The next thing Dipper saw was darkness.
Death? No, just the cold hard surface of the ground below him after his idiot brain had decided to jump out of a tall window.
Dipper got off the cold ground and looked down at himself. Not a scratch or bump in sight.
The voice that had driven him to this was speaking again: See, I told you that you'd be okay. You should trust me.
"Who...are you?" Dipper whispered aloud, thankful there was no one around to hear him having a conversation with a voice in his head.
I don't have a name. You could say I'm you, in some ways. But in other ways, I'm so much different from you. Enough about myself though. My goal is to help you see your gift, Dipper Pines.
"My...gift?"
I'm not allowed to give you all the answers, but I hope that you've figured out by now you're something more than mortal.
"What?!" Dipper shouted a bit loudly, again thankful of the fact that he was alone.
Come on now. Do you think a mortal would've survived getting shot in the head? Or jumping out of that window? Think about it.
"Am I, like, a vampire?"
No. You'll just have to think harder. I think I'll be going now, but I'll be back very soon!
"Wait!" Dipper shouted at the voice. "I still have more questions!"
He received no response. Dipper then turned around and noticed a blonde female nurse with a panicked expression on her face running up to him.
"How did you get out here?" The nurse questioned.
Dipper's brain immediately went into panic mode as he struggled to come up with a lie. "I, um..."
The nurse sighed and began to mutter to herself. "Poor kid. I bet that shot to his head did something to him; he might not even know what I'm saying right now..."
With a quick movement, the nurse grabbed Dipper's hand and began to drag him back inside up to his room. Dipper tried to think of a good explanation for what in the world he was doing outside late at night but still couldn't think of anything.
The nurse tucked Dipper into his bed, wrapping chains around it so he couldn't escape again. Dipper felt a bit of embarrassment being treated like some sort of mental patient, but decided it wasn't worth protesting at the moment.
Before she left, the nurse noticed the fact that the window was opening. She paused for a second, then simply let out a chuckle. "No. Couldn't be."
The nurse went over, closed the window, and exited the room. Dipper's eyes finally began to feel heavy as he drifted off to sleep.
Dipper's eyes began to open. He could hear a faint beeping noise and the chatter of people around him. As his eyes were fully opened, the people around him immediately stopped chattering with one another and gasped in horror.
"That's...that's impossible!" One woman shouted, backing up far away from the scene. From the attire and the overall look of the room, Dipper could tell he was in a hospital, and he figured out he was lying on an operating table.
Dipper looked down. Something pink and mushy was sitting on a table in front of him. Was that...his brain?
Curiously, Dipper reached towards the top of his head. Instead of a hard shell, he felt something a mixture of both gooey and mushy; he was able to perfectly dip his fingers into it.
After putting his fingers into the soft surface and taking them out, he looked at his hand. The doctors all watched him in horror as Dipper stared at the blood dripping down his hand.
The woman from before had now fainted on the ground, as another doctor began calling and very quietly began speaking about "special care". Before he knew it, Dipper was being dragged away by two large men in dark suits, screaming as they began to take him to places unknown.
Dipper awoke in a cold sweat. He had always had strange dreams, but he had never experienced anything like that before.
Be careful.
There was something else back now; the voice in his head from before.
"What...what do you mean?" Dipper whispered to the voice.
You know that dream you just had? If you're not careful, that could become your reality.
The rest of the night Dipper was up. He simply lied in his bed thinking for hours about possible doom scenarios.
What if the government did experiments on him? What if he never saw his family again?
More importantly, he thought about what exactly he could be. The voice told him to figure it out on his own, but Dipper didn't even know where to start. The only immortal species he knew of were vampires. Maybe there was something in the Journal...if only he wasn't stuck in a hospital and was able to get to it.
The day remained silent for Dipper until his usual visitors reappeared, along with a nurse.
"How are you feeling, Dipper?" Wendy asked Dipper.
"Fine." Dipper replied. It was partially true; Dipper was fine on the outside, but on the inside, he was chaotic, anxious and full of unanswered questions.
"Is he allowed to leave today?" Mabel asked the nurse.
"Well..." The nurse started. "There was a bit of an incident last night, and we've decided we need to do some more X-rays to make sure that bullet Dipper took to the head didn't cause him any brain damage."
"Oh." Mabel said, slightly saddened by the news.
"You mean I have to pay for another night?" Grunkle Stan asked the nurse. He suddenly felt an army of dirty looks upon him - including one from Dipper himself. "Fine, fine, forget I mentioned it."
"Well, good thing I brought a bag of fun stuff." Mabel said, drawing her attention to a blue bag she was holding and taking it towards Dipper. "I brought a few books, as well your Gameling and my laptop. I really need to get to the new level of Candy Crusaders, but I guess I can let you use it for the night."
"Books?" Dipper questioned a bit eagerly. "You didn't so happen to grab you know what, did you?"
"You know what?" Mabel asked, thinking for a second before snapping her fingers. "Oh! That! No, I didn't. I didn't figure you'd need it; no need to get involved in that mumbo jumbo when you're supposed to be healing. Sorry."
Dipper sighed. "It's alright."
"Well, I guess we'll be leaving you now." Mabel said, going towards the door.
"Get well soon!" Soos said, as the gang and the nurse all left, closing the door behind him.
Almost as soon as the door closed, the voice came back to Dipper.
Howdy!
Dipper sighed. "What do you want? It's your fault I'm in this mess."
We're going to have a little bit more fun, Dipper. It seems you don't fully understand the extent of your gift at the moment.
"I understand it enough."
There's no such thing as "enough". Get the laptop out of the bag.
"Why?"
Do it!
"Alright, alright." Dipper said, realizing it was a bit strange that he was arguing with a voice in his head. He got out the laptop, let it boot up and then opened the web browser. It automatically opened to Favorites. "Now what?"
Click on the third one.
Dipper looked at the third URL on the page. "LiveCam? That livestreaming website? I haven't used that since sixth grade. What are we gonna do on there?"
You'll see.
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed! Just a little fair warning: Dipper is driven to push himself to the ultimate limit next chapter, and in front of an audience, on top of that. As such, some of the violence and imagery next chapter are going to be disturbing; nothing too graphic as this is a "T"-rated story, not an "M"-rated one. Still, if you're a more squeamish reader you might wish to scroll through certain parts of next chapter.
See you all next time!
