Chapter Nineteen: Danger From The Shadows
Blood. That was what they saw.
Dipper and Mabel were sitting huddled up under a large oak, both stuck on this fact. Dipper, at least, had made the move to call Wendy and have her send Blubbs and Durland out here to check things out – as proud as Dipper was as a paranormal expert and detective, this...wasn't his department.
"Alright, kids, we did everything we could for now." there was no response to Blubbs's words, and the cops looked worriedly at these kids who'd clearly walked into something no fifteen-year-old ever should.
"Kids?" Durland asked, and at least that got some reaction in the form of Dipper lifting his eyes to look at them. "The gnomes said they just found him like that this morning. No one saw anything happen. There was no weapon, no fingerprints -"
"No lead, then?" Dipper asked dully.
"Well, there was somethin'." Blubbs said, presenting a piece of paper which was remarkably clean considering the bloody mess that it came from. "Whoever it was left this note." Dipper took it, and Mabel leaned over to read it along with him.
'She will be mine. The undesirables will be purged. Stay out of the way.' the note said. What appeared to be a signature was a D with a small section cut out of the bottom, forming a P inside the D.
Dipper and Mabel looked at each other, than to the cops. "Is this all?" he asked.
"All we found." Blubbs said. "Why don't you kids go on home? We'll finish up here."
Dipper got to his feet, clutching the note. He watched as Mabel stood up and they quietly started for home, not even saying their goodbyes to the cops or giving their condolences to the gnomes. Out of the corner of her eye, Mabel saw a few gnomes dragging Carlos's body into the woods. She had to look away. Durland opened his mouth, meaning to ask if the kids needed an escort home, but decided against it. If Dipper could fight off a giant bat at twelve, surely he could handle himself.
Dipper was laying on his bed, Mabel slumped in his chair. They kept quiet, wondering what would happen. After explaining everything to their mother, she had been quick to forbid them from returning to those woods until the killer was caught. Though Dipper and Mabel both knew this was perfectly reasonable, neither could help feeling cheated, somehow.
"Dipper, we need to go back." Mabel said.
"Mom said to stay out the the woods." Dipper replied firmly.
"We can't just sit by and do nothing." Mabel persisted. Dipper didn't reply right away, but he brought his arm up and looked at his scar. It was a long, thin line that fully spanned his forearm. The guy had a knife – or something that cuts. Dipper was ashamed to admit it, but he was afraid. The memory of his arm being sliced was fresh in his mind, he could practically still feel the seething pain.
Mabel looked at her brother and frowned. How could be be so callous? A gnome had been murdered, and he was worried about getting cut? She got up and headed out the door. Dipper eyed her.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"Nowhere." Mabel replied without stopping and closed to door after she entered her own room and took out her phone. Not fooled for a moment, Dipper got up and followed her.
"Mabel, you're not going out there alone." he declared, swallowing his fear.
"Just in case." Mabel said, dialing Wendy's number. Their parents knew very well about Wendy from their stories alone, surly having her with them would have their mother at least consider letting them go.
After much arguing, Kristen had relented in letting her kids go with Wendy, who herself had to swear multiple times that nothing would befall the twins while she was still breathing. Naturally, their first stop was the Mystery Shack, and luckily nothing happened on the way. After a tense, silent walk through the woods, the three of them relaxed and smiled tiredly at the scene just outside the shack.
"Go! Go! Go! Go!" Soos and Melody cheered. Out in the stretch of land between the woods and the shack was Soren, who's muscles were tightened and he seemed to being concentrating very hard. His wings were flapping frantically, kicking up wind and snow, and eventually achieving a lift of a few inches. He hovered for a few moments in the air, and landed, panting and with wings drooping.
"Soren!" Mabel gasped and ran to him.
"Mabel." he whinnied happily and hugged her with a wing when she latched onto him.
"Hey, dudes." Soos greeted as Wendy and Dipper ran up to him and Melody, feeling safe and relieved. Mabel and Soren joined them.
"Did you guys see that? I flew! I actually flew!" Soren neighed and reared in excitement.
"That was great, Soren!" Mabel praised.
"Soos, we need to get inside. Quick!" Dipper said and he and Wendy practically herded them inside.
"What?" Soos asked, almost disbelievingly. He and Melody looked at each other worriedly. Soren, who was spending the winter indoors and took up less space in the room than one would have thought, whinnied with alarm and suppressed the urge to rear up or unfurl his wings; he'd learned that doing so indoors often lead to something breaking.
"A gnome was butchered. We saw the body." Mabel said, the words sounding unreal as soon as she heard them.
"We wanted to make sure you guys knew." Wendy said.
"Well, the Shack's down for the winter." Melody said and she looked worriedly at Soos and Soren.
"And Stan and his brother are staying with us." Soos said, "I'll tell them when they get back from wherever they are."
"So this is where they're staying?" Dipper asked, but he wasn't worried. Ford had an untold number of weapons and he'd seen Stan take down a whole hoard of zombies with his bare hands – he was sure they'd be fine and would be able to protect whoever was here.
"Stan said they were considering staying at your place, but you teenagers need your space, right?" Soos asked. Dipper and Mabel looked at each other and shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, we'll be okay, but I think you should go home, Melody. I don't want anything to happen to you, dude." Soos said, turning to his girlfriend.
"Okay. I'll call you tonight." she smiled and Soos smiled back.
"She can come back with us." Wendy said. "We just came over to make should you guys were okay, we're heading back now."
"Actually, can that wait for a bit? I kinda want to give my condolences to the gnomes." Mabel asked, and Dipper wondered if she even remembered that the gnomes didn't even like them that much.
Dipper and the girls walked the familiar path to the gnomes' part of the woods. Well, familiar to Dipper and Mabel; it was unlikely Wendy or Melody ever came this way before. Dipper, Wendy and Melody decided to hang back, Mabel was really the one who wanted to do this. The three of them would rather just get home before it got dark.
"Jeff! Gnomes!" Mabel called. The gnomes popped their heads out of brush, hallow tree stumps and from behind trees. Jeff scampered up to Mabel looking up at her disappointed.
"Aw, you've gotten taller. If you keep this up, you'll never make a fair queen." Jeff pouted.
"I'm not your queen, Jeff." Mabel told him. "I just wanted to say sorry for your loss."
"Carlos?" Jeff said. "Oh, we already dragged him a safe distance away from the rest of us to keep the predators away."
"Oookay." Mabel said uncertainly. "Aren't you worried about the killer coming back?"
"Nope." Jeff beamed. "Now that we know we're in danger, we'll just keep on our toes and if anything does happen, we can always form the gnome beast again. Haha, remember that, stretch!" he called over to Dipper, who gave him an irritable look.
"So, you guys'll be okay?" Mabel asked.
"We'll be fine." Jeff said. "If not, you'll know. Moving on to more important things, are you sure you don't wanna be our gnome queen?" Before Mabel could refuse, Dipper pulled her away quick enough so that she only had time to wish them luck.
"Let's get going." Dipper said. "It's getting late and if we don't freeze to death, mom's gonna kill us."
The four of them kept going and again felt relieved to be back in town. Melody lived alone apart from a dog, but Wendy and the twins received earfuls from their respective fathers when they got home; the murder made the news. Dipper remained grounded, and Mabel now joined him for three days with a new curfew until the killer was caught. They now had to be back home before sunset.
Sorry this one's late, guys. I was writing this chapter and then about three days ago I got an idea about a more logical rout to take this particular chapter, and started from the ground up. It was a bit of a mess. Special shout out to whoever got the reference with the killer's signature. Review.
Efp kxjb fp japlk. Qextp grpq jbxk.
Hint: Three letters back