After Dark

Chapter 5 - Nightmare

Dipper woke up screaming covered in a cold sweat. Grunkle Stan came into the room with a break action shotgun loaded for bear.

"You ok Dipper?" Grunkle Stan asked looking concerned. Dipper tried to catch his breath as the terror of the dream left him shaking. Mabel and Pacifica now came trotting down the stairs to see what the commotion was. Ford who slept in the lab was too far away to hear the commotion. "Are you all right Dipper?" Mabel asked. Dipper broke down crying answering her question for her. When she asked him what was wrong he took in deep breaths as he shook violently.

Finally, Dipper was able to calm himself and gather his thoughts. He was hedging his bets as far as just how much he wanted to reveal. But the look on Pacifica's face told him she knew exactly what he was up to. He might as well fold now. He breathed out letting go of the idea of trying to brush it off. He looked down at the ground. "I keep having nightmares...well the same nightmare really. Not too often but often enough that it's starting to be concerning."

Dipper went silent as his mind dredged up images from his dream. He felt like he was going to be sick. He forced his mind to do mental calming exercises finding a logical center of rationale.

He spoke softly his voice betraying the hollowness of how he felt. "Every nightmare is the same. I can't find Mabel and I'm looking for her. B-but when I find her s-she's dead."

Dipper closed his eyes only to see her face how it was in the dream. Dipper snapped his eyes open again in an effort to block the image out. "What happened in the dream Dipper, cmon you can tell me im your twin. It's just a dream after all."

Dipper shook his head. "I'm not so sure about that. It feels familiar...in the worst way. Somehow...somehow it feels like Bill. Like he is trying to reach out from his imprisonment within his dimension to torture me." Dipper muttered under his breath, "Point sadistic prick." Pacifica hearing him nodded having mutual enmity for the evil entity known as 'Bill Cypher.'

"Well we're all up now Dipper," Mabel said, "What happened in the dream. Dipper shuddered. "You don't want to know," he said darkly. Mabel gave him the stink eye which didn't phase him in the lease. Pacifica looked at him with concern written on her features as she searched his eyes for anything kind of answer to his current state of mind.

Dipper took in a deep shuddering breath. "It's pretty bad, so be warned," he cautioned as he gathered his thoughts trying not to have a nervous breakdown as he collected and organized the visceral details of the lucid dream.

"I was walking on the lakeshore of gravity falls in my dream. I was nearing the waterfall as the sound around me reached a ubiquitous level of noise that drowned out everything else but the falls. The moonlight cut through the branches of the pines hitting the lake in off angles and sparse patches of asymmetric moonlight. I looked out across the water when I saw a dark black mound near the rocks. Perhaps it was a creature from the woods. I walked slowly and silently as not to disturb it till I could get a better look. As I drew near I realized it was not a creature. Not a live one anyway. It appeared to be something that had washed up on the rocks half sunk in the water. As I drew near I realized it was not an animal at all. It was one of your sweaters, Mabel. I reached out to grab the sweater."

Dipper was now shaking violently. "I w-went to p-pull on the sweater..." Dipper dry heaved. "B-b-but when I p-pulled on the sweater your f-face came out of th-the water with it." Dipper dry heaved again. "I-it was covered in seaweed and all your color was g-gone." He gasped. "Th-the l-life was drained out of your f-face, your eyes st-stared upward unseeing." Dipper dove for the trashcan as he puked into with wet-sounding retches.

Dipper collapsed on the floor shaking on all fours trying to collect himself. "Oh Dipper..."Mabel said her eyes wide. She wrapped her arms around his chest pulling him into a sitting position as she hugged him under the arms from behind. "I'm not going anywhere."

Dipper's eyes lit up like fire as the rage kindled in him. "If that Son of %*#$ touches Mabel there's nowhere in the multiverse he can't hide from my wrath."

Pacifica knelt in front of him. "He knows that Dipper. He knows exactly which buttons to push. He is doing this for a reason." Dipper scoffed, "Yeah cause he's he an evil sadist." Pacifica shook her head. "Think bigger. What is the one thing he wants?"

That gave Dipper pause. "To escape his dimension probably." "Precisely," said Pacifica. So maybe this has something to do with that. Maybe he has found some way to reach out to you maybe even of even just on a subconscious level." Dipper swallowed seeing the logic. "What do we do?" Dipper asked now trying to piece together what Pacifica had in mind. "If we can find a way to shut him out maybe he won't be able to have any influence." Dipper could see the logic in her argument. "There is only one problem though," he said looking in her eyes. "We don't know for certain if he really is reaching out to you from a scientific point of view."

Pacifica now smirked slightly. "Fortunately you and Ford are experts in the field," she said candidly. "Think of a way to isolate the EMF bandwidth frequencies or perhaps look into w-bosons propagated through the w&z bosons. Maybe he has found a way to reach out across dimensional space even if he can't physically leave the confines of his Galaxy."

It was now Dipper's turn to be impressed with her scientific knowledge. "You might be on to something," Dipper conceded. Pacifica flashed him a teasing look putting on a pretense of snobbery. "Of course I'm right, I'm Pacifica Northwest."

Dipper breathed out reaching an arm around both girls. "I...I don't say it often enough...Being a guy sometimes your always trying to be tough...sometimes it's not till you're broken you realize you never knew what strength was...strength is fighting for the ones you love. Loving them through every circumstance...even when they make mistakes and fall short." Dipper rubbed his thumb over Pacifica's hand.

Turning to Mabel he embraced her with both arms...I...I love you Mabes. I'm a shell of a man without you girls. I know I don't say it and...and maybe I'm the weak one for not coming out and saying how much you girls mean to me."

Mabel spoke softly. "You'll always be a hero in my eyes Dipper." Dipper shut his eyes drawing from this moment. Taking in the good and pushing out the horrors in his mind's eyes. Taking in the Hope and life and pushing out the depravity of hopelessness and terror.

He wouldn't let anything happen to them. One by one the girls went back to bed. Dipper couldn't sleep now. His mind was running over what he needed to do. He drew from that moment of hope letting it outshine his fears.

Grunkle Stan walked up next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Your not weak you know." Dipper looked at him confused not sure what he was referring to. "Just because you show you care doesn't make you weak. I bought into that lie most of my life. Dad was a stoic man. You bury your feeling deep and put on a brave face. That's how I was raised. It wasn't till I lost Ford I realized how hollow that statement really was. Habits are hard to change, but you kids have helped me and Ford more than you know. If it wasn't for you kids who knows where he would be." Stanley sat quietly looking out the front porch window at the moonlit parking lot as he contemplated.

He turned to face Dipper, "Never apologize for who you are. You're stronger than you think." Stanley ruffled Dipper's hair with a chuckle before he headed back for the stairs. Without turning back as he climbed the stairs he said, "You're a Pines after all."