In the early morning on a hot day in Gravity Falls, the Pines kids were off on another mission. Last night, they got the computer back from Soos, who got it working again. However, all the information, all the knowledge to everything they could ever ask for, was locked behind a password. Dipper tried looking for it in the journal but found nothing.
However, there was one likely source, which brings us to the present. Patrick, Dipper, and Mabel stood together at the entrance of the sewer system. He held the laptop in one hand while looking into the abyss of the sewer. "So, this is it," he said. "We're really going into the sewers."
"Yep!" Mabel said brightly.
"And we're going in there because?" Patrick shrugged, not too thrilled about going down into the sewers. "The last time we went underground for anything, we nearly got killed by a pteranodon!"
"Because we need to unlock that laptop," Dipper argued, pulling out the journal. Flipping through the pages, he stopped at one and showed it to his cousin. It showed the drawing of a rat and a sewer drain. "According to legend, there was a creature known as the Rat King that lives in the underground sewer system. It is said that it knows all and is the keeper of all the secrets of the people in Gravity Falls. If we find it, maybe it can tell us the password!"
"Oh! Oh!" Mabel shouted, raising her hand and jumping from foot to foot. When the two boys turned to her, she said, "What if the password is...password!?"
Dipper frowned at her. "Mabel, there's no way someone as brilliant as the Author is going to have a password like that."
"Well, hang on, Dipper. Maybe she's onto something," Patrick insisted. He opened the laptop and typed in PASSWORD. Luckily it was an 8-letter word, so all the letters fit into it. But when Patrick pressed enter, the screen flashed red.
"What about...codeword?!" Mabel exclaimed.
Patrick typed in the word, but it was incorrect. "Nope!" He said, then sighed. Guess they'll have to go into the sewer after all.
He and the twins pulled out their own flashlights. Slowly and cautiously, they entered into the tunnel, shinning their lights in the direction their heads turned. It was dark with water covering the bottom of the tunnel and some moss on the walls. Over their heads were tree roots that broke through the metal.
As Dipper walked ahead, Patrick and Mabel walked together until the girl heard something. She looked up, shining her light onto the ceiling of the tunnel. Mabel looked back down and started walking with her family.
Suddenly, something grabbed her.
She screamed, and Patrick whirl around with a startled expression. But he saw nothing. Not even her. "Mabel? Mabel!" He called out to his cousin, finding her flashlight lying on the ground.
He suddenly heard Dipper screaming, and when he turned around, he saw him being dragged away by someone or something!
"I'm coming, Dipper!" Patrick yelled and ran around the corner. He cashed after his cousin in desperation. But as Patrick continued running down the long dark tunnel, Patrick saw no sign of Dipper. Eventually, he stopped and looked around. Breathing rapidly, scared of what happened to his family.
"It's okay, Patrick."
Patrick's body froze. Not that he was covered in ice, but his body locked up. Not moving at all as his eyes widened as far as they could go, and his pupils shrunk down to little dots. Slowly, he turned around and shined his light down the way he came. And what he saw made him gasp.
Standing a few meters away was a little boy about four years old. He had short dark hair and had deathly pale skin, wearing blue overalls with a light blue t-shirt, white socks, and white and red sneakers.
The teenager stared in shock at the boy. So much so that he dropped the laptop and the flashlight. But the light continued shining on the boy.
Patrick struggled to speak. "S-S-S...S-Shawn?"
"It's okay. They're with me now," Shawn said in a hollow voice. "And so will you."
Suddenly a giant horde of rats covering the walls of the tunnel rushed towards Patrick. All of their eyes glowing red. Patrick just stood there in fear, and as the rats got closer, he finally screamed.
Patrick continued screaming when he woke up from the dream. He was no longer in the sewers, but back in his own room at the Mystery Shack. Patrick waited for the rat to attack him, but he opened his eyes when they didn't. Looking around and seeing that he was back in his room, he sighed and fell back onto the bed. That was the fifth night in a role that he's had a nightmare as intense as that.
But this one was different. Patrick sat up and pulled out his phone. He looked at it for a moment, before letting out a sad sigh and hugged his knees. He really did hate this time of the year.
{Play Stranger Things theme by Kyle Dixon Michael Stein}
The intro begins by fading in a scene of the road sign that said: "Welcome to Gravity Falls, Oregon."
We then see a view of the town of Gravity Falls, with the strangely shaped canyons in the background, and the sun going down between the two land formations. As the sun was setting, the day turns to a blue night. However, a sinister red light comes from over the horizon. Shining between the canyon.
The next scene is of a large, dinosaur footprint in the ground. It then changed to show the forest trees at night and a pair of glowing eyes staring at the viewer before the camera switched to a wider shot and showed many more eyes staring at the viewer. The next scene was a far back show of two men dumping a body into the lake, and as that body sank, it was swallowed by a massive creature.
PATRICK
The teenage Pines is shown in a freeze shot of him walking in the woods with a lantern and his crowbar in hand. Behind him, Bill's eye in the sky looked down at him.
DIPPER
The male twin is looking down at the journal with a flashlight. Not noticing that a Pteranodon was staring down at him, ready to eat him.
MABEL
The female twin is the final one to be seen, and it showed her wearing a sweater that lit up because it was plugged into an outlet. But in another, farther away, the shot shows Gideon's hand controlling her like she was a marionette.
The intro's finale shows the Mystery Shack as the sun goes down behind it and the trees of the forest. When the sun goes down and the night came, and just like the beginning, the red light appears, but then a blue light shined from inside the Mystery Shack.
Then the screen when black, and the title of the story appeared in a flash of light.
WEIRDER THINGS
It then disappeared, before the chapter title appeared.
Chapter Twenty-Three:
The Nightmare Spirit
Patrick walked into the Mystery Shack's gift shop with noticeable bags under his eyes. He hasn't gotten any sleep the previous night, and there was a slight redness in his eyes. When he walked into the room, he saw only a few people coming in today, and then he noticed his cousins and Wendy talking together.
Walking over to them, Patrick heard that they were talking about their adventure trying to watch '21-12 Time Attack'. Wendy spotted her boyfriend out of the corner of her eye, and when she turned to him, she got worried. She's only ever seen that face on him when he killed Maverick and knew it was when he was miserable.
"Patrick? Are you okay?" Wendy asked, placing her hands on Patrick's face and looking into his eyes.
Laughing nervously, Patrick gently pushed her hands away. "N-No, it's fine. I just...didn't get a lot of sleep last night," he said, but it was only half of the truth. Wendy again looked at him worriedly.
"Well, don't get too sleepy, Patrick!" Dipper said with a confident smile, gaining the attention of the two teenagers. "Because today's a big day! I think I found the solution to our laptop password problem. I read in the journal for some answers, and I figured out that we have to find-"
"The Rat King?" Patrick asked, already knowing the answer.
"Who knows-"
"Everyone's secret," Patrick interrupted again, starting to get annoyed.
"And he lives-"
"Down in the sewers," Patrick finished with a frown, rubbing his tired eyes. When he opened them, he saw the others staring at them, a little surprised. "What?"
"Are you okay, man?" Dipper asked.
Patrick looked away for a moment, before looking back at his cousins and Wendy, who were all looking at him with concern. He sighed and decided to come clean. "Look, I didn't want to say anything, but...ever since we found that laptop, I've been having these intense nightmares. All of them involve that laptop and learning the secrets of it. And last night-"
He stopped himself. He was about to tell them about Shawn but membered that Dipper and Mabel don't even know about him. Patrick didn't meet them until he was 12, and they were only 8. His parents didn't tell them about Shawn, and his uncle and aunt didn't say to their kids as far as he knew. Patrick didn't want to tell them. Maybe it was bad, but he just didn't want to relive...
Patrick shook his head and tried to hide his pain. "Look, last time, the dream of us going to find the Rat King, and it didn't really end well."
Dipper and Mabel looked at one another for a moment, before looking back at Patrick. "Did...this happen last night," Dipper asked. "And did it involve you and Mabel being kidnapped?"
"Yeah, well, you guys were taken. Not me," Patrick said. "Wait, why? Did you guys have the same dream? Mabel?"
"Yeah, but you guys were taken!" Mabel said, throwing her hands up.
Patrick turned to his girlfriend. "Wendy?"
"Not me, man," Wendy said, shaking her head. "I've been sleeping just fine."
Dipper placed a hand on his chin on and though for a moment. "The three of us have been having the exact same dreams for the past few days. Each of us has had a different version in which we live before waking up," he said, trying to find a reason for these start dreams.
"What do you think's causing them?" Mabel asked.
"Mabel, the fact that we've seen death, carnage, and some weird, scary shit all summer and not had any nightmares of them until now is a miracle," Patrick said rhetorically with his arms crossed. "I don't know; I think it's an omen."
"But there has to be some reason for this," Dipper said, trying to come up with an answer for this phenomenon.
Patrick looked up for a moment. But when he did, he started to feel a chill going down his spine. Like there was something in the Shack with them. Watching them. He looked around, trying to find the source of the strange feeling. That was until his eyes landed on a particular individual that was leaning against the wall near the door and staring at the Pines Kids with a scowl. Looking up from their phone.
That person was a tall, slim girl with long, white hair pulled back into two ponytails. She had black eyes. She wore an over-sized black sweatshirt or possibly an over-sized black dress, a light pink scarf, and salmon pink tights with black sneakers. Red pimples dotted her face as well.
As Dipper was going over his plans to find the Rat King, Patrick stopped him by pointing to the girl. "Have any of you seen her before?"
Wendy, Dipper, and Mabel looked at the girl for a moment. The mysterious girl looked down at her phone. Wendy squinted her eyes at the girl and then widened them. "Oh yeah, that's just some new girl that moved in a while ago," she said.
"Do you know anything about her?" Patrick asked.
"Other than that she asks like a bitch," Wendy said, glaring at the girl with her arms crossed. The girl looked up and scoffed at Wendy, before looking back at her phone. "But anything thing is that she's been coming here since the start of the week. And as never bother to buy anything."
"Well, there's something going on with her," Patrick said, staring intently at her.
"Maybe she's just normal, and you're just crazy." Mabel laughed at her own joke, but stopped when they others frowned at her. Oh, come now! All teenagers are weird. I think she's just a person waiting to be a new friend."
The girl looked around for a moment before kicking off the wall and exited from the shop. Patrick narrowed his eyes and ran after the girl. Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy following behind. When he got outside, he looked around before seeing her going around the side of shake. Patrick rushed towards her and rounded the corner. But he gasped in shock when he saw she wasn't there anymore.
"She was moving so slow," he said as the twins and Wendy caught up to him. "Did she go off into the woods?"
"Dude, no offense, but you're starting to show just like Dipper," Wendy said with a smirk.
"Hey!" Dipper yelled, offended, as Mabel laughed next to him.
Patrick sighed and rubbed his eyes to situate them. "You're probably right about her," he said with a frown, rubbing his arm. "But what are we going to do now?"
Dipper thought for a moment and pulled out the laptop. Were those dreams connected to the girl? But more importantly, was it really warning them about their fates? He frowned for a moment before looking at his cousin. "We're going to find the Rat King!"
"Yeah!" Mabel cheered.
"Uh, Dipper, didn't you forget about the dream?" Patrick asked, confused as to why his cousin wanted to go find the Rat King after seeing that dream.
"Because we're so close to solving the mysteries of Gravity Falls," Dipper exclaimed. "Thing about it. We may never get another chance like this again." Patrick thought for a moment. On the one hand, he was still shaken up by his nightmare, but at the same time, his cousin was right. They were never going to get another chance to find the answers they've been looking for again. He took a deep breath, then sighed.
"Alright. So how do we find him?" Patrick asked.
Just like in their nightmare, the trio stood before the massive tunnel of the sewer. Only this time, it had a chain warning people not to enter. "I still say that this is a terrible idea," Patrick said, standing between his cousins. "Why are we going into the same tunnel that we all died in our dreams?"
"Because according to the journal, the Rat King was mostly sighted using this tunnel," Dipper said, looking at the book. One of the pages showed a map of Gravity Falls with essential sewer entrances circle. The one with four arrows pointing to it was the one they were currently at.
"And finding him will be much easier when we lure him out with this!" Mabel exclaimed, pulling out a large chunk of cheese.
"Mabel, mice like cheese," Dipper said to her. "Rat's aren't mice."
"Let's just go," Patrick said, as the three of them walked into the tunnel. Just like in their dream, it was dark with the floor covered in water. As they shinned their lights around the tunnel walls, Patrick made it a habit of looking between the kids. To make sure that they didn't get snatched up. But as they traversed into the underground system, something entered into Patrick's mind.
He was shocked when he saw Shawn in his dream, but did they?
Patrick stopped, and the twins noticed. They looked at him as Patrick looked down at the ground for a moment before lifting up his head. "Hey...during your dreams...did you two see a boy?" He asked hesitantly.
Dipper and Mabel glanced at one another before turning their heads back to the teenager. "What boy," asked the former. Patrick was about to talk again when he heard the sound of rumbling coming from behind them. "Uh, what's that?"
Suddenly, a giant wave of sewer water came roaring in. Patrick and the twins screamed as they were swept off their feet and went into the water flow as it carried them down through the sewers. They were suddenly forced under the water. Patrick looked around for his cousins and saw them get pulled away from his by the water currents. He swam as hard as he could to reach them, but he was getting pulled from them.
In another part of the sewers, where multiple tubs came together to allow water to flow into a more large tunnel, Patrick fell into it. Crashing down into the water below. Then Mabel came in from another tunnel a few feet away. When Patrick sat up and tried to brush off some of the dirty water on himself, he heard Dipper's voice coming from above. Looking up, he saw more water, and Dipper fell down from a tub. Slashing down next to him as Mabel popped her head out of the water.
When Dipper's head resurfaced, the water in the sewers suddenly started to decrease. Draining out of the underground system.
Patrick coughed out some water before looking to his cousins. Dipper took off his backpack to ensure that the laptop wasn't damaged, but it surprisingly survived. Mabel was wringing the water out of her hair. "Are you all okay?"
"Yeah," Dipper said, standing up.
Mabel finished getting the water out of her hair when she turned to Patrick. But when she noticed something behind him, her eyes widened. "Question!"
"What's your question, Mabel," Patrick said with a smile.
"There's something behind you," she said, point to the thing.
At first, Patrick was confused, as she didn't ask a question like he thought she would. But when he turned around, his confusion turned to anxiety and fear. Rolling down the tunnel behind him was a massive mass of rats that had tied their tails together. Each with glowing, red eyes. This was the Rat King.
"Ah, visitors!" The Rat King said with delight. Roling down from the tunnel and approaching Patrick. Leaning over its mass of rats, as the one that made up his head looked down at him. When he spoke, all the rats spoke. "Have you secrets to trade with us?"
"Secrets?" Dipper and Mabel asked.
"Trade?" Patrick asked, raising an eyebrow. "Are you the Rat King?"
"That we are," the Rat King said, moving his body around to Patrick's left. "We are the keeper of all secrets rats overhear from humans, and we wanna hear more." He moved back around to be in front of the teenager. "Have you secrets to trade?"
"Actually, we were wondering if you could tell us a secret," Dipper said with determination. He walked up to the Rat King and opened the laptop. Showing the creature the password screen. "We need the know the password to this laptop. Do you know it?"
"Hmm." The many eyes of the Rat King squinted at the screen as he hummed. "I might. But I'll need a secret to trade if you want to know."
Patrick sighed in frustration. This day would not end. He turned to his cousins with a frown and said, "I suppose we'll have to play by his rules. Got any secrets?"
"I secretly think I'm excellent!" Mabel exclaimed with her fists on her hips and her eyes closed. Looking proud of herself.
The Rat King rolled his eyes. "That's not a secret. And FYI, honey, you're really not as great as you think."
Mabel looked down sadly. Dipper sucked in a breath of air through his teeth while rubbing his arm nervously. "I...I may or may not think that a girl is hot, but she just acts..."
"Pacifica Northwest, right? And that she's acting like a stereotype," the Rat king said bluntly. Dipper blushed bright red as Mabel squealed with joy that her brother had a crush, and Patrick chuckled. "That's not a juicy one, but I'll trade you this secret. She's a prisoner of her own heritage."
"What?" Dipper looked at him with confusion.
The Rat King turned to Patrick and leaned over him. Showing a lot of interest in what he had for him. "What about you? Surely there's something that you're hiding from your family. Perhaps someone."
Patrick's eyes widened with shock and distress. How did he know about Shawn? He didn't even mention him at any time during his stay in Gravity Falls. He looked back at his cousins, who were staring at him. He averted his eyes from them with a frown, before turning to the Rat King. Giving him a 'come here' gesture with his hand, Patrick had the Rat King lean into him. Patrick took a deep breath and started wishing to the Rat King with a hand covering the side of his mouth.
"Uh-huh, uh-huh." The Rat King listened to the teenager, and when he finished, he reeled back with delighted surprise. Thrilled to hear what he heard. "Oh! Ooh, yes! Fascinating! We would never have guessed. What a delicious secret! Oh!" He started laughing.
"So, what's the password?" Patrick asked. Glaring at the Rat King while trying not to be miserable in front of his cousins.
"I don't know."
"Wait, WHAT!?" Patrick yelled furiously. His anger starked the kids as his voice echoed throughout the sewers. "We had a deal!"
"Look, kid, I'm not physic! I'm a collection of rats, for Christ's sake!" The Rat King replied, before leaning towards Patrick. "All I know is that the Author of the journals you've been trying to find wanted no one to find them and that only one other person in Gravity Falls knows who that person is." He back away and stood to his full height. "I'm not one without honor, however, and we did have a deal. So, I'll tell you this."
He leaned towards not only Patrick but the twins as they walked to his sides. "The one responsible for you three's nightmares is the teenage girl," said the Rat King.
Patrick's eyes widened. "Wait, the one that's been coming around the Mystery Shack. Why is she doing this," He asked the creature.
"All I know is that it has to do with something that you have!" The Rat King said, before laughing and giggling. "I'm so bad! No pudding for us!"
He turned and rolled back into the tunnel that he came from. Cackling all the way. He could be heard from where the Pines kids were standing until his voice faded into nothing. Patrick, Dipper, and Mabel stared in the direction the Rat King went in for a moment. They can all this way for nothing and are going with more questions than answers. Did someone know the Author, are they still in town, and are they even still alive? But now they had another mystery on their hands.
"He was fun!" Mabel said, breaking the tension.
Knowing who was causing their nightmares, all they had to do is find out how that mysterious girl was doing it.
The crickets chirped down on the forest floor beneath him, as Patrick sat on a tree branch high above. The tree was near the road leading to the Shack; that way, he would know if anything came from that direction. From the tree, he stared through a pair of binoculars into Dipper and Mabel's room through the triangle window.
The plan was simple. By using Dipper and Mabel as bait, they'll lure out the girl. After a week of scaring them, it was reasonable to believe she'd come back for more.
After a minute of staring at the window, Patrick looked towards the roof of the Mystery Shack. Wendy was up in her secret hiding place, looking through her own pair of binoculars. He lowered his own, pulled out a walkie talkie, and called her. "How's everything looking, Wendy?"
"I've got nothing, Patty-Cakes," said Wendy, lowering her binoculars and taking another swig off her coffee. Now that they were dating, Patrick had accepted that name as her cute pet name for him. He just had to figure out one for her. "I don't know if she's coming."
"Alright, text or call when you found something," Patrick said to her. "Soos, do you read me? Over."
Inside the Mystery Shack, Soos was scrounging around in the refrigerator, looking for a snack. When he closed the door to it, he had a popsicle in his hand, with the radio in his other hand. "I'm in the refrigerator-Ah! I mean in position!" He quickly corrected himself. "Over."
"Soos, get back upstairs!" Patrick hissed angrily into the radio. "You're supposed to be guarding the door for Dipper and Mabel. Over."
"There's just one thing I don't get, Patrick. How could this girl be causing your nightmares? Over." Wendy asked over the radio.
"I don't know." Patrick reached into his sweater and pulled out Journal #3 and opened it. Turning to the page of Bill Cipher. "There's nothing in the journal about teenage girls causing nightmares."
"Well..." Wendy trailed off.
"That's supernatural. The only thing that came close to what we're dealing with is Bill," Patrick said, glaring at the page. "That's why we have to catch her. Over."
Soos was walking back to the attic door when he suddenly heard the screams of Dipper and Mabel at the same time. Dropping the popsicle and bags of chips he was carrying, Soos rushed in and saw Dipper and Mabel out of their beds. Shaking from fear and panting while trying to calm down.
He pulled out his radio. "Dudes! Somethings happening!"
Patrick was on the binocular right away and scanned the layout of the house. "I'm not seeing anything," he said. Suddenly a green flash of light came from the bottom right cover of his lenses. Quick to turn to it, he saw the flash of green light coming from his room's window. "Wait, something's going on in my room!"
Dipper, Mabel, and Soos rushed downstairs and came to his door. The twins had recovered from their nightmare. Now they were ready for some payback. Soos held a broom and Mabel having her grapple gun. Dipper's hand reached for the doorknob when the green flash shinned from under Patrick's door.
He opened the door, and the three entered into the room. But they gasped when seeing that it was empty.
Wendy was scanning the treeline slowly. Everything appeared to be normal. That is until Gravity Falls' weirdness kicked in. That same green light flashed behind a tree she was about to pass. Wendy quickly looked back at it and waited for only a second. Stepping out from behind the trunk of the tree was the same blonde-haired girl. She looked over her shoulder to see she wasn't being followed before walking off into the forest.
Lowering her binoculars, Wendy scowled as she pulled up her walkie talkie. "She's going into the forest!" She said, before taking the way she used to get down. Jumping across to the tree and using it to lower her down.
"Soos, you and the twins get in position. Over!" Patrick pocketed the journal and slid down the ladder he used to get up there.
Once on the ground, he ran over to Wendy. Together, they ran in the direction the girl went. Entering into the dark forest. The past many trees and bushes, trying to catch up with the girl. But when she didn't appear in the time it took running to catch up, the couple stopped. Patrick looked around with Wendy. Trying to figure out where she had gone off to.
But he stopped when he saw something. Just past the treeline was the road, and the girl was on that road. Walking at a slow pass towards town.
"There she is!" He exclaimed, grabbing Wendy's hand, and the two rushed towards the road.
When Patrick and Wendy reached the road, the girl was walking down the middle of it. Patrick's feet slid across the asphalt as he came to a stop. Patrick glared at the girl's back, who stopped walking but didn't turn around to face them.
"Hold it right there!" He called out to her. Narrowing his eyes. The girl didn't answer. Her only response was turning her head and glance over her shoulder at him. Her face held a look of evil enjoyment.
And then her body suddenly disappeared in a puff of air and transformed into a green mist.
Patrick and Wendy stared in astonishment as the mist floated into the forest again. On the other side of the woods. Behind them, the Mystery Cart pulled up behind the two. Soos was driving, and the twins were sitting beside him. "Dude, did she just puff into magical smoke?!" He asked as they stared in shock.
"Keep going! We'll follow her through the forest!" Patrick said before he and Wendy ran towards the guard rail and jumped over it. Chasing the girl through the forest. Soos slammed his foot on the gas and accelerated towards the town.
Patrick and Wendy followed where the mist had gone off into for a little more than five minutes. Before they came to a clearing. They looked around, and they saw that they were on the path that led straight for the Gravity Falls Cemetery.
The girl, now in her physical form, walked to the gate of the cemetery and entered.
The Mystery Chart rolled up behind them, and Soos, Dipper, and Mabel got off it. Together, they all approached the cemetery with caution. Entering the cemetery, there was no one there. Just the graves of the descended. Patrick and his friends followed the path that led deeper into the graveyard. The uneasy feeling of dread clouding over them.
That's when they heard the sounds of girls laughing. Patrick narrowed his scowling eyes and walked over to the laughing. Going to a headstone, he hid behind it as the others followed behind, kneeling on the ground while looking over the little hill.
In the middle of the cemetery was a group of girls, all sitting around a campfire. The fire was green, giving each girl a green hue. And the mystery girl was with them. Floating up just enough so that her blent legs were off the ground.
"And, as Dipper's head fell off his body and tumbled screaming down the rocks, he realized his head was bouncing directly into the mouth of another monster!" The girl said, before laughing out loud, with the other girls giggling with delight.
Wendy's eyes widened. "I know some of these girls," she said, surprised to see them.
She then pointed to a girl with long, leg-length blond hair with a white hair clip inserted in her facial hairline. She wore a salmon-pink t-shirt with a white star in the middle, a white long-sleeved shirt underneath the pink one with a white bra underneath the white shirt. She wore light blue jeans with pink and white high tops.
"That's Kelly! She's in the same class as me," said the redhead.
Patrick looked back at the girl and glared at them. His fury rises as they continue laughing behind his cousin's back. He stood up and started walking towards them. At the same time, Kelly laughed before she said, "Oh, that's too good. So, what about the guy?"
"He wasn't there," said the mystery girl with a smug grin. Patrick matched over to the girls and pulled out his shotgun. "But I'll get him next time."
"Why wait," Patrick asked.
Patrick pointed his gun at the fire pit and pulled the trigger. The energy beam blasted the wood and rocks all over the place, startling the girls. They all turned their heads towards Patrick. He aimed the shotgun at the girl that's been harassing them. Glaring at her.
"Not so funny now, huh? Who are you?!" He yelled, aimed at her head.
Suddenly, all of the girls' eyes started glowing green as their bodies floated into the air. Then they disappeared into green wisps. Patrick fired at the girl, but the shot went through the mist. All of them drifted away into the night.
Patrick's eyes widened when he saw it happen, before sighing and lowering his shotgun. Wendy, the twins, and Soos came walking up behind him.
"Oh, man. That was freaky, dude," Soos said, frightened by what he saw.
"Yeah," Patrick said. "We'll have to figure out what's going on. And I think I know where to look."
The next day came, and Veronica Pines was walking through the library. After days of working on the machine, she and Stan were getting closer. However, the agent was beginning to suspect that her superiors were growing impatient with her investigations of the paranormal. She's been receiving messages on progress reports multiple times when, in the past, she had the freedom to do as she pleased. So long as it continued investigation into Gravity Falls anomalies and keeping it hidden.
As she looked for a book on the shelf, she noticed movement out of the corner of her eyes and saw her grandson walking past the aisle she was in.
"Okay, I've got the book," Patrick said, joining the twins at one of the tables. He placed down the same leather-covered book that Wendy found.
Veronica walked over to her grandkids and asked, "Just what are you three doing here?"
The Pines kids looked a little surprised to see her there. "Hey, Graunt Veronica!" Mabel happily exclaimed.
"Hello, deary," the grandmother said, patting her niece on the head. Something that Mabel liked. "So, what are you kids doing with my book?"
Patrick and Dipper's eyes widened. "Wait, this is your book?" Dipper asked, holding the book to her. Veronica smiled and took it.
"I'm a historian. Many times we publish books on our findings. I documented all of the supernatural creatures of the world. It was mostly something I did for the hell of it, before deciding to give it the library," she said with a hint of nostalgia. It was true. But she never went public with the book. Knowing that her researching the supernatural was top secret. It would have also caused problems for her credibility as a historian. Some people tend to think you're crazy when you're interested in the weird and supernatural.
"Then maybe you can help us with a problem we're having," Patrick said with hope. Veronica saw how tired they all looked and knew that something was going on. Especially if they were asking her. She sat down with Dipper and Mabel as the teenager started explaining. "So, for the enter week, we've been getting harassed by this girl. But she's not really a girl; she's more of this ghost-spirit thing. She's been giving us these horrible nightmares, and we can't stop her."
"And she tells a bunch of other mean girls," Mabel said. "Making fun of us behind our back!"
"We tried to catch her, but she disappears into green wisps," Dipper added.
Veronica glared down at the ground. Knowing exactly what they were dealing with. And now knowing that they were targeting her grand-babies just made it personal for the agent of OPI. Placing her book onto the table, she opened it to the correct page. The page had a drawing of a demonic girl on top of a person.
"Sounds like the work of a Marra," she said, glaring at the page.
"A Marra?" Dipper asked, raising an eyebrow.
"They're nightmare spirits from Germanic and Slavic folklore. They're malicious entities that ride on people's chests while they sleep, bringing on bad dreams," Veronica said, reading from her book.
"That explains the nightmares," Mabel said, looking at the page with wide eyes.
"But wait. Why is this Marra coming after us?" Patrick asked. Not fully understanding why the spirit would be doing something like this to them.
"They visit sleeping humans at night and create nightmares out of their fear," Veronica explained to them. "And considering the things that you've seen in just this summer alone, you're like a feast for her to gain more power. But all you have to do to get her to leave you alone is to strap yourselves into the bed with a leather belt."
"We can't just do that. That's no way to live," Dipper protested. But then something was brought up in his mind that made him stop and rub the bottom of his chin with his finger. "Wait a minute, didn't the Rat King say that she was targeting us because of something we had?"
"You're right. This Marra is not going to stop unless we talk to her," Patrick said, standing up with a look of determination. "We're going to settle this once and for all!"
He got up, and the twins followed him. The three walked away as Veronica looked at them. "Uh, kids," she said, getting them to stop and look at her. "You said that they were other girls that were Marras. Where were they?"
"Oh, in the cemetery," Dipper said with a smile. The kids then turned and continued walking away. Not questioning why she wanted to know. When they were out of sight, Veronica quickly turned back to the book and read through it. She then turned the page, which had a dreamcatcher.
"Oh, we will settle this," she whispered with a voice lacing with fury.
It was night again in the town of Gravity Falls, and Kelly was walking through the cemetery. Having snuck out of her room despite her mother telling her she wasn't allowed to go out after dark. It still confused some; how a bratty, sassy, and selfish girl could have come from such a loving mother. But she didn't care. Kelly was a Marra. She fed on the bad dreams of others, making believe she was invincible.
"Hello there." Kelly stopped in her tracks and turned her head.
BASH!
With a single swing with a baseball bat, Veronica knocked Kelly to the ground. She then grabbed a belt and tied her arms behind her back. Then her legs together, before placing duct tape on her mouth. Finally, she covered her head with a sack.
The agent then started dragging the Marra by her legs. "I wouldn't sleep too tightly if I were you," she said with a frown. She then smirked. "I still have some questions that I'm just dying to ask you."
The moon was high in the sky, and its light would have shinned into Patrick's room if he hadn't put up some blinds and a small curtain. As he laid in his bed, Patrick started up at the ceiling. Not about to go to sleep, but to wait.
The plan to capture the Marra was a simple one. Dipper and Mabel were resting in the bath; both of them were strapped to their sleeping bags with leather belts. The Marra wasn't able to get Patrick the last time, so it's possible she'll come after at him first. The two kids would hide in the bathroom, where the Marra won't see.
Now, the Marra always entered through the keyhole. But Patrick had sensors outside linked to his phone to warn him when she's coming. That's when he'll wake Dipper and Mabel up to get ready.
It's been an hour into the wait.
Patrick brought out his phone for any new updates. When he turned it on, he was a little surprised to see a text message from his mom.
He frowned and swiped the text away. It's not that he didn't love Nora. He loved his parents, but this time of year wasn't a happy time for him.
Patrick then opened his photos and looked through them. Finding a video that was saved on his phone.
When he played it, it showed Shawn, the same boy from his dears, playing in the snow. Reaching down, picking up some snow, and then throwing it into the air. Laughing happily, all the while, the person holding the camera watched. That's when Patrick, no older than 12, came running over. He was rolling a big ball of snow, and Shawn ran over to help. The two started pushing it together. "Honey!" Called a voice from behind the person.
Patrick's mother, Nora, turned with the camera at Patrick's father, Matthew, running over to them. He was a tall man with blonde hair and a baseball hat on. "I just got a call from the hospital," he said.
Nora shushed him, placing a finger on his lips. "Look at the boys, dear," she said happily. The camera then turned back to the two boys as they made a mini snowman with Shawn taking off his hat to place it on the snowman.
The video ended. At that point, Patrick had tears rolling down his face as his lips formed a shaky smile. He then grabbed his face with his hand. He started whipping his tears away before he opened his photos. Photos that he's had pasted down for every phone he's had. One showed him and Shawn making pillow and blanket forts. He scrolled to the next one, showing one Halloween when Shawn was three, wearing a sheep costume, and Patrick and dressed like a vampire. He then scrolled to another photo of when the four of them were together at the lake.
Patrick scrolled to the next photo, and his smile dropped. The bags under his eyes showed as his face suddenly seemed to age thirty years in a second. It showed him and Shawn again. Shawn was in a hospital bed, smiling at the camera with Patrick. Both were flexing their arms in a way that said they were going to beat this.
But Shawn didn't.
Unable to bear the sight anymore, Patrick sighed and turned off the phone. He laid back and started up at the ceiling again.
"What was that?" Patrick turned his head and saw Dipper and Mabel standing next to his bed. Looking a little concerned.
"Nothing," Patrick said with a frown. Turning his body around to have his back was facing the twins.
"Didn't sound like nothing," Dipper said as Mabel sat on the bed.
Looking at her cousin with a mixture of sadness and concern, Mabel hesitated for a moment. When Patrick mention Shawn's name down in the tunnels, they knew what was going on with him. The truth was, they did know.
"Is...Is it about your brother Shawn?" She asked. Patrick's head whipped around and looked at her with eyes filled with shock and confusion. He looked at her then at Dipper, who held the same expression as his sister.
"How did you..." Patrick paused, sitting up in his bed. "When did you know?"
"Our parents explained it to us," Dipper said, getting on the bed. The two twins then hugged their cousin as he teared up. He then brought both of them into a tight hug. The three of them stayed like that for a moment. Mourning together for the loss of Patrick's brother, who died at the age of four.
Their moment was cut short when Patrick's phone started beeping. Letting the kids go and whipping his eyes, he pulled out the device and saw his sensor alarm beating. Running over to the window, he peeked through the blinds and saw the Marra coming towards the house.
Patrick's tired eyes glared at her.
The Marra that's been haunting the dreams of the Pines kids walked up to the Mystery Shack. Standing in front of the building for a moment. She then turned herself in the green mist and entered the house through the keyhole.
Her body turned black when she reappeared on the other side, and her eyes were glowing green. Going down onto the floor, she crawled on the floor. Then she went up onto the wall and started making her way down to the lower floor. When she saw the door to his room was closed, she turned into the mist again.
Reappearing in his room, she floated in the air. Her body's slightly limp. She then straightened out, only to title her head to the side. Making sickening cracking noises. The Marra then dropped down onto the floor and started crawling towards Patrick's bed like a crab.
But when she had landed, Dipper, who was the nearest one to the door of the bathroom, opened his eyes and saw the Marra crawling past the doorway.
She peeked over the footboard of the bed at Patrick as he laid in bed, before floating up.
Dipper and Mabel got up and started sneaking up behind the Marra as she floated over Patrick's body. All they had to do was hold her down long enough for them to talk.
The twins readied their belts and were about to strike when the Marra suddenly turned and smacked them out of their hands.
"Dream on. Like I'm gonna let myself get trapped by some little kids?"
Patrick suddenly placed his belt around the Marra's neck. "How about me?"
The teenager quickly and violently tightened the belt around the Marra's neck. The nightmare spirit gagged when the belt choked her. Patrick then jumped down from the bed and slammed the Marra down on the floor, hard. She tried to grab it to get it off but was stopped when Dipper came over with Patrick's shotgun and aimed it at her head. Mabel also came and aimed her grappling hook at her.
The Marra growled anger as she floated in the air. "You! How did you know I was coming."
"Because we're smart," Mabel said triumphantly.
"And because we know you've been giving all of us nightmares for the past week," Dipper said, glaring at her.
Patrick was also glaring at her while picking up his crowbar. Ready to give the Marra the beatdown. "Alright, lady, talk! What's your deal? Why are you coming after us?" He demanded to know.
"Uh, duh! You guys have the best nightmares. There's so much to work with, especially with all that you've seen and experienced!" The Marra started laughing maniacally, radiating her green powers.
Patrick growled and yanked on the belt. Getting the Marra to stop laughing as she gagged. The fact that she was using them as her playthings just made him even more furious. "Well, guess what, bitch! This is going to stop! I want you to leave us alone," he snarled.
"Yeah, right. The girls love your nightmares. I'm not giving that up," she said in this rude way. Like she was some stereotypical queen bee at a high school. "And I'm paid handsomely for tormenting your dweebs."
"Paid?" Dipper asked, lowering the shotgun with a confused expression.
"Like ghost dollars?" Mabel asked.
"Ugh," the Marra said with her eyes rowing before leaning down to their level. "You see, someone, somewhere, out who-cares where, has big plans for the future that he's excited about. The only problem is you losers. You found something that could put a wrench in that plan. Now, if it were up to me, I'd take it and break it. But my employer would rather take a different approach. All he wants from me is to make sure you stop looking for answers."
Patrick's eyes widened. "The laptop...You started haunting us because of the laptop!"
"Ding! Ding! Ding! That's correct! And as long as you're still looking for answers, I'll keep coming back. Especially with how juicy your nightmares have," the Marra said before laughing again.
Patrick growled in again. What were they going to do? There was nothing that was going to have the Marra wiling stop. But there had to get her to halt her torment of them. If anything, the torturing of his twin cousins in their dreams. That's when an idea popped into his head.
"Alright then, keep haunting us," he said, surprising the twins. "It's not like the nightmares that you create are even scary at all. If anything, they passable by kindergarten standards!"
"Excuse me?!" The Marra growled, floating up to Patrick's face.
"You heard me. So, I've got a deal for you," Patrick said, crossing his arms and putting on a smirk. "For the whole night, you're allowed to take your best shot and scare me in any way you want. If I'm not scared, you leave us alone and never show your face around the Mystery Shack ever again. If you win...you can continue haunting me instead."
"Patrick, are you sure," Dipper asked.
"Ooooh, a noble one, aren't you. Fine, you've got yourself a deal," the Marra said, holding out her hand. Patrick looked at it before looking back up at her. He grabbed her hand, and the two shook on it. The Marra then turned to the kids. "Oh, and I know all about how you two can enter people's minds, so if you even try and interfere before I'm done, the deal's off, and I'm taking the laptop."
Dipper gulped and smiled nervously. "Got it. Heh."
Patrick let go of the belt and walked over to his bed. Pasting the Marra. "Sleep tight," she said mockingly.
"I will," Patrick said with a smirk, before getting under the covers and closing his eyes.
All Kelly could remember when she entered into the cemetery was being hit in the back of the head. When she regained consciousness, she was hit with a head-splitting, and her vision obscured. She tried to move but found she was unable to move her hands. That was because a leather belt bound her arms together, and her legs the same way. And that belt was tied to a cinderblock.
Just as the other Marras were, except for Kelly, all of them had didn't have a black sack over their heads as she did. But all did have their mouths taped shut. And standing in the middle of the circle was the one person in Gravity Falls that the Marras feared them.
Veronica walked over to Kelly and ripped her sack off her head. "Ah! Glad we got the gang all back together," she said, pacing around the campfire with a fake smile. The Marras tried to break free from their leather belt bounds but failed. "Don't bother trying to get out of those girls. They're leather belts. Besides, we need to have a serious talk."
She walked up to Kelly and ripped the duct tape off her mouth. Kelly grunted with pain and glared up at the elderly. "The fuck do you want, you crazy old hag," she spat at the agent. "We didn't do anything wrong."
Veronica placed the back over her mouth. But she wasn't done. Grabbing Kelly by the hair, she pulled her head back to have her face up at her. Then the older woman started mercilessly punching and beating the Marra's face repeatedly. The other girls could only stare in shock and horror as the woman hit their coven's leader. Even when Kelly started screaming and crying, Veronica didn't stop. Eventually breaking her nose, made the other girls look away. Wincing at the violence that they were seeing, as the agent didn't stop punching her.
Finally down, Veronica grabbed Kelly's face and pulled the Marra off her butt. Kelly's face was covered with blood from her nose and tears from her eyes as she stared into Veronica's eyes with total fear.
"When you talk to me, you'll show respect," Veronica hissed with venom in her tone. She then ripped off the tape and threw her down on her back. Kelly coughed with a mixture of sobs. She then looked at the other girls, all of them looking away in fear.
To get their attention again, she pulled out her pistol and cocked the hammer. Each Marra's eyes widened, whipping their heads back to look at her and the gun.
"Now that I have your attention, we can begin. One of you has been targeting three kids for an entire week now. Harassing them in their sleep. These are my grandchildren, and I'm here to put an end to it." Veronica said, pacing around the fire. Walking over to Kelly, she grabbed her and pulled the blonde up to a sitting position. "You're going to tell me who it is.
"We-We don't sell out each other!" Kelly cried, trying to act brave. That failed when she tried crawling away from Veronica when the agent walked towards her.
"Because snitches get stitches, right?" Veronica grabbed her by her legs and pulled Kelly back as she screamed begs. "Believe, girl, the stitches that you give nothing compared to what I can do." She dragged her next to the fire-pit. In front of the other girls, Veronica put away her pistol and then pulled out something else. Something that made all of the Marras' eyes widened with fear and terror. Danging from her hand by a simple string, was a dreamcatcher.
"Y-You can't do this," Kelly said, stumbled in her voice. She attempted again to crawl away when Veronica placed her foot on her stomach. "You're with the government, right? You have too many rules!"
"No rules today, honey. Just personal problems," Veronica said with a cold voice. She started lowing the dreamcatcher to Kelly. "Now, tell me everything I want to know. Or prepare to meet the other Marras...in Hell."
When Patrick woke up again, he groaned as he opened his eyes. He sat up and looked around the room. Rubbing his eyes as he noticed Dipper and Mabel sleeping together on the couch.
But the Marra was gone.
Frowning, he looked around for any sign of the girl. But she wasn't anywhere to be seen in the room. Grabbing his phone, Patrick looked at the time on the locked screen.
Suddenly the numbers of the clock started changing at a rapid pace. Patrick stared at it with wide eyes before placing his phone on his dresser, where the phone started melting down into a gooey sludge that dripped down onto the ground.
"Nice," Patrick said, before getting up. Slipping on some pats and his sweater, he pulled out his crowbar and walked to his door.
However, as he was about to reach the door, he heard a hissing sound. Look down; he saw that his crowbar had turned into a snake. It hissed at him, but Patrick frown and focused. Remembering how they were able to beat Bill out of Stan's mind, he turned it back into a crowbar.
"Nice try, bitch," he said, before exiting his room. But when he opened the door, he was surprised to see he was at the doorway of the living. And Stan was standing in the middle of the living room. His back turned to his great-grandnephew, with a light shining down on him. "Stan? What are you doing up so early?"
Patrick approached the man, before Stan suddenly turned around, with his eyes glaring at him as they glowed the same green glow of the Marra. "Patrick, you let the spiders in!"
"The what?" Patrick asked before he heard something behind him, as well as the front door opening. He turned around and was startled to see hundreds, if not millions, of spiders pouring in from the doorway. Turning the walls and floor black with their collective bodies.
The Marra grinned evilly, waiting for the teenager to scream in fear.
"Whelp," Patrick said, before pulling out his shotgun. Using his mind, he transformed it into a flamethrower. "I better take care of this!"
He aimed at the spiders, and a massive stream of flames burnt them all away. The Marra looked in total shock, before pulling Stan face off and glared at Patrick. "What the fuck!? You can't do that!" She yelled in anger, stomping her foot.
"Oh, yes, I can!" Patrick said with a smirk as he turned back to the Marra. "You might have control over what goes on, Freddy Krueger, but this is still my mind!" The Marra growled and vanished in a poof of mist.
Suddenly there was a loud thud coming from outside of the Shack. He ran outside onto the porch, and a giant foot stepped down in front of him. Patrick looked up and, to his shock, saw none other than the Gideon robot statue. The robot laughed the same Gideon evil laugh before reaching down and grabbing Patrick in its hand.
"Nothing to save you this time, Patrick! I'll kill you and then all your family for throwing me in jail!" Gideon proclaimed with an evil smile.
Patrick managed to pull himself out of the robot's grasp and stand on it. "Maybe we need to have a little reminder of what happened, fatass," he said. The Marra in the robot Gideon watched in terror as Patrick grew himself larger, to be the same size as when he fought the machine. Patrick placed his hand on his chin and started thinking. "So, let's think for a moment. How did this go?"
The Gideonbot tried to punch him, but Patrick's left hand caught. "Oh right, like this," he said with a cocky look. He then hit the Gideonbot with an uppercut. Sending the robot high up in the air.
The Marra screamed as she was set high up in the air, before the robot crashed down and got destroyed. Laying in front of one left eye and the head was turned towards the left, the Marra groaned and rubbed her head from the throbbing pain she felt.
Then Patrick came walking past the head with a confident grin. She saw him from inside the head and growled in anger again. "What scares you, you lunatic," the Marra asked. Everything she's used at this point has down nothing to scare him. "But you must have a..."
Her eyes widened for a moment before she smirked evilly.
"Secret," she said before disappearing into gree mist again.
Patrick continued walking through the forest, taking in all the sights and sounds of the wildlife. There was even nice little melody music that filled his ears. Beating the Marra at her own game was going to be a piece of cake. So far, all the Marra has down was either showed him things that he could defeat with ease thanks to his knowledge of how the mind works. "You're going to have to step up your game, Marra," he said with a smirk. "You've said it yourself. I've already dealt with the weirdest shit this town has to offer, so you...might as well..."
Stopping for a moment as the music started slowing down to an eerily speed, Patrick's nose was hit with the smell of something lingering around him. It smelt metallic, similar to iron. But there was also a foulness to it.
"What the?" He asked, before turning his head to follow the scent.
And what he saw immediately hit him with the feeling of his stomach dropping deep down as his eyes widened in horror. He wanted to look away, wanted to shut his eyes, and tell himself that it wasn't real. But he couldn't. His legs started collapsing under the weight of his emotion, causing him to drop down on his knees, in front of two small hands.
The forest was gone. Destroyed and replaced with a red-colored wasteland. And lying among the ground, before Patrick's eyes, were the bodies of all his friends and family.
Soos was on his back, smeared in his own blood from giant claw gashes that littered his body.
Veronica was lying facing upwards on the ground with a knife embedded in her skull.
Stan was lying on the ground, face down in a pool of his own blood. Ripped apart by zombies.
His loving girlfriend Wendy was lying on her side with her ax stabbed into her back, and her neck twisted the wrong way. Covered in her own blood.
Dipper and Mabel were lying in front of Patrick. Staring up at him with soulless eyes.
Patrick couldn't even breathe. His stomach was twisted in so many knots that it made him what to throw up. Seeing his best friend, his grandma, Grunkle, the love of his life, and the twins like this. He grabbed his head and tightly held it.
"What? You really thought you could have saved them?" Patrick looked up, and his eyes widened with horror. Walking towards him, pasting his family and friends' corpses while wearing a glare, was Shawn. "Just like how you thought I could have been saved?"
"Shawn?" Patrick asked as he felt tears welling up in his eyes and stood up. "What are you talking about?"
"You thought I could have been saved! But now I'm dead!" Shawn yelled at his brother. That's when the corpses all floated up off the ground. Straightening up as they hovered above the ground before their heads jerked up, and they all glared at him.
"We're all dead because of you!"
"This isn't real. This isn't real!" Patrick repeatedly said to himself. Grabbing his head.
"Are you saying that we didn't exist!? Are you saying that I shouldn't have existed?! That my dying meant nothing to you, brother?!" Shawn yelled at him as tears flowed down his faces.
Patrick back away, before Shawn reappeared behind him. This time as a giant version of himself. He glared down at Patrick with hate and slammed his fists on the ground. Destroying everything that was around them, leaving them in the middle of a giant tornado of green mist. "You think you're strong, but you're a scaredy-cat! You can't protect anyone!"
Floating in the air, Patrick reached out to Shawn. "Shawn..."
"You'll destroy everything! Everything will burn! You'll be all alone!" Shawn's voiced started to become distorted as he turned into a demonic version of himself. "You'll bring death to all that follow you!" The corpses of everyone in Gravity Falls started spinning around him, screaming out in pain and anger at Patrick.
He couldn't take it anymore. Patrick grabbed his head and screamed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Patrick's screaming wasn't just in the dream world, but in the real world too. With tears leaking from his eyes, he thrashed around in his bed. Dipper and Mabel watched in concerned horror as their cousin moved around with fear and agony.
"We've got to help him!" Mabel exclaimed to her brother.
"But if we do, we'll lose the laptop!" Dipper argued. "Everything we've been working towards would be gone!"
"But she's scaring Patrick really bad!"
Patrick screamed again before the door to his room was suddenly kicked open. The kids turned and were surprised to see Graunt Veronica and Grunkle Stan walking into the room. "What the hell is going on here?" Stan asked, rubbing his eyes.
Veronica matched over to the bed as watched with concerned eyes at her grandson as he groaned and moved towards his bed. "Wait, don't walk him up!" Dipper exclaimed, rushing over. "The Marra will just keep coming after us!"
"Don't worry, I've got a plan," she said, before pulling out the dreamcatcher. Veronica turned to the three other members of her family. "I want all of you to grab a belt and get ready to hold down this bitch! I'm pulling her out!"
Patrick screamed again as she started to lower the dreamcatcher to Patrick's head.
As she watched her nightmare play out, the Marra laughed with glee. This was what she wanted to see. The Marra wanted to see her victims crumble with fear and be driven mad. "And now to kick this into high gear," she said with murderous glee. Ready to scare Patrick to the point of a mental breakdown. The other Marras didn't like it, saying it was too much and cruel. Well, who cares? She was getting that thrill again of showing someone their worst nightmares.
But before she could get started, the Marra felt something beginning to pull her back. The Marra looked behind herself and gasped when she saw a colorful vortex. A portal that'll suck her out of Patrick's mind.
"What?" She exclaimed before all of her powers were sucked into it. Shawn, the dead, and the tornado disappeared. Patrick fell on a flat surface, as his mindscape was completely white. Then the Marra started getting sucked in. "NO!"
She tried flying away from the portal, but it was too strong. The blonde girl looked up and gasped with terror. Standing up, Patrick glared at her with tearful hatred and walked towards her with his fists clenched at his sides. If looks could kill, he'd be killing the Marra ten times every millisecond.
"Stay back! I'm warning you, stay back!" She screamed.
But Patrick did not listen. Now it was the Marra's turned to be afraid, as Patrick cocked his arm back. He then sent his fist flying at the Marra. Punching her in the face and sending her out of his mind. With the flash of light, the portal was gone, and Patrick was back in his room. But was still in the dream world.
In the real world, the Marra screamed as she was suddenly pulled out of Patrick's head. Veronica put the dreamcatcher away quickly. The girl spun in the air for a moment, before she was suddenly tackled by the twins and Stan, who tied her up. "Get off of me!" She screamed furious after they had both her arms, legs, and hands together. When they backed up, Veronica walked over to her. "We had a deal you little-"
Veronica suddenly kicked her in the face. Knocking her to the ground and knocking her out. "You're coming with me," she said threateningly.
"Wait, what about Patrick?!" Mabel asked as Veronica picked up the girl and placed her on her shoulder. Veronica looked back at Patrick and saw him lying on his bed. His breath was steadier now as he calmed down from his nightmare.
"I'd say we just pray that he has a sweet dream," Veronica said before walking out of the room. Stan followed her out. "Come one, Stan. I'll need your help putting her in the trunk of my car."
Dipper and Mabel turned back to Patrick. How long was it going to be before he woke up again? Was he having a good dream now? They didn't want to go into his head as they did with Stan, knowing that his nightmare had to do with Shawn. That they knew from before he started screaming. The Marra used his brother, the cousin they never got to meet against him.
Mabel decided to do something. She walked over to Patrick's bed and tucked him under the covers. Then the young girl got under the sheets with him and snuggled up close to her cousin.
Dipper was a little confused about why she wanted to do that but knew that her heart was in the right place. So, he walked over and joined his twin sister. Climbing over to the other sides before getting under the covers. Together, the twins held their cousins as they attempted to fall asleep.
In his dream, Patrick was sitting on his bed when he felt the hugs of the twins. He smiled and sighed a breath of relief. He knew they were safe, but it was so good to feel their presence after what he had seen.
But when he opened his eyes, he was shocked. All of a sudden, he wasn't in his room at the Mystery Shack. He was back home. Patrick looked around before noticing his parents were sitting at the table. Nora was crying into her hands as Matthew tried to comfort. The two of them there heard the sounds of the door unlocking. Nora quickly whipped her tears away as it opened. Walking inside was Patrick from when he was 12 years old.
"Hey, how'd it go!?" He asked, closing the door and running over with a look of excitement. "Is Shawn feeling better?" But then he noticed that his mom was crying and his father looked unusually sad. "What's wrong. Where's Shawn"
Matthew was silent for a moment before he spoke up, worried about how his eldest son would take the new. "Son, we need to talk with you."
As he watched it play out, Patrick was starting to not like how this was going at all. Backing away slightly to the door to the backyard. He realized it wasn't a dream but a memory. "This is how it all happened," Patrick said to himself.
Past Patrick walked over to the table and sat down. Nora took a deep breath and explained to her son what was going on with her youngest. "Patrick, Shawn is staying at the hospital. They've...they've learned that there's something wrong with your brother. He's very sick, and..." she paused.
Past Patrick took a moment to interrupt, still not understanding what she was trying to let him. "He's sick, right? Well, that just means he'll be coming back home a little bit later then, right? So... when is he coming home?"
Patrick only sighed at how naive he was for thinking that. "He's not."
The mother and father looked at no another, already dreading what they had to tell him. Matthew took a moment to take a deep breath before finally responding with a question. "Patrick, do you...know what Leukemia is?" Past Patrick's eyes widened for a moment before his mouth opened slightly. As he watched his past self, Patrick could remember how he felt when he heard that question. It was the same as what he felt when he saw his family and friends dead. "Like, do you really know?"
Past Patrick looked down at the table. Before looking up, trying to smile. "It's a disease. Cancer, yeah? But that means it can be cured, right?"
"It's not that simple," Patrick said, remember what his dad would say to him next.
The two parents stood up from their seats as Matthew said, "It's not simple, bud."
"Yeah, it is! Shawn's going to get better," past Patrick said desperately, getting up from his chair as his parents walked over to him.
"Patrick, we're all just as upset as you are," Nora said, kneeling with her husband. She fought back against the tears as she tried again to explain it to Patrick in further detail. "But the doctors said that Shawn's chances of living are slim. We just wanted you to be prepared for the worst."
"But the worse isn't going to happen! Shawn's not going to die! He's not going..." His parents hugged him as they started tearing up with him. They started sobbing lightly, while past Patrick tried to deny it all. "He can't just... He can't... Can he?"
There was nothing that Patrick could do at this moment. All he could do was let the memories come to him while he recalled how he felt at that moment. "I remember how scared I was..."
"Patrick, I'm so sorry," his father said between light sobs.
"...how mad I was." He grabbed his shirt, where his heart was. "How much it hurt. How alone I felt..."
Nora pulled away from her son and tried to whip her tears away to continue to console her son. "Shawn will be with God and Jesus when he passes. Death is...Death is a natural part of life. But it's always best to remember the ones we've loved and remembered that they loved us. We just want you to understand-"
Past Patrick suddenly broke from his parents' hold and ran out the front door. His parents chased after him. Calling his name to come back while crying also. As for Patrick, it made him feel all the more worse than before. "That's definitely what happened. But remembering it sure doesn't feel any better."
He pulled out his phone and opened the message. Pressing on his mom's messages, it showed him an image that she sent.
The image showed Nora with her pregnant belly in the mirror with Matthew side-hugging her. Both of them had a hand on her stomach as they smiled into the camera.
The message under it read: Everything's okay at home. Can we talk?"
Patrick signed with misery. "And now, after all these years..." He paused for a moment and closed his eyes. His parents were going to try again. After four years, they were going to have another baby. When he was first told of the news, he was so scared. But now it was time to do something that he needed to do. Something that had to be down for him to move on entirely.
When Patrick opened his eyes again, he gasped, and his eyes widened when he saw where he was. It was the hospital, and he was standing in one of the rooms with his parents. They were both crying out loud in anguish and despair. His dad was holding his mom tightly in his arm. Patrick looked to the bed and his eyes filled with sorrow. Slowly, he walked over to his 12-year-old self. He remembered it all. That horrible day. He was sitting in a chair next to the bed. Crying a river of tears with his hat shadowing over his eyes. His hand on the bed.
Patrick stared at his younger self, before looking at the little hand he was holding.
The hand on the small boy lying dead in the bed.
"Shawn..." Patrick said, tearing up. He closed his eyes again when he opened them; he was all alone in the room. Only his brother's dead body remained where it was on the bed. "Deep down, I always thought that they were trying to...replace you. But, the reality was that...I'm scared of losing another sibling. That's why I'm so protective of Dipper and Mabel. They're like my brother and sister. I'm scared of being a brother again..."
He felt a hand on his.
Patrick looked up and saw Shawn alive. Standing in front of him with a big smile. As if telling him that he shouldn't worry. That everything was going to be ok. The future seemed bleak, but he would still make the most of his life. Staring at his brother for another moment, Patrick sighed and smiled. He was still anxious, but at least he could know that Shawn would always be there to support him. Even in the afterlife.
There was no going back to the way things were, but he'll continue to adapt to the changes in his life. The hardships that he's been through will prepare him for a bright future.
"Happy birthday, Shawn."
Outside in the real world, Patrick slept with his cousins sleeping next to him. With a happy smile.
After bringing the Marra to the police department and telling Blubs and Durland to scram, the agent started the interrogation. Veronica didn't stop when she began. Not when the Marra cried out in pain with each punch. Not when she started sobbing, begging for her to stop. But eventually, she stopped and back away. In front of her, the Marra was strapped down to a wooden chair. Her arms bound to the armrests with leather belts. There were set up inside of one of the interrogation rooms.
Coughing the blood in her mouth, the Marra's beaten, and bloodied face looked up at the OPI agent as she walked to a table. She tried to glare at her through the sobs. "What do you want from me! I didn't do anything-"
Pulling out her gun, Veronica whirled around and pistol-whipped the Marra across the face. Hard. The crackling it made echoed all throughout the room.
"You will not speak unless spoken to." Veronica then grabbed a chair and dragged it over to her. Setting it in front of the Marra before sitting down. "Now...For the last week, you've targeted three kids. A male about 16 years old. And two twins, male and female, 12 years old."
The Marra started to become smug again. "Oh, duh! Because it's funny. The things that they see on a regular basis make for so much to work with-AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The Marra suddenly screamed as Veronica stabbed her butterfly knife into her leg. Twisting the blade and causing even more pain. "FUCK! GAH!"
"You want this to stop? Then you focus right here," Veronica said, slapping the Marra across the face. She then grabbed her jaw and forced her to look at her. "You little coven of bitches already sold you out. Said that it was a paid job. Now tell me what your job was, along with who hired you. Or I'll pop your goddamn knee off."
"I-I-I can't tell you!" The Marra cried, gritting her teeth. "He'll kill me if I told anyone!"
"Oh, I think you have more things to worry about than that," Veronica said, twisting the knife again. The teenage spirit groaned in agony. "Now, why were you're haunting my grandbabies?"
"I-It was the laptop. Someone said that those kids had a laptop that would have ruined my employer's plans," she said, finally cracking.
Veronica snarled. "What's this laptop you're talking about? " She questioned the girl. Pulling the knife out, which made the Marra cry in pain again.
"The laptop they found in the bunker in the woods!" Veronica's eyes widened. Bunker? What bunker? She doesn't remember a bunker. But then her eyes widened. Could she be talking about the fallout shelter? Seeing this, it gave the Marra a small sense of superiority that she took. "Something about it holding many secrets. Secrets that he doesn't want anyone knowing."
"Why?" Veronica asked.
"Said that it'd ruin the party if they knew the truth too soon. So, he wanted me to scare them into giving up. His plan remains on track, and I give them a good scared. It's a win-win," the Marra said with a smug look on her face.
"Who's the person that hired you?"
"Didn't get his name, but I will tell this," she said with a shrug. "Last time I checked, people aren't shaped like triangles."
Veronica stared at the Marra for a moment before nodding a pressing her lips together. "If that's all you have to say, then I guess we're done here," she said, reaching into her coat.
Seeing this, the Marra looked a little concerned. "Oh, come on, old lady. What're you gonna do, kill me?"
Veronica placed the dreamcatcher flat against the Marra's forehead. The blonde-haired girl didn't have time to scream in terror or from the excruciating pain as her body and soul were sucked into the dreamcatcher.
"Yes."
The agent then turned and started walking away. Still troubled with what the Marra said. A laptop from the underground bunker? Were the kids still looking for answers? But most importantly, why was someone trying to stop them from finding the answers they wanted? Was it that cult that she's been trying to find, or was it something else. And triangle? Was the person not even human.
She opened the door and turned off the lights to the interrogation room. Then she closed the door behind her. However, as the moon shined high in the sky, someone else was in the room. Watching and listening to the interrogation fold out in front of him.
"Hmm...Looks like I'll have to take matters into my own hands," Bill said before his shadow left the room through the window.
AN: So, a little bit ago, one of my frequent reader's parents passed away, and that they wanted me to do a story with the parent's name as the OC. But I instead decided to have the name of someone important to Patrick in his life. And man was this one quite a chapter to do. It was not an easy one to do, I'll tell you that. From the school work that I had going on, to making the Nightmare Spirit fit into Gravity Falls, to the heartbreaking moments.
So, we now know that Patrick had a little brother named Shawn who died of Leukemia. It's definitely something that's really affected Patrick even throughout the story he's never mentioned it. It gives more depth to Patrick's character and explains why he's so protective of his family and friends. He doesn't want to lose someone special to him like he lost Shawn.
But let's talk about Veronica. This was a chapter I've definitely looking to do with her because it brings out a side of Veronica that we haven't seen before in the story. The scary side of her. The agent side of her that is willing to get dirty to protect her family.
Thank you very much for reading. "Weirder Things" will return. Please be sure to Favorite and Follow if you like the story, and also Review it so that I know that I'm doing good and what to improve. If you any questions or discussions you'd have for me, then please in a Review or a PM me.
Thank you for reading, may God bless you, and have a wonderful day.