Gravity Rises (S2)

ST: Part Nine

Panic later.

Mabel had no idea how long she floated there in the theater basement, staring at the concrete floor and wondering vaguely how a ghost could feel so out of breath. A ghost. She was a ghost now. Bill was in her body. Bill had destroyed the laptop, he was going to destroy the Journal, this was all her fault —

Panic later.

It was a tiny voice in the back of her head, but she grabbed onto it like a lifeline and pulled. Panic later. Think now. Panic later. Think now.

She closed her eyes and pushed it all away, pushed the boulder of her emotions to the corners of her brain. She could feel it all later, once she fixed this. She had to fix this.

"Okay, Mabel. You're a ghost. You've studied ghosts. What can ghosts do?"

They could float around. They could move through walls. They could go wherever they needed to, and no one could see them. But they couldn't communicate with anyone. Anyone except —

Suddenly Mabel knew what to do.

She took a deep breath — seriously, how did ghosts breathe? Was she just imagining it? — and shot upwards through the ceiling. She only had to imagine herself moving, and then she was moving, flying up through the pipes and foamy insulation and not touching any of them. Then she was through the floor, and the stage lights bombarded her with their bright beams. She twisted and looked back. No shadow. The lights went right through her.

This was kinda cool.

Focus, Mabel. She couldn't see any other ghosts from here, but she couldn't see much else through these lights either. The stage was nearly empty, but Mabel's heart sped up as Tambry, the lone actress onstage, came twirling towards her. Mabel swerved, but Tambry's outstretched arm passed through Mabel's abdomen, sending a shudder through Mabel's ghostly body.

Mabel flew upwards again, escaping into the catwalks, where the stage lights didn't reach. She navigated between pieces of the set that hung from their ropes, waiting to be called down onto the stage. And she called out to anyone who could hear her.

"Hello? Hello! I need help! Are there any ghosts that can hear me? I — I've been kicked out of my body, I've been possessed! Please help!"

She shouted her message as she flew through the theater, peering into nooks and crannies that she thought ghosts might inhabit. For a moment, she worried that ghosts actually couldn't see one another, but her brain immediately reminded her of the Legend of the Lovers — two ghosts haunting an abandoned roller rink who were stopped by someone helping them find each other. Ghosts seemed mostly solitary, but surely someone would come to her aid?

"Please, I need help from a ghost! Please come out!"

"Quiet down, child, you'll wake the entire theater."

Mabel froze when she heard the voice. It was coming from the wings.

She flew towards it. "Hello?" she called, a little quieter. Then she saw her: a semitransparent ghost, glowing softly, floating next to the fly ropes.

"Oh, thank goodness," Mabel said, flying up to the ghost. "Can you help me?"

The ghost frowned slightly. "I don't recognize you."

"N-no, I'm a human. I mean — I'm alive — I mean — sorry! I didn't mean — I — I've been possessed. Someone else is in my body a-and I don't know how to get him out."

Now the ghost was looking at her in alarm. "Possessed? Who possessed you?"

"B-Bill Cipher."

The air around them suddenly got colder as the ghost's glow dimmed. "Cipher," she whispered. "I knew I felt him around here. I didn't want to believe it, but. . . where is he now?"