Guided by demons

Showtime

"And now the act you've all been waiting for!" Mabel's voice rang out across the hallway, bringing people's attention to the curtain she was beside. "Introducing...Mystery Pig!" She pulled the curtain away to reveal Waddles dressed in a giant question mark. "Ten bucks per photo!" She proclaimed, and watched as the tourists nearly threw their money at her.

Stan wiped a fond tear from his eye. "They grow up so fast!" Ford elbowed his brother and sighed, before beckoning Dipper into the other room.

"Dipper, listen. You and I both know there's something weird going on with you recently, and, no offence intended towards you or your sister, but you all seem to be avoiding the subject..." he sighed. "Is it because I'm not that trustworthy, or am I too intimidating?" He looked Dipper in the eye, his smile practically soaked in sadness. "Just...trust me, when I say you can trust me."

Dipper looked at his great uncle and signed, scratching his elbow awkwardly. "Ford, I trust you! I honestly do! But it's not something I really know how to word..." he took a deep breath and sighed. "Besides, you'd be really mad if you knew."  Ford put his hand on his nephew's shoulder.

"Try me."

*        *        *

Dipper sighed after telling the story for the third time. Everyone in the room, even Ford and Mabel, who'd heard it before, sat with their jaws practically hitting the floor. Suddenly Mabel stood up, seemingly remembering something.

She grabbed the camera from the table and placed it in front of Dipper. "I...um...I think you might want to see this, then. You all might want to...um..." she fumbled on her words. Whatever was on that camera had scared her a little too much for Dipper's liking. He frankly couldn't believe she was actually letting him see...but now everyone knew what he'd done, he figured Mabel wanted to unload a secret of her own.

Mabel plugged it into her laptop and pressed the 'browse files' button. There, a series of images appeared on the screen. Dipper recognised them as his photos he'd taken with the statue. "What? I don't see anything different to the pictures I'd taken here!" He sighed, leaning back into the sofa with relief. Mabel ignored him and flicked to the last picture.

"Oh." Was the general chorus around the room. No one knew what to say. No one had any clue what to do, or where to go from there.

"I...um...I'm going upstairs." His stomach felt like it was doing summersaults inside him. He knew that if he didn't get away from that picture soon, he'd either be sick or faint, and neither seemed like a good option.

"Sure thing Bro Bro." Mabel said, a false smile flickering across her face. As he left he felt a hand on his shoulder. Wendy.

She said nothing, but her sad smile told him all he needed to know. He ran up to the attic, grabbed his pillow, and cried into it, his muffled tears only audible from inside the room...and maybe outside the door, but no further.

When he finally stopped, he stood up and sighed. He threw a sheet over his mirror, not wanting to see his own face, and headed back downstairs. Mabel threw her arms around him. "DIPPER!" She held him tight. "I went up to check on you, and you were crying! I was really worried..." she held up a jar full of coins and laughed. "But you're okay now, so it's all good! And waddles raised enough money for our trip into town!"

He wiped his eyes and laughed slightly. "Mabel, how'd you get so much?!"

She pointed at Grunkle Stan, who was busy sewing a duck's head onto a mouse's body. "I have my ways." She giggled, before dragging her brother out of the house.

"Mabel!"

The twins laughed as they left the building, trying their hardest to forget the picture. Photographs could be faked...right?

Yeah, there was no way that was real, they'd decided. I mean, how would you even add a caption to the photo before it'd been through a computer? It didn't make any sense...

But Dipper remembered taking it as he'd dropped the camera. It couldn't have been completely fake...could it?

Try as they might, no one was able to get the image out of their heads. Not the monochrome background, not the glowing triangle on Dipper's forehead, not his yellow, slitted eyes, and not the single word caption that had shaken everyone in the room.

Showtime...