Could it be? I am on a roll with this story! Hopefully for the longer period. This chapter is a little longer than I intended it to be, so I tried to cut down on the unnecessary bits as much as I could. Again, reviews are greatly appreciated!


Soos trembled as he walked through the dark forest, pointing his flashlight at everything and anything. He was shivering from head to toe despite his trusted employee and the two old Pines at his side showing no sign of being remotely scared of the forest around them.

The thunderstorm was gone as soon as it came, only raining for about an hour before the storm cleared out into a clear sky full of bright, shining stars. That wasn't the problem though.

Dipper and Mabel had went into that forest before the storm, and never came back. The others didn't question it until it got well dark. The twins have been out this long before, but it was unlike them to just go alone for long periods of time and not take anyone with them.

Usually Soos himself went with them, and Wendy would sometimes tag along when she wasn't busy stealing cop cars and breaking into haunted roadside stores. Sometimes they did go into the forest by themselves, but it was only for a short while. A short trek 'to The Brook and back.'

"Okay here's the plan," Ford barked, the worry in his voice so dense it could be used as the oil used to fry deep-fried-butter, at least according to Soos. "We need to find Dipper and Mabel as soon as possible, so we're gonna split up and cover more land that way."

Soos shivered just at the thought of scouting the supernatural forest at night, all alone. He wanted to object, but his best friends were missing, and it was time for the boss of the Mystery Shack to become a hero.

Soos looked around, but the other three had already darted from his side and began searching. The massive hairless gopher whimpered and started to walk blindly forward, flinching at every small sound.

The other three began to call the twins' names, their voices echoing so it seemed like the forest itself was calling for the twins. The dark forest creaked and groaned, speaking in their own language, trying to tell the search party where the siblings were.

However there was no reply to their calls. Only eerie silence.

Biting his bottom lip, Soos joined in with the calling. "Mabel? Dipper? Where are you dudes? You're freaking me out dudes!"

He waited a few minutes, but once again he was faced with silence as his answer. He subconsciously knew that neither Dipper nor Mabel would answer, however he was still disappointed when nobody answered him.

Maybe he should try another way?

"Think like Dipper," he whispered to himself, then instantly decided against it. Dipper was smarter than him about a hundred times, and Soos didn't trust himself to even pretend he matched Dipper's IQ. "Think like Mabel," he changed his mind. That he could accomplish.

Mabel had told him about 'The Brook' that she and Dipper often visited. She talked about it about as much as she talked about 80's music. Soos had never been to 'The Brook', but if he just kept thinking like them, maybe he'd manage to trace their steps?

It sounded impossible, but Soos liked to think that 'impossible' was his middle name.

"C'mon Mabel dude, were would you go?" he said to himself, closing his eyes and trying to connect to something that evidently wasn't there. He stood there, still, for a few minutes before he realised that trying to connect his brain with Mabel's got him nowhere. Sighing in defeat, Soos reopened his eyes and pointed his flashlight at his surroundings.

Suddenly something caught his eye. The bushes were leaned outward as if someone or something had walked through it. The detail was minor, but Soos had a knack for finding stuff convenient to the plot.

Giving himself a mental pat-on-the-back for finding something that at least could give him a lead, Soos pushed through the bushes and began to walk down an evident pathway, wondering how he could've missed this in the first place. Soos fixed his crescent moon fez, remembering that Mabel rambled on about 'The Brook' continuously whenever the subject of the forest came up. She used it in phrases whenever she talked. "To The Brook and back" was always a favourite of hers. It was clear. If Soos found 'The Brook' Mabel appeared so fond of, then he would find the Pines twins. Piece of cake. All he had to do was follow the footpath.

Determination pushed Soos forward as he passed thick pine tree trunk and came upon a fallen log. He sighed and was about to turn back when his flashlight caused something to shine in the light. The massive man narrowed his eyes, only to realise that it was a trail of glitter that lead over the trunk. Mabel definitely passed by here, and that meant Dipper was with her too. Now that he looked, he could clamber over it if he tried.

"I'm coming for you dudes," Soos whispered, putting the flashlight between his teeth as he jumped up, pushing himself up with his feet and dragging himself up with his arms. With one massive heave, he managed to pull himself over the fallen tree to land on the other side with a thud. Feeling a massive sense of accomplishment, Soos spat out his flashlight and continued to follow that trace of glitter.

By now he strayed far away from the other three, so far that their cries were quieter than a faint giggle of a baby. However something else drowned out those cries.

The rush of water.

Soos pointed his light at the thing what was making the noise, and found exactly the thing he was looking for. A small stream that ran faster than a little stream should ever run, gleaming silver in the torchlight. Soos instantly knew that this was 'The Brook' he was looking for.

"Dudes?" Soos tried again, looking around for any sign of movement. "Mabel? Dipper? Where are you dudes?"

Once again, the answer was just silence. They weren't here. Soos' shoulders dropped in disappointment. This was supposed to be his big break, and yet he failed them. The darkness seemed to press on him as the torch flickered, causing Soos to panic. He tapped his flashlight a few times, resuming the bright glow. Again the light bounced off of something. More glitter.

His hope renewed, Soos began to follow the thin trail of pink glitter through the forest, thanking Mabel for always leaving a trail of glitter wherever she went.

The rush of 'The Brook' died down, but Soos felt his blood run cold when he heard another sound.

Someone was breathing. It wasn't the silent, normal kind of breathing, but a heavy, raspy breathing that belonged to someone that was trying to cling onto the last threads of their life. Sort of like the creepy breathing of Bonnie and Chica in the first Five Nights At Freddy's game.

"Mabel? Dipper?" Soos asked, pushing through the bushes. "Are you here dudes?"

Soos almost dropped his flashlight when he saw the empty patch of grass, where no trees grew. There was blood everywhere, very red against the very green. It was faint, some of it washed away in the thunderstorm. What happened here? Suddenly he wished that he wouldn't find the twins in this horrible place. Please be safe, please be safe.

"This gotta be a horror video game," Soos whispered to himself, the flashlight trembling. He suddenly became fully aware of the raspy breathing that was in the background. Soos slowly turned towards the sound, shining his flashlight at where the sound was coming from.

Soos screamed louder than he ever did in his entire life.

"SOOS!?" came the others' voices, concerned and panicking.

"DUDES COME QUICK! PLEASE!" Soos yelled, tears at his eyes.

"WE'RE COMING!" Wendy's voice bellowed back.

Soos steadied himself and, dropping his flashlight to the ground, fell to his knees by the limp and tattered Mabel, laying in a pool of her own blood. It was in times like this he needed to get smart.

"Calm down Soos," he told himself sternly. "Remember what Abuelita taught you."

He touched her forehead, realising that it was ice-cold and still wet from the rain. "What happened Mabel?" he asked rhetorically, taking her in his massive arms. Maybe his massive, fat body could warm her up? His big bear-like hand tried to stop the bleeding from Mabel's head, but Mabel had already lost a lot of blood. He looked round, his eyes trying to tare through the dark night forest, but saw only dark silhouettes of surrounding trees. Where was Dipper? And what had attacked them to wound Mabel this badly?

"Soos what's going... on...?" Wendy reached him first, her voice trailing off once she saw the blood-soaked grass and the tattered Mabel in Soos' arms. "Oh my god what happened!?"

"I don't know!" Soos wailed, beginning to bawl out his eyes, hugging Mabel's cold body to himself in desperation. "She was just laying there!"

"Where's Dipper?" Wendy asked, shining her flashlight everywhere, though not seeing anything that looked like a human being. "Where is he?"

Soos' answer was the mumble of a slightly hysterical "I don't know."

The bushes rustled again as the two old men arrived at the scene. Both of them bore the same expression of horror upon seeing Mabel's limp body.

"MABEL!" Stan gasped, falling to his knees by Soos, stroking her blood-matted hair. "She's freezing! We need to get her back to the Shack."

Soos nodded his head in agreement. He always admired the protectiveness Stan felt for the kids. It was sort of the protectiveness Abuelita had for him.

"But what about the thing that attacked them?" Ford whimpered, looking in all directions with his flickering flashlight, however all he could see was trees and the darkness beyond them.

"We can't worry about that now!" Stan bellowed, dragging Soos to his feet. "We need to get Mabel back to the Shack. Poindexter and Wendy, you two need to find Dipper. He has to be around here somewhere."

Soos nodded solemnly, holding Mabel tightly in his arms. He and Stan turned back to run back to the shack while Wendy and Ford stayed there to search for Dipper. However Soos had a subconscious feeling that they wouldn't find Mabel's twin.


"Have you found him?"

Wendy and Ford had returned from the forest in the early morning. Stan looked to them in desperate expectancy, but the weighed down and disappointed faces he was greeted with proved to him that they had returned empty-handed.

The lump in Stan's throat got bigger as he saw the guilt in Ford's eyes, knowing that this went beyond what he could do. But that was the least of his worries right now.

They needed to find his nephew, because there was a very high possibility of Dipper sharing the same fate with his twin. What if he was already dead? That was something Stan did not want to think about.

"We searched the entire forest," Wendy sighed in guilt, her voice weighed down with tiredness and failure. "There was no sign of him."

Stan's mind completely exploded. What was he supposed to do? If only he had stopped them from going out, they would be alright now. Mabel was badly injured and Dipper had disappeared. What was he gonna tell their parents? What was he gonna tell himself?

"He has to be alright!" Wendy tried desperately, but the older twins stayed morbidly silent. The redhead's green eyes looked to her former boss and his twin brother in search for answers and comfort, but found none. "He has to be!"

Ford broke his silence in a quiet voice. "Where's Mabel?"

Stan managed to sigh out; "Soos is with her in the spare room."

He lead them to the spare room that once housed the body-switching electron carpet. Mabel was laying on the couch, wrapped in more blankets anyone would ever need, the fire in the fireplace blazing high to warm up the room. The bandages on her shoulder and head were already reddening, but Mabel's pale skin had gained some colour as her body temperature slowly warmed up. Her chest heaved up and down steadily, relieving Stan slightly. She was alive, but only just.

Soos looked up from where he was sitting. He expected Dipper to come with them, alive and well, but the droopy faces told him that he wouldn't see the boy. The massive man sniffed in sadness, beginning to bawl.

"How is she?" Ford asked, so hope-deprived that he barely even sounded like his old self anymore.

Soos wiped his glistening tears away as the sun began to rise, filling the room with pale amber light. "She's warming up," was all he could say.

"Maybe Mabel can tell us what happened when she wakes up?" Wendy suggested, still fighting to keep things positive and hopeful. Stan glared at her, but said nothing and just nodded.

He knew that the kid meant a lot to her, they've been through a lot together, after all. From fighting shapeshifters to surviving an apocalypse. That is how you form friendships. Stan had to admit that he felt a little bad for her. Dipper had saved her life on more than one occasion, and she felt incredibly guilty for not helping him in turn. It was exactly what Stan felt.

All he wanted was for the kids to be safe, so whoever had done this to them was going to have to say hello to his fists.

Suddenly a quiet groan made him look to the little girl. She had started to move as her eyelids flickered. Hope rose in Stan's chest. Mabel was waking up.


Mabel woke up to a pounding headache, after what felt like a thousand years or a heartbeat, she tried to recall anything that had happened. She became aware of the pain in her right shoulder and on the side of her head. What happened?

She groaned as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, finding herself in the spare room where she and Dipper had switched bodies the previous year. She was on the couch wrapped in all the blankets the Mystery Shack had to offer, the fire in the fireplace crackling comfortably, giving light and warmth. A second later she became aware of the swarm of eyes looking to her, half in horror, half in relief.

"Good morning," said Mabel, really confused on the current situation. "Why is everyone here? Are we hiding from government agents? Is the world coming to an end again?"

Stan sighed and sat down beside her. "Mabel, are you okay sweetie?" he asked gently.

Mabel blinked in surprise. "Why wouldn't I be?" She cocked her head to the side in question, only to regret it a second later. She looked to her right where the pain came from, and found the bandage on the side of her right shoulder. It was reddening with what at first Mabel thought was ketchup stains, but then it hit her.

The events of the night before all flooded back to her, making her head hurt as if someone had hit it at full force with a frying pan.

"Where's Dipper!?" she demanded, beginning to panic. "Where's my brother? Is he here? Is he safe?"

Neither Wendy, nor Ford, nor Soos could look her in the eye.

Only Stan brought himself up to tell her the terrible truth. "Mabel, Dipper's gone missing."

Mabel's heart tore itself to shreds, shattered into even smaller pieces then sank down right to the core of the earth. A high-pitched wail of grief and fury rose from Mabel's throat as she threw herself into her great uncle's arms, breaking down into hysterical sobbing. She didn't feel any better when she felt Stan's arms embrace her closer.

"This-this c-c-c-c-can't be r-r-real," Mabel wept, taking rapid breaths and trying her hardest not to make the loud noises of a bawling baby. "T-t-t-t-this is all m-my fault."

"Calm down Mabel," Stan said soothingly, careful not to touch her near-fatal injuries. "We'll find Dipper and whoever did this to you."

Mabel's reply was a huge sob. How could this happen? One moment they were on their way to The Brook, fooling around and being idiots together, then the next she...

The lump of guilt built in her throat, not letting her swallow it down. It was her fault.

She was the one who found the statue. She was the one who ignored Dipper's warning. She was the one who set him free. She was the one who caused all this.

It was all her fault.

The thing Bill had said to her last year rang through her mind, making her hate herself more and cry louder.

You ditched him when he needed you.

If Bill hadn't knocked Dipper out and left him to die like he did with Mabel, there was only one other possible thing he could've done.

He had taken him.


The sky was painted beautiful reds, oranges and yellows, as if the heavens were a massive canvas of flame. Wide leaves showered the ground in dappled shadows which moved with the breeze.

Dipper found himself stalking onwards through the bracken on four delicate paws, talons unsheathed, so sharp the setting sun glistened off them dimly. The scent of a pheasant filled his nostrils, drawing him closer. For some strange reason, his tongue licked his lips at just the mere thought of the pheasant between his teeth.

He could see it now, unsuspectingly pecking at the ground. It was so close! Dipper's long tail started to wave back and forth over the ground in steady rhythm as every muscle in his body tensed to spring.

Suddenly the pheasant bird lifted its head in alarm. It smelt him! It started to sprint away from him, sensing the threat. No!

Dipper gave an animal growl of annoyance and burst out of the cover of the plants, giving chase. His paws thundered on the ground as the world around him turned into a blur. He could feel the wind stream against him as he chased his pheasant. It darted underneath his paws and ran swiftly on for its life, Dipper hot on its tail.

The predator and the prey burst free from the forest and ran out onto black tar. It felt sharp under the paws, but Dipper was determined to catch the brown-feathered bird in front of him.

The wind got louder in his ears as he ran faster, faster and faster. Noise of an engine rose in volume with a beating heart. Dipper's eyes darted to the side to see the front of a car mere centimetres away from him and-

Dipper jerked himself awake.

He had been dreaming.

Pain was the second thing Dipper became aware of after waking up from what seemed like an eternity. Though it a split second after, the pain all over his head like it was about to split open came second to the realisation that he was laying on a tarred road covered in soft oak leaves. The Gravity Falls forest only had pine trees.

What was he doing on a forest road? Was his dream real despite his inhuman form he'd taken in his mind? Did he really get hit by that car he'd seen just before the world decided to wake him up? So many questions and not enough answers.

Dipper managed to open his heavy eyelids, though it only increased his pounding headache. His vision was blurred, not letting him see anything. His limbs felt as if they were made of lead. He lifted his hand to his forehead, trying to take his own temperature. He closed his eyes again and let out a deep groan. A few long moments passed, time slowly toning down the pounding headache. Soon, Dipper couldn't really feel it anymore, as if it was never really there in the first place. He opened his eyes again, his blurry vision trying to sharpen and let him to see clearly. He tried to get up, but neither will nor physical strength allowed him to. Finally his eyes cleared out and let him see.

He was laying on his side on a road, full of holes and in poor condition. The road itself ran through a forest, covered in a duvet of deciduous leaves. Oaks and other strong trees stretched out towards the clear blue sky. Sunlight seeped through the leaves, making everything look like a fairytale illustration.

This was not Gravity Falls.

Dipper managed to lift his heavy head and look around. There was trees wherever he looked. His noodle arms helped him to push himself up to a sitting position. The sharp tar reminded him of the road in his wild dream, pricking into the palms of his hands. He took them away instantly once he was sitting up.

"Mabel?" he called, looking around for her. "Mabel where are you?"

There was no reply. Not a living soul was seen. Dipper began to panic.

"MABEL?! WHERE ARE YOU?!" he shouted out, his heart beginning to pound hard against his chest. Then he realised that he was asking the wrong question. "Where am... I?"

The air was still and calm, yet the trees rustled and creaked like old ships. They seemed to be asking the boy what was wrong, as if they were caring strangers on the streets. Dipper had to admit, their sounds were comforting and managed to calm him down slightly, even though he didn't know that forest at all.

The boy groaned and heaved himself up to his feet, noticing how all of his wounds from his fight with Bill had magically healed themselves in the time he was unconscious. How long had he been knocked out cold? However despite his worry, Dipper managed to notice how strong he physically felt. It was like all the unnecessary weakness had drained out of him, leaving behind only liquid steel.

Suddenly a familiar voice screamed in horror. It was Bill's scream. Dipper snapped his head round, and noticed a flash of gold behind the dense bushes. Of course the demon would have something to do with it. Dipper bit his lip, a thousand questions racing through his mind as he left the road and pushed through the bushes to see Bill leaning against a tree, his fists curled against the bark, his head hung in horror and disbelief.

The first question Dipper wanted to ask was if Bill knew where they were, but his tongue became twisted with confusion and what came out was "is something wrong?"

Bill echoed his question emotionlessly, then turned round to snarl- "OF COURSE SOMETHING'S WRONG! LOOK AT ME! I'M A HUMAN! AN ACTUAL HUMAN!"

Dipper blinked, for a split second not understanding why being human was such a bad thing. Then it occurred to him that humans didn't possess the multi-dimensional powers that Bill used to have, and humans could be killed easily while the demon was a being of pure energy and had no weaknesses.

Bill took a few deep breaths to calm down from his emotional eruption and relaxed himself with great conscious effort.

"Why wasn't it you?" Bill asked, taking a few steps towards the smaller boy. "Why?"

Still Dipper didn't have any clue what Bill was talking about. "My brain just spun a wheel of chance to figure out what you've just said," Dipper told him, shaking his head and crossing his arms. "Stop talking in riddles and get to the point."

Bill tutted with disappointment. "Here I thought you were smart enough to figure out riddles like that-" he snapped his fingers. "But as you wish Pine Tree. Why wasn't it you who shook my hand?"

"What difference would it've made?" Dipper spat, curiosity biting at him with this revelation.

Bill's shoulder sagged as he gave him the most unimpressed look he could've ever pulled.

"Oh what the hell, you're bound to find out anyway." He straightened himself and tried to regain his cool. "Do you honestly think all the symbols have the same amount of power? Did you really think the symbols I've mainly interacted with were a mere coincidence? Think Pine Tree, did you ever see me manipulate Shooting Star or Question Mark as I've done with you and Sixer?"

Dipper opened his mouth to protest, but found that he didn't have anything to say on that subject, so he closed it again.

"Shooting Star isn't a powerful symbol, quite common, actually," Bill took Dipper's silence as the cue to keep talking. "When she shook my hand, I took what little power she had to break free, but I had to resort to taking the same form as she had- a human. Now you-" he gave Dipper a hungry look. "If you had shaken my hand instead of your stupid sister, I would be out there now, making the world mine."

His words caused a shiver to go through Dipper as if some beast dragged ice-cold claws down his spine. The brown-haired boy forced himself to hold Bill's gaze to show him he wasn't scared of him anymore. He had beat him in a one-on-one fight, and at least that boosted what little confidence he had.

"But I didn't shake your hand," he pointed out harshly. "And I never will."

"You sure?" Bill shrugged and broke the mini-staring contest between them. "Fact it will be tough to find another Pine Tree, since those guys are always animals, but there are many other symbols that can grant me the power I need to get rid of... whatever this meatsack is."

Clearly his human form had taken a huge emotional impact on the demon, causing him to drop his guard and freak out. Dipper had never seen Bill be on edge like this, always so confident... Always so strong... Always knew what he was doing... Always knew what to say.

Sighing to ease of the awkwardness, Dipper finally loosened himself and looked back to the road behind him. "Where are we?" Finally he asked the one question he'd been meaning to ask.

However Bill's reaction was something he did not expect. "Do I look like I would know?" he snapped coldly, walking back and forth to ease an apparent uneasiness in his heart. "I was stuck in the mindscape for the entire time this dimension existed, do you think I'm an expert in geographical knowledge?"

Bile rose in Dipper's throat, anger beginning to boil inside his stomach. He didn't even try to convince himself that it was hunger bubbling to remind him that he needed to eat. "What do you mean you don't know? This happened because of you!"

"Calm down Pine Tree," said he. "I'm afraid half of the responsibility falls on you."

More fuel had been added to the boiling kettle of rage. "What do you mean it's half my fault? Where's Mabel? And what happened for us to end up like this?"

Bill took off his hat to dust it off and put it back on his head again. "You ask too many questions for your own good. Maybe you can tell me why we ended up here and not any other specific place in the world?"

"Do you seriously think I have any clue what happened in the last five minutes?"

Arguing wasn't Dipper's strong point, however he had gained practise from experience with Mabel, Stan and even Pacifica. He hated Bill with a passion, and that hate was now leaking out of him like water out of a tap. Dipper clenched his jaw so hard he thought his teeth would break off. Bill seemed more relaxed, but he was more on edge than Dipper was, evidently, it was like he feared something.

"You know what? I don't need you to get back to Gravity Falls," Dipper snapped after Bill called him a little kid. "Good riddance."

He began to pad away to follow the forest road he woke up on, but suddenly something grasped his neck and pulled it violently back as if Dipper was wearing a leash. Dipper choked and took a step back to ease the strangulation. He looked back, only to see a long chain of pure white electricity wrapped around his own neck, the electricity chain tensed as the other side linked to none other than Bill Cipher.

Both boys had the same expression of terrified surprise on their faces as they stared at each other in silence, not knowing what to say. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened.

They were chained together by some sort of curse.

Bound to each other.