Gideon tapped his foot, annoyed, as he waited for Bill to arrive. He only had so much time, why was this taking so long?! Maybe he needed to give out a punishment for arriving late, to encourage punctuality.

The demon appeared with a flash, his presence radiating outward. He was laughing maniacally, and Gideon remembered that punishing someone like Bill was an incredibly stupid thing to do.

"Bill!" he snapped. "Have you found anything in Victor's head?"

"Relax, Tent Flap, I've been making progress. Not as much as I'd have hoped, though. Vic is a surprisingly tough nut to crack, and he keeps closing things to me somehow."

"I thought you were supposed to be some all-powerful mind demon! How are you having trouble with a twelve-year-old boy?!" Gideon screeched.

"I am," Bill said, annoyed, and Gideon got the sensation of his skin being pushed off of his flesh, moving increments away from the rest of his body, even though when he looked down, nothing had changed and he was completely fine. It still made him shiver. "This kid, you don't know anything about him?" the triangle asked, his . . . back turned to the boy.

"NO! Why do you think I sent you after him?!"

Bill paused, and then started laughing very, very loudly. Gideon took a step back out of fear. The demon got closer to him, and he started to sweat. "He's not from here," he said quietly, and even though he didn't have a mouth, he gave the impression of a wide grin. "He's from an existence higher than yours, and he knows it. It's gonna be fun cracking him!"

Gideon was too nervous to ask if he meant cracking the mystery or cracking his psyche.

"So calm down. I've got it under control."

"I need results, Cipher."

"And you'll get them. I'm gonna head over right now, you'll see! It'll be a breeze. This kid is gonna be cracked wide open."

With another maniacal laugh, Bill vanished in a burst of light, leaving Gideon sweating on a night cold from the rain.


Vic slumped on the carpet, vaguely recognizing that an old-man western was on, but he was quickly falling asleep from it being very boring, and him not getting enough sleep. Dipper was flipping through the Journal and wincing every time it hit the patch on his arm where he'd gotten scratched by that bat Stan had made him fight. Vic was looking over his shoulder at the various pages.

A new page flipped up, and it made him wake up a little bit more. A familiar bow-tied triangle dominated this page, and it made shivers go up and down his spine.

"Who's that?" he asked, even though he had an idea.

"'Beware of Bill, the most powerful and dangerous creature I've ever encountered. Whatever you do, never let him into your mind,'" Dipper read aloud.

Vic blinked. "And . . . what if he already has been in there?"

Dipper paused and turned to look at him. "What? Vic, have you seen this guy?"

"In my dreams, every so often, looking for something," he yawned out. "I try to make it as hard as possible for him, but . . . I dunno, is it a problem?"

"Is it a problem?! Vic, it says 'never let him into your mind'! Yes, it's a problem!" He stood up and began to pace, reading further. "'It is possible to follow the demon into a person's mind and prevent his chaos. One must simply recite this incantation', yadda yadda yadda . . ." Dipper closed the book with a snap and looked at Vic. "We're gonna have to follow him into your mind to stop him."

"What?! No, I'm—isn't there something else we can do?!"

"The Journal doesn't list any alternatives," he said with a shrug.

"Does he really need to be stopped, though? I—I mean, he hasn't done any harm, not really, and—"

"Vic, the bags under your eyes are bigger than I've ever seen," he said in a deadpan voice, but Vic stayed strong.

"No. You are not entering my head, okay? Not allowed. I don't wanna see you in there."

"Okay," Dipper sighed, though behind his back his fingers were crossed. It was for his own good, right? Vic wouldn't ask for help even if he really did need it, so there would have to be some level of interference.

He just had to wait for Vic to fall asleep.


That ended up being later that night, since the Grandpa the Kid reruns were continuing. Vic nodded off with some quiet snoring, though every so often he would jerk in his sleep. Dipper nudged Mabel and Soos into the other room to give them the rundown. Mabel was completely on-board with the idea and figured he was right to interfere, though Soos seemed more hesitant.

"You sure, dude? He did say not to . . ."

"Soos, he just doesn't know what he needs," Mabel said, patting him on the arm. "Who knows what that evil little triangle is gonna do to him?"

Stan wasn't in the room at the time, so they didn't have to worry about that, but when Dipper crouched by Vic (sleeping much like a cat would on the carpet, all curled up—Mabel awwed when she saw it), his eyes were glowing an unnatural blue and his face was contorted into a grimace.

"He's probably already in there," Dipper said solemnly. "We gotta be fast."

"Yeah!" Mabel cheered.

"A-alright, dudes, if you're sure . . ."

"Get ready, guys." They all placed their hands on his head and Dipper began to read the incantation from the book. "Fidentus omnium. Magis omentium. Magnesium adharminum. Magnum opus. Habeas corpus. Insectus nominus overratus. Magis tremensium, magis tremensium, magis tremensium!"

Glowing blue-white light flooded the room, and within a second everything went black, and Dipper opened his eyes. He was sitting in a strange, black-and-white space, easily the weirdest place he'd ever been. Things floated disjointed from each other, and everything looked staticky. Some architectural elements from the Mystery Shack blended with unfamiliar ones, and Soos pointed out some things from Abuelita's house.

Weirder still, some things looked . . . unnatural. Some looked normal while unfamiliar ones were too detailed with muddled edges that blended together. It looked completely wrong sitting next to mundane objects.

Music floated around the space, too—pop songs and dramatic stings and sound effects of all kinds. It was bizarre and disjointed, and it hurt his head. Not to mention there was some odd pressure pushing down on him.

"Is this what Vic's brain is like?" Dipper asked, in shock.

"What's up with all these . . . blurry things?" Mabel asked, pointing at one of the things that looked out of place.

"Who knows?" Soos replied.

Dipper had the Journal out to try and see if there was anything else helpful written about any of this, but no, it had the incantation and a couple details about Bill, and other than that it was no help.

"Remember, everyone, we've got to look out for the triangle guy," Mabel said.

"Yeah," Dipper and Soos agreed.

"You think we should . . . head in?" she asked.

"Makes sense," Soos nodded, and so the three of them stepped in.

The inside was, if anything, even stranger than the outside. Hallways squished into each other, some going vertically or on the ceiling, with labels floating by sporadically placed doors. Fears, a dark area directly above and only accessible by a precarious set of swirly stairs. Hopes, shining with golden light down a wide, open space. And Memories, floating vaguely around a series of halls.

"Bill could be anywhere in here," Dipper said, sliding the Journal back into his vest pocket. "So, think we ought to split up?"

"I'm taking hopes!" Mabel said, running towards the glowing area. "It sounds like the most fun."

Dipper and Soos exchanged a look. "I'm not going up there, dude," Soos said, sweating a little bit. "It looks too creepy."

"Okay, you'll take memories and I . . . I will be on fears, I guess."

"What do we do if we actually find the guy?" Soos asked.

Dipper paused. "That . . . is a very good question. I dunno, ask him what he's doing in here, try to get him to leave him alone? Something like that?"

"Got it," the handyman said, fixing his cap. "Good luck up there, Dipper."

"Thanks. Remember, he didn't want us in here to begin with, so maybe keep to yourself more than usual?" Soos nodded and turned to go down Memory Lane . . . literally. Dipper turned to look for his sister, but Mabel was nowhere to be found, so . . . yeah. He supposed he wasn't going to be able to put it off any longer.

He began to ascend the broken spiral staircase.


Mabel ran down the Hopes hall, opening a couple doors. She saw little bits of his life, and the music floating around here was right up her alley, all disco and pop and fun.

Man, I hope I never have to see that raccoon again, his disembodied voice echoed around her in the memory of him rubbing some scratches on his face and walking away from the junkyard.

Let's hope I never need to touch this thing again, a disgusted Vic thought floated through in relation to a busted up scooter.

I hope he doesn't mean what I think he means by that . . ., when looking at Stan.

Golden light flooded the area from bright spotlights along the walkway, and weirdly detailed smudges that looked vaguely like statues and books and stuff floated around and sat in stacks and stuff. Photos and bulletin boards floated without any wall to attach to, and a slight breeze made everything flow just a little bit.

Her eye caught on a piece of paper that turned out to be an ad for a school play, with Vic's name scrawled on the top. Is he a drama kid? she wondered. At least she had something knew to talk to him about.

She continued deeper throughout the area, since none of it seemed to be very important and the triangle guy wasn't in there anywhere. The music turned a little less whimsical, though still cheerful and strong. Some doors were actively opening, showing her Vic's various dreams, one of which seemed to be about Dipper forgetting about his crush on Wendy, which she giggled at.

Hopefully she'll like this song, a particularly nervous thought came through, and Mabel turned around to see a door that was tinged darker than the rest. Vic was clutching onto his guitar. I still need to work more on it though. It'll be ready . . . eventually.

"Who is the she?" Mabel wondered aloud, shaking the doorframe. "Do you have a crush?! You gotta tell me so I can ship you!"

The disembodied voice got a little quieter and the door shut closed, turning darker by the moment, and when she reached for the doorhandle it actively pulled away from her hand.

She huffed indignantly and put her hands on her hips. "That's not very nice, Mr. Door. Huh?"

All of a sudden, it shot up into the sky, and for the first time she noticed the darkness up there. It was pure black, and as she looked, the music got significantly less cheerful.

She shivered and continued on, and before long, everything was back to normal.


Soos walked slowly through the Memory hall, every so often opening a door to check if a weird-looking triangle would be behind it. The music here was more mysterious than it had been in the hall, and random junk was piled up to the roof, making him feel like he was in a worm tunnel as he walked through the empty spaces to the next door.

When he did open a door, random snippets of Vic's thoughts or voices of various people in Gravity Falls would come through.

Oops, that's definitely not the right chord.

Ugh, I am so sick and tired of the stupid pining Dipper's doing. Wait. Pining. Pines. You gotta be kidding me.

Mabel Juice: like dubious food, but sparklier.

Sometimes Soos would have to jump over a couple missing floorboards, and a couple sections of wall looked like they were made of badly-played Tetris blocks. Memories of the two of them playing video games on Soos's bed were pretty nice to watch, and his mental commentary on Stan could be funny.

However, before too long, all the familiar shapes and things began to fade away, replaced by the smudgy detailed stuff. The first all-smudge door that Soos opened showed somebody on a bed, though it was really weird. His head was smaller, and his hair was less defined, and he was in a weird place, but the voice coming out of his mouth was Vic's.

Over the phone, someone said, "You have gotta be kidding me, Vic! You seriously haven't seen—?"

The door slid shut completely on its own, and Soos took a step back, surprised. What was that? Why did it look so weird, with such . . . un-crisp edges?

Most of the doors from then on showed that place instead of the familiar world, and Soos gradually came to recognize the Smudgy-Vic from the other smudgy-people, even though they all looked so similar.

"None of this makes any sense, dude, why's all your memories so smudgy and weird?" he asked aloud. Then he looked around and laughed. "Right. In your brain. You don't actually know we're in here."

The evil triangle was nowhere to be found, though, so he just pressed on.


Dipper made his way up the seemingly infinite spiral staircase, into blackness that just kept getting blacker, illuminated only by bursts of red or white or green light in the darkness. The music from down below had all-but vanished here, except for a couple eerie notes playing just high enough for him to have to strain his ears to hear and some terrifying stings that would scare the snot out of him when they came out of nowhere.

All the doors were shut completely tight, and the one time that Dipper had reached for a handle to open it, whispers filled his ears at such volume that he winced and pulled back. Still, he ascended the staircase, all twisted wire and missing steps and broken arms waiting to happen.

After a couple of minutes of climbing into pitch blackness, he came across a door ever so slightly open, swaying slightly and creaking. Dipper peered inside and saw Vic standing on the porch of the Mystery Shack, staring out into the growing twilight. His mumbling voice filled his ears. Most of it was unintelligible, but he managed to catch a couple words.

—Dad—what if—never go home—run away—kidnapped—lucky to get a choice—

It all pressed onto Dipper's head, squeezing him with an incredible pressure. He started to shake, and he closed the door. What was Vic going through? What had he left behind? Come to think of it, he'd never heard him talk about his life before, not really.

Maybe there was a reason he'd wanted them to stay out of his head.

He ignored that part of him and continued climbing the stairs. Up, up, up, until it felt like he'd never see any light other than these creepy flashes. He'd have preferred if there was something, maybe thunder, or roars, or even screams, something other than his beating heart, his panting breath, his footsteps, and those creepy high notes in the background.

Anything. He'd take anything.

Anything but this.


Mabel continued to walk down the Hopes hall. The smudges had gotten more prolific here, though normal Vic things were there a lot too. Most of what she could see anymore was dreams of the future—grand futures where he was a successful songwriter and did groundbreaking things with music or daydreams about being the star in a show.

Smudgy-Vic became pretty common too, and she got to see the dreams associated with that drama poster. Vic being cast as the lead, reciting all his lines perfectly, and everyone being blown away by his performance. It was pretty good, all things considered.

One of the hopes she saw had normal Vic, and his disembodied thoughts were saying, I hope I can get out of here at some point. Gravity Falls is great, but I wanna get back to the real world.

She paused, furrowing her brows and looking closer at that one. It didn't really continue, though, and it just faded and shut, her attention was dragged further down the hall to another door opening, to her and Vic sitting on the bench and laughing as they ate their fries, that one night they'd tried to find the doors.

I hope this'll work; either way, though, at least I'm having fun with Mabel. Ooh, big fry! What if I . . .

The thought trailed off and the door slipped away, going somewhere different, a different section of his subconscious, though it didn't go up like the last one. What if it was going to the Memory section instead? That might make sense. And the first one had gone up, towards the Fears.

Dipper was . . . probably doing fine up there, right? He could survive up there, though, the more she thought about it, it had been kind of selfish of her to leave her paranoid brother with the fears place. He hadn't objected though, so he probably didn't care.

She walked further down the hall, and if anything, the lights grew brighter. An especially shiny door caught her eye, and she tried to open it. It took more strength than she was expecting, but it opened with a pop and his thoughts came out.

I hope I can see my dad again soon. He must be worried sick. All I need to do is finish Gravity Falls, and then hopefully I can head back.

She froze. 'Finish' Gravity Falls? That didn't sound very good, at all. Was he going to destroy the town?! Nah, he didn't strike her as that type. But . . . that was a pretty foreboding way of phrasing that. What could that possibly mean? And why was it stopping him from seeing his dad?

Hang on. She'd never heard him talk about his dad. Why not? What was stopping him from seeing him?

She stepped deeper into the hall, and she started to feel weird about this. She was invading his personal space. They were helping him, sure, and making sure that the triangle guy couldn't hurt him, but . . . what right did she have to plunge into his thoughts?

Another door opened behind her, and she instinctively looked.


Soos became rather invested in the story of Smudgy-Vic, even though he was kind of traveling backwards in time through it. He still hadn't found the evil triangle, but he was getting deeper and deeper into it. Out of respect, he tried to avoid opening all the doors, but man. Smudgy-Vic had an interesting life, and he wanted to see it.

He opened another door and saw a younger Smudgy-Vic sitting on a chair, looking up at his Smudgy-Dad. "Did your session go well with Ms. Lois?" the little kid asked.

"Yeah, pretty good. We've gotten into some pretty deep territory, and she's finally starting to open up." Smudgy-Dad put a plate down in front of Smudgy-Vic. "Come on, eat your food and stop asking me about my day. How was your day?"

"Ooh! Uhhhh . . ." he paused, and his thoughts were fast as they tried to find something to talk about. "Pretty good! Mr. Hawthorne messed up and called me Melon with attendance again, though."

"Is that so? Did you tell him?"

"Yeah, but he's old, so he's probably gonna forget again."

"Vic! That's not nice!"

"Hey, you tell me to be honest and you tell me to be nice, I can't always be both, Dad!"

They both laughed.

"Fair enough. Now eat your food."

"Ugggggghhhh . . ."

"I'm not joking with this one, Vic."

"Fine, I'm eating, I'm eating."

Soos closed the door and continued on, skipping a couple doors before choosing one to open.


Dipper felt like he wasn't going anywhere.

He was stepping up, up, up, but nothing was changing. Everything was just frozen in place, exactly the same as it had been. Even the doors were the same, though if anything, it looked like they were getting closer.

Something tells me Bill isn't up here, he thought, squeezing the cold rail. Maybe this is all there is here, and it's time for me to head back down.

He was all too eager to get out of this creepy place, so he turned around and started to descend. Going down was a different kind of nerve-wracking than going up, since he was more worried about falling down than about what he might find, but at least he had the hope of being out of there soon.

However, his efforts to go down the stairs safely were thrown out the window when a sting came out of nowhere. He nearly jumped out of his skin and lost his balance, leaving him to fall down the stairs.

He braced for impact after impact, but it never came. He slammed into a cold, squishy surface, and he just . . . stayed there. After a second he pushed his face off the ground and tried to stand up, but his feet were stuck in the sticky stuff.

And the darkness. There was a light source, something silvery reflecting off the pure black, but he couldn't see where it was coming from. It was completely black, and it seeped into his bones, chilling him to the core.

And the silence. It pressed in on him, less like a peaceful silence and more like it was being muffled. Like it wasn't supposed to be silent and yet no noise reached his ears. Pure quiet that made him question what normal quiet was like.

Nothingness. Absolute nothingness, except a black sludge that would only reflect light he couldn't see.

He tried to free his legs again so he could move around, but they just sank in further. Even when he tried to go slow on the off chance it was like oobleck, he sunk in further, until he was sunk up to his knees.

"Vic," he whispered into the oppressive quiet as he tried to shove himself out. It was like his words vanished into the nowhere. "Vic, I lied, I'm sorry. Help. Vic."

Silence.

And nothing.


Mabel was getting less and less sure of if the triangle guy was gonna be in the Hopes Hall. She hadn't found him anywhere, and she was getting very uncomfortable with going further into Vic's brain stuff.

"Hey, Mr. Triangle Guy!" she shouted, hands on her hips. "Quit hiding in my friend's brain and just show yourself?"

There was a bit of quiet except for the music which reminded her of the gnomes, which only made her more annoyed. She stood in that state of extreme annoyance for a little bit, until she heard laughter from behind her. She spun around to look for its owner.

"Huh?"

Loud, chaotic laughter bounced around the space around her, and she whirled around and around, trying to find out who was laughing. It just got louder and louder as she struggled, until she finally looked up.

It was the triangle guy.

"Finally! I see why Pine Tree's the smart one!" he said, lowering down to be on level with her. "So, Shooting Star, I'm Bill Cipher, nice to meet you—but you shouldn't be in here."

"Neither should you!" she snapped back.

His eye changed to look like he was grinning and he said, "Ahahaha, you're funny! But seriously, what do you want from Vic?"

"I want you to get out."

He floated uncomfortably close to her and stared her in the eye, squinting. "HMMMMMM . . . how about we make a deal, then? I leave your friend, and in return, you do a couple things for me?"

She paused. It got him out of Vic's head, right? "You'll leave as soon as I do stuff for you? What kind of stuff?"

"Ah, answer a couple questions, look for a couple things, help me get something, you know, little stuff. How's it sound?"

He extended his hand, enwreathed in blue flames, and Mabel stood there, unsure. "I—I dunno, Dipper's book warned us about you—"

"It's a book, what does it know?" he scoffed. "Plus, if you ask me, the guy writing it went a little off the rails near the end. What do you think? You know people better than anyone, right? Does it seem like I would lie?"

I . . . I don't know, she thought, almost paralyzed by her indecision.

"One deal, and then I'm out of his head and you don't have to worry about him anymore. Besides," he added slyly, "I know a couple things about him. Don't you want to know why some parts of his head look so weird? Why his thoughts sound ominous?" He was circling around her slowly at this point.

Mabel looked Bill in the eye. Yes, yes she did, but—

"C'mon, Shooting Star. The better you know him, the better you can help him, get him to overcome his problems, maybe even get him to ask out that girl?" he suggested, snapping his fingers. Behind him, the memory that had gone up into the Fears section came down again and opened, reminding her of his anxiousness about his song.

She was quiet for once.

Bill proffered his hand again, and her eyes fell on it.

One deal. What harm can it do?

She shook it.

"Thanks, kid," Bill said, tipping his hat. "I'll leave for now, and when I wanna cash in one of those favors, you'll know! Reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold BYE!"

He vanished in a flash of light, and Mabel had the feeling that she'd made a mistake with negotiating that deal.


Soos closed the door to another smudgy-memory. He was getting pretty far back at this point, and there was still no sign of that Bill guy, even when he peered all the way down the hallway.

Maybe I should start to head back, he thought, and after a moment of deliberation, he nodded to himself and turned around.

It didn't take long for him to travel back through the hall, even though it felt like he'd been walking for ages before. He got back to the normal-looking memories, and even though he was practically close enough to see the exit, his eyes fell on that last smudgy-memory, the one that had slid shut of its own accord.

Soos stood still for a moment, debating what he was about to do. He found himself looking around to see if Dipper or Mabel or even Vic himself were around, but none of them were, and his gaze found the door again.

"One more," he mumbled. "One more can't hurt."

He stepped forward and reached for the door handle . . .

. . . which immediately dodged him.

The door itself had slid back, trying to avoid being opened, and automatically Soos lunged for it. This time his hand landed on it, and he wrenched open the door to see inside. Smudgy-Vic sat on his bed, on a call with his friend.

"What're you talking about?" Vic asked, one eyebrow raised.

"What?! You have gotta be kidding me, Vic! You seriously haven't seen Gravity Falls? It's only, like, my childhood!"

Soos stared in shock.

"Er . . . no?" Vic asked. "Look, my childhood was Mariokart and Wild Kratts, I didn't get a chance to watch that stuff."

"You must be some kind of uncultured swine. You have to watch it, I'm telling you, it's great. The jokes are spot-on, and the plot is amazeballs once season two rolls around."

"Isn't it just a kid's show?"

"That's besides the point. Anyway, you gotta watch it and tell me who your favorite character is. I'd tell you who mine is, but he's kiiiind of a massive spoiler, so I can't. Just more reason for you to watch it!"

"Okay, okay, stop nerding out on me. I'm literally going to watch it right now, calm down."

"Okay! Byyyyyeeeeee!"

In the memory, Vic hung up and was doing stuff, but Soos wasn't paying attention. He was frozen in place, a certain line replaying again and again in his head.

Isn't it just a kid's show?

Behind him, doors opened up, and Vic's thoughts spilled into the space. Oh, I hate this stupid romantic subplot so much. Dang it, musical cues! How long is it gonna take until that spoiler character shows up?

It all made sense now. Everything Vic had been saying up to this point.

Things started to click into place, one by one, mostly things that Soos had only realized because of Vic. Things being in convenient places. Everyone going through really rough scenarios without being hurt. The way that the twins argued about something or other but always made up in a short time. Objects that everyone forgot about.

Soos, Dipper, Mabel, Stan, Wendy, Abuelita, everyone at the Shack, everyone in Gravity Falls except for Vic, was fake. They were just characters.

And Soos's entire life was a lie.


Dipper clawed at the slimy blackness that was now up to his waist. It just kept on going. No matter what he did, if he moved, he sank, and it was like he was doomed.

"I hate this I hate this I hate this Vic please help," he begged quietly, his words erased as soon as they'd been created. "I know I lied. I know we invaded your privacy. I know, I know, please, help me. I don't wanna be stuck here, I don't even know if I can get stuck here, please . . ."

He trailed off, and tears began to prick at the corners of his eyes as he tried to stay perfectly still to avoid sinking deeper.

"Please . . ."

. . . there was another sound here. Other than him. He could hear something other than the oppressive muffling that surrounded him, like whatever had stopped the sound from coming through was on its way down.

It was mumbling, panicked mumbling like on the verge of tears, in a voice that Dipper recognized as Vic's. It was constant, one worry leading into another worry, and it filled his ears. It sucked him in almost as badly as the black sludge.

"Vic?"

The sound was choked off, and the blackness started to recede, as did the sludge. Dipper was left standing in the middle of Vic's mind room, staring at the kid himself.

He'd definitely looked a lot better. His eyes were red with tears and wide with panic, and he was looking at Dipper with the most betrayed look on his face. It was so full of emotion that it made Dipper wince.

"After I told you not to," he said, tears racing across his face to join the ones on the floor. "After I directly told you not to go into my head, you did it anyway?" He tugged at his hair in big clumps, pacing. "Wh-what all did you see in here?! What did you find out?!"

"I—barely anything! All the doors were locked!"

Vic froze, his back turned to Dipper, and he snapped his fingers. Mabel and Soos both were teleported to the space and fell to the floor with a thud. He glared at all three of them, anger and terror and panic fighting for control.

"All of you. You KNEW that I said no, and you STILL came into my head!"

They all were quiet as they stared at him, and he roughly wiped at his red eyes.

" . . . how am I supposed to trust you guys again . . . ?"

He broke down in tears, collapsing to the floor and hiding his face. Mabel slowly stepped up to try and comfort him, but his hand stopped her.

"All of you, get out," he said in a broken voice. "I want you out of my head."

The incredible pressure from before shoved everyone away, and with a flash of light, they woke up, and before anyone could say anything, Vic stomped away and out the door.

Stan poked his head into the room from the gift shop. "Hey, is everything okay? I saw Vic leave in a fit, and—"

He looked down at the three, still sitting on the floor, in various different stages of not-okay.

". . . ah, geez."


Whoo, boy. That all just happened. Hopefully this chapter turned out okay, since a lot of plot stuff just happened, and I didn't have very much of a plan going in, even though this is one of the chapters I've been daydreaming about . . . uh . . .

If any of it needs polishing (for example, better descriptions, characters feeling OOC, etc), feel free to leave a review, and hopefully the season finale won't totally break everything, saying that Gideon hasn't taken over the Shack . . .

Oh well. Time for more daydreaming and shower thoughts. Bye!