's time to go." the siblings' father called out.
"I'm comin'!" Ramona yelled back. She turned her attention to her little brother. "We'll be back in half an hour, Gideon. Then I can play."
Ramona stood up smoothed out her sleeveless baby blue dress, straightened out her white leggings, and slipped on her faded jean jacket. She then gave her brother one more quick hug and a kiss on the forehead.
"Bye Gideon, Bye Mama! We'll be back soon!" Ramona yelled at her other two family members as she walked out the door.
Gideon sat in the living room, watching tv. He had been waiting for well over half an hour for his sister and father to get back.
"Mama, when are Daddy and Mona gonna get back?" the boy asked.
His mother shook her head.
"I'm not certain, but they should be coming in at any minute." she replied.
Both of them looked outside to see the torrent of rain pounding on the ground outside.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. Gideon's mother opened it to see one of her neighbors.
"Mrs. Gleeful, you won't believe what happened! There was a wreck downtown! And your husband was in it!" the woman worriedly exclaimed, tears trailing down her face. Mrs. Gleeful turned to Gideon.
"Son, come on, let's go!" she said as she practically dragged him out to the car.
After reaching downtown, Mrs. Gleeful stepped out of her car, her son walking up to stand by her side as they stood in the pouring rain. They stared at the scene in front of them, horrified.
A sixteen-wheeler was on its side, the front bumper dented. But the car that Bud and Ramona had been in was crumpled up at the front, especially on the passenger side. The windshield was cracked, and the passenger door had been torn off. Three ambulances were only a few yards from the wreck. In one ambulance, a man was lying on a stretcher and his wounds were being tended to. In another ambulance, Bud Gleeful sat on the edge with a blanket around his shoulders, obviously crying. But why? They were answered when they saw two men carrying a stretcher to the third ambulance. Laying on the stretcher was a human body covered from top to bottom in a white sheet. Blood was leaking through the sheet near the top. One arm of the person under the sheet dangled limply off the stretcher. Who ever was on that thing was dead.
"But who is it?" both Gideon and Mrs. Gleeful wondered in thought.
Gideon was the first to spot the bracelet on the arm. It was a silver charm bracelet. The same one as-
"Mona!" the boy thought.
Gideon prayed to heaven he was wrong, but then he saw something fall out from underneath the sheet and fall silently to the ground.
It was a flower petal.
A rose petal.
A magenta rose petal!
Looking around, Gideon saw several of the petals on the ground, being blown here and there by the wind.
With his eyes tearing up, Gideon ran to his father. "D-daddy, p-please tell me that isn't M-Mona." the child pleaded.
Bud Gleeful lifted his head and shook it sadly. "I-I'm sorry, Sunshine. Ramona is..." he choked on his words, "...gone."
And with that, Gideon collapsed, sobs wracking his body as he muttered Ramona's name over and over.
Days later, they had the funeral and Ramona Gleeful was buried in a dress of her favorite color, baby blue, and wearing her favorite necklace, which featured a five pointed star with an eye in the middle.
As it turns out, the cause of Ramona's death was because the airbag malfunctioned.
Ramona had been sitting in the passenger seat, and with all the rain it was hard to see out the windshield. Before either the truck driver or Bud Gleeful noticed, it was too late. The rain had made it hard to navigate the road, much less stop. So when both men had hit the brakes and swerved, the sixteen-wheeler had hit the front bumper of car, mostly on the passenger side, and turned over. The jolt had sent Ramona's head straight into the hard plastic and metal dashboard, causing her to die of blunt-force trauma.
No one was sure why the airbag hadn't worked, because it seemed to be in perfect working condition. It was still a mystery.
But, nevertheless, it had been the end of Ramona Charlotte Gleeful.
Gideon went to visit his sister's grave a day later. As tribute to his sister, he placed a rose crown on her grave.
"I-I'll miss ya, Ramona. I l-love you, sister." he said, his already quiet voice trailing off into a whisper. Tears slipped down his cheeks and fell to the ground like the rain on the day she died. Unable to hold it in any longer, the boy fell to his knees and sobbed quietly, continuously muttering, "I miss you, Ramona."
Having waited more than a few minutes, his parents got out of the car and found him crying in front of Ramona's grave. They took him back to the car and drove home.
After returning to their house, Gideon asked if he could be alone. He then walked upstairs. But when he stopped in front of his door, he turned around and stared at the door directly across from it; Ramona's plain white bedroom door, void of any decoration except for her name written neatly in baby blue. He walked up to it and rested his hand on the doorknob. As soon as his hand touched the metal, he felt tears well in his eyes. But he also felt some strange sense of foreboding, as if he wasn't suppose to even be near this door, let alone touching it. But, throwing whatever caution there was to the wind, he opened the door.
Inside, the female Gleeful sibling had her room neat and orderly, with only a thing or two out of place. Her hair brush was laying on the end of her bed, which was already made like she did every morning, a few articles of clothing were strown around the room, and a couple of necklaces were carelessly placed on top of what looked like a small jewelry box.
The box was red with gold accents and a golden butterfly on the top. It was only about eight inches long, six inches wide, and about four or five inches tall. It had been a birthday gift from their mother on her 10th birthday. Gideon had only been three at the time.
Lifting the top off, as it wasn't held in place by any hinges, he saw that the inside was lined with red velvet on the sides, and red silk on the bottom, and sectioned off with three separate sections. There was only one item in the entire box: a black bolo tie with a jade amulet. Picking up the accessory from the middle section of the box, Gideon examined it. He instantly knew what it was. His sister had always called it her 'lucky bolo tie'. She claimed to have bought it not too long after the Gleeful family had moved from Texas to Oregon, about six years ago.
"I'll keep this." Gideon decided. "I'll keep it, in memory of her."
Gideon stood in front of his sister's vanity and put on the bolo tie. As soon as he had positioned it so that he was satisfied with how it looked, he looked back into the mirror. He was taken aback when he caught sight of his reflection. His eyes, which had been blue, were now the same green as the amulet. And his face; it was smirking! It was as if his reflection had a mind of it's own. And though the smirking mouth did not move, Gideon heard a voice inside his mind.
"Hello Gideon," a deep, male voice said, regarding the boy coldly.
"Wh-who are you?! What d-do you w-want?!" the young boy stuttered.
"Now, now, Gideon," the voice said calmly. "I mean you no harm. In fact, I am here to help you."
The frightened boy forgot his fear as he raised an eyebrow and his curiosity got the best of him.
"How?" he asked.
"I knew your sister. She told me all about you. She had quite a deep regard for you. She claimed she'd lay down her life for you. And she took care of this object which I possess. And now that she has passed, I wish to help you in your time of grief. I honestly do not wish to harm you."
As honest as the voice sounded, it didn't seem logical. Gideon was a lot smarter than most seven-year-old kids, sure. But it didn't take a genius to know that this was too good to be true.
"Exactly how do y'all plan to help me?"
"You love your sister, this I know to be a fact. And it doesn't take someone like Einstein to figure out that you would do whatever it takes to get her back, yes?" the voice asked, the reflection's mouth moving this time.
Thinking the voice could see him through his reflection, Gideon nodded. Tears began to sting his eyes.
"Now, Gideon, this isn't the time to cry. Because I'm going to tell you how to get her back. Now, you have to listen very closely. Are you ready?"
Gideon nodded again, blinking the tears from his eyes and replacing his sad expression with a determined one.
"I'm ready," he said.
The boy's reflection nodded and smirked, but it looked a bit more like an evil smile.
"Good. Here's what you have to do."
And it was that day that began Gideon's obsession with finding all three journals. Because with all three combined, he could cast a spell to bring his sister back as the human she was, with her conscience and all that fully intact.
But to get the journals in the town, Gideon's appearance had to change. Lots of things had to change. He started to wear a suit and a white wig, which went along with his performance at the Tent of Telepathy.
As it turns out, whoever wears the bolo tie was given the powers of telepathy and telekinesis, which really came in handy when looking for the journals. And lots of people loved his shows.
But he never forgot his sister. In fact, he had his suit and the Tent of Telepathy in her favorite color, baby blue. He even had the star on the top of the tent fashioned after Ramona's favorite necklace. Gideon, no matter what happened, never forgot his sister, because she was the entire reason he was doing everything he was doing.
His plans were perfectly flawless, until he met a certain brunette one night at one of his performances, and fell in love with her. At first, it was only a slight attraction, but it soon grew to a full blown, undying love for the older of the Pines twins. And it wasn't until her brother decided to step in the way and ruin everything, which sent him spiraling out of control. If that Pines boy had just stayed out of it, Gideon wouldn't have lured him to the warehouse and tried to kill him. Then his amulet wouldn't have been destroyed, and his world wouldn't have came crashing down. Just because one person decided to stick his nose where it didn't belong, Gideon's entire plan had been ruined. But, of course, the possessor of the amulet had thought far ahead. Too far ahead for the twins to ever catch up in time.
By time the teens had returned to Gravity Falls, it was already under his control. He held the entire town in his palm. And he had Journal 1 and Journal 2!
And as Gideon stood there in front of his throne, looking out over Gravity Falls, which he was currently ruling, a tear fell and hit the stone floor. He only needed Journal 3. Once he had it, he could bring his sister back, and they could live like royalty. And no one would ever hurt her again. And never again would there be day like the one where the ground was littered with magenta rose petals. They'd both live happily and Gideon would have Mabel as his queen.
His life, Mabel's life, and Ramona's life, in a word, would be perfect. And nothing was going stop him. Not when he had gotten this far!
As he sat back down in his throne and mulled over his plans to find Dipper and get the journal, Gideon thought, "Don't worry Ramona. I'll have you back soon, and everything will be fine. I miss you, and I can't wait to see you again."
He was unaware of a voice trying to call out to him to stop. The voice knew it couldn't be heard, but tried to get Gideon's attention anyways.
"How am I going to be able to tell him to stop when he can't even hear me?! I don't have the ability to possess a vessel, so I'm at a complete loss!" the voice cried out.
"Maybe I could help." a male voice said. Judging by Gideon's facial expression not changing at all, the first voice thought the male voice was unable to be heard by him.
Turning, the voice saw who the male voice belonged to. It was a tall, lanky man, with blond hair and a gold tail coat. He also wore black slacks, black dress shoes, a black top hat, a black bow tie, and a black eye patch over his left eye with a golden triangle design on it.
"Who are you and what is it that you want?" the voice asked.
"Well," the man replied, "You seem to be in great distress, and I figured since I can help you with your situation, that maybe we could make a deal. But I don't see how you could possibly change this guy's mind."
"Look, I don't need help. Just leave me alone, I got this."
"Fine, I won't help you. But I'm not leaving a beauty like you alone."
The voice sighed. "Ok. If we're gonna be hanging around together, we might as well introduce ourselves." the voice suggested.
"Ladies first," he stated.
"Alright," she replied, "I'm Ramona." she introduced as she held out her hand.
"Cipher." he said as he reached out to shake her hand. "Bill Cipher."
A/N: Ok, so this little story is gonna "set the stage" so to speak, for the multi-chapter story that I will be starting soon. I haven't decided on a title for it yet, but I'm thinking.
As to this story itself, I came up with the idea a few weeks ago. My original design for Ramona Gleeful was different from how she appeared in this story, because originally I wanted to give her brown hair. But I couldn't get the idea of short blonde hair for her out of my mind. And then there's the mystic amulet. I wanted it to originally belong to someone older, like Ramona, and then somehow Gideon ends up with it. With all those idea swirling around, I wondered what I wanted the title to be, and eventually decided on "Magenta Rose Petals" although, at first, I wanted to just name the whole story "Magenta Rose Petals" and make this the prologue, but decided against it. I hope you enjoyed this little one-shot, and this slightly scatter-brained explanation. ~Ciao