Chapter 6 - Yami's Reasons

AN: This is probably the darkest story I have written for the Gravity Heroes universe. As a warning there will be death and blood in this chapter.

San Francisco, CA Friday July 13th, 2012 5:30 PM

Glavis Family Antiques

The storefront was built into the ground floor of a three story building that also housed the owner's family. The right most window had the stores name etched into it and covered in gold leaf. Inside the shop was clean and spaced out. There were painting and antique mirrors on the wall and cases filled with nearly every type of historical knick-knacks. There were crystal bowls, vases from many different eras, first editions of several books, a few antique weapons, and even some furniture.

Ariel Glavis was sharply dressed in a dark blue pinstripe skirt and light blue silk top, with her blond hair in a tight bun and thin wire rim glasses over her blue eyes she looked every bit of the professional business woman. It wasn't her style of dress though that brought back customers to the store, it was her pleasant, outgoing personality. She was currently walking around carefully dusting the place since the shop didn't have any customers.

Her husband Randall was dressed in khakis, a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a black vest. He was almost the opposite of his loving wife, an introvert for the most part he was really most happy when he was arms deep working on new supplies and what ever recent purchase he was able to acquire. He was in the back room going over some new inventory he had purchased at an estate sale in New Mexico the week prior. He had went at the request of a regular and valuable customer who was in London on business at the time of the sale.

Their son James was to put it simply was an otaku. Outside of school he was rarely seen without a volume of manga, a game guide, or whatever emulator game he was currently obsessed with playing on his tablet. He was in a pair of baggy shorts and a Jawbreaker Situation t-shirt. The last his parents had seen of him, he was upstairs watching some anime he had bought with the birthday money, Mrs Ruperts, one of his dad's regular customers had sent for him last week.

"Ariel, honey, you should see some of this stuff that was in the blind lots I bought.", Randall said as he walked into the front room carrying a few silver and gold candle sticks n and setting them on display. "I know I went there to pick up a few items that Gillian wanted, but I'm really glad I was able to pick up these other lots."

"Sounds good dear," Ariel said as she walked over to examine the new items. It was her job to price them and she needed to get a good look so she could get an idea of what she could price them at and still have some wiggle room if the customer tried to haggle. "So I was thinking of ordering some Korean Barbeque for dinner tonight."

From the back room she heard Randall say, "Sounds good dear" in a voice she knows means he is distracted by whatever he was currently finding in the blind lot boxes.

"And I plan on running away with the delivery boy once he gets here," She called out in a sing song voice just to see how much was paying attention.

"Sounds good dear," Randall called back as he pulled out an ancient obsidian dagger that looked like it may have been either Aztec or Incan in origin, but it had a deer skin sheath that definitely was Native American in origin. He then realized what she had said and put the knife down on a well covered frame that he hadn't opened and went into his wife and started to tickle her.

"Not at work honey, we could have a customer come in at any time.", She said as she batted his hands away.

"Well then you need to not tease me, honey." Randall said giving her a peck on the cheek before heading back to his work.

Gravity Falls, OR

Portal Room

"...everything I care about, it's all for this family"

"I trust you."

"What…? Who is that?"

"The author of the journals, my brother."

San Francisco, CA

Glavis Family Antiques

At the time the portal opened a wave of paranormal energy was released through out the world. Most people didn't even notice it, those who were slightly attuned shivered as if someone had walked over their grave, and those that were highly attuned and long practitioners of other worldly arts felt a temporary boost in there energy. But the living were not the only ones to gain the vitality the opened portal provided. Many haunted residences seem to become more active for a few days after the energy the portal released was dissipated. One such being was a poltergeist that had at one time resided in the house from which Randall had recently made his purchase, though for the last few decades it had been trapped in a mirror by a young scientific minded college student who had been spending his spring break out examining unknown phenomenon. The energy from the portal was the boost it needed to try and break the bonds placed on it.

As Randall returned to the back he saw dagger he had placed on the frame was missing. While he was looking he saw that the door leading upstairs was opened so he walked over and yelled up, "James, did you come down stairs a moment ago?"

"No, is something wrong dad?", James said as he paused his DVD and walked over to the stairway to better hear his father.

"Not really, I just seemed to have misplaced something. Your mom is thinking Korean for dinner tonight, ok.", Randall called back up.

"Cool," James said as he walked back to his room. He lost himself in thought for a moment as he thought about where his mother was going to order from, 'Maybe Areum, will be on delivery today. If so I may actually be able to work up the courage to say more than keep the change to her for once. Yeah, right. A crush from a freshman she only knows through her families restaurant and a weekly tai chi class is all a junior is gonna want. Especially from a geek like me.'

Before he could continue berating himself he decided to go back to his anime before he ended up down in the dumps.

Downstairs

"Ok, think Randall. Where did you last put the knife," Randall was asking himself as he started to search the room. In his distracted state he didn't notice the glow coming from the wrapped frame or the fact that it seemed to be slowly rising off of the table it was sitting on. As he finally turned around he was staring into the now unwrapped wooden frame silver mirror, but the image staring back at him was not his own. He was staring at a pale, freckle faced, raven haired child dressed in clothes that would seem right at home in the Civil War. The most frightening thing was the malicious glint in his eyes. The next thing he saw was the mirror slamming into his face and everything going dark as a voice that was not his own said, "This will do nicely."

Ariel had just locked the front door and turned the sign to closed when she heard the crash. She rushed into the back room and saw her husband laying on the floor under what appeared to be a wooden frame. She rushed over to him to see if he was alright as she said, "Randy are you ok, honey?"

Lifting the frame off of him she saw his face was covered with fresh cuts and a big shard of the mirror was stabbed into his left shoulder. The most disturbing thing though was the crazed look in his eyes as he looked at her and said, "I'm just fine dear, do you want to play with me?'

she started to back up as his body just floated off of the ground and landed on it's feet. He reached up and pulled the shard of mirror out of his shoulder and began to move towards her slowly, "What's wrong? Am I not good enough for you to play with? All I want is a friend!"

"Stay back," Ariel said as she backed into her husband's desk and searched for something to defend her self with, but all she could find was a dulled letter opener.

"I know, let's play field surgeon.", the voice that was not her husband's said from his body as he slashed at her with the glass shard. She let out a scream that was cut short as the shard struck home.

"Mom, what's wrong?", James yelled as he ran down the stairs in time to see his mother fall lifeless from his father's grasp. "MOM!"

"Oh look another one to play with," His father's body said as it turned around. James saw glass bits sticking out of his face. From his shunted walk and the weird voice he knew that it was no longer his father, a lesson anime taught him. The new voice continued, "and with his energy I shall have collected enough playmates to move to the better life I was promised."

James started running towards the front door, never head back into the house when being chased by a mad man. It's always better to get out in the open where there are witnesses and potential defenders. Yet another lesson learned from horror manga and movies. He had take four steps when something fell from the ceiling into his hand, it was a knife wrapped in deerskin. He had just about reached the door out of the backroom when a force grabbed him and slammed him against the back wall. Whatever the force was it held him up off of the ground against the wall. Pieces of the glass on the floor floated up in front of him and one by one flew at him only to imbed itself in the wall somewhere near his body. It was as if the thing was playing with him.

"Why are you doing this?", James asked as he tried to struggle free. He still had the knife in his left hand if he could just use it.

"Why new friend, in order to get a chance to be able to play forever.", the voice said as he walked closer to the boy pinned to the wall, "All I ever wanted to do was play, but mt father never let me play the fun games. He said I was touched for what I wanted to play. None of my friends ever wanted to play with me more than once no matter how I tried. They always broke. Then one day a voice spoke to me and I was given a purpose, way way to be able to play as long as I wanted. The voice told me as long as I was able to collect enough of my playmates, I would be able to join it in a place where my type of playing was normal. Unfortunately I was stopped before I could collect too many playmates, but with my new purpose I was able to stay around and continue to collect playmates."

He pulled up the shirt the body was wearing and James saw several faces, including his mothers, distend from his father's stomach., "You will be the special one, the one that will send me to my reward."

The creature in his father was now standing with in reach of him and grabbed his shirt to rip it off of him. He them pulled one of the mirror shards and cut James under his right eye in order to frighten him even more. Deciding it was time to stop playing and to finally earn his reward the voice had promised. He pulled the boy lower and quickly bit down into his left shoulder and began gnawing away at the muscle.

"ARGH," James screamed as he felt a part of his psyche try to burst through. Not wanting to die without fighting back he did the only thing he was able to do in the position he was in, he bit back. The creature reared back in pain as it felt not only blood leave from the body it was in but the loss of some of the energy it had gained just before it was able to break the mirror. This energy was all the part of his psyche needed and it burst forth, a wave of shadow flowed from every darkened part of his body and flung the creature across the room where it landed with a sickening snap. He fell to the floor, but quickly got to his feet. With his left arm in pain he was barely able to grip the sheath on the knife so that he could pull the blade free, he didn't want to risk it being able to attack him again.

He then saw the spirit of his father rise up out of his body, "I'm so sorry James, this has all been my fault. Please don't blame yourself, you did it in self-defense."

James next saw a young boy no older than ten or eleven float out behind his father. As he watched the boys clothes began to darking as if they were being soaked in blood. As James saw the boys stomach writhe, the boy spoke, "Well since I can't have yours, I will just take his spirit. It should still please the voice."

Jame jumped out if instinct and stabbed the dagger into the stomach of the poltergeist, he watched as all of the spirits the ghost had trapped all spilled forth and seemed to disappear into a point of white light. The poltergeist, realizing his dreams were fading away attempted to attack James, only to have his father grab it as he headed towards the light.

"I'm glad I was able to protect you one final time," his dad said as he vanished into the white light, just before it disappeared.

From the front room he heard a voice call out, "Ariel, Randall, James, is someone there. The door was open so I let myself in. I'm here to pick up my...", Gillian Ruperts voice fell as she walked into the back room and saw the scene before her.

She rushed over to the boy and looked him over before asking, "What happened?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," James said through clenched teeth, as his shoulder was aching and he was feeling as if his own will to live was fading.

"Sana Vulnera," Gillian said as she place a hand on his shoulder and a warm feeling came over the wound healing it but leaving a scar in it's place, "You don't know what I would believe."

The police had investigated the apparent murder/suicide of his parents. He had sold the business, keeping only the obsidian dagger and a silver cavalry cutlass Gillian said had she sensed power within it. Gillian filed to become his legal guardian, due to there being no living relatives. Over the next few months Gillian taught James much about the supernatural world and introduced him to an odd collection of the mystics that she knew. With each introduction he would ask if the practitioner would bless and inscribe a ward againstghosts into the medallion he had made from the silver candle sticks he found as he was leaving the store that day.

This is without a doubt the darkest thing I have written for the GH-verse. I do hope those who read it will not be put off by the story. I was putting my own spin on the back story I was provided by James origin creator, The Keeper of Worlds. I really don't plan on ever getting this dark again, but I won't promise it. Again, Gillian's spells are in latin *and again if it's wrong blame google translate ;-) )

Also remember to check out my other Gravity Falls works:

Gravity Heroes, my main story that features the universe in which these drabbels are based.

I also would feel honored if any of my works inspire any art. If the do I would love to see them. Thanks again to all who have read this far. I have received art now from Siryleleen & Odeebee. These will be posted soon in my Deviant Art account as fan art and credited to them. Thanks again you two. I'm happy to see different interpretations of the characters from the GH AU. The art is now up at fereality. deviantart just remove the spaces.

Again I'd like to give a shout out to EZB, SuperGroverAway, ddp456, & A Pleasant Drean (formerly Popcat131). It was their stories that made me want to get back into writing and to want to start with Gravity Falls. Please check out their stories if you haven't already.

Please review. I'm always open to constructive and helpful criticism, though if you're gonna troll please move on.

On to the reviews. Without further adieu:

Reader The Keeper of Worlds: Thanks. I always thought it would be fun to have that tie in be in place, especially after Mabel's 'I'm no one's Gram Gram!' line in Blendin's Revenge. And actually with Mabel's mystical abilities who knows which one of the twins could be his ancestor. Yes temporal reality clause and the chaos theory are both fun to play with.

I do hope you like my take on the back story you gave me. I did change the date of the mystical energy release and yes another one did hit around Weirdmageddon. Both of them are actually the cause of a couple events built into the verse.