'It's so insane, the things that we do in the name of love.'
Was it really nothing? Knowing that Bill's magic could affect Dipper's body in the real world was something that could be revealed easily, especially if he marked him or something.
It's not like he would.
Dipper sits at the table, his right arm was supporting his face from collapsing onto the table since he was bored out of his mind. He knew that Bill was a Dream Demon, he might as well tell Ford that. It's only half-past ten and he already knew who Bill was, that ruined his plans for today.
The brunette looks up as he slams the book close. He hears thuds and turns to where the footsteps were coming from. Candy, Grenda and Mabel chime in, rapidly taking their seats at the kitchen table.
Dipper felt a bit relieved and somewhat safe. Even with Mabel's two 'best-bestest best' friends with her, she wouldn't drop her 'princess-sunshines' act. So much for the friendship code, being all close and telling the truth and revealing your true colours.
"Good morning bro-bro!", Mabel exclaims, you could literally hear the plastic in her voice. She wraps an arm around her brother as her eyes dart the boy's neck, squinting to see if any marks were visible. Surprisingly, none of her nail marks were on his skin and that confused her. Dipper shoves Mabel away and crosses his arms across his body, he stands up and was about to leave the table.
"Why are you leaving Dipper?", Candy asks, Grenda looks up from her pancakes. "You haven't eaten yet, are you not hungry?"
Dipper shakes his head and forces a smile. "No, I'm not hungry at all. I'm not in the mood to eat anyway."
"O-okay, that's fine.", Candy mumbles.
"Oh yeah! You were out cold when we found you.", Grenda exclaims, she takes a bite out of her food. "What happened?"
Mabel shoots a glare sharp like daggers at the brunette. Her eyes read "DON'T-you-dare-Mason-Pines" and it's not like Dipper wanted to speak about it. He'd get beaten up for ruining his sister's friendship with the two.
He casually shrugs it off. "It's - uh - it's nothing.", he answers, ashamed for lying. He pulls his hat down to cover his eyes.
Mabel rolls her eyes and stabs her fork into the pancakes. "What's up with that flower in your hair? Wanted to try something new to fit your timid and pathetic personality?"
Dipper's face flushes red and he was about to blow a fuse. He inhales then exhales. "For your information Mabel, it's an english daisy. A-and there's nothing wrong with it being in my hair, I like it and that's all that matters."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I don't care, I guess it suits you. I'm just saying that your bullying will get worse if you wore that to school.", Mabel replies softly as she continues to pretend that she cared. Her voice was inaudible as she was chewing for most of the time.
Sure, the sentence may have said cruelty but it was a sort of nice thing Mabel has ever said since forever. Even though it was fake, Dipper mumbles a 'thanks' before leaving the room.
"Geez, something's up with him.", Mabel then says as her brother was out of sight.
Grenda and Candy exchange glances. They shrug and mumble soft "yeahs" to agree with the brunette's statement even though they both had a strange gut feeling.
Dipper overheard Mabel's last few words echo in the hall before the words were taken over by stereotypical 'girl' talk of gossip and boys. He adjusts his hat to tilt it up so he could see his path once more. The brunette walks out the creaky door and into the gift shop part of the Mystery Shack, he looks at Stan and hesitantly waves as the elder waves back.
"Hey kid, I just want to know if anything happened to you this morning.", Stan starts off as he closes his newspaper. Dipper shrugs and gives a small smile.
"I appreciate the concern but it's good, I'm alright.", Dipper replies, he pauses for a moment and thinks back to yesterday. "Oh.. Grunkle Stan, I'm sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to snap at you so suddenly, it's just that I wasn't feeling right."
Stan shakes his head, he stands up from his seat and makes his way towards his nephew as he wraps his arm around the male. Dipper looks up as Stan gives him his signature smile.
"Don't sweat it kid, you shouldn't be apologizing. I kinda snapped, I don't blame you for needing some space.", Stan says. "If you ever need someone to talk to, you always have your old man here for you."
Dipper nods. "Thank you Grunkle Stan. I appreciate your show of concern.", he says. The elder removes his arm and waves his nephew goodbye as he walks out the door for a morning walk.
"Good morning Grunkle Stan!", Mabel exclaims, hugging him from behind. Stan chuckles and pats the brunette's head as he greets her good morning as well.
"Good morning Mabel. You got any plans for today? You maybe wanna help your old man out with some stuff?", Stan suggests as Mabel laughs. Candy and Grenda walk past the two, heading towards the door. The three best friends exchange their goodbyes, but it was only 'until next time, as in tomorrow'.
"I'd love to help you Grunkle Stan! Buuut, I would like to sleep today. I didn't think sleep was that important, I can barely function as a human being!", Mabel exclaims as she lets a yawn escape her lips. No matter how tired the brunette was, she still had the energy to be humorous.
"Understandable, sleep is very important.", the elder replies, although his face was now showing concern. "Say, do you know what happened to Dipper this morning? I know he went to his room after our fight last night but I didn't think he'd end up on the floor."
Mabel forces a smile and tilts her head, trying to keep her innocence. "No, I don't know what happened to him! I bet ya' that he was sleepwalking and fell asleep there."
Stan nods his head and ponders for a second, he knew that was a lie. Knowing the teenager or almost adult Mabel, she wouldn't spill the beans. "Alright, I believe you. Carry on and get some sleep. If you need me, I'll be right here."
"Okay! Thank you Grunkle Stan!", Mabel cries, she runs off and up the stairs. She walks into 'her' room (originally her and Dipper's room) and collapses on the bed. She glances down to where Waddles was, she swoops her pig up onto the bed with her and hugs him tight.
She now had the room all to herself. 'I might as well decorate it and Mabel-fy it even more after my nap..'
She closes her eyes, allowing the darkness and her thoughts to consume her. A smile spreads across her face as she falls asleep.
Mabel was standing on cold thin ice, she felt winter on her hands. She tries to walk, only causing her to slip and fall. The brunette slowly gets back on her feet, nearly losing her balance as she tries to look around. There wasn't much to see as her surroundings were covered by a flurry of snowflakes.
This was not what she wanted to dream of.
The ice begins to crack, the cracks then led up to where Mabel was standing. The ice shatters and forms a hole, having Mabel to fall in too. She tries to scream for help but no words came out as no one could hear you when you're drowning underwater. She reaches out, her arms digging to reach for the surface but a heavy weight continues to drag her down.
She shuts her eyes tight, wishing for a miracle to happen. A golden light glimmers and Mabel opens an eye as she meets face to face with a large eye, the pupil of that eye was glowing yellow. In a blink of an eye, the underwater sequence vanished and Mabel was now lying on dead grass.
"Geez, we don't want you dying in your sleep Shooting Star.", a voice says from behind. Mabel jumps and crawls backwards, she looks up and meets someone's eyes.
"Who are you?", she asks impatiently, trying to put on a 'strong' facade. The male sees right through it and laughs maniacally, Mabel winces at the laugh and shakes her head to snap out of her scared trance. She had to be courageous. It was her dream, she should be able to control it.
"Me? Who I am is your least concern.", the male chuckles, his cane clashes with the ground as blue flames lit in front of Mabel's eyes. The heat was too much to handle so she used her arm to shield her eyes from the fire. "But I will be a problem if you don't fix your attitude."
Her eyes widen. "Attitude?! What's wrong with my attitude?", the brunette asks, demanding an answer. "There is NOTHING wrong with my attitude, it's just part of my personality! Maybe there's something wrong with you!"
The male rolls his eyes and crosses his arms across his chest. "See, that's what I'm talking about. The way you talk and treat others is just poor mannerism. Who'd you learn from, a pig?"
"Waddles takes full offense to that, ya' know!", Mabel snaps as the fire extends, it was now a pit of fire that circled the two. "Why don't you drop the whole 'mysterious' act and tell me who the hell you are?!"
"Do you want to die shooting star?", the male asks out of the blue, he runs a hand through his hair and grins. Mabel was taken aback, her brain was slowly processing the question. She had never been asked about death or the future.
"I-I'm sorry? Why are you asking this?! You should know that I'm happy with what I'm doing in my life.", Mabel answers, proud of her semi-crafted response. The male giggles, it transitions to loud demonic laughter. "Geez! Just what do you want from me?!"
Mabel squints her eyes, trying to access her oldest memories as she gets a better look of the figure in front of her. The heat of the fire was messing with her eyesight but she was able to make out two things, a figure in gold and a triangle eye-patch.
The laughter dies down as the electric blue fire does too.
"You know your brother wants to die, right?"
Mabel scoffs and rolls her eyes even though she felt a sense of guilt. Was it her fault for making him feel as if death was the best choice? "Whatever. He's the least of my concern."
The figure's eye glows red and the fire was now an unpleasant blood colour, it flashes back to its original hue and the flames roar. "You nearly choked him to death this morning."
"H-how would you know that?", Mabel questions. She was beginning to get impatient, she wanted to be dreaming about something fantasy-like rather than having a conversation that actually uses your brain in order to reply.
"I have eyes. I can see just about everything including your thoughts.", the male replies with a smile, he snaps his fingers as a ball of words appear in his hand. "You see this? These are your thoughts. If I were to smash this, it would stop your thinking process and your mind would go blank. It doesn't do much harm but it'd be pretty fun to see you in pain. After all, pain is hilarious."
The brunette blinks a couple of times, she examines the ball of text and was in shock of how they were her actual thoughts. "Who are you? Why are you doing this? WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE TO YOU?!", Mabel shouts as she was nearly in tears. "WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO MUCH THAT YOU WISH TO HURT ME?!"
"Oh.. I'm not doing this because I hate you.", the figure says. He raises his free hand as the flames follow, the fire roars and grows as smoke devours the oxygen. The brunette coughs and had tears stream down her cheeks, her lungs were filling and deflating with smoke and ash. "I'm doing this because you hurt my beloved Pinetree."
"I.. I-!"
"I'm glad you don't remember me but this should be a lesson.", the male growls in a low tone. He steps out of the fire pit and crushes the ball of thoughts, he then raises his arms as the fire follows the order once more. He brings his arm down as the flames came to life and attacked Mabel, she was squirming and attempting to fight for her life. She starts to scream, begging for the pain to stop as she coughs out apologies and forgiveness. The actions brought a grin to the blonde's face as he takes a bow.
"Farewell shooting star. May you forever be haunted by this nightmare."
Dipper hears a blood-curling shrill not far in the distance, he looks back thinking that it was only his imagination. The scream continues and he knew that it wasn't his ears playing tricks on him. He takes the path back to the Mystery Shacks as he picks up his pace.
He chimes in and gently gloses the entrance door. He stops to catch his breath.
'It sounds like it was coming from upstairs..', Dipper ponders. He walks up the stairs as he stands behind Ford and Stan.
The screams and what sounded like sobs continued to ramble on, Stan was now pounding the door and yelling. Ford tries to turn the door knob but it wouldn't budge, it was locked.
"MABEL! ARE YOU OKAY?!", Stan shouts as his fists continue to clash with the door.
The scream bounces off the walls of the room, the three also hear oinks and squeals. Dipper pulls out a bobby pin from his pocket and picks the lock, the door swings open as the two elders barged their way inside. They now huddle around Mabel, shaking her even though they knew that the movement would only affect her dream.
In the moment, Mabel wakes up gasping for air. She uses her sleeves to wipe her tears and falls into her Grunkles' arms as Waddles joined in on their hug. She begins to complain and explain her nightmare.
Dipper didn't think that the happiest girl alive could ever cry and shriek in a spine-shivering way. Literally, Mabel didn't have any problems and was proud of who she was.
"I-I was burning.. And screaming at the top of my lungs and apologizing.. And.. And..! Th-the figure just watched me, he was so happy to see me in pain..", Mabel whimpers. "He.. He said I hurt his l-loved one wh-when I didn't know who he was..!"
"It's okay Mabel, you're safe here.", Ford reassures. "Could you try and describe the person's appearance?"
Dipper examines his sister from behind Stan and Ford, he was able to see what seemed like burns on her skin. Perhaps she had an evil Dream Demon..?
"H-he wore a lot of yellow.. A-and he had a triangle shaped eye-patch b-but my vision wasn't the best..", Mabel explains.
'Yellow..? And had a triangle eye-patch..? There's no way..'
"The way you describe this person makes them sound like 'him'.. Are you sure Mabel?", Ford asks, Mabel nods in response, she wasn't lying.
"You have to believe me Grunkle Ford. I know what I saw and for once, I'm telling the truth."
"I - uh - I hope you're okay Mabel.", Dipper says, he slowly steps back. Mabel glares at him, staring at his hat and her eyes widen. "A-and I think you should get those burns checked."
"B-burns?!", the feeling of panic washes all over Mabel. She begins to check her imperfect body, examining for burns and other marks.
'From what I know, whatever a Dream Demon does to you physically, it shows and affects your reality state..', Dipper thinks to himself.
"Oh my god! I'll get the bandages!", Stan cries, he runs out of the room with sonic speed.
"I don't think bandaids will heal 'em..", Ford mumbles. He sighs and starts talking with Mabel, asking her to confirm certain things.
'Maybe there are good Dream Demons and bad Dream Demons? No.. The book only stated 'Dream Demons', what exactly is their goal?'
"So.. He hurt you because you hurt his so called loved one?", Ford asks, the brunette nods to confirm the fact. "Did the figure just say 'loved one' or did he say a specific name or-?"
"He called him pinetree..", Mabel says. She glances up to where her brother was standing, Dipper's eyes widen.
"Pinetree..?", Ford repeats, he looks to where or what Mabel was looking at. His and Mabel's eyes meet and stare into Dipper's soul, the brunette's inner-self panics and knew he had to leave now.
"I-I'm going to excuse myself.", he says and runs out in a rush, passing by Stan who had the first aid kit in his hands.
There was no way that Bill Cipher's true intentions were to hurt him or his family, no matter how much they deserved it.
"Hey Mabel, I got the first aid kit. You alright?", Grunkle Stan asks. "Uh.. What are you guys looking at?"
"MR. CIPHER! YOU BROKE ONE OF THE RULES!", Tracer yells, she looked as if she was going to throw her clipboard at him. Bill could see the smoke steaming from her ears as her face was tomato red. "YOU COULD LOSE YOUR POSITION AND BE FIRED, RESULTING IN YOU LOSING EVERYTHING!"
"I'm just doing my job.", Bill says calmly. "I'm simply protecting Pinetree by solving his problems. That's what Dream Demons are supposed to do, right?"
Tracer pushes her glasses up and crosses her arms across her chest. "Yes, it is their duty but you made number 11037 suffer! I understand your intention but that dreamer didn't have a Demon! This goes against all the rules of being a Dream Demon!"
"J.D said that us Dream Demons have every right to invade and take over any dreamer's fantasy. We then would have control of that dreamer's dream and could do whatever we wanted.", Bill explains. Tracer knew something was up but the blonde didn't seem like someone who would publicly announce his problem, she sighs and shakes her head in disappointment.
"I understand but Cipher, promise me that you won't do this to another child without a Dream Demon.", Tracer says, her eyes are glued to the floor. "You have every right to do it to another dreamer with a Demon but please. Don't do it to one without a Demon."
Bill chuckles softly, it gradually gets louder and it turns into the laugh of a devil. Tracer steps back in fear, her pen was taking some notes on its own as she felt nothing but terror. His laugh dies down and he uses his free hand to wipe away his tears of joy as the flames in his other hand vanishes.
"Look Oviwat, I can't keep promises.", Bill says as his hand glow with electric blue flames. "But if your dreamer was nearly choked to death, wouldn't you like to take revenge?"
"...", Tracer was silent for a moment. "You're psychotic Cipher."
"You say tomato, I say tomato."
