War Never Ends

Chapter 3

(Dipper pov)

Three Months Later

I feel blood dripping down the side of my face, feeling someone dragging me from behind. There is a horrible ringing in my ears and I hear the dull sound of guns being fired.

Every part of me is in excrutiating pain. I try to open my eyes, only being able to see out of my left eye. My right eye just sees pure blood red.

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

I feel a sudden preassure land right on top of me. Without thinking I quickly throw it off of me before grabbing the pocket knife out from under my bed. I flip it open as I sit up, pointing it at the threat. It takes me a minute to realize that it was just Mabel as he sits up on the floor, looking up at me.

"Mabel, what the fucking hell were you thinking by doing that?!"

"I used to do it to you all the time and you never had a problem with it before."

"You can't just jump on top of people like a fucking psycho!"

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't think it was such a big deal." She stands up as I close the knife. "Since when do you even have a pocket knife?"

"It was a gift from someone. Why are you even waking me up this early?"

"It's 3 in the afternoon." I check the time on my phone and see that sure enough she is right.

"Oh shit. That doesn't answer why you were waking me up."

"We're low on food but I have to run the gift shop while Stan is touring people through the shack."

"I don't see where I come into this."

"Well.....could you please run to the store to grab some food?"

"No. No fucking way."

"Come on Dipper. You have been cooped up in this room for months. You can't stay in here forever."

"Watch me." I lay back down pulling the blanket over my head.

"Dipper, come on. You have to know that this isn't healthy."

"I don't care. Staying in here is better than dealing with people outside staring at me."

"It won't be that bad."

"Yes it will. You can't possibly know how this feels like."

"You're right about that....but I do know that when I was dumped two years ago and wanted to just stay in sweater town for the rest of my life, you were the one to talk me out of it."

"This isn't the same as you getting cheated on and dumped by that jerkwad Drake."

"I know it isn't but my point still stands. You were there when I wanted the entire world to just go away. Now I am here for you when you feel that way. You know better than anyone that it is not at all healthy for you to stay locked up in your room forever. That the best way to get past that hopeless feeling is to go out. Do something normal again. Push through it until it goes away for good."

I sigh slightly before pushing the blanket off of myself. "....fine....but I'm not going to be happy about it."

"I never said you would like it." She holds out a piece of paper. "Here is the shopping list."

I take it from here. "Now get it so I can get dressed."

She leaves the room and it takes me another 10 minutes before I can really motivate myself to get out of bed. I change out of my pajamas and pull on a fresh pair of clothes.

I change the bandages over my eye before pulling on a black jacket and my sneakers. I debate bringing my hat but decide against it, choosing instead to just leave it sitting on the nightstand untouched.

I head downstairs, standing at the bottom of the stairs as Mabel holds out her car keys.

"Here, it will be quicker to get to town if you take my car."

"I'm not medically cleared to drive."

I walk past her, pushing open the door as I walk outside. I see some tourists giving me looks.

Sighing slightly I pull up the hood of my jacket to hide my face as I walk away from the shack.

Instead of taking the normal path I choose to walk through a shortcut I know that will get me to town faster than the road will. I stop walking as I stand in front of a tree with a small pine tree and triangle shapes carved into the bark.

This was something Bill talked me into doing right before I joined the army. I miss him, but I can't see him. Not with me looking like this. He will never look at me the same if he knew the full extent of what I went through or what happened to me. It's better to just keep my distance from everyone. The fewer people who know the better.

Turning away from the tree I keep walking. I make it to town in around 20 minutes. I walk through the all too familiar town. I see from the corner of my eye, other people noticing me no matter how hard I try to hide inside of my hood.

I head into the grocery store, glancing down at the list in my hands. We really were out of pretty much all food, why the heck didn't anyone go shopping earlier in the week instead of making me do it right now? I seriously wonder how any of them survived without me here to do everything for them. Especially since Mabel still puts glitter and toys in people's drinks.

I head to the coolers towards the back of the store. I grab a carton of milk, closing the cooler door. I glance up at my reflection in the glass of the cooler door. I look like a monster, it's no wonder that everyone keeps staring at me no matter how hard I try to hide.

The milk carton falls from my hands and spills on the floor as this painful tightening in my chest hits me out of nowhere. It's so painful that it hurts for me to even breath.

The pain only goes away when I hear the one voice behind me that I had been dreading and wanting to hear for months.

"Pinetree?"