Cast Away

Chapter 4

(Dipper pov)

I laugh as my dad picks me up putting me on his shoulders. My sister pulls on my mom's hand as she points to a doll in the window of a toy store.

"Please  please, Mom! She is so so pretty!"

"I've told you already, Mabel, no. You already got your treat from the last store."

"But, Mom-"

"No buts. Anything you want, Mason, before we head home for the day?"

"Um..." My eyes scan the nearby stalls and stores until I see one that interests me. "The bookstore."

My dad lightly chuckles as he sets me back on the ground. "Of course you would pick the bookstore." He gently ruffles my hair.

We head towards the bookstore when the people around us start yelling and screaming, a loud noise going off nearby and my mom falls to the ground holding her neck as this dark red liquid pools on the ground around her. Tears sting my eyes seeing how she looks to be in such pain. I try to run to her but my dad grabs me stopping me, Mabel just frozen standing in place and trembling as tears go down my face.

"Mom!" I fight against my dad as he pulls me away from her. "We have to help her!"

"Mason, we can't, there isn't time!" He pulls me away and kneels down holding me by the shoulder tightly. "Listen to me, take your sister and run. Do not stop until you both get home. I will meet you both there."

"B-But-"

"Just go. I love you both."

He lets go of me and fighting back the tears in my eyes I grab Mabel's hand and pull her through the crowd, weaving in and out of the people yelling and screaming and running in all directions.

We stop running as we hear more loud noises that sound like fighting ahead of us. Not knowing what else to do I pull her behind a nearby stall. We both sit on the ground and I pull her close to me as she quietly cries into my shoulder, holding onto me tightly.

I look through one of the cracks of the booth and freeze as this thing seems to look exactly like me. It seems like a normal man but his teeth are pointed and there is blood all over him. His eyes are blood red. His evil smile grows as he comes closer to the stall we're hiding behind.

He's nearly at the stall when a man cuts his head off with the sword. The man is just a flash of purple except for the purple eye I see gaze my way almost like he sees me and my sister hiding.

.....................................................

"No!" I gasp as I sit up with a start, breathing heavily feeling sweat trickiling down the back of my neck. I run both hands through my hair trying to get the strands soaked in sweat out of my face. "Shit....I fucking hate that dream...."

That isn't the first time I've had that dream. It starts off fine, but it always turns out that way. Everything about it is so clear almost like it's real. But I know it's not, it can't be. My parents died in an accident, that is all. Maybe I just have read too many stories about unbelieveable things and that's why this dream keeps happening. I think it's been a full year since I had that dream, maybe two even.

I lay back in the hammock, my whole body sore. I am not at all used to the hard labor of working on a ship so everything hurts to much worse than I had ever felt. I didn't even know this kind of pain was even remotely possible.

I force myself up out of the hammock and pull on the boots that Tad had managed to find for me, them being big but better than nothing. I leave the room into the dim halls, the halls lit by lanterns. I head back up to the deck.

I lean on the railing looking up at the night sky, feeling at ease as a cold breeze blows through me. My eyes glance at the lifeboat to my far right. I could try going for it again, no one out here to stop me. But I would die, having no food or water. I wouldn't even know which way to go. I'm not like Stan or Ford or even Mabel, I can't navigate by the stars and I didn't bother learning how like she did.  I rest my forehead against the railing as I morbidly laugh to myself.

"Geez, a lot of good your stupid books ever did for you. Trapped in the middle of an ocean because you never bothered learning what to do at sea even when your entire family tried to teach you. What a fucking joke." I mutter to myself.

"Better not be thinking of making another escape attempt, Pinetree."

Glancing behind me I see Bill standing there but without his coat and hat. I look away from him and up at the stars again. "Wouldn't be much of a point. You'd either kill me before I could or I would die on my own. Either way I am screwed."

"Seems someone is finally learning." I hear him walk up and lean on the railing next to me but I do everything I can to pretend that he's not there. I spot the big dipper in the sky and without thinking I grab at my bangs covering my birthmark.

I look back at the ocean waters, them no longer looking blue but an inky black. I can't even see my reflection in them. There is one way of escape from my hopeless situation. I find myself leaning forward more as the idea becomes more solid.

If I just leaned a little further and let the water swallow me up, he wouldn't be able to use me to hurt my family. I would be free from everything. My family already thinks that I'm dead so this wouldn't be causing anyone anymore pain. It would just be like going to sleep.

A hand grabs the back of my neck hard and roughly pulls me away from the railing, throwing me back onto the deck hard. Groaning in pain I look up seeing Bill looking extremely pissed and glaring at me.

"Do not ever think of pulling that shit again."

"Why not? Why the fuck do you care?" I force myself back on my feet glaring back at him.

"As your captain, you will follow my orders no matter-"

"You are not my captain! I am not part of your damn crew! I am just you prisoner! You kidnapped me and that is all that there is to it!"

He doesn't say anything, he just grabs my arm hard dragging me back into the bellows of the ship. I struggle as I realize that he's dragging me back to the brig. He unlocks a cell and roughly throws me into it before he slams the door shut and locks it before he leaves.