Hello again! Here's the 3rd chapter of "Remember Me." As I said, I kinda wanna just get the ball rollin, give you guys a good feel for the story. Nothing much goes on in the first couple chapters, so it's hard to tell whether or not you're actually going to like the story yet!
Looks like there's a lot of build up in this chapter, huh? I wonder what it could be for :3 looks like you'll just have to stay tuned to find out! I'll probably add the next chapter tomorrow, or even tonight maybe, because that's when things really start to pick up. After that I'll likely start sticking to my schedule of uploading every Thursday, but who knows! Aaaaanyways, without further or do, I hope you enjoy chapter 3!
Chapter 3: Strange Dreams
Dark. Everything was dark. I looked around, but all that met with my eyes was blackness. Something about this seemed familiar, almost as if I'd been here before, but I just couldn't place it. I was conscious, but somehow I knew that I was still asleep, even if it didn't feel like it. "Hello?" I called out into the nothingness, my own words echoing around me. There was no response. "What is this place?" I said quietly to myself, taking a step forward and listening as the sound of my footsteps seemed to bounce off of unseen walls. I jumped, another voice suddenly taking me by surprise. It was faint, very faint. It sounded as though it was far off ahead of me, so logically I decided to walk in that direction. If it wasn't for the fact that the noise grew louder as I drew near, it would have seemed as though I wasn't moving at all. As I began to hear the voice more clearly I found that it wasn't making any sense. It was just a strange, jumbled mix of syllables. And that's when the realization hit me. Memories came flooding back, and I finally remembered why this is all seemed so familiar. I'd had this dream before, that night after we'd saved the world from Weirdmaggeddon. The words were being spoken backwards. The voice was Bill's. The sentence suddenly reversed itself so that I could understand it, even though I now already knew what it was saying.
"I invoke the ancient powers that I may return!" This sentence repeated over, and over, and over again. My body froze, the voice growing louder by the second and causing my head to pound intensely. It grew so loud that I had to cover my ears in the fear that my ear drums would burst. Not even that worked though, because I could hear his words in my head, too. "Stop!" I dropped down to my knees, the noise so loud that I couldn't even hear as I cried out into the darkness. I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted to wake up. My head felt like it was about to explode, and I screamed at myself to snap out of it. I was suddenly surrounded by a bright blue flash of light, and then—
"Pine Tree." I bolted upright in my bed, clutching my chest and gasping for breath as my eyes darted frantically around the room. Soft, yellow light was spilling in through the window, and the sounds of birds chirping happily outside told me that it was morning. What time, I didn't know, but a quick glance over at the clock solved that dilemma: 10:48 am. I pulled up my knees and rest my head in my hands, letting out a deep and shaky sigh as I tried to calm my breathing. What was I so freaked out about again? A dream, that's right. No, more like a nightmare…wait, the dream! I flung off my covers, jumping out of bed and throwing on my shirt as I rushed out the door. I practically flew down the stairs, almost tripping in the process and swung into the kitchen, my eyes landing on the exact person I was hoping to see. "Ford!" The man jumped slightly, my outburst obviously having startled him considering he had his back to me. He turned around in confusion, his eyes lighting up and a smile spreading across his face when he saw me, "Oh, good morning Dipper! Stan and I just got back, I was wondering if you were—" He stopped mid-sentence, concern taking over his features as he looked at me and tilted his head a bit; I figured I probably looked pretty shaken up. "Dipper, is everything alright? Did something happen?"
"Ford, last night I—" I stopped, but not because I wanted to. It was as if the words simply caught in my throat, and I couldn't bring myself to say them, no matter how hard I tried. So I just stood there, my mouth hanging open wordlessly as I stared at him in desperation. He took a step forward now, urgency in his voice as he tried to get me to continue, "What is it Dipper, what's wrong?" I glanced to the side and shook my head slightly, rubbing the back of my neck as I stared off, "N-nothing. It's nothing, sorry for worrying you." That was a lie. It was a lie, and I had no idea why I said it. It was like my mouth just moved on its own, like something was keeping me from telling Ford about the dreams. That thought made me very anxious. I glanced back up at him, and I could tell that he wasn't buying it at all; if anything, it just made him look even more concerned. But there was nothing I could do. He opened his mouth to say something, but right at that moment Mabel and Stan walked into the room, catching both of our attentions. I saw Ford's expression change, the thought clearly having left his mind, and for some reason I felt…relief? "What the hell is going on?" I thought to myself as I greeted Grunkle Stan, trying to hide my uneasiness for a reason I didn't even know. I just felt the need to pretend that everything was fine, whether I wanted to or not. So I did just that, suffering in silence as the words from the dream played over and over again in my mind.
The day went by pretty uneventfully. The four of us hung out, watching TV, playing cards, eating and just catching up mostly. Stan and Ford recounted their time in Greece and showed us a ton of pictures; very beautiful country, even if they weren't the most economically stable. Mabel and I showed them pictures from our graduation, because they were both pretty upset that they didn't get to make it. Other than that we didn't really do much but lounge around and talk, which was nice considering the long drive we'd taken the day before. Having a day to relax was just what I needed. In fact, I'd almost completely forgotten about the dream. That is until it was time to head to bed. I stood at the bottom of the stairs, simply staring up into the darkness for a whole 10 minutes before Mabel finally snapped me out of it by saying goodnight. A weird feeling of both apprehension and anticipation washed over me as I climbed the stairs, my hands shaking and my heart beating rapidly as I reached for the door handle. I threw it open, preparing myself as if I expected someone to be there.
Of course, there wasn't. The room was exactly the way I'd left it that morning, and I felt pretty ridiculous as I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. I walked over to the bed and fell onto it, rolling onto my back and staring up at the ceiling as I put my hands to my forehead. "What's wrong with me?" I said aloud, sighing and closing my eyes as I thought back to the previous night. "I must've just had that dream because it was the first night back here…that has to be it." I tried reasoning with myself, mainly in an attempt to calm my frayed nerves, "And I'm only so freaked out because the dream was, well, freaky. There's no secret, hidden meaning, it was just a nightmare." I laughed half-heartedly; it sounded anxious even to me, but I simply shook my head and tried to tell myself that I was just being stupid. After several more minutes of self-convincing, I kicked off my pants, deciding to sleep only in my t-shirt and underwear like I normally did, and reached over to turn out the light. After I got under the covers and rest my head on the pillow, it wasn't long before I started to drift off into a peaceful slumber. Or so I'd hoped.