He was all she had left, all she had ever known, her entire life, her brother and now he was gone, he was gone. Torn apart through the entire forest, the forest he loved so much. The forest she encouraged him to explore. She wailed as she moved to pick up the bloody parts, all that was left of him, but she was pulled back, body parts spilling from her arm's as she was dragged away from the scene.
"Kid-"
"NO. LET GO, DIPPER NEEDS ME, LET GO", she screamed, protested as she kicked her feet and lunged forward. Dipper needed her. Dipper needed her.
"Mabel-". "LET GO!"
It was like all colour had disappeared from the world. Actually. All colour had disappeared from the world.
"You know, kiddo, there's a way for you to see your precious brother again."
"Okay guys, i'm leaving for today!" Dipper yelled towards the mystery shack, backpack shoved higher up on his shoulder, as he waved towards his sister and grunkle.
"You won't find anything worth my time, kid." Stan snorted towards him, sipping from his juice brick as he watched Mabel sweep over their terrace with a broom in hand, too enthusiastic for her own good. "Aw, don't be such a grumpy lumpy! Good luck Dipper, I'm sure this time will be your time to shine!", she threw a grin towards him and focused her attention towards, the very hard, task at hand.
"Yeah right. I'll believe it when I see it.", the old man said, throwing a discouraging glance towards Dipper, who huffed and turned his back to them.
"Yeah? Well just wait and see then! I won't come back empty handed!" he proudly exclaimed, disappearing into the forest. He wouldn't come back empty handed. He wouldn't.
And Mabel started to believe he sincerely meant that, as noon passed by and the forest had stayed silent as ever, since her brother's departure. She would worry, if not because her brother had a habit of returning late when he first got too excited about the creatures of Gravity Falls. Especially, with the Mystery Book. But when the clock showed it to be past 11 PM, she started getting slightly anxious. This was the latest so far her brother had ever stayed out, and while she trusted Dipper, she did not share the same feeling towards the dark silhouettes lurking in the shadows, rustling in the bushes, awaiting an opening.
Mabel shot up. "Grunkle Stan! Dipper hasn't returned yet!", she yelled, pleaded, desperation making her voice quiver slightly.
"Give 'im till 2 AM. The bugger said he'd show me proof, and I'm willing to give him a chance. If he's not back by then, we'll have to go look in the morning.", the man huffed out, beer in hand as he never removed his eyes from the new episode of his favourite Sopera. This episode was filled to the brim with drama.
"In the morning?! But what if he's hurt?" Mabel sounded outraged and while Stan really wanted to go look for him too, it was already too late. The forest was too dangerous.
"Listen kid, if you want to get yourself injured, go ahead. The forest is too dark during night, we wouldn't be able to see a thing. And flashlights would bring unwanted attention.", He threw back, and watched as Mabel slumped back onto the stairs up to the terrace, her eyes wandering towards the forest.
"Well… Okay, then. He'll be fine, right? Right. He'll be fine." She would wait. Dipper would return. He definitely would. He always did. But as the time turned 1.30 AM, she started to doubt, no matter how guilty she felt for it. She would feel even worse if she found Dipper injured and they haven't been there to help him. "Grunkle Stan!", she yelled again, and was awarded with an unjustified groan, as she heard her Grunkle pull himself up from his sofa-chair-thing. Mabel really didn't know what the hell it was, and currently didn't really care.
"Sorry kiddo. Let's hope he returns during the night, otherwise we'll go look in the morning. Let's hope he haven't fallen over a tree-branch and hurt his pretty face.", Stand wouldn't admit it, but he might be slightly nervous. Slightly. He knew these woods better than anyone currently living in Gravity Falls, and Dipper really should have been back by now. But he wouldn't risk his niece's life to go looking for his nephew. It was too dangerous. Of course, he couldn't tell Mabel that, and carried the burden of knowing on his own.
He dreaded the morning suns rise. Mabel of course, ignorant, didn't.
Adrenaline pumped through his veins as he ran, he had never run this fast. Never. The shadows were moving in the dark, silhouettes from above made him feel so small and unacquainted, as he tripped over tree roots and things moving in the dark on the ground, through him, but he was clever enough not to turn on a flash light. He didn't want more attention to himself than already, obviously. He was, to use his newly acquainted "teenage words", fucked. He obviously didn't want to admit it, and needed his energy to keep running, keep moving forward, not cry about his inevitable fate. His cap had fallen from his head a long time ago, leaving his messy brown hair to flare against the wind that pushed ruthlessly against him. Stupid gravitational force, preventing him for moving quicker or slowing down the terrors chasing him.
He tripped.
As fate would have had it, he fell and was thrown a few feet through the forest, rolling on the muddy ground. Choking back a sob, not yet having accepted what was happening, besides the logic part of him knowing, unbearable pain met him.
He didn't scream, didn't have time as searing terror teared through him, and he saw red. Red, and black and white, and he should have gone home sooner.
By the time the first rays of light shone through her window, she was out of her bed and seeing her twin's bed untouched, she was down the staircase in a flash. She had barely slept and the couple of hours she managed to sleep, she dreamt of triangles and blood. She shivered, as she grabbed to pieces of toast and yelled, "GRUNKLE STAN! TIME TO GET UP! DIPPER ISN'T BACK.", and surprisingly enough, her Uncle rushed out of his room. It was obvious he was trying to keep calm as he accepted the piece of toast, ruffled Mabel's already unruly hair and pulled on a jacket. Keyword trying.
"Let's go then. Look for your clumsy brother."
Stan checked the time before they left. It was a little past 6 AM.
Mabel and Stan split up, but not by more than 50 feet, tops. As the stupid nickname rung from both of their lips, with an exception of "Bro!" and "Kiddo!" regularly in between, but never answered, the time dragged on forever, as if someone played purposefully with them. Of course, such a thought was stupid. Time couldn't be manipulated, Mabel thought.
Stan continued to look in the area, as Mabel slipped down a path, to a lower area, a weird smell hitting her nose, before the scene before her hit her conscience.
Stan checked the time, when he heard the scream. It was a little past 2 PM.
All she saw was red. The trees where tainted dark red. The forest-ground before her was sticky and so, so red. The leafs on the trees were tainted with red splatters. The face in front her was red.
And the awful stench of blood. Heavy coppery smell of death, and she screamed as threw herself towards the face. The head. Part of a head.
Part of Dipper's head. Before her, a war had raged. Although calling it a war would mean both parts had been fighting. No. Before her, a massacre had raged, raged her twin brother. And now he laid strewn across the forest, painting the forest red, a horrible awful red, bloody guts and body parts joining the mess.
The worst part? The blood was dark, dry, and Dipper's head felt so cold.
Her brother had died, alone, and laid out for who knows how long, dead and alone, and she knew she would never experience the desperation for something to be a bad nightmare this much again. Looking around, she saw the bloodied rests of Dipper's head, along with torn limbs, as arms, legs broken in half, gnawed through, guts strewn around, some missing and Mabel felt as if she knew why, looking at the bloody buffet. Her screams of anguish had not stopped for a second.
He was all she had left, all she had ever known, her entire life, her brother and now he was gone, he was gone. Torn apart through the entire forest, the forest he loved so much. The forest she encouraged him to explore. She wailed as she moved to pick up the bloody parts, all that was left of him, but she was pulled back, body parts spilling from her arm's as she was dragged away from the scene.
"Kid-"
"NO. LET GO, DIPPER NEEDS ME, LET GO", she screamed, protested as she kicked her feet and lunged forward. Dipper needed her. Dipper needed her.
"Mabel-". "LET GO!"
It was like all colours had disappeared from the world. Wait, actually. All colours had disappeared from the world.
"You know, kiddo, there's a way for you to see your precious brother again."
Mabel whipped her head around, hiccups still erupting from her raw throat (how long had she been screaming for?), and eyes widened, she would almost have screamed again. She dreamt of triangles and blood, and now she had her dream come true. Blood, and triangles.
"What's with you, doll? So silent, so suddenly." The triangle before her almost split in half as it grinned, and since when did Bill have a mouth. "Well, my mouth really adds to my 'terrifying' appearance, doncha' think?", and Mabel stared. Of course Bill could read her thoughts. Of course he could.
"…. Where."
"Specific.", Bill snorted.
"Where are we?"
"Jeez, it was the smart one of you that died, huh. The Mindscape, kiddo! Remember?", Bill yelled enthusiasticly. Mabel tensed, Dipper wasn't dead.
Dipper wasn't dead, Dipper wasn't dead, Dipper wasn't dea-
"Wow, wow, hey slow down, Elizabeth Báthory, and let's get all that blood of you first.", and without the tiniest effort, Mabel was clean. As if she cared. "You think I called you here for no reason?", the triangle scoffed. "Rude. Nah, my little lamb, I smell despair and I'm here to make a deal!", sounding almost proud, the demon smirked.
"You can give me Dipper back." Mabel stated, and Bill's smirk fell.
"Well, yes and no.", and this answer agitated Mabel. "No?", she sounded lost, thought the demon. Perfect.
"I can trade you back his soul for something you own, but man, his body is long lost, can't save that one. Jeez, did you see that scene man? Spooked me out!", and the demon laughed, his sarcasm amusing no one but himself. "I don't care, I want my brother back.", was the clipped answer, and oh the Pine twins was way too fun to play with.
"My my, you kids really suck at deals, don't you? You haven't even heard the price."
"I don't care. I want my brother back.", Mabel repeated herself, voice quivering, for she was not strong and stable like her brother, she was weak and it amused Cipher greatly. Everything about the Pines did.
"You will have to pay with your sanity. Watching my dear pinetree watch you fall apart is too amusing to pass up on. I swear, you kids will be the death of me-", Bill barked with laughter. Some metaphors just worked too great, when you were an immortal demon.
"Bill please just- give him back." Mabel whispered, and she knew if she stayed much longer, she would cry, and she refused to give the demon the pleasure of such a show. "Jeez, impatient.", he huffed.
"I can't exactly bring him back right now, y'know. That stuff takes time! A week, month perhaps even! I'll hurry for you doll, but for now I gotta send you back into the boring mortals world.", and Mabel sobbed.
With a snap of the demons finger, Mabel found herself lunging forward in her bed, a dying scream on the tip of her tongue, and the sound of heavy footsteps rushing up the stairs. The door to her and Dipper's room was pulled open and a broken Grunkle stood in the door way.
"Please tell me it was just a nightmare."
And Stan broke a little more. He choked out an "I'm sorry. I called your parents. They're picking you up in a little less than a month.", before turning away and dragging himself down the stairs, leaving Mabel in the empty room, leaving Mabel empty. Hollow. Dark. Until she remembered Bill. The demon would help.
She didn't even drag herself out of bed. She laid back down, but not to sleep.
Not to dream of triangles and blood, and blood and guts, body limps, dead eyes, red, red, so much red-
She doubted she would get any sleep anyway.
A few days had passed (9 days. 9 days without her brother, and her parents would be there to pick her up in a week) and Mabel barely registered that Grenda and Candy had been over to visit, the two girls sobbing and Grenda wailing, much like Mabel did yesterday. But Grenda didn't know the horrors she had seen, and Candy didn't "understand", none of them did, and would they all please just leave. She didn't need people telling her "how sorry they all were", when none of their tears would bring Dipper back to life.
And then Stan decided to have a memorial. Too many habitants of Gravity Falls were in grief. But none of them suffered like Mabel. None of them understood, she was all alone, and she would be alone forever. No one understood that she had encouraged Dipper to go into the forest, to challenge Gravity Falls, she had encouraged him, and now he was dead.
"Mabel? Would you like to come downstairs… ? A lot of people are here to give their condolences.", Mabel would have been surprised to hear Wendy's voice from the other side of the door, if she cared. "I don't need their 'condolences'." Mabel answered.
"They'd like to talk to you though… A lot of people are in grief as well, and you might-"
"What do they know?!" Mabel spat, "They didn't see the bloody shreds of Dipper, they didn't find the cold corpse of their own brother in the forest! They didn't, Wendy!", Mabel's voice was quivering and she wished she didn't have to be confronted like this, when the hollow emptiness was so much easier to handle.
"I know, Mabel… But don't you think Dipper would've wanted-", Wendy barely got started before she was interrupted again, and this time, it was not by the words of a broken teenage girl, but words of an enraged grieving sister.
"YOU DON'T GET TO SAY WHAT DIPPER WOULD'VE WANTED! LIKE YOU EVER GAVE A SHIT BEFORE HE DIED. GET OUT, GO AWAY.", Mabel hissed at the door, seconds from barging through it and clawing Wendy's face up. She didn't know a single thing about Dipper.
Wendy stilled, and moved away from the door. At least she had tried, she thought, as she went downstairs again, and by the looks of people's pitying face expressions, she assumed that Mabel's breakdown had not gone unheard. Whispers of "poor Mabel", "I feel so bad for her-", and "so tragic-" went through the room, and Wendy could only hope Mabel couldn't hear them. Or at least that she didn't care.
And upstairs in the attic, Mabel had flopped back down on her bed again, and was tempted to let her emotions out in the too empty room, to just cry and scream and not care about the people downstairs who pretended to give a single shit about her brother, when they had never cared while he was alive.
Letting a sob go, she only realized her mistake too late as the room turned black and white, the grey zones in between a blur.
"Aww, my little puppet, are you crying? Did you miss me that much? You did, didn't you?"
Mabel tried to furiously wipe away the tears that ran down her cheeks, but it seemed as if it wouldn't stop the second she had started, and she already regretted. "What do you want?" Mabel spat , trying to stop her voice from shaking. Bill's eyebrows furrowed at the harsh tone she used. This wouldn't do.
"Well that's just mean. Here I've been working hard to find your brother's spirit, and you take on an attitude. Maybe I should just exorcise Dipper and cut off the deal!", Bill huffed, eyeing Mabel who shot up like a frightened rabbit, and almost fell to her knee's, pleading.
"Please no, I'm sorry Bill- I-I'm sorry, please give me my brother back, don't kill him."
Bill laughed, "Kid, he's already dead! But I won't remove him from the spirit world." Yet, the demon thought, amused by the female Pine-twin that pathetically sobbed in front of him.
"Ready to sign your contract? I got a brawl planned down town in the city, and if I try hard enough I might even get a murder out of it! So I got no time to waste, doll.", Bill held out his thin "hand" to Mabel, who grasped onto it immediately without hesitation and held on as if her life depended on it, and was surprised to find her hand not burning when they were engulfed in the fierce flames. Rather, she felt cold. She watched entranced as Bill glowed and flashed before her.
And she was flung out of the Mindscape, with a fading "MABEL, NO!" ringing through her ears, as she slammed back onto the floor of her bedroom. Dizzy, she stood and greeted a headache. She looked up and her breath hitched as a transparent Dipper stood worried before her.
Thick tears rolled down her cheeks as she threw herself at her deceased brother, only to pass right through and slam down into the floor again. She got up again though, she would always get up again, and smiled thinly, brokenly to her brother. "Dipper…"
"Mabel, why did you make a contract with him.", her brothers voice was cold and flooded the room, it seemed so vast, yet her brother dear was standing right in front of her.
"Dipper… Dipper, I missed you so much, oh god.", she cried. "I just wanted you back, I just…"
"What did you give him in return, Mabel?", but why was her brother's voice still so cold and distant, they were finally reunited, didn't he understand, the price didn't matter. "It doesn't matter, it was just my sanity, but it's okay, Dipper.", she smiled at him. She would never need anyone but Dipper, never need anything but Dipper. Her sanity was a small price to pay, if she could have her brother back.
"You… Mabel…", Dipper would've cried if he could. Cried on behalf of his sister.
He remember the pain. Remember the feeling of being torn to shreds and teeth sinking into your abdomen, your skull being crushed and splintered, watching, feeling your head being ripped from your body, searing unbearable pain flooding you one moment, and then next – numb unconsciousness.
Emptiness, hollowness, nothingness and everything being a blur of black and white interference, until yellow and red and triangles, and he would probably have been confused if he could. Until he watched his dear sister cling onto the hand of a demon and signing a contract, custom made to ruin and wreck her and he was too late to try and protect her, and Bill already had them in their firm grasp.
But at least it was better being in this mess together, than having to watch helplessly from the sidelines.
Mabel's sanity was slipping, being slurped up by the triangles in every corner of the city. Dipper noticed there was quite a lot. And he couldn't do a single thing about it, facing through every surface, even those he tried to stay a mass up at. It also seemed no one knew he was there but Mabel.
"But Dipper is here, Stan! He's right here!", Mabel furiously waved her arms towards her brother, as she tried to convince their Grunkle for the umpteenth time, and why she hadn't given up yet, Dipper only had the faintest idea. She was losing her grasp on reality.
Their uncle winced and looked down onto the floor, bags under his eyes as heavy as those in his bank, eyes red as he sipped his coffee. He learned not to fight with Mabel, she was stubborn when it came to the death of her brother, and somehow every single civilian in Gravity Falls knew she was losing it, believed that the death of her brother had had a too great impact on her. Thank god her parents would pick her up soon.
"Forget it. Let's go, Dipper. Let's take a walk in the forest."
Stan tensed and piped out a desperate plea for her not to. It had been his fault that Dipper had died, too stubborn and proud to protect his nephew, to go look for him before darkness settled, and now he had been torn to shreds, his remains not even being able to gather together, and they had had to leave them in the middle of the forest.
"We'll be fine. I'll be back in an hour.", Mabel exclaimed, voice cold. So dead.
And Dipper followed after her as she left the Mystery Shack, so secure in the steps she took towards the forest, as if she had been hypnotized. Dipper was pretty sure they were being watched.
Mabel had been distancing herself from everyone, every time someone brought up the death of Dipper she would scream and scream until people were forced to admit that they could see the imaginary spirit that only existed in Mabel's head. And if they didn't bring up Dipper, she would, engaging him in their conversations, so people started forcing her to accepting a reality she did not exist in. So she just stopped existing in their reality. Dipper was all she needed, she knew that for sure.
Halting to a stop, she looked over the scene in front her. Her brother's "crime scene", the place he had died, and she laid down with a sigh, smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she looked towards her brother. She didn't think a spirit could look pale, but Dipper currently did.
"Mabel… I think we should go somewhere else.", Dipper's voice was thick with doubt, and hesitation. He didn't like it here. His body parts were mostly gone, but a few bits of guts and brain matter laid around, decaying and the ground was still somewhat soaked in his blood. Mabel sat up, her messy brown hair sticky with red substance, but she seemed to not matter as she sent him a sick smile.
"But brother, it's so nice here. The scent really calms me.", and while Dipper couldn't smell, he was pretty the stench of death hung heavily over their heads. Over Mabel and his spirit. "Mabel…"
He feared for his sibling. He knew she would lose it, but he wished for all in the world that he wouldn't have to witness it happen and that Bill for once could have left them alone and let Mabel deal with his death by herself instead of making a bigger mess out of it. Of course that was a stupid wish, and he knew the demon would do anything in his power to bring wreck and havoc into, not only their lifes, but into Gravity Falls and the world in general.
Mabel laughed suddenly. "You're brooding."
"What?"
"You really haven't changed, Dips.", she grinned, and he would have found it calming, if not for the glazed over look in her eyes, and the blood on her. She stood up and moved for him to come closer. He didn't want to, but his body moved in his own, and he quickly found himself by his sister's side, her hands grazing over, but never touching, unable to touch, his cheek.
"I've really missed you…"
"Yeah, me too Maybs. But let's go back now, alright? We've been out here for some time now."
Mabel frowned and removed herself from Dipper. He wasn't any fun!
"But it's so nice out here! Play with me, bro!" she laughed, as she danced in circles around him, her voice ringing through the empty forest, and Dipper thought he saw something move. With a hard stare, he somehow convinced Mabel to go back.
But when they got back, an unpleasant scene greeted them. Standing in the wood opening, they saw their parents car, and Dipper looked worriedly at Mabel, whose face had gone back to it's cold default setting. As they moved closer towards the Mystery Shack, loud shouting and unpleasant arguments met them.
Mabel entered the house and immediately was rewarded with a reaction.
"Mabel! Why are you covered in blood?!" her mother screeched, and Mabel realized she had never found a sound more unpleasant. "Does it matter." She deadpanned.
Her mother sent her an incredulous stare, but she had lost Mabel's attention, who instead was moving past her, arm filled with a pair of boxes. "What are you doing?", and for the first time, Dipper noticed worry in her voice. "Like we're gonna let you stay here! Your uncle is obviously unable to take care of children-", and she heard her mother choke back a sob by the end of her sentence. "You can't do that.", she replied back.
"Ofcourse we can! We're your parents.", her mother's eyes were glazed with tears, and she seemed more broken and felt more broken than a mother ever should need to. She had lost a child, and she wasn't about to take the chance of losing another by letting her daughter stay in this mess of a town.
"I don't need you. I've got Dipper. You can't force me away, Dipper needs me here."
Her mother stared at her, and Dipper swore he could see something inside her breaking.
"Dipper is dead."
Stan panicked, "Don't-", but it was too late, Mabel had already snapped.
"HE ISN'T DEAD?! HE'S RIGHT HERE, RIGHT BESIDE ME, WHY CAN'T ANYONE SEE HIM?!", Mabel screamed as she tore out a fist full of her long hair, and her father swiped in and picked her up.
"PUT ME DOWN!", she screamed, wailed, as she looked towards Dipper, desperation filling her orbs, kicking her legs.
"DIPPER NEEDS ME, I CAN'T LEAVE HIM BEHIND!", and Dipper would have cried if he could. His sister needed help and Gravity Falls were providing the opposite. Bill were providing the opposite. And as if he summoned him by thinking about about him, the world around them turned Grey and his parents and Uncle froze.
"This wasn't a part of the deal, kiddo!" the demon bellowed. Mabel couldn't leave Gravity Falls, if she left, he wouldn't be able to feed on her sanity and Dipper wouldn't break infront of him. The scheme of the Pine Parents really wouldn't do him any good.
"You think I want to leave?!", Mabel cried, addicted to Cipher's help, and the triangle knew it. His plans might be ruined, but he wouldn't let that ruin his fun.
"Deals off.", and with those two terrifying words, the black and white world ebbed out around them, and the Pine-twins father was on his way out of the door with a screaming Mabel over his shoulder. "NO BILL, WAIT, WAIT PLEASE HELP DON'T DO THIS.", but her pleas felt to deaf ears to anyone but their uncle, who stilled, and stared at his niece.
"Mabel, what did you do."
"LET ME GO! DIPPER! BILL, HELP.", but Dipper was scared, confused and unable to help his hurting and broken sister.
She was thrown into the back of the car, and the door locked as Dipper's mother moved right past through him, and over to the car, entering it, but not before crying out an, "I trusted you, Stan. I trusted you, and I never should have." And slamming the door. Mabel's screaming was still audible.
Dipper watched them drive away, waving his hand pitifully to them, and he thought he finally understood the meaning of phantom pain, as his entire spirit hurt, watching his sister and parent's drive away.
He stilled, terror wrecking through his body as a soft "Hate to do this to you, dear pinetree." Caressed him, and he was met with a searing hot pain, that made his entire being flicker, until it stopped existing all together.
Mabel's screams increased.