Masochism Can Be Both Physical And Mental

Mabel wasn't sure where she was going exactly. Magic worked in strange ways. But the way she saw it, if Hand Witch told her to walk 'that way', she'd do it. By some twist of fate, she was destined to cross paths with her brother, be it in five minutes, an hour, or thirty days. She'd do it. Again. Again. And again.

But that didn't mean she wasn't getting impatient.

"C'mon, Dipper," She muttered, "Where are you?"

The street she'd been walking along disappeared into a wide, pedestrian avenue. Bars lined each side. Drunks, both of age and under age meandered through the mess of establishments. It wasn't as decrepit as the red light district. Up-kept while still being unkempt. When she passed one of those heavily outdated, blue emergency polls, she realized she wandered close to Willamette campus.

Was it a weekend? The passage of time since she'd arrived in Salem had been blurred. She worked every day to find a killer. If the day of the week wasn't critical information, it was ignored.

Bouncers and campus police alike were out and about, keeping the general peace. Well, as peaceful as it could be with that commotion around the corner. Mabel paused, unsure for a moment whether or not she should investigate. Her curiosity won out.

Rounding a corner Mabel caught sight of a squad car parked on the side of the street. An obnoxious group of drunks staggered by, their forebrains inactivated enough to let slide the great idea of pestering the cops on duty. Mabel knew, from her own days as an officer, how short patience grew after a few hours of such abuse. So it didn't surprise her when an officer climbed out of the car to snag a straggler from the group.

What did surprise her was how familiar said straggler was.

"Dipper!" she let out a 'hushed exclamation of wonder' as Soos would say.

She hurried over. Even at a distance, she could tell that the officer was issuing a warning and offering advice that would probably do some other college kid some good. Instead Dipper was silently suffering though. He studied his shoes, scuffing them absently on the cement. And the clatter of commotion she made as she drew closer grabbed his wandering attention.

Dipper looked up, brown eyes meeting her matching ones. It was probably just the darkness playing tricks on her, but Dipper's irises looked all wrong: uncharacteristically flat and emotionless. Something indistinguishable flitted across his features. Suddenly, Dipper began to retreat, attempting to back away from the conversation.

The officer snagged Dipper's arm before he'd made it out of reach.

"Hey, I wasn't finished talking to you."

Dipper yanked furiously, trying to loosen his arm from the officer's grip.

"Stop." The officer commanded, "If you continue to resist like this, I'm going to take you in to the station."

That didn't help his cause any. Dipper, silently, continued to wrench his arm away. Rosettes bloomed on his white dress shirt, which Mabel recognized almost immediately, she'd seen too much of it recently. Blood.

"Stop." She commanded the officer grabbing the arm that restrained her brother, "You're hurting him!"

"Only because he's struggling so much," the officer countered.

Mabel didn't want to take her eyes off her brother – didn't want him to get away. But he wouldn't meet her gaze, returning to stare at the sidewalk even as he continued to pull away. More blood seeped into his shirtsleeves. Why was he bleeding anyway? She didn't have any choice but to try and talk some sense into this awfully persistent police officer.

"Hey." She pulled at the officer's grip, trying to use her injured hand to peel his fingers away, "I said you're hurting him! Let go!"

"What," the officer finally glanced at Mabel, "You can't tell me what to do, Lady."

"I'm a detective. Yes, I can tell you what to do."

"Prove it."

"As soon as you let go of this young man. If you even bothered to look, you'd also notice that he's not underage and he's not even drunk."

"You're not a detective and you can't give me orders, until you prove otherwise. I've had it with this punk, I'm taking him in."

"For what?" Mabel scoffed, "He hasn't even done anything except have the bad luck of being lumped with irresponsible college student and being stopped by the most clueless cop on the street. And let me tell you, I know quite a few cops."

"He's disturbing the peace." The officer objected.

Mabel was just about done with this guy.

"He hasn't said a word since he's had to listen to you. He's practically a saint!"

"Now listen here, lady…"

Mabel decked him.

It served two purposes. He finally let go of Dipper and he finally shut up. As a bonus, it relieved her pent up frustration. The officer stumbled back, but managed to stay on his feet, good for him. But Mabel wasn't interested in his ability to recover at the moment.

She spun to find her brother.

It seemed that the moment Dipper had managed to break away, he'd taken off. He was already half way down the block, walking briskly – not running. She could catch him! There was definitely something wrong. Not just his arm. His eyes. His countenance.

It was Dipper… but it wasn't.

It was almost like one of his episodes. The kind he got when he stood at the edge of the woods and stared into its depths for too long.

She wasn't going to let him disappear again.

Mabel probably made it all of one step before she was plowed over. For once, she was grateful for the splint on her wrist or it might have been broken. As it were, hot pain lanced up her arm and she cried out. Another set of hands were struggling to pin her wrists as she fought back.

"What the hell!"

She'd seriously underestimated that officer, his stupidity, his resilience, and his boldness.

"Assaulting an officer," The man grunted, "Is unacceptable no matter who you are. Forget the kid. I'm taking you in."

"He's not a 'kid'!" She growled. Desperately, she looked up to see Dipper turn a corner. Out of sight now. Still. She could catch him. She could.

"Let me go!" She demanded, "You can't do this!"

"Yes I can."

Cool steel tightening on her wrists destroyed every last hope. Handcuffs.

"No."

The officer didn't hear her silent sobs.

"Dipper. Come back!"

Wow, sorry about how late this is, especially after I left you with a kinda-cliffy. (starfleetrambo tumblr com/post/106221853978/i-was-so-blind-he-lied-to-me-can-i-just-say)