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A choked sob escaped through her trembling hands as she tried to keep herself quiet.
Would he find her? What would happen when he found her?
She didn’t want to find out the answer to either question. Mabel wished she were back at the shack, talking it out with Dipper and making up with him. She didn’t care if her twin would continue to explain to her why he’d decided to take on an apprenticeship with Ford – she just desperately wanted out of this stressful game of cat and mouse.
She wondered why Bill had gone delirious over some strange ‘makeshift snow globe’ in her brother’s backpack, but whatever the reason was she ran like a bat out of hell. Ran as far as her legs could take her, until they trembled out of control from both fear and fatigue.
Whatever sick intention it was all for, Mabel knew it wasn’t good. The fact that Bill had literally possessed her brother’s body to try and get what he wanted made her question all the more. Something linked to Ford, she assumed. It was difficult for her to come up with an exact reason, as her brother and grunkle never shared any information with her and kept to themselves. So, she was left to fend for herself over an item she didn’t even know the purpose of – other than it being important to Bill.
Mabel continued sitting in place to recollect herself. She wished she could’ve been a part of the loop with Dipper, then maybe things wouldn’t have turned out this way; being hunted down by a literal demon.
She had no idea how much time had passed before she heard soft static coming from the backpack.
“Mabel?”
Mabel’s heart fluttered sporadically in her chest.
“D-Dipper?” She choked out softly.
“Mabel, where are you? Mabel!”
She immediately rummaged through the bag and pulled out a walkie talkie – the source of the noise.
“Dipper…” Mabel repeated hoarsely into the device, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.
“Mabel! Where – “
She heard something snap nearby and panicked, quickly pressing the speak button to silence his rambling. In any other situation Mabel would be floored to hear Dipper’s voice, but under these circumstances she didn’t want to be found. Her body shook uncontrollably at the thought of Bill finding her.
She took a deep, shaky breath before responding. “D-Dipper…I can’t talk right now, I-I – “
“Mabel, I’m so sorry about what I said earlier! Please come back to the shack! We can work things out, I – “
The young girl released a quivering sob at the sound of his frantic pleas over the intercom. She inwardly pleaded with her brother that he’d get the hint and stop his attempts of trying to reach her.
“Dipper, please!” Mabel softly cried, heartrate spiking at the thought of Bill picking up on her location. “I-I can’t come back to the shack right now.”
“Mabel, where are you? If you refuse to come back, I’m coming to get you!”
The sound of footsteps trekked close. Mabel’s breath hitched in her throat as she fumbled with the talking device, trying to desperately turn it off. She continued to tremble in fear.
Was Bill nearby? Had she given away her whereabouts? Or was she just imagining things?
“Mabel!”
She whimpered.
“W-What do I do?” She asked herself, tears streaming down her face.
The only thing her instincts manage to scream at her was; keep running.
Mabel tightened her grip on the walkie talkie and bolted out of her hiding spot, unintentionally leaving the backpack behind. She didn’t dare to look back when she heard something picking up speed behind her like some wild animal chasing its prey.
She hoped she still had enough energy left to outrun him.
“Mabel, you need to tell us where you are, please.”
Her eyes widened. “Grunkle Ford?” She whispered in reply, briefly glancing down to the device.
“I-I don’t…I don’t know where I am!” She wailed out between breaths, finally glancing back to see a pair of wild, glowing yellow eyes staring her down. “Help me!! Dipper! Grunkle Stan!! Grunkle Ford – “
Mabel yelped like a kicked puppy when she tripped over a root, plummeting to the cold ground.
Ford picked up on Mabel’s erratic behavior when Dipper tried to communicate with her. She sounded quiet, shaky, and in a way…desperate? She refused to come back to shack, which he at first understood with her being upset. However, a part of him told him – something was wrong. Normally a child would be more vocal when being stubborn and distressed. This didn’t appear to be the case with Mabel. A bad feeling pooled in the pit of his stomach.
He eventually pried the walkie talkie out of his grand-nephew’s hands to try and speak with her.
“Mabel, you need to tell us where you are, please.” He pleaded into the intercom.
“Grunkle Ford?”
Her hoarse voice pulled at Ford’s heartstrings. Something was definitely wrong.
“I-I don’t…I don’t know where I am! Help me!! Dipper! Grunkle Stan!! Grunkle Ford – ”
Frantic thoughts flooded Ford’s mind at the sound of his grand-niece’s screaming and sobbing. She sounded like she was in immense pain. His grip tightened on the walkie talkie. What happened to her?
A familiar maniacal laugh rung out of the device’s speaker.
“You’re too late, Sixer!”
Ford instantly felt his blood run cold. It’s like he knew he was there on the other line.
“Leave her alone, Cipher!” He spat out, anger boiling over the fear at the thought of Bill tormenting his grand-niece.
Ford hears a mix between sobs of agony and irritable growls spewing out of the walkie talkie. What was going on? He waited for Bill to bite back, gloating over the fact that the fate of the universe was now within his grasp. However, what he wasn’t expecting was a threat.
“The clocks ticking, Ford. Be here in an hour or Shooting Star won’t live to see another day. Don’t keep me waiting.”
Ford hightailed it into the woods without a second thought, with Dipper not far behind him. He sure as hell didn’t know where Mabel was being held at Bill’s mercy, but that wasn’t going to stop him from finding her in time. He was a man of science, but that didn’t deter him from desperately pleading to any godly entity out there to spare his grand-niece’s life while he rushed through the underbrush of the forest.
Mabel screamed when Bill roughly yanked her body off the ground by her hair.
“No! Let me go!!” Mabel shrieked in horror, trying to wriggle herself out of his grasp.
Maniacal laughter bubbled out of the mouth of the body he possessed, eyes gleaming with glee. He picked up the walkie talkie off the ground with a snicker.
“You’re too late, Sixer!” He mocked into device, grin widening at the thought of Ford’s horror-struck face.
“Leave her alone, Cipher!”
Before he had the chance to rub his victory further into Ford’s face, he realized (upon further inspection) that the rift was nowhere to be found. His grip tightened around the child’s hair, knuckles turning white.
Mabel cried out in pain when she felt a violent tug at her hair.
“Where’s the rift, Shooting Star?!” He snarled angrily at her.
She could only begin to tremble and sob in response to the yelling and the rough treatment.
Bill let out an irritable growl into the walkie talkie. “The clocks ticking, Ford. Be here in an hour or Shooting Star won’t live to see another day. Don’t keep me waiting.”
“Dipper...” she choked out before succumbing to the pain, body going limp.
How long had they been running for? Ford had no idea, but the burning in his legs told him he’d probably been doing so for a while now. His mind screamed at him to keep going, but his body told him otherwise – giving out on him, causing him to stagger down to the ground briefly to catch his breath. All the injuries and strain he endured from earlier were catching up to him.
Damn this accursed old body, he thought to himself.
Dipper in the meantime paced back and forth in front of Ford, distressing over the thought of never finding his sister and assuming the worst. A wave of overwhelming guilt washed over him and his breaths came out short and frantic.
“This is all my fault! I should’ve talked to Mabel about everything before making any decisions. I didn’t even consider Mabel’s feelings, I – “
“No, Dipper,” Ford’s voice is soft, almost childlike. “The blame should all be on me. I’m the one who was the initial cause of all this mess. If it wasn’t for me making the mistake of trusting Bill decades ago, none of this would be happening.”
He noticed the forest around them getting darker. The sun was going down. They were running out of time.
“We need to keep going in order to find Mabel.”
They continue on in a jog, the fastest speed that Ford was capable of at the moment. The paranoia and adrenaline fueled him, pushing him forward.
That was until he heard a piercing cry echo through the woods.
“Time’s almost up, Ford!” Bill’s cutthroat voice rang.
Thank God they were nearby. Before Ford had the chance to say anything else Dipper bolted in the direction of his sister’s scream.
“Dipper!”
Ford followed his grand-nephew.
When they finally catch up to Mabel, they find her trying to wriggle free from her captor – eyes flashing menacingly down at her. Ford felt a cold shiver run down his spine when he made eye contact with the man that Bill currently possessed.
Bill let go of Mabel with a poised shrug. “Took you long enough, Sixer. You’re lucky I’m in such a good mood today – with me being on the brink of taking over your dimension!” He sneered, taking immense satisfaction in the looks of shock on Ford’s and Pine Tree’s faces. “I can’t thank you enough for holding onto your resentment towards your brother and tearing your family apart!”
Before Mabel had the chance to get away, Bill took hold of her hair once more and forcefully yanked her like a rag doll down onto the ground. She squeaked in agony when he rammed his foot onto her back, anchoring her body against the earth.
“Now that we’re all comfortable – where’s the rift?”
“What?” Dipper asked.
The boy twin flinched at the sound of a metal click. Dipper watched Bill aim a loaded gun right at his sister’s head in horror. That surely got his full attention.
“Let me ask again. Now that I have your attention,” Bill growled, slightly pulling back on the trigger. “Where’s the rift?”
Dipper must’ve hesitated too long for Bill’s sanity. His patience grew thinner and thinner by every second and began to count down. He’d gotten this far, and he wasn’t going to throw away the golden opportunity at taking over this dimension.
“Five!”
“We can’t!”
“Four!”
“We don’t have it!”
“LIARS! THREE!”
“Bill! Leave her out of this!!” Ford bellowed.
“TWO!”
“We’re not lying!” Dipper cried out desperately, tears streaming down his face. “I swear we don’t have it! Don’t hurt my sister! Please, I’m begging you!”
“ONE – “
“I-I left it behind! I didn’t do it on purpose, but I-I must’ve left it where I was hiding nearby – “
Mabel went silent when she heard the abrupt gunshot and watched her life flash before her eyes. Without breaking eye contact with Ford, Bill gestured out in the direction he chased Mabel in earlier before pointing the gun back to her head.
“Find it.”
Moments later the two come rushing back, rift in tow and willing to hand over. They weren’t going to take any chances trying to reason with a maniacal demon that held Mabel at gunpoint. As much as Ford didn’t want Bill taking over their dimension, the lives of the kids were more important.
“Hand over the rift, Ford – or say goodbye to your niece.”
Ford didn’t hesitate. Even if the world came to an end, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he were the one to cause his grand-niece’s early demise. Despite becoming the bringer of the apocalypse, he’d do anything to keep the kids safe. Whether he had the kids go into hiding with Stan for the rest of their lives or figure out a way to fix the problems he inadvertently caused. He’d do whatever it takes.
The guilt will reside in him for the rest of his life over every mistake he made that led up to this moment.
“Under one condition.” Ford narrowed his eyes. “You let Mabel go and leave the kids alone.”
Bill’s grin returned. “Fine.”
Ford shamefully handed over the rift without a second thought. The demon’s grin widened in glee, reveling in the feel of victory as his fingers drummed over the cracked glass of the containment unit.
“Now let her go, Cipher.” He growled.
Mabel immediately bolted towards her family the moment Bill lifted his weight off of her, desperate to get away from danger. Ford watched her run in his direction and kneeled down to catch her in his arms.
His hold on her tightened when he heard Mabel start to sob into his chest. Out of all the mistakes he made, he deeply regretted keeping his secrets away from Mabel. He only wanted to keep her and Stan safe (even though he wouldn’t admit it to him personally), assuming they didn’t have any interest in his past or what he was caught up in. He was a fool. Stan may not have been aware of Bill Cipher but looking back he remembered; Mabel already had history with him just like Dipper.
Man, he was such an utter fool.
The sentimental moment was interrupted at the sound of something shattering and distorted laughter. Ford’s breath hitched in fear. This was it. The end of the world, and his family had a front row seat to witness it.
Ford flinched when he felt something tug at his coat, and saw Dipper gravitating over to him. All they could do was hopelessly watch Bill bring forth the apocalypse.
“At last! At long, long last! The gateway between worlds has opened! The event one billion years prophesized has finally come to pass! The day has come! The world is finally mine!” Bill laughed maniacally as the unconfined rift teared reality into the Nightmare Realm.
With a gesture of his hand Bill used his powers to forcefully rip Mabel out of her grunkle’s grasp. Ford watched her body glow pink and float away from him in horror.
“No!”
“Dipper! Grunkle Ford!”
With a snap of a finger Mabel went unconscious, continuing to be whisked away. In an instant her body was surrounded by some strange pink bubble etched with a shooting star symbol and chains, and with another snap of the demon’s fingers she was gone.
Trying to process what just happened and witnessing his sister’s disappearance right before his eyes, he could only cry out in despair and frustration.
“Mabel!”