Sweater Town
Chapter 1 – The Sweater
By: Starwin
Disclaimer:
All characters are the property of their respective copyright holders and are used without permission.
This work may be freely redistributed so long as it is not sold or monetized in any way.
Summery:
After the worst day of her life, Mabel Pines escapes into sweater town, finding herself once more in Gravity Falls. She quickly discovers that something isn't right. She's having a hard time speaking her thoughts, the whole sky looks like a giant sweater and huge parts of her life are missing. Worse she is starting to forget what is even real anymore! But at least her brother is there for her… right?
It had been a rough couple of days at school for Dipper Pines, Mabel's twin brother. Her brother was a nerd, that liked nerd things and talked about nerd stuff and was generally a huge, major, nerd. While She found it adorable, other middle school children their age often did not. Most of their lives, Dipper had been picked-on and made fun of for his unique interests. She too had endured her fair share of people that didn't appreciate her brand of lighthearted fun. Although she never let it get to her the way it did for her brother.
What's more, she thought that they were past this. After their summer together in Gravity Falls, Oregon, Dipper had changed. He was more confident in himself than ever before. They had faced literal demons and the end of the world side-by-side. They had won, together.
However, when they returned home that confidence her brother had found began to slip away a little each day. The ordeals they had endured began to feel like a distant dream. Over the summer they had been super heroes on an adventure to save the world. Now, they were just thirteen-year-old kids again. Powerless, small and normal.
As if to reaffirm their place, today had been especially bad for her brother. A mean group of other teens had teased him. First, about the same hat he wore every day then about the strange paranormal investigation comics he liked to read at lunch. It had quickly escalated into downright bullying when they had taken his hat and his book. The hat had ended up on the roof and the book had most of its pages ripped out.
Mabel had intervened the moment she noticed what was happening. She had charged into the group shouting and flailing her arms. She managed to snatch back the comic fairly easily and her "psycho" - as the bully boys had called her - behavior scared them off. The bullies left but the damage was already done.
She had also climbed up on the school roof to retrieve his hat, which she had gotten in trouble for. It just a warning she was not to do it again. 'Pfft' like that was gonna stop her. Gloomily, Dipper had taken back the brown cap Wendy had given him with a mutter thanks but he wouldn't even look at the ruined comic.
Worse, he had made her promise not to tell any adult what had happen. Not their teachers or parents or anyone! She had almost been able to refuse his request but those big brown pleading eyes - a trick she often used on him and their dad, it never worked on their mom - finally made she promised not to say anything. So she hadn't, no matter how bad it felt to stay silent.
Luckily, it was Thursday the week was almost over. School had let out so Mabel and Dipper were on their way home, walking under the especially clear blue sky. She was skipping with every other step, while her brother trotted along, his head down, not seeing the fantastic view above them. She tried, not for the first or even hundredth, time that day, to bust her best-bro out of his funk.
"Come on Dipster!" she said as she skipped beside her twin, he didn't look up. "You're missing the most amazing walk! The trees, the flowers, the sky, the grass, the... uh trees!"
"You said trees twice," Dipper offered, still not looking up, his voice distant and sullen. "And I've seen them. We've walked this way for years, Mabel. These are hardly even trees when you compare them to..."
Dipper trailed off but she knew what he was going to say. He had almost mentioned the Mystery Shack and their summer spent in Gravity Falls. She knew he missed the place. She missed the place too. It wasn't something they often talked about out in the open and never at school or close to school. No one, not even their parents, would possibly believe even half the things the twins had done. Dipper hardly seemed to believe it anymore.
"They're nothing special," he finished lamely.
"What!" cried Mabel in mock indignation. "Every flower is special! Every tree is a wondrous wonder of wonder!" She flung her arm out to catch the trunk of a passing tree and did a little spin around it. At last her brother looked up. There was the tiniest of smiles on his face.
"A wondrous wonder of wonder?" he asked.
"The most wonderfully wondrous of wonders!" exclaimed Mabel. Real joy lit up her eyes as her brother came out of his shell just the tiniest bit. For a moment, she saw the brave, unstoppable, hero that had battled hand-in-hand with her. Together, they had triumphed over the inter-dimensional mind demon Bill Cypher as well as overcome the other unbelievable terrors that inhabited Gravity Falls. She skipped ahead, her arms spread wide. "All of it is wonderful! And there is no one else I would rather be wondering about it than with you, my wonderful bro-bro!"
"Alright, alright," and there was actually a little laugh in his voice. "Can you please stop saying 'wonderful?'"
"I could," mused Mabel, spinning on her heel and walking backwards so she could see her brother's bashful grinning face. "But only if you promise me to look up once in awhile. The smiling thing is optional but preferred."
"I promise I -" his eyes suddenly darted to the side and there was fear and panic and horror in his face. "MABEL!" shouted Dipper. He lunged forward, covering the space between them in a moment too brief for her to comprehend. His hands slammed into her chest and shoved her. She tumbled backwards, falling the longest most terrible fall of her life.
There was the screech of tires, the smell of burning rubber and the brief and final moment of her brother as the steel grill of the SUV slammed into him. All of it was branded into her mind, a life destroying moment that she could never unsee.
She hit the asphalt hard with her shoulder and head. Her body rolled twice over before she came to a painful stop on her side. There was a strange ringing in her ears and her whole body was numb yet burning with pain. She pushed herself up, every muscle from head to tiny toe screaming.
Her eyes found the vehicle first, a cream colored SUV. The driver was already getting out, his face a mixture of fear and agony. He was saying something to her, asking her something, but his words didn't have any meaning. They were English, and they were words but her brain just refused to understand them. The man lifted his phone, fingers pounding against its glossy finish and he almost cried into it for help.
Slowly, she looked away from him. Everything felt oddly slow and surreal. Time kept slowing down and speeding up as her eyes moved down the road to where a small, broken body lay twenty yards from the front of the car. Her legs moved her towards it while her brain screamed for her to look away, to stop, to run, to crumple into a heap and weep.
"Dipper?" she asked, her voice so tiny even she couldn't hear it. Tears were burning down her cheeks, she didn't know when they had started. "Dipper." she repeated louder as she limped forward towards him. "Dipper. Dipper. Dipper. Dipper. Dipper. Dipper. Dipper. Dipper." his name continued to flow from her mouth faster and louder until she was screaming it. Her feet carried her in a run the last few steps and she fell onto her knees beside his motionless form.
"DIPPER!" she screamed. "DIPPER! DIPPER! DIPPER!" over and over. He did not stir. She reached out and grabbed him, turning her brother from his side to his back. Mabel knew he was gone, even before she saw the awful state of him. She had known it before she had hit the asphalt. She had watched the light go out of his eyes in that horrible moment that was forever burned into her brain when the front of the car had struck him.
She pulled his ruined body into her arms, cradling him, screaming his name, the whole world a terrible blur of pain and tears. She cried into his blood soaked chest, all his warmth gone, all his life departed.
It wasn't fair, they had survived so much, so many impossible things. For it all to have been taken away in the single blink of an eye. In an accident, a random chance. IT. WASN'T. FAIR!
It could have been hours later, or simply minutes – time had lost all meaning to her, everything had lost all meaning to her – when hands took hold of her. Words of calm were whispered into her ears, trying to comfort her but they had the opposite effect. She screamed incomprehensibly at them, not words exactly but not just sounds either. She lashed out with her free arm trying to push away the people attempting to part her and Dipper. This was her brother! Her twin! She was never letting him go! Never, ever, ever!
The hands came again, more forceful, more demanding. She lashed out again but she couldn't fight them off, so she bit down instead. The arm didn't release her, and she was dragged back, pulled away from her brother forever.
She screamed his name from her numb throat, her hands reaching for him as strange bodies closed around Dipper like the ghosts of death come to claim their prize.
"Mabel!" said a voice she barely recognized. Her brain was sluggishly playing catch up, and she realized that lots of people had been talking to her. That they had tried to coax her away, to let go of her brother's bo– she couldn't finish that thought. He wasn't gone, he was fine. But he wasn't fine. And the voice was still talking to her. "... look at me Mabel. You have to calm down."
Her eyes finally found the face of her father. Anger abruptly washed away her grief. She wanted to shout, to scream! Someone was putting some kind of blanket around her shoulders now and she realized that her dad had set her down in the back of an ambulance.
Her senses were slowly starting to return. She could feel the pain of her scraped knees and elbows. She could finally hear the sirens that had been wailing in the background all this time. Talking buzzed around her and she could see the crowd of onlookers that had gathered behind the police tape, gawking at her brother, who had now been covered in a black sheet.
Mabel wanted to scream at everyone, harder and louder than she ever had before. However, her voice wouldn't say what she wanted it to. It wasn't her throat, her brain had forgotten how words worked. The only thing she could weep out was "Dipper."
The ride to the hospital was short. Both her parents sat in the back with her. The medic that sat beside her kept trying to ask her things but she just answered with the only thing that mattered, "Dipper."
When they reached the hospital, they took her gray and white 'kitten's are cute' sweater from her and wouldn't give it back. The nurse rationally and calmly explained that it was torn and covered in blood. Mabel rationally and calmly tried to claw the nurse's eyes out trying to retrieve it. In the end her father had to restrain her again.
She didn't remember a lot after that because she must have passed out or something. When the world returned to her from the darkness, she found herself in her own bed back at home. For one, joy filled amazing instant Mabel convinced herself that it had all been a nightmare. She leapt from her bed - noticing that someone had dressed her in a long powder blue pajama shirt - before she sprinted across the hall to her brother's room. She flung the door open without knocking. The smile died on her lips.
His room was messy, covered in shadows of the late afternoon sun that streamed in through his blinds. Unwashed clothing was strewn across the floor and several open containers of comics sat just under his bed. A dozen news articles were pinned to the walls above his desk and the shelves of his bookcases housed other nerd junk. What his room did not have, was her brother.
"Dipper," whispered Mabel. She wanted to step inside, to give it a thorough search, to look in every corner and under every pile of clothing. But she couldn't take even a single step forward. It had not been a nightmare. The image, the smell, the sound of the moment her whole world ended lingered in her mind.
Tears returned to her eyes and she collapsed in the hallway sobbing uncontrollably. It wasn't long before her parents found her, trying to comfort her again. Their words washed over her like raindrops, and all she could repeat between sobs was her brother's name over and over.
At last, her father carried her back into her room as she chanted Dipper's name. He set her down on the bed and sat beside her, while her mother stood over her, softly stroking Mabel's hair. Both of them said words that were perhaps meant to calm her down but she heard only hollow echoed falsehoods. She curled into a ball, still sobbing for her brother.
After a while, when she had cried herself dry, they left her alone, closing the door behind them. Mabel didn't know how long she lay there an unmoving, unthinking, mess. The gaping hole where her heart once was grew every larger, threatening to consume her completely. The pain and loss was only getting worse and she didn't think she could deal with this anymore, she couldn't be here anymore. Not this room, not this house, not this city, this country, this planet, this universe. She had to escape it all.
Almost tumbling out of bed she fell to her hands and knees and had to stifle a gasp of pain. Rolling back onto her butt, she hiked up her long nightshirt so that she could see her knees. Both kneecaps had heavy white bandages around them. The left gauze had a small stain of blood on it. Carefully, with shaking hands, she touched one of her kneecaps and felt a sharp sting.
Doing a very quick once over, she found bandages on both elbows, her right forearm and right shoulder blade (that one hurt a whole lot). Her right cheek, across her forehead and the back of her head as well. Her hands wouldn't stop trembling as she worked her way to her feet. With halting steps she crossed her small room to the mirrored closet.
She pulled the nightshirt up over her head so that she stood almost naked in front of her mirror. There were dark purple bruises all over her back and a couple butterfly bandages on her chin that she had missed. Her eyes began to water again as she looked at herself. She was banged up and bruised, but perfectly, unfairly, fine. A small part of her wanted to rip off the bandages, to see how horrible she really looked. She almost yearned to know that she was just as bad off as her twin, that she wasn't fine.
Instead, she pulled her nightshirt back on and yanked the closet door open, shoving her reflection aside. A huge array of sweaters were tightly packed end-to-end taking up all of the rack space. She ignored them and selected a small drawer at the very bottom. It had only a single garment in it. The very first sweater she had ever knitted. She had worn it the first time she had gone to Gravity Falls.
It was fuchsia with a shooting star that sported a rainbow tail across its front. She had used entirely too much yarn while making it and as a result it was extremely thick, heavy and slightly too large for her. She only ever wore it on rare occasions, when she needed something that would make her feel both safe and let her hide from the world. She badly needed that right now.
There was also another reason she had picked this sweater, why it was her favorite, why she had made it first. She had always told everyone she just liked shooting stars, and rainbows, which, was technically true. When she had knitted it, the star had come first but that had been way too obvious. So she had added the rainbow tail to throw everyone off and it had worked. Her sweater had a star, because her brother had a birthmark on his forehead. A birthmark that was the nickname everyone called him by. A birthmark shaped like the Big Dipper. And the star on her sweater was the north star that his birthmark, and the real Big Dipper, pointed to. This sweater was the expression of the bond between them.
Mabel yanked the sweater over her head but did not put her arms through the sleeves nor push her head up through the neck hole. Instead, she stayed inside the womb of wool, hiding away in sweater town.
Sweater town was something she had created when she was very little. It was a safe place she could go where the bad things of the world couldn't get to her. It was a place to hide when she needed to escape the troubles of the real world. It was her sanctuary of the mind.
She wasn't exactly sure what age she had been the first time she hidden herself away but it had been her brother who named it when he first found her. It had also been her brother that had convinced her to come out.
She had of course been to sweater town many times. And every time her brother had always come to make everything better, to guide her back to reality, to save her. He wouldn't bring her back this time. No one would.
She started to weep again at this last thought. Her brother had saved her. He had always saved her. He had always came to her rescue. Without him, she was lost, utterly and completely. She was a twin without her twin. Alone for the first time in her life. Alone forever.
Sweater town wasn't really helping the way she had hoped. Instead of finding a make believe world full of unicorns and dragons and hot vampires her brain kept reminding her of things she'd rather not remember. Bad thoughts continued to drifting through her mind, keeping her from escaping. She sunk deeper into her garment, letting it bunch up above her head. She pushed out her arms to make it feel tighter, like a hug.
Here she was safe. The outside world and the terrible things that happened there couldn't hurt her in here. In here, it was just her... just her...
She let out a gasping sob.
It was just her! Dipper was gone! He was really gone and she was left behind. She had lost everything that mattered in her life in an instant!
She pulled her legs into the sweater, hugging them to her chest. She rocked back and forth trying to find the comfort that wouldn't come. The numb feeling that had been with her since she had awoken suddenly washed away. Instead, she felt like a raw exposed nerve as a new wave of pain wracked her. She began to sob and chant Dipper's name anew.
Her thoughts focused only on him. On his timid smile, on his adorable sneeze, on his nerdy interest, on the video games and novels he enjoyed so much. She thought about how he was always there for her. How they had been there for each other.
Mabel retreated even further into her thoughts. Deeper than she had before. Anything that wasn't her brother was pushed from her mind. She curled even tighter, her feet slipping under the hem of the sweater so that no part of her body was visible outside it.
"Dipper," she wailed in pain. That horrible, terrible, awful moment where her life had ended replayed in her mind. Dipper pushed her. "Dipper! Dip-" Abruptly, the world tilted, as she remembered falling. She felt the carpeted floor tumble out from beneath her. She began to fall for real, not just in her memories. "Dipper!" she screamed, no other words able to come from her addled brain.
She was falling like some great hole had opened underneath her. Above, the sweater seemed to stretch on for infinity, up into the sky. There was no below for her to see, just her own curled body as she fell into nothingness.
Then, as quickly as her descent had started, her feet hit the ground with a dull thump. She stood, poised like a cat in unfamiliar surroundings. She was in some kind of attic type thing, most likely an attic. Something in her brain jumped and waved its arms trying to get her attention as her eyes swept across the room. There was a familiar triangular window on the far wall and two very familiar looking small camp beds on either side.
She shook her head. For a moment all the feelings of hurt and loss left her as confusion took hold. What in the heck had just happened? One second she had been in sweater town and the next she had fallen out of the sky into...
It all suddenly clicked, the Mystery Shack! This was the room she and her brother had shared all summer long. She knew her imagination was good but this was unreal. Except, the problem was it was too real. The wood floor beneath her bare feet, the moldy smell in her nostrils mixed with something familiar and painful and the slight chill in the air all told her this couldn't possibly be the work of her imagination or even her memory. Wherever this was, she was really here.
"Well, it's smaller than I remember it," said a voice that sent icy chills down her spine. "And you don't mind sharing a room again, right? Mabel, are you alright?"
No. Hot-fudge-ing-sundae. Way.
She stood frozen, her mouth hanging open, her eyes practically popping out of her skull as she stared at her brother. His stupid orangeish-red shirt and ugly blue vest. His stupid brown hat that Wendy had given him and he never took off. His stupid adorable face. She finally realized the familiar and painful (because it belonged to him) smell in the air of his pine scented deodorant that she loved to tease him nonstop about.
"Dipper," whispered Mabel.
"Uh... yes?" asked Dipper, clearly confused. Although, not as confused as when she abruptly, and without warning, leapt towards him, arms and legs wrapping around him in a bone crushing hug. The force of the tackle-hug and the added weight of his sister clinging to him caused Dipper to topple backwards onto the ground.
"Dipper! Dipper! Dipper! Dipper!" shouted Mabel, as she hugged him tighter than ever before. She began to kiss him all over his stupid adorable face, from cheeks to forehead to nose. His voice protesting loudly as he tried to squirm free. She hadn't kissed her brother's face in years (he didn't like it) but she didn't care. She could have kissed him on the lips she was so happy! He was alive! He was here! She could feel his warm, sweaty, noodly, body filled with life and energy, and desperately trying to wiggle free.
"Mabel!" Dipper gasped. "Stop it! You're crushing me! And stop kissing me! I told you I don't like it!" At last she let him go and clamored off him, her heart racing in her chest, her breathing ragged like she had run a marathon. Dipper gasped for air as he sat up looking more confused than annoyed. "What has gotten into you?" He was wiping at the spots on his face where his sister had smooched him in joy.
"Dipper," Mabel said, as if this explained everything.
"Yeah?" said Dipper, searching his twins eyes for an answer.
"Dipper, Dipper Dipper Dipper," Mabel said in one unbroken chain. Dipper looked even more confused.
"Mabel, is this some kind of new game?" he asked. "Because, I'll be honest, I don't really get it." She shook her head vigorously, trying to find the right words, the right thing to say. She wanted to ask how he was here, how he was alive and what was going on. Instead, what she said was:
"Dipper! Dipper Dip - per Dipper-Dipper. Dipper Dipper Dipper... Dippeeeeeeeeeeeer!"
"Okay, uh-huh," said Dipper with a nod. "Mabel, are you going to be like this all summer long?" She felt even more confused. It was November. Summer had just ended a few months ago. Her eyes swiveled to the window and she could see trees outside. Lush green trees. It didn't look like winter outside the window. She looked back to Dipper in confusion. "Mabel, you are kind of starting to freak me out here. What's wrong? I know it might just be a game to you but say something other than my name, please."
She stayed silent for a long time. There was so much to be said, so many things she needed to know. But she also knew what the next words out of her mouth were going to be. So she just looked away instead. Trying to find something to give her time to think.
By the door she saw their luggage. One of which was her purple and pink polka-dotted roller bag, complete with stickers peppered all over it. The other was her brother's practical tan roller bag, which she had covered in more manly stickers for him.
Her eyes went elsewhere, the room was much like they had left it, that is, until her gaze traveled upwards. Where a ceiling should have been was instead the folds of a sweater. No, not a sweater, sweater town. It was completely and totally impossible. She... she was in sweater town. She was deeper into the make believe reality than she had ever been before. She was so far down that she had created an entire world to escape into. It was the most real thing she had ever imagined, ever.
She felt hands come to rest on her shoulder. Very gentle, very real hands. Her eyes were dragged down from the sweater ceiling above.
"Mabel... please," Dipper whispered, incredibly real concern in his eyes. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.
"Dipper," she said quietly at last, than lunged forward and hugged him, just as tightly as before. "DIPPER!"
It took Dipper a moment before he returned the awkward sibling hug that she was crushing him into. She was sobbing into his shoulder now. The words just wouldn't come. No matter what she commanded her voice to say, only his name kept coming out.
"Mabel, what happened?" asked Dipper in confusion. "You were completely fine the whole bus ride up. And the only time we've been apart since we left the house this morning was at the rest stop." She just hugged him tighter, letting her tears flow out and shaking her head. She had no idea what he was talking about. And she realized, he had no idea what she was talking about either.
"Dipper," whined Mabel. "Dipppppeerrrrrrrr!" He rubbed her back as he held her, trying to reassure her.
"It's okay, I'm here," said Dipper. After a very long while he finally said, "Now, uh, can we just pat-pat and stop hugging please." She nodded against his shoulder, knowing that there were literally no word she could say to him right now that he would understand. She gave him one last squeeze. Then, together, they both patted each other's back, Dipper saying "pat-pat" as he did and Mabel staying silent. They broke apart and continued to sit awkwardly on the floor in a long moment of uncomfortable quiet that seemed to stretch on forever.
"You... aren't going to tell me what that was all about, are you?" asked Dipper. She smiled weakly but just shook her head, not trusting her brain to come up with any real words. "Alright, well, let's get settled in. Then we can go see what the dinner plans are, I think Soos said something about cooking for us."
She had nearly forgotten but the Mystery Shack wasn't run by their Grunkle Stan anymore. He had passed that on to his handyman, Soos. Stan and his brother Ford had left to sail around the world at the end of last summer. She had never had any of Soos' cooking before but - Mabel shook her head. Wait. No. This wasn't real. Her family hadn't sent her anywhere! She was at home, in her room, in her sweater, in her mind!
She looked upwards and reaffirmed that the ceiling still remained the inside of her sweater. It was. She could even see up through the neck hole and back into her room. Well, at least the ceiling of her room.
This wasn't the first time she had encountered a fantasy world. Bill Cipher, the evil triangle of doom, had trapped her in a make believe reality before. It had been a fantasy that catered to her every whim and desire. A world where she could make her dreams come true and craft reality as she saw fit. It had been a prison she would have never wanted to escape from, if not for her brother.
Even though this place was visually nothing like what MabelLand had been, it still felt hauntingly similar. It didn't have living stuffed animals or waffle guards or brightly colored building or theme music playing from the sky. It just had one completely impossible thing she desired more than anything else, her brother and he was alive. And she never wanted to leave him.
"Dipper," said Mabel quietly. Her brother let out a slightly annoyed sigh but answered with a "yes?" as he continued to unpack his things onto the bed on the left. "Dipppeerrr," she whined, trying to get his attention.
Dipper finally looked back over his shoulder at her, one of his eyebrows raised in confusion, trying to figure out her strange game. She knew words wouldn't do the trick so she had to come up with something else. Maybe she could find something to write on, or color in, or cover in glitter (preferably all of the above). No, there was no time for that now, maybe later. She settled on the incredibly simple and unstylish form of communication. She pointed up at the ceiling. Dipper looked confused so she pointed more vigorously upwards. When still he didn't catch on she pointed with both arms, doing a sort of funny little urgent dance.
"Sigh, alright, Mabel," he said, giving in. His gaze turned upwards but his facial expression didn't change. "Alright, I see, uh, wood and a vaulted ceiling and the same mold as last year, that one might have gotten a little bigger?" he said with a concerned frown in the direction of said mold.
She looked up too, back into the folds of the sweater high above. She looked back to Dipper who was looking at her, his expression back to being slightly annoyed. She pointed frantically again, first from him then to her eyes then up at the ceiling, really trying to convey the importance of looking. He sighed again and looked upwards once more.
"Okay, I dono. I see some spider webs, maybe? And is that an old hat and - Wait!" he shouted suddenly. She felt her eyes go wide. "Is that a wild bat up there! That's a bat, hanging on the rafters of our room! You've to be kidding me! I'll go find a broom." Dipper started for the door but she grabbed his hand as he passed her. He looked at her in confusion.
"Dipper," she whispered.
"I'm just going to find a broom then I'll be right back," said Dipper. She didn't let go of his hand. She was completely unable to see any bat or rafters or ceiling above them. And it seemed that Dipper was completely unable to see sweater town. Not a good sign. "Mabel! It's a bat!" complained Dipper, miss interpreting her not wanting him to leave for her not wanting him to shoo it away. "Although I am actually kind of surprised there isn't a goat on my bed again," he mumbled mostly to himself.
She stood abruptly, not relinquishing his hand. She was afraid that if she let him go he might vanish in a poof of smoke.
"You want to go with me?" asked Dipper in confusion. She nodded vigorously. "To get a broom?" he continued, his voice deadpan. She nodded even harder. "Fine, alright, let's just go." He rubbed the bridge of his nose in mild annoyance.
Dipper led her out into the hall of the home they had spent so much time in last summer. They were on the very top floor, hence attic. Outside their room was a small landing, at the end of which was the small bathroom they would again have to share.
They checked their bathroom first. It was just as she remembered, small-ish, with a shower-tub - and its hideous shower curtain - on one side. On the others side was the toilet they had to take turns cleaning and a mirrored skin. The room didn't have a light switch but rather a pull string lamp in the center. Although the small fogged window usually let in enough light that they didn't need to turn on the light.
The bathroom also did not contain a broom. Dipper didn't comment on the room's lack of brooms but there was a small frown on his face and she followed his gaze. He was probably thinking about having to take turns cleaning the toilet.
After a long moment, he finally gave her hand a tug and they left the bathroom behind. The stairs leading down were very narrow and there was another landing below. Together, hand-in-hand (and other hands on the railing) they climbed down the stairs.
The shack oddly had no second story, just an attic. It of course also had a secret basement level, two of them. Mabel had often wondered if there was also a secret second level between attic and the rest of the house. When she had asked her Great Uncle Ford about it near the end of last summer his response had been "Of course not," but the shifty look in his eyes made her think he wasn't being completely honest.
Broomless, they continued down the main, slightly wider, stairs to the ground floor. This lower area seemed far more normal, with a TV room across from the front door and a kitchen just ahead of them. Of course, it was anything but normal. Most of the building had been transformed into a sort of side show attraction, with crazy made up creatures and fake 'wonders' to behold.
Still, this part of the house was normal-ish. So, surely the kitchen would have a broom in it. Dipper must have thought the same thing as he made a beeline for the kitchen. But they stopped as a familiar gruff voice cut them off.
"You kids all done unpacking?" asked the voice. Mabel turned her head to see an overweight, elderly man, resting in a recliner. His white sleeveless tee-shirt was stained with something brown and his pink bunny slippered feet rested on a footrest that appeared to be some kind of dinosaur skull. If this had been any other time, any other day, she would have leapt across the room and wrapped her grunkle in a huge attack hug. But there was no way she was going to let go of her brother's hand.
She also felt a twinge of confusion. Wasn't their uncle supposed to be out sailing with his brother? What was he doing here? And where was their Great Uncle Ford? She didn't have anyway to ask any of those questions and she supposed for the moment, it was the least concerning of the issues around her.
"There's a bat in our room," explained Dipper unenthusiastically. "Do you have a broom or something I can get it out with?"
"HA! Good luck with that, kid!" laughed their Grunkle Stan. He was amused in a way that she found both charming and a bit mean spirited at the same time. Like he enjoyed Dipper's distress. "And what's with the hand holding?" He pointed at Dipper and Mabel. She squeeze her brother's hand tighter but her brother tried to wiggle free.
"So, do you have a broom or not?" asked Dipper, his voice squeaking as he talked, a sure sign that he was extremely embarrassed. If things hadn't been like they were, she would have let go of his hand. But not today, not right now.
"Yeah, sure, kid," said their Grunkle, resting back in his chair before hollering as loudly as he could, "SOOS! SOOS GET IN HERE!" There was the rumble of distant footsteps, followed by the thunder of some great wild animal charging through the hallways. A huge shadow loomed out of the dark ahead of Dipper and Mabel. For one terrible moment an awful, horrible, painful memory tried to force its way out of her brain, to replay in every detail for her.
She lunged forward, her arms wrapping around her brother, holding him tightly once more. She would not let him push her away again, whatever they faced, it would be together!
The great monster stopped inches in front of them. The shadow form took a step forward into the light and a very large, very tall man, with a face somewhat like a gopher appeared. His question mark shirt was gone. Instead he was dressed in a black suit extremely similar to what their Grunkle used to wear, he even had their Grunkle's hat and eye patch.
"Yes Mr. Pines! You summoned me?" asked the man named Soos.
"Yeah, help these kids find a bat or something," said Stan, waving his hand, lost in his TV show again.
"Actually, we need a broom to get rid of a bat hanging out in our room," corrected Dipper.
"Oh, sure thing dude," said Soos with a nod. He leaned over so he could look at her, still hugging her brother tightly as though she was hiding timidly behind him, "and dude-et. I've dealt with this bat before. I know how he thinks, how he moves, how he-"
"Soos, just get rid of the darn thing!" complained Stan, not looking over.
"Yes, Mr. Pines!" reaffirmed Soos, standing up tall once more and adjusting his hat. "Soos, away!" he called, rushing up the stairs.
The twins stood awkwardly in the hallway for a long moment. Then Stan said, "look, either come in and watch TV or go away, you're distracting!" She felt her brother trying to squirm out of her arms. She let go of the hug but grabbed his hand tightly again.
"I guess we could do with some TV watching," said Dipper. "Right, Mabel?" She just nodded as her brother led her into the TV room.
A second chair had been added to the room but it was currently occupied by an older lady, Soos' Abuelita, his grandmother that had raised him. Their Grunkle was currently occupying the only other seat in the room, clearly with no intention of moving. So, Dipper and Mabel sat on the floor. It wasn't uncomfortable but it certainly wasn't a chair. She leaned against her bro as they sat down.
"Mabel, what is up with all the touchy-feely stuff?" whispered Dipper. He didn't exactly sound annoyed, just confused and maybe concerned.
"Hey, keep it down," grunted Stan, still not looking over at them. "And knock off the touchy-feely stuff." She sat up straight and finally let go of Dipper's hand. Thankfully, he did not vanish in a puff of smoke. Inwardly, she sighed with relief.
Soon her brother and Grunkle Stan were engrossed in some show. Something they both seemed to be enjoying. But she couldn't register any of it. Sure she was looking in the direction of the TV but she couldn't take her eyes off her brother, for fear he would vanish the moment she looked away.
During an important part in the shows plot, a loud thud came from upstairs. Grunkle Stan reached behind his chair and pulled out a broom, which he used to jab into the ceiling above. "Soos! Keep it down!" he yelled.
Instinctively, Mabel looked up but she wished she hadn't. It wasn't a ceiling above her. It was sweater town. Quickly, she looked back down at the ratty floor carpet. Her hand shot back out and grabbed her twin's sweaty counterpart. Dipper gave her a confused searching look but her eyes stayed locked on the floor until everyone was looking at the TV again. Then, slowly, incredibly slowly, she looked up again. Sweater town still loomed above her.
–
Dinner was mercifully brief. Thankfully, Soos' grandmother had done the cooking, so they wouldn't have to suffer microwaved hot dogs or something. Melody, the woman Soos had fallen for last summer also joined them. She currently wore the Mystery Shack question mark shirt and hat, the same as Soos once had. There was no sign of Great Uncle Ford and his name didn't come up during dinner. It wasn't like she could ask where he was, so she stayed almost completely silent, saying her brother's name only twice and only in context.
Their Grunkle had given her more than a few confused looks but Dipper had nervously just explained it away as one of her silly games. Soos had asked if he could play too, saying only Melody's name for a few minutes until she pointedly asked him to stop. Stan on the other hand didn't seem completely convinced, with a brief, non-accepting response of "uh-huh" but he didn't press the issue further.
At last, when they retreated up the stairs towards their room, Dipper once again shaking free of their hand holding, their Grunkle called after them. "And be up early tomorrow! You two have a lot of work to do in the shop!"
Dipper responded with a, "Sure thing Grunkle Stan!" but Mabel remained silent.
They each used a different room to change. Dipper, winning the rock-paper-scissors contest, got to use use the bathroom first. She didn't really want to leave his side but she couldn't refuse the system they had used most of their life for deciding who got to use what first. Even if this was a dream, rock-paper-scissors was sacred.
She stood over her polka dotted roller bag. It was laid flat on the floor. She pulled open the unzipped front and looked at the bags contents. At the very top were her basic clothes, undershirts, skirts, socks and underwear, enough for a few weeks or so at a time. The rest of the bag contained a huge assortment of her sweaters.
She lifted the first one off the top, a turquoise garment with a winged tortoise emblazoned upon its front. She frowned. This was her bag, these were her clothes. Yet, she hadn't packed it. She hadn't existed here in this place until today, right? So who had packed the bag?
Pulling the sweater away, she searched deeper into the container. She didn't remember packing it but she could imagine herself doing it. It was a sort of strange memory-fantasy. Each sweater she pulled out had a story to it, a reason she had brought it. She could see herself agonizing over each sweaters inclusion. Every item she held was a wash of almost memories in her hands. The deep blue one with dolphins on the front had come over the deep blue one with seagulls. She could "sea" (ha! pun intended) the debate in her head like she had actually been there. Except, she knew she hadn't. This world and everything in it had popped into existence the moment she had arrived in sweater town. This was her fantasy, her imagination at work. Right?
Faster and faster, she dug through her sweaters, each one flying by in a blur until she reached the bottom. Because, she knew what the last sweater would be, the first thing she would have packed, the item that would come with her no matter what! Her first sweater, the one she was hiding in right now, the one that contained this whole strange place. Her shooting star.
It wasn't there. She checked again, setting each garment aside so that she could see them all laid out on the floor. Pink and blue and green and white and red and purple and every color that was a color lay at her feet. None had the rainbow shooting star upon it.
Her body began to tremble. There was no way she wouldn't have packed it. The current panic attack she was feeling was proof of that. She needed her safe sweater. She needed it right now.
Except, didn't she have it on? Wasn't she wearing it right now? She looked up again to see the fuchsia threads high above, spiraling upwards before opening up to a dark ceiling a bazillion miles away. Maybe a sweater couldn't contain itself? The next time she wanted to come to sweater town perhaps she should pick a different sweater, one she was less fond of so she could have her favorite one here?
She shook her head. No. That was stupid! This place was all made up, so what good would that do? And besides, she needed her shooting star. That was how she got here... Wasn't it?
She shook her head again. She had gotten way off track, all she needed to do was get changed into her nightshirt but she was still just kneeling on the floor. Quickly she riffled through her clothes but abruptly stopped as her hands touched one of her sweaters. She had overlooked it the first time. No, she had deliberately ignored it in her search for her shooting star.
The sweater itself wasn't bad. It had the face of a kitten on it and letters wrapped around it proclaiming their cuteness. Up until a few hours ago, it had been among her favorites. Then it had been torn up as she rolled across the asphalt. It had been stripped off of her by a nurse insisting it was too dirty to wear. It had been soaked in her brother's blood...
Mabel tossed the sweater away like it was some venomous monster. She would never, ever wear that one again. In fact, she stood and retrieved it from the floor before stuffing it into the trash bin. She would never ever see it again! Good riddance!
Dipper came back in as she was stomping down on the sweater forcing it into their trash bin. His eyes gave her a quizzical look but she didn't explain what she was doing.
"You aren't changed?" he asked. The sweater search had thrown her off track. "Well, bathroom's all yours."
She gave the sweater one last stomp then returned to her bag. She fished out her nightshirt and a change of underwear before heading off to the bathroom.
Normally, she would have taken a long shower, complete with some singing and even some ill advised dancing but not tonight. Tonight she - she stopped as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her sweater…
No wonder she hadn't been able to find it! She was wearing her shooting star sweater! She looked down unsure how she had missed it. The answer was easy though, all her thoughts had been focused on her brother.
Yep. She had it on. She looked up into the twisting sweater ceiling above her. She had it on twice. That made her brain hurt.
She didn't keep the sweater on for long though as she change into her long powder blue nightshirt (strangely enough the one she had been wearing in the real world too) and started to brush her teeth. She paused though as she looked at her reflection. Something about how she looked was wrong but she couldn't put her finger on it. She looked like she always did but something was missing, something she knew should be there. She spat out the toothpaste into the sink and quickly returned to their room.
Dipper was sitting on his bed, mystery novel in one hand and ballpoint pen clicking away furiously in the other. Up until three years ago, when they had been ten, they shared the same room at home. And this behavior of late night reading and pen clicking had been part of the reason they had asked for separate rooms. It had been a hard transition at first and on some nights, one of the twins would end up finding themselves in the others bed.
Staying at the Mystery Shack had put them back in the same room and while Mabel hadn't minded for the most part, Dipper seemed to really want his own space. It had all come to a head last summer when they finally got their wish but that hadn't even lasted a night. The transition home back to separate rooms had been rough for both of them. Just a week ago, they'd had a sleepover, with Dipper in a sleeping bag on her floor - she wasn't going to sleep next to his smelly socks.
She looked at her own camp bed on the right side of the room. It had warm blankets on it and a soft pillow but it was as uninviting to her as a cold slab of stone. She looked at the ceiling and the folds of the sweater above. A little shiver run down her spine. She had been in sweater town for hours now, longer than she had ever been before. She didn't know what was going to happen, how long she could stay here. She didn't know anything. Anything except...
Her eyes traveled down to her brother, focusing on him. She stared at him like she couldn't believe he was there. He must have felt her stare because he eventually looked up at her.
"Mabel, what's wrong?" he asked in confusion. "You're kinda freaking me out just staring at me." There was a sadness in his eyes and for the tiniest of tiny moments she was back in the street frozen in time. He had the same expression on his face right before - before it had happened. She shook her head, casting the memory aside, trying to forget with all her might.
When she didn't say anything and didn't move, Dipper continued, "What's up with you today? You were all chatty and happy on the bus ride but as soon as we got into this room you just started acting totally weird! Even for you!"
She looked away, there was so much she wanted to say to him, to tell him, to ask him. She shook her head again. Than returned her stare to her brother, trying to will him to read her mind. He couldn't of course, so he just stared back in confusion. After a long uncomfortable silence she let out a sigh of frustration at her own inability to project her thoughts and marched over to Dipper's bed. She looked deeply into his eyes willing the words to pass between them that she could not say.
"Uhhhhh, okay, Mabel... stop looking at me like that. Just tell me what's wrong!" said Dipper. "You know you can tell me anything! We tell each other everything!" She nodded. Dipper waited. He seemed to be wanting her to finally cave and talk but she of course could not.
"Mabel, this is really worrying me," continued Dipper when she stayed silent. "You haven't said anything but my name since we came into this room! Please say something, anything else! You can even say my real name! I promise I won't get mad! Just say something other than Dipper!" He looked at her pleadingly. She wanted to say something, she really did, more than she ever had in her life. But... but she couldn't.
"Dipp...er," whispered Mabel.
"You must be cursed!" cried Dipper, whacking himself in the head. "Why didn't I see it before! That's what you've been trying to tell me! You can't say anything but my name! I'm such an idiot! I didn't put it together until just – why are you shaking your head, it's not a curse? " Dipper closed his mouth and the pen in his hand began to click away. He loved mystery and it occurred to her this might just be the biggest mystery they had ever faced. He studied her intently looking her up and down as if searching for physical signs that would give him some clue.
"Okay," he said thoughtfully. Dipper reached for the small notepad on his nightstand. He flipped several pages. "It's not a curse." She shook her head. "It's not a game," again, she shook her head. "You haven't lost your voice-"
"Dipper," she affirmed, rolling her eyes.
"Right, right, you can still talk but only say my name," he mumbled to himself." He lapsed into silence. "Maybe you could just write it down for me?" He offered her his notepad and quickly she snatched it from his hands. Furiously she began to write. She had so much to tell him. Like about about sweater town and that she didn't remember coming here at all. And… and things she couldn't bring up yet but that she wanted to tell him when she was ready.
She finished her scribbles and handed him back his notepad. He took it eagerly but the expression on his face fell once he saw what she had written. "Really?" he asked, he turned the pad so she could see it. The lined paper was filled with a single repeating word over and over, 'Dipper.'
She mashed her hands into her face. "Alright, so, you can only say 'Dipper' and only write 'Dipper.' This is one heck of a challenge Mabel and you promise you aren't just trying to mess with me?" She nodded so hard that her headband came lose and her curly brown hair whipped around her head. "Okay, okay. Let me think about it overnight and we can approach this thing in the morning, alright?"
It took her a long time to nod her head in agreement but it didn't seem like they were really getting anywhere. Maybe a good night's sleep would even fix her speech problem?
The two of them waited in silence for a long while. Dipper clearly seemed to expect something from her and Mabel from him but neither said anything. Her comments would have been unhelpful in anycase. Dipper cleared his throat. "Goodnight, Mabel." he said.
"Dipper," she said back with a nod. Neither moved. Another long awkward moment passed.
"Uh, Mabel, your bed is over there," said Dipper, his voice squeaking. She glanced across the room to the uninviting bed. It looked cold and dark and lonely. She didn't want to be alone. Not tonight. Not so soon after she had just stopped being alone. She put her hands on the side of Dipper's bed longingly. He looked at her hands. "You want my bed, don't you? Alright, fine, we can switch." She shook her head then looked pleadingly into his eyes again, trying to will him to understand. And he finally seemed to. "You, uh, want to sleep here tonight?" he asked uncomfortably. She nodded. "Aren't we a little old to -"
"DippER!" she said, cutting him off with a warning tone. Than she looked pleading again, wishing she could just say one other word, just a 'please' would be enough, that was all she needed. She tried desperately, "Dipppeeeerrrr..." At last Dipper rolled his eyes.
"Fine, but just tonight," sighed Dipper, scooting over and turning up the covers so she could climb in. With a fair amount of exuberance she did so before throwing her arms around him in a hug. "Hey, no more hugging today! Just - just stay on your side." She let him go and nodded thankfully. "Just for tonight, okay?" She nodded that she understood, although, technically, she wasn't making any promises.
Dipper placed his notepad, book and pen back on the nightstand as she lay down to get comfortable. Then he clicked out the lamp and the room went completely dark. "Goodnight, Mabel," Dipper whispered as he lay down beside her, turning his body away so that he faced the wall.
"Dipper," she whispered back, rolling over to face her brother's back and stare at the brother she had only dreamed she lost.
Authors Notes:
I hope you enjoyed this first installment of this pretty crazy story. I struggled about publishing this or not, but, here we are, so...
Very briefly. The whole thing is written, I'm just going through cleanup and editing. It's fifteen chapters in length and I currently plan to publish a new chapter every Saturday going forward.