Sweater Town

Chapter 14 – The Girl

By Starwin


Mabel and Dip - Mason, she was going to have to get used to that again - hurried back to the Mystery Shack. Their pace wasn't as fast as she wanted but it couldn't be helped. She had little more than an undershirt and a purple sweater on at the moment. Even her shoes didn't fit.

Running half-naked through the woods wasn't very much fun. She had always imagined that running naked through the woods would be very enjoyable. Feeling the breeze on her skin, the scent of pine in her nose and of course, bare toes in the squishy dirt. Admittedly, she was power walking, not running. There wasn't any breeze, nor could she really smell the pine. And being barefoot, off the path on pointy pine needles and sharp rocks was anything but fun. Especially with her way older brother near by and the end of the world literally hanging over her head. This was just a hassle she didn't need right now.

Not having shoes meant she needed to be a bit more careful where she stepped. It slowed their pace considerably, stealing valuable time that she didn't have. Her brother had suggested she just wear the shoes that were too big for her so that they could go faster. But they had kept falling off every few steps and so it only slowed their pace. She had suggested that he carry her on his back but he reminded her he still only had noodles for arms.

"You held me up just fine when Bill dropped me," countered Mabel.

"Are you kidding!" complained Mason. "It was taking everything I had to just stay upright holding you!"

"Did you just call me fat?" exclaimed Mabel in mock horror.

"What? No! I just meant - hey! Stop laughing! This is serious!"

"Uh, yeah, seriously funn - ouch!" cried Mabel. She hadn't been looking where she was going and her foot had whacked into a rock. Her brother spun around, concern on his face. She hopped back and lifted her foot to look for damage. She didn't see any blood or bruising but, wow, did that smart.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his eyes looking over her before he turned away. "Sorry."

She was confused for a moment, then remembered her sparse clothing. Maybe she should have felt embarrassed or something but really, she didn't have room for that right now. There was too much else to deal with.

"It's fine, don't worry about it, I just need to watch where I'm going," said Mabel. "Come on, we need to keep moving." Her brother nodded and started walking again.

"So," he said. "You can talk again. Well, I mean, you've always been able to talk. But now you can say more than just my name." Mabel nodded, although he had his back to her so he couldn't see. "How'd that happen?"

"Which part?" asked Mabel. "The part where I got stuck on your name or the part where I got off it?"

"Both?" asked Dip - darn it, Mason.

"It started when I lost you… I mean, when I lost Dipper," said Mabel. "I just… it felt like something inside me broke when it happened. And I just couldn't stop saying your name, hoping you would wake up… or come back to me somehow." Mason nodded.

"I remember that," he whispered, not looking back. "I don't remember a lot from after accident but I remember that. You - Mabel, she was holding me when I regained consciousness, she was calling my name. I passed out again after that and woke up in the hospital."

"I don't know why I got stuck," continued Mabel. She did not elaborate that the tumor inside her head might have something to do with it. She wasn't ready to talk about that just yet. "I tried to say other things, I really did, I tried to write them too. It turns out, I could have typed them all this time." Mason whacked himself in the head.

"Of course you can!" he exclaimed. "How did I miss that! Mabel said she was already looking at my laptop that night we - uh, the time she was teleported to Gravity Falls, the year she didn't come up with me. You would have had to type my password!"

"Anyhow, I don't know why it never worked before," said Mabel with a shrug. "But when you were about to make that deal with Bill… I had to say something. And it just sort of kept coming out."

"Admittedly it's pretty strange," said Mason. "But I can't say that anything about this whole situation isn't strange." Mabel had to agree with that. "Maybe it was just the trauma of losing your brother that caused it? Perhaps seeing me in danger gave you the ability to overcome the block?"

"Or maybe it was just the most important thing I could think to say," whispered Mabel mostly to herself. "And nothing else mattered."

"What?" asked Mason, clearly not hearing most of what she had said.

"I said, that's as good a theory as any," said she. Her brother frowned frowned, clearly knowing she had said something else.

"So what now?" he asked. "What's the plan here?"

She had been expecting this question ever since she had dodged it the first time. The problem was, she still really didn't have an answer. The wheels of her brain had been turning since before she got here, trying to decide what to do. But so far, she didn't have a lot of idea for all her effort. Really, she just had vague concepts at the moment.

"Still working on it, bro-bro" said Mabel. And she was working on it. She was trying to think of what to do next. She knew the one thing that mattered, the goal she needed to reach. She wanted to have her brother back. It was the how part she was still fuzzy on.

Her brother was the planner, he liked to know every step, often in way too much detail. But she was a doer. She just did. It had always worked for her before. Well, it had mostly worked for her. Okay, it sometimes worked for her.

There was a lot to be said about thinking before you leapt. If she had just stopped to think about what she was really doing with sweater town, maybe things would be different, better. She frowned. If she had just stopped to look both ways before going out into the street, maybe Dipper would still be…

She shook her head. No. Now was not the time for this. She looked up at the tearing sky. Now was the time to figure out what the heck she was going to do about that! Could she even do anything?

Threads continued to rain down on her as they hurried towards their destination in silence. Their sizes were all different. Some were tiny, as small as a snowflake, which was odd because the sweater above her had to be huge. Others were bigger than a house, tumbling out of the sky as if they were light as a feather and drifting down into the forest and out of site.

She didn't seem to be able to actually touch them though. A few small-ish ones had fallen towards her but whenever she tried to grab them they drifted through her like they weren't really there. Like they were ghost threads.

She could feel a plan forming in the back of her mind. She just didn't have all the parts yet, beyond staying with her brother somehow. No, that wasn't completely true. It wasn't a plan. It was plans. All three of them crazy, all three of them impossible. She liked impossible though. It was fun to do the impossible.

The first plan, 'Plan A' - Mason would be so proud if he knew that she had labeled them, and less proud if he heard how crazy they were - was the most straightforward. It consisted of her wrapping her arms and legs around her brother and holding onto him for dear life. She hoped that would be enough to drag him back to her world when sweater town came crashing down. It would most likely be the only thing she would have time to do if the end came abruptly.

The second plan, 'Plan B' - hey, naming them was pretty easy - required something, her shooting star sweater. She had seen it a few times when she had come to sweater town, so it certainly existed here. She didn't have any details for this plan yet. But, since she needed new clothes anyhow, finding Bel's shooting star sweater was the first, and currently only step, in plan B.

The last plan, 'Plan C' was the one she was the least excited about. It was her plan of last resort. If all else failed, her final plan was to stay here and not return home at all. Of course, how she was going to do that she hadn't figured out just yet. It was a work in progress. They all were. Except plan A, that was solid.

Mabel stared at her brother's back, wondering what he would think if she dragged him back to her world. He was clearly hurting from Bel's loss. But she wasn't Bel. No, she couldn't lose him again. Even if he hated her for it afterwards, they would work it out, it just might take some time. Hopefully not twenty years.

She let her eyes drift away, they had reached the end of the trail. The towering roof of the shack rose up ahead of them. Mason didn't pause at the edge of the parking lot but continued quickly across. Mabel followed, her bare feet feeling tender. She loved being barefoot. She always felt so free and at ease without shoes on. At the moment however, her feet informed her that they hated being barefoot and that if she ever wanted to do it again, she could forget it.

Save for one car, the parking lot was completely empty. A bright pink, four-wheel-drive, open top, Geep sat in the spot where their Grunkle had always parked his car. It was hard not to look at the thing. It was the sort of color most people would have gouged out their own eyes rather than look at. But for Mabel it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen! There was even a rainbow painted on the back!

It was a bit odd that the lot was so empty though. When she had crossed it in her world it had been filled to capacity. There had even been several buses. But this lot just had the one amazing pink off-road vehicle in it. It wasn't until Mason led her inside that she realized why there were no other cars. The Mystery Shack still had the sign on the outside but on the inside it was very different.

The area they had entered used to be the main hall of oddities. However, the majority of bizarre creatures had once been displayed here were gone. The last time she had been in this room it had been a production studio for their UsTube show. Now, it was packed with strange equipment that she did not recognize at all.

"My lab," explained Mason, when he noticed her stopped at the door with a look of confusion on her face. "This is where I do most of my work to… my work to find a way to bring - bring my sister back…" She nodded, not sure what to say to that. "Soos and his family are on vacation. Abby's about your age so some of her clothing would probably fit you, her room's just down the hall." Mabel nodded again, then glanced up. The unraveling sweater spiraled above her, taking the place of the ceiling.

"Can you get me a ladder while I go get some clothes?" asked Mabel. "I want to try something."

"Sure thing," he said.

She headed off down the hall. The rest of the Mystery Shack was much as she remembered it. The outdated appliances of the kitchen remained the same. The living room still had the couch, although it looked a little worse for wear, and a holographic tv.

Her hand touched the doorway. Her eyes found the peeling wallpaper and the cracks in the joints.

Six years since Bel had... since she had passed away. That's what Dipper had said. Had she been gone for six years? No, only five. She had been back the year after Bel had died, she was sure. It seemed like every time she skipped a day in her world, five went by in this one.

This was the second time she had come to sweater town with no body to inhabit. She was here now and Bel wasn't. Mabel put a hand over her heart and felt the soft beat of it within her chest. She was definitely alive. So the question, nagging at the back of her brain was, who was she?

She wasn't Bel because she couldn't be, right? Bel was gone. She looked down at her hands as if trying to see something she had missed.

Mabel shook her head. She didn't have time to think about this. It felt important that she knew who she was. But one problem at a time. The first problem, new clothing that would fit her. She stopped as her path split at the bottom of the stairs, one way led towards Abby's room and the other… the other up to her room.

Plan B. With quick steps Mabel dashed up the stairs to the attic. There was something she needed for her crazy plan, a single item that had to be here. Without even pausing she flung the door open to find her shared room on the other side. It looked just like she remembered it from all the previous visits.

She lingered for only a moment at the door and noticed that Bel's half of the room remained unchanged. That was just what she was hoping for. She hurried to the closet and flung it open. Frantically, she searched through the hanging clothing before she realized these were Mason's belongings.

There was a moment of panic that he had indeed gotten rid of her stuff. Their parents after all had waited only a week to start boxing up Dipper's things. Then she realized that Bel had her own closet on the other side of the room. That made sense. It had been a storage area in the time Mabel had been there, in her world. But it had since been converted into a walk-in closet.

And what a walk in it was. Packed with sweaters and shoes and shirts and dresses and WOW, WOW, WOW!

"No! Focus, Mabel!" she said, giving herself a slap on the cheek. Her eyes moved across the hanging garments. She found it! It was here, it was - she yanked the fuchsia colored garment out of place but discovered it was a dress, not a sweater. She frowned.

She continued searching but the one she needed the most was absent. She searched the drawers, after all, she had a special place for her sweater. But no, it wasn't there either.

She stood panting in the center of the closet. The once well organized storage space was now a tumbled mess upon the floor. It wasn't here. So much for plan B. She just had to hope the other two ideas had more success.

She hurried back downstairs and nearly sprinted towards Abby's room. She found it just a few doors down. Melody's daughter had taken over their Great Uncle's study. It was the room that Mabel and Dipper had once fought over. The room with the carpet that had switched around their bodies. The room where Ford had revealed the terrible truth to her about everything. And she had chosen to only believe some of it.

Of course, all of the room's original contents were gone - including that stupid carpet. She glanced around at the posters hanging on the walls for bands she had never heard of (wait, was that one a vintage Sev'ral Timez poster?), shows she had never seen (and that one looked like a reboot of the ducktective series, now with a female duck lead) and movie posters (OH WOW! High School Boy SingSong Twelve: The Music Never Ends It Goes On and On and…). The room was a slight mess, which reminded her of her brother.

It was a cool room, the kind of room she might have. In fact, a lot of it reminded her of her own room back in California. There hadn't been many videos of Abby on the phone but Bel had always spoken fondly of her. And that one time she had been here, Dip - Mason, had said they were like family to her. Cool. That was pretty cool.

If things really went sideways and she had to go with crazy plan C maybe she would get to spend some time with the girl. Maybe they could even be friends. That would be neat, hanging out with Soos's daughter, it would be like having a sister. Dipper had never made a great sister.

She reached the small closet and started searching it for what she needed. Abby's clothing was just about her size. She couldn't do the math in her head but they had to be close to the same age. It didn't take her long to find things she liked. She picked out a simple blue undershirt. Abby did have a couple sweaters but Mabel was still holding out hope for finding Bel's shooting star. She also grabbed a pair of fashionable purple shorts. She would have preferred a skirt but some days required shorts.

The only shoes that appeared to be in the closet were some well used hiking boots, not her usual attire but there wasn't much choice. And finally some plain white socks and underwear. Abby owned a lot of glittery underwear and Mabel sure did like sparkly things. But wearing someone else's clothing was already strange enough. Again, her brain helpfully reminded her she had been doing that every time she had come here.

Fully dressed in clothing that wasn't too loose and not too tight, Mabel headed back towards the door. She had one last glance around the room when something she had missed caught her eye. She changed direction and moved towards the nightstand beside the bed.

It was actually, two things. The first thing was a framed picture of Abby, Mason and Bel. Mabel picked the picture frame up to get a better look at it, her brow furled with worry. They… they looked like a family. The twins hugging the little girl between them. They looked like a mom, a dad… a daughter. And… and, this girl… she looked almost exactly like Mabel did right now.

Melody and Soos had named their child after her but Mabel had never expected the girl to look so much like her! The resemblance was almost uncanny. She even had braces and was wearing a pink sweater with an eight pointed, rainbow-colored, star on its front. And why weren't Melody or Soos in this picture?

Tiny alarm bells were buzzing in her brain. She felt an incredible urge to just put the thing down and hurry back to her brother like she had never seen it. The clock was ticking and she didn't have a lot of time to just stand around. The world literally wasn't going to wait for her. Mabel felt her hand half move to put the picture back.

NO! This was important. Something here was important. The buzzing stopped and her eyes shifted to the other thing on the nightstand.

Still holding the family photo in one hand her fingers brushed the cover of a maroon journal that had been left beside it. There was a gold foil, eight pointed star, and the number 1 on the front. Her fingers trembled as she touched the edge.

Abby had shown her this book before. The little girl, she had been seven(?) at the time. She had wanted Mabel and 'uncle' Dipper to go on an adventure with her. Dipper had told her no and Mabel had forgotten about it.

Don't open it! Don't look!

She flipped it open. Inside, on the first page was a simple line of printed text. The first part looked professionally done, as if it were printed onto the page by a machine, but the second part was in the hand of a young child. The letters had all been done in lavender color and there were hearts and stars and stickers all around it. The inscription read:

Property of: Abigail Mabel Pines

Mabel took a step back from the book. What the heck? WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL!

She stood there in shock, her brain reeling, her mind flipping over. Why… why did Abby - Soos and Melody's daughter - have her last name?

Mabel's eyes flicked back to the picture clutched tightly in her other hand. Her eyes locked on the smiling, laughing faces staring at her from behind the glass. She felt her whole body tense as her brain prepared her for the realization it was about to unleash. She felt her head shaking back and forth, not wanting to accept what she already knew was the truth.

She snatched the journal off the nightstand and almost sprinted back to her brother's lab. She wouldn't believe it, she was wrong. This was impossible this - she skidded to a stop in the doorway, panting and out of breath from the short run.

Mason was setting up the ladder she had asked for, he had his back to her. She had almost forgotten about why she had wanted it, about everything else that was going on.

"MASON!" she shouted. She hadn't meant to shout, it had just come out that way. He jumped slightly and turned to look at her.

"Oh hey, I wasn't sure where you wanted me to..." began Mason but he trailed off as he saw what she was holding. She watched his eyes widen slightly. "Oh crap..."

"I think there may be something you and Bel might have forgotten to tell me about," said Mabel. Mason tilted his head. "Or lied to me about. What the heck is this?" She shook the picture furiously at him.

"Bel? Wow, that's a way better name," Mason said. Mabel let out a an 'ahem!'of irritation, shaking the items at him again.

"Why does Soos and Melody's daughter look exactly like me?" asked Mabel, taking several steps forward. Her boots clunked angrily on the wood floor until they were silenced by the carpet. Her voice was unnaturally high and she thought she had done a good job of saying actual words instead of just screeching at him. "Why does this journal say her last name is Pines! Dipper! What the who-ha-heck is going on?!"

"Do we really have time for - " Mason began. Her eyes widened dangerously and she took another step towards him, her arms shaking the two items at him in frustration. Mason took an involuntary step backwards in fear, then looked away, ashamed. "She's our daughter." The journal and picture frame slipped from her hands. Thankfully, Mason was fast enough and he managed to catch the picture before it hit the floor. The journal bounced harmlessly on the carpet.

"I'm sorry, she's our - WHAT!" shouted Mabel, feeling numb all over.

"Our daughter," Mason repeated. "You, Mabel… when she - before our first year of college, I might have accidentally - well, you know. Knocked her up." Mabel shook her head in disbelief at what she was hearing. Then she remembered the videos. The pregnancy scare and the negative test results. Bel had said… Bel had lied to her.

No. No Bel had wanted to tell her. She even might have told her but that was the year Mabel had also smashed Bel's phone and all those videos had been lost.

"You never told me!" cried Mabel angrily. "No worse! You lied to me! Why in the rainbow-sprinkled-cupcakes did you not tell me?!"

"It's compli - "

"Oh, don't you play that card with me bro-jerk," she punched him in the arm. "Ain't nothin more complicated than this whole mess going on right now, okay?" She held out her arms and waved them to indicate the crazy situation going on around them.

"Right…" muttered Mason, rubbing his arm and calming himself down, "that's a good point. Okay, look. Your phone is only so safe, we couldn't risk someone finding out the truth. It would destroy her life."

"She doesn't even know she's our daughter?" cried Mabel in shock.

"She knows she's your daughter," said Mason. "I mean, my Mabel. Bel? Abby just thinks I'm her uncle. Everyone thinks I'm her uncle. Uh, I mean, I am, technically. But she doesn't know I'm also her dad, no one does… Except Ford… nothing slipped past him. But everyone else knows she's your daughter. That would have been a little hard to hide."

"Except from me," muttered Mabel.

"Yeah," said Mason, rubbing his neck uncomfortably. "Me and Mabel both agreed it was too much for you to find out you had a daughter that you could only see once a year. Especially when we realized you couldn't keep coming back forever. Eventually, you would lose her." Mabel didn't know how to feel about losing a daughter she never knew, how would that feel? Because right now, it felt pretty terrible.

"Mabel, uh, Bel, she wanted to tell you, she even did once! But when you broke her phone she lost the videos… and I sort of convinced her not to tell you again." Mabel frowned but Mason continued.

"Look, as far as everyone else, we just told them the father ran off and you decided to keep the baby. You couldn't give her up. Which, I mean, that part was true. You - she couldn't give her up. It was your idea - I mean, you know what I mean. Her idea to lie about the father. There was no way anyone could know the truth about that. Or anything about our relationship, obviously.

"And we got to raise our daughter together. I just got to be an uncle instead of her dad," Mason shrugged, but he looked more than a little hurt.

"And where is she right now?" asked Mabel.

"In California with grand - with mom and dad," said Mason. "She's been going there for summer ever since… After you - after Mabel passed away." There was so much more Mabel wanted to ask, wanted to know about her secret daughter. A daughter that was the same age as her. But… there wasn't time for that. Her eyes drifted back up to the ceiling.

Plan A was a no go. Not because it wouldn't work - well, it probably wouldn't have worked anyhow - but because she couldn't do it. Not now that she new the truth about Abby. She couldn't drag him back to her world. He would hate her. She would hate herself.

That just left her with the other two crazy ideas. One of them needed a little extra help that she hadn't found yet and the other - she narrowed her eyes as she searched the sweater ceiling - the other was just in reach above her.

"Dipper, I mean, Mason," said Mabel seriously, her eyes still locked on the sweater ceiling. "Do you know where my shooting star sweater is?" Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Mason frown.

"It was cremated with Bel," said Mason. "It meant so much to her, I couldn't have kept it without her." Mabel nodded. So much for Plan B. She hadn't known what to do with it anyhow.

"We aren't done talking about this," said Mabel. "But later. Move the ladder over here, closer to the side of the room." Mason looked relieved for the change in focus and moved the ladder to where she was pointing, right next to the wall.

"What are you hoping to find here?" asked Mason in confusion as she started to climb.

"A way out," she said as she reached the top. Mason let out a gasp as she stood just below the very top of the ladder, which clearly announced that it was not a step. She was probably going to have to use it as a step though.

"How - How are you doing that!" cried Mason from below. She looked down at him.

"How am I doing what?" she asked, but he didn't respond. "Mason?" Still he didn't answer, he just looked at her in confusion. She took a few steps down.

"You just - you moved through the ceiling like some kind of ghost!" cried Mason. She looked up. There wasn't a ceiling above her, there was just a swirling mass of sweater - OH, he couldn't see it. She lifted her hand.

"Do you see my hand going through the ceiling?" asked Mabel. Mason nodded. "It isn't a ceiling for me." A strange thought occurred to her and she smiled. "It's like that wall! The edge of sweater town that you could walk through, it's the same for me." Mason frowned, clearly trying to remember what she was talking about, then his eyes lit up.

"Wait, sweater town is here too?" he asked. She nodded.

"Yeah, it's not just outside, it's inside. I can never get away from it," she explained. "But that might actually work out for us. She climbed back up the ladder. "If I can find what I'm looking for here maybe we - "

"I can't hear you!" called Mason. She sighed. Alright, well, she could talk to him afterwards about it. She glanced around the edges of the room. Where the top of the wall ended into sweater town must be the ceiling for Mason, which meant from her knees up she must appear to be submerged inside the ceiling. And apparently he couldn't hear her.

She needed to see if this would work. Outside, the sweater stretched away in every direction. It towered up high into the sky, so high that it reached above the clouds, if there had been any clouds. She could never reach the neck hole outside.

Mabel glanced around taking in the strange sight. The four walls of the room all ended at the same height, the place where the ceiling must be. Beyond them was just a flat darkness, not the other rooms of the house. It was as if only this one room existed and nothing beyond it was real. Far off in the distance was the great inner dome of sweater town.

When she had been down on the floor looking up the sweater had seemed smaller. But now that she was up above the ceiling it was just as massive as outside. She moved up to the last, not-really-a-step, step. The ladder wobbled slightly beneath her feet. Still, maybe she could just reached out and - she moved her hand towards the fabric but she couldn't reach it. She leaned further over, her arm fully outstretched. It seemed so close and yet -

The ladder toppled sideways as she overextended her reach beyond the wall. She let out a yelp of surprise as she began to fall. She slammed into the top of the wall and her arms reflexively wrapped over the top, holding onto it. There was nothing under her feet and her body dangled in what must have seemed to be a very strange way to her brother.

"I got you Mabel," cried Mason. Mabel felt him grab her feet and put his shoulders under her boots. She felt the pinching weight come off her arms as he lifted her. "Are you okay up there?"

"YES!" Mabel shouted back.

"I still can't hear you," said Mason. "How about tap me with your left foot if everything is okay, right foot if you're not and I'll pull you out." She gently lifted her left foot and put it back down. "Alright, if anything goes wrong, just let me know."

Stabilized once more, Mabel stretched forward as far as she could. Her arm reached out towards the distant fabric but while it had looked so close from below, now that she was dangling from the impossible wall she could see it was not close at all. It was just as far away here as it was outside. Her eyes finally looked down over the wall she was hanging from and into the infinite, impossible darkness below.

It was hard to look away. She could feel it, deep down inside her. That darkness, it was true nothingness. She watched threads tumble down into it and vanish, forever. She tapped Mason with her right foot and felt him instantly move and adjust his position to lower her down.

It was not elegant or comfortable but she pushed herself off the top of the wall and half toppled back to the ground, Mason only just managing to keep her from outright falling.

"What - what happened?" asked Mason, panting slightly with the effort of having held her up for so long. "What did you see?" She shook her head, not wanting to think about that horrible darkness.

"Not what I was hoping for," said Mabel. Well, there went plan C. Poop-baskets, she was completely out of ideas on what to do next.

"I have to say, I've seen some really strange things but that… okay, actually, it's not even in my top ten… or top twenty… still it was pretty weird," said Mason. "So, what were you trying to do anyhow?"

"Every time I come back, my sweater has gotten more and more… messed up," Finished Mabel lamely, not finding the right word for it. Mason nodded. "There are all these rips and tears in it. I think - I think that maybe if I go through one of those rips… well, I don't know what'll happen exactly. I've never been able to leave this world under my own power before, it just sort of happens - "

"At midnight," injected Mason. "Mostly."

"Yeah, so, I thought, maybe, if I can reach the edge of sweater town, I don't know... I might be able to go through a gap or something?" she said with a shrug. "Then I can reach the world outside."

"What?" he asked.

"When sweater town comes apart I won't be inside it and maybe… maybe I would stay here," she said.

"Mabel… why… why would you want that?" he asked.

"Because I can't go back without you," said Mabel. She looked away and muttered, "And I can't take you with me." Mason frowned. "So, maybe I can stay here and… I know I'm not Bel but at least you would sort of have your sister back..." She couldn't read his expression. He just looked at her with a sort of sadness in his eyes. "And I would have my brother back…

"But it won't work," she said, shaking her head. "It thought the sweater would be smaller here, but, it's just the same size. It's just an illusion that the room makes it smaller. The neck hole, the edges, they are all miles and miles away, there's no way I can reach them!" Mabel shook her head in defeat, every one of her plans had failed so far. How the heck did Dipper do it, making plans was so hard!

"No way you can reach them in here," said Mason to himself.

"What?" she asked, not following.

"You said you see the sweater inside and out, right?" Mason asked, she nodded. "So, do they match inside and out?" She looked at him in confusion, then shrugged.

"Maybe?" she admitted. "Do you remember that time we went on like day long hike out to the middle of nowhere for you? Well, I was trying to head for a rip I saw from the inside, but, with the trees in the way it was harder to see outside. I don't know if we got off track or if it doesn't match up."

"That was at least ten miles away," he muttered, with a nod. He turned and looked around the room for something. "It's already well past noon so there's no way we could walk to it but maybe… hold on."

He moved to one of his walls and yanked a map off it. Pins and string and notes and photos cascaded down onto the floor as he pulled it free. He came back over to her with the map and spread it out on the floor. He shuffled it around, before finally spinning it over.

"Right," said Mason. He tapped his finger on a red dot. "That's the Mystery Shack. And from how far we traveled last time and as you've described it, it sounds like it's centered around here." He pushed a pin into the red dot and knotted a piece of string around the pin. Holding the string tight he took a pen and drew a huge circle on the map around the red dot.

"That's a ten-ish, mile boundary," he said. "Everything in that circle is inside of sweater town." She glanced at it, still not following. "You said you tried to head for a rip last time, where's it at?" She shrugged. "Which direction, point to it."

She pointed and he matched up her pointing along the map. He ran the string out in the direction she was pointing then he marked an 'X' where the two lines crossed.

"And you're sure it's going to be in the same direction?"

"The inside and outside have always matched before," she said.

"There's an access road we can take," he said. He was sliding his finger along the map, tracing the route. "It won't get us all the way but we would be within a mile or so and it will be much faster than walking."

"Alright," she said. She looked up again, her eyes swept across the many rips and gashes in her sweater world. There might not even be time to drive out but she didn't have a lot of other options. She knelt down and picked up the fallen journal with the star on it. "Let's go."


Mason drove, Mabel being far too young and too small to see over the dashboard. The last vehicle they had owned was a van. She remembered images of it on Mason's phone. This car was a Geep, a very inexpensive off-road, four-wheel-drive, vehicle. It had originally been designed for the military and later adapted into a civilian car. It also, as Mason mentioned, had belong to Bel. Hence, why it was pink.

They sped down the narrow streets, trees flying past on either side, sweater looming ominously in the distance ahead. Mabel continued to watch the threads rain down like tube shaped snow from above.

"So, Abby," said Mabel as casually as she could as they drove. She noticed Mason's grip tense on the wheel as she said it. "What's she like?"

"Smart, funny, she has your creativity and my drive for the supernatural," said Mason. "We used to take her on some of our adventures but… when I shifted my focus to getting you back a lot of that stopped.

"She goes out and has her own adventures," he continued. His eyes fell on the journal that Mabel had brought along. "You made that journal with her when she was five. After you - after Bel passed away, she made another one, she said that book was only for the two of you and that without her mom she would never change any part of it. I guess a little bit like the videos that Bel left for you.

"Your passing hit her pretty hard," Mason's voice broke as he talked. "It hit everyone pretty hard. I mean, we knew it was coming but there wasn't anything we could do. I worked on trying to find a cure but… I mean, whole companies with a lot more time and resources have been working on finding the magic cure for cancer for decades.

"We got lucky though, in some ways. This kind of brain cancer usually has some horrible side effects other than being fatal. But Bel never suffered any of them. I was convinced you were holding it back. When you were here, she was just like her old self. That's why I was so excited to see you.

"Anyhow. After I lost Bel, things just weren't the same between me and Abby. We hardly talk anymore. She's always out of the house or locked up in her room. And I guess I wasn't a lot better, hiding in my lab, working on trying to get my sister back. Every time I saw Abby, she just reminded me of the sister I lost."

They fell into silence and Mason wiped at his eyes.

"And how did we get along?" asked Mabel, clutching the journal in her hands. She hadn't opened it again. "Bel and Abby I mean."

"Great," said Mason with a genuine smile. "She made Bel so happy. There are a bunch of videos of you two doing stuff together... or there should be." Mabel frowned. She had hardly seen anything with Abby in them, just a few of when she had been very young. "They might be in a different folder. Remember that all those videos Bel made were just for you. The stuff with Abby was for everyone."

They turned off the main street and onto a dirt road. Mason had to reduce speed and it was a lot more bumpy. There wasn't a lot of talking to be done with the added noise. She had intended to read some entries from her daughter's journal but just looking down was making her feel car sick.

"I think you two would have really gotten along," continued Mason, speaking loudly to be heard over the added noise of the dirt road. "Heck, you're the same age as her. You even look like her." Mabel didn't answer, she didn't know what to say to that. Her very brief interactions with Abby had given her almost no insight about the girl.

She wanted to talk some more, to learn more about the daughter she didn't know anything about. Plus, it felt so good to be able to talk again! But Mason slowed down and pulled to a stop.

"This is it, the end of the road." Mason parked the car off to one side. There was still clearly more road ahead of them. She gave him a confused look. "I mean, this is the point closest to where we need to go." She smiled at him and nodded.

They got out of the Geep. Mabel debated about taking the journal with her but decided to leave it in the car instead. It was important to Abby and if this didn't work, she didn't want it to vanish into nothingness. Mabel felt a shudder go down her spine. She wished she hadn't had that last thought.

Mason spread the map across the hood. He tapped it with a finger.

"We aren't far now, maybe five or six minutes on foot," he said. He adjusted something around the edge of his watch. He noticed her looking at him and he smiled. "Also has a built in compass." He held up the watch for her to see. It was the same one she had seen him wearing for years and years now but she had never been able to ask about.

"I always see you with that thing," said Mabel. He smiled sadly.

"You got them for us," he said, she raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, originally, on our fourteenth birthday, you got us a pair of adventure watches! And a few months later you lost yours. But I kept mine. Come on, it's this way."

Mason led them off into the forest. She could see the sweater wall getting closer whenever she looked up. Now she just had to hope they were actually heading to the right spot. It turned out that her brother was right on all accounts. It was a very short walk and they arrived right at the tear in the hem.

Mabel had hoped that with the rip, she would be able to see beyond the wall. However, that was not the case. There was a rip here and there was golden light pouring out of it but there didn't seem to be another side.

"I - I can see it," whispered Mason. Mabel felt a jolt of surprise. He moved towards the tear and stopped well short of it. "Like a faint glow in the air." He reached out a hand and touched it. With a yelp he quickly pulled his arm back and shook it. "My fingers are numb." He wiggled his hand, trying to get sensation to return. She walked up beside him.

"Can you see what's beyond it?" she asked. Her eyes swept across the sweater wall. It stretched high into the sky and off into the distance on either side.

"Yeah," said Mason. "It's just more forest ahead of us, but right here," he held up his hands towards the glowing rip, pointing at its edges, "I can see like a faint triangle of light and just left and right a transparent, something… Are you really going to go through it?"

"Yes," said Mabel with a determined nod that she hoped gave the impression of her being way more confident than she was. "If I just wait here, I think I'll lose everything. That I'll lose you. This might be my only chance to stay."

She moved towards the tear, standing just feet from the rip in reality so that Mason was behind her. This was it, she was going to do this. No turning back now. Because she knew that if she did she would grab her brother with all her might and never let him go. She would just hold onto him until the end.

"Mason," said Mabel. "I don't know what's going to happen to me. Bill gave me the power to come here but he never told me how it works, or how to use it." She hugged herself. "Even if I made all this happen, it all just sort of happened. I never meant to…" She hugged herself tighter. "I don't want to lose you again!" She felt his hand rest on her shoulder and she almost - ALMOST- turned to hug him. But then she never would have let him go.

"I know," whispered Mason, his grip tightening slightly. "I don't want to lose you either." She put her hand on his, giving his fingers a squeeze. She was afraid that once he released her, she would lose him. The world trembled under her feet and she could sense the end coming. If she was going to go, she had to go now. She released his hand and he let go of her shoulder.

"See you on the other side," Mabel whispered.

She moved towards the gap, feeling it's warm light radiating over her body. This was it. Her last moments in sweater town. She walked towards the shining light, stopping just inches in front of it. She put her hands against it and felt the warmth beyond. Right. Right, she was doing this…

she was…

she...