Chapter Eighteen

"Are you upset about the psychiatrist?" Mabel asked when she managed to get her brother alone in their bedroom. Dipper still had limited mobility with his hurt ankle ever since that day in the woods, and he still wasn't allowed to be anywhere by himself. Grunkle Stan was even insisting he not wear long sleeves, but when they were around others, he had been more lenient on the subject. Stan didn't want to embarrass the kid by showing his scars for others to see. He also didn't want Dipper making more scars.

"Of course I'm upset about the psychiatrist," Dipper answered honestly. "But I'll live. After all, Grunkle Stan only did what he had to do in order to get mom and dad to let me stay. Being here instead of at home beats anything I have to do." Because Dipper really needed to get that journal back, but he was still trying to find out what Mabel had done with it.

"I think the psychiatrist is a good idea," Mabel said.

"What?" Dipper asked. He felt like Mabel wasn't on his side on this, but he couldn't blame her. If he was in her place, he probably would feel the same way.

"I just mean..." Mabel trailed off. "Maybe it's a good idea. If you see someone about this, you can get the help you really need, and maybe you wouldn't feel like you should...hurt yourself...Maybe you'd start taking your sleep stuff again."

"I stopped taking it because I don't need it," Dipper said.

"And that's why you're up every night?" Mabel asked. "It's just like last time we were here, and I'm just worried that you'll start beating yourself up again."

"Mabel..." Dipper trailed off. He felt so guilty for making her worry when that was the opposite of what he wanted. He wanted Mabel to know just what was going on. Why. "Bill."

"What?" Mabel asked.

"Bill is the reason I can't sleep," Dipper said.

"You mean the magic dorito?" Mabel asked. "The triangle from the dollar bill with the funny top hat and cane?"

"Yeah," Dipper answered. "Remember when we defeated him when we were kids?"

"Yeah," Mabel said.

"We didn't really defeat him," Dipper said. "He...I don't know where he went, but he started taking over my dreams. He was...he was torturing me in my sleep. He liked to use you to hurt me in my dreams, and when I would wake up...the bruises would be there. Everything would hurt, just like it had in my dream," he explained.

"Wait..." Mabel trailed off. She gasped, pulling her hand to cover her mouth. "Are you telling me you're not really schizophrenic?"

"Yeah…I mean, I thought I was for a long time, but I'm not," Dipper said. "I think Bill was trying to get rid of me by tricking everyone into thinking I was schizophrenic. The only question is why, and how to stop him. But I need the journal to fix it."

"Oh, Dipper I'm so sorry," Mabel said. She pulled her brother close to her. "I thought you were sick for so long, and I didn't know how to handle it..."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Dipper said. He wrapped his arms around his sister. "I thought I was sick too. For a long time, I just thought Bill was something I made up when we were living here before."

"I should've been there for you," Mabel said.

"None of that matters now," Dipper responded. "All that matters now is getting back my journal and fixing everything. Do you know where it is?"

"I..." Mabel trailed off. "I gave it to Grunkle Stan."

"Why would you do that?" Dipper asked.

"I'm sorry, Dipper; I thought you were going to start hurting yourself if you had it," Mabel said.

"I don't know how to get it away from him without being caught," Dipper said.

"You can't get it from him without getting caught," Mabel said. "He'd think you were going to hurt yourself again if you got ahold of it, just like I did."

"Then how do you suggest we get it?" Dipper asked.

"I'll think of somethi-" Mabel was cut off by another loss of gravity. This time, though, everyone else was awake for it. "What the?"

"This happened last night!" Dipper exclaimed.

"What?" Mabel asked.

"You were sleeping, so you didn't notice, but this happened last night," Dipper said. "I tried to wake you up, but you just told me to go back to sleep."

"Sounds like me," Mabel muttered. The loss of gravity ended and the two fell back to the ground. "Glad that's over."

"I can't help but feel like this has something to do with Bill," Dipper said. "This whole thing started because of the weird stuff going on in Gravity Falls, right?"

"Right," Mabel answered.

"Then this weird thing might be the answer to all of this," Dipper said. "Now we just need to find out what's going on."

"If the town caused the weird gravity thing, what are we supposed to do about it?" Mabel asked. "It's not like we can ask the ground what's going on."

"You're right," Dipper said. "We need Grunkle Stan on our side first."

"But he's not on our side!" Mabel exclaimed. "He wants you to see a psychiatrist, remember? He's not going to believe you if you start talking about the town being weird again. He thinks that's how this whole schizophrenic thing started."

"Then I can't talk to him," Dipper said. "Mabel, this is up to you. Can you do this for me?"

Mabel hesitated. She wanted to help her brother, but she didn't know if she would be able to convince Stan of anything they were talking about.

"I can do this," Mabel said.

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