Wendy stood at the edge of the cliff, completely stupefied, still unable to comprehend what had just happened. She had attempted to bait Dipper into a relationship just to piss Robbie off, they were about to share a kiss, and then… OH GOD! "Dipper, are you alright?" Wendy yelled down to the kid she knocked off of a cliff silently praying that she didn't accidently kill her boss's great nephew. The "I'm fine but I don't think I can climb back up" from the depths of the abyss made her sigh in relief. He could be in a thousand pieces but at least he was still alive. Still, how was he going to get out of there? There was no way back up, the cliff face was a sheer drop, and walking around could take hours or maybe even days (Wendy had never been this far in the woods, not even her dad would go this far on the camping trips she took with him when she was younger). She hated the thought of going back to the camp so soon after being so completely shamed by her so-called friends but she didn't know where else to turn. "Hold on Dipper I'm going to head back to the camp and see if there isn't any rope or something." It wasn't very reassuring but she hoped it would be enough to keep Dipper calm. Despite her own emotional turmoil she couldn't imagine what it must feel like to be stuck down there right next to that ominous grave site, something about it sent chills running through her being. Not even waiting for a reply Wendy dashed off towards the camp where there would hopefully be a nicely coiled rope tightly woven around Robbie's neck.
Alas this wasn't the scene as Wendy came upon it. Moby guy, Lee, and Thompson were hanging out chatting while Tambry and Nate seemed to have disappeared somewhere and Mabel was probably still in her tent. Only Robbie sat beside the dying camp fire looking more down trodden and forlorn than usual. The very site of him set Wendy's mind ablaze with a torrent of spiteful introspection. Part of her was glad that he was suffering, part of her wanted him to suffer more (maybe by pushing him into the fire), still more and to her disgust a small part of her wanted to forgive him. Some small part of her that hadn't forgotten the time that the two had spent together, a tiny little globule, some aspect of her that had yet to die. The moment she stepped into camp every head turned in her direction. Normally this level of attention would have been enough to unnerve her but her burning rage kept her calm and focused on the task at hand: save Dipper, kill Robbie, go home, and then stare at a wall and rethink everything (again). However, before Wendy could get a word out, Robbie broke the uncomfortable silence that had been slowly building since Wendy's return. "Listen, babe I know what I did was totally uncool, but I want you to know that I've given it a lot of thought and I'm willing to give you another try." Welp, that kills all the forgiveness I have to give anyone ever Wendy thought still in some disbelief that she ever went out with a guy like this. In an emotionless almost mechanical way Wendy moved past Robbie and announced to the group Dipper's current plight, tactfully leaving out how it happened; a twinge of guilt traced her heart at the thought of it all. At this Mabel jumped out of her tent one headphone stuck in her ear and another tangled in her hair, apparently she had been wide awake the whole time. She began espousing some nonsense about a twin mind link and how she knew something had happened to Dipper as she could just "feel it." Wendy put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and guaranteed Mabel that, despite being stuck in a creepy grave site, Dipper was alright. After scrounging around the camp for a rope long enough to reach the trapped kid the group began their trek through the woods towards the cliff where he had fallen from.
Dipper couldn't help but think he was losing his mind as what started as a whisper begging him to "play" slowly grew into an all-consuming cacophony of voices that surrounded him allowing no reprieve.
"I want to play.
Let's play.
Play with me forever and ever.
COME ON! Just tell me you want to play!
It will be fun… I promise."
Knowing better than to respond, Dipper blocked the voices out and reached into his vest pocket to retrieve his book with a number three painted over a six fingered hand. Still marveling at what luck brought this book, a bestiary of gravity falls, into his possession that first day of summer. Since then it was never far from his person and was about to prove its usefulness once again as Dipper quickly flipped to the Malevolent Spirits section of the book hoping to find out what he was dealing with. Let's see here, Gravity falls headless hill house….no that's not it. The Dusk Till Dawn ghosts… horrifying but already dealt with. Aha, creepy graveyard ghost in the middle of the Gravity Falls woods. On the page there were several photos of the grave site as it stood before him with a hastily scrawled caption that read as such:
Sarah Crulley a.k.a. the smiling death. Sarah was a resident of Gravity Falls until 1857 when she became the only known criminal in U.S. history to suffer being hung, drawn, and quartered, a punishment normally reserved for men accused of high treason in 1300's England. The events surrounding her execution are rather obscure, however, it ought to be noted that it was somehow tied to the disappearance of many village residents and some sort of sick ritualized game Crulley had an apparent affinity for. The spirit has been known to stalk its unmarked grave to this very day. Warning: do not approach the grave site, do not make contact with her, avoid playing any "games", and, failing all of the above, run like hell and don't get caught.
Dipper swallowed hard as he read the last sentence. So far he had already broken two of the book's commandments and was well onto breaking commandment number three if he didn't find a way out of there and fast. All he really had to do was wait for Wendy to return and not answer any of the voices. He began to silently pray to himself that she would return soon with help.
Dipper's prayers were soon answered as Wendy arrived at the cliff with the rest of the gang in toe. Mable was the first to get to the edge. She knew her brother was just fine albeit stuck for the moment but something about this whole situation felt wrong to her, something she couldn't quite put into words. Like an animal caught in a trap waiting for the thing that trapped it to return, she could just feel that something horrible was going to happen and they were speeding towards that moment. She yelled down to her brother "Dipper! Wendy told us what happened. We found some rope so you can climb back up." "Alright just get me out of here!" Dipper shouted back to her. Something in his voice worried her. He sounded scared, almost panicked by something and… did she hear voices? Was someone down there with Dipper right now? She couldn't tell, Gravity Falls had always been a strange place of boundless wonder to her, but she wasn't blind to the dangers it posed either and hearing her brother scared and alone at the bottom of the cliff made her want to expediate his rescue all the more. The rope was lowered and everyone held on ready to pull Dipper up, save for Robbie who hung back. Dipper was relieved to see the object of his great egress laid out before him; however, it would seem that lady luck was decidedly against Dipper tonight. He was halfway there, halfway to the edge of the cliff and then he could put this whole incident behind him but as he climbed higher the earth under his feet gave way. For the second time that night Dipper fell from some obscene height only to land on head once again, he spared himself a few moments to consider the very real possibility of brain damage before remembering his surroundings once again.
Up above the group felt the rope go slack as Dipper fell. An apathetic "Great" was all Robbie had time to get out before the ground began to give way as the remains of the rather unstable cliff came crashing down along with the rest of the teens. Miraculously everyone survived the fall and no one seemed hurt from the fall. The group breathed a collective sigh at their good fortune until moby guy, Dave as his mother would sobbingly cry out his name to the investigating detectives, let out a pained moan. Somehow he had made it through his landing just fine until debris from the rapidly disintegrating cliff face crushed his leg into a bloody pulp. Dave was able to get out one more howl of excruciating agony before the whispers of Sarah Crulley were upon the group and like a wall of water during a tsunami they washed away all sound.
"Hehehehaha…. More, more. I want to see more blood."
"Let's play. I haven't played with anyone in ssssooooo long."
"I promise I'll give you a head start."
"Just play with me."
Frustrated with how the night had gone so far and unable to take it anymore Robbie made what was arguably the dumbest mistake of his life as he shouted back into the void "Fine then, you fucking bitch you want to play well then let's play."