*Taps microphone* Testing one, two, three, one, two, three. Alrighty, *ahem*. Dearest readers...no that's too formal. Hello D diggity dogs!...no too street. Hello fellow Fallers! Ya that's good. I want to thank all of you for all of the dear support, I couldn't have done it without you guys. The awesome comments, the joy of seeing a new follower, it makes me smile everyday! And I could never imagine this story to be getting so long, what are we at? 30 something chapters? Well, in all fairness the chapters are fairly short, but still! Very exciting! So thanks again you guys! You all rock! Now who's ready for some good old fashioned family violence!...no? Not you sir? Red hair, black leather chair? Well get yourself ready anyways XD As always, stay awesome, nice shoes, buy gooollld! -Silver...I'm gonna go to bed now.
"For years now, I've wanted to fall asleep. The sort of slipping off, the giving up, the falling part of sleep. Now sleeping is the last thing I want to do."
― Chuck Palahniuk
Nadilines POV:
"She's not dead right? Cause she looks dead, sooo..."
"No she's n-not dead, h-how old are you, 5?"
"Hey I'm gonna turn 13 by the end of the summer, so watch it cabbage head!"
"C-cabbage head? Seriously? Even I c-came up with b-better insults as a kid."
"Well your hair is green and look what you did to these two, she's right, you are a cabbage head!"
"Would you k-kids quit it? I think she's waking up!"
I slowly open my eyes, trying to make sense of the arguing voices bubbling through my mind. I feel a sharp pain on the right side of my head, like migraine mixed with brain freeze. Not a nice combo. I turn over my head from its horizontal view and come face to face with Bills perpetrator.
"AHHHH!" I scream out, surprised to see wide, black slitted eyes staring into mine. The presence yells out in surprise as well, trying to back away from my face.
"Ah, hey! W-watch it!" He yells out, giving a light stutter.
I sit up for the prickly forest floor, banging my forehead against the presence in the process. "Ah! Dude! Stop giving me head breakers, jeez!" I yell, placing a hand on my aching head. I cradle it in my hands, my hair scratches my fingers from the various twigs and pine needles caught in my torn up braid. "Dipper, Mabes, before I lift my head, who the hell is our little guest?" I mumble to the twins, not wanting anymore surprises.
"Ummm, you did say BROTHER right?" Dipper asks me, placing a comforting hand on my aching back.
"Brother...brother..." I mumble to myself, trying to remember the past few minutes before my sudden KO. I take a slight look to my right, letting my cyan hair cover part of my face as I continue to cradle my head. I catch a glimpse of a torn white shirt and some shaggy blonde hair. "Bill...on the ground. That's a brother." I mumble cluelessly, as my vision starts to slant a tad to the right. "I sang, Bill left, we ran and found..." I get a sudden jolt in my brain, and I immediately look up at my current company. "Lumi..." I blurt out.
"Nadiline...long t-time no talk..." He mutters nervously, most likely trying to keep me as calm as possible. But he should know better by now.
Despite my aching head I spring up on my knees and lunge at my brother. I manage to pin him to the ground from his lack of preparation, I bring my knees down on his arms and start to throw punches.
"YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" I scream, wailing my fists at him. "You used *PUNCH* a freaking *PUNCH* sleeper spell *PUNCH* on him! You twit!" I yell at him, giving weak hits to his gut as he wiggles his arms out from my knees and throws his hands up in defense. And I honestly don't know why he doesn't use a force spell to throw me off, as he is perfectly capable. But for some reason, he continues to let me wail on him, but I suddenly get pulled back by two pairs of hands and get forced off of Lumi.
"Nadi! You've made your point, give the guy some time to breath!" Dipper yells at me, as he and Mabel keep me pinned down by the elbows.
"OH PLEASE! He's a demon, he can't even feel it! Mr. Coward Who Hides From His Own Freaking Family!" I yell, trying to wiggle out of the twins grasp.
"Me h-hiding!? What about y-you! You're the one who w-walked out on us!" Lumi yells back, getting up onto his feet. "You disappeared for o-over a century! I was w-worried sick! You could have been d-dead for all I knew!"
"Dead!? That's an insult in itself!" I yell, pushing Dipper and Mabels hands off of my arms and getting onto my own feet. "You know damn well I'm capable of taking care of myself!"
"No YOUR N-NOT! You're mortal, v-vulnerable! Anything could h-have happened to you!"
"Have you even taken a look at the world lately!? EVERYONE'S MORTAL! And they're all perfectly fine! I mean, look at these two. Barley even teenagers and they've been trotting around this forest all summer!"
"Umm, in all fairness, we did almost get killed TWICE." Dipper chimes in. Resulting in both Lumi and I turning around and shouting, "Shut it Pinetree!" He stares at us in surprise, not shaken at all by our violent yelling.
"Pinetree? Seriously, what is with you three…" he mumbles to himself, knowing perfectly well now to stay out of this feud.
"Wait...what was I mad at you about again?" I ask cluelessly. Lumi doesn't give me an answer, instead I find his eyes trail nervously behind me. I follow their path and turn myself around, finding an unconscious Bill laying on the forest floor. "BILL!" I yell, running over to his motionless form. I get down on my knees beside him. I start to shake his shoulders desperately, "Come on Bill, don't leave me hanging here! Wake up you annoying little liability!" I blurt out, trying to get that damn eye to open up. But to no avail. I slump my arms at sides sides hopelessly, taking in the whole situation. It feels cold...and empty. Like a giant hole with no ending...and we actually have one of those here.
I suddenly feel a hand on my shoulder, "I did what I h-had to do." says a soft voice. I immediately brush the hand off in spite.
"What you had to do, or what you wanted to do?" I coldly question, not taking my eyes off of Bills calm face.
"You know h-he's a danger to humanity Nads. It's for the b-best."
More rage builds inside me, not enough to start an earthquake, but just enough for me to get on my feet and slap his sorry face. One more hard hand on his cheek won't hurt him, but it doesn't make me feel any better, in fact, I feel dread at the fact that I have to do it in the first place. "How could you?" I question quietly, my tone not matching my emotions. "He's your brother, OUR BROTHER! And you did this to him because you think it's for some 'greater-good'!?"
"YES! Blood or n-not, he had to be s-stopped! You can't trust him Nadi! He's dangerous!" Lumi argues. I give to response back, I just continue to stare into his cold, hard eyes. I feel as if the walls are cracking on my own sanity now.
"Like we're any better..." I mumble to him.
"How did we get here Lumis? Huh? When did we get to the point that we had to betray each other like this? When all of our actions are out of FEAR. We're cowards and you know it. We are SICK and TWISTED monsters with no sense of consequence. Don't you deny that for a second, because you know it's true. I ran from my family because I was too scared to take them on in a fight, TO STAND UP TO THEM. Bill gave up his entire childhood to give us ours and yet to this day, he can't make his own proper decisions. And you. You never thought for a second on how we felt about this whole situation, we gave our LIVES for you! And yet you treat us as if we're pons on a chessboard! We should be ASHAMED of ourselves! We're better than this! We're capable of so much more! But instead we hide in the shadows like the despicable creatures we are. So I ask you, is this all worth it? Is your own kins life worth your sick views?"
Lumi remains speechless, taking in my harsh words.
I feel a presence come to stand beside me on my left, the emotion she carries is hopeful. It brings me warmth and tingles my skin. The clear sign of Mabel Pines.
"There's always a way to get out." she says to me softly.
"What?" I question her sadly, turning away from Lumi.
"There's always room for people to make the right choice. My teacher has always told us that if you find a locked door, you jump out the window!" she laughs. I silently laugh in return, feeling comfort in her statement. But it quickly leaves.
"There is no window this time Mabel...there's no where left for me to turn. I'll never have my family back-" I suddenly get cut off by another voice behind us.
"Um, hey Nadi? I think I found something…" I hear Dipper call from a large, nearby tree. It's only a meter or so from where Bill is laying. I look away from Mabel and over to Dippers concerned face. He's kneeling in the grass, holding something in his hands. I silently walk over to him.
I wish I hadn't.
I almost cry out when I see the broken pieces of wood in his hands, mixed in with thin strings and a torn case. I place a hand over my mouth, trying to keep calm.
"His violin…" I say softly, picking the mangled instrument form Dippers hands. I hold it by the neck, large broken pieces hang on for their dear lives, trying to stay ahold by dangling on shimmering violin strings. Strings that I know haven't been able to grace the world in years.
"I think it fell o-off his back w-when I...pinned him mid-air on the t-trunk…" Lumi stutters guilty.
I immediately walk over to him, taking heavy steps as I go, trying to make a statement. I shove the destroyed instrument in his face, "THIS is what you've done. THIS is our childhood Lumi! And you've broken it into a million peices! Just because you couldn't compete with your big brother! I was wrong, I have nothing to be ashamed of. I did what I had to do, for my own safety. But YOU, you and your cocky arrogance, YOU'RE NO BETTER THAN HIM!" I yell, pointing a finger at Bill.
"Please, c-calm down! Nadi I-I-" he stutters.
"What Lumi!? What!? You're sorry!? You regret your actions!? Well GUESS WHAT!? That's what happens when you don't weigh the consequences! The past may haunt you, but that doesn't mean you have to ruin the present!" I yell in his face. I feel my throat itch and burn every time I speak. How many times have I been down this road this month? One, twice? It honestly doesn't matter. Because I know it was enough to strain my own voice. A voice I want to use to talk to people, to sing my heart out, to be a regular teenager. But that's impossible. All I have left is my intense rage, why? Because that's what I'm good at. Yelling. Blaming. Arguing. It's in my nature. I did grow up with two older brothers after all. But I'm done yelling. "YOU'RE THE WINNER. Congratulations...are you happy now? Is this the result you wanted? I long rivaled brother out of your way and a sister stuck in a loop of spite?"
"I wasn't...I n-never..." he stutters, trying to give me an excuse, but fails miserably.
Intense silence shrouds the dark forest, leaving only the sounds of distant crickets and soft wind. Lumi looks at me with intense focus, trying to make sense of my question. But through the few seconds I give up on any answer from him and collapse to my knees beside Bill once again, stroking a hand in his blonde hair. I trust myself when I believe I'm not one for comforting people, but with Bill stuck like this, it feels almost...instinctive. "Twenty-four...he was twenty-four. We shouldn't be here right now. We shouldn't be in this sick mess. Maybe you two could have found a girl, had a family. That oh-so-simple white picket fence. But no...instead we turned into this. Maniacal demons who don't belong in this world." I say softly to thin air.
Out of my pathetic worries I feel a soft poke on my head. "Boop!" Mabel laughs, sticking something on my forehead. I remove it from my skin and see a glittery purple sticker that reads 'hope'. I smile softly at the small gift and turn to give Mabel a hug, which she gratefully returns.
"You should seriously be a therapist one day, you know that?"
"Nah, I'm looking more towards motivational glitter artist!" she says happily. At first I think she's kidding, but it seems she's dead serious. How Mabel. Perfect, happy Mabel. Despite my age, I find myself looking up to her in a sisterly sense. "Alright, so how do we get that frown upside down?" she asks me.
"You're seriously asking me that?" I deadpan, motioning a hand to my unconscious brother.
"Errr, right. Correction: how do we get this demon out of 'dreamin?" she asks, sticking to her silly rhymes.
"It's a sleep spell Mabes. And a powerful one at that. You've been preparing for this, haven't you Lumi?" I question my second brother, giving him a cold shoulder.
"It t-took twenty-eight years, but I finally g-got it right." he says, confidence flowing through him. It makes me sick. "A level 2 sleep s-spell. If I wanted him o-out of the picture, I needed to make s-sure it was break-proof."
"...no." I mumble.
"What did y-you say?" he questions me sternly.
"I SAID…" I get onto my feet once more and give a confident face, trying to show who's the better man...er, *demon. "NO. No spell is ever break-proof. I've proven you wrong before. I can do it again. Besides, I do all the READING in this family." I say confidently, repeating my own words from the brief blackout. I give a long known cocky smile, one I learned from the very brothers I used to look up to.
"You c-can't Nadi. You're powerless." he says, just as confident. So it's a showdown he wants? Alright, let's see who has the right cards. I walk over to Lumi and get in his face, showing who's the one with the royal flush.
"Don't be so naive Lumis. While you can keep your fancy little spells, I have a masters in dark arts on my side. Like you, I've been studying for YEARS. I know my stuff." I feel powerful in my new found energy, I back away from him and walk over to Bill. His eye remains closed and calm, although I can swear I see his pupil move under that eyelid. A clear sign that his mind is far away from us. "You see dear brother, a sleep spell is only as powerful as the being inside the mind. As long as the victim is distracted in their own conscious, they'll remain asleep until the end of their days...or the end of time, whichever comes first."
"E-exactly. And dear sister, p-poor little Bill has a slight c-case of the crazies at the m-moment. Major childhood trauma m-mixed in with a DASH of betrayal." he laughs. "There's p-plenty of good old m-memories to keep him busy. It's the p-perfect combination. Now what m-makes you think you have the c-code?"
"Oh I have the code. A little trick Bills thoroughly uses in his line of work in fact. And Dipper holds the combo, don't you Dip?"
"I-I do?" Dipper stutters, I can hear he remains a good distance from the two of us, probably a safe decision.
"On the morning we first had a chat, you explained to me that you traveled into your uncles mind to stop Bill. You used a specific incantation, yes?" I ask, not taking my eyes off of Lumi.
"Yeessss?" he answers nervously.
"Well Dip, it seems I'll be taking a little road trip. Because GUESS WHAT Lumi? Like I said, a sleep spell is only effective as long as the victim is distracted. And I'm great at getting people to focus." I smile as Lumi's confident face shrinks down, realizing my loophole.
"You wouldn't, you c-couldn't! That m-mind is damaged. It w-would be impossible to find your way a-around!"
"Good thing that I know you two so well then. Because I know EXACTLY where to look." I turn away from Lumi and walk over to Dipper. "Hey Dip, you got that journal on you?" I ask him.
"Never leave home without it." he says proudly.
"Good, I'm gonna need it."
Who knew how much one motivational sticker could give?