Thanks for all the views, guys. I am very purposefully avoiding questions about a certain one-eyed demon, but I don't really think I'm fooling anybody.

I'm on this kick where I'm trying to review literally every story I read, because why not? If it's good, they should know about it- if it's not, I can offer some help. So, in that spirit, I'm asking again for reviews, because I honestly want to know if this story is dragging or if you're losing interest, and what I can do to change that.

[]

I am in shock. I can't move.

I've just made the biggest mistake of my life.

Wendy glances up. "What's that, Dip? Didn't hear you."

Oh, thank God.

I look around, trying to think of something. "I, um... I said the sky's really beautiful today."

She frowns up at the blank, gray clouds above us. "Uh, really?"

Stupid. But I still nod. "Yeah. Definitely didn't say that about anything else. Definitely not a person." Stop talking. Just stop. This is ridiculous.

She gives me a weird look, then shrugs. "Whatever, man." Turning to Lee, she adds, "You ready?"

He's already standing by the old fence, staring intensely at the cemetery within. "Totally." He grins. "If you're sure Junior here won't go blabbing to the old man."

I scowl. "Don't worry. Stan's out of town- he has no idea we're skipping work."

Wendy strolls over to him, then rests her arms on the thin wooden stakes that make up the fence. "It's cool, Lee. Dipper won't tell." She looks back at me. "Ready to go?"

In answer, I duck between the boards, slipping through to the other side. Lee vaults over with a running jump, and Wendy sits on the top plank, casually swinging her legs around and dropping to the ground.

I brush some dust off my knee. "Wow. That fence is totally useless."

Lee bends down to examine a headstone, shaking his head. "Pretty much. Maybe it's just for animals or something."

"Yeah, right." Wendy laughs. "Anything small could just slip through, and anything bigger could probably knock the whole thing over."

I'm only half-listening to the conversation, entranced by a statue of an angel. It's resting on a raised platform, and the stone has been worn away slightly, but I can still see the majestic, solemn face and the curved feather carvings on the wings.

"Hey, Dip!" Wendy's waving, calling me over. "You gotta see this!"

She's pointing between two gravestones, but I can't see anything. She drops her hand, frowning. "That's weird. It was there a second ago..."

"What?" I ask.

She readjusts her hat. "That's weird. I thought I saw a footprint or something."

I swallow, nervously looking back to the bare patch of dirt. "R-really?"

Crossing her arms, she sighs. "Oh, well. Probably nothing." She looks up suddenly. "Hey, where's Lee?"

Startled, I turn. A quiet breeze stirs the air in the graveyard, but nothing else is moving.

I'm not scared. Definitely not scared.

"Lee?" Wendy calls. Cautiously, I wander past the headstones, glancing around. "Lee, where are you?" Why does it seem colder all of a sudden?

Wendy laughs uneasily. "Come on, man. Quit messin' around."

Slowly peeking around a dead tree, I notice the pale layer of fog that's drifting along the ground. "Um, I don't think he's here." Shaking my head, I turn back to Wendy.

Lee is lying at my feet, eyes and mouth wide open. He's not moving.

"AAAH!" Screaming, I jump backwards, stumbling against a gravestone and landing on my back. I can't take my eyes off of him as I scramble away, trying to get to my feet.

Is someone... laughing?

I stop, staring in confusion as Lee rolls over, gasping for breath. "What- what the-"

He jumps up, smiling. "Dude, that was perfect." He bursts out laughing again.

Shakily, I grab a branch and pull myself up. Wendy has her face in her hands, and she's shaking her head. "Lee, you are such a dork."

Lee gazes around the cemetery in awe. "I mean it. Perfect. The fog, and the wind, it just-" He chuckles. "It's actually kinda cheesy, you know?"

I cough, and he turns back to me. "Aw, dude, I'm sorry. But you gotta admit- that was really funny."

"Y-yeah." I half-smile, looking down at my feet. There's no way Wendy doesn't notice my face going red.

"Grow up, man." Irritated, she crosses her arms. "Besides, it's not like he was really scared. He probably just played it up so you wouldn't feel like such a loser. Right, Dip?"

Well... "Right," I nod quickly. I'm still blushing, but it doesn't seem to matter so much anymore.

Lee scoffs. "I'm sure. Did you see him? He jumped a foot in the air."

"No way." Wendy lightly cuffs my shoulder. "Believe me, man. I know all about this kid, and he wasn't scared."

Ignoring Lee's mumbled "Whatever," she looks down to me. "Sorry about that." Then, quiet enough that he can't hear, "You okay?"

I open my mouth, but the words won't come. Her expression- somehow full of concern and annoyance and encouragement and humor and joy- is suddenly all I can think about.

I want to thank her for sticking up for me. I want to tell her there's something about me she doesn't know. Mostly, I just want to tell her she's beautiful again. But I can't.

So I just smile, giving her a thumbs-up.

[]

"Gideon's hiding something."

The radio is practically falling apart. Barely-audible flashes of music are broken up by buzzing static. Eventually, Robbie leans down and switches the whole thing off.

I'm in the passenger seat, staring at the sweatshirt lumped on the dashboard. Trails of water run down the windshield before they're swiped away.

Robbie doesn't say anything. He's gripping the wheel tightly, glaring straight ahead as he speeds down the forest road. I clear my throat. "There's something in that journal he doesn't want us to see."

He barely nods. The rumble of the car drowns out the flat smacking sound of rain on the windows. I keep talking, if only to break the silence. "They're on Gopher Road, right?"

He blinks, as if being startled out of deep thought. "Yeah," he says. "We'll be there soon."

There's a flash of faint lighting in the distance. I turn back to the window, and the trees are going by so quickly they're starting to blend together. Too quickly.

A quick glance to the speedometer tells me we're going twenty over the limit. Not that it matters much now, of course. I try to offer up a joke. Lighten the mood. "Well, at least there's no cops arou-"

I'm frozen. My face is burning, and I can't do anything but keep staring forward. "Sorry," I say quietly.

He doesn't say anything, and I'm too terrified to look at him.

The road is getting muddier from the storm, and even though it's the middle of the day, the misted rain is making it tougher to see in front of the car. I let my head fall onto my arms, expecting to feel the vehicle slow down.

Instead, I'm pushed against the seat as we speed up. Looking up, I gape at Robbie, who has his foot slammed on the gas, eyes hazy and unfocused. "Slow down, man!" I yell. Without thinking, I reach for the steering wheel.

Startled, he glances at me, pulling away. There's a curve in the road. I don't see it, and he's not ready.

I swear I can feel my heart in my throat as we skid off the road, sliding through the mud. When he jerks the wheel, and we swerve, and the car drifts down an incline, I can't hear anything. When the front bumper collides with a tree stump, sending the car into a flip, my whole body feels like it's humming, somehow vibrating as I'm suspended in a half-second of weightlessness. After one side crashes down, then the other, and we're somehow upright, and it's all stopped- only then do I remember to breathe.

Before I know what I'm doing, I wrench the door open and scramble out. Falling to the soaked ground, I land with my hands outstretched, spitting bile and gasping for bigger and bigger gulps of air.

I try not to think about it. I focus on the mud under my hands, and the pine needles, and the falling rain that's drenching my clothes, and the buzzing headache behind my eyes. Not the fact that I could have died.

"What's your problem, kid?!" I look up, and he's leaning against the hood of the car, just as ragged and shaken as I am. Half-lucid, I notice that the sweatshirt is still on the dash, fully visible. Even as Robbie glares at me, chest heaving, some part of my mind tries to be analytical, wondering if it only vanishes in sunlight.

He coughs, doubling over, and rasping, says it again. "What's your problem?!"

"Me?" I try to stand, but only make it to one knee. "What's YOUR problem?! You're losing it, man!"

He tries to respond, but is cut off by another bout of coughing. I make my way back to the car, resting against the open door. "Look," I sputter, "You lost your dad."

"So?" He growls.

Everything in me still feels like it's racing. I try to slow down. "You're not okay," I manage. It sounds stupid, but it hurts too much to waste time putting it any other way. "You're definitely not okay."

The scowl's worse now, like he actually wants to kill me. His hair is plastered to his face, stringy and thin, and the skin around his eyes is dark. I suddenly wonder if he's even been taking care of himself these last couple days. Eating. Sleeping.

This whole time, I've been so worried about myself. My own problems. How I'm holding up, and I've never even considered what it's like for him. I don't know how to apologize for that.

Snarling, he tears his gaze away. "Yesterday, I was trying to ask you something," I say. "When you helped me, with the attacks- you knew exactly what to do."

He's still just breathing, gasping, like a wounded animal. "I gotta know, Robbie. Does it happen to you?"

His eyes meet mine again. "What'd you say, kid?"

"You heard me." I wipe rainwater out of my eyes. "You have these too, right? That's how you knew. And now everything's just... crazy. Your dad's gone, and-" I laugh bitterly. "And you're really starting to slip, man."

His eyes dart to the shattered headlights. He's starting to put it together.

All at once, the headache is back. Exhausted, I slide to the ground, leaning against one of the muddy wheels. Quietly, I add, "You even gave me that rant about not giving up. And the whole time, you had these attacks too."

"Not me," he says suddenly. I glance up, frowning.

He runs a hand through his hair, seeming much more small and afraid than a minute ago. "It wasn't me," he repeats. "It was Wendy."

For a second, I can't comprehend what he's talking about. Slowly, he sits down next to me. "She would have these... attacks," he says softly. "I had to learn how to help."

I'm hearing the words, and I understand them, but my mind refuses to make the connection. "No. Not her, man. She wouldn't."

Surprised, he turns and looks at me. "What, you think that makes her weak or something?" I'm shaking my head, trying to stammer out some kind of objection, but he just scowls. "Thought you knew everything about her?"

"No, I'm-" I lean forward, holding my head. "I just- I thought she-"

He cuts me off. "No one's as confident as they look, kid." With a sigh, he leans back, letting the weakening rain fall on his face. "Nobody really has it together."

I scrape some mud off the back of my hand. "What started them?" I ask quietly. "Why did she-"

"No." He closes his eyes. "That's not... sorry, but no."

The rain lightens after a while, but neither of us moves from where we are. In the distance, I can see a young deer, hesitantly poking its head around a tree, then scampering away.

"Kid." He doesn't look at me. "Do you think you can do better?"

"What do you mean?"

He coughs. "Look, you were- you were right. I'm a wreck. But honestly, so are you."

There's a quiet breeze, stirring some of the waterlogged leaves on the ground. "I'm serious. Can you do better?"

My answer surprises me. "No way." He looks over, and I shrug. "But maybe nobody has to lead. Maybe we can just... figure it out."

"Huh." He crosses his arms. "Yeah, maybe."

The sun's starting to shine, and I try to relax, just feeling the warmth on my skin. Beside me, Robbie snorts. "What are we doing?"

He starts chuckling before I can say anything, but it almost looks like he's crying. "Look at us, kid. Our families are gone, we're both mental cases, we crashed a car, and we have no idea what's gonna happen next." Now he's laughing, really laughing. "We even have this freaking... thing that turns invisible half the time."

I look up to the windshield, and sure enough, the sweatshirt's gone. Now I'm starting to laugh, too. I can't help it. "And the best part is," Robbie gasps, "The absolute best part- we're supposed to save the town! Us!"

It really is kinda funny.

So we sit there, leaning against a half-totaled car while the sun dries up the rain, laughing at everything.