The End is Just the Beginning (a Bad End Friends story)

Chapter 11

The day passed by after Bipper returned home from the Citadel. Morty never came back home, but Bipper wasn't worried about it.

It soon came to be night and time for Bipper to crash. He crawled into bed. "Good night, Mabel," he said to his sister, who was already on her side of the room.

"Night, Di-Bipper," she answered.

Bipper turned off the lamp on the table in between their beds. He laid back and stared up at the ceiling.

He wondered whose night terror he would go into that night. He hoped it was Wirt's; they were usually dull and gray with the lack of emotion the boy had. Usually. Finn's were chaotic, filled with sharp voices and lights, and always so, so cold. Morty didn't have dreams despite all he had done and all that had been done to him.

Mabel's nightmares were Bipper's least favorite because out of all the people, Mabel was the only one who could see Bipper in her dreams. She was always angry, confused, and stuck in the past.

Eventually, Bipper drifted into the mindscape. He started to dream.

Bipper was on a very familiar street. He sighed, knowing he jinxed himself.

He wandered down the main street of Gravity Falls to the statue of Nathaniel Northwest. By it, there was a semicircle of recognizable people.

Stan, Sixer, Wendy, Soos, Candy, Grends, Waddles, Bipper listed in his mind.

In the middle of the corpses was Mabel with her back turned from him.

"What, no Gideon?" Bipper asked softly.

Mabel turned with an elated look on her face. "Dipper! You came back! I knew you would!" she cried, but Bipper just let her talk with a sad expression on his face. "Where have you been? Last time I saw you..."

Bipper flinched, knowing what was going to happen next.

"Monster!" Mabel shrieked as she stumbled away from him. "You demon! You took my brother away and killed half the town!"

"Mabel, look-" Bipper started, but Mabel deliberately cut him off with a shrill scream. "You killed the other half, and you know it, Shooting Star!"

Mabel recoiled. "Only Bill calls me Shooting Star. You are not my brother."

Bipper sighed. "I'm sorry, Mabel. It slipped out." He went and sat down next to Waddles the pig. He grabbed a piece of confetti off the ground and started to fiddle with it. "I am not here to hurt you."

"Liar!" she screamed.

Bipper crumbled the ticker tape in his hand. "Calm down, Mabel. You should be waking up soon."

"See! If this is a dream then you are invading it! Get out!" Mabel looked around frantically then picked something off the ground. She threw it at Bipper, who only had time to register it as a fork before he woke up with a start.

Bipper shot up, clutching his chest. He hurried to his sister's bedside in hopes to calm her down, but as soon as he touched her arm, he was pinned to the floor by a cake knife to his chest.

"Ah, yes. A knife is much more effective than a fork," Bipper said. He exhaled so the blade wasn't as close to his body.

"Get out of my brother's body you demon!" Mabel shouted.

"I am afraid that is not quite possible," Bipper siad.

"Well, make it possible!!" Mabel yelled and dug her knife into his chest.

"Hey! That actually hurt," Bipper complained and took action.

In one swift move, he grabbed both her wrists, disarmed her, and swung her around so they switched places with Mabel barred to the ground by Bipper.

Just then, the door opened and Wirt peeked his head through it. He took in the scene in front of him.

Bipper made eye contact with him. "This is not what it looks like," he said, but Mabel took the opportunity to knee him in the gut. It caused him to double over and tumble off her.

Wirt left, closing the door behind him with a click.

"Mabel, stop, please," Bipper said softly.

"You had a nightmare. That was the past," Bipper said, reaching to pat his sister's arm. She flinched when he touched her, but she did not pull away.

"But, Bill..." she said in a defeated tone.

"I am not Bill. I am your brother, and I love you," Bipper said.

Mabel looked up with sad, wide eyes. "I-I know. I'm sorry. I forgot." A single whimper escaped her.

"It's okay. We all have bad days," Bipper said.

"I'm so sorry," Mabel sobbed.

They sat on the floor until Mabel finally fell back asleep. Bipper carefully put her back in her bed.

He looked at the clock on their bedside table, then he looked out the window at the cloudless night sky.

Well, I'm already up, he thought.

___

Wirt stood at the window again, staring at the supernatural forest when he heard something behind him.

"Do you ever sleep?" Bipper said from the space of the room.

"Yes," Wirt said, twisting to face Bipper, who was wearing pajamas and barefoot.

He randomly turned towards the door. "Walk with me," he said and left the room without checking to see if Wirt followed.

He did.

"Why did you go into my room earlier?" Bipper asked seriously as they walked towards the woods.

"I heard a scream," Wirt explained in his flat voice.

Bipper almost looked uncomfortable. "Mabel attacked me," he said.

"So was the scream her's or yours?" Wirt asked.

"Ha, ha, very funny," he said sarcastically, but there was humor back in his eyes. "Hers."

They crossed the forest line. "Why did you bring me out here?" Wirt asked, looking around at the dark trees.

"Because you looked like you needed fresh air, and I couldn't sleep, so..." Bipper said and gestured around them.

"Why didn't you put on shoes?" Wirt asked, pointing to the boy's bare feet. "Does the forest floor not hurt?"

"Pain is hilarious! Why would I try to stop it?" Bipper said. He pushed up his yellow sleeves of his pajama shirt to show Wirt deep scars all along his arms, some of which patterned into triangles and other strange symbols.

Wirt shook his head. "You're insane."

"Sure I am," Bipper said coolly. "What's your point?"

"Where are you taking me?" Wirt asked, stopping in front of the mouth of a cave.

Bipper just grinned as Wirt was attacked by a small figure.