I haven't updated this in so long and it's such a short chapter and I'm so sorry. It seems like a crime to go so long without an update and post such a tiny chapter, but I hope you enjoy it anyways!

"Okay, if anyone's got a problem, it's your sister over there. That's equally as creepy."

"Fair point," Dipper continued, narrowing his eyes, "But there's something else going on here.

And I'm going to find out what."

"So what do you think was up with Grunkle Stan?" Dipper asked his sister as they walked into town. Mabel was busy kicking a rock a good way up the street, catching up to it, and repeating the process.

"You're still hung up on that, Dip? Just stop being so paranoid and play some Roccer! Get it? Cuz rock and soccer?" She smiled with wide eyes as she awaited her twin's response. Finally, her happiness slipped away as soon as she realized she wasn't getting a reply, "C'mon man. These are the jokes."

"It's not paranoia!" He snapped and automatically looked down at his shoes in guilt, "Sorry, it's just it's the whole 'can't shake this terrible feeling about the situation' thing again. It's really bugging me. You wouldn't understand."

The girl's shoulders slunk down for a moment, but being Mabel Pines, she instantly brightened her mood and went back to her game. Dipper however, kept his hands shoved deep in his pockets and his face to the ground until he abruptly stopped, seemingly lost in his thoughts. If only his sister knew what was racing in front of his mind's eye. In jumbled flashes of dialogue and light, snips of scenes blocked out the world around him.

A blurred flash of fiery red flew in front of him. Nothing was clear, except that there was a ground beneath him and two figures besides himself. The voices seemed off, unrecognizable even.

"W-What did you do to him?! You're a monster! I thought he was annoying, sure, but you didn't have to…"

A royal blue light swirled around his hands as he looked down, then everything seemed to melt into a different area and time. It was brighter than before and the smudge of brown and pink he somehow identified as Mabel. She seemed to be hovering only a bit off the ground toward three other smudges. Hovering, hovering. Gone.

This time, Dipper watched himself sit alone somewhere in the dark woods and cradle his head in his hands. Something unseen seemed to startle him. He stood defensively and scoped the scene like a trained sniper as an aura surrounded his hand.

"Dipper?" He heard the voice resonate through the trees as his other self became more and more frantic to match the tone of the mysterious vocalization.

"Dipper!?"

"Dipper!?"

His eyes peeled open slightly, everything still cast in an unfocused and surreal shadow. Although only faintly aware of what was happening around him, the teen deduced he was no longer walking into town. In fact, now that everything clarified a little around him, he realized he was back in his room, hair clinging to his forehead, body shaking like a leaf. His hand met what was supposed to be a birthmark, but it turned out to be a cool washcloth. Seeing a final scene flash before him, Dipper shot up, suddenly out of breath and fully alert. Taking quick, ragged breaths and clutching his temple, he noticed Mabel on her back next to the bed. Also, he was sitting in a pool of ice water.

"Okay, okay. Sorry about the water! It always works in the movies!" She rolled backwards until she sat upright again, rubbing her arm after fixing her headband, "No need to go all ninja on me and throw me halfway across the room though!"

"S-S-Sorry, M-Mabel," Dipper scooted away from what might as well have been Lake Erie in January. However, due to his weight on the bed, the frozen wasteland followed his every move in jagged, icy rivers that perpetually pooled underneath him. He sighed and hopped off the soaked sheets, along with a few stray cubes that clattered onto the floorboards.

"H-How long was I out?" A shivering Dipper asked and grabbed the spare pink blanket off his twin's bed.

"Four days."

Dipper stared her down with wide eyes, "WHAT?!"

She laughed a little, "Just kidding, we just got you home not too long ago. One hour, tops. What happened?"

"I have no idea..."