Chapter 2: Discovery

WARNING: This story contains graphic content, such as swearing, blood & gore, and psychological horror. Viewer discretion is advised.

Though you're missing out on a really cool story if you do decide to skip this.

"...Dipper…"

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"...Dipper!..."

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"DIPPER!"

"WHAT?!"

Dipper awoke from his slumber, finding himself to be in a hospital bed. He looked to his left to see Mabel (carrying Waddles) and Stan sitting in visitor seats in the small hospital room, watching him. As soon as he stirred, the two bolted up and over to him.

"Thank goodness you're awake, Dipper! I was so scared!"

"Y-yeah…"

In truth, Dipper's memory was a bit hazy. At the current, he remembered a giant explosion, and seeing something behind the waterfall…

He wheezed a bit as Stan came in and wrapped him in a bear hug.

"What happened at the waterfall, bud?! We came over and saw you and some girl stumbling around like you had just been shell-shocked!"

Now Dipper's memory was starting to come back to him.

Wendy on the rock...

The crate of dynamite…

The near-death experience…

Looking back on it, Dipper shuddered just thinking about it.

Wendy…

Wait, Wendy!

Dipper looked up to Stan, worry written on his face.

"What happened to Wendy?!"

Stan released him from the bear hug and stood back, a grim expression on his face.

"She's okay, but...she's in bad shape. Apparently, the blast from the explosion sent shrapnel of flint in every direction, and some of it hit her across the body. She's gonna take a while to recover."

Despite how serious the situation sounded, Dipper was at least glad that she was alive. Better yet, he was surprised any of them had survived that, even more so that none of them got permanent hearing damage. It was nothing short of a miracle (or rather, plot), really.

However, his mind was severely addled, even now, and just this short interaction was already giving him a bit of a headache. He laid his head back and sighed.

"Can you guys turn on the TV? I need to clear my mind for a bit…"

Stan nodded, taking up the remote on the bedside table and turning on the TV.

"...After clearing out the rubble, the fire department is reporting a rather large cavern being revealed from behind the waterfall…"

Dipper perked up at hearing this.

"Turn it up."

Stan did so, and Dipper watched the news broadcast. As the reporter was talking, the cameraman zoomed in on the massive hole behind the waterfall. The view was a bit hazy, but Dipper could definitely see that it was a massive cavern, and it didn't stop there. He was sure that it had tunnels running underground.

As the three were captivated on the news, Mabel suddenly perked up as a thought occurred to her.

"Oh yeah! While I was running over to help, this guy came running as well to help. He was really pale, and he had this really cool necklace that had shark teeth running along it! Oh, and he was really cool too-"

Dipper began to tune out Mabel. It wasn't that she was annoying, but he was engrossed with the cavern that was revealed behind the waterfall.

There's even more mystery to this town than before?! He thought, absolutely enchanted by the idea of exploration. He wondered if he could find a way to create a cave exploration team, as he knew that cave exploring could definitely be dangerous if it wasn't-

"Currently, it seems that the town is sending in a small cave exploring team to go check out the depths of this cave."

Upon hearing this, Dipper felt an overwhelming urge to jump out of bed, head over to the team, and beg to join them on this adventure. However, just the thought of moving currently was a terrible one, and so he decided to lay back and think about what he could possibly do.

"...It is estimated that the exploration team will spend only 3 days at most to explore, if the tunnels even stretch that far. The team plans on using GoPros attached to their helmets to let viewers see their journey."

Dipper was excited hearing about this, and so decided he could satisfy his hungering curiosity by following their voyage through the screen. It would definitely serve as great entertainment for the following days he would be spending in the hospital, though he planned on getting out of here as soon as possible. He was sure that, in the coming days, the town would authorize for the caverns to be publicly explored.

6 hours later…

Dipper was very surprised to find himself so deeply captivated by the journey of the cave exploration team thus far. Whereas Stan and Mabel had grown bored of the streamed trek only an hour in, and were now playing on their phones, Dipper never got tired of seeing tight tunnels suddenly opening up into huge caverns, stalactites looming overhead, the ponds of water that were found hidden within the confines of the caves inside…

In short, Dipper had his eyes glued to the screen since the start, and every moment was utterly wondrous to him. Of course, knowing Dipper, it wasn't too much of a surprise. The boy always found investigation, mystery and the sort to be fascinating in all of its different forms. It was one of the main reasons that he planned on either becoming an aerospace engineer or a marine biologist in life. The thought of discovering something new in the mass unknown...There wasn't a bigger excitement to him.

At this point in the journey, the cave explorers were wading across a small lake of waist-high water to the other side of a large cave. The person whose GoPro was taking up the stream currently was making comments about Speleology, the field that specialized in cave exploration.

Dipper looked towards Mabel and Stan, who had both fallen asleep. Mabel was laying on Stan's shoulder, with Waddles snuggled up in her lap. He smiled, thinking about how great of a family he had-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

A blood-curdling scream startled Dipper from his thoughts, and also awoke Mabel and Stan from their slumber. They all looked over to the screen, and were horrified by what they saw.

The GoPro camera shook around violently, then, for just a few seconds, it focused on a person, face down in the water. The person with the GoPro running the stream waded over to the person, yelling to ask if he was okay.

The person's body was severed in half from the torso down. His upper torso was floating around in the water, blood pouring out from his insides and turning the water around his corpse red.

Dipper watched on in horror as he saw something move around in the water. After a few moments of yelling in panic, another scream was heard, and the GoPro swiveled to see a man flail around violently, as if something below had grabbed him and was shaking him around like a dog toy. After only a few seconds of terror, his screams were cut off as he was pulled below the water, bubbles foaming around the area he disappeared.

One by one, the GoPro witnessed members of the cave exploration team either getting taken or slaughtered by some unknown malevolent being. Dipper sat in horror, watching as blood was splattered across the water and the rocks, and as cave explorers disappeared below the water without another sound.

Eventually, the only one left was the person with the GoPro streaming. He screamed in terror as he tried to escape from the pool, turning back towards whence he came and flailing towards it in utter panic.

He had just reached the edge of the lake when something pulled him in, and he was pulled below water. The GoPro was plunged below water, distorting the sound, and shook around heavily, unable to see past the bubbles and water that were covering the camera.

After only a moment, the GoPro resurfaced, and for one final, terrifying moment, in the dim light of the cave's unnatural light, the camera caught a glimpse of the monster that loomed just under the water. Its skin was sleek, and the light from the GoPro was able to capture the glimmering of teeth from its mouth, which were tainted with fresh blood. Above all, its orange eyes glowed menacingly in the darkness of the cavern.

Then, with a final hiss, it shot up towards the GoPro, the scream of the last cave explorer cut off as the camera cut to static.

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The three sat, in shock, from what they had seen. As the graphic thoughts of those recent events ran through Dipper's head, it overwhelmed him, and he wretched over the side of his bed and vomited onto the floor below. Mabel began to cry as she shook, holding her Waddles in fear. Stan dashed for the phone, calling the police and hurriedly talking to them about what he had just seen.

Dipper, above all, was feeling light-headed and sick. What had he just seen? What the hell had happened?

Author Notes

- New chapters come out every weekend. 1 on Fridays, and 1 on Saturdays.

- Reviews are encouraged and deeply appreciated. Seriously, write some reviews, I read them.