Sweater Town

Chapter 5 – The Wall

By Starwin


Mabel blinked, the dream already slipping away from her thoughts. She struggled to hold onto its fading remnants. She had been back in Gravity Falls again, just like all the other dreams. Except, she wasn't supposed to have been there. And - and there had been an argument about - about school? It was all becoming fuzzy now. If only that stupid dream journal idea had worked! Not being able to write anything but her brother's name was so, so - BLARGH!

Pulling her covers up over her head she hid beneath them. She didn't want to get out of bed today. She wanted to stay here forever. She wanted to dip back down into her dreams. Her hand slid across her chest, feeling for the sweater that could whisk her into her fantasy world. But it wasn't there!

Panic flared up inside her and she sprang upright, covers slipping off and head protesting the sudden motion. She was still in the clothing she had been wearing yesterday but her sweater was gone! She must have wiggled out of it during the night or something. Frantically, she looked around for it and located it fairly quickly. It was hanging over the edge of her bed. She snatched it up and held it by the sleeves, looking at the garment. She had definitely fallen asleep in it. Maybe it had just been too hot and she had tugged it off during the night?

She frowned as she looked it over. The hole in the sleeve was still there, as was the second rip in the shoulder. Now there was a new tear, this one along the the bottom hem. It was smaller than the other two but this was an actual tear! If she pulled at it (she didn't), it would be possible to easily make it bigger and bigger until she tore the whole front open!.

Her active sleeping might just be far too rough on it. She had to stop falling asleep in it. But, of course if she did that, would she stop returning to sweater town? Sweater town kind of needed a sweater to work. Maybe another sweater would do?

No. She knew it wouldn't. It was like knowing she had to be above water to breathe. She just knew it.

Mabel placed the sweater over the headboard of her bed so that she could examine at it without touching it. Not for the first time now she questioned if any of what was happening to her was real. Not just sweater town but everything. Her inability to speak, her life falling to pieces, the loss of her brother.

What was real anyhow? It was a question she had spent way more time thinking about than most people. Fantasy had always been a big part of her life, even before whatever was going on now. And long before they had ever gone to Gravity Falls. It had always been so easy to pretend whatever she wanted.

"Mabel, are you awake?" came her mother's voice from the door. Mabel frowned as she was dragged out of her thoughts. She wasn't going to respond. Her mother opened the door and came in anyhow. Mabel hated when she did that. "Good, you're up. Get dressed, there's breakfast downstairs for you, then you have another doctor's appointment today."

Mabel turned her head to give her mother an incredulous look. She had to be flipping kidding! Another one! Her mom hadn't even bothered to tell her about it! She didn't ever ask what Mabel wanted. It was so typical! Mabel looked away, a frown across her face before her head was even turned. The reaction was not lost.

"Look, we're worried about you," continued her mother, in a tone more of, 'this is not a debate young lady,' than 'we're worried about you.' Mabel looked back at her mother and stuck out her tongue. She was not going anywhere today. "Mabel Pines, you get up and get dressed right now!" said her mother, the barest hint of anger in her voice.

There it was. There was the attitude Mabel hated so much, the one where her mother treated her like a little girl instead of the sixteen-year-old that she - Mabel's thoughts cut off, no, that was a dream. She was thirteen. And darn it! She was going to be a stubborn thirteen-year-old!

She ducked under her covers, pulling them over her head. She was not going out today. She was not going to see another doctor who probably wanted to poke her or ask questions she couldn't answer. She was not getting out of bed for anything! Her bladder disagreed and she angrily snarled at it. The organ responded that maybe it could wait a little longer.

Mabel half expected that the next words out of her mother's mouth were going to be angry shouts. She would demand that Mabel do what she was told, because she was her mother! Or maybe, her mom would just walk over and drag her out of bed, force her into clothes and carry her off no matter what she wanted.

There was the soft bounce of someone sitting beside her. A warm, gentle arm embraced the girl under the sheets and pulled her into a reassuring hug that Mabel couldn't help but let herself fall into.

"I know it's scary," whispered her mother. "And I know things are difficult for you right now. But your father and I are worried about you, Mabel. We-" she stopped, rephrasing whatever she had been about to say. "We want to make sure that everything's okay. Please come downstairs and have breakfast? I made your favorite, strawberry pancakes, topped with whipped cream."

Oh well that was just unfair! Low and dirty!

Mabel poked her head out of her sheets, the smallest of smiles on her face. Her mother kissed her on the forehead.

"I'll see you downstairs?" asked her mom. Mabel nodded. Her mother smiled back.

Giving her torn sweater one last glance and wishing she could just escape back into her dreams. Mabel let out a sigh. She got dressed, picking out a green and pink strawberry sweater for today. It was scratch and sniff and smelled like strawberries! Or, well it had smelled like strawberries, long ago, now it just smelled like whatever clothing smelled like. Fabric softener?

She continued to let her thoughts wander all around as she visited the bathroom, brushed her teeth, her hair and splashed some water on her face. By the time she was making her way down stairs, her thoughts had slid into wondering if she could make Waddles smell like strawberries somehow. The smell of hot strawberry jam hit her nose.

There was, as promised, hot strawberry pancakes waiting for her. She practically ran to her seat, almost foregoing the knife and fork and just shoving them into her face. She might have, if she hadn't remembered that they were leaving right after breakfast to go see another doctor. That made the food seem a little less appealing.

Her father smiled at her from the end of the table, he was reading on his tablet, sipping from a cup of coffee. "Good to see you, kiddo," said her dad, setting down the device. She could see a news article on it, something about politics, bla. Mabel smiled back at him as best she could around a mouth full of pancake. There was also fresh squeezed orange juice for her too, which she used to wash down the food clogging her mouth. "We know all of this has been hard on you," continued her father. Mabel looked back down at her food. This was not a conversation she was feeling up to right now.

"It's been -" her father's voice broke like she had never heard it do before. It was much like how Dipper's voice often broke when he was nervous, except, this, wasn't cute. This was one of the most heart wrenching sounds she had ever heard in her life. "It's been extremely difficult for your mother and I as well." Finished her father, his eyes fell on her. "We've hardly seen you for the past few days. You've hardly left your room. We are worried about you. And we just want to make sure everything's okay.

"I know this can be scary, but we'll be there with you. We'll always be here for you." Mabel nodded at her food, still not looking at her dad. He put a strong hand on her shoulder and gave her a squeeze. He had meant it all to be comforting. But all his words had done - she looked up at the empty, unset place across the table from her - was remind her that her brother was gone.


The drive to the medical center didn't take very long. Mabel once again sat in back, neither of her parents had offered to let her sit up front but she didn't care. She was glad to be alone in back. No. Glad was the wrong word. Horrified? Angry? Those were closer, still not what she wanted. Her eyes kept drifting to the empty backseat on the driver side. The spot Dipper took whenever all four of them were in the car together.

When they arrived, her parents checked in and they waited for whatever appointment they had made for her. As much as they claimed to have her best interests at heart, they certainly hadn't seen fit to talk to her about it.

They waited in the lobby, both parents on their smartphones and Mabel sitting between them wringing her hands. This was a proper medical place this time, not like yesterday with Rebecca where it had felt like a much more casual setting. Mabel was not a big fan of hospitals. It's not that she didn't like the buildings or distrust the work that the doctors did. It was more how they felt. That silent air, the strange sterility of everything. It was like this was where fun came to die. Where people came to die.

She wished she hadn't had that last thought. She really didn't want to be here. She especially didn't want to be thinking about what had happened to - to - Dipper. Or how he - that he... Her hand beat the tears before they could really get going. She wanted to get out of here!

Out wasn't the direction she was headed though. They hadn't been waiting more than ten minutes before someone called her name. Her parents came with.

They were led through a maze of hallways until they reached a small room. The nurse that had called her name led Mabel and her parents inside. She instructed Mabel to sit on the raised bed/chair thingy. The woman looked at the clipboard she had brought with her and smiled at the young girl.

"Hello Mabel," said the woman, "I'm Nurse Oliva. It looks like we will be doing an MRI on you today, have you ever had an MRI before, sweetie?" Mabel shook her head. The term sounded familiar but she wasn't exactly sure what it was. "Don't worry, it might look big and scary but you won't feel a thing, I promise.

"We just have to do some preliminary setup and when the room's ready, I can take you over, okay?" Again Mabel nodded, the nurse seemed to take this as her still being scared or something because she said. "There's no need to worry. It'll be fine." She smiled, obviously wanting Mabel to smile at her in return. It wasn't a genuine smile, but Mabel managed to open her mouth in the faintest approximation of a grin.

"Oh, I see you have braces!" said the nurse as she started to busy herself with something. The woman wrapped one of those inflatable things around Mabel's upper arm and began to pump it up. "Is that why you're worried? Well, there's no need to fret, it'll be fine." That was the first distressing thing Mabel had actually heard, why wouldn't braces be fine? Why would she even say that?

The nurse did a few other quick tests, then gave her a hospital gown to change into. The nurse left so Mabel could change but her parents stayed and simply looked away. Mabel didn't really care. She turned her back to her parents and changed into the backless gown. She wasn't a big fan of the thing. It didn't even smell like fabric softener, just disinfectant. Yuck. Any other time she might have made a game of it or even stickerfied the thing. At the moment, she just wanted to get it over with and go home.

The nurse returned ten minutes later, knocking first to ask if she was ready. It had taken Mabel less than thirty seconds to change, so of course she was ready.

Back into the maze of hallways, up a few floors in an elevator and down more halls until they stopped at a very large room. The room also had a very big machine in it. Mabel had seen machines like it before, in crime dramas and doctor shows. She couldn't remember what it was called exactly (the nurse had said M-ER-Pie? or something, she hadn't really been listening) but Mabel knew it took pictures inside your head. She also remembered the part about removing metal objects and her tongue ran nervously across her braces. That's why the nurse had said something about her braces.

A strange smile crossed over Mabel's lips. If they looked inside her head, would they get pictures of sweater town? Of Dipper running around inside her head, wondering where she had gone? Nah, she didn't have a sweater on at the moment, just this stupid gown thingy. At least her parents had been able to bring her clothing with, so she could change back after.

A different person led Mabel into the room, the nurse said he was a technician or something, but again, Mabel wasn't really listening. She was instead focused on the big round machine she was being led to. Her parent's didn't come into the big room with her, they were back in some kind of closed off viewing booth, separated by a thick glass wall..

Once the door closed behind them the room became unnaturally silent, as if the machine was pulling all sound out of the air. Her breathing, her footsteps, even the unnatural rapid beating of her heart all became oddly quiet as she approached the thing. It looked like a big, round, round-thingie, with a hole in the center. There was also a flat bed at its front. The technician instructed her to climb onto and lay face up on it. It wasn't super comfortable.

"Try and stay as still as possible please, there will be a spot inside that I want you to look directly at, alright?" instructed the man. Mabel nodded. He pushed something on the side of the thing and with a soft whine of electric motors the bed began to roll slowly into the machine.

For the first few seconds everything was fine, then it was practically claustrophobic. It felt like the machine was pressing down on her, like it was going to crush her. She wanted to push herself out. A voice came on over an intercom. It was the technician.

"Just relax, take deep breaths, look at the little note above you," he said. Mabel looked at the note. It was not really reassuring. It simply said, 'keep still and look here.' Seriously, this place needed stickers.

The eerie silence that had been so prevalent before was abruptly shattered as the machine came to life. It sounded like giant rocks tumbling around in a dryer or something. It was a very unpleasant, very loud, noise that caused Mabel to jump slightly the first time she heard it. Then the machine when quiet again.

This process happened over and over and for the first five or so minutes Mabel was kind of okay with it. It wasn't someone pushing needles in her arm, so, that was something at least. However, laying completely still, something she never did, not even in her sleep, and listening to that awful clunking noise every ten or so seconds, was starting to grate on her.

After almost twenty minutes of it, Mabel was finding it extremely hard to not move. How long was this thing going to take and why was she even doing it? Just as she was about to push herself out, the bed started to move, sliding out of the machine.

Mabel started to sit up but the voice echoed over the intercom. "Hold on just a second." A moment later the technician was back in the room and standing beside her. Mabel frowned at him. "We're getting some weird interference. Oliva said you have braces, can you open your mouth for me?" Mabel did as instructed and he looked at her teeth, "Odd, those shouldn't be large enough to be causing an issue. Can I have you roll over onto your stomach, please?"

Mabel shrugged her 'whatever' shrug and rolled onto her side, instantly regretting the action. The stupid hospital gown that didn't have any back came open as she got to her stomach. She had at least been able to keep her underwear on but she still felt exposed. Her hands scrambled back and pulled at the fabric trying to cover her rear.

At last she managed to get it good enough, then laid her hands flat on either side of her. Being face down was even more uncomfortable and now totally embarrassing. Getting naked in her fantasy world had been one thing. Being exposed like this in real life felt awful!

The bed began to move again and the technician reminded her to stay as still as possible. Face down into the bed, she couldn't really see anything this time but she could feel the invisible pressure as she slid into the machine.

After what felt like hours but was most likely much shorter, the bed began to move again and the voice told her that they were all done. Her parents brought Mabel her clothing. She was permitted to use a curtain at the side of the room to get changed. Fabric softener never smelled so good as she inhaled the scent of her sweater deeply. She was more than thrilled to finally be leaving. The nurse informed them they would have the results in a few days and to expect a call.

Mabel almost sprinted back to their car, eager to get home and back into her fantasy world.


The moment they got home Mabel rushed upstairs to her room. She pulled the now slightly beat up and ripped sweater over her head, closed her eyes and wished it all away. She remained right where she was. Mabel took a deep breath, readying herself for what she knew must come next. She recalled the sidewalk, the conversation she had been having with her brother. Then she brought forward the memory of the horrible, awful moment when her life had been destroyed and she had lost Dipper.

There was no falling this time. Instead, her eyes just snapped open and Mabel found herself once more in her small camp bed in the Mystery Shack. Her legs were bunched up uncomfortably and when she tried to stretch them she found that they hung off the end of her mattress. She was too big for the bed. A bed that she realized also had sheets!

She rolled over and looked at the wall beside her bed, it had posters once more. Yes, she was really back in Gravity Falls this year. Already filling with hope and anticipation, she rolled the other way and found the other bed in the room. In the low light, all she could see was his silhouette under the blankets but he was there. Dipper was here too, still fast asleep in his own too small bed across the way.

Mabel let out a sigh. She had known they would work through it, they always did. The fact they were both back, that they were sharing a room once more over the summer meant that everything had worked out. She smiled, glad that Bel had mended the relationship with her brother. She couldn't even imagine coming back and not finding him here.

Mabel frowned. She didn't need to imagine. She was living that life when she was awake.

Her frown deepened as she rolled onto her back. Her eyes found the ceiling above, or rather, the spiraling folds of the sweater that always lingered above her, even when they had been inside that cave. She could clearly see the hole in the shoulder now and the rip at the hem. Stranger still, she could see sunlight pouring in through the gaps.

Mabel rolled out of bed and tiptoed over to the window. It was dark outside but her perfectly lit sweater filled the sky instead of stars. She looked at the hole in the shoulder, up where the ceiling should have been above her. Than she slowly moved her face towards the window. As she did, the sweater ceiling and the sky outside seemed to stay put. It was like there wasn't a ceiling at all, like she was looking between the same thing in two places. Which, if that was true, Mabel found the rip in the hem of the sweater, meant that the rip was off in that direction. Her eyes looked right at the wall behind her bed.

She knew what she wanted to do today. Dipper had decided how to spend the previous days but she was going to pick their activity today. She checked that her brother was still fast asleep. The clock said it was 6 A.M., so, she had hours before he would really be awake.

As quietly as she could, she found her piggyback-backpack and began to pack for a day of travel. It was sort of odd. She seemed to have a lot more clothing here than usual. In fact, it was like her whole wardrobe had been packed up and moved here. She didn't spend a lot more time worrying about the surprising number of her belongings, maybe she had just left a lot of stuff here over the years?

When she was satisfied with her selections, she began to pack her brother's day pack (she even added a few travel stickers to the outside, it was sorely lacking in stickers). She was surprised to find that Dipper had just as much, if not more stuff, here as well. Had they like moved to the Mystery Shack or something? She would have to ask. Mabel rolled her eyes. Yeah, 'ask,' that was a good one.

Bags ready to go, the mystery of the extra clothing left behind, Mabel headed downstairs to the kitchen. She raided the refrigerator, finding everything she would need and crafted lunches for the trail.

She returned with lunches ready around seven-ish to find her brother's position in bed changed but not awake. She rolled her eyes as she put each lunch into their respective packs.

She changed quickly or, rather tried to. The first part of getting dressed had been what she expected until she had reached the bra part. She had quite the selection of colors and shapes. A part of her knew that she had to pick them like sweaters, based on her mood and goals. Another part of her just wanted to skip over putting one on. And still another part of her reminded Mabel of the mess that had been last time she had neglected the undergarment.

After far too much debating, when she realized she had been standing in the room in just her underwear for a good ten minutes, she finally selected a simple purple sports bra. She had picked it because it looked like the simplest choice (and she was really feeling purple). What she hadn't anticipated though was how comfortable it turned out to be.

Her previous experience with the body hugging undergarment had been unpleasant to say the least. It had pinched her when she moved and crushed her chest in a slightly painful way. This however, while it did press against her wasn't that bad. In fact, she moved around a little, shaking her chest, this made her feel like she normally did. It was almost like she didn't have breasts hanging off her at all.

The rest of her outfit came together much faster. A simple purple undershirt. A purple sweater with a multi colored butterfly on it. A purple skirt and purple socks and to top it all off, a purple hair band. She had almost been tempted by the yellow hair band with kitty ears, but she would have had to change her whole outfit around it. Next time. She was in a purple mood today.

Once she was dressed, she turned to the next challenge. What was the best way to wake her slumbering brother?

There was the usual method of simply shaking him awake. Too easy. She could try tickling him into consciousness. No, she didn't want to put him in a bad mood. There might still be an air horn in the closet (she checked, there was), but that might wake the whole house and definitely would put him in a bad mood.

She blushed as she considered kissing his cheek like a sleeping prince. Nope. She wasn't doing that one. The kissing thing, even on the cheek had been tabooed for her (although she had managed to get away with a it a few times) for years now! She had of course done it the first day she had arrived but that was extenuating circumstances.

At last, she chose the fairly straightforward, not creepy at all, method of kneeling right next to his bed. She hovered an inch or so away from him, and whispered Dipper's name over and over, slightly increasing the volume every time. She didn't get to shouting but she wasn't far off when her brother was finally startled awake. He didn't look super happy to be awake. He didn't look super awake either if she was being honest.

"Mabel, what the heck?" asked Dipper groggily. He looked at the watch on his wrist. Yep, he was still sleeping with that watch. "It's not even seven thirty!" He started to lay back down but Mabel grabbed his arm, almost pulling him out of his bed. "No, Mabel, it's too early, let me go back to sleep."

She didn't heed his protests and succeeded in dragging him out of bed and down the hall where she practically shoved him into the bathroom. When he returned to the room, he was still in his pajamas, Mabel hadn't given him time to grab his clothes. He looked a little more awake than he had. Not a lot more awake.

"Mabel," Dipper complained, with a yawn. "Why are we up so early? The sun's barely up." Mabel of course didn't answer, she just smiled her great big beaming huge smile at him, before shoving his clothes and his backpack into his arms. "Wait, you packed my stuff?" He looked slightly confused. Then raised an eyebrow at her. "Where are we going?" She didn't answer, instead just smiling at him and wiggling her eyebrows in a sort of mocking gesture of his confused look.

Before he could ask again however, she headed off to the bathroom with a little skip in her step. She closed the door behind her so he could change.

This was the best and greatest plan she'd ever had. Okay, maybe 'ever' was a bit much. She'd had some really good plans. Like the time she had brushed her teeth and hair at the same time, saving valuable brushing time. Mixing the two up had been only a minor miscalculation on her part. In any case, this was still a good plan. If she couldn't tell Dipper about the sweater sky thingy, she was going to show him! She caught herself with toothbrush and comb both headed to the wrong spots as she looked in the bathroom mirror. Quickly she corrected the problem. This was a great plan.

Dipper was already waiting by the front door, lacing up his shoes as she came down the stairs. Her piggyback-backpack slung over her shoulder. Dipper gave her an uncertain look before asking, "Uh, just where are we going?" She stretched out her arms as if to say 'out there! Into the unknown.' Dipper raised an eyebrow, "Okay… wait, Other Mabel?"

She winced at the name. That was so awful. They really hadn't come up with anything better for her? She nodded. Dipper rolled his eyes before pressing his palms to them and groaning.

"Of course it's you! Of course," he muttered. "I should have known." She plopped into her boots, not really made for hiking but they would do the trick, she hoped. "Alright, fine." He checked his watch again. "As long as we're back by seven, I'm doing some research with Great Uncle Ford tonight, and we still need to edit yesterday's video… although, I think I'll just wait for Mabel, uh, my Mabel to do that."

She smiled at him. Hopefully they would be back by seven. That gave them almost twelve hours to make this trip. They would either reach where they were going by then, or not at all. She hurried her brother out the front door, ignoring his protests and took the lead. Being outside she couldn't really see the direction she had in mind, but she was pretty sure she was going the right way.

They began to walk side-by-side in silence, which wasn't her choice. Not the side-by-side thing. She loved that, in fact, she wished she could take hold of her brother's hand and swing his arm around and skip. But, she felt strange doing that. She couldn't explain why.

It had never felt strange before. He didn't like holding hands and never in public, 'Stop embarrassing me,' he would say, but there were a few times where he had been fine with it, when he needed the comfort and confirmation of her hand. Maybe he would be fine with it now?

She looked longingly as his hand, currently clasping the straps of his backpack. Yeah. Too weird she decided. If there was a chance later on she would go for it, but not right now. If she wasn't feeling it, there was no way Dipper would be comfortable with it.

In any case, it was the silence she couldn't stand. Sure, birds were chittering away and there was the rustle to the trees above them and the soft pads of their feet on the dirt, but it wasn't the same. If they couldn't have a conversation, she would have at least preferred to start singing something, but, well, that currently wasn't an option. After the first hour of hiking, she discovered she could at least hum. So she started doing that, making up the music as she went.

Every now and then she cast a glance sideways to her brother, trying to read his expression. If the humming annoyed him, he was hiding it well. She changed the tune to something more familiar, to one of her brother's favorite songs by an obscure Icelandic band. Dipper's eyes swiveled to her in the third verse and for a second she thought he was going to ask her to stop but much to her surprise and amazement he started to sing along.

"Disco girl! Coming through, That girl is you! Ooh Ooohhh!" sang Dipper, only slightly off key. They went another verse or so but Mabel had to stop as a fit of the giggles overtook her. Dipper smiled in an embarrassed sort of way, then his face fell and her giggles quickly subsided. "I miss you Mabes. Every time this happens... You're here," he said, taking her hand and squeezing it. A little part of her heart fluttered at the touch, waiting had totally been worth it. "Physically here, but, I mean..." she nodded.

"Dipper," she whispered, then looked down at her feet.

"Yeah, that," said Dipper. "I hope whatever we are heading towards is going to help you somehow," said Dipper. He seemed to realize at last he was holding her hand. He released it, taking the straps of his backpack again. She nodded, slowly, with a look of uncertainty on her face.

They stopped for lunch by the edge of a small stream. She had been about to fill her water bottle right from the flow, but Dipper stopped her, his face filled with panic.

"You can't fill right out of the stream!" he exclaimed. "It's full of bacteria and giardia!" She gave him a quizzical look as if to say, 'what now?' Dipper sighed. "Mabel, deers pee in it!" She recoiled from the water. "It's alright, I should have a filter in my bag."

He fished out a blue pump thing. Putting a long tube down into the stream and attaching the pump to her water bottle, he began to move the handle up and down in a slow steady rhythm. Clear water began to re-fill her bottle. Even with the filter though, 'deer pee' stuck in her brain. She was only going to drink out of it if she was really, really, really thirsty.

That moment came some minutes later when she bit into her sandwich creation. Mushroom, pineapple, tomato, cheese and peanut butter. It wasn't bad. That would have been an understatement. It was horrible. She had spat it out and flung the horrid creation to the ground before stomping on it. If she could have shouted for it to die, she would have. He gave her a confused look, then looked at the remains of the sandwich and mouthed, "Oh- ewww. See, peanut butter does not go on everything, Mabel."

She took a long swig from her refilled water bottle, before remembering it was most likely deer pee, and spitting it out. He seemed only more confused than before but came over to comfort his sister. She, however was completely incoherent, because, that's how she currently was. He tried to piece together what was going on with her while she unhelpfully described the problem in detail to him, "Dipper! Dipper, Dip, Dipper Dip-per! Dippeerrrrrrrrr!"

Dipper nodded as if he had understood. "Yeah, I have no idea what you're trying to say," he said after a moment. "Want half my of sandwich?" She nodded, with a slight sniffle. They ate the rest of Dippers sandwich, which was delicious and Mabel silently vowed to taste her next creation ahead of packing it, rather than to be surprised at the end.

Once lunch was over they were back on the trail, but Dipper looked slightly more nervous than he had before lunch. Mabel gave him a gentle elbow as they walked and he seemed to realize she was there, snapping out of whatever thought he had been having. At first he didn't answer, but she poked him in the cheek to get his attention again, "Dipper!"

"Ouch, what?" asked Dipper, rubbing his cheek. She gave him a long stare as if to say, that's what I was going to ask. He seemed to understand. He rubbed the back of his neck, clearly not comfortable. "Look, Mabel, this thing's important to you right?" She raised an eyebrow. "The thing we're heading towards, wherever you're taking us. It's important, right?" She nodded. She was pretty sure it was important. "Any idea how much further it is? It's already past noon and we still have the hike back to the Mystery Shack."

She looked up, the distant woolen wall had indeed gotten closer since the last time she checked, but how much she couldn't tell. She couldn't see the Sun either, just the wool of the sweater. There were some clouds in the sky. It was like she was very tiny inside the dome of a giant sweater structure. It certainly didn't cover the whole earth but she wasn't really sure how big it was. She shrugged. He didn't stop, but his pace slowed a very tiny bit.

"Okay," said Dipper, more to himself than to Mabel. "Another hour, at the most," She opened her mouth to protest, and did so (only managing to say "Dipppperrrr"), "than we have to turn back! I don't want us to get lost out here in the dark! We don't have enough supplies, and we didn't tell anyone where we were going! If we don't make it there today, maybe we can take the golf cart out next time, or hitch a ride with Soos." Mabel thought about protesting further, but... that actually made really good sense. In fact, that was a way better plan than going out on foot. She nodded in agreement.

They continued on, Dipper now regularly checking his watch, which did annoy her a bit, but not enough to say anything about it, well, okay, maybe say was the wrong words. Words! BLARGH!

Their time was just about up when she saw it. The edge of sweater town. She hadn't believed it to be reachable, to be real, but there it was! "DIPPER!" she shouted in excitement, running ahead through the edge of the trees into an area that couldn't be called a clearing.

She ran full speed towards it, stopping inches short. At this distance she could see the threads, larger than her whole body. Thin frayed strands covered it like it was a furry animal. Without so much as considering the consequences, she reached out both her hands and grabbed it. It was soft and fuzzy, just like she expected it to be.

There wasn't a gap here like she had hoped. Her aim must have been off. But the tear would only have been icing on her proverbial cake. Just seeing the sweater wall was enough. It had to be enough. And now Dipper would see it too!

Her brother walked up beside her, his eyes searching the wall, a confused expression on his face. She smiled in triumph, "Sooooo, is this the place?" he asked. Mabel rolled her eyes as if to say, 'well, a-doy!' Dipper turned back to the wall, his eyes flicking back and forth across it. "Mabel," he said as he walked forward, "There isn't any-" he vanished as he stepped into the wool. She let out a gasp of surprise and hurried over to where her brother had disappeared. Desperately, her hands moved along the wool, searching for him.

"Dipper? Dipper!" she screamed, trying as hard as she could to push into the wall and drag him out but the wall didn't budge. She hit it with her fist, still screaming his name. Suddenly he was there, in front of her, catching her arm as she swung it down. His hands came out of the wool as if he were some kind of ghost. She reversed his grip and grabbed him by the wrists. She yanked him as hard as she could. He toppled forward into her and they tumbled down to the ground.

When they stopped rolling, Mabel sat atop him, tears leaking down from her eyes. Her hands were still clutching tightly to his wrists and his name still echoing out of her mouth. "Dipper, Dipper, Dipper!" she sobbed, before burying her face in his shirt. Dipper couldn't have looked more confused. He at last managed to free one of his hands so he could gently hold his sister's back as she sobbed against him.

"Mabel, it's alright, calm down, I'm fine, I'm right here," said Dipper. He let her cry for a good minute or so before gasping out, "Mabel, you're crushing me." At last she rolled off him, still not letting go of his hand. Her sobbing had subsided somewhat. For one terrible moment she thought she had lost him forever, again. There was no way she could have gone through that twice, what would she even have done, escape into sweater town a second time? Was that even possible? Would it be some kind of super sweater town? That thought at last got her to finally stop crying as she stared up into the sweater-sky.

"What the heck happened there, Mabes?" asked Dipper, looking over to his twin. She was still staring intently skyward, unable to look at him, afraid she might burst into tears again if she did. "You really freaked out there. Couldn't you hear me saying it was okay? And what was with the mime in a box thing?"

She sat up abruptly, she was still holding tightly to her brother's hand. Rather than letting him go, she got awkwardly to her feet before helping pull her brother up, or at least trying. Finally he obliged.

Once they were on their feet again, she pulled him back towards the woolen wall and pressed a hand into the thread. He looked at her, his face all serious but confused. She rolled her eyes and pointed to the thing, couldn't he see it!

...Except, maybe he couldn't. That hadn't occurred to her before. He had walked through it like it wasn't even there. And if he could walk through it, maybe he couldn't see it either. This really was a waste after all, she couldn't tell him about it, she couldn't show it to him. This was all so frustrating!

"Mabel, you're chewing on your hair again," said Dipper. She stopped chewing and spat out the strands of hair, she hadn't realized were in her mouth. "Look, something's going on, you just need to help me figure out what." He was looking around the small open space in the trees. "I just see trees, and dirt, and that rock over there," he pointed back over her shoulder to a small boulder sitting well clear of the woolen wall.

She needed... something, to help her brother see it. She had an idea, a stupid idea but those were often the best kind of ideas. She let go of Dipper's hand and backpedaled away from the wall a few steps. She really hoped that this would work. And that it wouldn't hurt too badly.

"Mabel, what are - " Dipper began. She launched herself forward and sprinted towards the wall. With only a few feet to go, she jumped up into the air as high as she could. Dipper let out a cry of alarm, that turned into a shout of surprise as she crashed into the wall. Thankfully it was very soft, so slamming into it didn't hurt at all. She hadn't intended to do so but her hands had instinctively grabbed onto the threads at the last moment. Dipper was still staring at her, stammering incoherently.

"Wh - How! You're floating? Flying!" cried Dipper, finally forcing words to come out of his throat. He seemed to snap out of his stupor for a moment. He yanked off his backpack, pulled out his camera and switched it on. "Adventure 17-92, My Flying Sister! A moment ago I watched her run and leap into the air! Now she's just-" Dipper's voice cut off a second time as Mabel watched him walk back through the wall, circling around to get a better view.

She couldn't see him and she couldn't hear him. It didn't feel good to lose sight of him like this. Mabel looked upwards, wondering how high she could climb and if she should. She could see both the neck hole high above as well as the rip in the shoulder. What would happen if she climbed all the way out? Would she just wake up in her own room again?

She suddenly felt a hand touch her shin, almost making her lose her grip on the wall. It was just a brief touch. The hand pulled back into the wall. At least it confirmed he was still there, still alive and moving around.

Another long moment passed until at last -

"-netic fields or maybe some kind of anti gravity thing?" continued Dipper's voice as he emerged on her other side. He took a few steps closer, pointing the camera towards her feet and waving his arm under her shoes. She had decided to wear a skirt today, so hopefully he wasn't going to tilt it up at her. "Mabel, can you get down or are you stuck there?"

She thought about trying to climb for a second but she was only a few feet above the ground. So, she just let go and dropped down.

"Ha! That was incredible!" exclaimed Dipper. "Can you do the running jump thing again?" She shot him an incredulous look of, really? "Mabel, come on, we need it for the video!" She rolled her eyes, took a few steps back and performed her running jump once more. With the same results. Dipper let out a cry of excitement, filming all the while. She dropped back down after a moment of hanging to the wool.

"Okay, okay, I want to try something else," said Dipper, camera still going and pointed at her. She wasn't super happy being the focus of attention. Those stupid internet comments from her last visit floated unbidden into her brain. She crossed her arms over her chest. She didn't feel that different from last time but it was really hard to judge.

However, she was only able to keep one arm across her chest and Dipper took the other. Camera still pointed at her, he pulled her towards the wall.

"I am now going to see if it is possible to pull my sister through whatever is here," said Dipper, walking backwards and pulling her along. They drew closer to one of the huge threads. His back touched the wool and he began to slide through it as if it wasn't there. "Let me know when I'm-" but his voice cut off as he vanished into the wool.

Having him go through this time was far less nerve wracking than any previous time because she still had his hand. She let him pull her forward, until her hand hit the wool and stopped. He tugged lightly, but didn't pull harder. She looked at the spot where he should be, all she could see was his fist and a tiny bit of wrist, she had to imagine where the rest of him was.

They stayed like that for a long while. A couple times, Dipper tried to tug her through. He let her go at one point, adjusting his grip up her arm and seeing if pulling on her elbow would help. But no matter what he tried, her hand wouldn't slip through the wool. Although, he never tried pulling very hard. After far too long, she finally pulled on him to come back, she'd had enough of not being able to see him. He walked through easily, camera still recording, "-able." came his words as his face materialized out of the wall.

She looked at him hopefully. Dipper was studying her face.

"Mabel," he said after a long moment. She felt a chill run through her spine. Oh no, was he just stuck on her name too now? "You... you didn't hear anything I've been saying to you, have you?" She let out a sigh of relief, okay, he was normal. Well, as normal as he ever was anyway. She shook her head. She hadn't heard him say anything on the other side of the wall.

"Uh, could I have my hand back?" She looked towards the wall and frowned. "I promise I'm not going anywhere." She nodded reluctantly and finally released him. "So, I said somethings I know would have gotten at least some reaction out of you," said Dipper, "I'll, uh, have to edit it out later. Anyhow, you just kinda sat there blankly. Which means - " He pulled a pen from somewhere and was clicking with his free hand, the camera still in his other hand, still recording. " - you can't hear me past a certain point. You can't physically move beyond a certain point." He turned to look at the wall he obviously could not see. "There's something here," he waved his free hand right into the wall, "isn't there? Something only you can see?" She nodded. He nodded.

"Okay, okay now we're getting somewhere," said Dipper. "It doesn't sound like anything I've read about. Could you describe it for me?" Dipper bopped himself in the head, nearly poking his eye with the pen. "Right, sorry, of course - " but this was actually a question she could answer!

She tugged her sweater forward and pointed exuberantly at it. Dipper looked at her, then the sweater in confusion. "It's made of butterflies?" Mabel rolled her eyes. She tugged the side of her sweater instead and pointed at the wool. Dipper's eyes seemed to bug out of his head. "It's made out of fabric?" She continued to point. "Out of wool, WAIT!" Dipper seemed to have a sudden epiphany. "Wait, Mabel is it - is it a sweater?" She nodded so hard she thought her teeth might fly out. "Is it your sweater?" Dipper asked, everything seeming to fall into place. She nodded even harder. Dipper stood frozen, the pen clicking stopped, the camera pointed mostly towards the ground.. "How - " his voice broke, he coughed to clear his throat " -. how big is this sweater thingy?"

Her eyes scanned around her, they were in the forest still, so she couldn't really see where the other side was. Maybe she could give a rough approximation? Her arm pointed to the wall and she swept it in a big circle around them, coming back to where she started. Dipper's face seemed to have become even more tight, his expression unreadable.

"How tall?" he asked. She moved her hand across the sky and back to the ground. "Mabel... are you in..." he seemed to be steeling himself against the answer to the question he couldn't believe he was about to ask. He paused, looked down at the camera and abruptly shut it off. "Mabel, are we - are we in sweater town right now?"

She smiled sheepishly and nodded. He seemed to take the news well, for all of a tenth of a second before he dropped both the camera and pen. He put both hands against his head, his eyes unnaturally wide with fear as he began to panic.

"But if that's true, it means, I'm not real. None of this is real! My whole life is made up?! I don't exist, Mabel! I don't exist! You just imagined me, this place, all of it! It's Mabel Land all over again! Oh no! Are we in Mabel Land, did we never leave? Did any of that really happen?" She managed to grab him into a hug, trying to calm him down.

"Dipper," she said, trying to stop the crash his brain was tumbling into. But he went on, spiraling down into babbling nonsense.

"Am I Dippy-Fresh? Please tell me I'm not Dippy-Fresh? Is my hat on backwards?" He struggled out an arm and to check that his pine tree ball cap was indeed pointed forward

"DIPPER!" she shouted. Finally he stopped, still looking a little panic stricken.

"Right, right, maybe I overreacted to being a completely fictional character in your fantasy world and OH MY GOD!" cried Dipper, his voice rising hysterically. She rolled her eyes again and grabbed both sides of his face. She smooshed his cheeks together making it impossible for him to continue talking. She tried to will her calm into him. This at last seemed to snap him out of it. "Okay, alright, I'm fine. Just coming to grips with being make-believe is all. Huh, actually, wait a minute."

His eyes swiveled back to the boundary that she couldn't pass, then, once more, without a word he stepped across it. Briefly, she considered breaking into hysterics herself. If there was a time to do so, now seemed pretty good. She managed to hold it together. Not more than a few seconds later, Dipper reappeared, once more muttering to himself and clicking yet another pen he had pulled from someplace. He was never one to lack for a pen. What an adorable nerd.

He continued to talk to himself in an inaudible whisper but it was a good sort of muttering this time, a thoughtful sort. He gazed at the invisible wall, looking up and down it. She was still pretty sure he couldn't see it. He gazed at her, then the wall, then at her again, still talking quietly to himself.

"Okay," Dipper whispered, finally loud enough for her to hear. He was clicking the pen so fast that she thought it might suddenly burst into flames. Her brother paced back and forth. "You're in sweater town, maybe. Mabel's sweater town. What does it mean?" She reached out and caught his pen clicking hand as he paced. She stopped him, both clicking and pacing. He looked confused for a long moment, then he looked down at his hand.

"Oh, hehe, sorry, you know I do that when I'm thinking." She nodded. "Wait, the camera." Dipper knelt back down and picked up his camera. He turned it back on and for a moment, she thought he was going to point it at her again, but he didn't. Instead, he went into the replay option and selected the video he had just been recording.

"Adventure 17-92, My Flying Sister!" came Dipper's voice from the camera. It was pointed at her back, but he was circling around her. She was floating in the air. Mabel looked up to confirm the sweater wall was still there. It was. She looked back down at the video. There was no sweater in the video.

The view point was circling around. It swept past her side but as it hit the wall the image cut out completely. Not static or distortion but just endless blackness. Mabel frowned, it hadn't been able to record outside of sweater town. Abruptly, after a minute or so, the video came back on "-netic fields or maybe some kind of anti gravity thing?" Dipper stopped the playback.

"Okay, Dipper. You're real man, because you still exist outside of this place," he muttered to himself. "And you have video from outside that proves it." She looked at him in confusion. He didn't have video, it had just been a blank screen… hadn't it?

Unless… just like he couldn't see the sweater, she couldn't see outside it? Maybe the outside world didn't exist for her? No, that wasn't right. The nose picking video had been recorded at their house back in California and that was way outside the sweater. And she had been able to watch that just fine. Except, it had been made while she wasn't here. And - oh darn was Dipper talking to her?

He waved a hand in front of her face, "Mabel, are you listening to me?" he asked. She smiled apologetically at him. "I asked, are you in sweater town?" a nod from her. "Am I in sweater town?" a much more tentative nod from her, along with a shaking hand gesture she hoped he would interpret as 'maybe.' "You didn't bring me into sweater town with you?" She shook her head and her expression must have told him something more because an almost fearful look crossed his face. "Mabel... why are you in sweater town? You only go there when you don't want to face the real world, like when our pet hamster, Mr. Pickles... well, you know, left us." She looked into Dipper's eyes.

"Dipper," she whispered. Then looked down. That was the reason, right on the nose but he didn't seem to make the connection.

"I mean, that still doesn't really explain how you got here or taking over my Mabel's body once a year or any of that," said Dipper. Kneeling down, he unzipped his pack and rifled through it. He produced his journal number two from it. And, to her surprise, his journal number one as well.

"Great Uncle Ford helped me recount some of the stuff that was in his journal," explained Dipper. "A lot of it is my own stuff, and, some of it is your stuff too, I mean, you know what I mean, Original Mabel's stuff." She nodded, not sure where he was going with this. "You can see something here, right?" Nod. "Maybe you can find something like it in one of these books? Maybe my Mabel encountered something like it and wrote an entry?"

Dipper handed her his journal number one. She took it, pressing her hand against the pine tree. "Hey, flip it over," said Dipper softly. There was something in his voice, some loving, affectionate, tone there that she hadn't heard from him before. She liked it, even if the sound felt strange to her.

She flipped the journal over and her eyes widened. On the back of the journal, in shiny golden foil, was a five pointed star. Written inside were the words: Dipper and Mabel's Guide to the Unknown. She felt hot tears of joy leaking out of her eyes and quickly wiped them away.

"That was your - her - idea by the way," said Dipper, a smile in his voice. She rushed forward and hugged her brother. He hugged her back. After a moment he coughed. "You better - uh - start looking, we only have an hour at the most before we really need to start heading back." She nodded.

Sitting down in the grass, she began to flip through the journal. At first, the pages were all in blue ink, her brother's color of choice. However, as she went on wards, entries from her, from Bel, began to pop up. More and more frequently.

While she looked, Dipper busied himself in the second journal. She wasn't sure what he was doing but she guessed he was maybe working on the entry for the thing they were currently at. She smiled at her nerd brother. Then returned her attention to the book in her hands.

She didn't find anything until the very end of the book, in its last dozen pages. She let out an excited cry of, "Dipper!" getting her brother's attention. He hurried over to her.

"What did you find?" Dipper cried. He looked at the pages and the heading. Sweater Town. He frowned slightly at that, this wasn't new information. "Is that what it looks like?" he said pointing at the hand drawn picture Bel must have made. It wasn't exactly like what she was seeing but it was pretty close. Both Mabel and Dipper read the entry to themselves.

It happened today. For the first time in a long time I went into sweater town. I just couldn't take it. Waddles… He… (there was a blotch on the page here and words that had been smeared out). Mom doesn't seem to care, I think dad's glad he's gone. Only Dipper really understands. But I need some time. I need to go somewhere where everything's fine. Where Waddles is fine.

So I pulled on my favorite sweater, it was way too small for me but I managed to squeeze inside. I told myself it was okay, that he was in a better place, that pigs don't live forever. But it wasn't fine. I wasn't fine.

I must have cried myself to sleep. The next thing I remember, I was back at the fair where me and Waddles first met. I was reliving the best day of my life! It was perfect, Dipper even got Wendy this time!

The only thing that was odd was the sky, it was all funky. (An arrow had been drawn pointing to the illustration). I could see my sweater up in the sky. Not sure what it means.

I couldn't stay there forever. After I fell asleep in sweater town I woke up back in my room, with my brother holding me in his arms.

I tried again once after that, but I was never able to get the same effect to happen. Worse, I tore my sweater pretty badly, I am way too big for it now. I tried patching it up, but the thread keeps falling out. I'm afraid if I crawl into it again I might tear it in half.

Anyhow. I think I'm better now.

In a different hand at the bottom of the page, that wasn't Mabel's or Dippers, there was a small note. Possibly Wormholes. More research needed. It looked a lot like the loopy style their Great Uncle Ford's journals had contained.

Mabel had to wipe her eyes again. She had been crying through the whole thing. Waddles… Had passed away… Dipper had his arm around her.

"Sorry," he said, "that's not the way you should have found out. I keep forgetting you don't know things about your own life." She leaned into him. "I remember my Mabel telling me about this. I thought it was just her overactive imagination." Dipper squinted down at the page as he continued to hold and console his sister.

"Hold on, there's a note here from Great Uncle Ford!" cried Dipper. "Wormholes? I think there's something about that in journal two?" She looked at Dipper in confusion. Why was their Uncle writing in their book. "I have no idea what you're thinking." Admitted Dipper. She pointed at the line written by Ford. "Yeah, Wormholes are in book two." She shook her finger and jabbed at it. "Oh, oh," he finally seemed to understand. "Well, we kind of wrote stuff in his journal, and he wanted to see how we were doing with ours, and we let him borrow it. He's got notes all over." That kind of made sense.

"Alright, Wormholes," muttered Dipper. One handed he opened journal two, laying it atop journal one in his sister's lap. He began flipping through its pages, once more muttering as he did. "Not zombies, or unicorns, or trolls... Ah ha! Here!"

He jabbed a finger at the page but he hadn't needed too she was already reading the title: Wormholes. This entry too appeared to have been written by Great Uncle Ford. She read the very brief summary below:

These structures through time and space are a fairly common occurrence in Gravity Falls. I believe they are the result of an instability with the main travel system of the ship, after its crash. They are scattered throughout the forest letting creatures jump back and forth between different times and possibly even realities. Sadly I have been unable to investigate the few I have encountered as there is no way to tell what is on the other side, and returning may prove difficult or even impossible, not to mention the inherent dangers. Additionally...

Mabel stopped reading, her tongue sticking out slightly between her teeth as it often did when she was concentrating. The notes went on and on, including what looked like complex math. She looked back up at her brother, who was all kinds of excited. Sure, it might be that but the drawing included on the second page was a big spiral black hole-y thing-ie, it didn't look anything like - Dipper flipped the pages forward. Mabel felt her eyes widen, it was impossible.

Woolholes | Experiment #173c

Similar to wormholes, I have dubbed this phenomenon woolholes, after the inherent visible structure. After becoming tangled in a superconductive sweater of my own design, made to allow me closer access to the vortex generator (see Experiment 173a), I was surprised to find myself back in my childhood. However, I was not as I am now, I had become a young boy once more. Somehow, I had inadvertently opened a hole in my own personal space-time, allowing me to travel backwards into my past.

Everything was extremely real and tangible. All of my reasoning faculties continued to work, and I was able to solve complex logical puzzles and problems. All this leads me to discount the possibility of a trick, hallucination, or dream. While it might certainly not have been real, it felt very real. The only oddity being that wherever I went, whatever building I was in, or even when I was outside, I could always see the sweater looming above me, like some type of great structure holding the whole world inside it. Although I never made time to actually go out to the edges.

At first this seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime, I could warn myself of the dangers to come, I could fix unforeseeable problems. I could mend the broken fences of my family. But alas, it was not to be. The changes in the woolholes are either not carried forward into the present or are acting on some parallel alternate universe, similar to my own but not my own. I spent several days attempting to send my future self a message, going so far as to brand it onto my skin. However, upon returning to my own time and place, not a single change had occurred.

Eventually, whatever power the sweater had to let me travel into the past dissipated and I had no desire to attempt any further experiments with it.

There were some additional notes, things like the weave of the sweater, the materials (most of which Mabel couldn't pronounce) and of course hand drawn pictures. There was also another small note on the bottom that seemed to have been added later than the others.

My great niece may have inadvertently stumbled upon a woolhole as well. See her entry in Journal #1.

Dipper was chewing on his pen as he read, a sure sign that he had moved from rapid contemplation into deep thought. He was re-reading the journal entry. "It doesn't answer the biggest question I have right now." Dipper looked her in the eyes, his expression a terrible seriousness that she did not like. "Why are you here?"


The walk back to the shack was a very uncomfortable affair. Dipper led the way, increasing his pace whenever Mabel got too close to him. They hadn't done any more filming at the sweater's edge. Instead Dipper had simply re-packed the journals and camera before announcing that they were heading home.

At first she had just thought his quick pace was to get them back faster. She soon realized that Dipper was trying to avoid her. She felt angry at first. However, the anger quickly became fear. He had learned a lot about her today. The more that she thought about how he was acting, the more it seemed like Dipper didn't at all like what he had found.

When they finally made it back to the shack, she felt like a nervous wreck. Dipper muttered something about going off to find Ford and she just nodded. She watched her brother depart, apparently Ford wasn't here… or Dipper was lying to her about where he was going. Either way, she headed up to their room and crawled into her bed.

The longer she thought about it, the more she came to a realization. This fantasy world kind of sucked. She had escaped here to be with her brother, to have him back, to not have to deal with the harsh reality that waited for her once she left.

So far though, she had only gotten a single day with him doing anything fun at all! Everything else had been strained or awkward between them. Even that day of fun had been uncomfortable owing to her own clothing issues.

Today she had been hoping to get answers, to improve things, to figure out a way to stay here! Instead, all she had done was seemingly make things worse! Her own brother seemed to hate her now!

She hid under her sheets and tucking herself into her sweater. She was still too big for the bed if she had spread herself out. Luckily, she chose to curl into a little ball instead. She wanted to vanish into her sweater a second time, to escape this reality.

It didn't happen though. Instead, she spent the next few hours on the verge of tears. Her mind racing over the events of the day, trying to see what she had done wrong. It was hours before Dipper returned. His quiet entry into the room and his lack of words made her feel like all he had to tell her were things she didn't want to hear.

"Mabel," whispered Dipper. There it was, that tone in his voice that said 'I don't know how to trust you.' "You still awake?" She nodded under her sheets. She felt Dipper sit beside her. A little part of her brain reminded her this was how her day had started, back in the real world, except with the promise of strawberry pancakes. Pancakes were unlikely to be the case now.

"I'm sorry," said her brother. Her breath caught in her throat, she didn't want to make even the slightest sound, she didn't want to miss anything he said. "This has… this has been sort of a lot for me to take in." She was still under the sheets, still tucked in her sweater, still holding her breath. She didn't know what would happen if she came out now, so she just stayed there.

"I talked to Great Uncle Ford about this whole thing," continued Dipper. "He just said, 'I know,'" she could hear a very slight tone of annoyance in his voice. "Apparently he figured it out like four years ago..." There was a long pause and she felt his hand come to rest on her side. "He always figures everything out," Dipper muttered and she felt his comments were directed towards something else. He took a sharp breath.

"Mabel… why are you here, in sweater town? Why do you keep coming back?" She tucked herself tighter. Even if she could speak, how could she possibly answer that? There was no possible way she could tell him that! "I know you only hide yourself away like this when you are really upset. But the most you've ever done it was for a few hours… You've been coming here for years!"

That last part was only sort of true. From her perspective she had been coming here for days. But he was right. The longest she had ever needed to escape into sweater town had never been more than a few hours.

Of course… she had never…

She burst out from under the sheets and grabbed her brother in a hug, holding him tightly and crying his name into his chest. She couldn't tell him. No matter what he asked. No matter how close he got to the truth she could never, ever…

Dipper's watch beeped. She looked as he lifted his wrist and the glowing number read Tweleve'o-