WARPED

Chapter 31

The static in Hazelle's brain went around in circles.

Lucy. Jocelyn. Portal. Gone.

A single scream ripped loose from her throat: "LUCY!" It felt like there was a vise around her chest, twisting tighter and tighter, strangling her. Everything was spinning. Lucy was gone. Lucy Glint was gone. Her friend Lucy Glint was gone, spiraling into oblivion. How could she have sacrificed herself? It hadn't needed to come to such desperate, horrible measures!

Hazelle had entered Gravity Falls with her two best friends. She would leave terribly, achingly on her own.

"Lucy," she repeated, this time in a whisper. Things were blurring in and out of focus. They were supposed to leave together, as a team, as friends. How could Hazelle leave now, with Jocelyn gone from their world, and Lucy flying into another?

Hazelle's strangled whisper had barely escaped her lips when Jocelyn's eyes snapped open. She quickly sprung up into a sitting position and began to scream. It was a long, wordless noise that pierced the quiet after the storm.

"Oh my god, Jocelyn!" Hazelle cried, flinging herself at her friend and wrapping her arms around her. It's a miracle, she thought through the haze of survivor's guilt that had begun to invade her mind.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Jocelyn screamed, wrenching free of Hazelle's grasp and scrambling backward toward the center of the clearing.

Hazelle and the Pines hung back, unsure of how to deal with a hysterical, possibly dangerous Jocelyn. Hazelle felt as if her hands were scalding, burned from Jocelyn's rejection and unexpected life. She's alive. She's actually alive, Hazelle thought, dizzy and sad. I have that, at least.

Jocelyn pulled her knees up to her chest, curling into herself.

"I...he...he was inside me..." she stammered, her voice raw. "He...he took control... " She shuddered. Her speech became more frantic. "I tried to fight him I couldn't let him win but…But he won...I'm so sorry..." Jocelyn's babbling soon dissolved into sobs, the kind that wracked her whole body, making her shake uncontrollably.

Hazelle turned and looked back at the Pines, unsure of what to do, but it seemed like they were in the same boat. Dipper stared at the ground, while Mabel stared at Jocelyn, no doubt surprised and started by this display of such raw emotion.

Stan made eye contact with Hazelle and looked as if he was trying to convey a message to her. Hazelle, at a loss, merely shrugged. The action made her shoulders hurt. Oh yeah, she thought dully. I got knocked into the ground by an energy blast...or whatever.

Stan began to make his way through the underbrush into the clearing. Hazelle watched with bated breath as he approached Jocelyn, looking like he knew what he was doing. He gently knelt down beside Jocelyn, cautiously touching her shoulder. She visibly jumped, and looked prepared to flee if need be.

But Stan, unphased, merely held up his hands and began to speak softly to Jocelyn. Hazelle was too far away to hear what he was saying, murmur something under his breath. Hazelle couldn't hear the specifics, but whatever he said seemed to cast a spell over Jocelyn, who slumped in exhaustion.

"Oh, jeez-!" Hazelle ran over in time to stop her from face planting into the dirt. "What-is she-?"

"She'll be fine," Stan grumbled, scratching the back of his neck. He seemed almost sheepish, but his eyes were sharp. "Let's just get her back to the Shack. It's, ah...it's not safe out here."

It was a weak excuse, but no one argued with him. Stan scooped Jocelyn into his arms, saving Hazelle the chore of dragging her all the way to the Shack.

"You good?" he asked her quietly. "I saw you get hit. Anything too bad?"

"Don't worry about me," Hazelle replied with a watery smile. "Nothing a little old fashioned Mystery Shack ice won't cure."

Stan mumbled a response back, sounding a little pleased. He glanced over at Dipper and Mabel, obviously concerned for the twins. They hadn't spoken at all since Lucy-

Something clenched in Hazelle's gut. Since Lucy had...left.

The group silently trudged back to the Mystery Shack as the sun began to rise along the horizon, bathing everything in the light of a new day.

XxX

Grunkle Stan's hot chocolate really wasn't very good.

Hazelle knew it was the wrong kind of attitude to have, but she couldn't help herself: his homemade hot chocolate tasted bitter like black coffee with one and a half chocolate chips mixed in. Which, knowing Stan, it probably was. She stared into her soggy marshmallows, cold all over, no matter how many sips she took.

No one in the room spoke. There wasn't anything to say. Dipper sat in the armchair, staring at the journal, which lay in his lap, unopened. Mabel, curled up in sweater town, shared the armchair with her twin. Hazelle sat on the floor with her back against the chair.

But Hazelle was most worried about Jocelyn, who sat near the window with her knees pulled up to her chest, watching the sun rise. Hazelle had seen firsthand what possessions could do to someone through Lucy. Granted, Lucy had been possessed over a period of time, but Hazelle worried after Jocelyn just the same. That was her job. Peacekeeper, she thought dumbly, watching a marshmallow sink into the hot chocolate/black coffee concoction. And yet there they were, minus one friend, plus tons of emotional scarring.

I sure did a good job at "peacekeeping," Hazelle mused. What would happen when-if-they returned to their own dimension? What would become of Lucy then?

Grunkle Stan's gruff voice shattered the silence of the den.

"You two. Come with me."

Hazelle's head whipped up from her haze, blinking at Stan like he was a complete stranger. He wore greasy work gloves, and he meant business.

Jocelyn slowly raised her head and turned to look at Stan as if he had spoken in Swahili. Nonetheless, she picked herself up, and followed Stan, who had already left the room.

Hazelle turned and glanced back at Dipper and Mabel before leaving the room. She made eye contact with Dipper, and felt a sense of finality, as if they would never see each other again.

Hazelle held his gaze and smiled, nodding in his direction. Dipper returned the gesture, and then Hazelle turned to follow Stan and Jocelyn.

Not to her surprise, she followed them through the door behind the vending machine and down to the catacombs of Stan's lab. Every flashing light and blipping bulb made her head throb. Hazelle recalled the last time she has been down here, ironically with Jocelyn. Only last time Jocelyn had had a grin on her face. They had come for answers that they no longer needed.

Without a word, Stan powered up the portal machine. The ethereal blue circle burst to life, wavering in and out of power every couple of seconds. Hazelle shot Stan a look of disbelief.

"You found our reality," Jocelyn said, monotone.

Stan nodded, noncommittal.

Hazelle blinked. "Are you sure it'll work?" she asked quietly, pushing her glasses up her nose. "You of all people know about the whole 'infinite realities' thing."

"Well... Yes and no," Stan replied, blunt as ever. "It'll definitely send you back to your reality. But I can't say where or when. You could be in the middle of gym class dodgeball or the morning of the day you came here, or ten years into the future. Just be...be prepared."

Jocelyn looked up. "What about Lucy?"

Stan scratched the back of his head dolefully, like he'd been anticipating the question with dread. "Gee, I, uh, I really-listen, kids, I don't know. I really don't know. She…" He took a deep breath. "She could be anywhere, anyone. But the universe always has a way of turning things back around. Just be prepared."

Jocelyn nodded, distant.

Hazelle stepped forward and hugged Stan, who hesitated before briefly embracing her with awkward back pats.

"Thank you," she said. "For everything."

"Hey, kid, don't worry about it," Stan tried to grouch. "Just another day in the life of the Grunkle, amiright?"

Hazelle stepped forward to the portal and glanced back at Jocelyn, whose whole body was trembling.

Stan knelt down in front of her. "Don't be so hard on yourself," he said quietly. "It's not your fault. It's no one's fault but his. He hurt you kids, but you got him back. Moses knows where he ended up, and hopefully, we'll never have to find out. So relax and remember what I said, okay?"

Jocelyn nodded, the tiniest of smiles coming to her face. It wasn't a true blue Jocelyn grin, but Hazelle supposed it was enough for now. She started toward Hazelle and the portal.

"And Jocelyn?" Stan began.

A slight smirk replaced the unsure smile on Jocelyn's face. "You said my name."

Stan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just remember, kid, everybody's got demons. It's how we deal with them that make us who we are."

Jocelyn seemed to brighten a bit, reaffirmed by Stan's rare bout of law-abiding wisdom. She turned to join Hazelle at the threshold to the portal, which was buzzing in anticipation. Hazelle could feel Jocelyn's jitters, and she herself had to control her breathing. Her heart was pumping so fast. But she shooed the what ifs from her mind and took Jocelyn's hand.

"Let's do this."

Then they both stepped into oblivion.