I'm trapped in this mess, and it's worsening by the second. I'm not just uncomfortable anymore; I'm seriously sick.
What on earth should I do now? I mean, I was pretty convinced it was Gideon who cursed me, but now? I don't even know how to approach that kid.
Sure, he's got those creepy psychokinesis powers, just like that freaky tent showed. If I stroll in there without a solid plan, I'll be a goner in seconds.
And here's the kicker—he's just a kid, and I'm a teen. If he decides to sic his loyal customers on me and accuse me of who knows what, I'm toast.
"...Hey, is he dead or something?"
Stan's looking at me like I'm a goner. I'd answer, but I'm running on empty. So, I let his question hang in the air. Stan, being Stan, grabs a local newspaper and starts flipping through it. And then, it happens.
"AH!"
Stan erupts like a volcano, and the whole gang in the Mystery Shack's gift shop gathers around. Luckily, there weren't any customers, just Wendy, Soos, Dipper, and me.
"Hey, hey! What the heck is Mabel doing in the paper next to that crazy pickpocket Gideon!" Stan's holding the newspaper like it personally insulted him. Summoning every ounce of strength, I crack one eyelid open to check it out.
The picture's loud and clear. Mabel and Gideon, hand in hand, looking all happy and stuff. But what gets me is that smug mug on Gideon's face. Stan's ready to blow his top.
"Oh, yeah. It's like a big deal. Everybody's talking about Gideon and Mabel's big date tonight," Wendy chimes in, confirming this is a huge deal.
"What! That little shyster is dating my great niece?!" Stan's voice is like thunder. He then glares at me and Dipper as if we had done something wrong.
"I didn't know! I didn't hear about it, and besides, I told her not to," Dipper shouts out. Stan then looks at me for some reason.
"...Why are you staring at me like that?"
"You're their babysitter, Ray! I've trusted you!" Stan exclaims, clearly not pleased.
I just look at Stan with a dumbfounded face, then at Wendy and Soos. They seem to agree with the fact that I am the kids' babysitter.
"...Wha..? I've never said that I'll.."
Stan storms out of the room before I can finish my sentence. I look at Wendy and Soos with disbelief in my eyes, but they ignore my chagrin.
"Well, dude, I've thought that you were their babysitter. Weren't you assigned as one?" Wendy says, as my migraines pound my head.
"What? No!"
"Wait? Huh, Mabel and I thought that you were hired by Grunkle Stan to look after us."
...I can't deal with this right now. So, I just shut my ears and eyes, trying to block it all out—my migraine, Gideon, Stan's outrage, and this weird misunderstanding.
After Stan stormed toward the tent of telepathy, Mabel comes back to the shack with a depressed face like before. Me and Dipper look at each other because of her mood. I signal Dipper to start the talk, so he approaches his sister.
"...Hey, how'd it go?"
"I don't know...I have a lobster now." Mabel says as she drops a live lobster inside the conveniently placed empty seawater fish tank in the shack. From what I remember, she went on a date with Gideon to the...Aquatic-themed fancy restaurant...And it seemed like she couldn't say no to him.
"It's not over. Am I right, Mabel?"
Mabel nods sadly as I speak to her. Dipper looks at her with shock.
"I..Blaaargh! He asked me out again, and I didn't know how to say no!"
"Like this: no," Dipper says, clearly not understanding the situation.
"It's not that easy, Dipper! And I do like Gideon, as a friend slash little sister, so I didn't want to hurt his feelings! I need to get things back to where they used to be. You know, friends."
"That's not going to work, Mabel...It's clear that he's not going to give up so easily at this point."
"AARGH!"
Mabel frantically screams and runs all around the place. So, she's having her own problems. Gideon is obsessed with her...
...Obsessed, huh...?
I think I may have a chance against that little devil.
"So dude, what do you think? Magidbeleon!"
"...What were we talking about again, Soos?"
"The name of the new power couple, dude! Mabel and Gideon!"
I wonder what I am doing here. Um, uh...the last thing I remembered was working on deciphering the journals, but...What am I doing at the counter talking with Soos?
Hmm... Is this another effect of the curse? I'm not sure, though. Losing memories...of what I did?
...Ugh, my head. It hurts too much. But why? And...how far can this situation even go? Why is this curse so strong?... Is it even a curse? Did I make a wrong assumption? But, it can't be.
It's not even written in the journal, so I have literally no idea...
"...Hey, Soos. Do you know anything about curses?"
"Curses? I know everything about curses, dude. I'm an expert."
I ask Soos without expecting anything, but he seems pretty confident about this subject.
"...So, do you know any stories about artifacts with curses? Or any kind of urban legend going around here?"
"Hmm..."
Soos thinks to himself as I swallow some ibuprofen.
"I don't know, dude. Cursed artifacts? Hmm...Oh, I once saw an item in a game, dude. It was cursed, so I couldn't remove it, and it said the character didn't want to remove the item. I know that. But I've never heard one in real life."
"...Like the Gollum..."
"What are you saying, dude?"
I ignore Soos talking and close my eyes. In the blank space of my mind, I move the constantly ticking memento mori to the side and open a book that I memorized before.
"...I remember that it was somewhere about page 600... Aha."
"The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien. There's a very, very famous character that was once called Smeagol. More famously known as Gollum.
Down the face of a precipice, sheer and almost smooth it seemed
in the pale moonlight, a small black shape was moving with its thin
limbs splayed out. Maybe its soft clinging hands and toes were finding
crevices and holds that no hobbit could ever have seen or used, but
it looked as if it was just creeping down on sticky pads, like some
large prowling thing of insect-kind. And it was coming down head
first, as if it was smelling its way. Now and again it lifted its head
slowly, turning it right back on its long skinny neck, and the hobbits
caught a glimpse of two small pale gleaming lights, its eyes that
blinked at the moon for a moment and then were quickly lidded
again.
This is the part where the main protagonists approach that character. Gollum is depicted to be ugly and slimy. In the movies, the creature had grotesquely bulbous eyes with uncanny white skin and a skinny body.
"...It also had a dissociative identity disorder. All because of a...stupid, powerful ring. Also, this is probably the most famous story about a cursed artifact."
"What are you talking about, dude?"
"Nothing Soos. Now let me think."
...I'm not sure about how these weird events are happening. The events that can for sure kill Dipper and Mabel even before they get to the last episodes. These...Malicious events. The only hypothesis I made was...Bill sending these events for some purpose, for example...killing the protagonists. But now, something is weird.
...Why are they trying to kill me, not the kids? Why? And why are all the events similar to the famous urban legends or myths or stories? Is there a reason?
No time to think about that right now, though. The thing I should really be concerned about is how evil this curse is...considering it also has the aspect of the story of...' person goes crazy after obtaining a cursed artifact'. That means from now on, I'll die from weird reasons, have mental illnesses such as amnesia, insomnia, or dissociative identity disorder, and even have physical illnesses too.
So yay me. Now I have even less time to do something...
"Soos, where's Mabel?"
"She went out for a ball dance with Gideon."
...Good. Gideon Gleeful...I hope he gets more...more obsessed with the girl. It feels bad to use Mabel this way,...I don't have any choice. Because I need that AMULET, I NEeD...
...
..Man, this curse...comes all of a sudden! Now I have an addiction to an object that I just saw for a few minutes... This is definitely Gideon's fault then. No more other suspicions, I can literally visualize that Amulet too vividly inside my mind. Okay, let's...erase this desire.
Empty my mind. Empty my mind...
I don't need the Amulet. I just need to break the curse, that's it. Don't get mentally tempted...for something that you don't even know what it is. I don't need the Amulet. I don't. Why would I even want one?... It's dangerous, anyways...
-Tick! Tick! Tick!
It can be life-threatening and it can kill me even!
-Tick! Tick! Tick!
"So stop thinking about that BEAUTIFUL Amulet! GAhh!"
Soos looked at me with surprise, but I couldn't afford to give any more attention to him. This thing is getting stronger. And it was too hard to resist...
"...Mabel. I need her to solve this problem...Right..now.."
My head felt like it was being broken into a million pieces by a hammer. The Ibuprofen wasn't working...I had to sleep, right now. I had to stop thinking and remain sane...!
-Crash!
I banged my head on the counter table. Everything became fuzzy...
"Yo, dude...! Are you OK?!"
"Soos. Wake...me...up...when Mabel comes..!"
Then, all I could see was darkness.