We Never Left

🎶12 days of nightmares🎶

*Stans Point if View

Gnomes suck. Magic sucks. I hate all of this. Its all dumb.

As if the world ending wasn't enough, the gnomes tried to flush squirrels down the toilet and its beyond backed up. And the outhouse outside isn't in the protection barrier. So we now have a girl ditch and a boy ditch.

In an attempt to double our rations, somebody halved them. I honestly lost track of who at this point. A magic person, thingy.

Mabel's friend who is murder-buddies with me, now has a bald spot because at some point Larry King came in and ate her hair. And the door was locked. I think hes in the walls, so that's nice. I've run outta things to do at this point and so I started making a tombstone for myself. Because I'm clearly not getting out of here.

As long as its bigger than Fords, I'm happy.
Then I hear something outside. Its the middle of the night, and nobody is allowed outside the shack past curfew. So what the hot Belgian Waffles is out there?

*Mabel's Point of View

The doors opened just as a fancy butler turned to a pile of cockroaches. Soos' fist is where it was. At least, I think its Soos...?

Hes REALLY buff!

"DUDES! THIS ISN'T REAL!" He exclaimed at us then froze.

"Wait- are you real? Am I real?" He seems deeply puzzled. That's the real Soos atleast.

"I'm pretty sure we've already had this conversation Soos, lets go!" I practically shout. Everything is dissolving around us. The elevator is gone, there's no stairs in sight, and the room is slowly collapsing in on itself.

"WHAT DO WE DO?" I scream. We are SO dead.

Suddenly, a rectangle of light appeared, like a door way. I couldn't see into it but a hand reached through. I shoved Wendy and Soos in before jumping after them myself.

In hindsight, I should really have looked before I leapt. But its too late for that now, and not much could be worse than falling to your death, right?

*Fords Point of View

"Well, well, well," Bills voice echoes. I weakly lift my head up to look at him float into the room. I'm on the ground with no chains but a single shackle on my ankle. Its enough.

"Let Pinetree and Gideon get away did we?" He shrinks to my size and floats circles around me, taunting.

"You'll never stop them." I spit out at him. I taste blood in the back of my mouth and my vision is dark around the edges.

"Who says I wanted to, brainiac?" He scoffs.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I snap. Is it all just another trap?

"Its a game, ya know. I like to play with all the little extra pieces." He chuckles while settling down in his throne.

"I'll probably just kill them tomorrow or something." He yaws and stretches.

"No! I'll stop you! I won't let you hurt anyone else!" I exclaim. He barely even looks this way.

"No food. No water. No sleep. Nothing, for 12 days. How exactly do you plan on doing that, Sixer? I burnt the journals. The only thing holding me back is your little spell on this hick town and that can't keep up forever!" He laughs like the maniac he is.

"You want to save them? We can make a deal. All I need is that equation, and the kids walk free. Whatdoya say? " He extends his hand. If he catches them...  No. I can't. This is the world at stake!

"Never!" I yell as confidently as possible. Surprisingly, my voice was steady.

"Didn't think so." Bills lower eye squints up as if he was smiling. I barely even hear the electricity before I yell out in pain and become unconscious once again, plagued by nightmares like I have been for years.

I just want coffee.

*Stans Point of View

"K- Kids?" I stutter. I lower my bat. Where even did I leave my guns?

"Grunkle Stan! Help! Its Dipper!" Mabel is crying. Shes carrying her brother, who is covered in blood on her back. His eyes are closed and I don't think hes breathing.

"Oh no." I whisper. I run from the doorway towards them at the edge if rhe clearing. Then freeze. They stopped right outside the force field. Why?

They're not real I realize. I take a step back.

"GRUNKLE STAN! PLEASE!" Not-Mabel begs. Still coming no closer.

"You're not real" I say. She takes a shaky step forward and collapsed. Not-Dipper stirs. They aren't real, right? I am crying now. What if its really them? I use my bat to scooch Dippers limp arm closer to the barrier. I sigh in relief when the entire thing ripples colors like oil in water. They're not real. The reals ones aren't hurt. They're probably fine. Right?

Not-Mabel looks up and twists her neck in a way that should kill her. She speaks- but its Bills voice, not hers.

"You're smarter than you look! Not much of a compliment, but I'll get ya soon!" She smiles and cockroaches swarm from her mouth as they both disintegrate into bugs. I jump back.

This entire thing is nightmare fuel. I'll have to make sure I write this down. Anyone who writes about this stuff deserves followers, votes, reads, comments and all the rest.

*AN/ Hint. Hint.*

Then I hear Mabel again. I pull the crossbow out from behind the couch and head towards it.

Mabel and Gideon are running top speed towards us, screaming. Soos is following close behind and last is Wendy, carrying Dipper. He looks just like the last illusion. That's definitely what they are, of course. I take aim.

"GRUNKLE STAN! GET INSIDE!" Mabel screams at us. Gideon looks at me like he saw a ghost. Him and Soos are outta breath while Wendy seems fine, running with Dipper. A giant foot with a face and HUGE teeth is chasing them, along with some goblin with 8 balls for eyes. At this rate, the fake people will hit the barrier and bounce off or die in seconds. I'm not sure how it works really...

Apparently they're real.

The lot of them all crash into me. I accidentally shot the crossbow and it lodged itself in Gideons ridiculous hair. The monsters stop and snarl at us before walking away.

"Kids!" I cry and give Mabel the biggest bear hug in the world.

"I missed you sweetie." I say, trying to blink back tears. She hugs me back but quickly pulls away.

"Grunkle Stan! Dipper and Ford were locked up in the pyramid thing! Fords still there but Gideon saved Dipper. But something is wrong, he won't wake up!" She says through heavy tears.

I look him over more closely. Blood drips down his face from somewhere in his hair. His trademark hat is gone and his hair is crusted with dry blood. His arms are covered in bruises and he has marks on his wrist that I recognize only come from very tight ropes. He's missing a shoe and one of his legs looks broken. At best, its sprained. Its twisted the wrong way. The purple swelling suggests its been like that a while now. Most of his finger nails are gone and fresh blood is soaking through his shirt. I lift him up gently.

"We need to help him, now." I say. I swiftly carry him to the door. I hope one of these dumb magic creatures can fix this.

As we pass through the mostly empty gift shop, I pull a blue and white Pinetree hat off the shelf. He'll want that later.

I clear the table of empty bean cans and gnomes crayon drawing with one sweep of my hand and gently lay my nephew down. His hand falls off his chest and I realize one of his fingers is missing.

"I'm going to kill that one eyed demon, if its the last thing I do." I growl.