Dreamer

Society of the Blind Eye

Wendy, Soos, and I were in the gift shop, cleaning. Soos had a really repetitive song on the radio. Lyric and I mostly listened to either 80s or 1700s music, so it was nice to have something more modern on. But that didn't mean I particularly liked the song.

Wendy groaned. "I can't get that terrible song out of my head."

"Oh, you mean Straight Blanchin' by Li'l Big Dawg?" Soos asked. "It's the catchiest song of the summer."

"What is blanchin'?" Wendy asked in frustration. "Rappers can't just make up words."

"Shakespeare did," I reminded her.

"Rappers are visionaries, Wendy. If they told me to eat my own pants, I would do it," Soos admitted. That particular lyric rang through the gift shop. "I guess I have no choice."

Dipper and Mabel burst into the gift shop. Dipper had his backpack on. "(Y/n), Wendy, Soos! We need to go see old man McGucket."

"We'll explain on the way!" Mabel grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the gift shop.

Wendy drove us to the junkyard. It was dark out, which only made it creepier.

"Old man McGucket!" Dipper called. "Are you here?"

"Here hillbilly, billy, billy, billy," Soos added.

McGucket came out of a pile of junk, chasing off teenagers spray painting on the side. He noticed us after a moment. "Visitors! Come, come." He led us into the pile. "Pull up some rusty metal. You're just in time for the hourly turf war with the hillbilly that lives in my mirror. Quit staring at me while I bathe!"

"You can drop the act, McGucket," Dipper snapped. "We know you're the author. You studied the mysteries of this town and wrote this book."

"Dude, you're the genius Dipper's been looking for all summer," Wendy added, handing McGucket the broken computer my father destroyed.

McGucket looked at her skeptically. "Genius? I'm no genius. I've never done nothin' worthwhile in my life. Everyone knows I'm no good to nobody. I can't remember what I used to be, but I must've been a big failure to end up like this."

"But the laptop has your name on it," I pointed out.

"What about this book? Are you sure you didn't write it?" Dipper questioned. "Here, look closely." He flipped through the pages.

"I told you, I don't recall," McGucket answered. "Everything before 1982 was a blur. Just a hazy..." He trailed off when he looked at a page. I panicked when he started to scream. "The Blind Eye! Robes, the men. My mind! They did something!"

"Who did?" I asked, easing my way toward the man.

"I... Oh, I don't recall." McGucket rubbed his head in frustration.

I put my hands on the side of his head, trying to pull significant memories. I could hear Mabel in a muffled voice. There was nothing there. Half of his memories felt like mud. I had to go into the mindscape to try to look for anything.

Doors were there, but they were empty. His whole mind was a junkyard. I saw a triangle shape with a hole in it in the distance, similar to something I saw with someone else. I chanted a spell, trying to recall the memories. It only hurt me and forced me out of the mindscape into my physical form.

"Ow," I groaned. "I hate being a demon sometimes."

"Anything?" Dipper asked.

"I don't know." I looked at the squirrelly man. "It looked like he had memories, but they were erased or he didn't want to remember them."