Full chapter: The Unseen and Ever-Present Danger (Is Upon Us)
"You should go home, Norman." Dipper huffed as they climbed up the hill to the trail exit. "All this 'beast' talk is making me wonder if we should keep you out of this."
Norman's expression quickly turned to anger, "Oh. I see."
Mabel shook her head, uncomfortable, and Wendy grimaced bracing herself with a mental 'Aw, man... here we go'.
"So I'm some child now that needs to be relocated to the kids' table? Really, Dipper?" Norman was indignant, not bothering to hide the irritation in his tone. His arms were stretched out fully from his sides, palms up. "I don't get it-- the last I checked, we're the same age! More importantly, I thought we were on the same team here-- why are you trying to push me out of this!?"
Dipper's face turned red, then he proceeded to shout loud enough that it echoed a second or two in the woods around them, "Goddamn it, Norman, we could DIE doing this, you know?!"
There was a quietness, but for only a few moments.
Norman's face softened for a second, realizing he was out of line, before his face turned stoic, "I know that, Dipper. I do. This isn't the first time I've come face-to-face with death, you know? I'm not afraid to die, Dipper. Really, I'm not... At least if I died trying to save people from whatever this thing-- person-- is, at least I can say I did something worth the risk."
Mabel exhaled, roughly pushing past the two boys with an uncharacteristically dark expression, "Get moving, we don't have time to fight. Fight in the truck."
Dipper watched his sister with a look of shame before following her wordlessly. She was right, they had no time to waste. As they all piled into the truck, all but Norman in the cab, Norman pulled on the hem of Dipper's shirt as the Pines boy tried to step up into the truck.
"I'm staying at the Shack, Wirt and Greg are safer without me around anyway." Norman muttered loud enough only for Dipper to hear.
Dipper nodded slowly, "Your choice, Norm."
With that, Norman put his foot on the back wheel and climbed in the truck bed, sitting quietly in the corner behind the driver's seat. The truck had gone a few miles when Dipper opened the back window of the truck, looking at Norman as the boy watched the passing sidewalks with an empty gaze.
"Do you still wanna know about Weirdmageddon?" Dipper asked, roughly, as if he regretted opening his mouth.
"Yeah..." Norman nodded, voice distant. "please."
After the story, Norman got an irritated look on his face, slamming his fist on the side of the truck beside him. It resonated with a loud, metallic thud.
"Whoa, Norm, what's wrong?" Dipper asked, confused by the teen's sudden outburst after his complete silence during the story.
"Hyle... I just realized it... She never told us how to kill that THING, just said it was dangerous-- so we basically just wasted the trip." Norman huffed, running his fingers through his unruly spikes.
"Not for nothing," Dipper offered, "at least we know what we're looking for."
"Do we, Dipper? I mean... how do we know how to kill something if we don't even know for sure what it is?" Norman asked, exhaling sharply. "I gotta check my cell, tell Wirt where I'm going..."
Dipper nodded, "In the mean time, I'll call Coraline and Wybie to give them a head's up."
While the boys were occupied with their calls, Mabel leaned her cheek against Wendy's shoulder to whisper so she wouldn't be heard, "That outburst earlier, that was unexpected, right?"
Wendy nodded stiffly, eyes focused on the road, "Yeah, did what Norman said about 'coming face to face with death before' bother you too?"
"I don't want to presume but he made it sound almost like he, you know, was bad off at some point, or something... if you get what I mean."
"I don't think that's what he meant, Mabel. It sounded more... out of his control than that. I don't know, everybody's got a story, maybe his is like ours... odd." Wendy offered, looking down the dirt road for the turn off to Main Street.
"You're probably right," Mabel nodded, sighing, "I'm probably just projecting."
As Wendy pulled up to the Mystery Shack, everyone but Wendy got out of the truck. They stood in a line waiting to send her off.
"I'm headed to the sheriff station to see if I can nab those files, I'll be back in the morning. Sleep well, guys. You'll need every second of that rest." Wendy told them, leaning toward the passenger side window to be heard more clearly. Dipper watched Wendy and felt unsure, felt nervous with the lurking danger and her not being nearby.
As if reading Dipper's expression, Wendy smiled, "Don't worry, Dipper. I still live with my dad... and he sleeps with a double-sided axe. I'll be fine."
Wendy drove off, leaving the three behind to walk inside and lock all the doors for the night. When they finished, they met Soos and Melody at the table as the couple ate, finally between whispered exchanges the three agreed that they deserved to know.
"Soos," Mabel started, then felt a lump rise in her throat, "Melody, we're going after the thing, person, whatever, killing these people in Gravity Falls and we all agreed you deserve to know."
"Thanks for telling us-" Soos started, his wife interrupting him with a touch of her hand on his.
"We're staying here, this is our home, so as long as you don't bring that stuff home with you, we will continue to support you three." Melody was firm, but empathetic, "I know it's a lot to ask of three teenagers, but please, don't bring other people into this dangerous situation you're putting yourselves into. Try to keep this separate from us, okay?"
Norman did not know the couple, so tried to not feel overwhelmingly offended at the selfish request but just nodded with the twins before following them up to their room. All the old decorations from their time before still there, names etched on the bed posts. Noticing the names made Norman smile a little.
"So this is our room," Mabel explained. "We'd split up but, since the extra room will be taken by our Gruncles when they get here, it's best to go ahead and settle in. Besides, it's safer in numbers."
"This is real life, Mabel," Dipper sighed, getting an extra pillow and blanket from the closet. "Not a horror movie."
"Dipper, our life is the equivalent of a Twilight Zone and X-Files love-child, who are you kidding?" Mabel countered, making Norman snort with laughter as he tried to muffle the sound with his palm.
"Touché." Dipper smiled a little, handing Norman the blanket and pillow, "If you don't mind, we'll be sharing the bed again-- although this one is a bit smaller. Beats the alternative of sleeping alone downstairs on the couch though, with everything that's going on."
To that, Norman agreed, "It's fine, so did you guys want to sleep now?"
Mabel yawned, stretching, "Early to bed, early to rise, I'll go ahead to sleep. You two stay up if you want, I'll put my headphones in."
Norman climbed onto the bed with the pillow and throw blanket, scooting against the wall before lying down and wriggling to find a comfortable position. Mabel got in her bed, put her phone on airplane mode and proceeded to put the headphones in her ears before turning to face the wall.
Dipper turned out the light as he stood by the switch, climbing into the bed before he lied on his back to stare at the ceiling.
"Hey, Dipper?" Norman whispered.
"Yeah?"
"I overheard Wendy and Mabel earlier... when I was talking about death did you think I meant-?"
"No," Dipper crossed his arms, not looking to find Norman beside him. The topic always made him uncomfortable, in fact, he always wanted to avoid it unless the conversation was absolutely necessary. "I didn't think you meant anything by it."
"It did mean something," Norman responded cryptically, "but not that..."
After a short silence, Norman scooted close on his side, his shoulder touching Dipper's as he faced Dipper who turned his head slightly, looking up at Norman, waiting for him to elaborate.
"Can I tell you something in confidence? Something you promise you won't tell anyone?" Norman asked.
"Sure, what is it?" Dipper asked hesitantly, usually it was after a promise was made that you wish you'd said no. However, this was not the case this time.
"I wanna tell you my story. You had Weirdmageddon, Coraline and Wy had Beldam, let me tell you my story." Norman whispered, Dipper gaining interest, a smile even grew onto the Pines boy's face. "But the best preface to give you, because it will come up later in the story so I don't need to interrupt myself later, is that I see ghosts. All of them. Not just sometimes. I see them everywhere I go, even in public bathrooms." Norman shivered at one particular disconcerting memory but moved along, " Anyway... So, it was close to the celebration of--"
And so Norman began to tell his story to Dipper who hung on every word, and unintentionally to Mabel-- who had yet to turn her music-- overhearing everything.
As the story wound down, Dipper had a complex expression as he processed the story.
"So when you said you're used to bruises... it's because you were bullied." Dipper muttered.
"Yeah," Norman whispered, voice only half-there.
"And when you said you weren't afraid to die..." Dipper asked, waiting for clarification.
"It's because lately I feel lost-- useless, I guess-- and it feels like I don't really hold any worth to anyone, or even myself, lately. It's hard. Sure, I help a couple souls find peace every now and then but other than that where will I end up? A starving-artist type, who's fate resembles that of a half-assed Tim Burton knock-off?"
"So you're scared?" Dipper asked, adjusting his arms tighter across his chest.
"Yeah, Dip." Norman uttered, halfway derisive, "I'm scared. I'm freaking terrified. That's why I am foaming at the mouth to pitch myself into a near-death situation so I may hopefully feel a grain of purpose again. That's the truth."
"I'm sorry," Dipper sighed. "If I had known your reasons, I wouldn't have been so hard on you. I feel... empty, you know... without having the rush of having death hang like a cloud over my head. It's making me force myself to live day to day without a purpose. I feel the same way you do, Norm."
Dipper began again, his voice suddenly shaking quietly. "Except, I'm so angry. I direct it at anyone and everything because I miss it. As much as I hated fearing for my life, I have never been so close to my sister or felt so alive. I can see it in her eyes sometimes, you know... I can see her mind working, thinking she's losing me. Things got really hard for me after Bill disappeared; my grades, social life, hobbies, even my relationship with my folks all tanked. I was drowning, but my sister flourished. Where I suddenly feared for what was around every corner, my sister welcomed it with open arms and was unafraid because she felt the Pines twins were invincible... but I'm the weak link."
Norman reached out to touch Dipper's shoulder, "Have you tried talking to your sister?"
"She probably knows, she knows me better than I know myself. She just doesn't know how to deal with me anymore. Maybe we fell too far apart, I guess." Dipper turned from his side to his back, watching the ceiling again.
Norman turned away from Dipper to face the wall after minutes of dead silence. Dipper turned onto his stomach, his eyes lingering on his sister before eventually falling asleep.
Mabel, awake only through part of Norman's retelling of his story (she fell asleep roughly around the time Norman had gotten around to the part about meeting Neil the first time), remained sound asleep.
Norman watched the wall as the chips in paint seemed to become a blurring story being told to him, a story that made less sense the more he watched it. He blinked a few times in the darkness, remembering the figure he'd seen at the side of the road. It was obviously a different spirit than the one he'd seen on the outside of the Bluebird's property.
This one, unlike the previous ghost, did not seem to be torn apart. Due to ghosts retaining the form they had upon death, the female spirit he saw was most likely a manifestation that happened to be a previous victim of whatever beast they were currently chasing, brutally torn to shreds; while the man was fully intact, as far as Norman could tell.
The man was bald and seemed old but because of the lack of facial hair on his head and face Norman could only guess his age based on the wrinkles that lined his face. He was at least sixty years old, that much Norman was sure of, but he couldn't say much more than that since he'd only seen that one in passing and didn't exactly get a very good look.
At this point in his ruminating, it became very apparent to Norman that whatever they were dealing with was way above the witch's-zombie-curse paygrade, although he still didn't understand the sense of foreboding that he just couldn't shake. He almost considered waking Dipper up, then decided it's be better off if they all just got their much-needed rest. After all, they had a big day ahead of them tomorrow and they needed to be at the top of their game.
Done devoting his thought to the sinking feeling in his gut, Norman wondered how possible it could be to cast a seal of protection the Shack from spirits; the last thing Norman needed was interference from a spirit with an attitude problem. He had just dealt with one earlier on in the year and it lead to a big fiasco at his new school.
It's hard enough being a new kid the last couple months into the year without having a screaming match with (what looked to normal people) as an old, bronze statue head of the school's founder (but was actually an old janitor for the school who had attached himself to the statue as his own kind of revenge against the founder, but I digress, that is a different story entirely).
Norman assumed they didn't know this story, and assumed correctly; Dipper did not hear this story as he was not privy to the school's gossip, and Mabel never made the connection because she tended to care less about school gossip and more about keeping updated with upcoming flicks and television shows. Norman, on the other hand, possessed inate instincts that come with being a wallflower, these instincts made it easy for him to gather information that others might overlook.
For instance, Dipper ate his lunch in the auditorium usually with a turkey sandwich in one hand and a pen in the other, typically doing what seemed to be maths homework. Mabel ate outside with her group of 8-12 friends.
The first week Norman arrived at the new school, he found solace in the theatre class that ignored him on stage, the first day he holed up within the auditorium, he was joined by Dipper who sat in the center seat in the middle row, crossing his right ankle over his left thigh as he used his leg as a prop to hold his notebook and homework. This particular seat was a staple to Dipper's daily school routine, he never waivered.
Norman's seat was in the back row, the row closed off on both sides as though it were boxing him in, the rest of the room a square he could only see the middle row and stage from. He recognized Dipper from class, and considered approaching him but decided against it.
The first week of school came and left as he went there every day, every day telling himself he could talk to Dipper, he could befriend him, but by the second week he moved from the auditorium to eating outside in the courtyard, sitting on a set of steps to the inside lobby, covered by an overhang. He was able to read his book easier outside in the natural lighting, but was on edge as movement constantly wound around him as the different lunch periods let out and returned to classes.
He stayed at this spot 3 school days before axeing the idea all together, and instead stayed in the classroom of his next period. The teacher only asked him once what Norman was doing there.
"I'm not hungry." Norman muttered, absorbed in his book.
The teacher never asked again, but occasionally left a granola bar at Norman's desk before he arrived for lunch. Norman always smiled in thanks when he left them, eating as he read. The teacher was not much of a talker, even during class instruction relying a lot of visual aid and slides to keep things moving, the class spoke individually when spoken to. Norman likened the teacher's demeanor to a Tommy Lee Jones-eque sympathetic figure, a person who cared but did not feel the need to bend over backward to show it, just preferred to keep his intentions clear only to those who paid attention. Perhaps he would be there if you needed a listening ear, but a request for advice would lead to silence. He admired the teacher who, in a way, reminded him of his grandmother in her unyielding honesty to a fault and her quiet affection.
From his seat in various classes, on a few occassions he heard the whispers of kids about a girl, Mabel Pines in particular. Norman had not made the connection until that moment, Mabel was the girl he had heard about. As he stared at the wall, he remembered their quiet praises:
"Did you see Mabel Pines today? Looks like she made a new sweater, do you think she'd make me one?"
"I heard Mabel Pines got a hundred percent on the pop quiz in Ms. Eileen's class, she and like one other person were the only ones who passed."
"Is Mabel here today?"
"No, just her brother."
"I wanted to partner with her for the art project, she always does so well on those."
"I have her number, just text her and ask if she doesn't mind."
"She said she's already got a partner."
"It's not her brother is it?"
"Nah, she said they don't have any classes together anymore. If they were, though, no one would ever get to be her partner."
Norman's stomach churned as he remembered, his thoughts turning to Dipper who always seemed alone. It dawned upon him slowly that he was alienating himself from his classmates too, just like Dipper was, but Norman hoped that by the end of the summer, he could find himself with two more friends. Norman's eyes eventually fell closed and he fell asleep with hopes that he would wake the next morning.
Norman blinked, darkness still meeting his eyes as he opened them, he could hear odd sounds and as he turned over he could see Dipper with his mouth hanging open with his eyes shot wide. Norman shot up in bed, nearly knocking into Dipper who was whimpering and watching something in front of him with horror. Norman squinted his eyes desperately in the darkness but saw nothing. His heart lept into his throat as he watched the muscles twitch violently in Dipper's hands.
Norman, grabbed Dipper roughly by the shoulders in despiration and shook him gently as he could in his frantic state, "Dipper! Dipper! DIPPER!"