Hello! I probably won't upload until easter, so, I tried to make this chapter a little longer that the last two.
Anyway, thanks so much for reading this and... now, enjoy:)
Chapter 14: Silent plea.
Preston Northwest was an arrogant man, everyone knew that. Ever since he was a small child, he got used to a comfortable life, where the key to success was prestige.
He learned to cover up the fraud that was his family and businesses of dubious morality in order to preserve his wealth and image. He married Priscilla, a beautiful woman, and with her he had a beautiful daughter: Pacifica.
He had been in charge of teaching her that maintaining her social status was the key to a perfect life, and Priscilla helped him by showing their daughter the importance of always being beautiful, a Northwest woman could never neglect her image or elegance!
But his daughter's values began to change after she met those Pines.
He had never seen anything valuable in that family, especially in the boy who called himself Dipper (what kind of name was that?).
At the end of the Weirdmageddon they had been on good terms, (despite having lost their mansion), but that silent truce started to disappear when her daughter began to interact too much with that boy. Even though Pacifica didn't see the guy for most of the year, it was obvious that his daughter had a lot of affection or him.
Years later, they got married, and he and his wife made it very clear that they were against that union; They needed their daughter to marry someone from high society! Her daughter had already studied public relations, she couldn't marry a phenomenon researcher!
But she still got married, and every year he received her and her husband as guests in the mansion; their small reunions were tolerable, but then those strange children were born: a boy with a strange mark on his forehead and two girls, one way too cheerful and another one way too quiet that had six fingers on each hand. His daughter and her husband refused to do her a surgery, since in the girl's case of polydactyly (oh, because it turned out that the abnormality of extra fingers had a classification), her extra, central finger was fully functional and taking it away would mean rebuilding her hands completely.
The man had resigned himself to the life he considered mediocre. Even if he didn't like it, one day his daughter would be the one to inherit all his money (he was not proud of her, but that money had to belong to those of Northwest blood)
Then, he saw the behavior of that boy in his kitchen, and found the solution to all his problems.
First, he had to know how efficient that boy could be. Something small would be enough at first, and his old Mansion was perfect for it.
If his mansion was not his, it would not belong to anyone else, so he ordered the boy to burn it.
His grandson showed him two things:
1- He was quite efficient.
2- He lacked malice, the boy didn't even doubt him when he was told hat there was no one inside the building.
Alex was surprised with how easily he floated above the wall that surrounded the burning mansion.
The boy was going straight to the entrance when he saw Tate Mcgucket and his wife running with two little girls in their arms and a teenage girl by their side, the family went out through the main gate and walked away as much as they could.
"Stay here! I will look for my father ..."
The man could not finish speaking when he saw that the fire was spreading in front of the main gate.
"NO!"
That scream was heartbreaking and more than enough to make Alex enter the old mansion.
Inside, Alex couldn't help but think that building a mansion with almost only wood was a bad idea, especially when the rooms were full of curtains and fabrics that could extend a fire quickly.
Alex covered his mouth and nose with his shirt, and yelled when he noticed that his left arm was in contact with the fire.
He put his hand away, not from pain but from surprise, because he didn't even feel the heat.
Alex slowly uncovered his mouth and took a breath.
The fire did not affect him at all.
He didn't complain about that fact, of course, but it confused him greatly.
The boy didn't have time to lose himself in his thoughts, the exclamation of an old man made him focus on his task.
Fiddleford Mcgucket was as old as Stanford Pines, but while his uncle remained fit for many years and barely seemed to age, this man had a great physical deterioration after many years of living in madness. He stayed with his son in the mansion along with his daughter-in-law and granddaughters, and only received visits from Stanford. Once a week his son would take him fishing, because he didn't like to be locked up until the day of his death.
Death that would come very soon if Alex did not hurry, because the fire had already spread to the second floor thanks to the large curtains of the mansion.
The boy swiftly climbed the stairs, trying to ignore that the third stair collapsed after stepping on it.
The teenager without problem went to the source of the sound: a room at the end of the hall where an old man, inhaling a lot of smoke without wanting it, was lying on his bed while trying to get up without success.
Alex, without hesitation, went to Fiddleford's side and, before the old man could understand what was happening, the boy threw him over his shoulder and ran.
The first floor was completely on fire, maybe Alex would have resist it, but the man wouldn't, so the boy took an option he didn't like at all.
The boy threw himself out of the window, and he attempted to float... but the extra weight didn't help.
They fell, but fortunately, a tile on the first floor saved them, Fiddleford fell on top of the teen, so for now the old man was fine...physically.
The man was screaming, he had no idea who was carrying him or what was happening. Alex would have preferred him to stay quiet, not only so that no one noticed hiim, but because the man was breathing a lot of smoke.
Alex jumped off that little roof and fell on his feet, causing him to immediately feel immense pain in his right ankle.
The boy, thanking the power of adrenaline in the human body, tried to find a way out, there was no way he could float above the wall while carrying the old man.
So he did something very stupid.
The boy hugged the old man as much as he could and ran to the main exit.
The teen left the old man on the ground just when Fiddleford's relatives received the firemen; they were so busy that they didn't even notice him.
Alex fled and the only thing McGucket could see from a distance was his blond hair. The man shouted, alerting his son, who was greatly surprised to see him.
"Dad! How ...?"
"It's him! It's him! There!"
" Take it easy!"
McGucket coughed heavily, before passing out.
The blond arrived at a small body of water that was near the shack.
The fire he thought he was immune to had, of course, damaged his clothes and burned his skin without realizing it.
While he was sure that the burns on his torso, and legs were shallow, as when you touched hot water for a moment, his arms and face burned, they were red, as if he had had a great exposure to the sun. But he did not complain, for some reason, the fire had not affected him ... too much, would it be because he had caused it?
As if that were not enough, he was sure he had a sprained ankle and his cell phone and bracelet were damaged in the fire.
The teenager groaned in frustration before coughing miserably, how was he supposed to enter the Shack looking like that?
Alex held his breath, how was he going to look at his family, especially Ford, in the face after what he had just done?
Alex looked at the sky, desperate. When he was a demon, he used to watch with amusement how humans regretted what their deals had caused in their lives; he even made fun of some of them when they went to a church to say a more human version of what they had done to anyone else.
But at that moment, he felt the need to shout to the four winds what he had done, how sorry he was and swear that he would not do it again because he did not want to do it again.
But he kept quiet, looking at his hands, with a sore throat and pain in his chest. It didn't matter if he was human or not, it seemed that he couldn't change what he had been.
Alex Pines went silently to his house, believing that his whole family would be there, but instead, he saw a small note attached to the Shack's entrance.
"Alex:
I don't understand why you don't answer your cell phone, but if you read this, call us to know that you came home.
We went to the hospital, there was a fire in the mansion of the Mcgucket family and old man Mcgucket seems to be seriously injured. Please, watch your sisters.
Loves you
Mom.
The teenager read those last three words several times, before putting the note in his pocket.
As soon as he entered the shack, he heard greetings from his sisters in the kitchen, but he quickly avoided them.
"Alex! Where were you...?"
"I fell into a puddle and I stink, I'll take a shower!"
The girls made fun of him, causing the blond to smile before going to the attic while limping and grimacing in pain. Alex looked in the closet for the bags that his mother packed "just in case".
The boy sighed in relief when he saw painkillers.
Quickly, he took them. He also took a hoodie that would help him hide the burns of his arms and then went straight to the bathroom, where his mother's makeup bag was.
The boy grimaced, he already knew it was necessary, but the idea of wearing makeup didn't make him happy.
For the moment, he needed a shower
A long and cold shower.
"Mr. Fiddleford McGucket will be under observation, the smoke affected his airways and such accidents can also aggravate his heart problems."
Those words weren't pleasant to hear.
Stanford Pines could not help but let out a sigh of frustration while his brother patted him on the back on a comforting manner.
"Understood" Tate McGucket, without doubt, was the one who seemed most discouraged of all. His wife put a supporting hand on his shoulder.
"Tomorrow you can visit him, I want him to have as much silence as possible today so he can rest."
The doctor left and, as they left the hospital, Pacifica's cell phone rang. She separated from the rest so she didn't interrupt the conversation between Tate McGucket, Dipper, Stan and Ford.
"Are you sure you don't need where to spend the night?" The scientist asked with concern to his best friend's son.
"Absolutely sure, we still own my old house, we can stay there for a while" replied the man, unable to fake a tone of voice that did not show how bad he felt "It's a relief that my father could leave the mansion."
Dipper raised an eyebrow at this "Huh? What do you mean?
The man looked down, as if trying to get a bad thought out of his head "When we realized that there was a fire, my wife and I barely took the girls out of the mansion, my plan was to return for my father, but the fire spread too fast, I thought he had stayed inside. We saw him in the main gate after the firemen arrived, he was shouting like a madman and pointing to the forest like crazy.
The Pines frowned at what the man said, that was quite strange.
"Tate, girls are exhausted, we must go"
"Oh, sure," the man carried one of the girls his wife handed him "We'll talk later"
The Pines said goodbye and turned just as Pacifica returned.
"Alex just called me, he's home now." The woman looked annoyed. "He told me he lost his phone while walking in the woods."
Dipper rolled his eyes at his son's distraction and the four Pines went to their car.
And while doing so, Ford couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, Alex hadn't lost his phone in the forest, if not somewhere else.
Alex took a deep breath before placing the code he already knew in the vending machine.
He was sure that Ford was there, it had been a miracle that nobody noticed that he wasn't wearing his bracelet or that he had makeup on his face; his mother told him that he looked a little pale, and Alex told her in the most natural way possible that he was starting to feel a little ill, his cough and sore throat helped him in his act.
So now, with a facemask on for credibility, the boy went to Ford to ask for another bracelet. He supposed that talking to him was better than waiting for the man to notice that he didn't have anything on his wrist.
The boy went down to the scientist's studio, who, upon hearing him, asked:
" Who's there?"
Alex hesitated to answer "Uh… it's me" the boy snorted at his vague answer "Alex, uh, I lost my bracelet along with my phone, I need another one. "
A few seconds passed before the man said "Come in"
Alex entered the studio and could see the scientist sitting at his desk, working on something.
"I noticed you weren't wearing your bracelet at dinner," Ford told him as soon as Alex took a seat at the other end of the table "I'm glad you said this to me, I was thinking of talking seriously with you tomorrow."
The boy grimaced, he should have expected Ford to notice.
The boy saw the artifact the man worked on.
"Oh, were you doing another one already?"
"That's right, I'm almost done, so stay here."
The boy nodded and stared at the entrance of the study, not knowing what else to do.
"How did you lose your bracelet?"
Alex was startled to hear the man ask him that question, but he immediately answered.
"Oh, I went for a walk in the forest for ... well ... I .. wanted to see if I could practice with my powers there, I know I shouldn't have, but I was getting bored of just using them for cooking."
Stanford stopped his work for a moment and looked at him with a frown, "So, you took off your bracelet."
Alex nodded "I left it on a rock along with my cell phone, but when I was going to pick it up it was gone, maybe an animal took it"
Stanford did not seem very convinced with what the teenager said, and the blond understood that.
He was too tense.
He knew his relationship with Stan and Ford was not good at all, but the boy usually did not hesitate or looked to the floor so much...
Alex fixed his eyes again on the wall, trying to appear a relaxed attitude that he didn't have.
If he hadn't gone to the statue that day, he would never have known that he was a kind of reincarnation of Bill Cipher and he would be at ease.
But there was no point on thinking that.
"It's ready, put it on."
The boy took the bracelet and placed it on his wrist.
"Thank you," the boy muttered,
"Don't take it off again without permission"
Alex simply gave an "I won't do it" before leaving the study, ignoring the scientist's gaze.