Never Trust Your Demons

22

The three of us, as well as everything in the room, starts floating.
"Wh-what's going on?!" I look around.
"Mabel, c'mon, let's go!" Dipper grabs his sister's hand, pulling her through the air to the door.
"Wait for me!" I try to "swim" after them, but I get nowhere. As my cousins disappear out the door, I push off the wall after them. Right before I get to it, the door slams closed in my face and knocking me back. I'm suddenly pulled back to earth and slam to the ground.
"Police Box! Look out!" I gasp in surprise as I look up at the file cabinet above my head.
"Eep!" I brace myself to get crushed by it, but it never comes. Looking up, I see the cabinet mere centimeters about my head, a purplish tinge to it. Moving out from under it, I see it surrounded by my purple flames.
"Wh-what...?" I stare in shock. "WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" I scream. The cabinet flies at the door, crashing through it and create a hole.
"Well... right now, the chaos magic is only reacting to fear, stress, and anger without my help..." Bill explains as I walk through the hole.
"Ugh... this is insane, even by my current standards..."
As I start to walk away, something catches my eye: a smoking crater in the wall where I punched it.
"Oh wow...i-I did that?!"
"Yep!"
"This.... is really crazy."
"You said that."
I'm about to give Bill a snappish response, when I hear shouting down the hall in the shack.
When I get to the source, there's no one there, but the vending machine has swung away from the wall, revealing a staircase. As I take a step towards it, there's a sudden ringing in my head.
"Police Box," Bill's voice is deeper and much, much more menacing. "Don't you dare go down there."
"We have to shut it down!" I hear Dipper shout.
"Bill, I don't care if my cousins hate my guts or think I'm sort of demon," I mutter. "I'm still going to be there for them." I start down, but a figure shoves past me. I see a familiar fez disappear around the corner. "Stan?!" I dash down after him.

I run after Stan, skipping steps and Bill protesting the whole way.
"Listen scaredy-cat," I mutter. "If you don't want to come with, leave."
"Not an option," He replies adamantly.
Then deal with it, Stan steps into an elevator and I'm barely able to dive after him before the floors close.
"Stan, what's happening?!" I look up at him. "O-or are you even Stan?! Th-there was a newspaper and all these IDs..." I trail off feeling my confused tears come again.
"Connie, listen. I didn't want you guys to find out this way. Honestly, this morning I was going to tell you," He sighs, his hands on my shoulders. "But all of you just need to trust me for now," I glances to the side. "I can't leave him knowing I didn't try to bring him back."
"Bring who-" I start to ask, as the elevator doors open, but I'm cut off by Stan's gasp.
"No!" He runs out, and I follow. "DON'T TOUCH THAT BUTTON!!" Dipper's hand sits suspended above a red button. Behind Dipper is a large triangular device, a spinning rainbow circle in the middle. "Dipper, just back away!" Dipper doesn't move. "Please don't press that shutdown button, you gotta trust me."
"And I should trust you why?!" Dipper screams. "After you stole radioactive waste? After you lied to us all summer?! I don't even know who you are!"
"Dipper, calm down!" I start. "Jus-"
"And you!" He jabs his finger at me. "How long have you been able to do that?!"
"Do what?" Soos looks over at me.
"Dipper, i-I don't know but-"
"Look, I know this all seems nuts," Stan continues hurriedly. "But I need that machine to stay on! If you'd just let me explain-" There's a beeping sound and he looks at his watch. "Uh-oh, oh, no! Brace yourselves!"
The five of us are lifted off the ground like in the office, pulled towards the device.
"T-minus thirty-five seconds," A computerized voice says.
"Wh-whoa-aaaah!" Stan spins in mid-air.
"Aaah!" Dipper hits a wooden support and grabs on.
"Gah!" I nearly slam into the ceiling, but my chaos magic thing stops me.
"Dipper!" I look down and see Mabel, her foot caught on a wire by the button.
"Mabel!"Dipper and I gasp together.
"Hurry! Shut it down!" Dipper calls.
At the same time, I call, "Are you okay?!"
Mabel nods to me before crawling down the wire.
"No! Mabel, Mabel, wait! Stop! Aah!" Soos flies at Stan as he tries to stop Mabel, knocking him away. "Soos, what're you doing?! I gave you an order!"
Sorry, Mr. Pines-" Soos replies. "If that is your real name-but I have a new mission now! Protecting these kids!"
"Soos, you idiot, let me go!"
Dipper pushes off from the support beam and hits Stan and Soos.
"Go!" In a voice that's not quite my own, I call to my cousin. "Mabel, press the red button! Shut it down!"
Bill, what are you doing?! I mentally growl.
"What you need to."
Stop controlling me! My hands flare up as I near Mabel and I gasp in realization. He's going to hurt her. GET OUT OF HERE, BILL! The instant I pull myself back in control, I slam back to the ceiling. I hold down my hat to keep it from blowing away and revealing his eye.
"Police Box, what was that?!" Bill sounds angry, but I hear some... awe in his voice.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN "WHAT WAS THAT"?! I'm shaking, my hands still aflame as I try not to scream at him in real life. You were going to hurt Mabel! And no one gets to do that to my cousins. on my watch. To the others, I must look alike a mad animal, what with all my huffing and the-no doubt-wild look in my eyes as I stare blankly ahead.
"No, you can't press it!" Stan shoves Dipper away. "Whose side are you on, Connie?!"
"I don't know, okay?!" I snap back with a glare, pushing off the ceiling with my feet.
Can I trust him? With all my heart, I want to trust this man who's been my sweet grunkle, but at the same time my head agrees with Dipper and Bill.
"Grunkle Stan," My eyes widen as I hear a sniffle behind me. Mabel... she's crying. Mabel never cries! "I don't even know, if you're my grunkle! I wanna believe you, but-"
"Then listen to me," Stan persists. "Remember this morning when I said I wanted to tell you guys something?"
"T-minus twenty seconds."
We all scream as the portal flashes and pushes Dipper, Stan, Soos and I against the opposite wall. Mabel prepares to push the button.
"I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!"
"Mabel, what if he's lying?" Dipper yells. "This thing could destroy the universe! Listen to your head!"
"But what if he's telling the truth?!" I snap back. "This could possibly stop a threat to the world, ever think of that!"
"Look into my eyes, Mabel!" Stan yells. Mabel looks away from the portal to him. "You really think I'm a bad guy?"
"He's lying! Shut it down NOW!" Dipper seems...much more angry, more suspicious than normal.
"Mabel, please!" Stan pleads.
"Ten. Nine," The computer begins to count down.
"Grunkle Stan..." Mabel looks away, lowering her hand.
"Six. Five."
She suddenly lifts her hands, letting go of the stand and floating up. "I trust you."
I smile. She did it.
"MABEL, ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Dipper's not quite so happy. "WE'RE ALL GONNA-"
"One."
There's an explosion of light. All I can hear is everyone screaming, even Bill in my mind. Even me.
When the light fades, we've all fallen to the ground. Bill's left my mind.
A figure suddenly emerges from the beat up machine. The blue light fades behind him. He walks forward, placing a six-fingered hand on the cover of the first journal, then picks it up and places it into the inside pocket of a long, dark coat.
Six fingers.
Six.
"What...? Who is that?" Dipper asks in the same shock as me.
"The author of the journals..."
"What..?" I breathe out as we stand.
The figure pulls off his goggles, revealing his face. He looks nearly identical to Stan.
"...My brother."
My third painful silence of the day.
"Is this the part where one of us faints?" Good old Mabel.
"Ohoho, I am so on it, dude." I watch as Soos falls to the ground.