Chapter 3: New discoveries

The rays of the morning sun blinded Mabel Pines. She opened her eyes and rubbed them seeing only but black during the process. Once she stretched and sat up more, she glanced over to her brother's side. Dipper's figure could be seen underneath the many blankets on top of him. Mabel smiled and was just about to wake him up, before she remembered.

Dipper was probably still upset from yesterday. When she followed him upstairs after he stormed away from her, Dipper completely ignored her. He avoided her questions and just went right to sleep. "He can't be still mad at me." Mabel tried to coax herself. She managed to put on a bright smile before addressing her twin.

"Hey Dip! Just checking to see if you're awake!" The smiling brunette called out to the sleeping form.

He didn't budge.

Mabel poked him rather forcibly hoping that he would answer her at least. The results of this made the poor girl frown. Dipper laid still, back facing her so that she couldn't tell if he was really sleeping or just faking it.

"Come on Dipper..." Mabel prodded with a guilty expression. "You can't be still mad at me. Grunkle Stan...He didn't mean-" Before the brunette could even finish, Dipper came bursting out of his sheets. Quicker than she could blink, Dipper had Mabel by the throat.

She couldn't believe it. Dipper was trying to choke her to death!

"You just don't shut up! Do you?!" He growled with a fierce look in his eyes. His once friendly brown eyes were replaced with the look of hatred. The look that could kill...

"Dipper!-" Mabel coughed out, her vision blurring. She never knew that he had it in him. The strong grip he had on her...it was completely terrifying. Everything was going so fast through Mabel's head. Her mind was racing; but there was only one thing that she could do at the moment. That was to defend herself.

Mabel thrust her elbow into Dipper's stomach enough times to make him release. Once he did, he coughed a bit and lowered his head down so that a shadow was cascading across his face. Mabel finally had the chance to catch her breath. She was breathing heavily and backing up away from her brother.

What if he attacked her again? Would he hold on tighter next time? The idea of it haunted the young girl.

"What the heck Mabel? Why did you hit me?" Dipper spoke up raising his head to face her. Mabel's voice caught in her throat. Just a second there Dipper looked as if he was ready to kill. Now his face read that of confusion. His gentile brown eyes shone into Mabel's as they waited for an answer.

Mabel couldn't find the right words to say at the moment. The whole thing was not making sense at all. The images of her brother choking her to death with that gleam in his eyes kept replaying in her mind.

"Mabel? Are you okay?" Dipper asked out loud again. The way that his sister stayed silent sent chills down his back. What was keeping her from answering? All the young boy remembered was seeing his sister's fist collide with his stomach. That's all he could recall. Everything else before that was a blur.

Dipper brought his arm to rest on Mabel's shoulder. That gesture didn't last long as the young girl instantly threw the arm off of her. "D-don't touch me!" Mabel gasped out with tears forming in her frightened eyes. With that, she backed up from him, still watching his every move.

Dipper frowned at his sisters actions. He was completely oblivious and couldn't understand what was making his twin coward away from him. It was her that punched him in the first place. "What's wrong? What did I do?" Dipper wanted an answer now. He just couldn't take one more minute of this. Seeing that Mabel was deeply afraid of him made him feel unsettled. "Just what was going on here?"

"You know what you did! Just stay a-away!" Mabel let out a sob and rubbed a tear from her cheek with a sweater sleeve. At any moment, Dipper could attack her again. Any moment.

"What? Come on Mabel, I don't know what is going on!"

That's when it hit her.

Her twin didn't get what was going on. He was clueless to the point that he couldn't remember that he nearly killed her. What could trigger this confusion? That's right. The snake bite was written all over it. Mood swings? That must be it! Dipper must have randomly developed a violent behavior because of the snake venom. Did that mean he could change from being angry to happy all at once? All of this was too much to sink in.

"The snake bite." Mabel mumbled in a trance. She couldn't be more right. The snake bite was behind all of this. Hearing those words, Dipper glared and crossed his arms. "Come on Mabel! Don't start with this again." Whenever the snake bite was brought up, he faltered. The incident with Grunkle Stan and the others took a toll on Dipper. No matter how much he tried, he could not forget about the way they teased him. All of this because of the way his voice cracked.

"I'm sorry Dipper but it's true! You're acting strange because of the bite! Look, even the journal proves it!" Mabel flipped to the page and shoved it in her brother's hands. With the book in his grasp, Dipper ripped out the page about the Woodstone Hisser and crumpled it up. Ignoring the gasp from Mabel, Dipper took the crumpled paper and shoved it in his mouth, swallowing it right after.

Mabel's eyes widened from shock. In just a couple seconds, the page was ripped out and consumed by her own brother. The only information about the side effects of the snake bite. What surprised Mabel was the fact that he just ate it without reading it. Did he not want to be proven wrong? This sudden act was very strange.

"What were you saying?" Dipper said with a smug attitude. He looked pretty proud of himself for some odd reason. The sweater girl wanted nothing of this. She grabbed her brother's shirt and pulled him close so that their noses were almost touching. "What did you do with my brother?" She growled. It felt weird saying that right in her brother's face but Mabel wasn't stupid. She knew something was wrong.

Dipper's face morphed into an evil grin until quickly fading back into his usual smile. "I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe we should check if you're alright." With that, Mabel released in shock and Dipper slipped away. The way he sounded was a bit off. It was as if some of the venom from the snake bite dripped into his voice making it sound dark and unfriendly.

Mabel collapsed to the floor feeling completely hopeless. She never imagined that one little incident could snowball into so much more. Now she just needed to keep track of all the side effects and keep a close eye on Dipper.

Before she could do anything else, Mabel needed to warn the others.

fast.

A/N I know, I know. I'm sorry this took forever to write!

Sorry!

But putting that aside...I hope you guys enjoyed the new chapter!

Please tell me what you think!