I'll protect you

Prologue

Dipper and Mabel Pines both woke up after a perfect night of sleep.

Or so Mabel thought.

Dipper on the other hand was worried and exhausted.  He had a nightmare.  Again.  It seemed that every night since Weirdmageddon ended the nightmares just got more and more worse.  He never got sleep anymore.

In fact nothing had been the same since Weirdmageddon.  Mabel seemed to be perfectly fine, but Dipper on the other hand was not.  At all.  He was constantly scared.  He randomly got panic attacks no matter what he was doing.  He never felt safe writing in any notebook, he jumped at any sudden movements or sounds.  Even the smallest sounds.  Worst of all, he heard voices all the time.  More specifically, Bill Cyphers voice.

Dipper got dressed in his usual black jeans and navy blue hoodie.  He threw on his torn up white sneakers

Dipper got up and made his way down the steep stairs and into the long hallway.  Pictures of previous years hung on the walls, October 10th of second grade pictures from picture day.  Other pictures from family gatherings and of their parents hung on the walls like a Time Capsule. 

Dipper made his way down the dimly light hallway and opened the door to the kitchen.  Mabel was already up, dressed, and was making herself scrambled eggs. 

"Hey bro-bro!  I'm making eggs, you want some?"  She cheers happily as Dipper says sure.

He sat down and picked up the newspaper that was on the table.  He glanced over at the cup on the other side of the table.  The cup was a suspicious pink color with flakes of white and glitter in it.

"Your not making Mabel juice again are you Mabel?"  Dipper groaned and went back to reading the paper.  He heard his sister giggle in response.

"Hey Dip, here you go."  She pushed a bowl of eggs towards the slim boy, who put down the paper and began eating. 

"Do you know where mom and dad are?"  The boy took another bite of his eggs before getting up to get a cup of water.

"Probably another vacation trip or something."  She shrugs and takes a sip of her pink drink.  Dipper sits back down.

"That's the fifth one in the past two months."  Dippers lips went to a straight line and he began thinking, as always.

"Don't worry about it bro-bro!  Besides, we only have one week left of high school before summer!"  Mabel cheers enthusiastically.  Dipper smiles softly at the sight of his sister being so joyed over the thought of summer.  But he didn't know how to feel about it himself.  Last time it was summer his whole life fell apart.

"Yeah..right.  One more week."  He nods, "hey, what are our plans for the summer?"

"Mom and dad said something about going back to Gravity Falls!"  She smiles brightly.

"Oh!  Uh, yeah that's great."  Dipper finished his eggs and washed off his bowl. 

"Dipper look at the time!  We're gonna miss the bus let's go!"  Mabel threw the boys backpack at him, causing him to fall over.  He quickly stands back up, cursing his sister out as she runs out of the house.  He follows, not far behind his twin.

***

Word count: 551
Date published: 11/18/22