Okay, I decided to be generous and upload it earlier, so here is the next chapter! Nothing much to say, except that some things are implied, and some other things...happen.
Note: This is the only chapter I'm posting earlier. The rest of the story will continue this summer, so enjoy this while you can.
So anyway, you know the usual stuff, a special shout-out to Extreme Light 9, read and enjoy.
Last Time, on "Trapped in the Closet"
"Yes, and it would be nice of you if spread the word to your friends." replied the Blue Eye. Light blue electricity surrounded the eye and he briefly flashed into...the Golden Eye itself, bleeding and looking with malicious intent. "You can't trust the Golden Eye. Now go!"
Startled by the Eye's sudden shouting, Wendy went inside the purple shack as fast as she could and shut the door once she was inside, the Golden Eye replacing the Blue Eye shortly afterwards. The Golden Eye then looked...relieved and happy at the purple shack.
"Everybody is in." and then he sensed...something, approaching. "Except for one."
The Golden Eye turned to see the figure arrive, and the eye quickly changed between his normal self and a bleeding eye as a pair of arms sprouted from the wall, the eye laughing as the arms reached for the figure.
(At the Purple Shack, with Dipper and Mabel)
The mystery twins were walking around the room, Dipper reading "3" while Mabel looked at the doors, each which had a bleeding eye in it. They were currently looking for the door that could lead them to either Wendy or Soos, without much success.
"Memory Phantoms are pretty much what their name implies: phantoms that can provide a memory to the user." read Dipper. "They are usually known to either jump or do something else at the one who found them, only to give them either a premonition or vision of the past."
The boy stopped once he briefly glanced at his sister and he found something...unusual: she looked a bit worried.
"What's bothering you, Mabel?" inquired Dipper. "You have been silent ever since we freed that tourist, and knowing how loud you can be, I'm getting a bit worried. If what's bothering you is the description of the Memory Phantoms then don't worry, I believe we won't meet any of them here."
"I just don't know, Dipper." replied Mabel. "I get the feeling something's not quite right about this place. I feel like it is a bit...fake."
"I get that feeling too." said Dipper. "Anyway, let's just hope the trip across this place doesn't take too long. Staying longer than expected in this "closet" is bad enough, but I get the feeling the longer we stay here the more likely it is that-"
And then the lights went off, the twins heard some murmuring, Mabel turned on her light bulb sweater and they turned...to see a pair of phantoms of themselves sitting at a table, and kissing.
"We'll see disgusting stuff like that." remarked Dipper as Mabel tried to stop herself from barfing. "Come on, let's keep going."
"That was horrible and disgusting, it was horrisgusting." added Mabel before she followed her brother.
The twins went to one of the doors and went through it, the eye on it briefly turning golden as it closed.
(With Dipper)
The boy crashed with something, since the light coming from Mabel's sweater had mysteriously turned off. He clapped twice and the lights in the room turned on, letting the boy see that his sister was nowhere to be seen. There were also blood stains and skeletons laying on the floor, but by this point they had become common sightings, so he wasn't particularly surprised by them.
"Mabel?" uttered Dipper, who looked around as he continued. "I'm pretty sure we entered the same room. Don't worry, Mabel, I'll find you!"
The boy looked for his sister around the room, but the only thing he managed to find... was a version of himself, but badly beaten and wearing a lamb costume. Seeing that, Dipper felt compelled to walk towards it, though he made sure to not startle the other him, he had enough things to worry about and he didn't need something new to worry about!
So he slowly went towards this mysterious Doppelganger, who stood still as the boy approached...approached...approached...
And then, when Dipper was close enough, the other Dipper suddenly looked at the boy and leaped straight for him, letting out a horrifying screech as he attacked Dipper...and the boy received a "vision".
(Forest of Gravity Falls, Dipper's P.O.V.)
Okay, I probably should have seen that coming, but at least that other me didn't cause any permanent damage...but now that I think about it, why do I feel different?
I looked down and saw that my legs were...longer than usual, not to mention that I was now wearing brown pants and black shoes. I then looked at my arms, which were also longer than usual and my left one was holding an axe, and I saw that I was wearing a yellow shirt now.
Geez, as if my fashion sense wasn't mock-worthy enough.
So anyway, I noticed a mirror and walked towards it...without moving my body. I didn't knew that was possible! Oh wait, it isn't, so something is definitely wrong.
Which I soon noticed once I looked at my reflection. What I saw was a man with brown eyes and brown hair, nothing wrong there, though the hair was probably a bit too long. What I noticed was wrong, however, was when this "man" softly hit his forehead...and a metallic sound was heard.
Am I inside a robot or something?
So anyway, the man walked to a partially cut tree and continued to cut it...before he heard something nearby. That something came from the bushes, where a giant Gremloblin with a top hat and a pair of glasses appeared! I would be laughing a bit if I wasn't scared!
And in response, the guy...did...nothing...
Wait what?! Why Isn't this guy fleeing for his life?! I can't really do anything since I'm inside his body and I have no control, so It's up to you to flee, man! It's really simple: Tell the darn creature to get lost and flee for your life, whoever you are!
But no, the owner of this body stood still and watched helplessly as the creature's eyes became yellow...and then...
...
...
...
...
AAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHH!
MY HEAD! IT BURNS! T-The Gremloblin's eyes effect-AAAAGH! I-I don't know if this was planned, but it apparently backfired and now...I...I can read the Gremloblin's mind? He has fears, he has hate, he remembers the entirety of a vampire movie-poor guy-but he also has memories of the mind's of previous victims to the creature's eyes... and I'm reading them too-OHGODTOOMUCHMEMORIESMAKEITSTOP!
Why can I read the creature's mind? Why can I read the minds inside the creature's mind? Why did this happen in the first place?! Why does he have so many memories inside his head?! HOW LONG UNTIL MY MIND BREAKS IN TWO FROM SO MUCH MEMORIES?!
WHAT IS GOING ON?!
(Back in reality, no P.O.V.)
Dipper woke up in the same room as before, with his other "him" nowhere to be seen, and no trace to where he could have gone. He didn't pay attention to this, however, so he simply got up and adjusted his hat before he spoke.
"Well, I don't know what that was about, but I'm glad it finished before my mind broke in two. And most importantly, it happened for a reason." thought the boy. "What was I doing before that?...Oh right, Mabel!"
Having remembered his top priority, the boy continued to search through the doors.
(With Mabel)
Mabel arrived at another room and this time she managed to avoid some obstacles, obviously thanks to her light bulb sweater. However, she soon noticed that Dipper had left her side, and she clapped twice so the lights of the room turned on. She completely ignored the blood stains and skeletons and turned off her light bulb sweater.
"Dipper?" called Mabel, with the only response being the echo of the room. "Where are you?"
The girl continued to look for her brother...before she heard some crying nearby. What mostly caught her attention, however, was that the crier sounded a bit...feminine.
"Is someone crying nearby?" asked Mabel.
Mabel, believing she was more prepared since the last time since she followed a voice, searched for the source of the crying around the room, eventually finding it in...a crying girl, sitting in a fetal position, and hiding behind some boxes.
"Pardon me, do you need some help, little girl?" inquired the girl to the crying child.
A few minutes passed and the girl got no answer. So she walked towards the girl...and she came out of hiding to show she looked exactly like Mabel, only paranoid and twitchy, and holding the girl's grappling hook.
Mabel could barely gasp before the girl shot her grappling hook and hit the chocolate-haired girl, whose eyes became completely blank upon impact...and then she got a "vision".
(Headquarters of the Blind Eye Society, Mabel's P.O.V.)
Okay, I don't care if that was symbolism, I don't care if it foreshadows something, I don't even care if I'm acting like a complete opposite of me, but I need an explanation. I mean seriously, why did the girl look like me? Why was she crying? Why was she hiding behind those boxes? And since I mentioned that, what was she hiding from? So many darn questions are flashing in my head right now that I'm not getting the answers fast enough!
But anyway, I'm pretty sure I should check where I am right now, since I'm definitely not in the purple shack. Then again, I would be glad that I'm no longer inside that Mystery Shack knock-off...if I wasn't at the headquarters of the Blind Eye Society, and some members weren't watching me closely...can I go back to questioning the crying-other-me symbolism?
I try to move...and they don't react...presumably because I can't even move at all. I turned around, and I saw that not only my arms and legs were tied up, they had become pretty long as well. Am I inside a grown up or something?
Also, I'm feeling a strange buzzing sound in my head. It isn't too obnoxious, and the others can't seem to hear it, but I can. My spider-senses must be tingling! No wait, I'm not inside Spider-Man. Maybe I can read minds?
"I, uh, I can't read or write in these dialects." thought a sad Toby Determined, who was checking an ancient tome.
...Good for you.
Wow! So I really can read minds! I promise to use this power for my own amusement! MUAHAHAHA!
Now let's see, what are the other members thinking?
"I hope tomorrow is no underwear day, freedom of clothing is the best idea ever!" thought the woman in blue.
Agreed, sister!
"Maybe I should apologize to that woodpecker, we did have a good time, and we have more common than I thought now that I think about." thought the guy who married a woodpecker.
Oh if only he knew.
"Maybe I should call my hands Mr. Wacker and Mrs. Punch?" thought the bouncer.
I call mine Left Hand and Right Hand.
However, those are the only minds I could read before I felt an intense headache...for some reason. I was then approached by some other figures: one is Gideon's father, poor guy, the other is Toby Determined, who lives up to his name, and the other, is without a doubt...
Toot-Toot McBumbersnazzle!...Oh right, this was before he became that guy. What was his name? I know it sounds germanic, but it has been so long I don't really remember it. Malakov? Too russian. Addison? Too feminine.
"Get the Memory Erasing Gun ready." is what they said, but I was too focused on something important to listen.
Maybe I can guess it: Mr. Bald Banjo Strings. Yep, that must be it, I'm so smart! XD
So anyway, one of the members, I think Gideon's father, walked to Toot-Toot with the memory erasing gun...and that is exactly where I realized that the situation was a bit more serious than I believed. And then they pointed the gun at me.
"No hard feelings, not that you will remember this encounter, anyway." said Toot-Toot as he got ready to shot.
I plead and plead, but apparently nobody can hear my voice. I try to move, but it is pointless because my body is not responding, and the gun is shot before I even get to say my last words...
(Back in reality, no P.O.V.)
The girl woke up in the middle of the room, with her crying alternate version nowhere to be seen.
"Well, that happened. Or, almost happened." thought Mabel as she got up.
Some shined at the back of some boxes, which caught the girl's attention. She walked to the boxes, threw away most of them and she managed to find...a lamb costume, with a little pink ribbon on top.
"What is this doing here?"
And just as she grabbed and inspected the costume, the door of the closet was busted open by Dipper, who caught his breath as Mabel turned around.
"Dipper?" Mabel put the lab costume on her sweater...somehow, and then walked to her brother. "What happened? Where did you go?"
"We were apparently separated for some reason, and I started to look for you." explained the worried boy as he and Mabel got out of the room.
And to make sure they didn't get separated this time, they held hands as they left. "I followed the scream that came out of here, but I thought someone was doing something horrible to you."
"I didn't scream, my...other me was the one who screamed." corrected the chocolate haired girl.
"An "other you" was the one who screamed?"
"Yeah, like me, but an alternate version." replied Mabel. "And when she jumped me, I was transported to a past time when the Society of the Blind Eye was still active, and Toot-Toot McBumbersnazzle had not taken out his first album!"
The girl cringed as Dipper rolled his eyes, and Mabel soon thought of a possibility. "Could it have been a memory phantom?"
"No, it could not have been a memory phantom. It says here that..." the boy became speechless once he searched the book...and he was unable to find the pages he was looking for. "The pages are gone."
"What do you mean they're gone?" asked a worried Mabel.
"Exactly what I say! They're gone!" Dipper showed Mabel the pages where the article about Shadow Creatures, Living Shadows and other stuff used to be, and they saw that they had been replaced with the Gnomes, Hide-Behind, Gremloblin and Eye Bats pages. "The Shadow Creature, Living Shadows, they are nowhere to be seen!"
"Maybe a trickster sneaked up on you, grabbed the book without you noticing and ripped off the pages?" suggested Mabel.
"That or..." Dipper closed the book, put it back on his vest and turned to see the eyes on each of the doors. The Golden Eye briefly flashed among them, surprising the boy but not doing so enough for him to lose his composure. "Mabel, keep your eyes open and don't close them at any moment."
Mabel took a deep breath and then opened her eyes, keeping them open for a few seconds before she had the need to blink. "Does blinking count as closing them?" inquired the girl as she tried to stop herself from blinking.
"When I say keep your eyes open, I don't mean it literally, Mabel."
"Phew, thank goodness." said Mabel as she blinked, sighing in relief before she continued. "So, even if the other pages are gone, is there anything new in the book? You know, out of curiosity?"
Dipper surfed through the pages until he eventually found something new. "Well, I did find something here." remarked Dipper, though it was difficult to known if it was out of relief or worry. "This page is about..."
Dipper mentally finished reading the page and he got a worried look, followed by his sister also reading the page and getting the same worried look. They both exchanged preoccupied expressions before they uttered the very end of the page...
"Eyes?"
(With Wendy)
Wendy stood at one of the rooms, one that had only a door with a bleeding eye painted on it...and nothing else. No windows, no decorations barring a knitting totem, just the door with the bleeding eye.
"Alright, I'm inside the shack, so I should probably check out what's inside this thing." thought Wendy as she looked around and then eyed the bottle. "And I know just how to open it."
The girl grabbed the bottle, reached for the top...and then threw it to a wall, the bottle braking completely in pieces upon impact. The teenager walked to the remains of the bottle and grabbed the note, opening it and reading the message as the Golden Eye materialized in the wall behind her.
The message in the note was..."Don't Trust the Golden Eye", written in blue letters.
"Oh come on now, that's just redundantly repetitive!" fumed the teenager before throwing the note away. "What proof do I even have that the Golden Eye is not to be trusted?"
"Hello."
The teenager jumped after hearing the voice, and she slightly calmed down when she turned around and saw the eye on the wall.
"Fine, I have reason number one: he appears out of nowhere as he pleases!" mentally snarled Wendy before she regained her composure. "Hi, Golden Eye. What's up?"
"Oh, nothing important, I hilariously and gladly assure you." responded the Golden Eye. "So, do you need help with something, my friend? To give you an example, Perhaps a ballerina ornament for your tender body?"
"Golden Eye, I don't know what's gotten into you, but you're talking a bit weirder than usual, you know?" commented Wendy.
"Well, that is to be expected, specially because of this game's rules." replied the Golden Eye.
"Oh okay that sounds-" replied the teenager, her tone changing once she remembered something the eye uttered: game. "What game?"
"I never mentioned any game. You probably misunderstood what I said, my friend!" replied the Golden Eye, who saw the knitting totem start to melt. "Anyway, am I seeing double, or is that knitting totem turning into you? Or maybe a ukulele, or a disco ball, or an open desk...no, wait, definitely and remarkably, it is turning into you."
The teenager turned to see the melting knitting totem turn into a...silver puddle? And then, the puddle took a humanoid shape similar to...Wendy, but with a baseball bat forming in the left hand. The puddle eventually turned into a version of Wendy...but with messy hair and covered in blood, not to mention she looked a bit...unstable.
Totem-Wendy noticed the real Wendy and lifted her baseball bat, screamed bloody murder and rushed towards the girl, Wendy barely managing to gasp and block her head...only for Totem-Wendy to hit Wendy's gut instead, the girls eyes becoming completely white before being "Teleported" somewhere else.
(Somewhere in Gravity Falls, Wendy's P.O.V.)
Well, that was something you don't see everyday: a totem turning into your copycat and later attacking you. At this point I believe the others would say that they have encountered weirder stuff, but since I haven't had that much supernatural exposure and it would be lying...I'm going to say it anyway: I have been through weirder than stuff.
Now, for the important, I feel kinda...different. I feel like I had changed gender somehow, but most of all, I feel like I'm being forced to move towards somewhere-and now that I look behind me, I see that's the case.
I'm being forced to move to...somewhere, by the members of the Blind Eye Society. Ugh, these guys again? Didn't we erase their memory? Did this happen a long time ago or-wait a minute...
I tried to free myself, but there are two problems: the members growl at me and threaten me...and I'm tied, really tightly. In fact, why am I tied in the first place? Or the person I think I'm into, for that matter?
"You have become a liability, Dowsha Illuminatus. If the supernatural things about Gravity Falls are to be kept from the general public, you can't exist to tell them." the bald guy whose name I can't be bothered to remember.
That only gives me more questions in my head! Why am is this guy liability? Why is his name "Dowsha Illuminatus" in the first place? Why must he be kept from the general public? How did he even found out about the supernatural stuff? What am I doing inside him? WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME...US?!
And then we arrived at a huge, bottomless-looking pit. I finally turned around and saw the bald guy look at me firmly and sternly.
"This pit, is the entrance to your new residence. Where you shall live for the remainder of your life, far away from society." snarled the bald guy.
Sorry, but that pit is a bit too...bottomless, for my taste.
"This is madness!" exclaimed a burly, incredibly deep voice.
That was the dude I'm currently inside in, not my voice. Now that I say that, what is up with this guy's voice? Is he... I can't think of anything to say that could justify him having such a deep voice.
"Madness?" bald guy looks a bit surprised before he frowned and finished. "THIS! IS! GRAVITY FALLS!"
And with a swift kick to the gut, I'm sent to the bottomlessy pit, screaming all the way as the light that belonged to the day went farther and farther away from my reach, not that I had any since I was tied.
I fell for hours... or what seemed like hours, at least in my opinion. So anyway, I still fell for a long time, and it was a while before I finally got to see something other than the rocky walls of the pit. What I saw was a green mossy ground...with some creatures in there, who noticed me and then fled in a panic.
The guy I'm inside of closed his eyes, presumably accepting his fate as we got closer and closer to the floor...
(Back in reality, no P.O.V.)
Wendy woke up on the same room as before, with Totem-Wendy nowhere to be seen and the Golden Eye looking...amused, for some reason.
"Okay, whatever that was, it was certainly weird." thought Wendy. "I should probably get going before something else happens."
The teenager got up and looked at the door, but before walking to it she turned to the Golden Eye, who changed his amusement to seriousness the instant the teenager looked at him.
"Golden Eye, can you explain why did that totem turn into a crazy me and attacked?" inquired Wendy.
"Some things happen for no reason. Some other things exist for no reason. Some other things don't exist but deny it. And some other things, in the rarest of cases, can exist without really existing." replied the Golden Eye. "Do you understand?"
"Not at all." stated Wendy as the teenager scratched her head.
"Good! Now continue on your way, brave and impeccably timed and caring heroine!"
"...Sure."
Wendy walked to the door and opened it, briefly glancing at the Golden Eye before going through and closing it, the eye briefly turning into the Blue Eye as white electricity surrounded him.
In the other room, Wendy rested her back on the closed door as she started to think.
"There is something wrong with the Golden Eye, maybe I should heed Blue Eye's warning?" mentally mused Wendy, who shook her head when she remembered her priorities. "Standing here doing nothing won't help me find the rest of the team, I have to go through this place as fast as I can! Or go nuts trying!"
With that said, Wendy went to the next door and opened it, quickly going through it as the briefly changed to...a silver one, which soon returned to a normal, bleeding eye when the door was closed.
(With Soos)
The man-child walked through a long hallway, looking at the many doors and their bleeding eyes with caution and worry. Once he went through a particular door-not that he cared, they all looked exactly the same-the door's eye turned into a silver eye, one that not only wasn't bleeding, but who looked at the man-child before it disappeared.
"This definitely place looks real, but it feels completely non-existent. Kind of like Hoo-Ha Owl's Pizzamatronic Jamboree." remarked Soos.
Soos continued to walk as the silver eye teleported closer and closer to him, using the eyes as bases. Once the man-child finally stopped, the silver eye quickly teleported up until he was in a door nearby Soos, wherein he started to get more and more blurry before Soos felt something and turned around to see him...only to find a normal bleeding eye instead of the silver eye.
Soos, confused about what had just happened, continued to walk until he stopped and gaped in amazement. He had come across a door where a long piece of bacon was above it, and it had "AAABBABBBAABBAB BAABB BAABBBAAABBABAABAABABAABB BAABBAABBBAABAA AABBAABBBAABABBAAABBAABAAABBAB AABAABBAAAAABAA" encrypted in it.
"That's one long piece of bacon." remarked the man-child, licking his lips as he got an idea. "Maybe I could taste a bit."
But the bacon instantly vanished when the man-child reached for it, Soos looking down in sadness before he went through the door. Once he went into the room, he found the Golden Eye on the ceiling, another version of himself standing in the middle and an entrance to another hallway without a door. He tried to go back, but the door immediately closed and wouldn't open, so he was left stuck.
Seeing no other thing he could do, for some reason, Soos walked to his other self and checked him for a moment. "Uh, Golden Eye, where did this other me come from?" inquired Soos to the Golden Eye.
"Some things tend to happen...just to happen, my friend." remarked the Golden Eye. "Go ahead, touch the phantom. Maybe something interesting will happen. At least, I hope something does happen."
So Soos did as told and touched this other him...sorta, his hand kind of went through the other him instead. Instead of providing a flashback sequence, the Soos Phantom started to transform into something else. First, he became a grey blob, and then he grew to gigantic proportions and then transformed ...into a dinosaur. A T-Rex, to be exact. With a pair sunglasses.
"It's a MOTHERFUCKING T-REX!" exclaimed the Golden Eye with excitement.
"T-REX!" proclaimed the T-Rex.
The man-child ran as fast as he could as the T-Rex gave chase while the music continued. Eventually, he came across with a door that had a note reading "Robust" and, seeing the T-Rex about to catch up to him, he went through it and closed it, the T-rex passing by as the eye on the door became...a golden eye with a white aura, one that almost looked like it was...illuminating.
(Inside the room behind the "robust" door)
Soos caught his breath and relaxed as he turned around, finding out that the room was...a bit messy, with newspapers on the ground, walls and ceiling.
"Whoever was in this room certainly did a mess. Presumably Mabel." remarked the man-child as he looked around.
Soos took a few steps before he stepped on one of the newspapers, which he grabbed and read as the silver eye from before appeared on the door, although this time he looked with disapproval as the door was slowly and silently opened.
"Dowsha Illuminatus, real or fake?" read Soos out loud. "Two local policemen were informed that a man in his 30s had mysteriously disappeared some days ago. A long search for the body was warranted, and it took days for the police to find any trace of the man's location. Once the police finally managed to find him, they discovered that Dowsha Illuminatus was nothing more than a-!"
A sudden, numbing pain suddenly hit Soos's head, the man-child gasping in shock as he felt dizzy and fell over. The pain intensified as the one responsible for hitting him "revealed" itself from the waist-down...which looked quite similar to Wendy. Before losing consciousness, Soos used the last of his strength to hear the mysterious figure's words.
"You were not meant to find that."
To Be Continued...
