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Dipper and Wendy laid on their backs, soaking in the sun’s warmth. For what it’s worth, Mabeland wasn’t all that bad. Especially when compared to the living nightmare that Gravity Falls had become. The lake shimmered brightly, and the soft grass brushed against Dipper’s cheek as he turned to look at Wendy when she spoke.
“You know, you’re so much smarter than like everyone else. Heh, it’s kinda funny: if you were older, you’d be like, my dream guy.”
Dipper was in disbelief. “Wait, do you really mean that?”
Wendy’s eyes went wide, as though she had come to a sudden realization. “Wait a minute, in this world, you can be any age you want! If we were the same age, maybe we could, I dunno, actually be together!”
Dipper sat up abruptly. “Wait, really?!”
A broad grin spread across Wendy’s face. “I bet if we ask Mabel, she could do it right now! In this world, it could finally be just you and me!”
Wendy stood up. The sunlight shined perfectly on her, a soft yellow glow accenting her freckled cheeks. Wendy’s red hair flowed gracefully, and with a friendly smile, she held her hand out to Dipper. “C’mon, man! Just take my hand.” And she winked.
Dipper reached out to her, before he froze. Wendy had already told him she wasn’t interested, that they could never be together. Why would she just change her mind like this? And that wink…
Wendy didn’t wink at him. She never winked at him. Fear rocketed through Dipper as he scrambled backward away from her. “Wait! Aaahhh…this isn’t real!”
And with that, Wendy, or rather Not-Wendy transformed into a mass of insects, her one remaining eye glowing yellow, before she collapsed in on herself. The bugs crawled out and away, leaving behind no trace of the girl.
The stuffed animal tree darkened, and its mouth hung open, its eyes glowing. “You shouldn’t have done that, Dipperrr. We’re watching you.” The stuffed animals flipped around. Copies of Bill’s eye stared at Dipper, and they droned, “There are eyes everywhere…”
Dipper couldn’t think of anything to say. He screamed, and screamed, and screamed, as Mabeland’s true colors were revealed. He’d known from the start that the place was wrong, and yet he’d gotten caught up in the fantasies it harbored. Including his own. Maybe it was what was behind the door he refused to look through. Who knows?
Dipper’s heart thundered, and he began to hyperventilate. Was he going mad? “Oh man, this is crazy! I’m-I’m losing my mind! We have to get out of here! We have to go back, to-”
Just as Dipper said the one thing he shouldn’t, “The REAL. WORLD,” his shoulder shook, snapping him back to the waking world.
Dipper jolted awake, and it took a couple moments before he registered the warm hand on his shoulder. “Mabel? Shouldn’t you be asleep?”
“We both should, but not if you’re having a bad dream,” Mabel replied. “I could tell you were, so I decided to wake you up,” she explained. Her tone softened, “He’s gone now, remember?”
“It wasn’t that.” Dipper swallowed roughly. “Back when we were in your pri- I mean, Mabeland, I had gone outside near the lake to think. Then Wendy joined me, and we were just talking. Then…then she said that I would be her dream guy if I was her age.”
Under any other circumstances, Mabel might’ve teased him about it, but right now wasn’t the best time. Far from it. “What else happened?”
“Then she said we could go ask you to do it, to make me fifteen too, and she said we could finally be together. Then, she stood up, and she winked at me.”
“I don’t understand,” Mabel said sincerely. “You had a nightmare about Wendy telling you she liked you? And that she wanted you and her to be boyfriend and girlfriend?”
Dipper shook his head, pulling his homemade blanket around his shoulders. Of course, Mabel had been the one to make it. She’d given it to him as a Christmas present last year. “It wasn’t Wendy, Mabel. I-it was this…this creature pretending to be her. Mabel, Wendy doesn’t wink at me. She just doesn’t. And she told me she wasn’t interested. After I realized it was all a trick, she just…fell apart. Her whole body turned into a mass of centipedes.”
Mabel’s eyes widened. Even now, she couldn’t believe that Mabeland was so sinister.
At last, Dipper broke down, though he tried to stifle his tears, not wanting to wake up his parents. They couldn’t find out about Weirdmageddon. If they did, Dipper and Mabel would never be allowed to be within so much as a ten-foot radius from Gravity Falls.
Mabel pulled her twin into a hug, gently rubbing circles between his shoulder blades. “Shh, it’s okay, bro bro. You’re okay. I promise.” Mabel wished more than anything that she could tell Dipper it wasn’t real, that it was all in his head, but she couldn’t. Mabeland had been real. A real trap, full of everything she could ever dream of, all so she wouldn’t want to leave. If it hadn’t been for Dipper, she would’ve never left it.
“There are so many things I’ll never forget. A whole week of pure nightmare fuel. And we can’t get mom and dad’s help because…” Dipper’s voice got stuck. Luckily, Mabel knew what he was trying to say.
“You know, there are two people I know could help us.”
Dipper glanced out their bedroom window. It was still dark out. Mabel followed his gaze, before she chuckled. “Maybe later?”
“Yeah,” Dipper agreed. “Later.”
THE END