Chapter 2: Auntie Whispers

"You are very lucky, child, that I had found you." Mabel watched the large woman pour hot water from a metal kettle into a tea cup. She felt out of place in her patched-up pair of jeans and crop shirt, especially when she compared herself to the archaic look of the woman's cottage and the woman's old fashion clothes. The bottom floor, which contained a few pieces of simple furniture and a fire hearth, was maybe five long strides long. The dank attic she had woken in ten minutes earlier was half that length. Only the glow of the fire and a single lantern on the table lit the room, casting the majority of it in shadows.

The woman, the one who found Mabel in the woods, took up the majority of the cramp space. Mabel did not know how it was possible for someone to have such enlarged features, enlarged to the point of being grotesque, but her savoir managed to have them. Teeth like white blocks revealed themselves when the woman smiled as she placed the cup before Mabel. Mabel wrapped her blanket closer to her shoulders, accepting it with gratitude. She hoped that the woman would give her a chance to pull the sticks from her bush of hair.

"You could have drowned in that river…" The woman continued, undisturbed. She sat in the chair across from her, taking an abnormally skinny arm from her coat and sticking it into a nearby basket. Mabel watched her pull out a black turtle. "Or worst."

Mabel flinched as the woman began to devour the pour creature. "Thank you," she said awkwardly, trying not the notice the already existing pile of empty black shells on the table. Poor turtles. She liked turtles, even if her parents never let her keep one. "I don't know how I can repay you, Miss—"

"You may call me Auntie Whispers," the woman interjected in her low monotone. She reached for another turtle. "Drink your tea, child. There are herbs within that will help you recover from the Beast's hold."

"The Beast?"

"Yes child. The Beast." Auntie Whispers turned towards the window, a worried look crossing over her gargoyle face. Mabel would have thought that a woman with such over exaggerated features would have a more noticeable look, but the expression was barely present, slight like the gradual change of the moon. "He wanders through the woods looking for lost souls. He turns them into edelwood trees and uses the oil to burn his lantern. I heard his song when I found you. Did you meet him, child?"

Mabel placed her hands on the sides of her cup, casting her eyes down at the dark liquid. Her reflection revealed a damaged face whose various cuts and scratches were covered by white bandages. The white eyes of the creature she saw in the woods bore through her memory, sending a new wave of shivers down her body. "I think so. But why is he after me? I just got here!"

"You answer yourself. Many people not from around here travel these woods all the time. Some find what they are looking for. Some stay. Then there are some who are met with an unfortunate fate. The Beast preys on those who cannot find what they seek and steals their hope away. You are lucky you escaped." Auntie Whispers looked at her again. "You should drink, child. You will heal faster if you do."

Mabel lifted the cup to her lips and took a long drink. It tasted like a disgusting mixture of mustard and baking soda. She thought she was going to barf. Holding a hand to her mouth, Mabel forced herself to swallow. She strained a smile. "Delicious—"

"You do not need to lie to me, child. I know the taste well."

She placed the cup to the side, dreading the next gulp she was going to have to take. "What's this place exactly?" She asked. "Am I in a parallel universe? Down the rabbit hole? The mindscape?"

"I know not of parallel universes or mindscapes," Auntie Whispers replied, making Mabel realize that she had no idea what a mindscape was either. Why she mentioned it, she did not know. It just seemed right to her. "All I know is the name of this land: the Unknown. Have you heard of it, child?"

"Sounds familiar," Mabel said. She felt as though her knowledge of the Unknown were fighting to cross the block in her brain, but none actually surfaced. She wondered how long she would be stuck with this amnesia, and if she will ever recover from it. "I actually can't remember a lot about myself."

"That is normal. Your memories will return soon." Auntie Whispers leaned back in her chair, suddenly looking content. "My dear Lorna was like you once. A long time ago I found her dressed in strange attire and took her in as my own. She came to remember who she was, but she decided to stay here with me."

"Where is she, by the way?" Mabel asked, looking around the mucky cottage. Nowhere in the light of the fireplace or the shadows it caused could she see another girl.

"She works now for the Duke Endicott a two week journey away. She did not want me to work and knew the Duke's nephews well."

Mabel sat a little straighter in her chair, curious. "Nephews?"

"Gregory and Walter Endicott, though most call them Greg and Wirt. They were two travelers much like yourself who saved my dear Lorna from an unspeakable curse. They never found what they were looking for, but they were taken in by Quincy Endicott and made the heirs. Many like them, especially the eldest. He seeks to rid the Unknown of the Beast, though he has found little success."

"So he's like an expert guy," she said to herself. He sounded like her brother, down to the obsession with the paranormal. "Do you think he'll know where my brother is? I'm sure he came here with me, but I lost him somehow."

"There is a slight chance, but it is likely the Beast has laid his eyes on him. The Beast also has his eyes on you. You must stay here where you will be safe until you remember who you are and what you are looking for."

"I know what I'm looking for," Mabel said testily. "I'm looking for my twin, so I have to leave ASAP."

Auntie Whispers stared at her with her feline eyes. The gaze was emotionless and said nothing of what thoughts may have been crossing her mind. Mabel refused to let it unnerve her. She returned it with a determined glare of her own, as if to scream that she was not about to leave Dipper alone to deal with the Beast.

At last, Auntie Whispers shook her head. "I see that I cannot persuade you, child." She rose, motioning for Mabel to follow her to a chest in the corner. "If you are to travel through the woods, you must hide yourself from the Beast. You must change your garb into something normal." Auntie Whispers lifted the wood cover and began to shift through the folded clothes inside. "I believe the clothes of those who have been devoured may fit you…"

Mabel chose to ignore the questionable source and looked into the chest. All of the clothes matched the early twentieth-century vibe of the Unknown, especially a pair of long black slacks. She picked them up, holding them before her legs to check the size.

A sly smile appeared on her face. She may not be the strategist Dipper was, but she did have her own flair for disguises. "Auntie Whispers, if you're looking for a girl, who's the last person you'll expect?" The woman looked at her as she grinned and held up the pants. "A boy."

A few days later—as Auntie Whispers had insisted Mabel waited until she was back in full health—Mabel waved farewell to the mysterious woman. Her hair was cropped close to her neck and her face was shielded by a downward-tipping hat. She wore the pair of slacks, though she needed suspenders to hold the ends above her ankles. An oversized coat that Auntie Whispers said was from "one of the devoured" hanged off her small shoulders and was the same worn brown color as her laced boots (again, another trinket from the devoured). The glove around her left hand, one simple and black, replaced the old bedazzled beauty. It burned in last night's fire with the rest of her old clothes.

A knapsack filled with food hanged against her back as she called out one last goodbye. "Thank you, Auntie Whispers! I'll pay you back someday for all this!"

Auntie Whispers gave a small wave back, saying, "Farewell, child. May you find your brother. Beware the Beast."

Mabel strained a smile as she set down her path away from the cottage and into the midday gleam of the woods, confident that she will find Dipper before the worst came.

MW: This is a really short chapter that is really just filled with exposition. The next two are also kind of like that due to how I wrote this. I came up with this story with the idea of it being separated into episodes and, in order to keep this as short as possible, each chapter is a scene from each episode. So that also kind of explains why this chapter started off with a bit of a time skip.

I'm going to go work on my thesis paper now. Thank you to everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed. It means a lot to me. I'll see you again next week.

No Notes

Thanks for reading! Main Character #2 comes in next week.