Tales Of The Flame & The Ax: A Shooting Star Falls Story
Part Sixteen: Burying The Truth
Mabel and Pacifica Pines walked through the front door of their home to find their mom and dad curled up on the couch under a blanket, fast asleep. "Aww…" Mabel whispered to her twin sibling. She found it cute that despite being together for almost two decades that the married couple still had tender moments like this. "We should let them rest…" Pacifica replied as she rubbed her sore cheek; the bruise still taking shape. "Let's get some ice on that… It'll reduce the swelling" Mabel suggested as she made her way to the kitchen and opened up the freezer. After filling a plastic sandwich bag with the ice cubes, the twin sisters carefully made their way upstairs. Feeling like the change in hair and eye color would be more than enough for their mother to process, the teen girls decided to borrow some of her makeup to try and cover up the ever darkening bruise.
"I wish Mom would just let us buy some of this stuff already…" Pacifica remarked as she rifled through a box of cosmetic products on her mother's dresser. "She's afraid that we'll get the wrong kind of attention from boys…" Mabel replied as she rolled her eyes. Finding a concealer, the ginger teenager worked her magic to hide the contusion on her twin sister's face. "C'mon! She's gonna have to realize that she can't protect us forever, ya know…" Pacifica pointed out. "I just think it's because of what happened to Aunt Mabel and Aunt Pacifica… That she's just worried something could happen to us" Mabel explained. "And I totally get that… But like I said, she can't protect us forever. Just look at the fight I got in today. It was, like, eight on one and I still kicked their asses…" the silver and brown haired girl remarked. "Let's be honest sis… If you didn't have that spell in your back pocket, things could have gone really bad for you…" Mabel pointed out. "Yeah… Which is why I need to learn as many of them as I can! I mean, if I didn't have that book, I'd probably be in the hospital right now…" Pacifica replied as she took a look at herself in the mirror. Much to her relief, her sister had managed to cover up the mark without making her look like some sort of rodeo clown or whore.
Wendy awoke from her nap and noticed that the room had darkened quite a bit from when she had last closed her eyes. "How long was I out for?!" she thought to herself. Glancing over at a clock on the wall, she saw it was a little after eight in the evening. "Dip! Wake up!" she shouted as her husband groaned. "W-We've been asleep all afternoon!" the auburn haired woman once again exclaimed. "The girls should have been home hours ago! I-I wonder if they're alright!" Wendy frantically asked. Playing a video game in Pacifica's room, the pair of twins heard a commotion from downstairs and went to investigate. Much to their relief, they saw that it was only their mother, who was probably just upset that she had fallen asleep. "Mom? I-Is everything okay?" Mabel asked as she entered the living room; Pacifica staying at the top of the stairs as she tried to think of how to debut her new looks to her mother. "Yeah… Just a little angry that I slept that long…" she explained. "Is Paz here too?" the still groggy woman inquired. "Yeah… Hey Paz! Mom wants you!" the ginger teen shouted back towards the stairs. "Coming!" the blue and hazel eyed girl replied as she descended the stairs; hoping her mom wouldn't overreact to her sudden change in appearance.
Mabel flipped on a light switch, which illuminated the room with its soft white glow. Wendy took in the sight of her thirteen year old daughter; her dual toned hair the biggest shock. It reminded her of a professional wrestler she had met in Portland with Dipper when they had first gotten together. "D-Do you like it?" asked Pacifica in a very hesitant voice. "It's different… I'll give you that" her mother responded. Walking over and taking a seat on the couch, the teen girl swept her hair aside so that her mom could see her eye. The change in hue was something that took her by surprise. While Dipper had mentioned that it had changed to a blue tone, she wasn't prepared for just how jarring it was. An ice blue, it stood in stark contrast to the dark hazel one it once mirrored. "Your Dad said that you could still see fine?" the redhead asked her daughter. "Yeah… I can see just as good as I could before. It just looks a lot different" Pacifica reassured her mother as she continued to closely examine her eye. "I'm still going to schedule an appointment with the optometrist to make sure…" Wendy told the thirteen year old girl. A sense of relief came over Pacifica as she thought that her mom had taken the change relatively well.
Deciding that it was too late to cook dinner, Dipper offered to take the family out to Hermanos Brothers, the local Mexican restaurant in town. The quartet piled into Wendy's sport utility vehicle and headed towards downtown Gravity Falls as their stomachs rumbled with hunger. The heavy rain had given way to a light drizzle as they pulled into the nearly empty parking lot. "I'm gonna order, like, a hundred tacos!" Mabel proudly proclaimed as both her mother and father chuckled. After ordering their meals, the Pines family sat down at a well-worn booth. "So, how was your day?" Dipper asked the girls as they chomped away on the complementary tortilla chips. "It was fun! We ended up playing a few round of laser ta-" Pacifica began before being cut off. "And I won!" Mabel interjected as an annoyed look formed on her twin's face. "Mabel, honey, your sister was in the middle of saying something. It's rude to interrupt someone when they're speaking… Apologize to her…" Wendy chastised her excitable daughter. "Sorry Paz…" the ginger teen said. "It's fine. So anyway, we played a few rounds of laser tag and then we met some new kids…" Pacifica completed her thought. "That's cool. It's always good to meet new people…" Dipper said as their food arrived at the table.
The quartet chowed down on their meals as the clock struck nine. Usually, everyone would be in their pajamas and be getting ready for bed, but tonight was different. "So, tell me about those kids you met…" Wendy asked as she took another bite of her burrito. "Well, there was a girl named Ariel who was about our age. She was a little taller than us and had snow white hair… She was nice" Mabel replied. "You know, your Aunt Mabel's middle name was Ariel…" Dipper commented with a mouthful of food. "Her little runt of a brother was a jerk though!" Pacifica added. "Trust me, little brothers can totally be that way…" Wendy chimed in; knowing all too well what being the older sister was like. "The boy was short, a little pudgy, had a nose like a pig and had tall white hair… I could smell the hairspray on him before I even saw him…" Mabel said. "Gideon!?" Dipper and Wendy said in unison as they wondered if the similarities in appearance were just that. Surely Gideon Gleeful wasn't the father to a pair of teenagers. The mere thought of it brought both Wendy and Dipper to the edge of hysterical laughter.
"Gideon? Who's that?" Pacifica asked as she took a bite of her steak quesadilla. "He's someone from our past. He had a huge crush on your Aunt Mabel and went to insane lengths to try and win her over" Dipper explained. "Aww… That sounds romantic…" Mabel swooned. "No. Not at all. When she finally worked up the courage to turn him down, he was convinced that I told her to and he tried to kill me with the help of a magic amulet. Mabel saved me by using it herself and then destroying it, but Gideon went off the deep end. He wanted nothing more than to ruin my life and convince Mabel that were meant to be together" Dipper clarified. "Yeah, he was the one who summoned Bill in the first place with one of the journals. If he had just accepted the fact that your Aunt Mabel wasn't into him as anything other than a friend, then maybe we would have never had to go through all that shit. Instead, he almost brought about the end of the world" Wendy added while looking across the booth at her daughters. "You don't think…?" the thirty-three year old man asked his wife with a concerned look on his face. "Dip, this is Gideon freakin' Gleeful we're talking about… Do you really think any human woman would even want to procreate with him?!" the ginger woman chuckled; bits of her food flying out of her mouth as she did so. "I've learned that anything is possible in Gravity Falls… Even really hard to believe things like that" Dipper replied.
The Pines family finished their meal and headed back to the car. While Mabel, Pacifica and Dipper got in, Wendy caught sight of something in the distance and began to walk towards a large truck that was parked across the street. The rain soaked road glistened in the light of the streetlamps that lined it. "Where's mom going?" Pacifica asked as she turned around to look out the back window of the sport utility vehicle. "I'm not sure, but I think she saw something that piqued her interest" he suggested. Indeed it had, as the auburn haired woman had taken note of the damage inflicted upon the large ram bar on the front of the truck. Pulling out her phone, she began to take pictures of the scratched and bent accessory. "Can I help you?" a gruff voice asked from the far side of the vehicle. "Uh… Yeah! Yes you can!" Wendy replied as she thought of how to explain what she was doing. "I-I was wondering where you got this sweet ram bar from. M-My husband has been wanting one of these for his truck and his birthday is coming up, so I figured I'd surprise him… Yeah!" she lied to the physically imposing man as she hoped he had fallen for it. "Oh… Well, I got this down in Texas a few years ago at a swap meet. It looked a lot better when it was brand new though…" he commented. "Oh, okay! Well, it was worth a shot. Thanks anyway…" Wendy said as she began to walk away.
The much smaller woman felt a large hand on her shoulder and turned around. Dipper looked on from the sport utility vehicle, seeing red as another man put their hands on his wife. "Wanna go for a ride?" the nearly seven foot tall man asked in a flirtatious manner. The ginger woman wondered how much he had to drink. "I'm sorry, but I'm a married woman…" Wendy politely declined as she shook her shoulder free of his grasp. "So? I won't tell if you don't…" the man replied as he once again placed his baseball glove-like hand on her petite shoulder. "No thanks!" she curtly replied. Dipper began to open his door, having seen enough of the advances on his wife. "Kick his ass, Dad!" Pacifica cheered. "I wasn't asking…" the tattooed man growled as he spun the former officer around and shoved her into the side of his truck. Thinking quickly, Wendy swiftly kicked the man in his groin with her black and white skate shoe, followed by a jab to his throat. Dipper sprinted across the street as he heard the commotion. Wendy had managed to judo toss the much larger man to the concrete sidewalk and lock on a vicious armbar while he grimaced in pain.
"Wen! Everything alright?!" Dipper asked with alarm as he rounded the vehicle to see his wife wrenching on the large appendage of the rough looking man. "TAP! TAP! C'mon you stupid son of a bitch! Stop resisting or I'll break it!" she shouted to the aggressive man. "NO!" the much larger man replied in a defiant manner. "Fine, have it your way…" the redhead said before torqueing the arm back even harder. A loud snap was heard and Wendy finally let go of the maneuver. A police officer happened to be driving by and noticed the commotion outside of Skullcrusher's Bar. While not unusual for the dive bar, he felt it a bit too early for a patron to have gotten so rowdy. Pulling over, he exited his vehicle and saw the large tattooed man passed out on the sidewalk. "Everything alright here?" the uniformed man asked. "Yeah… Big fella here just had one too many and fell down… Looks like he tried to catch himself and broke his arm" Wendy explained. "Okay, I'll call a med unit. You two are free to go. Have a good night" the officer said before reaching for his radio. He knew full well what had really went down, but the man was a well-known nuisance to law enforcement in three counties, so he decided to let the actions of the woman slide. Wendy and Dipper walked back to their car as the adrenaline pulsed through her veins. It had been a while since she had been involved in a scuffle and she was relieved to know that she still had it. "HOLY CRAP! That was amazing, Mom!" Pacifica cheered as her parents got back into the sport utility. "When I was on the Force that was just another Friday night for me…" Wendy replied as a smirk appeared on her face. "Just one of the many reasons I fell in love with her… She's a total badass" Dipper commented as they made their way back home; their daughters having yet another reason to look up to their mother.
Wendy and Dipper passed out on the couch while watching a late night show and the girls had retreated to their rooms for the evening. Mabel soon fell fast asleep, but Pacifica had stayed up to once again examine the spellbook. Looking at the levitation spell, she wondered how it could pack the punch it had in the bathroom earlier that day. Succumbing to her weariness, the girl with the dual hued mane soon fell fast asleep. She opened her eyes to find herself in a clearing in the middle of the forest. The woman in the tattered and blood-stained wedding dress stood in front of her once more. "How's your face, young one?" the otherworldly lady asked. "It hurts, but I'll survive. I… I don't know what you did, but I know for a fact that I can't cast a spell that strong…" Pacifica remarked while rubbing her cheek, which much to her surprise, didn't hurt a bit. "Very observant, Pine Tree. I may have lent a helping hand in that moment" the dark haired spirit said. "Why?" the girl with dual-hued hair asked. "Because… You were not the only one who needed help. You see, I am bound to this vessel until someone can free me. Pacifica, dear, would you please set me free? It's quite horrible being trapped in a rotting corpse" the woman said with a frown on her face. Pacifica felt her heartstrings being pulled at, but remained skeptical of the specter, as she had just heard of how Bill Cipher had tricked her Grand Uncle Ford into freeing him from the mindscape. Still, she felt as though she owed her for saving her from a terrible beating at the hands of those teenagers. She was conflicted, but in the end decided to help her out. "Okay… But what happens if I do?" Pacifica responded. "I'll be free from this vessel and return to the mindscape. You'll probably never see me again" was the reply from the dark haired woman. "Alright. As soon as I wake up, I'll read the spell and set you free" the blue and hazel eyed girl said. "I cannot begin to thank you enough for agreeing to do this. I can finally be at peace…" the woman remarked as the world faded to black.
A moment later, Pacifica awoke from her dream. Once again in her room, she glanced over at the alarm clock next to her bed; finding it to be nearly four in the morning. Flipping the yellowed pages of the large book, she soon found the spell she was looking for and began to recite it aloud. The spirit appeared in the room as the temperature dropped; Pacifica able to see her breath as she continued to read the incantation aloud. The wedding dress clad woman began to glow and soon she was separated from her former physical form. Much to Pacifica's shock, the spell left behind the actual body of the woman she formerly inhabited, which gave off a putrid smell. "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" Pacifica said to herself as she tried her best not to vomit at the scent of the rotten corpse that now occupied her bedroom. Fear filled her mind as she knew it was only a matter of time before somebody else would notice and thought of how to either conceal or remove it from the house. Leaving her bedroom, she walked to a small linen closet across the hall and removed a linen sheet from it. Mabel had awoken to use the bathroom and spied her twin wrestling with the piece of bedding in the hallway. "What in the world is she doing up at this hour?" the redhead thought to herself as she approached the frazzled teen. "Everything okay sis-sis?" Mabel inquired in a soft tone so that she wouldn't startle her. "Uh… No. Not really. I-I could really use your help" she meekly replied. "Hey… It's okay. Accidents happen…" she tried to reassure her sister, having though that she had some sort of mishap while sleeping.
Pacifica opened the door to her bedroom and the smell hit them both like a ton of bricks. "D-Did you shi-" the ginger teen asked her twin before being cut off. "NO! I didn't! It's the body of a spirit I freed…" she explained. "Okay… First of all… Ghosts have bodies?" Mabel asked with confusion. "No. She inhabited this woman's body when they passed away and got stuck in it, I guess … I dunno. What I do know, though, is it smells like death barfed shit!" the silver and brown haired girl replied. "Pacifica Kathleen Pines! Language! But yeah… It really does smell like that…" Mabel commented as she looked at the grizzly scene before her. The pair soon rolled the body up in the blanket, which thankfully masked the smell somewhat. "Okay… So now what?" Mabel wondered. The body weighed about one hundred pounds and both girls knew that it would be hard to sneak it through the house without one of their parents noticing. Pacifica walked over to her window and glanced down. A wheelbarrow sat under it and soon a plan began to formulate in her head. "I've got it! We'll chuck it out the window and into that wheelbarrow. Then we'll go bury it in the woods! Yeah! That'll work!" she explained to her sister. A few moments later, the pair had opened the window and lifted the corpse onto the windowsill. "Bombs away!" Mabel shouted with cheer as the white blanket wrapped body of the ghost fell out the window. Pacifica shot her a look of disbelief. "What?! I've always wanted to say that!" she replied. With a loud thud, it landed in metal tub and a look of relief came over both Mabel and Pacifica's faces when, after a few minutes, they hadn't heard any sort of commotion from their parents room.
The Pines sisters carefully made their way outside and each grabbed a shovel. "This seems so wrong…" Mabel commented as her sister picked up the wheelbarrow and began towards the woods. "It's not like we killed her or anything… She's been dead for, like, two hundred years or something!" Pacifica explained. "Why was there even a ghost in your room?" a curious Mabel asked as they neared their destination. "She showed up last night and then again when I was getting beat down in the bathroom… She said that all she wanted from me was to help set her free from this body. She knew I had the book and that I was the only one that could do that for her" the hazel and blue eyed teen nonchalantly explained. "Okay… But what if she was trapped in that body for a reason?" Mabel replied. "What are you getting at, sis?" Pacifica retorted while cocking an eye at her twin. "Well, it's just that… What if whatever you released is like that Bill Cipher dude?" the brunette pointed out. Pacifica stopped dead in her tracks. She hadn't even considered that the spirit may have been purposely imprisoned inside the body of whoever the blanket wrapped woman was. "I… I don't think she was. If she was evil, then why would she help me? Relax! You overthink about stuff way too much" Pacifica said as she tried to defend her actions; Mabel clearly irritated by her insult. "Well, geez… I dunno? Maybe to trick you into feeling that she was trustworthy so that you would free her?" Mabel pointed out to her sister. "Look. What's done is done. Let's stop arguing and get this body buried so I can get back to sleep, alright?" Pacifica said as she tried to get her sister back on task. "Fine. Whatever. But if this comes back to bite us in the ass, don't get all butt hurt when I say that I told you so…" Mabel relented with a huff. The girls arrived at the top of a small hill and began digging a grave for the body. "How deep does it need to be?" Mabel asked her sister as she stopped to wipe the sweat from her brow. "I always thought it was six feet… But that seems like a lot of work…" Pacifica replied. "Yeah… Plus we have to get back before Mom leaves for work…" her auburn haired sister pointed out while pulling out her phone to see what time it was. A few minutes later, the deed was done and the twin girls headed back towards home; the sky lightening up as dawn quickly approached. Ditching the lawn and garden equipment on the side of the house, the pair snuck back into the two story home. The dirty and weary teenage girls retreated to their bedrooms, where they hoped to get at least a few hours of rest before what was sure to be yet another busy day in Gravity Falls, Oregon.
Author's Note: So, I suppose that I owe a bit of an explanation here. As some may know, I posted the final chapter in this story a few days ago and to say that I was not happy with it was an understatement. It was rushed and made little sense in the grand scheme of things. Honestly, I was just looking for an end to it. Going back and re-reading not only this story, but all of the stories in the Shooting Star Falls AU, I saw that this is was the place where the story started going off the rails. The narrative was more chapter to chapter and was being influenced by outside forces in my life. The free time I had to write was greatly reduced and I felt that I had to keep cranking out chapters at the pace I had been. That is where I went wrong. The quality suffered. This is going to serve as a reboot of sorts for this last story in the series. I hope I get it right this time. It may take a lot more time and there may not be an update for a month or two at a time, but I promise that they'll be worth it when you read them and will lead to a much more satisfying conclusion.
My Playlist For This Chapter:
Young Guns – "Bones"
Godsmack – "Legends Rise"
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – "Devil Inside Of Me" (I think this song summarizes how Pacifica feels about the crimson bride following her everywhere)
Starset – "Monster" (A song that I think tells the story of Pacifica buying into what the Crimson Bride is selling)
The Official Shooting Star Falls AU Reading Order:
P1). Underage Discoveries On A Reckless Night: A Shooting Star Falls Prequel
1). A Shooting Star Falls
2). Echoes Of A Nearby Future: A Shooting Star Falls Story
3). Scarred Summer: A Shooting Star Falls Story
4). The Dark Days Of Candy Chiu: A Shooting Star Falls Story
5). Forever Memories: A Shooting Star Falls Story
6). Stable Times Or A Wild Ride?: A Shooting Star Falls Story
7). Grenda's Confession: A Shooting Star Falls Story
8). Birthday Weirdness In The Rose City: A Shooting Star Falls Story
9). The Gift Of Forever: A Shooting Star Falls Story
10). Life In Transit: A Shooting Star Falls Story
11). The Moment: A Shooting Star Falls Story
12). Tales Of The Flame & The Ax: A Shooting Star Falls Story