Forest of Riddles (Reverse Falls, S1)

MI: Part Six

Dipper slammed into something hard.

His eyes snapped open; he had tripped on nothing after entering the portal and stumbled onto the floor. He quickly got to his feet, noticing Gideon rubbing his eyes and Wendy on the floor, too, and took in their new surroundings.

The portal had led them to an endless black room, covered in mirrors that were suspended in midair, hanging in rows of a room covered in complete darkness and yet not. The only light was from the mirrors, but it was so bright that the light hit the ground and illuminated the whole room.

"Woah," Gideon gasped beside Dipper.

"What is this?" Wendy sounded bewildered; she was now on her feet, standing on the other side of Dipper.

Dipper started walking towards the first mirror, with Gideon and Wendy close behind him. The first mirror showed a scene of two young boys, running through a hall and chasing something. One of the boys tried to grab onto what seemed like air, and the other chased after the whole ordeal.

Dipper tilted his head, confused. They looked familiar, but he couldn't place where he'd seen them before.

"Dipper," he heard Wendy call. "Look at this one."

Dipper broke his gaze from the first mirror and turned around to see Gideon wandering through the rows of mirrors and Wendy standing in front of one. She looked awed and surprised, pointing at its reflective surface.

This mirror showed . . . both of them.

This mirror showed a young Wendy bumping into a young Dipper. They both glared at each other . . . before Wendy cracked a smile. Young Dipper instead stuck his nose in the air and walked off.

"I remember that," Wendy said fondly. She had a slight smile on her face - the smile she'd get when she finished a piece of art. "My siblings had been so chaotic that day."

Dipper's throat tightened; he remembered when that memory had been.

That had been the day Mabel left.

It hadn't been . . . the best day. Mabel, Stanley, and Sadie had left, and Dipper had decided to take a walk downtown. Good thing he had, too, because he had bumped into Wendy that day. It had taken a couple weeks for them to actually talk to each other - and for Dipper to start acknowledging her existence - but Dipper saw Wendy painting graffiti on a wall and had liked it. After that, they remained good friends.

"Yeah." Dipper glanced at his hands to look away from the mirror. "I remember that."

Gideon's voice from a few rows over broke their train of thought. "Hey guys?" Gideon suddenly called. "What's this doing here?"

What was what doing here?

Curious, Dipper and Wendy joined Gideon by another mirror.

Dipper's eyes widened when he saw what was replaying in the mirror.

The mirror showed someone that both Dipper and Gideon knew - Wendy perhaps a little unfamiliar with them - who was looking down at the mirror's perspective.

"Um," Gideon began. "Is that Pacifica?"

~

Wendy stared over Dipper's head at the mirror in front of her. It was the Pines girl - the blonde-headed girl that Wendy vaguely remembered seeing at one of the Tent's shows.

Right. Pacifica Pines had run out of the Tent during a show - the first show where the Mystery Twin act had opened up again.

"So we happened to find the Pines brat in here, big whoop." Wendy's mesmerized, starstruck look from the other mirror was long gone. "We need to get out of here."