Disremembered Tales

Chapter 8

Marco looked at the crooked water tower and frowned. The cupcake spray painted on the side seemed familiar. He blinked and an image of jagged teeth and a spiked tongue flashed in his mind. Was there a horror movie about a walking wooden water tower terrorizing a city?

His mind seemed to be playing tricks on him lately so who knew.

"They really cleaned this place up," Dipper commented. Mabel agreed, Star nodded, and Marco had the feeling of being out of the loop again because the city looked like a mess. A lot of the houses they 'd passed on the way here looked like they'd been pillaged for food. He'd assumed it was due to recent events, but maybe not...

There was an adult washing off a giant red triangle from his building and it filled Marco with an unknown anger. How dare they disrespect him like that!

Marco's eyes widened slightly; where did that come from? He should really get some more sleep. He'd started hearing voices in his head.

Well, more like one voice that sounded like a hundred. It had started in his sleep but had recently started hearing him in the day as well.

Star looked at Marco worriedly. She'd been dreading this moment ever since she'd been convinced to come back to this town. What if this place reopened his memories? The last thing she wanted was for Marco to be in pain. There may be a wedge driving them apart, and they may not have been acting like a couple, but she still cared for him deeply. She cared for him more than she'd ever cared for anyone else.

She had no idea what she would do if she lost him. It took so long for the stars to finally align and for them to admit their feelings for one another.

Dipper and Mabel led the way back to the Mystery Shack. Apparently, they had been able to salvage enough of the house that had been transformed into the massive-monster-fighting-robot-machine-thing that they had used when they'd gone on the offensive against Bill.

Star caught Marco staring at some of the street signs and frowned. Maybe this wasn't the best idea after all...

Dipper stared at the Dusk 2 Dawn. It was in rough shape and was one of the many buildings that hadn't been restored. Taking a closer look, there was a yellow paper taped to the door that marked the convenience store to be demolished in the following week and replaced with a new building.

He'd often dreamt of Ma and Pa, the two ghosts that had haunted his teenager friends when they'd snuck into the convenience store, only to save him when Bill had control over Gravity Falls. He'd always hoped that they'd somehow made it out of there alive. If people were tearing the building down, it either meant that they had sacrificed themselves for Dipper, or they had moved on sometime afterwards.

Or they disappeared when the realm of magic was destroyed.

Dipper wasn't exactly sure how the realm had worked, and what exactly was under its influence. Either way, a tear slid down his face. Mabel gave him a concerned glance, but he nodded slightly to let her know he was fine.

Well, as fine as one could be these days.

All too soon, they were coming up on the Mystery Shack. Dipper started to become anxious; what if it had been abandoned? Or vandalized? So much had changed. What if a mewman house had appeared within the same space as the house? Dipper wasn't sure if he could handle the place where he'd spent his summer in shambles.

Well, more than the usual amount anyways. How Stan had managed to keep the health inspectors from shutting the place down was beyond Dipper.

Mabel gasped and he looked up. There it was. The Mystery Shack. Memories came flooding into his head. It looked slightly abandoned, but that wasn't unusual.