The God and the Thief

Pitch Black(30)

Mabel POV

They both stared wide eyed at me.

"What do you mean, he's fine?" Ford asked.

"I-" My brain couldn't process a fast enough lie, and the stare Ford was pressing into me made me squirm.

They were so tired, so broken and beaten, the pain written on Stans face paired with the fear and the growing anger in Ford's broke my heart.

"He's ok, I've seen where he's staying, He's safe, not even with the God anymore." I whispered looking down at the table, Dipper is going to be so mad at me.

"Mabel." Ford said, pushing his chair out the way to come closer to me, "Where is he."

Dipper POV

The journal from when Milo was around kept me up all night, so heavily encrypted with ciphers I had never seen before. Just when I thought I had finally made it back to english, there would be another cipher to get through, and if I did it wrong, if even one word was decoded wrong, it would fuck up the entire sentence.

Aka I had the time of my life, and didn't even notice the sun come up, or set into mid day, or even go back down.

When I had reached for the bag of food Wendy brought me, and found it empty(because of the periodic snacking I had done during the day) the tail end of sunset caught my attention.

I just couldn't put it down, Milo really did make Bill very happy, you could see it not only in his words but in his handwriting, in the little drawing next to each piece of information, it was painfully obvious with the little doodle of a young light haired boy that marked the end of each page. Some little part of me deep in my heart wondered if he was drawing little doodles of me with this much care.

I was drowning in it, in the language, in each new detail he explained, in the little notes he's leaving at the end of the page, little tidbits about his day, or simply about Milo. When I got a little further into the journal, he started writing little half letters to Milo at the bottom of the page, they were still coded in ciphers, but those were nothing like the ones that locked away the top of the page. They were a lot more simple, I bet he did it like that for Milo to read. I wonder if Milo ever did get to read them.

With my food course depleted, and my mind sufficiently fired from over a full day of non stop reading. I closed the journal.

I wasn't sure why Wendy or Mable hadn't come this morning, but I didn't mind, I just hope they come in the morning baring more food.

For now I could feel myself on the verge of passing out. So I moved my notes and papers off the sleeping bag, laying down my eyelids felt like lead, and once I was comfortable- well as comfortable as one came to be in an old sleeping bag on the floor, I passed out.

Mabel POV

Trying to stop my grunkles that morning was like trying to stop a hurricane.

They spent most the day flying around the house arming themselves to the teeth, they didn't listen no matter how many times I tried to tell them the god didn't know where he was.

They finally stopped flying through the shack as the sun started to go down, buffed and armed to the teeth they stood at the doors together.

"Lets go." Grunkle Ford growled before throwing the door open. All I could do was watch and follow in horror, there was no way this would end well.

My grunkles were old. Running wasn't something they could really do. But that didn't stop them from practically sprinting the whole way there. When the gas station came into view the sun was gone and with it being off to the side of the town it was merely a looming shadow against the dark night sky.

Neither of my uncles bothering with hopping the fence, the simple tore threw the rusty old thing, most the bars snapped on the moment of impact, the rest screamed at the sudden movement bending away. I winced at the noise, Dipper had to have heard that.

I could only pray he was using that big brain of his and took off the moment he heard it.

They pushed their way through the old doors. Stan's head whipped back unprepared for the smell, but it was like Ford didn't even notice. The room beyond the doors was pitchblack, I had seen it once in the lights before but I couldn't remember it well enough to run ahead of them to the office. The pleads I had been resighting on the way here hadn't made it threw to them

Ford was the first to step in, in his hand he flicked the on switch on his flashlight lighting up the first few ilse in front of us.

I wasn't sure how long this place had been close, but the way they moved through each ilse made it clear to me they weren't heading for the office first.

"Dipper." they called out.

The kindness was a lie in their tone. "Run Dipper, Run" I chanted in my head.

Then I heard it, the slight click of the office door opening. I couched clearing my throat, trying to cover the noise, both my grunkles turned their lights on me, I muttered a barely audible sorry and stared at my shoes.

I was glad Dipper had heard it, almost ecstatic that we had left the front door open. The only thing Dipper had to do now was run like hell.

What I hadn't thought of came to quickly bite both me and my brother in the ass. The gas station was pitch black, My grunkles had flashlights, and Dipper didn't.

Well maybe he did, but he couldn't use it, it would be a homing beacon for exactly where he was.

So even if he knew this place better than we did, he was still completely blind.

And this time I couldn't cover it with a cough. The rickashe of whatever he just kicked made everyone in the gas station freeze up completely.

That is till I heard Dipper take a mad dash for the door. Ford didn't blink, he was already pushing passed me back towards the door. Both me and Stan followed up behind him.

I spotted Dipper out in front of Ford, he had made it to the open doors first and barely blinked as he continued to the broken fence. Another disadvantage of Dippers, was that he wasn't very athletic, and had very little stamina and on top of that he was carrying a backpack with him.

When he made it to the fence he stumbled through the hole we made giving Ford time to catch up. Right on his tail.

Dipper barely made it past the fence when Ford grabbed hold of his backpack pushing him to the ground and pinning him there.

Dipper writhed under him, trying to push up from under Fords weight. Both me and Stan slowed and followed them through the fence.

I rounded the two of them, Dipper still kicking hard, somehow Ford removed his backpack and tossed it to the side.

Dipper yelped, when Ford grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back.

"Don't hurt him!" I shouted, grabbed hold of my own arm.

"Shut up." Stan hissed but I could tell he was not enjoying this either. Dipper's eyes had shot up when he heard me.

"Mabel?" His tone made my heart ripe in two, the pain I had felt watching my grunkles for the past few days palled in comparison as my heart started to bleed, the look in his eyes told me he felt the same pain, but for a different reason.

"I'm so sorry." I said but it was barely above a whisper and drowned away when Ford stood dragging Dipper to his feet as well.

The walk home was even more unpleasant.

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