A/N Not much to say but thank you to all my readers! Especially AllenbysEyes, situation711 and guest, for reviewing the last chapter! Hope you guys all enjoy this latest installment!

Chapter Ten

The air is impossibly cold and thin and Mabel wakes up with a violent shiver. Where am I? she wonders, looking around, disoriented. She still seems to be in the mansion, in the same room where she and Dipper hid under a table earlier, she can faintly see the circle Dipper had drawn to trap the dark ghost, but something seems...off. Even though the glow sticks around her neck are no longer glowing, everything around her still has an eerie green tint, and even though it's dark, she can see clearly, lit like a movie scene set at night. There's a hollow white noise that seems to buzz in her ears and she feels a strange disconnect from her body, hollow and numb, like she's outside herself, holding on by a thread. Like she would disappear from reality if she were to let go.

She brushes aside the thought, as she pushes herself to her feet, swaying dizzily. She stumbles clumsily towards the circle, her coordination is off in a way she can't quite figure out, and when she reaches the circle, she notes with curiosity that it's backwards.

There's a dull throb in the palm of her hand, the only thing that seems to have any feeling that's real beyond the deep chill that's settled in her bones, and she glances at her hands. She sucks in a breath, blasted with a sense of dread and foreboding. Burned like a brand on her palm, cauterizing the cuts, the skin raised and raw in a perfect triangular shape, is the image of Bill Cipher's likeness.

Suddenly weak in the knees she collapses, wondering if maybe this is all a dream. Maybe she'll wake up, full of Halloween candy and safe with the knowledge that none of this is real. It doesn't feel real. She must be trapped in some sort of nightmare, she feels so oddly disconnected from herself that everything around her does seem rather dreamlike. Backwards. It must be because the mark on her palm is on the wrong hand. She had cut the other palm earlier, and that one is fine.

"I see you're awake, child. How are you feeling?"

Mabel turns her head toward the sound of the voice, "Stay away from me," she gasps, her voice unable to speak louder than a hoarse whisper.

But in a literal blink of an eye, Elizabeth is right next to her, kneeling over her, placing her hand on her shoulder, but other than the pressure of the touch, Mabel can hardly feel it. At least it doesn't hurt like last time she touched me... She flinches away from her, but Elizabeth doesn't let go, and Mabel doesn't have the strength to fight her. She tries, but her head is spinning too fast and the effort is draining. The only thing keeping her from closing her eyes and passing out is the fear of what will happen to her if she does.

"Please, leave me alone," Mabel begs weakly as Elizabeth wraps her arms around her and pulls her onto her lap, cradling her listless body.

"Oh sweet child, this evening has taken such a toll on you, you need to rest and gather your strength," Elizabeth coos, coming her fingers through the stray locks of hair in her face. Mabel struggles to get up and get away from her, but is too dizzy and weak to move. Not only that, but it's like her limbs no longer want to obey her, like they're no longer her own now that Elizabeth is here.

"What did you do to me?" Mabel whispers, her eyes fluttering as it feels like her body is sinking into the ground.

"It's a side effect to the spell," Elizabeth explains, positioning her on her lap, so Mabel's head is resting in the crook of her elbow, rocking her gently like a mother trying to soothe her baby to sleep, gently stroking her face, staring at her intently, her gaze seeming to look right through her, making Mabel unnerved and uncomfortable.

"What spell?"

"You don't remember?" Elizabeth asks, her lips curling into an amused grin. It's in that moment that Mabel realizes that she doesn't remember. She remembers exploring the mansion and hiding in one of the rooms, but she has no idea how she got here. Like trying to remember a dream, she's not even sure of what the last thing she remembers even is.

Now that she's thinking about it, what she does remember is that one minute she was helping Dipper make a rope out of sheets so they could escape the mansion, the next she was travelling through time, but as an invisible observer, witnessing the moment Elizabeth's ghost was expelled from her Great-Grandmother's body and Bill...he was there... What about Dipper? Did he escape? She vaguely remembers telling him good-bye as he was about to leave...because she couldn't leave and something bad would happen if he stayed...

"It will come back to you sooner or later," Elizabeth shrugs, "once the spell wears off. But consider this a merciful reprieve..."

"Somehow I doubt that," Mabel frowns.

The ghost laughs, "Oh my dear, trust me when I say you don't want it to wear off any time soon. Not only will the memories return, so will the pain. The sleep spell was a kindness."

Mabel rolls her eyes, unable to do much else, "I doubt that too." Whatever Elizabeth did, it was more than just a sleep spell, but what else did she do?

The amused look on Elizabeth's face fades and she glares at her coldly, stops stroking her hair and says, "If I didn't need you in one piece, I would break you."

"That's what I thought," Mabel snorts bitterly, understanding now what she unwittingly signed up for, to be Elizabeth's permanent vessel. There's no other reason why Elizabeth would care if she regained her strength. But why put her through all that torture in the first place?

"If you didn't resist me, it wouldn't have been necessary."

Feeling an ache in her frozen bones slowly starting to come alive, Mabel groans and manages to push herself up. It takes far more concentration to get her limbs to obey her than it should, but despite the incredible weakness weighing her down, Mabel manages to shuffle away from her. Elizabeth doesn't react. "I'm not letting you take me."

"Too late for that my dear," Elizabeth replies through clenched teeth, "you are mine now and there's nothing you can do about it." She slowly rises to her feet and stands over her, she holds up her palm, revealing a scar that matches the mark on Mabel's hand. "This means that our deal is sealed. You said the words, you agreed to be my sacrifice, and our deal is finalized. There is no backing out, there is no escape."

"You underestimate me and my brother. If I don't figure out a way out of here, he will."

All she has to do is find a way to defeat her...If Dipper escaped, she knows he'll be back with help. She just needs to get away. She winces as the pain in her body creeps back up on her. First her hand, the sharp sting of the burn, and then her head, throbbing in time with her heartbeat, a sharp staccato against her skull and then a deep, generalized ache all over. Like she got into a fight and lost. But as the pain returns, so does the control she has over her own body. If that's the trade off, she would take the pain over complete helplessness.

Elizabeth laughs, as though she knows a secret but isn't going to tell.

"What?" Mabel hisses, furious.

"There is no way out of here. You're trapped here forever, so get used to it."

"Try me," Mabel growls, grasping the wall for support as she heads for a door, not sure of where to go, but as long as it's away from her, she doesn't care. She still feels remarkably dizzy and uncoordinated, but she's not letting it stop her.

"Very well, then run away foolish girl," Elizabeth taunts, "it's not going to make any difference. All you are doing is making your fate far worse than it needs to be."

Ignoring her Mabel pushes through the first door she comes across, not sure of where it leads. The unfamiliar layout of the mansion feels off somehow. She steps into the seance room, and like the chalk drawing on the floor in the dining room, it's also off...backwards. The giant mirror Dipper trapped her in is on the wrong side.

A sharp spike of pain rattles in her head and she groans, doubling over, squeezing her eyes shut. The brand on her palm feels like it's on fire and she cradles her hand close to her chest, but she pushes forward. Collapsing onto the table she glances at the mirror and is startled to discover that she doesn't have a reflection.

"What the -?" She stumbles towards it and rests her uninjured hand on the glass. A flash of memory echoes through her mind, like déjà vu. She's done this before except... "Ahh!" She gasps, the pain in her head intensifying, knocking her to the floor. She shakes her head in denial, whispering, "No..." as she suddenly remembers what happened. Dipper never made it out, and she hurt him...no, Elizabeth hurt him, using her body. She cast a spell over her, using her as a puppet. No wonder I felt so weird when I woke up...

Strengthened by her need to find her brother and make sure he's OK, Mabel ignores the disorienting dizziness and the pain and wills herself to keep moving. She rushes out of the seance room, back into the dining room where Elizabeth has not moved from the spot where she stands.

"Run, run, run away you stupid child," Elizabeth mocks, "It's too late. There's no way out. But if it makes you feel better, go ahead and try. It matters not to me. When the time comes, I will find you."

Mabel glares at her, but says nothing as she pushes onward. Maybe if she can find the room they were hiding out in, she'll find Dipper. Problem is that she had usually been out of it or unconscious when they were exploring the mansion and escaping the ghosts.

"Dipper!" Mabel calls out as she stumbles forward, "Dipper where are you?" Picking a set of doors she starts her search while Elizabeth, still not moving from her spot, laughs, her voice echoing in Mabel's ears.

"Dipper! Dipper! Dipper where are you?" Mabel calls out, over and over as she makes her way through the mansion, desperate to find him. Even though she's not familiar with the place, things still seem off. Her coordination feels wrong somehow, but she's gotten used to it enough that she couldn't even begin to figure out why. She wanders through the rooms, backtracking a couple of times until she stumbles across the main ballroom. She makes her way up the stairs, calling her brother's name as she tries the doors to the rooms along the long, dark hallway.

Finally she opens a door and sees him lying motionless on the ground. "Dipper!" she cries, racing towards him, barely noticing how the layout of the room is backwards. She places her hand on his shoulder, but her hand goes through him. Panic grips her as she fears the worst and she tries again but the weird thing is that she seems solid, and he does not. Does that mean... is he? "Dipper, wake up!" she begs desperately, trying again to nudge him, "Please, you have to wake up!" Her memories are still so fuzzy that she's not sure what's wrong with him, or why she can't touch him. Is she a ghost? Is he? Is this one of Elizabeth's tricks?

"Dipper please!" she cries, her eyes scanning his prone form, trying to figure out how badly she hurt him. It's then that she notices his bangs aren't covering his birthmark, and the birthmark is backwards.

Everything is backwards, what...? she turns towards the mirror on the wardrobe and her heart sinks. Dipper has a reflection, but she does not. She stumbles towards the mirror, eyeing it closely. Dipper's reflection seems more...real somehow, and the room's layout is more familiar. There is no weird faint green tint to him like everything else around her has and the room's reflection doesn't look off or backwards. Then it dawns on her.

I'm in the mirror. But how?

Deep down she suspected, especially once that strange disconnected feeling wore off but she didn't want to acknowledge it because it couldn't be possible. But it explains why everything right down to her coordination seemed wrong but not. But how would she get out?

She watches with relief as Dipper slowly begins to stir. She knocks on the glass of the mirror, hoping to get his attention. He starts to look in her direction but Elizabeth grabs her from behind, wrapping her arms around her, "Time's up, my dear." Elizabeth falls backwards, dragging Mabel down with her, but instead of crashing to the floor, they fall right through it, down into the darkness.

"Dipper!" she cries out in terror, just as she vanishes into the floor and everything goes black.

/o\

"Dipper!"

"Dipper wake up!"

Dipper groans, his eyes fluttering open and then closed again.

"Please, you have to wake up!"

Vaguely he gets the sense that someone has their hand on his shoulder, but it hardly seems tangible so surely he's dreaming it. He has to be...he starts to drift but again, a voice calls to him.

"Dipper please!"

The voice echoing in his head pulls him back into consciousness. "Mabel?" He mumbles hoarsely, and for a split second he thinks he saw her out of the corner of his eye, in the mirror, the sound of his name echoing faintly, but he blinks and she is gone. "Mabel where are you?" He painfully pushes himself up, cradling his broken arm, "Mabel?"

Now that he's awake, the voice is gone. Had he dreamt it? Did he simply imagine seeing her?

"Mabel!" He calls out.

Nothing.

He moans in pain, grief and defeat, tears welling in his eyes as a heavy weight of hopelessness presses down on him. Mabel is gone. There's no way he heard her voice. Elizabeth stole her and pulled her into the mirror, and he has no idea how he can get her back.

He glances around the room, wondering how much time has passed. He shivers. It's so cold he can see his breath, but he finds only the slightest relief to see that the dark presence is gone and the chill in the air is from the broken window, not from an evil supernatural entity.

What do I do now? He laments, "Mabel!" He tries again, but there's still no answer, not that he expected one with her being...gone.

He tries to get up, but he's in too much pain to move. "I'm sorry," he whispers helplessly, sinking back to the floor in defeat. He closes his eyes again, his body demanding rest. But just as he's about to drift back into unconsciousness, he forces himself to open his eyes. No matter how awful he's feeling, he can't give up. Mabel needs him.

On the edge of his peripheral, he senses movement and discovers something strange and unexpected hovering in the air. A faint light, barely noticeable in the dark, shaped like a sphere. An orb. It hovers and dances in the air, as though trying to attract his attention. Unlike the other spirits he and Mabel had encountered in the mansion, this one doesn't frighten him. From everything he's ever read about orbs, they're harmless and benign. They're the most common type of ghost, rarely visible to the naked eye, they sometimes show up in photographs and they're not even strong enough to be considered a Level One, so even if this one were to somehow have malicious intent, there's not much it could do. But the feeling Dipper gets in his gut, is that this one wants to help, not harm.

"Um, hello?" He says, a little confused by it's sudden appearance. The orb responds to his greeting, the light fluctuating ever so slightly as it lightly bounces. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"

The orb floats up to the ceiling and disappears and to his surprise, a piece of paper materializes from where the orb vanished, gently fluttering to the floor.

Intrigued, he gingerly tucks his broken arm close to his aching ribs, and hunched over in pain, he forces himself to get up and grab the paper. While his eyes have adjusted enough to the dark to see that it's a torn page from some sort of diary, it's still too dark to try and read it. He makes his way to Mabel's backpack, hoping she has more glow sticks in there to help him see, but he freezes at the sound of voices having a low discussion. At first his heart pounds with fear, wondering how many spirits actually haunt this place, but then as the voices draw nearer, not only does he realize the sound is coming from outside, but he recognizes them.

Suddenly forgetting all about his pain, he stumbles towards the window in excitement, barking a relieved laugh at the sight of the two men below.

"Grunkle Ford! Grunkle Stan!"

A/N Thanks for reading! I'm sure a lot of you guys were waiting for the Stans to enter the picture, well it finally happened! Yay! So what do you guys think? Any theories? Where did the orb come from? What's on the paper? What do you think is going to happen next, especially now that help has arrived? Did you like this chapter or hate it? I would love to know what you guys think, good or bad, so please, please, please leave a comment/review, even if it's just to say you're still here and haven't given up on the story even though my updates are slow! It would mean a lot!