Gideon was standing alone in the kitchen, eyes watching out the back window. That familiar weight of dread had settled again in his throat and stomach, threatening bile from the stress. His fingers twitched, somewhere between making a fist and scratching at the air beside his legs. His face was white as a sheet, waiting on Mabel. He hadn't given any outright indication for what little he had participated in the dinner, but he wanted whatever "test" Mabel had planned to end.
His mind was teetering from the concern of himself being in danger and the horror of the possibility of him bringing some scent or trail along with him for this new manifestation of Bill- the beast known as Xolotl- to follow. He listened for her footsteps with fearful anticipation, soon met by Mabel's voice.
"Well aren't you an eager beaver," Mabel said mirthlessly, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
Gideon turned, licking his lips, "Just get it over with, will you?"
"Fair warning, it's probably going to hurt," Mabel admitted, pulling a piece of paper from her pocket.
"I don't care," Gideon sighed, eyes welling up with tears as he crossed his arms defensively over his chest.
Mabel had never seen him look so vulnerable and scared, she remembered their age difference and swallowed her shame, "This spell should be able to tell if there's still a connection, it reveals the source of a recent possession."
"Don't explain, just get on with it!" Gideon snapped, hugging himself.
"Right," Mabel sighed irritably, unfolding the paper and chanting, "Videntis omnium, Magister mentium, Magnesium ad hominem-"
"This sounds really made up," Gideon snides, chuckling despite himself.
"All language is made up you idiot, it was in Ford's journal, let me finish," Mabel quipped, only half in meanness.
Mabel raised her voice as she shouted the last of the incantation, "MAGISTER MENTIUM, MAGISTER MENTIUM, MAGISTER MENT-!"
Gideon fell to the floor, sprawled in pain as his eyes shined yellow with beacons like spotlights.
"Mabel, stop!" Coraline yelled, running into the scene with all but Greg in tow, "You don't know what you're doing!"
"Two more syllables! Two more and we'll know for sure if Bill can't track us!" Mabel cried out, worried that time would lapse before she could finish.
"You're leading him right to us!" Coraline shouted. "I saw it in a vision just now! How could you be so thoughtless!"
Mabel looked around, finding accusatory stares from everyone but Gideon who was groaning in pain on the floor, and she tossed the paper in which she had transcribed the spell onto the table.
"I'm sorry," Mabel closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. "What now?"
"We don't finish it, let Gideon settle, and we hope it didn't work." Coraline sighed, visibly frustrated.
Mabel swallowed thickly, "I've ruined things, haven't I?"
"Not much more than they were already," Dipper grunted, looking out the window and watched the treeline with lethargy. "Alright, it's almost dark anyway. Let's get this ball rolling and get Wybie outside with Tezzy while we all prepare for the worst."
"You," he looked back at his sister with no anger, only disappointment. "Watch over Gideon. You did this, you fix it. Take him to the cellar, I saw the door by the dining room. Wirt, you lock up the house with Greg. The rest of us..."
Dipper scrunched his eyes as though he couldn't be any more miserable and huffed, "The rest of us, hope we all make it out of this."
The group disbanded, Mabel kneeling over Gideon whispered with remorse, "I hope you can accept my apology for this."
Eyes still glowing unnaturally with the light of burning embers, he showed signs of searing pain as he tried blinking it away, "I'll accept your apology if you don't end up getting us killed."
"More than fair. Can you stand?" Mabel asked, holding out her arm.
"It's like the worst migraine I've ever experienced times twenty, but yeah, just help me from falling." Gideon took her hand and she helped pull him up.
She held his right hand as he leaned with his left arm around her shoulder, Mabel gallantly bearing his weight despite being a head shorter. As they walked down the stairs together, Gideon gave Mabel something almost like a smile, "In a way, you were right, I could lead him right to us."
"Oh shut up," Mabel grunted, "I'll throw you down these stairs and just end your suffering."
Gideon scoffed, "So rude, Sister Pines."
Mabel held back the urge to sweep his leg and led him to a couch sitting by the washer and dryer. Throwing him off her, so he flopped unceremoniously on his side, she climbed onto the edge of the washer to inspect the basement window.
The protective wards were still intact. Probably. It suddenly occurred to her she honestly had no real idea what she was looking for. She sighed and jumped onto the concrete floor, dusting herself off of invisible lint.
"So, is there anything you need?" Mabel asked, trying to sound like it didn't pain her to say so.
"No," Gideon shook his head, closing his eyes as he rested his neck backward on the armrest. "So, you're graduating soon, right?"
"Yeah, next year," Mabel answered, sitting on a nearby barstool and continuing to stare distractedly out the window, craning her neck to see. Anything but looking at Gideon.
"You plan on coming to visit after graduating? Back to Gravity Falls, I mean."
"I'm not sure," Mabel admitted, swinging her feet. "I would like to, I'm sure Dipper would, but we have other priorities to attend to."
"Like what?" Gideon asked with some amusement, "Too many sweaters to knit and not enough time?"
"No, like our futures." Mabel snapped, looking back at him with a furious glare. Gideon, who had his eyes closed, seemed untroubled by the withering look he could hear but not see. "I don't know about Dipper, but I want more than just something I enjoy. I want-"
"Respect, is that it?" Gideon rolled his eyes behind his closed lids, "Funny how the shoe seems to have gone on the other foot for you twins."
Mabel licked her lips, voice growing somewhat weak, "You just know everything, don't you, Gideon?"
"I don't claim to." Gideon opened his eyes, sliding his gaze cooly over to her, "I just know how your mind works."
"You don't know anything about me," Mabel hissed, hopping off her stool to pace the floor.
"But here we are- me constantly prodding at you, and you permanently intent on being offended. Surely, you could agree I know enough to guess the rest."
"And how is a raven like a writing desk?" Mabel whispered petulantly under her breath. Gideon seemed confused by the question. She took this moment to look at Gideon in the face, "For the record, people typically don't like having personal flaws shoved in their own face, you know."
"You forget, that was my con for a long time," Gideon's eyes went cold and a dimly lit smile solidified on his face, like that of a porcelain doll. "Exploiting others when I felt like it, the only difference now is I don't make any money."
"Psychopathic," Mabel chuffed, looking up to the closed basement door.
"No, observant. Despite how I seem, I do enjoy the company of others," Gideon rolled away, turning his back on Mabel and stretching as though readying for sleep. He yawned loudly. "It's just a hard habit to kick, being an asshole."
"I bet it is," Mabel laughed, short and almost pleasant. "Sleep. I'm going to help the others."
"I miss my parents," Gideon whispered under his breath, his breathing going shallow with sleep.
Mabel exhaled shakily but had the decency to pretend she didn't hear him. She took the stairs at a calculated pace, soon closing the door quietly behind her. She collected her composure before joining the others.
The others were bustling in full energy. Wirt was checking windows and walls with Greg for the integrity of all the sigils and protective charms. Dipper and Norman were cleaning up messes around the areas around the shared living spaces, more specifically, putting books on tables and on shelves in more secure stacks than littered around the floor. Coraline and Wybie were chatting outside with Tezzy in his snake form, Coraline the only one of them with a distinct look of fear in her expression.
Mabel was instructed by Wirt to watch the windows, in case Xolotl- formerly Bill Cipher- showed up before they were ready.
Time passed slowly in anticipation.
He didn't show.
Tezzy, wearing the skin of a teenage boy known as Wybie, stood on the sidewalk in front of the inn under a flickering streetlamp. Paused in his pacing for the moment, he played at the seams and fabric of his human clothing. Something quiet like a guttural purr, eyes yellow and pupils resembling that of a feline as his eyes took in the night with keen vision.
Glancing through the upstairs window, he sees no light and hums in thought at the debriefing the group had before they all went to bed.
"I think we should all sleep in the basement together," Mabel insisted. "Greg and Wirt too. It's safer if we're all together and off the main floor."
"She's probably right," Wirt sighed, clicking his tongue, "Main floor is too easy to access and the rooms upstairs aren't big enough to house us all."
"Plus, too many windows," Norman interjected, Wirt hmphed in agreement.
Greg smiled cheekily, "It'll be fun, like a camping trip."
"Camping, oh boy." Coraline rolled her eyes.
Tezzy this time appearing as no more than a tiger moth, in his usual black and yellow motif, watched the exchange with amusement through the basement window. It was really the closest he could get with the warding, but small enough to not be caught eavesdropping. Aside from that, he was poisonous in this form and useless as an ally.
Wirt spoke up, clearing his voice, "I don't have enough sleeping bags by themselves, but with the air mattress and the couch-bed downstairs we should have just enough."
Once the air mattress was inflated, the sleeping bags were set, and the beds made the group stood in a haphazard circle around the basement.
Norman pointed around as he spoke, "The girls share the air mattress- Wirt, you and Greg should get the pull-out mattress- Gideon, Dipper and I should get the sleeping bags."
"Sounds good to me," Gideon yawned, feeling somewhat better, albeit drained and dead-tired.
Plans were set and Wybie gave Coraline's hand a quick squeeze before joining Tezzy outside so they could stand watch.
The sky began turing purple over the blackened horizon, the first sign of dawn. It was around this time a piercing scream rang out so loudly it shook the windows around the inn- including the window in the basement. Everyone sprung to their feet and bolted up the stairs except Wirt who, with great fear and apprehension, was holding Greg by his arms to keep him from following the others.
As the kids opened the front door, eyes adjusting to the darkness, they could hear a struggle as they pounded down the wooden front steps. Grunts of pain, landing blows, and growls filled the fading night sky as the realization of what was happening cleared into view.
Dipper was the first one to scream, bounding forward towards the prone body lying in the grass. "WENDY!"
The others were in varied states of shock or trying to pull him back, but he wrenched from their grasp as be ran for the treeline where Wendy was bleeding, the headlights of her truck beaming onto the two fighting gods. Wendy's eyes blinked slowly, ears ringing, completely out of touch of the scene around her but alive.
"Wybie?!" Coraline called, the shock of not seeing her boyfriend in Tezzy's control, as they had planned, sent a chill down her spine, she felt herself convulse in shakes of fear and her voice crack as her head snapped side to side looking for him.
Xolotl- a hulking beast with haunches nearly six feet from the ground- did not notice the group approaching or yelling for their comrades, and landed a terrible scratch to the body of Tezcalopica. His chest wound gushed blood as he bared his long feline teeth and readied for another counterstrike.
Their battle was loud and intensive, Xolotl had no interest in the children now and did not lose his focus on fighting. They were only a means to an end. A ploy to draw out his other half, Quetzacoatl, but to devour Tezcalopica would not be a meal shunned. His power could be enough to make his fight against his meeker brother an assured victory, should he consume Tezcalopica's body.
Gideon called out to Coraline and beckoned her over, "He's against the house! He's out cold!"
"Is he hurt?" She cried, groping his torso and neck in search for wounds.
"Don't see any blood, but possibly internal." Norman whispered, eyes darting over to Dipper and Mabel who fussed a ways away over Wendy.
"We need to get him out of here," Coraline whimpered, trying to stick her arms under his armpits to drag him out of sight.
"We can't go to a hospital until it's safe. They don't notice us now, but peel out of here in a van and they will," Gideon reasoned, he tapped Norman's arm. "You and I, we can get him to the porch. We need to help Wendy-"
"There's a lot of blood," Mabel croaked as the two boys carried Wybie past. She was cradling herself as her lip quivered, "She's gonna die... oh god..."
"I'll kill you for this!" Dipper screamed, adrenaline overpowering his common sense as he bound toward Wendy's truck which lit the two gods. The former beasts in the heat of battle were now nothing more than clouds of black ether trying to eliminate each other, their true god forms imperceptible to the naked eye of mortals.
The diversion of Dipper drawing near, yelling like a warrior into battle, earned a disconnect of focus for just a moment as Xolotl barked out an arrogant laugh. It was in this moment that a flash blinked in the ether, followed by what sounded like a demented howl. As the first true ray of sunlight peeked through the trees, Dipper stood at the feet of a severely wounded Tezcalopica in his weakest form, and picked up the small snake in his arms.
He rejoined the group that huddled around Wybie, his mouth dry and mind clear, "We shouldn't move her. Get Wirt, it's safe to come out. He's gone for now. Need an ambulance."
Mabel was already on her feet and going inside as he finished speaking.
"Why didn't you protect him?" Coraline fretted, wiping Wybie's hair from his forehead. She didn't need to glare at Tezzy for him to feel her furious stare.
"I tried, it was an ambush." Tezzy wheezed, exhaustion plain to see. "When I fled his body, I threw him into the shadows in hopes he would be safe. He hit his head on the bricks. He should be alright, but I am not, unfortunately."
"What do you mean?" Dipper asked, eyes leaving Wendy's distant form for just a moment.
"I will, as I've said, need my vessel to regain strength. As they heal him at the hospital, it should help me as well. Xolotl is wounded badly, as I am, but he will be back. I need to be formidable enough to withstand him."
"You will not use him again," Coraline snapped.
"We have no choice," Norman sighed, "we're vulnerable without him. Sooner he gets better, the safer we are."
Coraline was about to say something when Wirt bound out of the house alone, phone in hand as he fell to his knees beside Wendy. The group kept their distance to give him some room.
"The ambulance is on the way," Wirt repeated like a mantra, searching Wendy's nearly-absent expression.
Coraline was silent, but laid the god-snake on Wybie's chest to possess him again. The group watched the street for flashing lights. Mabel held Greg tightly in a hug, watching everyone through a window within the safe confines of the inn.
Wendy's breaths were shallow, eyes dim, as her eyes stayed out of focus and blurred.
She stared blankly at the sky above, noticing the stars she had neglected to pay attention to for the past few months. She felt her body slowly feel heavier and heavier as she was bleeding, the sensation of cold growing unshakable, and her will to throw up growing stronger with the blood loss. Sirens were faint on the wind, but not nearly close enough.
She remembered giving blood once when she was younger, donating it to some kind of blood drive.
She remembered the event being sprung on her, even forgetting to eat breakfast the day of. She had lied when they asked if she'd eaten, thinking nothing of it since she typically skipped breakfast most school days anyway. She had been fine through most of the blood withdrawal but near the end, she grew impatient as she watched the needle sucking (what felt like) the life out of her. It was then that she began vomiting on an empty stomach, water, and acid mixing with the spit she produced as she puked violently into a hazmat bag.
They finished since she was so near the end. The cold still was stuck to her bones, despite it being 80 degrees inside the building. Her skin was pale and her hands shook occasionally, her throat sore from getting sick so many times on an empty stomach. The nurse looked sympathetic and gave her some snacks and a bottle of water on her way out.
As the hour progressed she felt weaker and weaker, each lift of her foot to take a step bothering her weak knees and nearly-numbed fingers. In the middle of her 4th-period class, she eventually passed out and hit her head on an empty desk on the way down. She was rushed to a hospital then, with only a stern warning from the nurse to never give blood again without taking necessary precautions.
She didn't bleed much or get severely injured then, but it reminded her exactly of how she felt now. She was much too tired to even open her eyelids for longer than a few seconds at a time. She had not taken precautions before coming to see them, and here she was bleeding. Possibly to death. She wished she had waited until daybreak.
Wirt hovered over her in a harried panic, trying to watch for signs of life as he gently tapped Wendy's cheeks in hopes she'd stay awake. He blocked half her vision when her eyes were open- his eyes wet but all tears suppressed, cheeks flushed, bottom lip shaking as he desperately recited emergency medical procedures to himself. Information he surely read and memorized from his extensive library of books, Wendy thought to herself mirthfully.
"Let me sleep, Wart. I'm tired." Wendy laughed weakly, finally conscious enough to speak. "Just a few minutes."
"You will not. I will n-not let you, Wendy. Now, w-w-what- damn it!- what is 7 plus 3 divided by 2?" Wirt asked, hoping the distraction would keep her awake.
"Wirt... Really... I'm okay. Not goin' yet. Gotta... hug Greggor first..." Her eyes finally welled up with tears, the adrenaline replaced with sadness and fear of death. "Wake me up when EMS gets here."
Wirt bowed forward, leaning his entire chest on the ground to rest the top of his head against her cheek. "You better not die, goddammit... I already booked a venue." His voice was watery, half-joking to keep from sobbing.
Her smile was weak and she wheezed a laugh as she passed out, "Wouldn't... miss it."
A few minutes passed and the ambulance arrived. After a very short argument with the driver she reluctantly agreed to let Wybie (recently conscious) and Coraline ride in the front with her while the tech monitored Wendy in the back, Wirt at her side.
Mabel insisted Greg stay there with them for safety, inside the house. Norman pled the case as well, seeing how terrified his cousin looked, and knew he needed to channel all of his energy to his fiancé right now.
Before the closing of the doors, Wirt left them with a final warning, "Stay safe. I believe in all of you. Norman, keep an eye on the house, keep up the talismans and it will protect you... like it did us. Tell Greg I'll see him soon."
And so the ambulance sped off, leaving everyone to pick up the pieces of themselves as well. Gideon turned off the headlights of the truck and took the keys inside. Everyone else looked at the scorched earth and ooze littering the grass where the gods had fought.
Eventually everyone wandered inside, except Dipper, who stood staring at the pool of Wendy's blood dripping off the grass.
It smelled like it was going to rain.
The thought made him drop to his knees as he remembered the calm look on Wendy's face as she had been losing blood, and fear as soon as she saw Wirt and remembered she wasn't alone anymore. She had someone to live for. He felt something shatter inside him.
Dipper felt his body convulse with every sobbing wail that escaped his throat, the rain drenching his hair and clothes until they hung from him like sopping-wet paper. Fat, hot tears fell from his eyes and mixed with the rain, snot gathering and dripping from the underside of his nose. He felt gross crying like this, making a spectacle of himself, this thought made him cry harder as he tried to suppress his sobs.
Norman felt Dipper's absence as he stared out the front window at the rain, and felt heartsick as he walked to the door to call him in. He saw Dipper crying in the grass and left the heavy silence of where the others gathered like mourners at the fireplace.
He took off his shoes and socks quietly, rolling up the ends of his jeans on the porch of the inn before stepping carefully through the mud. He doubted Dipper wanted to be surprised at a moment like this. He stepped quietly and evenly so he wouldn't step too fast. He missed the feeling of such grass, it wasn't this soft in California.
Norman placed his arm around Dipper's shoulders, leaning his dripping wet hair on his higher shoulder as Dipper subsided from violent shakes to muffled cries. Norman grasped at thoughts of what to say, until it just spilled from his lips.
"My grandma told me something once, and I never forgot it," Norman whispered, despite the loud pattering of the rain, he knew Dipper would hear him. "She said that there are two types of people: people who, when they are sad, allow the rain to amplify their sadness or the people who, despite being sad, find comfort in the storm."
"What does that mean?" Dipper's voice shook as he sniffed, wiping the snot from his face with his arm.
"It means you can let things make you sad, worse than before, or you can let it roll off your back and be happy you can feel anything at all. Pain means you're alive to feel it."
"I think I would've liked your grandma," Dipper whispered, voice hoarse and bleak.
"I think she would've liked you too, Dipper." Norman rubbed Dipper's arm comfortingly, squeezing him in a half-hug.
"I'm scared Wendy's gonna die," Dipper whispered.
"Me too," Norman admitted, seeing no point in lying. "But we need to have faith. You know her best, if her will is strong, she'll make it through this."
"I loved her Norman, it was a long time ago, but as she was- I remembered how it felt. I don't want to lose anyone to Bill. I can't."
"You won't lose us," Norman assured, lacing his fingers with Dipper's, a small, reassuring smile curling on the corners of his mouth. "They'd have to pry you from my cold, dead fingers."
Dipper blushed, using his free hand to wipe his eyes again. He exhaled shakily and gained a grip on himself somewhat. He groaned at the realization of how hard it had been raining. "I need to dry off."
"We'll be safer inside," Norman agreed, leading him inside by the hand.
Dipper stared at their hands as Norman pulled him along. He never realized how pale Norman's hands were, how well their fingers slotted together, how safe he felt right at that moment. He wondered if this was how Wendy felt with Wirt. Dipper clenched Norman's hand tighter as he was lead inside into the warm house. He took comfort in the fact Wendy was in the care of the one she loved most, and hoped for good news.
A.N.
The spell is actually from Journal 3 but I had to cut the joke he made "nolanus inceptus overatus" or something like that. Like as much as I love a good dunk of Christopher "not-so-great" Nolan, it woulda been too much for the moment. Hope you're enjoying. One more chapter to go, I think!