CAUTION! Contains dark themes, and graphic descriptions. Reader discretion is advised.
WARNING! Has potential to trigger.
Dreams were always a fleeting experience for Dipper Pines. Ever since he'd moved to Gravity Falls for the summer, he couldn't remember a single one, and yet, every time he'd wake up either terrified, disturbed, or extremely unsettled, though he could never find out why.
When he'd view the faces of his loved ones, jolts of horror and panic would fire throughout his brain, and course all over his body. This only happened when he'd see them early in the morning though, so he didn't think much of it. Though the feeling were of the most potent form of that emotion.
When he went to sleep at night, he felt unwilling, and scared, which is why he would try to avoid sleeping as long as possible, by reading a book, or a certain "spooky journal" though he opted not to read the more "spooky" pages of the leather-bound before slumber.
He never told anyone about his troubles, they had enough to worry about already, so he kept to himself. Mabel occasionally advised that he get more sleep, after noticing the bags forming under his eyes, and that was the end of her involvement.
His attitude towards sleep eventually worsened to the point of self-induced insomnia, his body needed the rest, but his mind refused at all costs. It was when Grunkle Stan found him, in the middle of the night, sitting on his bed, staring at the floor, that the family began to take action.
Mabel began to try to lull her brother to sleep by singing off key lullabies, but inadvertently, this worked to Dipper's advantage. She eventually had to sleep though, leaving Dipper to his struggle alone. His eye's would betray him though, small intervals of time passed with each blink, so it seemed to Dipper. This only worsened his condition though, as every time he re opened his eyes, his emotions were renewed.
Dipper tried various tactics to stay awake, each of them working for a day or two, and then inevitably failing. The most reliable though, was simply rocking back and forth in the fetal position, humming a tune quiet enough so as to not wake up his roommate.
Stan finally took matters into his own hands when Dipper's plan had gotten to successful, and he had not slept for a straight week. Stan had spiked Dipper's water with to well ground sleeping pills, and gave it to Dipper one night before he went to bed.
Dipper thanked Stan and accepted the water. He gulped down the entire glass before Stan's eyes, and almost instantly, his eyelids began to droop, and he felt himself lose control of his limbs as his head dropped to the pillow.
Unfortunately, he was allowed to remember this time.
He was assaulted with horrific visions, usually, dreams were fast paced, and relatively quick, but this felt like hours.
He felt himself being raised of the ground, looking down at the warped, and distorted world below. he heard screams. The screams would forever haunt him, he heard, among others the gruff voice of his uncle, the high pitched feminine one of his sister's. The others were lost in a tangled choir of noise, each one wailed. They were so…inhuman.
They were all abruptly silenced, and from the silence emerged the voice of his sister's. The voice was beautiful, perfectly in key, and yet, it insinuated terror in Dipper. He began to shake. The voice gradually became higher, and higher, and higher, to the point were the pitch was so high, Dipper could feel his eardrums burst, and the sides of his head become wet.
When the voice finally stopped, he awoke, or really, he thought he awoke, when in reality, he was still entangled in a nightmare.
Dipper sat up shaking and breathing hard in his bed. He tried to tell himself it wasn't real, it was only an illusion, but that barely helped at all. He sat on his bed shaking his head, and running his fingers through his hair he was so engrossed in his world, he didn't notice his surroundings.
He looked up and was seized immediately by the horrific image of his sister. She was normal from her feet to her neckline, wearing her usual, but her face. It wasn't really a face, more of a jumbled mass of flesh, teeth were visible through small holes all over her face, clumps of greasy and stringy hair stuck out in random locations, her eyes were abnormally sunken in, and on opposite corners of her head, and there was a crude mass of bone protruding from a patch of severely inflamed epidermis. Her lips were where they should be, though instead of concealing a regular mouth, the parted to reveal a shallow cave half full of blood, which went tumble down her chin, coating her sweater. The level of blood decreased enough to let her braces be visible. With no teeth to be anchored to, the metal bands were jutting out of the walls of her mouth, causing them to bleed.
Mabel tilted her head at Dipper, and an impossible grin grew on her face going literally ear-to-ear. Dipper could only stare at this thing that was his sister. Eventually, others came to him, each with a similar face, until they surrounded his bed. Dipper lay back, and pulled the covers up over his head, but then they started to speak.
Absolute and utter terror, were the only words to describe. Instead of words, what came out of their mouths was a series of garbles and grunts, and massive amounts of blood. Dipper cried and begged to something, anything, to wake up, but to no avail. His please only seemed to irritate the monsters, as they began to touch him. Their fingers were much colder than a normal person's. They poked and jabbed everywhere, going deep with their sharp fingernails.
Dipper began to squirm, and the monsters responded by punching. They grabbed him, and threw him off the bed, removing the blanket so he could see them. Then began to kick him hard. Dipper closed his eyes desperately and endured every hit.
The beating eventually stopped, and Dipper awoke, for real this time, to Mabel standing over him.
Dipper screamed and backed into the farthest corner of the bed. Mabel reached out to touch him, but Dipper started shaking violently as she approached. Mabel retracted her hand. Dipper wouldn't look at her face, every time he did; he saw the monster in his nightmares.
Mabel was surprised. And a little hurt at his sudden reaction to seeing her, but those emotions quickly dissolved into worry. She tried to calmly speak to him put that only made it worse. He screamed and begged to not be hurt. When Mabel spoke, his ears heard her voice, but his mind heard the garbled grunts and growls of the monster.
Gunkle Stan, having overheard the commotion, went upstairs to investigate. Upon his arrival, Dipper's cries and pleas for help became louder and more frantic. Mabel and Stan didn't know what to do they just stared at Dipper. Stan acknowledged that it may not have been a good idea to spike Dipper's drink.
Mabel and Stan eventually had to leave Dipper so he could get what little amount of relaxation he allowed himself to have.
Mabel couldn't sleep in the same room as Dipper anymore. When she did he would stare at her all night while shaking slightly. She now slept in the living room. Even without Mabel in the room, he almost never got any sleep. On days where his fears left him particularly drained of strength, his subconscious mind took control, and he fell asleep.
He remembered.
He remembered every. Single. One.
Every time he woke up they left him worse than the last. Every time he saw people, the image that had been unwillingly burned into his memory made its unwanted appearance. He didn't talk to people anymore.
The monsters haunted him when he was awake in the form of hallucinations now. He saw them. He saw them at night when all the lights went out and everyone went to sleep. He saw them pull themselves out of the shadows; they'd come over to him and stare, just stare. Every night he was forced to look into their colorless, soulless, and sunken in eyes at least once before he pulled the blankets over his head in terror.
He saw them staring through reflective surfaces in the day, staring at him. They would never move outside of his dreams. He saw glimpses of them in the shadows of the forest when he looked out of his window. He didn't get out of bed anymore.
His loved ones tried everything they could, but to no avail. The Dipper they once knew was gone. Mabel tried not to let the lose of her brother affect her, as he wasn't physically lost. It was hard sometimes, when she'd come home and find no one to talk to, when she'd roll over to bid her brother good night and found no one there.
Dipper couldn't take it anymore. He literally could not handle the stress his dreams put on his physical and mental state. He couldn't think straight anymore, he couldn't hold on to one thought longer than a few seconds. He couldn't think about anything except one option. It was all he could think about now. The prospect of it was so tempting and irresistible. All he had to do were a few simple tasks, endure a little amount of pain, and then he'd be free. One day, he finally decided to give in to his desires.
Mabel found him. Mabel found him standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom. He looked happy. Both of his arms had extremely deep gashes in them. Blood from the wounds dripped down his arms and coated his hands and legs. In his right hand he held a blood-covered razor, which cut into his thumb and forefinger. His eyes rolled up into his head, and his mind and body gave up, and he fell to the floor. He was quickly rushed to the hospital, but damage in places unexpected had already been done.
Mabel saw Dipper in her dreams now. He would just stare at her for hours, wearing the same grin he'd been wearing when he almost died. The blood from his cuts would slowly drip from his arms and hit the floor abnormally loud. Eventually forming puddles of the crimson liquid on the floor. She saw him every night. Every night she was allowed to remember.
Dipper awoke to the monotonous beeping of the machines next to him. He was confused; he had no idea why he was in the hospital.
Dreams were always a fleeting experience for Dipper Pines ever since he'd moved to Gravity Falls he couldn't remember a single one. He only woke up mildly off put, but never thought much of it.
Everyone was overjoyed to hear of Dipper's recovery, both mentally and physically, everyone except Mabel.
Mabel began acting strange. More often than not, Dipper would wake up in the middle of the night and look over to find her looking back, she never blinked.
Mabel wouldn't look at Dipper's face anymore, every time she did, she saw him grinning back in her head. Mabel didn't talk to Dipper anymore. Mabel didn't sleep anymore.
Mabel wasn't Mabel anymore.
I thought of this while I was about to go to sleep. Ironically, I couldn't remember my dream.
Thanks for reading, sorry if I scarred you! Please review, Bye!
(This is a one-shot by the way)