Gravitational Phantoms

Chapter Seven

Danny peered up at the younger boy, who had gotten dressed like his sister. Dipper was smiling, mostly because of the fact that he could hardly tell which limbs belonged to Danny and which were attached to his sister. Mabel squirmed around beneath Danny's stomach.
"Get off of me, you big lump," she grumbled. Danny moved aside to allow her access to the rest of the roof. Mabel threw her hands up and cheered.
"Fresh air at last," the girl cried dramatically. Her brother snickered.
"You sound as if you've been buried alive," Dipper said. Danny smiled slightly.
"M-maybe she was suffocating in h-her sweater," he suggested. Dipper looked at him in surprise before a huge grin spread across his face.
"Yeah, that thing could probably be used as a murder weapon," he agreed.
"You're right," Mabel chirped. "It is a murder weapon!"
She pounced on her brother, pulling off the fluorescent pink garment and yanking it over his head.
"They'll never find you now," she shouted gleefully.
Danny watched as the two wrestled across the top of the roof, shouting strange battle cries.
"Danny, help me!" Dipper yelled, shoving his sister towards the Halfa. Danny complied, scooping up the brunette and pinning her arms to her sides. Dipper lunged, tickling the other twelve-year-old mercilessly.
When her thrashing became to much, Danny released Mabel and watched as she attacked her brother. The two of them rolled around, getting dangerously close to the edge. Just as they were about to tumble off, Danny grabbed the back of Mabel's shirt and Dipper's vest, pulling them backward to safety.
"B-be careful!" Danny warned. Mabel mock saluted.
"Yes sir captain Danny. We shall uphold the law of the rooftop pirates." She wiggled free and landed in a ninja pose.
"But, are you ready for my..." Mabel paused for affect. "GRAPPLING HOOK?!"
She whipped a black grappling hook from out of nowhere. Danny blinked.
"Uhhh..."
The long-haired girl pointed it at a tall cedar tree across from where the trio stood. Mabel pulled the trigger, and the hooked end shot out over the yard and wrapped around a sturdy branch.
"Um, Mabel?" Dipper asked. "Are you sure that this is a good idea?"
"All ideas are good ideas!" His sister crowed. She pressed the other end of the grappling hook into Danny's hand. "Here, hold this."
Reaching down to pick up something that kind of looked like a broken coat hanger (where did they keep all of this stuff?), Mabel crouched on the edge of the building. She put the crooked part of the metal thing against the wire part of the grappling hook, the jumped.
Danny gasped as she whizzed over the heads of several people below her, landing neatly in the tree. Mabel beamed and waved to Danny and her twin.
"Now you try!"
Danny shook his head. "I-I'll pass, th-thanks."
"He really shouldn't, Mabel. His stitches might tear open," Dipper said in agreement with the hybrid.
"Fine," she said, pouting. "I'm gonna come back over, 'kay?"
She swung back across and halted at Danny's feet.
Dipper turned to the ghost boy. "That reminds me. We should probably change your bandages soon. Wendy's better at that than we are, so we'll have to wait until she's free."
Danny hugged his shoulders. "O-okay."
"Do you wanna watch a movie?" Mabel asked. "We have a lot of old ones that we can make fun of!"
"Plus popcorn," Dipper added. Danny nodded. That did sound really nice. Mabel clapped her hands.
"I'll go set that up," she took off down the ladder. Dipper shrugged.
"If it's full of glitter and sprinkles it's not my fault."
Danny felt something bubble up from inside of him. All of the strange, funny, and just plain weird things that had happened today caught up with him, and he started to laugh.
It was slightly tinged with hysteria, because he couldn't remember the last time that something had been this funny to him. Danny sputtered for breath, trying to stop the flood of laughter that spilled from his mouth. Somebody set their hand on his shoulder as he sank to his knees.
"Breath, Danny. Remember to breath."
Eventually it stopped, and Danny gasped for oxygen.
"You okay?" Dipper asked, crouched beside him. Danny nodded, breath ragged.
"I-I think I'm okay now," he answered. The Halfa stood up. "Let's go watch that movie," Dipper said softly. The twelve-year-old led Danny down the ladder, then into the same room as before.
Mabel was already perched on the yellow striped chair, with several cans of something called Pitt Cola, some bags of candy, and a large tub of popcorn. It seemed suspiciously sparkly, and Danny heard Dipper sigh in annoyance.
"Mabel, why did you put glitter in our food?"
"To make it extra special!" She replied. "Now come on, I put in the first Dead Teacher movie."
Dipper hopped up beside her, making room for Danny next to them. The Halfa sat down, accepting the can of Pitt Cola that Mabel offered.
"Be careful, there's an actual pit in there," she warned.
"T-that's kind o-of weird," Danny mumbled.
"I know, right? Only in Gravity Falls."
The movie started, and for a minute Danny could pretend that he was at Tucker's house, with his best friends next to him. But then the illusion faded, and he was back with the twins. And it was kind of nice, to have somebody near him who dealt with the supernatural with the same mundane attitude as the people in Amity Park.
When had he stopped thinking of it as home? When he was captured? He didn't even know if the lab had been in Amity, so why was it now in the same category as Wisconsin?
Wisconsin. Vlad! What is if Vlad came for him? He wouldn't stoop as low as to hurt the twins, would he? Oh, who was Danny kidding. Of course he would hurt them. If they stood in the way of getting Danny as his son/evil apprentice, he might even kill them! This was bad, really, really bad!
"Are you alright?" Mabel asked. "You've got a funny look on your face."
"I-I'm fine."
"Great, 'cause you can totally see where they're putting the fake blood for that guy's intestines."
"What about where you can totally see that they replaced the guy with a dummy?" Her brother countered.
"O-or the b-bucket they used for the fake bl-blood?" Danny contributed.
"These movies are definitely some of the few that got better with their sequels." Dipper observed.
"They're way less scary when you've had multiple near-death experiences," Mabel said, sounding surprisingly cheerful.
"I know, right?" The male twin agreed.
Danny closed his eyes for a second, and momentarily forgot everything that had gone wrong in his life. He was safe with his friends and family, before he had received ghost powers and started to protect his town.
For a moment, Danny was content.