A/N Thanks to my one and only wonderful guest reviewer! Made me happy to see it and I'm glad you like this so far. And also to those who have favourited and followed this, thank you too! Please leave a comment though, I would love to know what you think!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! I dressed up as Stan and handed out candy at work, there was a little girl dressed as Mabel and her baby brother was Waddles, they were so adorable! Their mom took a picture of us and the whole evening was so much fun! Halloween is definitely my favourite holiday with all the candy, costumes and scary movies and Halloween specials which are always my favourites (Summerween is a new Halloween tradition/classic for me, a must see along with "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" another favourite.) I might be too old for trick or treating, but handing out candy is the next best thing!

Anyway, I hope you like this next chapter!

Chapter Two

"We're kinda trapped," Dipper runs his hand through his hair, "oh man oh man…"

"It's OK," Mabel reaches for him, holding out her hands, gesturing for him to stay calm, "we'll just find another way out."

"Yeah but we already looked when we were outside, everything's boarded up on this level and even if there was another exit not boarded up we won't be able to get through."

"So what do we do then?"

"We probably won't be able to leave until we deal with this ghost ourselves," Mabel can hear the nervousness creeping up in Dipper's voice.

"Shouldn't be too hard," Mabel says to help ease his anxiety, even though she realizes that it's probably not going to be easy, "you've been really good at this ghost hunting thing so far."

Dipper lets out a nervous laugh, "Somehow I don't think this ghost will be satisfied by an embarrassingly childish song and dance and Pacifica was the one who saved us all at the Northwest Manor, not me."

"Well, she couldn't have done it without you," Mabel points out, "and this time you have me. So what do we need to do?"

"We have to find out what she wants and if possible give it to her," he explains, "it's usually some unfinished business or something like that that keeps them here, but not always. And we might not be able to give her what she wants."

"So then what do we do if that's the case?"

Dipper sighs, "There are spells and exorcisms we can try, but I think she's too strong for that, we might be able to trap her in a silver mirror, that might work but…if it doesn't it will only make her angry."

"We'll leave that as a plan B then."

"We're in way over our heads," Dipper laments.

"Not the first time and it won't be the last," Mabel shrugs, ignoring the incredulous look he gives her, "but you and me, we're an unstoppable team, remember? If we can handle Bill Cipher, we can handle anything."

There's a pause and then Dipper grins, "You're right, we are an unstoppable team."

"So, you're the one who's over-prepared. Have anything in your backpack that can help?"

"I wouldn't say I'm over-prepared," Dipper sighs, "otherwise I would've been prepared for a level 10 but all I have is some stuff that's really only strong enough for a level 8..."

"Yeah, you said that already but maybe we can use that to buy time or something? Or maybe using a combination of stuff might work?"

"Maybe" Dipper sits on a bench by the door and rummages through his backpack, "if a ghost comes along we might be able to defend ourselves with some Holy Water...or we might just make her angry...actually everything in here might just make her angry."

"I guess we'll just have to find out what she wants and try and help her," Mabel shrugs.

"And hope she doesn't try to kill us in the process?"

"Yep. I'm thinking that if she's the ghost of Elizabeth Hartwell, maybe she just needs a friend. I mean she went through a lot when she was alive. Dead mother, dead husband, dead child and everyone hating her and blaming her…"

"A tragedy in life that is a perfect recipe for a vengeful and dangerous spirit."

"Or not," Mabel adds, "we don't know if she's dangerous or evil or anything."

"She seemed pretty evil down in the basement, she gave me a bad feeling, hopeless and terrifying, didn't she with you?"

"Yeah," Mabel concedes, "but maybe we're just misinterpreting her sadness, or maybe it's because she thinks we're just like the people who betrayed her in the past…"

"Maybe," Dipper sighs, but then he smiles, "you really do see the good in everyone, don't you?"

"You know it," Mabel grins back, "at least I try to. But if we try and show her that we just want to help, maybe this won't be so bad, even if she is at a level that's off the charts in strength."

Suddenly the temperature of the room drops and their flashlights begin to flicker and they both freeze. They huddle close together when their flashlights go out completely, bathing them in almost total darkness except for the faint glow of the moon outside peeking through the dusty boarded up windows.

"It's OK!" Mabel says, taking off her backpack to blindly rummage through it, "You're not the only one prepared!"

"What do you have?"

"Glow sticks if I can find them! Thought they would be fun while trick or treating!" Mabel exclaims, "But I can't see anything…kind of ironic. I need a light to find more light! I can't see a thing!"

Dipper moves in front of Mabel protectively, shaking his flashlight to try and get it to work but it won't do anything. "Me neither."

"Wait, I know! Use the Force Dip!"

"Huh?" Dipper exclaims, looking around for any signs of a ghost.

"Your light sabre."

"It runs on batteries too," Dipper says, grabbing the prop in his costume, "if it's something supernatural that made our flashlights go out then it might not…" he flicks it on and the room is bathed in an eerie green glow, "…work." He waves the light sabre around, and they both gasp when they see a dark shadow on one side of the room where the light can't seem to touch.

There's no distinguishable features to this entity other than its humanoid shape, but Dipper senses the same sort of dark, unsettling and ominous feeling as he did in the basement.

Keeping Mabel behind him as she rummages through her backpack, Dipper holds up his battery operated prop light sabre up as though it's the real thing, ready to fight the entity in front of them but it doesn't move, it just hovers, and though it has no discernable eyes, they both sense that it's watching them closely.

"Found them!" she declares, handing Dipper a couple of glow sticks with long strings attached to them to use as necklaces.

Dipper takes them without taking his eyes off the dark thing in front of them. He puts them around his neck but he doesn't activate them, he just holds his prop light sabre in front of him and gently pushes Mabel further back, urging her to lead the way out. She activates her glow sticks, providing a little more green and blue light and backs towards the exit that's not blocked by the ghost, pulling Dipper with her as she slings her backpack back on.

"When I say run," Dipper whispers, "run."

Mabel's about to answer but she feels an icy pressure on her injured hand that sends chills down her spine and a jolt of pain up her arm, "Dipper…" she manages to get out before she's pulled by the hand by an invisible source towards the dark shadow. She lets out a little shriek as she stumbles forward, crashing into Dipper as she's forcibly yanked forward.

"Mabel!" Dipper cries out, dropping his useless flashlight to catch her, grabbing her other wrist to pull her back.

Mabel fights the invisible force trying to pull her away, planting her feet firmly on the floor and pulling back, "Dipper…it…" she cries out, feeling like her arm is about to be torn right off from the sheer force.

"Let her go!" Dipper shouts into the darkness, dropping his prop light sabre to grab the wrist of her captive hand and lets go of her other hand and Mabel too grabs at her wrist to try and pull away. It takes the pressure of her shoulder, but now she feels like her hand is about to be yanked off from the wrist as she tries to fight the invisible threat.

Dipper tries to move in front of Mabel to shield her from whatever is trying to pull on her but he's pushed back by a similar force and knocked onto his back. The impact knocks the wind out of him and for a moment he can't move.

"Let go of me!" Mabel screams painfully, struggling to break free of the invisible grip on her hand and stay away from the dark thing still watching them unmoving. Her body jerks forward and she can't hold on anymore. "Dipper!" she cries as she's violently thrown across the room right into the clutches of the dark shadow looming on the other side of the room.

"Mabel," Dipper gasps, reaching helplessly for his sister who's now in the entity's dark grasp. Dark shadowy hands with long pointy fingers wrap around her throat, lifting her off the ground as dark wisps of shadows swirl around her, practically swallowing her in the darkness. Mabel's cries morph into desperate choking sounds as she claws uselessly at the ghostly hands strangling her.

"Mabel!" Dipper gasps, pushing himself up and scrambling to his feet as her arms go limp. Acting out of a desperate need to save his sister over logic, he retrieves his light sabre without really thinking about it and charges at the entity that has his sister in it's grip. He swings the prop at the entity yelling, "Let her go!"

The dark entity vanishes and Mabel falls to the ground, collapsing to her knees, coughing and crying and gasping desperately for breath.

"Are you OK?" Dipper asks wrapping his arm around her trembling body. She nods but she's still struggling to breathe, coughing and choking like she had just been rescued from drowning. Dipper's eyes widen when he sees the entity rematerializing a few feet away, "Come on, we have to get out of here," he exclaims, and Mabel nods again as she coughs. Since she's still shaken and weak from the attack he drapes her arm across his back and pulls her to her feet, supporting her weight when she falters faintly. Holding his sister upright he practically has to drag her as they run the opposite way out of the foyer, pushing through some large French style doors and into a large ballroom.

The ballroom is full of furniture shoved to the side of the room and covered in white sheets, and there are several doors that lead out of the ballroom. Dipper pauses a moment to take in the size and elegance to the room, imagining the types of parties it must have once held.

"Dipper," Mabel chokes out hoarsely, "it's following us."

He looks behind him and sees it hovering in the threshold of the French doors and keeps moving, dragging Mabel along with him.

The find themselves in another room and a second door leading out of it and they go through that door which leads into a room with two more exits, and more furniture covered in sheets. Dipper glances behind him and when he doesn't see the entity he leads Mabel to the tables and chairs all shoved to the side of the room and they crawl under what looks like a large dining room table so they can hide for the time being. He makes sure the white sheet is concealing them and then turns his attention to Mabel who's finally starting to catch her breath.

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah," she nods, cradling her hand to her chest, "I think so."

Dipper would believe her if he didn't hear the pain in her voice. He turns off his light sabre to lessen the light under the table so the only light is coming from the green and blue glow sticks around Mabel's neck. "You sure?" he asks.

"No," she admits breathlessly. Dipper leans in close to examine her neck in the faint light finding a slight discoloration around her neck, but there's not enough light to tell how badly it's bruised. "It wasn't that it was choking me, it was…it was like it was sucking…all the air from my lungs…at the same time so not only could I not…breathe but…" she coughs again, tipping forward weakly but Dipper catches her by the shoulders to hold her up. "I should be…OK in a minute."

"Take as much time as you need," he soothes. Peeking from a gap between two of the sheets covering the giant table Dipper looks for signs of the entity but it's too dark in the room to tell. He pulls out his backpack and rummages through it, "Here, take this," he hands Mabel what looks like a letter opener, "I borrowed this from mom and dad without asking…"

"Rebel," Mabel coughs out with a teasing grin.

"It's made of silver," he explains, "you should be able to use that to fight any spirit long enough to get away if it tries that again. Hopefully."

"Thanks," she whispers.

"I should've grabbed these from my backpack the moment we first saw that ghost in the basement," he sighs guiltily, pulling out a water bottle filled with Holy Water, "Maybe it's not enough for an entity as strong as the ones we're dealing with, but it's something."

"Yeah," Mabel coughs, tucking the silver letter opener into a hidden pocket, "definitely better than nothing. Thanks broseph!" With her now free hand she massages her wrist with a slight grimace. She glances at the palm of her hand and frowns when she sees the gauze soaked with blood.

"I knew you shouldn't have come," Dipper laments, taking her hand to inspect the damage, "Looks like that cut reopened."

"And leave you to face that thing alone? I don't think so!" Mabel exclaims, and then glances at her hand, "I think the attack made it worse. It really hurts, my whole arm…now I know what the rope in a game of tug of war feels like."

"I don't have a lot of gauze left for your hand," Dipper says apologetically, as he unwraps it, "this will be the last of it." He uses the excess of her used bandage to press against her palm to slow the bleeding again as she lets out a small whimper, and he cringes at the sight of the bruising forming around her wrist, knowing that came from him.

"It's not your fault," Mabel tells him, sensing his guilt, "you were trying to save me. And you did save me. With a toy light sabre."

"Who knew that would work against a ghost?" Dipper chuckles, but there's a manic underlying anxiety behind his attempt at levity.

"The Force is strong with you, young Padawan," Mabel jokes.

Dipper lets out a small laugh, appreciating her effort to break some of the tension but then he gets serious, "More like sheer willpower and determination. Two months ago I nearly lost you. Twice. I'm not letting that happen again."

"That's why you didn't want me to come, isn't it?"

"What? Why would you think I didn't want you to come with me?"

"You basically said so when you kept insisting I go trick or treating without you," Mabel rolls her eyes.

"Because I knew that's what you really wanted to do tonight," Dipper replies, "I was giving you an out."

"And yet you kept insisting even though I made it clear that we're in this together, Mystery Twin style," Mabel huffs.

"OK, maybe I was, am, worried about something bad happening to you," Dipper admits, "but after Weirdmageddon, can you blame me? You were missing for four days; Bill Cipher was going to kill you."

Mabel glances away guiltily, "But he didn't because of Grunkle Stan."

"Why do you always do that?" Dipper asks gently.

"What?"

"Every time I mention Weirdmageddon you act as though it was your fault."

Mabel stiffens, "Do we have to talk about this now?"

Dipper sighs, a little frustrated because they haven't really talked about what happened. In a way they both went on as though the world didn't nearly end, at least on the surface. But as time goes on it's becoming harder and harder to act like nothing happened. For the first week or so after they were still too happy that they succeeded and that Bill was gone and everyone was more or less OK to let the implications really sink in. But then they did and that's when the nightmares started.

Almost every night since, Dipper dreamt of that horrible week, and almost every night the dreams ended the same: with Mabel's death. If it wasn't the dream where he failed to save her from her bubble prison which Bill destroyed with her still trapped inside, it was the one where Stan was too late to stop Bill from killing her after he chose her with his game of Eenie Meenie Miney Moe of Death. And then there are the dreams where Bill comes back… those ones are the worst because it's not depicting a false history, but a future possibility. Maybe. Ford said that interdimensional demons are almost impossible to destroy forever, though the likelihood is that if Bill does return, it won't be for another thousands of years. Hopefully.

But it's not just Dipper who has the nightmares. Sometimes he'll wake up in a cold sweat only to hear his sister in the next room in the throes of her own nightmare. They'll help each other get back to sleep and ease their nighttime fears, but they never talk about it. For Mabel it's never the right time or she'll change the subject in a hurry, but to be fair, most of the time Dipper doesn't really want to talk about it either.

"It wasn't your fault. It was an accident, OK? The Rift was already cracking and you took my backpack by mistake. It could've just as easily have broken while it was in my possession, that wouldn't mean it was my fault and it doesn't make it yours," Dipper tells her, putting more pressure on the cut on Mabel's hand.

Mabel flinches and closes her eyes, a tear falls down her cheek, "Can we maybe discuss then when we're not hiding from some murderous ghost?"

"Yeah, but we're going to have to face it sooner or later."

"I know," she says quietly.

Dipper peels back the bloody gauze to look at the wound and his eyes widen at the sight.

"What's…?" Mabel starts to ask but then she too looks at her cut palm and gasps, "What the…?"

There's no longer one gash across her palm, there's another one now, another gash about the same length joining the first one to make a bloody V.

"It must have done that during the attack," Mabel muses.

"You didn't notice it?"

"I was a little too preoccupied…"

Dipper shrugs, not seeing any reason to argue with that logic, but he takes a shaky breath, panicking a little inside. He wraps Mabel's hand again, "There," he murmurs, "that should hold."

"Thanks. Again."

"Don't mention it," he leans in close, not liking how shaky she looks or how her voice is starting to get a little hoarse, "Are you feeling any better?"

"A little," she nods, smiling at him but in the faint light from the glow sticks around her neck, Mabel's eyes tell a different story, but he can't tell if the hurt in her eyes is from the ghost attack or the touchy subject of Weirdmageddon or maybe both.

"Don't worry, I'm going to get you out of here," Dipper promises, taking off the protective necklace Ford and Stan had given him and Mabel and draping it over her head.

"Dipper, what are you doing?" Mabel asks, trying and failing to keep him from putting it on her.

"One protective necklace is obviously useless against these ghosts, but maybe if you wear both of them, they won't be able to hurt you again," Dipper explains.

"And what about you?" Mabel demands.

"Better one of us is protected than neither of us," Dipper shrugs, "I'll be fine."

"Dipper, I know you want to protect me, but not if it means sacrificing yourself," Mabel takes it off and hands it back to him, "I don't want it. Maybe one is useless, but it's better than nothing. I don't know how these are supposed to work, but what if the only reason you were able to get rid of that ghost and save me is because we have them? Maybe they gave us a fighting chance."

Dipper sighs, knowing she has a point.

"I'm OK, bro-bro," Mabel continues, "stop worrying so much. It's going to give you wrinkles before you're twenty, I swear."

He chuckles at that, putting the necklace back on, "OK, OK, fine."

"So, what's the plan?" Mabel asks.

Dipper peeks through the sheet but doesn't see anything, nor does he have that creepy feeling of being watched, "I think we're safe right now, and I think I remember how I can make a ghost trap…maybe. But I don't have what I need in my backpack. So much for being over-prepared..."

"OK so what do you need?"

"Do you have any chalk or markers on you by any chance?"

"Are you kidding?" she lights up, digging through her bag, "How long have we known each other?"

"Um, we're twins so literally our entire lives?"

"And yet you still have to ask," Mabel teases pulling out a box of sidewalk chalk, "Silly goose! You of all people should know that I never leave home without some emergency art supplies. I just so happened to do some sidewalk art today at school for Halloween."

"Mabel this is perfect!" Dipper exclaims.

"Thanks!"

"OK," he says, handing her the bottle of Holy Water, "I think I remember what the trap's supposed to look like, you keep watch while I draw, OK?"

"OK!"

Dipper peeks out into the dining hall again and tentatively leaves their hiding place. When he determines it's safe he motions Mabel to follow. She climbs out and watches around the room as Dipper draws a large circle on the floor and then adds some symbols inside the circle, like a crude but kind of creepy mandala. He pauses a moment as he tries to remember something, frowning when he sees he made a mistake and uses his hand to erase the markings.

Mabel occasionally watches her brother work as she watches for signs of a ghost and tenses when she feels a chill. "Dipper…"

"I think I almost got it," he says, "If I can just remember...oh yeah!" he scribbles another symbol onto the floor.

"Dipper…it's back."

He looks up from his handiwork, glancing around worriedly before following Mabel's line of sight, seeing the dark shadow forming in the threshold of one of the exits to the room. Mabel glances towards another door and gasps and Dipper looks to see the woman from the basement, presumably Elizabeth Hartwell. She points at them and the dark shadow glides closer to them.

Dipper scribbles furiously on the floor and pulls Mabel to stand beside him on the opposite side of the circle as the dark figure heading for them. When it reaches the circle it stops. Long arms bang on an invisible force field surrounding it, trapping it within the confines of the circle and they both cringe at an unearthly growl that fills the room.

The ghost in the black veil opens her mouth and screams, the twins both collapse, covering their ears at the sound as a powerful wind swirls around the room, pushing them back. Dipper glances to the side and sees an open door on the opposite side of the room as the ghost woman. He grabs Mabel's arm and pulls her with him as he tries to fight the wind and reach it but suddenly he feels a supernatural tug and he's yanked away from Mabel and lifted by a supernatural force into the air.

"Dipper!" Mabel cries reaching for him.

"Mabel get out of here!" he yells, pointing to the door. She looks behind her and shakes her head but before he can argue an incredible pain pulses through him. Like he's being struck by lightning or something and he let's out a scream, suspended in the air and writhing in pain.

"Let him go!" Mabel screams at the ghost, "Leave him alone!"

The woman in the veil smiles wider and Dipper feels like he's going to be torn apart.

"OK! I will!" Mabel snaps, "Just let him go! Don't hurt him!"

"Mabel what are you doing?" he chokes out when Mabel heads for the circle.

"Let him go first!" she hisses and Dipper suddenly drops to the floor with a hard thud. He wraps his arm around his stomach, feeling like he's going to throw up as he gasps for air, watching in disbelief as Mabel kneels down by the circle and with the sleeve of her dress erases part of the circle.

"What are you doing? No Mabel! Don't!" he begs but he's too late. The dark shadow of a ghost is freed and wraps it's arms around Mabel who struggles to get away.

Dipper tries to get up but his body won't cooperate, "Mabel!"

"Take that you non-corporeal Jerkface!" Mabel hisses, swiping at the ghost with the silver letter opener, brandishing it like a sword. It dissipates long enough for Mabel to run. She grabs Dipper's hand and pulls him to his feet and together they run into the next room but stop in their tracks when they see that unlike the other elaborate rooms on the main floor, this one doesn't have another exit to escape through, not even a window.

"Oh crap," Dipper says with a wince, still aching and weak from the attack as they twirl around to see the woman in the black veil standing in the threshold of the room, smiling her unnaturally wide and sinister smile. He holds Mabel's hand tighter, standing protectively in front of her as they back away from her.

"What now?" Mabel asks.

Dipper's about to answer but then the woman ghost raises her arms and he and Mabel both are lifted off the floor and pulled apart. When he's torn from his grip on Mabel's hand he reaches for her anyway, but it's useless.

The ghost glides closer to them and studies them a moment with hunger in her eyes.

"Please, leave him alone," Mabel begs, in the faint glow of the light around his sister's neck he can see she's crying. The woman turns to her, her eyes narrowing in fury. She clenches her fists and Dipper feels a pressure on his throat and he and Mabel both begin to choke. "You've…got it wrong!" Mabel gasps breathlessly as she struggles against the invisible hold around her throat, "We don't want…to hurt you! We…want to… help you!"

The ghost cocks her head curiously, and releases her fists, easing the tight grip around their necks. Mabel falls to the floor, collapsing to her knees but she looks up at her sincerely, "Yes, I mean it. I want to help you, just let us go."

"Mabel, what are you doing?" Dipper asks, still hovering in the air, "Is she speaking to you? What's she saying?"

"Wait," Mabel says to him in surprise, "You mean you can't hear her?"

Dipper shakes his head but Mabel turns her attention back to the ghost still holding him.

"What do you want?" she asks. There's a pause and Mabel nods slowly, "Let him go first." There's another pause. "I said let him go first!" she snaps with a ferocity that's rare from her.

Dipper's eyes widen at the one sided exchange he's seeing, and he doesn't like it. "M-Mabel…what are you…?"

His words are silenced when once again he can't breathe and the pain returns, pulsing through his nerves and making him scream in agony. This time it's worse than before and he's not sure how much longer he can last.

"Stop!" Mabel snaps, "Don't hurt him anymore!" A pause, "Fine! But stop hurting him!"

The ghost looks away from Mabel and flashes a crooked, sinister grin at him before she flicks her wrist and Dipper is tossed like a ragdoll into the wall. He collapses to the floor, coughing and shaking from the residual pain and weakness left behind from the attack.

"Mabel…don't…"

"It's OK Dipper," she says with a smile, trying to look confident and reassuring but Dipper can tell she's scared, "right now, she just wants to talk."

Dipper glances back at the ghost who looks him in the eyes as he struggles to move, determined to get to Mabel who's now on the opposite side of the room from him. He can see in the eyes of the ghost in the black veil a far more malicious intent.

"No…" he whispers, shakily pushing himself to his knees, wondering what exactly the ghost wants and what Mabel really agreed to, unable to shake the feeling that she's walking right into a trap, "Mabel d-don't listen to her…"

The woman ghost glances his way, glaring at him as she waves her hand and Dipper's overwhelmed with weakness, his eyes going heavy as he sinks to the floor and everything goes black.

A/N Thanks for reading, please leave a review! It always makes my day and I always like to know who's all out there reading my stories. Any kind of criticism is welcomed and I would love to know what you guys think. Any thoughts or theories you'd like to share? You guys are the best! Until next time!