Deerper Falls

Open Wounds

The cold coffee tasted bitter and musty on his lips.

But despite the shudder it gave him, when it ran down his throat it was the only thing that kept him going. Stan's sore and tired eyes moved from the cold mug in his hand over to the pile of pillows and blankets beside him, were Mabel and the fawn were sleeping.

A girl and her deer.

Twins.

The old man groaned, as he sunk deeper into his armchair.

No one would ever believe that.

But deer or not, the most important thing was that Dipper was alive, because when Wendy arrived with him; blood stained in her arms, the small fawn was barely alive at all.

A loud knocking had ripped him from his sleep.

With a silent curse he rose out of bed, muscles and bones popping into the right places after an uneasy sleep, but before Stan could even made his way to the door an ear-piercing scream froze the blood inside his veins.

Mabel!

He scrambled out of bed, gripping the hat stand on his way to the door in order to hurt whatever had made his niece cry. But when he finally arrived at the scene the useless weapon had fallen to the floor with a soft thud. A raspy curse died on his lips, of course Mabel had answered the knocking on the door before him, but what she had found behind it made her legs give out beneath her.

Dipper.

The boy, or fawn rather was hidden in Wendy's grasp.

And Wendy was crying.

Wendy, the tomboyish girl, who would rather punch you in the face before she would talk about boys or make up- was crying, shivering on the floor with the small deer in her hands while Mabel called her brother's name in despair.

Stan's own breath was knocked out of his lungs.

Dippers soft brown fur was covered in blood, but not the rusty brown one that told you that the worst was already over, but the bright red one, new from a wound. It had already formed a puddle in the entrance.

His head was buzzing like a swarm of angry bees had been put inside there, while his ears seemed to be filled with cotton, he could only hear his own blood rushing inside them, mixed with Wendy's sobs and Mabel's never ending cries of Dippers name.

But the fawn didn't react to any of them.

In fact dipper wasn't moving at all... it even seemed like he wasn't breathing, lying there lifeless in the girls arms.

Looking like he was already...

'NO!'

The forbidden thought made him finally function again.

"Wendy!"

With a few steps he was beside the girls, to ask Wendy what had happened but the redhead only reacted when he grabbed her shoulder, making her focus on him.

"What happened."

The teenager blinked, looking back down to Mabel, crying in her brother's blood covered hide before she looked back up at him, blinking and wiping away leaving her dirty cheeks with blood red marks of Dippers blood. Her voice was low, raspy and barely audible when she finally spoke.

"Hunters."

That small word broke the rest of calm any of them had been holding.

Mabel looked up to them, and back to her brother with a horrified expression, when she finally understood were all the blood was coming from.