A/N: Sorry for the wait, guys. I had some trouble with this chapter, and it couldn't be fixed until recently. Luckily, though, I figured everything out and am ready to write! So here you go!
Chapter 2: Changed
-Rana POV-
As it backed away, all I could do was hope that I was wrong. That couldn't have been his voice I heard. There was no possible way. He was still in the Mystery Shack. He had to be.
But I heard him. He was there. The chances that the creature I had seen wasn't him were quite slim, even if they were existent.
There was always one way to find out.
By the time I was able to move again, the creature was gone. Yet I vaguely saw the direction he – it – went in. With only a glance I knew the truth.
Then there was the blue fire.
Then I was in the clearing.
And so was he.
He was standing next to the tree. I still couldn't see him, but I knew that if there were any chances of the creature being anything else, they were gone. He came to the tree.
He came to the tree that brought us all this trouble. He knew that I wouldn't want to follow him here. What he didn't know was that I would do it anyways. I stepped closer. There was suddenly a wind pushing me backwards.
Of course, he had magic. He didn't want me to get to him. But that only meant I needed to try harder.
I pressed further, the wind pushing my hood off, determined to push me back. Yet I kept on going. As I drew near him, he seemed to get stronger. The wind had quickly become too strong to push through on foot. I was so close, yet there was no way I would ever reach him. I looked to the ground. My hands were balled up into fists and I was losing ground. So I did the only thing I could. I jumped.
The wind pushed me back against a tree at the edge of the clearing. The impact was so hard that I lost consciousness. But not before I saw his eyes. I wish I hadn't. All of the hope that was in them before had disappeared. All the love that he usually showed to me vanished. There was no trace of the boy from the summer before. It was my fault.
I opened my eyes the second I regained consciousness, but soon realized how awful an idea it was. The world was spinning faster than that stupid creature.
Wait.
As memories flooded back from the rest of the night, my head began to hurt even more than it had from the original impact. The creature was Dipper. Was that even possible? Of course it was. I saw him, just now.
I didn't want to believe it.
I didn't have a choice.
When I could finally open my eyes and get a good look at my surroundings, I noticed a few things. One, I was still in the clearing. Two, Dipper was not. These were expected, but the third thing I noticed was not exactly as predictable.
There was a small journal, nearly identical to the three journals that Ford had used to record all of his findings in Gravity Falls. The only difference was that instead of a golden, six-fingered hand on the cover, there was a blue pine tree.
I had already had enough of these symbols by now. All that had happened with them was a bit traumatizing for me. Still, I stood, shakily, and slowly took a few steps toward the book. Then I sat down next to it, and picked it up. My hands didn't seem to want to open the cover, but I forced them to anyways. As I reluctantly turned to the first page, my heart stopped for a few seconds. This felt wrong, but it was what he wanted. This is what I read.
Day 1:
Rana left. Right after we defeated Bill, she fell to the ground. Then her weird friend came and took her away. I can only assume she's home now. The thing is, after she fell, she let off some sort of magic blast. Now everyone's, well, different. All I can describe it as is "monsters". That's what we are now. We're monsters. I don't know what we're going to tell mom and dad.
Mabel says Rana will come back. She thinks she'll find out what happened and come back to save us. Honestly, that's all the hope we really have right now. I'll look for a cure, but I don't know how successful I will be. I doubt she'll come back any time soon. How would she know? She won't have reason to come back. Still, as it's our only true hope, I have to believe she'll be back. She's the only one who can save us.
A tear drop fell onto the page. How long did it take him to stop trusting me? He had hope at first. I should've checked in sooner. I should've given them a way to contact me if they needed my help. I should've done something!
But I didn't.
I let it happen. I let them lose hope. I could've saved them. But I didn't.
I stared down at the page that brought so much apprehension, so much sorrow. I quickly observed that it was stained with more than just my own tears. There were old tear stains from the apparently many horrible times that Dipper read over the first page of his journal with a deep contempt for me and everything he said about me. All the trust he had in me, gone. Regret filling its place. Regret that he had ever trusted someone who was so obviously untrustworthy.
I wasn't sure if I could still save them. When a curse like that sits for a long time, it doesn't just get better. It gets worse. Not to mention I had no idea what I had actually done to cause this.
I froze as the thought struck me.
If it got worse, and I couldn't save them, then they could die that way.
I was suddenly overcome by anger. It wasn't directed at Dipper. It wasn't directed at Rayla or Mrs. Matthews. It wasn't even directed at Bill.
It was all directed at me.
As I thought about the many things I'd messed up in one year, I barely noticed the rustling in the leaves around me. But I never forgot my training, and I always knew what was happening around me.
With the knowledge that one of the people I had left behind was watching me, I didn't know what I could do.
So I screamed.
"I DIDN'T KNOW! I didn't know."
A/N: I really am very sorry that I am so very late. I hope you'll be okay with a not-so-frequent update schedule as I have a lot to work on right now. I will continue to write this story and maybe even a prequel as well. It will probably be in another category and using a few new characters of my own as well. If you want to see it then just keep a lookout for new stories from me, because this wasn't even the beginning.
Riddle: Some parts of the past really are forgettable.
