That K rating was kicking and screaming all the while as I dragged it over to the T rating in the previous chapter. Be glad I didn't put flaying in there and some actual cannibalism. I really wanted to. Sorry in advance for any and all mistakes.
"Dipper," a voice pulled him from his dreams. Dipper ignored the voice, determined to continue sleeping through it and the constant ringing in his head. "Dipper," the voice called again, a bit more commanding this time.
"What?" the word left his mouth in a tired slur once he knew that Mabel wouldn't stop pestering him until he answered.
"Just checking that you're okay," she explained. "It's already half eleven and you're still in bed."
"Mm… why wouldn't I be okay?" He rolled over in the bed, instantly regretting it as the ringing got louder, his brain pounded against his skull and a bout of dizziness overwhelmed him so much that if he were standing, he knew he'd have fallen over on the spot. Squeezing his eyes shut, he folded half of his pillow over the top of his head, pressing it into his ears to try to recover faster. Maybe he wasn't okay.
"Well after yesterday..." she trailed off.
He thought for a short moment before asking: "what happened yesterday?"
"You don't remember?"
He shook his head and opened his eyes for the first time that day, peering past the pillow that blocked half of his vision to look at his twin. The movement only worsened his headache; thinking back, he didn't remember much from the day before aside from a quick shower and the marks that adorned his body – he didn't need to remember that to know how much pain he was in, though. Each cut and burn ached.
Mabel frowned at his silent reply before replacing it with a smile, "oh well. C'mon, bro-bro, I promised glitter-rainbow-pancakes and we're going to have them whether you like it or not!" she commanded jokingly, jumping happily in place. Pushing himself up slowly, he forced himself to move despite the horrible mixture of mental and physical pain. "I'm going to start making them while you get ready," the girl grinned and quickly ran from the room, ambling down the stairs at a hurried pace.
The boy spent ten long minutes on only getting changed, finding it difficult to coordinate his own body and constantly losing his balance. After pulling his shoes on and sitting on the edge of his bed for a few minutes, he finally realised that he'd been staring into space without a thought on his mind when a voice snapped him from his trance. "Pine Tree, are you even listening to me?"
Eyes snapping onto the tall figure before him, Bill stood with his arms crossed and an expectant look on his face. "Huh?" the boy asked dumbly.
The immortal rolled his eyes and sighed, "I said that you look like you were mauled by the brain cooler freak."
He frowned, "brain cooler freak?"
"Don't worry about it, kid. I just wanted to check up on you since yesterday was a total mess and I'm busy today." When the boy only stared at him without answering, he spoke again with a gentle tap on the side of the human's head: "anyone home in that small brain of yours?"
The brunet only flinched and pulled back, rubbing at his head and muttering a quiet 'ow.'
"Don't be such a drama queen, Pine Tree; I barely touched you."
"Why are you here?"
The blond raised an eyebrow at the question; "I just told you."
"Monster hunting?"
"Just forget about it. I have something to give you anyway," he smiled proudly and took his hat from its place above his head. Reaching an arm in, he fumbled inside for a minute before pulling out a small, white object that fit in closed fingers.
Placing his hat back in its place, he commanded the boy simply: "hand, now." The human obediently lifted his hand, outstretching his fingers so he could take the small object. Bill dropped the item into Dipper's hand with a confident smile, watching as the thirteen-year-old didn't move, only studied it intently.
"Are these teeth?" Dipper then asked.
"Sure are," the other confirmed. "In fact, they're kids' teeth, each one is one of the first grown tooth from a different meat-bag. Don't worry, I got all of the blood off for you. Now open it up."
The boy then noticed that they weren't simply teeth, but teeth somehow moulded together to form a small box. Hesitantly removing the lid, his eyebrows furrowed at the sight; a pink, fleshy material made up a small cushion that held a white, circular object in place. "A ring?" he asked.
"Yup! The pink stuff is the gums of an old man, and that ring is carved from the bone of his wife's right foot."
Unexpectedly to both of them, instead of showing any kind of disgust or disapproval for the odd gift, Dipper only threw his head back as a laugh bubbled from his chest uncontrollably. "Is this-" he paused as he continued to laugh, finding it difficult to get each word out, "are you-"
Bill only grinned at the human's reaction, "finally, something you actually like!"
The human only laughed harder, "a ring- are you..." he held his breath to stifle his laughter and waited for it to die down, placing a hand behind him to lean on his bed so he didn't fall forward from the dizzying ringing in his ears. "Is this some weird way of trying to ask me to marry you or something?"
The immortal only frowned, "no, why would I ever do that? What a ridiculous idea, completely pointless."
More quiet giggles bubbled up from Dipper's chest but he didn't respond to the demon's words otherwise.
"I just found out that you meat sacks give rings and jewellery as gifts to people you like and- whoa, jeez kid. Why are you crying?"
The brunet lifted a hand to his cheeks to find them wet, trails of tears running down his face – despite the salty tears that fell from his eyes, his mouth was still curled up in a large grin.
"C'mere, kid," the demon muttered and pulled the boy up by his arm; the human stumbled forward before taking a moment to steady himself and push away the dizziness that loomed in his head.
The demon placed a hand on the other's forehead, focusing intently.
"What are you doing?" Dipper asked unsurely.
"Shut up, I'm checking something," the other commanded bluntly. After a short few moments in silence, the demon finally scoffed and looked into the human's eyes, "just what the heck did you do last summer?"
"Last summer?" his brows furrowed in confusion; "why?"
"The curse from yesterday, you were stuck reliving last summer, right? Well all damage from that dream was inflicted on your physical body, too. You have a concussion." When Dipper didn't respond, he simply told him: "I'll fix it, hold on." Winding a trail of gold around the human's form, each cut, bruise, burn, and other wounds were healed over quickly. After a moment, the boy only stood in place, and Bill spoke, pulling his magic away from the human; "better?"
Brows furrowing, his eyes flicked around for a moment, mouth opening and closing at a loss for words. Brown orbs finally settled on the object still in hand. With a sudden yelp, he dropped it and recoiled quickly, "ugh! What the heck, why am I still holding that?!"
Bill laughed, "there's the Pine Tree we all know and want dead," he cheered.
"Dead?!" he scowled at the demon.
"Yup! Pretty sure more people have tried to kill you than they have help you. But don't worry about that, you know I'd never let anyone lay a finger on you."
"How comforting," he muttered quietly.
With a quick pat on the head, the demon said his farewells before disappearing in a golden flash.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Dipper laughed at the joke that Wendy told. After Bill had left, he and Mabel had decided to hang out in the gift shop for a while with Soos and Wendy while the older two worked.
"So I was all like; 'no man, why don't you chill," Wendy said.
"Then what happened?" Mabel asked.
Before the red-head could reply, there was a muffled call from the living room of the shack: "ki's!"
"Great Uncle Ford is calling us, we should go see what he wants," Dipper said.
The twins left and quickly headed to the living room and stopped in the doorway. "Hey, Great Uncle Ford," Mabel greeted. Said man was in the room, his back turned to them.
"Ah, goo' you're here," he said, although it sounded muffled like his tongue was being held in place. Turning around to face them, Mabel was trying to stifle her laughter at the sight while Dipper only gaped dumbly. Their Great Uncle's tongue was sticking out of his mouth limply, a solid, square piece of ice stuck to it.
"Why is there a piece of ice stuck to your tongue?" the boy asked cluelessly.
Ford flushed a bright red in embarrassment at the question, turning his head away to avoid their gaze. "I nee' your hel' to get i' off," he admitted.
"Why don't you just wait for it to melt?" Mabel laughed.
His face only grew redder at the question; "It' magic ice, it doesn' melt."
"Why was you licking it in the first place?"
"Tha's not importan' right now. In the fores' there's a magic'l item tha' can melt it. I nee' you to go ge' it for me, I have a map wi' its location o' fo' you to use." He pulled a rolled up piece of parchment from his pocket and held it out; Dipper took it and unfurled it, reading it quickly.
"How are we meant to know what it looks like?" he asked.
"Don' worry, you'll kno'."
The twins shared a glance before shrugging, "alright."
Heading back into the gift shop, the two were about to leave when Soos interrupted them: "hey, where you two dudes going?"
Mabel quickly explained what had happened to Soos and Wendy and they all had to force themselves not to laugh at the thought of Ford in that situation.
"So now we're going to go find the item that he wanted," Dipper explained, holding up the map for them to see.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
"Hey, dude," Soos said as they walked through the forest. "Did Mr Pines tell you what we're looking for?"
"No," Dipper replied, "he just said that we'd know it when we see it."
"Seriously?" Wendy raised an eyebrow, "then how are we meant to now if it's the right one? We could be going all this way and get the wrong thing, then we'd have to do it all over again."
"Great Uncle Ford is usually right about this sort of thing, though; if he thought we'd have trouble finding it he'd have told us what it looks like or maybe even come with us."
Mabel then asked: "I wonder why didn't he come with us anyway?"
The boy shrugged and kept his gaze forward, refusing to look at the others. "Maybe he's busy finding more of those gems that he wrote about to get rid of Bill," he muttered sarcastically. "Who knows, maybe we're going to get it for him and he was just lying so I wouldn't suspect anything," he quickened his pace, intent on getting the day over with.
"Dipper," Mabel moved faster to walk next to her twin, "you know that's not what he's doing." Placing a reassuring hand on her brother's shoulder, she was surprised when he jerked back, knocking her hand away with the sharp movement.
"Yeah right," he bit back with a sharp glare, "you lied about it, too, Mabel. Give me one good reason why I should believe anything you say anymore."
"B-because," she stuttered in desperation to defend herself, "I'm your twin, bro-bro, you have to believe me."
"Twins," he echoed and gave a sarcastic bark of laughter, "didn't stop you from lying to me, though," he focused his gaze back on their path as they walked.
Nobody said anything for a long time, simply walking through the thick cloud of tension.
"So," Soos coughed after half an hour of the deafening silence, "how much further till we get there?"
The two girls looked at Dipper expectantly as he pulled out the map, studying it as he walked. He suddenly paused in his steps, causing his twin to bump into him but he paid no mind as he continued to examine the parchment; "that depends how fast you can climb," he finally replied. Rolling up the map again, he pointed to the left before instructing: "we need to go that way. There's an old well that we need to go down, it should be down there."
Without further word, the group headed in the direction of the well, walking for another half an hour before finally coming to a river.
The river ran across the edge of a clearing, cutting off their path into the expanse of grass; from where they were, they could see an old brick well standing in the middle of the clearing, a wooden roof standing on stilts over it and a sign hanging from the roof, but its words were illegible at such a distance. "Is that the well?" Wendy asked.
Dipper nodded, "yeah. I don't know how we're going to get across though, the river is too big to jump over even with a running start..." The river was, indeed, a few metres wide, much too big for any of the four to leap over.
"Dudes, could we swim through it?" Soos suggested, stepping up and kneeling down, about to reach a hand into the water when the limb was pulled away by the younger boy.
"I wouldn't do that, man," the brunet said. "The eels in that river don't look too nice," he pointed at the river and the others looked, too. In the water was a cluster of long, serpent-like, black figures – with a head in place of its tail, each two-headed fish seemed to grin mockingly at them with deadly, pointed teeth.
"Well how else can we get over?" his sister asked. "Could we try going further that way and see if we can find a bridge or something?"
The boy only shrugged in reply, watching the fish in the river intently.
"We could try building a bridge," Wendy suggested. "I could use my axe to cut down one of these trees and we could use that to get across."
"That could work," Dipper agreed while Soos and Mabel mumbled their agreement, too.
Moving behind a nearby tree, she warned the others to move back and they did as she got the weapon from its place on her belt. Bringing the axe back in her hands, she snapped her arms back again and struck the thick wood of the plant with the weapon – however, much to the girl's shock, the blade bounced back off. "What the?" the red-head's brows furrowed in confusion, the impact from hitting the tree vibrating through her arms; she ignored the shaky feeling as she struck it again and again, but nothing happened. The tree was left in pristine condition, not a scratch or a dent on it. The same couldn't be said for the axe. The metal blade was bent out of shape, now forming a ninety degree angle with the shape it was bent into. "What the heck, man," she complained.
Mabel called from where she stood: "Wendy, what's wrong?"
"I don't know!" she called back as she examined the blade of her weapon; "my axe isn't leaving a mark on this thing!"
The three moved over quickly to examine the situation, shocked as Wendy showed them her now broken axe. "How am I gonna explain this to my old man?" she complained, placing the weapon back in its place on her belt.
"Would it work for any of these other trees?" Dipper asked.
"I don't know man, but my axe is too busted to try. Sorry."
The boy sighed, "it's fine. But now what? There's no other way to get across the river and I doubt this tree is just going to fall over if we ask it: 'hey Mr tree, please could you go make us a bridge over the river? Thanks!'"
Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet began to shift and rumble, forcing each of them to latch onto a nearby tree to stay standing. "What's going on?" Mabel called to the others over the loud rumbling.
"I don't know," Dipper called back.
"Hey, look!" Soos pointed to the river and the other three followed his gaze.
Growing from the steep river bank were thick, muddy roots – they coiled around each other, stretching and growing and moulding together as they reached across to the other side of the river. The group watched in awe as the roots dug through the other side of the river bank, forming a steady bridge for them to cross.
"Whoa," the youngest girl breathed.
"Huh," Soos said, standing up on his own feet now that the ground had stopped rumbling; "guess you really did just have to ask."
"Well what are we waiting for?" Wendy stepped forward, "let's go."
"Is it steady enough to hold us?" Mabel pondered.
"One way to find out," Dipper shrugged and placed one foot on the bridge, putting most of his weight on it to test its strength; when it held, he made his way over to the other side of the river easily. Turning around, he gestured to the others that it was safe and they soon followed, making it to the other side of the river – the eels in the water watched their every movement, swimming as close to the edge as they could without having to jump out of the stream.
"Alright!" Mabel cheered, "now we can go get that magical thingy for Great Uncle Ford!" she ran over to the well and the rest of the group followed quickly, standing by it and reading the sign.
Wendy snorted at the writing painted on it: "ye old well, drinketh the cursed waters at thy own risketh,' who wrote this?"
"Boop!" Mabel placed a heart shaped sticker on the sign happily and laughed, "I don't know, but whoever it was needs to learn how to make this look prettier."
"Okay," Dipper pulled out his map and scanned it briefly before putting it away again, "this is the right well – now all we need is to go down it somehow and find what Great Uncle Ford wanted."
"But what's down there?" Wendy asked, peering over the edge and down into the black, seemingly bottomless pit.
The boy shrugged, "water maybe? Or maybe it's just nothing and we'll find it down there by itself… but how can we get down there?"
"We could try just jumping," Soos suggested.
"Let's find magical fairies and get them to fly us down there!" Mabel announced, waving her hands in an over-exaggerated gesture.
"I'll use my axe to- oh wait..." Wendy trailed off.
"Hold on a minute," the boy pulled out a small square of paper from his pocket which he liked to think of as something that could be used in an emergency… he'd never had to use it before but there was always the odd chance, and he reasoned that he couldn't risk leaving it behind. Unfolding it took a few seconds and when he finally did, the parchment was nearly the same length as Wendy's height, blank on both sides; pulling a pen from his pocket, he clicked the end of it before addressing the rest of the group: "okay, ideas."
Ten minutes later, both sides of the paper were filled with the boy's writing as he paced back and forth, muttering to himself. The rest of the group were sitting down and leaning against the brick wall that was the well boredly – Soos fiddled with the grass, Wendy with her hat and Mabel with her hair as they all waited for the boy to finish. They had each tried to persuade the boy that he didn't need to go to such lengths to think of an idea but, being Dipper, he had insisted that a plan was necessary or else anything could go wrong. "Alright," the boy finally sighed, grabbing the rest of the group's attention. "I've gone through every possibility there is and have come up with a different plan for each scenario. First on the list: flying space-monkeys with tazers. We can-"
"Yo, Dipper," Wendy interrupted, "cool it. Why don't we just drop a rock or something down there so that we can know how deep it is first?"
"Don't worry, I already thought of that for step seventy-eight," he held up the list and pointed to a piece of writing scrawled halfway down the page.
Rolling her eyes, the red-head picked up a nearby stone and dropped it into the well, listening for a few seconds until she heard a quiet 'plop' echo from the bottom. "There's some water down there but it's pretty shallow," she informed the others.
"How can you tell?" Mabel asked.
"If it was deeper the noise would have been louder and if there wasn't any water at all it would have made a different noise."
"Whoa, when did you find out all of this stuff?"
"My dad trains me and my brothers for junk like this instead of celebrating Easter."
"Cool," the brunette gushed. "But how do we get down there?" Leaning her hands on the edge of the well, she recoiled them and grimaced in disgust as her hands were coated in a slimy, thick substance. "Gross" she muttered and wiped the residue on her skirt.
"What about this?" Soos asked and held up a rope.
"Where did you get that?" Dipper asked.
"I always carry it with me just in case," the man shrugged.
"Okay~? We need something secure to tie it to so we can climb down," he scanned the area in search of something steady. "Do you think one of these trees could work? Is the rope long enough?" "Sure it is," the handyman made his way to a nearby tree and tied one end of the rope around the trunk tightly, pulling on it with all of his strength to make sure it wouldn't come loose. Once he was sure that it wouldn't, he dropped the other end down the well.
The group shared uneasy glances with one another, "so… who's going first?" Mabel asked unsurely.
"I will," Wendy announced. Climbing over the edge of the well, she looked down unsurely before asking; "do any of you have a flash light so I can see when I get down there?" Dipper reached into his backpack and pulled his new torch out before handing it to the older teen and telling her to be careful. She nodded and clung tightly to the rope as she began to descend but stopped just before her head faded into the darkness; "I don't know if you guys will be able to hear me too well once I'm down there, just in case, I'll flick the flash light on and off three times to let you know if it's safe, okay?" When the other three agreed, she resumed her descent into darkness.
Fifteen tense minutes went by where the trio simply stared into the well; it was so deep that they could only see a small dot of light at the bottom. Dipper found that – despite his inability to care for his friend as much as he wanted to – he was the one who wanted to – had to ask: "do you think she's okay?"
Neither his twin nor his friend answered the question, but he knew that they feared for the red-head's life much more than he did. After another minute, Mabel pointed down the well and commanded that they look; the two watched as the dot of light in the bottom of the well flashed off then on again, and then two more times: off and on, off and on. "Looks like it's safe to go down," the girl concluded.
They each climbed down the rope one by one, safely reaching the bottom. Dipper whistled as he finally set foot in the shallow water at the bottom of the well, admiring the sight before him; "this is a lot bigger than I expected," he admitted. Before them was a large tunnel than went on further than the eye could see, more caves tunnelling from the main one on either side to form an enormous maze that they could easily become lost in.
"How do we find Mr Pines' thing-ma-jig?" Soos asked as he, too, scanned the area.
"Guess we'll just have to look around," the boy shrugged.
They searched the tunnels for a few minutes before Soos asked unsurely: "uh, dudes? Are you sure this is a good idea? I'm pretty sure that there's something down here..."
"Don't worry man," Dipper assured, "nothing is there. Nothing could live down here anyway, there's nothing to eat or drink except mud."
"I don't know, Dip-dop," Mabel moved to stand closer to her twin, "I think Soos might be right. I feel like something is watching us."
The boy only rolled his eyes and moved away to stand on the other side of Soos without a reply for his sister.
"Hey," Wendy suddenly interrupted, pointing the torch forward to illuminate further down the tunnel, "check it out, do you think that's what we need to get for Ford?"
At the end of the tunnel was a cluster of flowers, each one glowing a bright, vibrant orange that cast graceful shadows on the cave walls and floor.
"Yeah, I think it is," Dipper confirmed and rushed forward, picking a flower from its place and studying it. "I wonder how they grow down here without any sun light," he pondered as he picked a few more and carefully put them into his pocket.
"Come on, man, hurry up so we can get out of here already," Wendy hurried, eyes shifting around the area. "I'm starting to think that Soos and Mabel might be right about something following us.
The boy stood straight and turned around to face the trio, about to reply when he stopped in his tracks.
"Yeah, I think so too," he admitted and pointed behind them.
The trio turned around and gasped at the sight: a hideous creature with ashen skin that wrapped tightly around thin bones; a hunched back that made the figure seem smaller as its spine poked through the paper-thin layer of flesh on its back and bony hands curled into themselves, nails long and broken. Its head seemed too big for it to be able carry and too thin to be healthy; cheeks were hollowed out and beady eyes were sunken into deep sockets, staring at the group. Muttering inaudibly to itself, eyes scanned the group for a moment.
"Dude," Soos chirped, "it looks kinda like that thing from those The Hobbit movies."
"What is it?" Mabel asked as the trio stepped back to stand next to Dipper while the humanoid creature moved forward on bony feet.
The boy pulled his journal from his vest pocket and flipped through the pages, skimming over each one until he was finally met with a page that had a drawing similar to the figure before them. "A wendigo," he read aloud, "these creatures were once humans but-"
"Dude," Wendy interrupted, "can't you just tell us the important bits?"
Rolling his eyes, he skimmed the pages before paraphrasing it to his friends: "it used to be human but became a wendigo when it ate another person. Basically, each time you perform cannibalism, you apparently give up a little bit of your soul, hungry spirits then possess your body and eat whatever they can, but the curse doesn't allow them to be full so they're always hungry."
"So it possesses people who don't have a soul?" Mabel asked.
"Yeah, or if you don't have all of your soul."
"Then what about you? You gave your soul to Bill."
"But I haven't actually eaten anyone so I'll be fine… I think."
"Well," Wendy said sarcastically, "isn't that great? Any way we can make it not want to eat us?"
"Uh… no…? They're driven by their starvation so the best we can do is try to run away from it."
A hiss was released through sharp, jagged teeth that looked like glass shards and what sounded like words were uttered from the wendigo before them: "yrgnuh os m'i… em deef."
"What's it saying?" Mabel asked.
"I don't know, it sounds like gibberish," her brother replied.
Wendy pulled her axe from its place on her belt and held it up threateningly, "hey!" she stepped closer to the creature and glared at it, causing it to shrink back in fear. "My axe might be broken but you bet I can still kick your butt with it, now move out of the way!"
The creatures eyes flicked over the group before landing on Dipper, another hiss of words falling through broken teeth: "luos on evah uoy. Em deef, yrgnuh m'i." Wendy glared at it again when it stepped forward, striking fear through the wendigo and forcing it to move back again wearily.
No one in the group expected for the creature to simply flop limply to the floor, laying on its stomach, pupilless eyes staring up at the group.
"Dude, what happened?" Soos asked unsurely.
"Do you think it… died?" Mabel asked quietly.
"It could just be playing dead," Wendy said, studying it for any signs of movement. However, she stumbled back when an ominous crimson mist crept from the creature's nose, dribbling out slowly and seeming to pool around its head. "What the heck is that?"
"I don't know," it was Dipper who replied, "it didn't say anything in the journal about a red fog."
"Look, guys, we have the flowers that Mr Pines wanted now let's go," Soos said worriedly, "this place is creeping me out big time."
"Soos is right," Wendy agreed, "let's just go before anything else shows up and actually decides to eat us." The teen ran past the wendigo's body, gesturing the other three to follow.
Soos went first and then Mabel while Dipper stayed behind them. However, as the thirteen-year-old boy stepped past the creature's form, he yelped in shock when something cold and clammy wrapped around his ankle, pulling him over. Landing on his stomach, the air was knocked from his lungs and he turned over quickly to see the wendigo's hand clinging tightly to his leg, he shook the appendage desperately in an attempt to release himself from it, but it refused to let go.
Mabel stopped once she heard her brother's yelp, turning to look at her brother and gasping at the sight. He sat on the floor, desperately shaking his leg to get rid of the wendigo's hand that clung to him. Other than its vice-like grip, it made no other move. She and Wendy ran forward and wrapped their hands around each of the boy's upper arms, dragging him back away from the creature – its limp figure was pulled along for a moment before finally dropping to the floor again as Dipper started coughing heavily, panting for air. The two girls pulled him to his feet so they could continue to run, only for him to gasp for more air and cough out: "Wendy," he doubled over, head hanging down as he spluttered. "That red mist-" he cut himself off with more violent hacking, covering his mouth with his hand.
"Dip-dop, come on," his twin pleaded desperately, "we have to go."
He finally stopped coughing after a few seconds but made no move to stand straight or run again, instead standing there with his hands on his knees and head hanging low.
"Dipper?" Soos asked, "you alright dude?"
A low rumble echoed through the tunnels and the girls looked at the handyman. "Soos? Was that your stomach?" Wendy asked wearily.
"Nuh-uh, dude."
"It was mine," the trio looked at the owner of the voice: Dipper. He straightened to look at them, eyes slowly roaming over their forms; "I'm really hungry," he admitted, placing a hand on his stomach, "really, really hungry."
The boy's mind was clouded by the sudden hunger than threatened to consume him, his mouth salivating excessively – he couldn't bring himself to care about the drool that dribbled from his mouth, too focused on the empty pit that was his stomach. He could eat just about anything at that moment: rocks; mud; plants; anything. And yet, there was a sickening feeling overwhelming his entire being that craved meat, to sink his teeth, his hands and everything he was into the satisfying burst of flavour he knew he could get from it.
"Come on," Mabel coaxed, "once we get back to the shack you can eat."
He mulled over it in his mind, the shack was just so far away, could he really wait that long? Surely he would starve to death if he was forced to wait all of that time, and why should he go all that way when there was a perfectly good meal standing right before him?
A small portion of his mind scolded him for thinking such gruesome, horrific thoughts about his own friends and yet he found the offer too tempting and inviting that he couldn't resist thinking about what it would be like to finally sink his teeth into the flesh of his friends and family. "But the shack is so far away," he complained.
"Dipper," Wendy said, "we need to go before that wendigo gets up or something worse comes, now come on!"
His eyes flicked to the red-head and he listened as another growl from his stomach urged him to simply lunge at the girl and satisfy his hunger. "But I'm hungry now… yrgnuh os." Something seemed to click in his own mind as he blinked, watching the three intently.
Mabel and Soos gasped while Wendy stepped back, lifting her axe again in warning; "Dipper," Mabel spoke quietly, "your eyes."
"Uh, dudes," Soos said, "I think we should get going now..."
"Come on, let's go," Wendy commanded and latched a hand around Mabel's wrist, tugging the girl along.
"Mabel!" Dipper called after his twin desperately, "don't leave me like this."
"Wait, Wendy, Soos, we have to do something!" his sister pleaded as she was pulled along.
Another rumble from his stomach finally convinced him to take a step forward, and then another, and then another – he was soon running after his friends, gaining on them quickly – all of the adventuring and running from murderous monsters was apparently worth it.
"Which way is the way out?" Soos called to his friends as he ran.
Dipper chuckled; if his friends were lost, all the better. It meant he could get to them easier and gnaw on their bloodied bones faster. "Left!" he shouted to the man, lying in hopes of sending them the wrong way.
"Go right!" Wendy instructed to the man in front of her, "don't listen to anything Dipper says!"
The handyman did as the red-head instructed, turning right to run down another long tunnel.
"Soos~" Dipper called out, "why aren't you listening to me?" he pushed himself to move faster, desperate to catch at least one of them. "em ot netsil," he commanded darkly, words inhuman. Finally, his sister was within reach, so close that he could almost feel the sweet taste of blood dancing along his lips; he craved it so deeply with his entire being, his jaw aching in anticipation of what was to come. All he had to do was reach out…
"I see the way out!" Soos announced.
...And she was his.
"Quick, climb up!" Wendy instructed.
He jumped forward, pushing his entire weight from the floor quickly in a heavy tackle, wrapping arms around his twin's waist as he dragged her down. "Mabel!" the older two called back when the girl was pinned beneath her brother, a hungry, sadistic grin pulling at saliva-coated lips.
"Stupid wendigo, let my brother go!" Mabel demanded, desperately thrashing around in an attempt to wriggle out from beneath him.
"Yrgnuh os m'i tub," he ground out, drool dripping from his mouth and onto his chin as he held her in place, fingers digging into her shoulders.
Suddenly, the air was knocked out of him as his body was shoved harshly to the side, colliding with the bricks that made up the walls near the exit of the tunnels. "Mabel run!" Wendy commanded as she stood in front of the boy, blocking his pursuit on his sister. The girl didn't hesitate to do as she was told, latching onto Soos' back when he offered and began to climb out of the well.
Dipper shifted his focus onto the girl in front of him, his mind wandering to a place full of gruesome images and sickening thoughts.
"Sorry man," Wendy said, "but you're not eating anyone today," she held up the broken axe in a protective stance, ready to use it as best she could to defend herself.
"But I'm hungry," he complained. It occurred to him that that was the only line of thought running through his head besides the bloodied fantasies.
"Dude, you ate tacos for lunch, remember?"
"But it feels like it's been years since I last ate," a rumble from his stomach emphasised his point. Lunging for her, he tackled her to the ground before she could respond, wrestling with her for a moment – he easily lost and was pushed to the floor by the red-head, the bent blade of her axe was pushed against his throat; despite being harmless, the threat still stood on its own. "You know how pointless this is?" he glared at her, "just let me up and I promise I'll kill you before I eat you… At least then you won't have to feel it as I tear your flesh from your bones." He laughed bitterly, "remember when I gave my heart to you last summer? Well I'm betting your heart'll taste pretty good right now. Come on, man, you gotta agree."
"Dude, chill," she glared back at him. He continued to ramble about horrific things she didn't want to understand or know about in the slightest so she pushed her hand over his mouth in an attempt to quieten him. She recoiled her hand quickly, however, when something thick and wet ran along her palm slowly; "ugh, gross!"
The brunet took the opportunity to kick her off of him with his feet, knocking the air from her lungs. Scrambling to his feet quickly, he left the girl in favour of chasing after the other two that had left, running to the cave entrance. Before the other could stand and follow him, he began to climb up the rope; in the distance, he could see the shadows of Soos and Mabel contrasting against the light of day – he heard Wendy shouting after him as she, too, started to climb the rope. Looking down, she was gaining on him. Fast. Unfazed by her speed, he dug his fingers into the loose bricks of the well's wall, climbing up the side much faster than before, a smile gracing his lips as he thought of the taste of blood and skin, the feeling of it against his tongue and as it slid down his throat; the thought sent pleasant shivers down his spine and he willed himself to move faster.
"Dipper!" Wendy shouted after him again. "Soos, Mabel! Be careful, he's coming!" she yelled to her friends.
Once Dipper finally reached the top, he jumped down onto the soft grass, wiping his now broken nails on his shorts to get rid of the slimy residue from the wall and the blood that had leaked from small cuts. Scanning the expanse of the clearing, he searched for the duo he had followed only to find the space void of them. "Mabel," he called innocently. "Lebam," he spoke again, voice inhuman; "please don't leave me like this," he pleaded. "Namuh uoy sekam that lla ruoved dna bmil morf bmil uoy pir ot tnaw I hcum woh aedi on evah ouy," each syllable that fell from his lips dripped with dark intentions and a burning hunger that he couldn't call his own yet so desperately wanted to quell. Moving forward, he turned slowly in place to scan the rest of the clearing in search for the two. "Come on," he called, "you're not seriously going to leave Wendy here with me, are you?"
"We both know I could take you any day, man," Wendy's voice suddenly spoke from behind him. As he spun on his heels to face the older teen, something hard impacted with the side of his head, knocking him over instantly. Head pounding, his vision quickly blackened into a quiet, empty void.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Dipper's eyes fluttered open and he found himself looking down at his own lap. Peering around the room, he took in the table, chairs, fridge, cooker – he was in the familiar kitchen of the Mystery Shack. Head pounding, he groaned and tried to reach up to rub at the aching spot only to realise that his arms were bound; he was sat in one of the chairs, rope tying him to it so tightly that he had no chance of escaping on his own. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, releasing a content sigh as another deliciously vulgar scent invaded his nostrils.
"Good to see you're finally awake," someone spoke.
Moving his head to face the man sitting at the table – a news paper in hand as he read it idly – the brunet replied: "Grunkle Stan. Are you..." his eyes flicked to the cooker as the sweet smell of meat danced in the air, "cooking something?"
"Hello to you, too. And how did you guess?" the man responded sarcastically.
"Em deef," the words spilled from his lips quickly as he pulled against the ropes binding him, "I'm hungry."
"I guessed by the way you've been drooling all over the floor. Don't worry, point dexter said the whole wendigo thing should go away after a couple more hours, as long as you don't actually go and eat somebody. I'm here to make sure you don't get out and do just that."
"Sdnib eht tuc, sdnib eht tuc," he demanded, repeating the phrase over and over like a mantra.
"Kid, you know we can't understand you when you talk like that, right?"
"Meht tuc, meht tuc!" he snarled. "Evah tonnac I hcihw taht ot esolc os em evah ot sa hcum os em tnuat uoy tsum yhw?"
"Keep struggling like that and I'm gonna have to knock you out again," Stan warned, finally looking up over the news paper in his hand at the brunet. "You know how much you worried everyone?"
Guilt numbed that small, still sane part of his mind in the back of his brain, making him pause in his demands for only a second. His friends and family had worried for him because he had tried to eat them.
"I don't care," he soon replied, the words a blatant lie to both himself and his Great Uncle. "Come on Grunkle Stan, why can't you just let me go?" he pleaded. "I was just going to go see Mabel and maybe play some mini-golf or something with her," he lied; "esool em tuc."
Stan didn't say another word, instead standing up and carrying a baseball bat in hand. "This is going to hurt. Sorry," the man apologised half-heartedly before a sudden pain rippled through the teen's head, his vision blackening out once more.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
"Is he still unconscious?" a voice asked.
"Well he did wake up but he started spouting a bunch of crazy stuff so I just knocked him out again," someone else replied.
"Stanley!" the other scolded, "you didn't hit him with that bat?! Do you know how danger-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get the idea, y' nerd. Don't worry, he'll be fine."
There was a loud sigh. "Well it's been a twenty four hours by now, the curse should have worn off." The statement was followed by two sets of footsteps that stopped just in front of him; "Dipper?"
Lifting his aching head, he was greeted by the sight of the older twins standing before him, watching him carefully.
"How do you feel?" Ford asked.
"Like I need to get a helmet or something, I just keep hitting my head lately," he ground out through his pounding headache.
"You still trying to eat everyone?" Stan asked.
"Ugh, no," the brunet's face contorted into an expression of disgust, "gross. There's no way I want to eat someone. What's the time?"
"Twenty past five in the afternoon, you've been out cold since yesterday."
"Can you untie me now?"
"You sure you won't try and take a chunk out of us once we do?" Stan raised an eyebrow but moved behind his chair to get him loose.
"Pretty sure. So, uh, do you know where Mabel is? I really should apologise for… you know, trying to eat her and stuff."
"Upstairs in the attic, far as I know."
He quickly thanked the two before heading upstairs, to his and Mabel's shared room. "Mabel?" he knocked on the door before cracking it open slightly; "can I come in?" Once his sister gave him the go ahead, he walked into the room to see the girl on her bed, drawing something. "What're you drawing?" walking over to her bed, he laid down next to her to admire her art: a drawing of Waddles and Gompers on a ship, Gompers standing at the bow, hooves spread, and Waddles behind him with stubby hooves wrapped around the goat. "The Titanic?" he laughed.
"Yup," she laughed too before imitating a goat's voice: "I'm flying, Waddles!"
The two laughed again and sat in a companionable silence for a short few moments before the boy finally spoke: "so uh… sorry."
"Don't worry, bro-bro," she smiled, "I mean it's not like that's the first time something has tried to eat me."
"It's not just that. I'm sorry for being so mean lately and ignoring you and everything; I was stupid for ever thinking that I couldn't trust you and that you didn't trust me. I didn't really think about it too much until Grunkle Stan said everyone was really worried earlier."
"Don't worry about it, Dippin' dots," she assured and spread her arms; "awkward sibling hug?"
"Awkward sibling hug," he agreed and they embraced each other whole-heartedly before uttering an awkward: "pat, pat," as they did the action.
"So what happened with Great Uncle Ford?" he pulled away from the hug to talk to her, "did he tell you how he got a lump of ice stuck to his tongue?"
She laughed, "oh yeah, he actually did – turns out that he was drinking some coffee but it was too hot, so he grabbed the first thing he could find to cool it down. Turns out it was a magical ice cube." The two laughed, continuing to chat idly for the rest of the evening, playing mini-golf and having various other friendly competitions until they finally went to bed.
Wendigo on Wikipedia: wiki/Wendigo
Wendigo BA: (Not sure if I'll actually do one, if I do the link will be at the start of the next chapter.)
In case anyone didn't notice, all of the weird stuff said by the Wendigo and Wendigo-Dipper is backwards, so if you read it backwards you'll know what's actually being said.
I'm tempted to do a drawing of Wendigo Dipper just because psychopathic drawings are fun to do. Speaking of which - I am now taking art requests! Feel free to PM me or leave a review if you want me to do a drawing for you, I won't charge you anything and it doesn't have to just be Gravity Falls. I'll draw anything as long as I'm bored enough (and as long as it's not too... let's just saw M rated.) Although I have to say, don't expect anything to glorious from me, I'm not the best artist around. So yeah, feel free to ask about that.
Okay, sudden rant before I forget… do y'all remember S1E15 of the series 'The Deep End' at the pool? And that child who was stuck in the drain thingy? At the end it showed him in there all through the year… Do you think he was still under there during Weirdmageddon? I like to think that he was. I have a feeling that one of those flying eyeballs would show up and turn the boy into a stone statue then teleport him away, kinda but he has to break the tiling and the pool and stuff to get him out so yeah, he does. But then Mr Poolcheck would show up like: "DON'T MESS WITH MA POOL!" and beat up the flying eyeball. I would be totally cool with it if that happened in the series.
Also; if anyone is curious about the first bit with Dipper and Bill, (so glad I got another gift in there, it's been too long since that happened) well apparently, when people have a concussion they can react inappropriately to some things, like laughing when you're given a really gross present or crying when someone tells a funny joke... Fun, fun, fun! Yeah go Google it if you're curious about that sort of thing?
I already have the ending planned in my mind for this fic, and although I'm not going to reveal anything about it, I will say that there will probably be a sequel! Unless you guys don't like it as much by the time it's finished, in which case I'll just leave it on a cliff hanger because yolo, I'm crueler than Alex Hirsch.
Now this chapter's plan:
Now, the previous chapter was in Bill's perspective (what with the names and all) so now we're back to normal! Or as normal as can be with this weird fic about weird Gravity Falls. So anyways, everyone is up and stuff and let's just quickly deal with the mess from the previous chapter…
Okay! So that's out of the way, Bill is off doing God knows what (I'll think of something) and we can now have some squad fun! Dippy, Maybelle, Zeus and Wenday are in the gift shop doing whatever when Ford suddenly shouts from somewhere: "Gravity Squad! Assemble!" They all run in and Fordsy – AKA Captain America – is all like: "okay, fam. This is very important. I got my tongue stuck on this ice cube and now I can't get it off."
But one of them is like; "bro, just wait for it to melt."
But it turns out that, just like Soos' infinite pizza, it is infinite ice. Oops. Why was Ford licking an ice cube, you ask? Well, at first I was just joking and wasn't actually going to put that in the story… but now I'm going to because I really want to. I'll think of something believable when I write it for why he was doing that, though! (Maybe he burnt his tongue on something and was using it to cool it down? But it turns out it was some weird ice that he had around or that Stan was using for the gift shop? Ding ding ding~ Ford is the Mystery Shack's next attraction!)
Anyways, the squad goes out to go find whatever the hell it was that Sixer wanted to get the strange ice cube off of his tongue and at some point they come across le wendigo. So Dippy looks in le journal and is like "blah blah blah, cannibals, something about souls, blah blah and more blah."
So the wendigo is then like; "get rekt, m8."
And Wendy is like: "I ain't your m8, pal."
Wendigo is like: "I ain't your pal, buddy."
"I ain't your buddy, friend."
"I aint your friend, guy."
"I aint your guy, pal."
"I aint your- Jk, let's get on with this plan already." So yeah stuff goes down which you already read and Dipper becomes a wendigo or whatever… that should be fun to write.
Blah blah blah, more stuff happens that you already know about but I haven't planned yet so I'm just gonna wing it~
Basically, they save Dipper and get Fordsy's magical ice cube un-freezer-thingy.
End of chapstix xx
So yeah, there you go. And wow, this chapter was a hell of a lot longer than I thought it would be and I have no idea why.
Feel free to request any creatures you want to be messed with, and I will try my hardest to keep this a K+ rating from here on out! (#SorryNotSorry about the previous gore.)
Thanks for reading, as always, go ahead and leave a review if you have any art requests... or not, I don't mind. Reading the reviews just makes my day ;D