Nightmares and Daydreams

Chapter 19: A Time Travelers Fight

Dipper's Pov

I couldn't sleep.

After pacing around the gift shop for half an hour, waiting for Wirt to come back, Stan had shooed me upstairs to the attic. I had gone up to my room and passed by Mabel, who was sitting on her bed playing with Waddles. She very quickly and loudly told me about her day and how she successfully 'captured Pacifica's heart', but I wasn't listening. I was too focused on scanning my bookshelf trying to figure out what happened to Wirt while we were in the woods. Once I had found all three journals, I sat on my bed and scanned through them, trying to figure out what happened.

That was at 10:00 pm and it was now 5 in the morning. I chewed on the end of my pen and scanned through journal 3 for the 8th time even though I had the entire book memorized. Anything could have happened and I didn't have enough information to form any kind of theory. There was definitely something in those woods, but what? And why couldn't Wirt tell me? I sighed and closed the book, then tiredly grabbed my journal. I probably should have been sleeping, especially since Stan was planning to do his 'Mystery Fair' tomorrow, but I was too set on figuring this mystery out. Several minutes passed and I was no closer to figuring out what was in those woods. That's when an idea hit me. Wirt had gone to see Ford, he must have told him what he saw. Which means that Ford knows what happened.

I jumped from my bed and was quickly reminded that Mabel was sleeping when a pillow whacked me in the face and the mumbled words, "Dipper, shut up," came from her bed. I quietly continued out the room and into the hallway when I heard humming. With light footsteps, I followed the voice down to the living room, where Wirt was humming and holding something in his arms. I took another step forward and he stood up and looked at me. I quickly realized the 'thing' he was holding was just Greg, who was asleep in his arms. I cleared my throat then looked up at him and said, "can we talk?"

"Y-Yeah but..." He looked down at his brother then back at me. "Not here." I nodded and watched as he set Greg back down on the couch. Once he did that, we both walked out onto the back porch and sat down on the deck. There was a cool breeze and now I wished I had grabbed a jacket or at least changed out of my shorts. It wasn't the time to be worrying about that though, so I turned to Wirt and asked what's been on my mind the entire night. "What happened in the woods?" 

Wirt tensed a little then looked down at the ground, not meeting my eyes. "I... I think I saw something. I'm not sure." So he did see something! But what? What was it? Why couldn't he say? "What did you see?" I asked, hoping to finally get a straight answer. He stayed quiet for a few seconds then sighed. "What would you do if I told you I was scared?" I raised my eyebrow and frowned slightly. "What does that have to do wi-" "Please. Just... I just want to know?" I sighed and looked down at the ground as well. He was changing the subject, trying to hide something. I wanted to ask him more or demand that he give me a proper answer, but his voice. He sounded hurt, broken, afraid. It was horrible and I couldn't stand watching Wirt in such a state of pain, even though I didn't know what was causing it. So, I answered his question.

"I would hold your hand and tell you that it's going to be okay." "And if I told you I was broken?" "I would be by your side. Picking up your pieces and putting you back together till you were whole." "And if I said I wasn't human?" The question surprised me. What was Wirt implying, that he wasn't human? There are only a few creatures with human appearances and even then, you could tell. But Wirt, he looked and acted human, unless this was a hypothetical question. It was the only explanation I had and it made sense, but something wasn't sitting right. Nevertheless, I hugged his arm, smiled up at him, and answered his question. "I wouldn't stop being your friend. I would stay with you, helping you no matter what you were." That's not what I wanted to say. I wanted to tell him that I would continue to love him. That I would love him no matter what he was. That's what I wanted to say, but I couldn't. Not now... not yet.