TİCK

ENTRY 03: QUASI COSMOGYRAL

After the words had left him, he instantly needed to take them back.
It was like those words had triggered something.
Something big.
The moment those words were in the air, the tension became palpable.
An ethereal blue glow peered through the floorboards but Mabel continued to stare at him, her chocolate eyes nearly obsidian with shock.
"You knew?"
Her voice was brittle and he needed to explain to her about the dreams but he couldn't bring up Weirdmaggedon without bringing up Dippy Fresh and the floor was breaking apart and she wasn't moving and she was crying and he.
Couldn't.
Breathe.
He's still reaching out to the empty space where his sister was when the ground caves beneath him too. I
He's Alice in the rabbit hole and his Wonderland contains Bill.
But not Bill.
"GRUNKLE STAN!"
His great-uncle would never grin voluntarily and the way that Bill cracks one makes him glad to never have seen one.
It's all gums and teeth in some kind of macrabe copy of a happy smile.
"Pine Tree. Shooting Star. WELCOME TO THE PARTY, KIDS! -"
Stan Cipher's - Mabel was the one who came up with the names, so sue him for using the K.I.S.S. method - little monologue is quickly interrupted by a groan of pain at Ford firing a blue light into his chest.
"STAN!"
Fear rips the terrified scream from their throats as they watch their grunkle fall limply to the floor.
Only to eerily jerk back to life like a puppet on strings, that creepy smile still in place.
"Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! Wow, Sixer! That kinda hurt! Do it again! Do it again!"
It was like some deranged little kid with too much sugar had possessed his grunkle and then the flip switched.
The smile became menacing and his eyes bled black and red and Ford flew into the wall next to the switch of the dismantled machine...
Except the machine wasn't dismantled and it was fully repaired.
It pulsed red and called for something deep in the recesses of his soul.
This was what he had been looking at in the dream.
The dream had started after the psuedoBill had sent him headfirst into the dreamscape and always showed him the same thing.
This machine pulsing red and hungry.
A flash of the symbols.
A gloved hand.
Those white journals.
Right before he woke up, there was always a girl's voice.
"Save us. Save us."
Melodic and haunting, he wishes that it was only her voice that followed him into reality.
But when he woke up, two more things followed him.
On his right hand, the symbol of Cipher - he looked it up - burned into the delicate skin; a bright red triangle.
That wasn't what haunted him during the day though.
The feel of tingling against his lips, the odd taste of vanilla and jasmine tea that lingered long after he had brushed his teeth
-he had been kissed.
And he felt like he had enjoyed it.
And never before had the scent of vanilla been stronger than now.
Now as Ford screamed out in pain.
Now as Mabel fired off her grappling hook only to miss and be flung back beside him.
Now as he ran after his possessed grunkle.
Now as he heard himself distantly scream in pain.
Now as his palm began to bleed.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Bill - no - Stan - no - Bill lifts him off the ground by his throat and he can do nothing but feebly pull for air.
Golden eyes lock onto his and that demented lifting of corners reappears and without looking away, he addresses Ford.
"Hey, Sixer. D'ya remember Will?"
He pauses for a long moment, the only audible thing Mabel trying to catch her breath, the only audible thing his heartbeat.
"... No, I don't."
The pause turns menacing but for a second, it's Stan's laugh that echoes.
"Of course not."
As though he could tell that Dipper's vision is going dark, he abruptly drops him onto the floor.
"Let's make a deal, kid."
He can't get enough air.
Sweet, sweet, vanilla-scented air.
But he could definitely get enough of the drama that went around Gravity Falls.
"Why?"
"That wasn't a no. So I'll stick with it, Pine Tree!"
Suddenly he's serious.
"I've got a few more plans for this place and I can't exactly do them if this place is destroyed."
Again, against his own morals, he wants to groan.
Why was it always them?
"Is that a yes? Because I'd really hate to have to hurt Star over there."
That settled things.
Just.
Like.
That.
"DIPPER, DON'T."
Reaching for the blue flamed hand, he ignores Ford.
"What do I need to do?"

AN: Wow... For those of you who stuck with this book, thank you so much! I hope you are enjoying this rewrite and those 500 readers Wattpad claims are on remain on.
Reality is an illusion and the Dark Side has cookies!