If a Pine Tree Falls in a Forest...

Bro Bro

   Dipper woke, groaning when light shone directly in his eyes. He sat up slowly, relieved when he saw the other bed vacant. Dipper didn't think that he could deal with his overly bubbly sister. It was several days after the incident with the portal, and the twins barely exchanged more than a few words, and Dipper hadn't spoken a word to Stan. The same could be said for Ford (as Dipper had discovered his name to be when he had returned from the forest,) but for a very different reason. Since getting rid of the agents, Ford hadn't left his lab. Dipper couldn't bring himself to care.

   After several moments of sitting, Dipper finally stood up from his bed. Stretching backwards with a satisfying crack!, he made his way towards the nearby bathroom. After a swift shower, Dipper stood in front of the mirror to brush his teeth. What met his eyes when he stared into the mirror horrified him. Instead of Dipper's normal appearance, his reflection was staring back at him with hazel eyes, cat-like slits instead of round pupils. Long, sharp canines protruded from his upper lip, long enough to reach the middle of his chin. Dipper's normally tangled plain brown hair was now glistening and sleek. Upon further inspection, Dipper noticed that his ears were now pointed, almost elven like. Even his nails were pointed and sharp. He looked downright demonic. And, upon noticing all of these sudden changes, Dipper did the thing anyone else would; he screamed.

   Dipper wiped his eyes desperately, praying to any and every deity that he was imagining things. And, after what felt like an eternity (it was only a few moments,) his reflection had returned to normal.

   "Dipper!" Mabel practically screamed at the bathroom door, nearly breaking it down she was pounding on it so hard. "What's wrong!" Reluctantly, Dipper walked over to the old bathroom door across the room to open it.

   "What." Dipper asked blandly, damn near glaring at his twin.

   "You screamed! Is something up?" Mabel asked, panic written all over her features. Dipper wanted to tell her that, yes something was wrong. He wanted to scream that she was what was wrong! Yell at anyone that would listen that seeing her was slowly eating him alive! But of course, he didn't say any of those things. He instead opted to try and get her to leave as soon as possible.

   "You're imagining things." He responded flatly, moving to shut the door. Mabel, however, stopped it with her foot.

   "Bro, you can't lie to me. Something's bugging you." She said, rolling her eyes as if everything was alright. As if she hadn't committed the worst possible atrocity she could just a few days ago. As if nothing had changed.

   "Go away Mabel." Dipper ground out, trying to ignore the pain his chest at seeing her. When she (unsurprisingly) stayed put, Dipper snapped, as he was already on edge. "Go away!" He snarled, not caring when her eyes filled with fear and watered almost immediately. She stared at him for another moment, but eventually left, clearly hurt. Instead of running after her like he would have before, Dipper instead slammed the bathroom door shut. It took several moments to calm his racing heart. When he finally deemed himself calm enough, Dipper gazed into the mirror once again.

Despite the fact that his reflection no longer included fangs, it still wasn't a pretty sight. Dippers's sleep schedule had always been a bit off, so seeing bags under his eyes was nothing new. That being said, the dark under eye circles he was currently sporting made it seem as if he had two black eyes. His skin was pale, and seemed almost sallow. Dipper didn't think he had eaten too much in the past few days.

Sighing, Dipper dressed, and finally left the bathroom. Upon entering the attic (Dipper still didn't think it much qualified as a bedroom) he saw Mabel sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Somethings going on with you Dipper." She said quietly, bringing her knees to her chest. Normally, Dipper would have felt awful about upsetting his twin, and spill his guts. Now, however, Dipper just felt angry. She really didn't know? She was so fucking thick that she didn't even realize what she'd done? He couldn't take anymore of her ignorance. He finally, finally lost it.

"Really? Really Mabel? You don't even know?" He shouted, not caring that both Stan and Ford could probably hear him. "Even you can't be this dense Mabel!"

"What are you talking about bro bro?" Mabel asked, looking up at Dipper, who was practically seething.

"You fucking did this!" He hissed. "Why did you trust Stan over me!" Dipper burst out, practically spitting the older man's name.

"Is that what's got you so pissy?" Mabel asked, standing up from her bed. "Dipper, everything's fine! If I had pressed the button, Gruncle Ford would still be stuck who knows where!" She exclaimed, waving her hands as she spoke.

"I don't care about that! I care that you trusted Stanley over me! Your own twin brother! He lied to us about everything, even his own damn name! And you trusted him!" Dipper yelled, not caring that the hurt he had been feeling was ringing clearly in his voice.

"You're just upset because I was right!" Mabel shouted back, shocking Dipper. He was vaguely aware that his two great uncles had burst into the room.

"I don't care about that Mabel! What I care about is that you trusted our shady ass uncle over me! Everything pointed to the fact that he was building a doomsday device, but you still trusted him!" Dipper could feel a single tear fall from his eye, but he couldn't be bothered to wipe it away.

"Bro-" Mabel started, her gaze softening. Dipper cut her off.

"No Mabel." He said, turning away. "I'm not your 'bro' anymore." He spoke quietly, but Mabel still heard him loud and clear. Before she could respond, Dipper ran. He shoved past his uncles, who were trying to stop him. And, similarly to several days before, Dipper raced out to the forest, not truly caring where he ended up.