The light-hearted, contagious laughter of Wendy Corduroy filled the Oceanside. As she frolicked down the beach, the young teenage girl soaked up the atmosphere, taking in all of the delights of nature. She sighed in delight at the sight of the sun setting against a redden backdrop. A gentle wind carefully caressed her pale, freckled body, which was now outfitted in a lime-green tank top and cut-off jean shorts. Wendy's lengthy red hair flew freely behind her lanky figure. The grains of sand massaged the soles of her feet as she gamboled down the path.
Wendy thought to herself about how pleasant the natural scenery was. As much as she adored the setting of Gravity Falls (especially the woodland areas she memorized like the back of her hand), this special place had its own unique sense of beauty. She had never been this close to the ocean, and for this, wanted to take every opportunity to enjoy it.
With a dimpled smile plastered across her face, Wendy began to sprint down the sandy path. After gaining enough speed, she turned and performed cartwheel after cartwheel. Sand sprayed out under her limbs as she spun. After a few rolls, Wendy ended with a backflip. She bounced slightly as she landed, raising her head with arms aimed towards the multi-colored sky. Wendy posed like a dismounting gymnast, trying to maintain her pose with a single foot slightly lifted off the ground. The spunky redhead giggled hysterically at her own silliness. Wendy fell to the sandy floor while chuckling all the way, and continued to stare at the setting sun.
She sighed contently at her surroundings, "I wish…I wish I could stay here forever…"
As if her prayer was answered, a voice echoed throughout the empty, serene terrain.
"That my dear…can be easily arranged…"
Wendy raised her head, trying to find the source of the sound, "Huh?!" Was her imagination playing tricks on her mind?
Without warning, Wendy could feel the sand shift beneath her body! The cozy little spot she had picked out for herself was trying to swallow her whole! Wendy grunted in vain, trying to push herself up with her hands and feet, but she couldn't gain enough balance to prop herself up. As she continued to fall through the sinking pit, she asked herself, "Did I stumble into some type of quicksand?" She moaned and strained trying to stay above the surface to no prevail. Crazy thoughts flashed through the frightened fifteen-year-old's mind:
"This is it! I'm a goner! I'm going to sink to the bottom of the beach! No one's ever going to find me out here!"
As her anxiety forced tears to her green eyes, Wendy was quickly stunned as precipitously, something stopped her descend into the earth. Taking a minute to catch her breath, the lanky teen closed her eyes, and let out a loud sigh of relief.
"It must have been a small sinkhole or something like that…" she speculated to herself. "Thankfully, it probably doesn't even go all the way to the bottom!"
Trying to further calm herself, Wendy took a good look at her current state. She was now shoulder deep into the grainy environment. She tried to raise her arms to pull herself out, but the heavy sand weighed down heavily upon her slender frame. Wendy glanced to her side to see that her hands remained above the ground, yet the sand was so tightly packed around her wrists, she was barely able to wiggle them around. She wasn't even able to set them flat on the sandy earth. The same thing occurred with Wendy's feet, as she was able to see them sticking out further down. The beach line held her ankles just as firmly, preventing her from kicking her way to freedom. Only her digits were able to move freely without any restriction.
As a level of panic rose into her chest, Wendy attempted to turn her head to further analyze her plight. Part of her was still in a state of disbelief over her current predicament. It was as if the beach that she had openly admitted affection for had somehow opened up, captured her in its grasp, and refused to let her go! While going over the impossibilities of the circumstances, Wendy caught an image in the corner of her eye that made her faintly smile, giving her heart a splash of hope:
Further down the beach, a young woman dressed in a long, white dress stood at the foot of the moving current. As her long, red hair was caressed by the night breeze, it made Wendy think of her own features.
"HEY!" Wendy cried out. "Over here!" The young ginger silently pleaded that this person would hear her calls for assistance. Miraculously, the mysterious female turned towards Wendy's direction. "YES!" the entrapped teen cheered as the figure slowly traveled towards her. Oddly enough, the shadow of her locks hid the details of her face. As her rescuer came closer, Wendy excitedly started to explain her position.
"Thank heaven you heard me! Listen, I have no idea what's going on. One second, I'm playing on the beach, and the next, it was like the ground swallowed me up!" The girl shuffled her trapped hands and feet to demonstrate her helplessness. "So, please…" Wendy requested with an embarrassed grin on her face, "Can you help me get outta here?"
The white-dressed girl moved closer, answering Wendy with a few chuckles of her own. "I'm afraid not, my dear…"
Wendy raised an eyebrow as the being lowered herself to meet the ensnared juvenile. "Actually, I have you exactly where I want you!"
As Wendy looked up at the face of the gloating person standing before her, she gasped and let out a shriek of pure terror. Struggling to break free of the sandy trap, Wendy stuttered out a few words in confusion.
"Who are you?!"
Wendy couldn't turn away (literally) from her supposed captor. Despite the similar body-build, this thing had a truly monstrous form! The girl had a sickly bluish tone to her skin. Her eyes were black rounded with piercing red pupils locked on its defenseless prey. The creature's mouth, complete with missing teeth and bone structure, reeked of the decay of death. Upon seeing Wendy's fright, it forced its gray coated lips into a sinister smile.
"What are you?!"
The ghostly girl pulled back. "All will be explained in due time…but it is you who will be helping me, Gwendolyn!"
The insulted teen narrowed her green eyes at the ghoul before her, "It's "Wendy" to you, creep! And how do you know my name?"
The monster's grimace only widen at Wendy's agitation. "Oh, I know lots of things about you…." She turned, slightly glancing at the pinned teen. "You see, you and I aren't so different when you think about it. For this, you are the prime example to help me regain what was unjustly taken from me!"
Wendy only became more confused by these words. "What do you mean, 'help you?' 'Help you' with what?"
"With my life…" the creature hissed at the inquisitive teen. "You WILL aid me in restoring me to life!"
The haunting words sent a chill flying down Wendy's spine. Despite this, she decided to put up a brave front.
"Look, I'll make you a deal…" Wendy tried to bargain. "…get me out of this, and I promise I won't cream you when I get up! Okay?"
The blue-dyed girl laughed at Wendy's threat. "Oh, my little darling! You are still acting like you actually have a choice in the matter!"
"LET ME OUTTA HERE! RIGHT NOW!"
The wicked presence crossed her arms and shook her head, "You still don't get it, do you?" She lifted her white dress as she lowered herself to her knees. "Think about it. Sure, everything's lovely; just the way you'd always imagined it, but how exactly did you get here? Where is here, anyways? "
Wendy started to shout back, but stopped herself upon pondering about her kidnapper's words. "I…I don't know…"
"Exactly! We are in your mindscape, where I have turned one of your greatest fantasies into your worst nightmare! In an ironic sense, this is a prison of your own making!"
"So, this is a dream, right? You're not real! This isn't real!"
"It's real enough…for example…" The creepy phantom stopped in the middle of her speech, and simply stared out into the distance.
Wendy tried to look around to see what she was referring to, "What are you talking – "
Swiftly, a cold wave of salt water splashed Wendy in the face. The gingered teen forced herself to cough all of the water out of her lungs. After a minute of gagging in desperate attempts to collect oxygen, Wendy looked up at the monster kneeling in front of her.
"Quite a pity that you're so close to the rising tide…I'd say give it a half-hour or so, and you'll be completely submerged underwater! " The sinister person laughed at Wendy's peril, "I guess the beach isn't that lovely anymore, is it?"
Wendy strained her entire body, hoping for an opening or bit of slack that would allow her to fight her way to freedom. If anything, the water made the sand holding her hostage harder and somewhat much heavier. Facing utter defeat, Wendy shook her head in defiance.
"This isn't real! It's just a dream! It isn't real! I'm dreaming! I'm dreaming, and I'm going to wake up any second now!"
The blue female moved closer, "You're absolutely right…except for one thing. When you die in this dream, it will be me waking up into your body! I will finally get my second chance!"
Wendy moaned to herself, "No…" She held her breath as another wave crashed violently against her. When her vision cleared, she glared up at the creature beaming down at her.
"Please…" Wendy implored, with tears gathering in her emerald eyes, "Just let me go, please? Don't do this to me, please!"
"Shh!" the monster hushed the pleading, frightened girl. She reached over and wiped away Wendy's tears. "Don't cry, now. It'll all be over soon. Besides, you don't want your tears ruining that gorgeous, dimpled, freckled face of yours. After all, it will be my face shortly!"
"Ohh…" Wendy wailed as a sickening wave of nausea flowed through her stomach. The white-covered blue skinned woman stood up and headed back down the beach path. She glanced over her shoulder at the girl she left to drown. "See you soon…"
"WAIT!" Wendy yelled as the girl seemingly vanished into thin air. "DON'T LEAVE ME LIKE THIS!" In rising dread, she observed that the person who had belittled her moments ago hadn't left any footprints in the damp sand.
As it felt like her heart was about to beat right out of her chest, Wendy continued to struggle in a frantic attempt to keep her body as her own. It was to the point that she was beginning to hyperventilate! In despair, she raised her head to the dusked sky and beseeched as loud as she could:
"SOMEONE?! ANYONE?! HELP ME, PLEASE!"
Dipper and Robbie watched in silent awe as the frozen Wendy continued to scream and holler in horrifying agony! As both males covered their ears, Dipper placed his view towards his secret love. He felt horrible that he didn't know how to save his damsel-in-distress. He also considered the irony of Wendy's painful shrieks, comparing the feeling to how she must have felt being forced to listen to Robbie's "serenading." Suddenly, something "off" caught Dipper's eye. There was a shining silver band wrapped around Wendy's neck. In its middle, a tear-shaped pendant, covered in the same green as Wendy's eyes, glowed tremendously in the pitch-black woods. Dipper wondered how did he miss that beforehand? He figured that Wendy's plaid flannel must have allowed the item to blend in naturally instead of making it obvious to notice.
Dipper tapped Robbie and pointed at the oddity on his beloved. "What is that thing?"
Robbie, slowly realizing his role in this tragedy, quickly frowned at the small boy. As Dipper hurried back to Wendy's side, he reached for the shining artifact. From behind, Robbie shouted to him, "Kid! I'm not sure that's a good idea!"
Grabbing hold of the emerald tear and trying to pull it from Wendy, Dipper turned back to Robbie, "And why's that?" All of a sudden, a surge of energy began to flow through his tiny being, making him spasm uncontrollably. In his mind's eye, a vision of a blue blur with red eyes hissed at him,
"Stay away from her! She's mine!"
With that, a jolt of electricity threw Dipper with full force back into a nearby tree. Robbie watched in shock as Dipper painfully slid down the tree trunk. Even he wasn't cruel enough that laugh at that violent display. Upon gathering his wits, Dipper woozily stumbled to balance and approached Robbie.
"There's…There's something in there with her!"
"What?!"
"I couldn't see it clearly, but there was some kind of "presence" that warned me to 'stay away' from Wendy…that she belonged to it!"
Dipper couldn't help but notice an incredibly guilty expression draped over Robbie's face.
"You…you knew about that thing, didn't you?!" Dipper, still a bit shaken, stood up to the towering goth. "You had something to do with it; am I right?"
Caught red-handed, Robbie nervously ran his hand against the back of his head, "Well…I may have…given the necklace to Wendy before you came…err…were brought here…"
Dipper crossed his arms. "And?"
"And…the guy I bought it from…might have said something about it…possibly being cursed…" Robbie smiled fretfully at the accusing pre-teen as he fumbled with his hands.
Dipper pulled at his hair in anguish, "I knew it! I just knew it!" The tween began to frantically pace back and forth, unable to control his anger. After a few moments, he focused back on Robbie, tossing his arms back in rage.
"Do you have any idea what you have done? Wendy could be lost forever because of you!"
Dipper expected Robbie to shoot back with a barrage of insults and claims of innocence, but instead found the older teen to be unusually quiet and somewhat guilt-ridden. A few instances of silence passed in which Robbie started again.
"Well, isn't there anything we can do? Maybe your encyclopedia has an article about this thing?"
Still fuming, Dipper looked up at the adolescent's saddened eyes. While he couldn't tell whenever if Robbie was trying to use the suggestion as a form of distraction to brush the negative attention away, Dipper figured that he still had a point. Wendy's sake was still the most important thing, and therefore, had to be his most important concern, regardless of who caused what.
Dipper pulled the #3 journal out of his vest sleeve once more, and progressed in exploring its contents. The more he sped-read through the countless pages of the tome, the more desperate he became about the situation at hand. At long last, Dipper finally came across a scribble that somewhat resembled the necklace that Robbie bought for Wendy.
He announced to the awaiting Robbie, "I think I found something…"
"In all the tales and legends surrounding the quaint town of Gravity Falls, there is probably not a more tragic tale than the story of young Madison Rose Davis. While she was a friend to everyone she knew, Madison was extremely unusual when compared to other early 20th century girls. Tomboyish in nature, she could easily toe-to-toe with any male in either physical or mental activity without question or hesitation. For this, she gained the friendship of two teenage boys who held her deeply in their hearts. However, they were secretly bitter rivals, constantly vying for her undivided love and affection…"
The last line struck a chord within Dipper. He looked up to see that Robbie still retained his worried and concerned façade. Was he thinking the same thing as Dipper?
"It would be this competition that would eventually lead to woe. One night, Madison had asked the boys to meet her on the old Gravity Falls Bridge so that they could all go out together for a night of fun. An hour before they had to meet her, the boys got into a huge argument over who was considered to be "the better man" for her. As one gentleman was an intellect, while the other being a more burly and active type, they clashed over every little detail, especially those involving their fair lady. They finally decided to settle everything once and for all by an automobile race.
The boys raced neck-and-neck across Gravity Falls. Moments turned into hours, and shortly, the date with Madison was quickly forgotten. The heartbroken girl waited for her friends, wondering what was keeping them. Little did she know that they were behind the dual machineries barreling down the dilapidated bridge, aimed straight for her! With nowhere to run, Madison leapt from the bridge, falling straight into the Gravity Falls River. Despite being a strong swimmer, the girl's long white dress and heavy boots weighed her down, dragging her to the murky depths. It was hours later, after the townsfolk pulled Madison's lifeless body from the cold brink, that the dueling boys realized the consequences of their selfish and ignorant ways…"
Dipper choked up reading the last paragraph. He could only imagine the pure terror that went through the poor teenager's mind as she was sentenced to a watery grave. He looked up at Robbie, whom had his hands up to his face, apparently rubbing something out of his eyes. This action made the young boy question if his gothic rival was even capable of crying. After catching his breath, Dipper finished the story:
"The strangest thing about this catastrophe was that Madison's favorite necklace, a thin silver chain with an emerald green jewel, was stated missing upon recovery of her body. Over the last hundred years, a piece of jewelry fitting this description was reported to be seen several times in Gravity Falls. Each time it had reappeared, its owner would supposedly suffer a mysterious malady. Afterwards, it would disappear into the ether once again without rhyme or reason…"
"Okay…" Dipper said, "We now know what this is. We have to learn how to stop it!" He quickly turned back a bookmarked section detailing various types of possessions. Dipper ran his index finger down the page until he found the particular passage. Upon finishing, he explained to Robbie.
"The book says that in a case of possession due to cursed items, a person can enter the mind of the possessed in order to release them from the spell." With that, Dipper turned around and headed towards his crush.
"Wait a minute, kid! Where do you think you're going?"
Dipper shifted his head to address Robbie. "Where do you think? Somebody's got to help Wendy out of this mess!" He continued onto Wendy's side.
"Well…take me with you!"
Dipper's eyes widened at the suggestion. "WHAT?!"
Robbie shuffled his feet against the cold ground, "Well, it is my fault, and she is my girlfriend! Besides, Wendy would be peeved if I let you go out there all alone!"
Thoughts of how Robbie disappeared from view while he and Wendy fought off the ghosts of the Dusk2Dawn came to mind. How could he be trusted? Still, Dipper was indeed totally alone. He didn't have enough time to go get Mabel or Soos for backup. What choice did he have?
Reluctantly, Dipper motioned towards Robbie, signaling to join him in his quest. As Dipper turned his attention to Wendy, who was now silent, except for her rapidly-increasing breathing, he could have sworn that Robbie had whispered something to him.
"Did you say something?"
Robbie turned his head at the suggestion, "Who, me? Nah…"
Standing on his tiptoes, Dipper gently reached from the band stuck on Wendy's neck. He looked at Robbie and explained the book's methodology:
"So this is the deal…the "guide" says to gently touch the accursed item. Do not pull it, or else, you'll get shocked like I did. While holding it, think of happy memories and moments involving Wendy. Keep doing so and after a few moments, you'll be inside her subconsciousness.
Robbie nodded, indicating that he understood. Reaching for Wendy's band, Dipper watched as the goth closed his liner-covered eyes (probably Wendy's, Dipper figured) and gave off a small grin. Seeing that Robbie was situated, Dipper looked back at his paralyzed friend. He, too, closed his brown eyes and thought of his happiest moments with Wendy: playing pinecone toss on the rooftop of the Mystery Shack, having Nyarf gun-dart fights throughout the entire house, laughing hysterically at their own "dubs" of the Shack's security tapes. Dipper also dreamt of the future; of the possibilities that he could hope to have with Wendy someday: movie and dinner dates, slow, lingering dances in each other's arms, staring at the brightly lit sky together while stationed on Wendy's secret spot on the roof…
A bright light appeared before Dipper's shut eyes. The young boy took a deep breath as he could feel his essence being pulled away from the forest scene…