Gravity Rises (S2)

HW: Part Fourteen

Mabel doubted she'd get much sleep, what with gravity changing so much. And she didn't.

Every time an anomaly went off, her body thought it was falling to its death. It was like hypnic jerking, where Mabel's body would hallucinate that it was falling and wake her up. Except this time, it wasn't a hallucination. She really was falling as gravity changed directions.

Luckily, she was strapped to the bed, so she didn't actually fall. But she'd still wake up. And waking up feeling like you were dangling from the ceiling was terrifying. Mabel's sheets bunched as she clutched at them, wondering if or when her straps would break and send her falling across the room.

Dipper wasn't strapped down. Mabel thought he was crazy. Plus, it wasn't exactly fair to her — what if he fell sideways in the middle of the night and ran into her? But he seemed to love the anomalies, and he had far more energy than anyone should be allowed to have, especially at this time of night. "It's only, like, seven, Mabes," he'd remind her when she mentioned it. "I can't sleep now! I probably won't be able to all night."

"You'd better be silent," she threatened, "because I'm actually trying to sleep. We have to be alert tomorrow!"

He tried to be quiet, thankfully, and her exhaustion finally overcame what sound he did make. The fear she'd felt when they'd sent Dipper and Ford off to the UFO, the terror of the Order attack, the panic she felt every time gravity changed — it all combined into a mass of fatigue, pulling her under consciousness into sleep. A very interrupted sleep, but sleep nonetheless.

It was the middle of the night when she'd finally been asleep long enough to dream.

She was down in the Order headquarters, being forced to clean a room full of pipes and other equipment by Pacifica, who shrieked at her that she was doing it wrong. Every time Mabel would clean off a little bit of rust, it would reappear, completely nullifying her progress. She just kept scrubbing at the metal. . . .

"How tedious."

Mabel turned as Bill Cipher appeared in the center of three pipes that formed a triangular shape. Her heart raced. "G-go away."

"Your dreams have gotten rather boring lately," he commented, ignoring her words.

The statement pulled Mabel into lucidity. "My dreams aren't for your entertainment!" she snapped.

Bill floated closer to her. "Oh, but they've been so very amusing ever since I possessed you."

The dream version of Pacifica stalked over to scream at Mabel, but she just waved a hand to make her disappear. If only she was always lucid in her dreams and could do things like that in all her nightmares!

"Is that why you're here?" Mabel demanded of Bill once Pacifica was gone. "To complain about the entertainment value of my dreams?"

"No," Bill said. "I thought I'd come tell you about the fear and panic you're causing."

It didn't take her long to realize what he was talking about. "Robbie warned everybody."

Bill gave a short laugh. "You think anybody listened to him? Everyone thought he was crazy! Until the first anomaly. That made them believe him."

"So now they know. Everyone's safe."

"You don't truly believe that," Bill said. "You're scared of the anomalies. And you've been mentally preparing for days. How do you think everybody else feels, huh?"