Gravity Rises (S3)

MV: Part Thirteen

Content warning: This chapter contains semi-graphic descriptions of child abuse and torture. The next chapter contains references to the aforementioned topics.

The way was clear until Dipper and Gideon got to the hidden staircase. At the end of a long, dark hallway, the stairs dropped off at a perpendicular angle. Dipper couldn't see the stairs, but he could clearly see the obstacle that lay in front of them.

The servants had hung a large sheet over the entrance to the stairwell. Dipper could see it from yards away. He heard Gideon suck in a breath beside him.

For a moment, Dipper wondered why a simple bedsheet could be a problem. But as he thought it through, he realized that it was a good method for catching someone who was invisible: If Gideon tried to pass, he'd move the sheet, and the servants would be able to shoot him with the stun gun without even seeing him.

Dipper felt a hand close around his wrist. Invisible Gideon tugged Dipper down the hall, away from the stairs, and around the corner. Dipper scanned for servants but saw none. "What'll we do?" he whispered, assuming Gideon had pulled him to a place that was safe to talk.

"I don't know," Gideon said, letting go of Dipper. "This is the first time I'm using invisibility against them. I didn't even know about it until Pacifica used it to sneak into the Museum."

"When was that?"

"Back when she summoned Bill. The point is, I don't know the best way to get past that sheet."

"Can we take a different route?"

"I'm sure they've blocked both routes," Gideon said. "The good news is, it'll spread them out, and they only have one stun gun. The bad news is, any one of them could have it, and if we so much as move in front of the sheet, they'll probably see your silhouette behind it."

"But not yours. Maybe you can look through the sheet and see if you can tell how many of them are on the stairs."

"Okay. Stay here. Shoot anything that moves."

Gideon's soft footsteps retreated. Dipper waited in the silence. It was a disturbing silence, for Dipper thought he should be able to hear Ford crying out in pain as the servants tortured him. Not that Dipper wanted to hear that, but the fact that he couldn't worried him all the more. Was Ford so hurt that he couldn't even cry out? Had the servants shot him with his own stun gun, perhaps, and then locked him away somewhere? What if Ford wasn't where Gideon thought he was in the first place?

Gideon returned. "They don't have many lights on behind the sheet. I couldn't really tell how many there were, but my guess is two."

Dipper thought about that. "What if we go back, and I stay on this side of the sheet, and you walk over to the other side, and we both stick our stun guns between the sheet and the wall and then shoot? That way, they won't know we're there until we're already shooting."

"That could work, if we could see," Gideon said. "I don't know if we'll be able to aim at all from behind the sheet, and with the servants you really only have one chance to catch them by surprise."

"Okay. . . what if I stand in the hall out of sight, shoot the sheet with the grappling hook to push it away, and you stand right behind it ready to shoot?"

Gideon was silent for a moment. "Those both sound like good plans, but. . . I don't know if they'll work."

"Any plan has risk," Dipper said. "Which one do you like better?"

"I guess the first one," Gideon said, "since we have a chance of hitting them with the first big noise we make. But you have to be careful so they won't see your shadow."