NB: This work is part of an interconnected series/multichapter of one-shots. Context isn't required and these chapters can be read as standalone works but if you're curious, you can check out the end chapter which explains the premise and the A/Ns. If you're not interested, please enjoy the story freely and don't let me stop you!
Type Six: Upheaval (Part 2/2)
Monochrome clouds were spreading throughout the sky like uneven first blobs of paint on a bright, empty canvas. The air in the woods behind the shack was less than pleasant—perhaps the Hand Witch Stan had told him about let out her pet Skunkbug to pollinate the flowers along this muddy path. Or it just smelled bad and there wasn't a reason for it.
"That guy back there sounded like he really knew his stuff," Boji stated out of the blue, strolling beside Soos where grass covered up the muddy track.
"Who?" Soos tried to avert his eyes from the black figments of the Shadowspawn's form along the main trail. "Oh, you mean Dr. Pines?"
"Um, I guess I do, since it's the first time you've mentioned any name other than mine." Boji jumped over a raised root. "Is he a famous surgeon or something?"
"Oh, no, he's not an actual doctor. He's one of those top-dog scientists, I think."
"Huh. Smart people love mixing up titles."
"Yeah. But hey, mixups means you go to him. He can figure out anything. Or almost anything."
Boji raised a brow. "What, you asked him about the meaning of life?"
"Kinda. Turns out even someone with twelve can't tell ya what the optimal milk-to-cereal ratio is." Soos let a faint smile creep over his lips. "He kicked me outta his lab after I tried, though."
Boji laughed quietly. "Can't blame you for trying. It's a good question."
Soos gave a thumbs up. The whisk of feet trampling over mud and a hollow gale returned as the auditory status quo. At one point during the silence, Soos spotted a dense thicket blocking the path. He deemed it uncanny for a dead end to come up so early, though the GPS reaffirmed this was their route.
"Look," Soos said, pointing to the second reason why he believed they were still on track, "some of that goo's dripped over the bushes here."
"Seems like it." Boji appeared next to Soos and narrowed his eyes at the sight of the residue. "But it's even blacker than what we've been after. Different texture, too."
"Looks the same to me."
Having scanned their surroundings while Soos talked, Boji circled behind a nearby tree and shot a finger in the air. "Phytophthora rot. Plant disease."
Soos went next to him and gazed up.
"Black spots and ooze around the outside that's easy to spread around," Boji continued. He was right—the tree above them was rotting, and the affliction appeared to have spread to the bushes. "Common… but didn't expect it here."
"Woah. How'd ya know?" Soos asked.
"Been around a relative who's seen enough plants, but"—Boji backed away from the rot and began walking towards the forest at large—"I think I'm seeing some of the real goo. I say we go there."
"Hold off on that, dood," Soos said. "GPS says we should go through the bushes."
"Don't you think that totem pole's gonna be where the Shadowspawn dragged it to and not where those coordinates lead?"
Soos stifled his train of thought for a moment. He was aware listening to Boji meant taking a gamble, yet at this point he'd played the slot machine for hours.
"Even if they're the same place, we're probably just gonna circle around," Boji added.
"Hm. Good point." Soos looked up to the tree again before going next to Boji. "And good catch on that thing, hambone. Whoever taught you 'bout those plants must've known what they were talking about."
"Hey, it's boring stuff; they're boring—it fits."
"Eh, don't be like that. You mentioned they're family. That's… important, dood. Even the most boring stuff's less boring when you're listening to someone you care about."
Boji formed a derisive smirk.
"I knew it from my dad," he said. "He's, er, a pretty dedicated botanist. Took me to his research conferences often and told me about the stuff they talked about while we went from place to place." He let out a pent-up sigh. "It was pretty much like watching paint dry, but I picked up on a couple of things after the tenth time he explained them to me."
"Your dad sounds like a dope guy. Smart, like Dr. Pines. I had a feeling you weren't from Gravity Falls the moment I heard you talk. Your accent's kinda funny."
Boji rolled his eyes. "Thanks."
"Aw, sorry. Didn't mean to—"
"Kidding."
Soos let out an internal sigh. Boji's sense of humour was startlingly peculiar—almost chameleonlike and unfocused.
As they went deeper into the woods and the trees became densely split, he continued, "So, uh, where are you from then?"
"Technically from Gravity Falls now." Boji shrugged as they entered a small clearing. "Dad retired recently, thank God, and we decided to move here after… well, after we talked about it. Never asked him why he picked this spot, though."
Soos saw Boji was trying to play coy with him. "Okay. I meant where you were from before. Um, of course, if you're okay with telling me."
"It's fine. I'm the who started bugging you in the first place today," Bojidar stated. "I'm from Canada. Wasn't sure if you took it as a joke or not, but my shorter name didn't actually come from a janitor. My dad's Canadian and it's kinda what he calls me."
"I had a feeling." Soos partially didn't have any 'feeling'—more like a very distant hunch. "I know enough folks to be sure you don't pick up a name from just anyone. But to be real with ya, like you, I've heard weirder nicknames."
"Doesn't it come with running a place called the Mystery Shack?"
"Pretty much." He was about to shift the subject but felt his foot get stuck in something. "Woah!"
Soos' eyes went wide once he realised he'd blindly strode into some pool of the shadow residue they'd been after. His foot having slightly sunk, he forced it out and shook the black gunk off his shoe.
"Oh," Boji said, his voice trembling as he approached Soos. "Oh no."
Through the leaves and mud shrouding the pool, Soos deduced it covered a wide ellipse to their right. Rising, the residue inside shifted and began forming into a bigger, more concentrated mass.
"What's it doing?" Boji shrieked. "This didn't happen when you—"
"Wait. I dunno what it is," Soos said, trying his best to feign courage. He backed up and spread his arms across to make sure Boji was behind him. "Back away, dood. Slow."
"We should run!"
"Wait."
With the body of liquid drained, the residue coalesced into a smaller version of the Shadowspawn which resembled a slime more than anything else. Chunks of the land below and around it were singed, rotting.
Before Soos was able to mouth off a single word, the depths of what Soos thought was the slime's sealed glowing red core expanded and from the rupture were hurtled a volley of red icicle-like darts which hissed through the air and had tendrils poking from various spots.
"Watch out!" Boji shouted and the two dashed for cover.
A few shots missed and Soos caught a glimpse of one which quickly dissipated into a puff of grey vapour while in the air. Another hit Boji's hand right before he could get behind a tree, causing him to wince.
Soos could feel concern manifesting, but adrenaline suppressed it. Once the onslaught ceased and most of the darts had vanished or hit the environement, he took out the hammer from his toolbelt and dove in. Striking over its amorphous body four times, with a resonant screech, the slime split into many parts, each one hopping to Soos' left at blazing speed and escaping at the end of the clearing.
"Dood!" Soos shouted, running back to Boji, who was kneeling on the base of the tree and holding his afflicted hand.
"I'm alive," Boji stated, standing up with a perplexed expression. "Hurt a little but other than that, I…"
"What?"
"It vanished from my hand." Boji brought up his palm to Soos. "And I feel weird."
Soos noticed the absence of a dart and a purple spot making his palm appear as if it were slightly swollen.
Boji continued, "Like I… forgot something when that thing struck me. I know there's gotta be something there, but it's not. I dunno…"
"It's a'ight, dood. It happened. What's important is if you're really sure you feel fine."
Boji shuddered weakly. "I guess. I don't wanna talk about it. It's my fault I led us away here, anyway, so let's get back to following the stuff."
Soos shook his head. "We need to be on our guard."
"I think not touching any of that goo anymore's a good idea. I don't like it."
A tacit agreement settled amidst the two as they continued their journey in silence. Soos started juggling between watching his back and his feet, praying some eldritch being didn't jump out of the foliage again.
Only the same serene ambience of summer birds resting on offshoots and water rushing somewhere nearby beckoned to them.
He could tell by the GPS that they were in an interesting spot—on and off the course at the same time—but he wasn't about to claim whether they were lost. Time passed and Soos relaxed as one particularity of his conversation with Boji prior to the ambush fed into a new curiosity. He didn't like going for risque conversation—then again, it wasn't as if playing tag with a terrifying specimen of Gravity Falls' fauna wasn't already like placing a high bet on a card game against Mabel.
"Hey, can I ask you a question?" Soos said.
Boji closed his eyes and ran a hand over his maroon hair, with Soos noticing the mark on his palm had begun to diminish.
"You're one curious tour guide, eh?"
"Like a jaguar." Soos was starting to get used to these half-jokes of Boji's. "Or was it a mouse? Anyway, I don't mean to pry, either, dood."
Boji waved his comment off. "Like I said, it's cool. You'll just have to answer a question in return. I didn't get to ask it before a literal monster came knocking."
"Alright, deal." Soos often got the short end of deals, but that never mattered to him when they were friendly arrangements. "Why'd you really wanna come with me, dood? I mean, I totally get not wantin' to be eaten by a monster, but the Shadowspawn is either after me or the shack. Just wonderin' why you didn't leave after the tour or run away when everything happened. Not that I'm not grateful you came but, um, please say you get what I mean."
"Is it that hard to believe I like helping people?" Boji was grinning. "Okay. I didn't really say it back in the Mystery Shack but I had a feeling this town wasn't normal the moment I saw the mayor. You seemed like you clearly knew some stuff, running a place that makes fun of the weirdness here." He bobbed his head towards trees in the distance. "So I got curious. I mean, I'm still wondering about that riddle. And what the story about that Williams guy in the paper has to do with why that monster came to the shack."
Soos clutched his toolbelt, remembering the names Boji quoted. He wanted to believe Boji, as his reasoning reminded Soos of a conversation he had with Dipper in the attic when the previous summer had started, wherein over apprehensions about whether his sister dated a zombie was laid a pure desire to understand Gravity Falls.
Despite that, how could Boji have known that he had prior contact with the paranormal? Things weren't adding up.
"Is it my turn to ask?" Boji said.
He had to uphold his end. "Uh, sure, go ahead."
"When we met earlier at the shack, why were you holding a picture of someone?"
Soos continued taking steps; slow ones—once light, now excrutiatingly heavy. He attempted to recentre on his breathing so his legs wouldn't stop right then and there. Boji's question somehow wound up more out of left field than Soos', primarily because he had no idea Boji had seen the diary and the picture. Had he been eyeing Soos for longer?
"I… It's a memory of someone I lost." Soos was trying to piece together words quickly. He avoided eye contact, bracing his voice. "Someone I cared about a lot. My grandma—my Abuelita."
Boji didn't respond directly. Soos did his best to focus on the mission, not distracting himself with the minutiae of the conversation. Right, keep guard.
"I see," Boji murmured. "I shouldn't have asked."
Soos drew out a long breath. He wanted to reprimand Boji—of course he shouldn't have asked something so specifically close to his heart. But he was aware Boji was more or less shooting in the dark himself; moreover, Soos couldn't bring himself in admitting his strife to the degree he yearned for. That was his burden alone. It had to be that way, right? How could he have talked about it knowing he'd spread sorrow to others as well?
It was no secret anymore. Boji knew a lot more than he led on, which made Soos feel like he was with someone he couldn't trust. He'd try not to take on risks again and wait until Bojidar and the Shadowspawn's true motives were unveiled.
His determination came ahead when he didn't utter another word for the solid while it took for the GPS to realign on an uphill track, back towards the point they were chasing.
They'd circled around, all right.
Though the elevation of the area rapidly shifted and the landscape adopted many features attributable to a mountain vignette, for half an hour, the trek continued hanging in undisturbed lethargy. At one point, Soos noticed Boji's hands were shaking as they climbed up the base of another steep hill and he tried to bring it up, but Boji appeared adamant on brushing it off.
Soos' mind dawdled over Mabel and Stan, the Pines who overcame their fear of heights last year.
"Gah!" he exclaimed, slipping up on a misplaced rock. Sliding against the dirt, his feet dug deep tracks in the ground and he regained balance. "Okay. I'm okay."
"Wait a minute," Boji said, having scaled up ahead of Soos and, with some struggle, reached the top. "I think we're here!"
"Hey, man, I'm the one with the GPS," Soos replied, slight annoyance in his voice. If he had to talk, he wasn't going to enjoy it. That itself didn't feel natural to him. "Just wait, a'ight?"
He caught up and, at the apex, beheld the picturesque—in the shadows cast by the vast surrounding trees laid a grassy valley, at the end of which was a half-collapsed opening to a mining tunnel overrun by puddles of shadow residue.
"Alright, fair game," Soos said.
"C'mon, let's—"
"Stop." Soos honed in on the entrance of the tunnel, relieved and suspicious there was a suitable walkway towards it which circled around the residue. "We're gonna go in together. I'll be first."
The closest Boji got to protesting was a sigh. Step by step, they climbed down and, avoiding the pulsating blackess, navigated successfully and entered the tunnel. As expected, the inside was a narrow, barely lit walkway of mossy stone and bent wooden support beams which had fissures rivalling those of the support beams in the Mystery Shack. Soos watched where his feet and hands touched, careful not to get too close to the grimy walls. His attentiveness paid off as he and Boji jumped over a few residue traps on the floor.
Outside light began to vanish and, reaching for the left side of his toolbelt, Soos turned on a pocket torchlight. The occasional flickering from the batteries dying out didn't help. Fortunately, once a few minutes passed the artificial light had become unnecessary, for the duo entered a massive dome-like chamber in which thin rays of sunlight descended from above. Soos looked up, not having accounted for giant holes shaped within the tall and unstable ceiling of a mine.
"There's the pole!" Boji shouted.
Soos scoped out the other end of the room. Between the entrances to the depper networks of the mine, nearly flooded by residue and thrust into the rough gravel, was indeed the totem pole.
"I don't like the look'a this," Soos said, quickly determining there was no suitable way to reach the totem pole. "This whole place feels like somethin' out of a 'Trapping Enemies 101' book."
Fate spun the threads of irony as a thump sounded in the cavern. Soos peered over his shoulder and squeezed his eyes, surveying the area with thorough contemplation.
He jolted his head upwards when a rumble came, gasping when he realised what was about to happen. From high above the ceiling, a big piece of rubble was chopped off and tumbled down, burying the entire entrance of the circular chamber—such ruination as if having been willed into reality by random chance.
Or an ethereal force that was right here with them.
"Holy hell!" Boji exclaimed, stepping back.
A giant wave of shadow residue flooded the inside of the room through the cracks in the rubble and, in a second, like the slime which had been birthed out of a teenth of the treacherous substance, it fused into a humanoid mass—the same depravity Soos had bore witness to at the shack.
Soos spared his words. The second he saw the Shadowspawn staring him down, he threw himself to the right, against Boji. He heard the whoosh of something going over where their heads had been.
"Petulant lambs," a mangled, putrid voice evidently belonging to the Shadowspawn declared. "Wiser than you look."
Soos recuperated from his daring dive and helped up Boji as well.
"Oh God," Boji murmured. His legs were trembling.
"What are you?" Soos pointed at the Shadowpawn defiantly. "You can understand me! So tell me why you're messing with us!"
"Ah, feigned courage," the creature whirred, letting out a low hum from its deformed mouth. "I've long gone without such immaculate satiation. When tall men with grovelling voices and horns offer me freedom from my amber cell, what then am I left to do except lurk for the hunt?"
Manotaurs, Soos quickly connected the dots. They were the ones who, in their ignorance, must've let out the Shadowspawn. Part of Soos wasn't surprised at all.
"Embrace the blaze," the Shadowspawn declared.
It divided itself into three separate entities. Two of them took the form of the erect totem pole and remained stationary while spewing a small volley of dangerous crimson darts. The rest—now around a real human's size—began to chase after Soos and Boji.
"Split up in zigzags!" Soos shouted to Boji as they instinctively took off in the direction of the original totem pole which was still overrun with residue. "The more those things are in the air, the more likely—"
"They'll evaporate!" Boji finished amid quick breaths. Adrenaline did a number on that kid.
Soos held his tongue, hoping his hunch would've worked. He could tell the lesser form of the Shadowspawn was slower—perhaps stretching itself thin wasn't the best idea, but that was what one had to do when they were chasing far smaller prey. Or when prey was being played with.
Soos ignored those invasive thoughts, waiting for the right moment to split up. More darts were being sent off. Some vanished. They were getting closer. Closer.
"Now!" Soos yelled and, in unison, they both went in different directions along the chamber. The Shadowspawn didn't tail after Boji, instead going for Soos.
A red dart whisked right past his face as he nearly tripped up on the uneven ground, barely having time to breathe out a sigh of relief before he had to speed off and not lose what little inertia he'd accumulated.
Doing so, he wound up at one of the far corners of the chamber and approached a compact yet tall wooden scaffolding which had been used for digging through this section of the mine. Soos raced towards it and climbed up the rusty steel ladder without a second thought, slipping up and breaking some of the steps in his climb.
He had to leverage elevation against the Shadowspawn since the darts had no way of reaching him at such a height. Freeing himself from that pressure came with a cost, as he saw the two sources of those accursed missiles redirecting their fire in Boji's trajectory.
Soos had to get down there again very soon.
"You… sustain me, don't you know?" the Shadowspawn said, using the guard rails on each floor of the scaffolding to slingshot itself closer to Soos. "There is a dichotomy at play. I seep the will which people like you stole—cursing this blasted world for the fallout it wrought on this form!"
"Ugh, would you stop speaking in riddles for once?!" Soos' frustration grew to supplant other sensations.
The fear returned, and he trekked back.
"Unworthy," the Shadowspawn bit back as it rematerialised. "Remains imprisoned."
Soos cursed his lack of foresight. A modicum of his judgement didn't even account for finding the Shadospawn again, but he understood how foolhardy of an assumption that was. He should've planned better—found a way to reestablish contact with Ford and Stan.
He faced his adversary. Regrets were irrelevant. All he cared about now was getting him and Boji out of here safe.
"Look, there's something that's making you do all this, isn't there? There has to be! Why can't you just say it?"
"What a warm respite it must be." The wooden panels of the scaffolding shook as the Shadowspawn's voice morphed into a clearer one at the last word. "Two fools in the sand with no conception of what the game is at play. Alas, earn your knowledge or feed me your strife!"
Soos grappled one of the metal rods supporting the platform. He had only one ticket left out of this trainwreck—a trick from the maestro.
He put his hand in his suit and yelled, "See you at the bottom, then!"
The Shadowspawn lunged at Soos.
Letting his hand go, he jumped from the scaffolding, a chill surging through him. He landed on his chest, bruising himself from the force of the impact. Boji, clearly out of breath, had circled around close. Soos steadied his hand, the distinct sizzling noise already audible from his suit pocket. This had to work.
"Soos!" Boji yelped, panting for air between words. He neared Soos. "Where—"
"What is that noise?!" the Shadowspawn shouted, having followed in Soos' wake and morphed itself to ground level without any visible damage.
"Smoke bombs!" Soos rose up and threw the four black orbs at his feet, causing a thick mist to instantly descend upon the environment. He outstretched his hand and grabbed Boji's forearm, tiptoeing and muttering, "Quiet. Small breaths."
"Ah!" The Shadowspawn recoiled, becoming lost in the haze. Sordid laughther escaped. "Very… creative."
Darts were flying in the smoke while the two escaped. They went through one of the six other entrances to the mine's other tunnels, so Soos hoped they'd bought some time. They took a short left and found a safe cranny lit by a loose lamp running on electricity.
"Oh man," Soos said, clutching the wall with one hand and his heart with the other. "I need a minute. That guy knows how to make ya run."
Water droplets splashed on the floor, the sounds mixing in with desperate heaves.
"God, I got hit," Boji murmured, having collapsed on his knees. He hit his head twice with the rim of his right hand. "No, no! It's starting to—"
"Keep it down," Soos interrupted in-between his panting. He went on Boji's level. "Are you hurt? What are you forgetting?"
"I keep losing things in my head. Losing…" He wasn't even listening to Soos. "Goddamnit, I've gotta go back!"
"What?" Soos restrained Boji just before he tried to rush outside. "You're already hurt—I can see it! I can't let you endanger yourself." He gulped. "Look, we're both outta breath, too."
"That's not what matters," Boji insisted, hissing through fast, controlled huffs. "I think I know what this thing really is."
"An evil monster that wants to get rid of us!" Soos had a hard time not shouting that. "I've dealt with this before. You haven't—should get outta here while you can."
"I'm not leaving you!"
Like the power in his voice, Boji's features were subdued in the dark. Yet his conviction was clearcut. What further reason did Boji have to stay?
"Come out, friends." It was the Shadowspawn. The walls were slightly reverberating. "It's only a matter of time until one of these entryways answers."
"We've gotta plan," Boji whispered, distress lingering in the dim reflection of his eyes. "T-That guy—Pines—he said the riddle could distract it. It's… it's all tied to what happened in one of those newspaper stories. I'm telling you: I think I know what it wants. That's the answer we need."
"Fine." Soos tried to control his breathing. There was no time left to argue with Boji. "Even if you're somehow right with the riddle, what then, dood? Just hope it'll stop? And what if you're wrong?"
"Can't think about that now, Soos. We gotta hit it the second it's vulnerable. I think that's what Pines said before he cut off."
"Hit it where, though?" An idea blossomed as he envisioned the Shadowspawn in his head. The clues were beginning to line up. "Only place that makes sense is the heart. That thing had one when you pulled me out back at the shack. All black."
"Gotta be it." Boji arose from his stupor. "So I distract the Shadowspawn and you go for the kill shot. Hope ripping guts out is gonna work."
Soos wasn't on board with this plan, the only one they had left. "Then tell me what the answer—"
"Maybe it would be exciting to let you in on the fun," the Shadowspawn interrupted, the pebbles on the ground themselves rustling. It was extremely close, perhaps one tunnel away. "Since the end gets boring without a guest who's in on the puzzle. It's a sublime gift, erasing the memories of your sorrow to banish my hunger."
The stoicism Soos tried to maintain during the monster's tirades was being put to the test. What was it talking about? How could one have 'erased memories of sorrow'?
"Your pain… your grief—I offer a way to make them vanish."
Soos froze. He tried to reassess the plan in his head but he couldn't stop repeating the Shadowspawn's revelation in his mind, jumping to its implications. Why had it seemingly revealed its full hand, its greatest power? If what it'd said was true, then he was here for a great reason, as there was much to feed upon—much he could forget.
The Shadowspawn could erase his grief for Mariana and keep itself alive, a thought which would've grappled him in fear had there not been a bigger question running through his mind.
Why was Boji here?
Soos realised he was the dumbest man alive. One explanation changed everything.
"I told you what happened to my Abuelita," he began. "Look at me, dood." He grabbed Boji's face as gently as he could. "It wants me 'cause of that. But it wants you, too. Boji, did you—"
"No," Boji stammered, his voice cracking as he jerked away. Soos had seen the streak of water running from his eye. "I'm normal, okay? Not like you. I don't—what are you talking about? Now's not—"
"I'm so sorry for your loss. You're so young. But the past's over, okay?" He couldn't believe he was the one saying that. He had to be. "Let me distract it while you run away." No reaction. "I know you said you didn't wanna run but you have so much ahead of you. You shouldn't lose your memories of this person. You can't."
Soos rested a hand on Boji's shoulder, hoping part of his intent was being understood—that this nothingness which had clasped the fibres of the soul did not have to remain as such. Because pain was what made this moment now—of realising there were others like him who suffered the way he did and needed him—worthy of the real Soos: the Soos who did anything for his friends and kept his chin high in the face of the greatest dangers.
His Abuelita was gone. Yet Soos was still here, with a kid to save.
"We can help each other feel normal again. I promise," he swore. "I'll get out of here. Just trust me and go already. Please."
"Ah, I can see it," the Shadowspawn said. "Less potent than the other, as if worn brightly on the sleeve. A wonderful, beautiful woman falling down over the slopes of Mount Logan."
"Logan." Boji was barely talking. "I… I…"
"She would've never made it, of course. Two hundred meters is a dangerous, dangerous plummet."
Soos tensed up, realising what was happening.
He put his other hand on Boji and ordered, "Dood, calm down. Plug your ears. Don't listen—"
"The body, unrecognizable. The suffering, unimaginable. The guilt? Insuff—"
"SHUT UP!" Boji cried out at the top of his lungs, writhing and seething—freeing himself from Soos' grasp with a strong jerk of his shoulders.
"Stop!" Soos sprinted and tried to catch up as much as he could.
"There you are!" the Shadowspawn yelled. Boji was going outside the tunnel and continuing to run. "Time's up."
"Get back!" Soos exclaimed, standing at the entrance of the tunnel they'd hidden in.
Too late. Boji, who'd been in front of the Shadowspawn a short distance away, was already hit by multiple darts, leaving his collapsed self gasping on the floor.
"You had borne the purple mark before entering," the Shadowspawn uttered, towering over Boji and beginning to form some kind of a direct bond with him. "No matter. My erasure will be as fresh as can be."
Soos ran.
"No, no, no! Get out of my head!" Boji hollered, shadow residue spreading around him. "MOM!"
A loud grunt espaced Soos as the overhead slash with his hammer severed the black cord and whatever connection the Shadowspawn had established. A small shockwave burst from the separation, propelling everyone in different directions. Soos's head rose up once the blast had ceased.
"Come on, dood!" he said as he was finding his balance back. "Get up!"
His clothes somewhat torn, Boji wobbled on his feet before gravity overpowered him.
Soos turned to the swooshing sounds to his right. The Shadowspawn transformed and launched itself against the frames of the wooden stabilisers above Soos, bringing them down upon him. Next thing he knew, from his ribcage downwards, he was buried in a wreckage of wood and similar detritus, the pain in his legs vast. He was trapped, unable to lift himself up.
"And I thought the main course had scampered away," the Shadowspawn said as it approached Soos. "Well, I like to leave dessert for last, don't you?"
Soos felt the two darts sticking into his lower abdomen. The sensation was exactly like Boji had described—a minor ache, one of his muscles having convulsed, with a cold, metallic impression he could only equate to having someone plop out chunks of one's brain via surgical instruments.
His bemusement snowballed into panic once he couldn't recall when Mariana had passed.
"Decades ago was the agreement sealed," the Shadowspawn said, aggregating into one being after destroying the dart towers which had been in the shape of the totem pole. "Deserved end strikes the hunter and its kill. I ask: who am I?"
Paraphrased. Like Boji had written it.
"I don't know!" Soos confessed.
He gawked as the Shadowspawn conjured a long, thin black rod—longer than the one he'd cut.
This was it. He yearned for the forgiveness of his Abuelita, Melody, and anyone in whose thoughts he'd dawdled. Although he grew to retain this grief, he embraced living without it and fighting another day. He'd come back; he'd save everyone and retrieve the totem pole and end this once and for all.
A renewed courage gave him strength to face oblivion with a foolish grin.
The rod descended. Soos kept his eyes open.
"Williams!"
There came no blow. Not yet. Soos blinked. That had been Boji's pained voice coming from behind the Shadowspawn. Ahead of him, he observed how, against physiological odds, Boji had managed to recover his stance. Legs were trembling and fists were clenched, but he stood tall.
"It's you!" Boji said. "Goddamn murderer!"
Soos' hand would've reflexively reached his pocket where the newspaper article was had it not been obstructed. He hoped this wasn't Boji's best bet. It couldn't have been.
A pause loomed over the three. The Shadowspawn burst into a long, sadistic cackle followed by a diminutive sigh.
"An answer," it trailed off. Tiny specks of white were emerging from within its shell. Unnatural.
Soos was trying to understand what he was hearing. He didn't imagine a giant stretch like that was feasible—that the same person from the article had transformed into this creature. Powerless to move, he watched the imbalance expand inside whomever that terror was.
"Your judgement is founded well, child," the monster continued, its crooked mouth staring down Boji. "Yet you err in one regard: I am no killer. I am no murderer!"
"I don't think so."
"Don't hurt him!" Soos said.
"And how would you know?" the Shadowspawn questioned, ignoring Soos. "Of all I've seen, you're a speck—worthless. Your grace is transparency, not vigor! You haven't suffered enough to know!"
"Sure," Boji said. "And you haven't, either."
The Shadowspawn growled and rushed towards Boji. Boji did not try to escape, instead aiming to meet it head-on. Soos' appeals to deter Boji were void. He couldn't tell much of what went down, but the chunks he could see from their clash made his jaw drop: as if having expected the Shadowspawn's brashness, with great grit in his stride, Boji narrowly avoided being trampled by sliding himself in-between the wide gap in its legs.
By the time the Shadowspawn had reacted, Boji appeared to have already gathered enough of a head start. Racing with seemingly all the fervour which could carry him, he leapt and plunged himself inside what Soos counted on being the Shadowspawn's exposed heart.
No, he pierced himself through it, Soos realised.
A tremendous screech spiralled from the Shadowspawn as a giant hole in its structureless figure persisted. All of its physical matter tried to fill it, but to no avail. Soos watched as Boji, having been catapulted out of the black recesses, rolled over the coarse surface before landing in a heap, a glowing spark of white near him.
He wasn't moving.
The bellows of desperation from the monster culminated into a wild crescendo of voices begging for freedom. A far more powerful shockwave than the previous one expunged the darkness and enveloped the chamber in its blinding power.
Those moments were peaceful, as if time had plunged the key to the lock of life down the throat of a megalomaniacal mortal whose power had now been spent.
Then, the sounds of dissipation rang in Soos' ears as a spectacular gust of wind passed over him.
His vision had cleared up. His body was unobstructed and the debris, like all the shadow residue around the totem pole, had been scattered away by the shockwave, opening the entrance from whence he'd come.
Soos cared nothing of that.
"Boji!" he shouted, limping towards the fallen teenager. "Are you okay?"
Boji was staring upwards, his eyes soulless and barely open. Soos crouched next to him and held him by the neck.
"I-I saw all of it," Boji stuttered out. "The photo and book both. When you looked away. Thought I could ask you how you did it—maybe help..." He let out a groan. "My head hurts."
The leech of doubt was probing at the back of Soos' conscience. He couldn't believe he'd been the catalyst for all this. Not again.
"It's okay, man. I get it." He chased the urge to comfort this lost child to whom he owed the remnants of his comeuppance—the grief he never wanted to lose after today.
"I'm sorry." Boji was gripping the purple spots on his neck and face. "So close. T-There they are, the others! But why can't I remember anything else, Soos?! I wanna remember her!"
"You'll remember. Trust me." He felt the shuddered breaths on his forearm. This was just like Stan. "I'll fix us. I—"
"—Believe I can help with that."
The speaker was of a collected disposition. Soos glimpsed the emergence of a source of white light—an entrancing, inviting glow. Amidst it, an entity extremely similar to the Shadowspawn was conjured with a vessel made entirely out of the same light and a mixture of darkness pervading its limbs and head.
"I do not lie any longer," the anomaly said, a mouth moving in tandem with other, more subdued features of a normal face. "This other form is vanquished at last. I must be one of the wisps now."
Soos instinctively brought Boji up, the boy relying on him for stability, and ran to the extent his tired legs would allow. He didn't know what a wisp was but he wasn't taking his chances—fighting one wasn't excluded.
"The willpower you both possess is powerful," the supposed wisp began, "yet my hold on this world remains present. There is nothing to run from."
Filaments strapped Soos' feet, anchoring him down. As he shook his head, he realised his chains were of a material he could best feel as raw energy bearing a plasmatic texture.
"Let us go!" Soos said, striking his chin high. His concern gravitated towards a Boji who remained resigned in every capacity.
"I can never amend my terrible wrongs to you. But I can reverse a great deal of the pain. This, I promise."
The wisp placed a cold, luminescent hand on each of their foreheads—the left one on Soos' and the right one on Boji's.
"Now, as I tried before—become my victims. Tu a meis erroribus. Reminiscere perditi, et te manere permittis. Nunc manete ab hac perdita via!"
Soos couldn't speak. Akin to flourishing back, waves crashed down and went up only to crash down again; apocalypse and genesis unravelled within his emotion. It was a journey—the remembrance of the remorse, apathy, chaos, bitterness, resentment, anger, joy, heartache, and ecstasy Soos had felt in these three long days.
"Be healed," his captor said. And it let go.
Soos started frantically prodding at his face until his breath normalised. His grief had persisted, and the revelation birthed the tiny tears subtly covering his cheeks and wetting the tips of his fingers.
"I… I can't believe it," Boji was the first to utter, voice vibrant. "It's back."
Soos diverted his view, ignoring the effects of the 'healing' on his own body. Boji was… fine. He had arisen, free of the violet ailment.
"I can see it again." Boji's balance was still wobbly. "All the white's gone…"
"You're okay?" Soos inquired, stumbling next to Boji. A grin lent itself permission to show in the same way his arms were to be raised over his head. "You're okay!"
Boji was evidently too overwhelmed to celebrate. And he had fair reason.
Soos turned to the wisp. He and Boji distanced themselves, yet neither opted for an escape attempt. For now.
"You," Boji said. "You did this?"
"My real name is as you pieced it: Caleb Williams." A confession. "And given the demise of my physical form, it remains my name now."
Those abnormal blue spots in lieu of eyes didn't give Soos much confidence. He held his mesmerising.
"How can we trust you?" he asked.
"If I wanted to vanquish you, I would've given in to the discord when I restrained you," Caleb attested. "You can also ask me something only I would know."
"The detective in charge of your case," Boji uttered. "His name?"
"Connor." There was sustained vitriol in the answer.
Soos glanced at Boji. Boji nodded.
"No riddles anymore," Soos demanded, eyes back at Caleb. "Why'd you do all this? Why us?"
"That fire at your home: what happened?" Boji added.
"It's the curse—to feed upon others' grief," Caleb explained, "beginning with the accident that consumed the lives of my beloved wife; my sweet daughter. Oh, I can still remember the explosions. Those townies stole my creations—my fireworks—and started a fire that spread to in my home in their idiocy. They took everything from me, yet I remained the fool to blame out of my hobby."
"So you lost someone you loved, too," Soos said, his judgement of the man behind the horror becoming clouded.
Caleb hesitated for a second but continued, "I ran away and, in my exile, was haunted by a visage of paranormality. It showed me—said it'd been freed from its own prison and that it could help me in my vengeance against the people of the town so long as I listened to it. It made me into the thing you fought."
"Wait," Soos stammered. "W-Who was it you met?"
"I don't think I need to describe it." Caleb turned his back to them. "You look to know of many things paranormal here. The magnitude of the power it granted me will lead you to its name."
Soos gulped before muttering, "Bill Cipher…?"
Caleb did not respond. Everything was clear now, Soos thought. Cipher had told Ford about the Shadowspawn—that demon had tricked Caleb Williams as well. It was a circle.
"Who?" Boji asked. Obviously.
"The most evil and powerful demon out there, dood," Soos answered abruptly. "I'll tell ya more later but we, um, kinda killed him last summer?"
Boji did not look impressed. Soos nevertheless had an inkling he was mulling over those insane claims.
"Good riddance to that demon," Caleb added. He swivelled to Soos and Boji, scowling. "The bounds of our deal couldn't allow me to reveal its identity nor my own. I wanted my question to be answered so I could allow myself to be freed. But when that scientist came to trap me, I could do nothing. The man carried no burdens which would've satiated me."
"Which means you lingered for years until some creatures came by and set you free?" Boji surmised, an attentiveness which impressed Soos being employed. Boji scoffed. "No wonder."
Soos felt his input was required.
"Like the prize in a cereal box, you can never really know what hides in plain sight, hambone."
The glares in his direction were telling of how successful his efforts to ease the tension were. He coughed nervously; internalising all of this as normal would've taken more than lightheartedness.
"Well, um, speakin' of things that remind me of breakfast"—Soos took the newspaper from his toolbelt and pointed at the bottom—"Know anything about this, dood?"
Caleb seethed, small filaments forming from the ground and disappearing. "Those robed freaks…"
"You do? The Blind Eye?"
"Wait, wait," Boji chimed in before Caleb had a chance to intervene. "You had a name for them? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because they didn't matter. They don't exist anymore, dood," Soos explained, though Boji's doubtful expression didn't waver. "Promise."
Following some rumination, Boji ultimately shrugged it off.
Soos focused on Caleb, hoping the matter was resolved. "So, Caleb?"
"The Blind Eye and I had an 'arrangement'. I didn't allow them to neuter potential victims with their tools—I… forced them to confer with me." Heavy regret glazed those words. "There weren't many who came. I can recall only one of those fat cretins' wives who was burdened by the loss of her father and brother. The rest were my sole prey."
Soos was sure there weren't many in the society who fit Caleb's imaginative descriptors. Troubling.
"I snuffed her grief away. She was a vibrant woman." Caleb's blue pupils dimmed. "When she left, all of that was gone—hair grey and face hopeless. Never the same again."
"Hol' up," Soos said, knowing of one woman in Gravity Falls who could've borne the consequences of the society's deeds while being married to a former member. "T-That's… that's Mrs. Gleeful! Oh, that's horrible. We gotta go help her after all this!"
"Count me in on that," Boji stated, catching Soos off guard. "Wait, how do we reverse the effects?"
"I recited the incantation to you two when I cured you," Caleb mentioned. "If I do it without making contact, you can transcribe it."
Soos nodded and, courtesy of Boji's penmanship, soon enough they had the invocation down on the back of the Soos' favourite tour script.
"Now, I mean to ask," Caleb said, drawing an exasperated breath, "of the forcefield."
"Forcefield?" Soos repeated.
"The barrier preventing me from taking your suffering right at that shack. I want to know if it was the curse's doing or, hmph, something else."
"You mean the shack's Bill-proof barrier?" Soos mused, remembering when Ford had projected the dome with the terrifying power of unicorn hair. "It's what protects it from Bill's cuckoo weirdness. And since your magic came from Bill, it must'a stopped you, too!"
"Ingenuity comes with bigger risks, I suppose." Caleb sneered. "It frightened me—forced me to bring you here. Because I needed you: the way you two expressed your grief was unlike anything I'd seen. Yet I'm glad for this barrier to… have…"
Soos put out a hand. "Are you—"
"My tie to here loosens." Caleb's body was flickering; the immaterial was being plucked out. "Didn't believe it'd grow so weak so fast. I m-must speak between realms—begin to go back."
"Woah!" Soos exclaimed, approaching Caleb. "Is there any way we can help?"
"I sense the new balance being reversed," Caleb said, a bravado in his speech mimicking the Shadowspawn. Everything below his neck began to fragment into shards punctured by a lively gamma of colours. "More agents of chaos rising out of the river which Cipher had emerged from."
Soos chimed in, "What are you—"
"Some similar to me may have also felt the tide shift and entered this dimension from beyond," Caleb monologued, "trying to contain it. Be aware of a time when all your destinies may meet. Then, in Eternia, I will be aiding you in your efforts."
Soos' disbelief didn't shield him from the discomfort of witnessing Caleb's face breaking apart into closely bound miniscule pieces.
"I hope you find peace," Boji said. "After we help your victims recover. Until then, pay."
Soos frowned. He admitted, "That's cold, dood."
"He isn't a victim." Boji sighed, looking away.
Whatever was left of Caleb didn't even appear to take in Boji's assertions. Soos watched as the pieces clustered into a ball and a spark of momentary energy broke out in the vicinity until it too dissipated in the quiet, suppressed implosion detonated at the centre of mass.
Caleb vanished, freeing the chamber.
"I'll admit," Boji said once placidity began bogging down Soos' thoughts, "I've no idea what that thing did. And I don't wanna know."
"Can't say I got a clue either, dood." Soos pinched his temples. Conceptualising the starkly muddled nature of people and paranormal creatures' souls might have been a more beneficial outcome of the questions he'd chosen to ask Caleb. He swallowed his mistake, certain the existence of 'wisps' would've still been of great interest to the Pines family. "I really wanna go home, though. I'll explain everything I understood from that guy on the way."
"Sure, but what about that?" Boji pointed to the totem pole which was still stuck in the ground.
Soos smirked. "Don't worry, dood. I got one ace in the hole left. We just need to take a little walk."
"Okay, guys," Soos shouted, arms raised. "A little bit to the left! Imagine you're capturing a baby Multi-Bear!"
"From what Soos told me, it's pretty small!" Boji added, sitting on the stairs of the porch. "So, uh, probably think teenager!"
"Good call!"
One of the Manotaurs grunted and yelled, "Beardy hates Multi-Bears going through puberty even more!"
Soos signalled an okay to Boji. It was a foolproof plan: enlisting the aid of those who'd initially set the Shadowspawn loose by mentioning how unmanly avoiding the consequences of their actions would be.
"No!" Soos said. "Beardy, over there!"
"Your right, guys!" Boji affirmed. "Soos' left!"
Realigning the direction of their shuffle, with a synchronised howl, the two Manotaurs put down the totem pole in its original spot.
"As men of manliness, we have repaid our debt, mystery baby gopher thing!" Pubetor declared, beating his chest. "Now, Leaderaur expect us!"
"Thanks, doods!" Soos said, charmed by how often the word 'gopher' followed others' descriptions of him. He waved the Manotaurs farewell as they stomped into the wilderness.
"Those guys were cool," Boji noted, coming up from behind Soos.
"Eh, yeah." Soos glanced at the uprooted trees along the tracks. "Could'a been a little more careful, though."
"Maybe that's the price of admission."
Soos agreed, admiring the totem pole. "Man, can't believe it's back. What a day."
Stepping back for a better view, he yelped once he identified the gelatinous liquid his right foot had wandered in.
Boji questioned, "What's wrong?"
Soos paced back. "Monster goo here—stepped on it!"
Nothing happened.
"Wait," Boji said, squatting down to the shadow residue on the dirt, "he did say he was 'free', right? I guess all the residue except the tiny bits disappeared."
"Huh. Guess I've gotta clean it up. And my shoes. Man, at this point, I would'a preferred Caleb to show up again."
Boji laughed. "Hey, no one said you couldn't improvise. Make it an exhibit! Could be a Gansel and Hretel breadcrumbs type of deal."
"I dunno. I know you don't like him, but I think we should leave the guy in peace."
"Right." Boji pulled on his ear. "Your call."
"Good idea, though. Would'a made a great attraction."
Boji was trying to hide a smile.
"C'mon, let's go grab a Pitt," Soos offered, trudging to the shack.
Boji accompanied him. "Being in a weird town is cool and all but it's just the biggest culture shock. The heck's a Pitt?"
"Took me an hour to bring you up to speed while we were walkin' back and now you're talking about culture shock?"
"What can I say? Near-total apocalypse is more normal than a 'Pitt' to me."
"Well, you're about to change your mind, hambone."
After circumnavigating the mess at the door to the gift shop, Soos went to realign the stone statue of Stan back at its rightful place near the entrance. Following that arduous undertaking during which Soos had to take three breaks as Boji wound up pushing the statue back in its spot, he assessed the damages in the room.
Many stands were bent over, a bundle of merchandise was tucked in anywhere but a shelf, and even the legs on the chair at the front counter were broken.
Soos decided cleaning up could wait.
He collected two Pitts from a stash below the vending machine. Boji lined up in front of him, grabbing the drink and sitting down on the empty box which had contained the Namm Co. bobbleheads. Soos reclined as best he could on an unopened crate and took a gulp from his Pitt, knowing the elephant in the room couldn't be ignored any longer.
No more jokes. No more questions about Manotaurs or Gravity Falls. They had to talk about it.
"So, uh…"
"I was—"
"I'm sorry," Soos said. "You go."
"Can I… start with what I meant back there when I got hit? About why I lied to you; or at least didn't tell you everything?"
"Of course, Boji. Yeah. I think I need to do the same." Soos chuckled weakly. "Been ridin' the adrenaline wave up until now."
Boji fiddled with his beverage, not having taken a sip. "My mom's name was Lora."
"That's a beautiful name," Soos admitted.
"It was."
"I've never heard it before but… it's unique. Just like yours."
Boji shook his head.
"Sorry! Didn't mean to—"
"N-No, it's funny you said that." Boji's gaze didn't cross Soos, preferring a reflection in the windowpane. He ran a hand through his dark locks. "I know this'll sound stupid again, but my dad wasn't who thought of my name. That's, well, from my mom."
Soos' impulse to comfort Boji was being chained by a foregone pang of pity.
Boji chuckled softly. "She always moved around, which made me and my dad move, too. Was hard to make any friends, but I managed. She loved the mountains—climbing and trying to beat her record each time." His left shoulder tensed as he looked at his feet, keeping that tired expression of feigned joy. "But fate wasn't a fan'a that, I guess."
Soos gulped. "It's okay if you don't wanna go on, dood."
"It was an accident when we went to the highest peak in Canada. Just a random avalanche no one could've predicted!" He meekly threw his arms up. "Dad and I—we waited at the base camp and everyone from that expedition crew came back. Except her."
Pity metamorphosed into compassion as Soos put a hand on Boji's thigh. He didn't say anything.
"She said she'd send us pictures when she reached the top." Boji rubbed his eyes through an emblematic redness in his cheeks. "That we'd take a trip to where she was from—a country in Europe called Bulgaria—since… since I'd never gone there. Yeah, sure!" He shuddered when he heard his voice had gone higher than he'd wanted it to. "I'm sorry. I don't wanna ramble."
"You're far from ramblin', dood," Soos reassured. "I can't think what any'a that must've been to go through. My Abuelita—she wasn't like your mom. But she was stronger than any person I knew for raisin' me by herself. I wouldn't be what I am if it weren't for her."
"She sounds like an incredible woman."
"She grew up in Mexico. And I've never been there, either." It was beyond relieving to simply talk about Mariana. "But she wrote down where our house was and I… I wanna see what's there someday. I think it's gonna help. Just like goin' to Bulgaria could help you, too."
The short reticence whispered to Soos of the wounds words had to leave to the work of time.
"Haven't talked about any of this for months," Boji confessed, peacefully swinging their legs. "The only person who wanted to listen was my dad and he started liking his studies more than helping me make sense of any of this. I don't blame him. I've been like that."
"But you can help him. You got off that road."
"Yeah. Hmph. We got off it." Boji opened the Pitt Cola and raised it. "A cheers to that?"
Soos didn't wait, clanking his can with Boji's and downing the rest of the drink.
"Oh man, that reminds me," he muttered, setting the can aside. "I should really call Mr. Pines and Dr. Pines. And maybe ask Dr. Pines if he had any idea about some of the stuff with Caleb. Could'a been helpful info."
"Wait… there's two people called Pines?" Boji inquired. "Thought that guy was talking to himself."
"Nah, they're the twins—two different people! But I guess the twin part's the confusion bomb. Told ya about Ford already. But Stan's the guy you moved." He pointed to the statue. "He's the real pro and the original Mr. Mystery—someone you can always look up to. I know I have."
Like Soos himself, Boji vividly exhibited awe and intrigue in the type of person Stan was (or how the face on the statue hadn't actually belonged to some imaginary monster).
"As for him and his brother, it's a long story," Soos concluded. "But they were key to the whole 'bringin' Bill down' thing I explained to you."
"Yeah, I think I've heard enough long stories today. It looks like you've gotten a few pointers from a great guy, though."
Soos internalised Boji's sentiment, confidence surging as to where his inhibitions hours ago had originated from—the warm feeling which had urged him to take Boji with him on this cathartic adventure. Stan had to have felt it when another impressionable yet determined boy came to his doorstep with bold eagerness in his eyes.
Soos was certain in whose footsteps to follow now.
"Say, actually, I can finish telling you 'bout Stan and Ford tomorrow if you want. Even have it written as an outdated fanfic!"
Boji folded his arms. "Whaddya mean? And not just about that second part."
"Well, you could come by here. First thing tomorrow, we can visit Mrs. Gleeful while askin' for other potential victims of the Shadowspawn." Soos brought up a finger. "Since school's out for Easter, you could also, y'know, work here over Spring and help me with the tours. If you got nothin' better to do."
"Wait, really?"
"Ya clearly got the business sense."
Boji smirked. "How can you tell from one idea I gave you?"
"Trust me, man. When you've given enough bad ideas to someone, you'll know when a good one comes by."
"If you say so." Boji had definitely come close to blushing. "Wow. Man, I really appreciate that, Soos."
"No problem, dawg." Soos patted him on the shoulder. "It's the least I could do after this wild ride."
"Oh crap, my dad's gonna kill me if I don't pop in soon." Boji had been tracking the cuckoo clock behind Soos. "So, uh, see you tomorrow then, boss?"
"Please, Boji. It's just Soos. Or Mr. Mystery during tours!"
"Whatever you say, oh unknowable spirit with no true name."
"Oh yeah, sure, kiddo." Soos ruffled his hair. "Just don't lemme start glowin' with the power of making your head spin!"
"Good one," Boji said amidst laughing and playfully swatting out Soos' hand. Composing himself, he cleared his throat. "Thank you, Soos. For everything."
The duo exchanged a two-fingered salute as Boji, akin to the angry mob of tourists he'd been a part of, departed the shack over the mask of early sunset.
How much of a difference one person had the power to make often found its way to inspire Soos. He glimpsed the picture and diary which hadn't moved despite the Shadowspawn's efforts. From being the soot under which guilt touched over a decimated refuge, they formed into his most treasured ladders to the skyscraper that was his recovery.
And he wasn't afraid of them anymore. He wasn't going to force a reaction. He was simply going to let himself feel safe again.
He'd start by uttering the same words which had broken him a day prior and now, somehow, gave him life to move on.
"Sé amable con los demás, querido, pero siempre sé de lo más amable contigo mismo."
A/N:
EnneaCipher
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