The new girl in Gravity Falls; by Joona Irene

Taken

By Joona Irene

~~still Dipper POV~~
I ran back to the Mystery shack and burst through the door. Quickly I checked the clock and saw I had been gone for about an hour. I breathed a sigh of relief, then headed up to my room. Once I closed the door, I sat on my bed and continued examining the two identical pieces.
It didn't make any sense. Why would Lilac have one fake mirror and one real? And why would she give me the fake one if she trusted me? I took out the page on Lilac, searching for anything I might have missed.
"It was only willing to relinquish such information with me as long as I swore on my life I would NOT WRITE IT DOWN, or even try to recall it." I read, remembering. She doesn't trust anybody, ever. Not even the Author. So why should she trust me? And yet she wants ME to trust HER? That wasn't going to happen. As much as I liked Lilac and wanted to be around her, we couldn't be friends if she didn't trust me. And I certainly couldn't put my faith in something like her.
I sighed, feeling cheated. I let her on that mystery hunt. We had fun. And now that was all ruined because I had to go looking for secrets, which I found. I had to tell Mabel, so she wouldn't be tricked either. This couldn't continue, I had to confront Lilac. I needed to know everything. What if Bill showed up, and I was unprepared because Lilac kept information from me? It could be devastating, and somebody could get hurt, or manipulated.
Which reminded me that Bill could take my body whenever he wanted. All for this scrap of paper. I groaned, feeling stupid.
"Hey Mabel!" I called out, still on my bed. "Mabel!"
"Coming!" I heard from downstairs. There was the sound of footsteps running up the stairs and then Mabel came into my room.
"Mabel-" I started.
"No time!" Mabel interrupted me. "We have something cool to talk about!"
"This is important." I argued. "Lilac-"
"Yeah, this includes her too!" Mabel said, excited. I hesitated. Maybe I should confront Lilac on my own. There wouldn't be any point in dragging Mabel along with my misery. I nodded for her to go on.
"OK great! Soos and I were talking about how that party a while ago raised a lot on money for the shack! So we were thinking it's been a good few weeks, so we could throw another one!" She jumped onto her bed. "And you could dance with Lilac!" She wiggled all her fingers at me.
"No, it's not like that-"
"Bro, you need a lady!" She said firmly. "I mean, Wendy didn't work out, when we went down into the bunker thing with the shape-shifting creep. Time to move on! And Lilac is a perfect mystery. You like mysteries!"
"Mabel quit trying to set me up! Why does everybody think I'm in love with her?"
"Maybe because you are and you just don't see it?" She slyly suggested. "Wink."
"You don't have to say 'wink' when you wink." I sighed. "And I don't really...like...her..."
"Dipper, wake up and smell the upcoming party that I'm planning because I want to. This is going to be fun!"
"When is it?"
"In two days!"
"You're going to plan, coordinate and construct an entire party in less than two days?"
"Dipper, you underestimate me." She said, putting on a disappointed face. "I've done worse. Remember my sock rock opera?"
"You had help." I pointed out.
"Soos is helping with this party. And it's going to be great. So stop being such a Dip-stick dip stick!" She stuck out her tongue and left. I frowned and laid back on my bed, sighing.
Admittedly, Lilac was the perfect mystery. I didn't know hardly anything about her. I couldn't trust her. She didn't want me to know anything important or valuable about her. But the clues are everywhere, and I have the page, and the two mirror shards. Still, she's keeping secrets from us. Things we, I, need to know. I needed to talk to Lilac.
Maybe tomorrow. I felt tired and didn't feel like trying to find her. I figured I could work on my summer reading assignment. So I grabbed the book and my pen and started.

"Hey Dipper?" Mabel asked me. It was night and we were about to fall asleep.
"Yeah Mabel?" I asked, yawning.
"You DO like her, don't you?"
"I don't know Mabel. I thought I did."
"What changed?"
"I...I just don't know if I can trust her. I figure she doesn't trust me, so why should I feel the same? It's not fair."
"Well, to be fair, you aren't some amazing creature who's trillions of billions of years old, who's been hiding from society because they hate you. She just needs to warm up to us. And WE need to be her friends." She threw a pillow at me. "So stop worrying!"
"But we need to know!" I said, throwing it back. "What if we get in trouble because we don't know something, huh? What if there's something huge about her that Bill knows but we don't, and we end up paying the price for it? Did you even think about that?"
"Well...no..."
"That's why." I said, "That's why I don't trust her. She won't tell us everything we need to know to help her, and ourselves. And I don't like that. So tomorrow I'm going to confront her about...some of my suspicions."
"I don't know Dipper." Mabel said, her brow knit together with worry.
"I'll be nice." I said. "Let's just go to sleep. Good night Mabel."
"Good night Dipper."
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. So many things to think about, to dwell on. Now I just wanted peaceful sleep.
Nope. I realized I was dreaming a Bill dream again. Black and white, slightly blurry everywhere, and I was standing on my bed. Sighing, I got down on the floor, only to notice that Mabel was sleeping in her bed. I wasn't alone...that was weird.
"Mabel, I think we're in the mindscape." I said softly. "Mabel, wake up!"
"Wha? Huh?" Mabel said, rubbing her eyes. "Where...are we?"
"I literally just said that." I face palmed. "Never mind. Bill obviously wants to talk to us."
"Bill's here?" Mabel immediately shot upright, the blankets falling off her shoulders. "This is a dream?"
"Yes." I confirmed. "He'll probably take his part of the deal. But then, why would you be here?" I questioned.
"Great Question!" Bill exclaimed, floating down from the ceiling. "Good night kids! How you doing?"
"Great, no thanks to you!" Mabel said. "Stay out of my brother!"
"Or what?" Bill asked nonchalantly. "You can't do anything to me, I'm invincible!"
"No, we're in the mind." Mabel said. In a puff of smoke she was suddenly wielding some kind of pancake shooter. "So STAY away from him!"
"A deals a deal Shooting star! You should get familiar with that. But relax, I'm not here to cash in." He snapped his finger's and Mabel's pancake shooter disappeared.
"Aw, I didn't even get to shoot it." She pouted. Bill turned to me.
"Hey Pine tree, I'm here to make you another offer."
"No way!" I said, outraged. "I already owe you. I'm not getting in any deeper than I have to!"
"Never say never!" Bill chastised. He waved his hand and suddenly Mabel was stuck inside some kind of bubble. Mabel was shocked and seemed to try and say something, but I couldn't hear. She started banging on the walls of the giant bubble.
"Wait, wait, what are you doing?" I panicked. "You're not going to hurt her are you? She didn't do anything!"
"On the contrary. She's your blood Pine tree, which means she's a valuable bargaining piece. I won't do anything unless it's an absolute necessity." Bill said. Mabel started kicking at the bubble, but slipped and fell.
"W-What do you want?" I asked, still looking at Mabel.
"I want that glass piece." Bill demanded. "Give it to me and I'll let her go!"
"What glass piece?" I asked. "I don't-"
"LILAC'S GLASS PIECE!" Bill was suddenly red, and huge. Then, just as quickly, he became normal again. "The one she gave you. You know it! Don't pretend that you don't! You'd better not mess with me right now, while you're sister is with me!" He held up a hand and made a fist. Suddenly Mabel's hands went to her throat.
"No! No! Okay, okay, I'll give t to you! Please don't hurt Mable!" I begged. "Just let her go and I'll give it to you!" Bill relaxed his hand and Mabel started gulping air. I saw she was breathing okay and I relaxed just a little.
"I'll give it to you." I said. "But...can I know why?"
'That will cost you extra." Bill said, thinking about something. "How badly do you want to know?"
"Not that badly." I said quickly. Bill laughed.
"Thought not!" He held out his hand. "Give it to me."
"Oh, okay..." I got down on my knees and peered under my black and white bed, where I'd put both of the pieces. Suddenly the bed regained it's color and began floating above my head. I freaked out, backing away. Bill floated over and saw the two pieces.
"Yes, oh, oh YES!" He said, snatching one of them. The one on the left, the fake one...
"Ahhahahahahahaahaha!" Bill cackled. He snapped his fingers and Mabel's bubble prison popped, dumping her onto the ground.
"Mabel!" I cried. I could see tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Mabel, are you okay?"
"Yeah," she said with a rusty voice. I could see red marks on her throat. "I'm alright."
"Mabel, I'm so sorry." I said, hugging her. "I'm so sorry."
"How adorable!" Bill teased. "You two should be grateful. I'm doing you a favor!"
"F-Favor?" I said angrily. "Favor! You ruin our lives every chance you get!"
"Not every chance." Bill said in a menacing tone. Suddenly he was gone, and I was screaming. My jaw snapped shut when I saw I was back in the real world. I was still in bed and it was three in the morning. I sighed and rubbed my eyes, feeling sleep tugging at me.
"Crazy huh Mabel?" I asked her. I looked over at her bed. "Mabel?"
She was still sleeping. Quickly I jumped out of bed and went over to her. I turned her head and saw that she was really knocked out.
"Mabel!" I gasped, shaking her. "Mabel wake up! Wake up right now!"
"Huh?" she asked, her eyes blinking awake. "Dipper, what's going on? It's too early..."
"I thought Bill still had you." I said, relieved.
"What are you talking about?" Mabel asked, sitting up. "Bill?"
"Yeah, Bill." I said, my stomach doing backflips. "You were trapped...he was holding you hostage..."
"That never happened Dipper. I was sleeping. YOU were sleeping. It was just dream."
"No, Bill came! He came to both of us at the same time, and he-" I stopped myself. "Lilac's glass." I dove under the bed and saw that there was only one piece. I touched it and it drew blood. I bit my lip, feeling angry, scared, worried.
"Dipper, you need to go back to sleep." Mabel said, lying back down. "It wasn't real."
"I know." I began to realise. Bill really has done it this time! Mabel wasn't hostage, that was just another trick of his! I feel so dumb...how could I have missed it? It was so real...I'm such an idiot. I wanted to cry, but that was for babies. Now Bill has Lilac's shard...and she was bound to know that I took the real one. How will I explain this? It's no wonder she didn't trust anybody. Idiots like me ruin everything.