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It was no overstatement to say that Mabel Pines was excruciatingly bored.
Typically, she would go solve a mystery with Dipper or hang out with Soos, but Soos was dead set on repairing a rusty floorboard because Stan had accidentally stood on it and got flung 30 feet backward into the bottomless pit. Mabel was an optimistic girl and would have usually cheered her friend on but frankly, this was his 4th attempt, and every time ended with him flying. She knew he could do it, but he needed some time. She had merely wished him good luck and went on to find her brother.
As for what he was doing that was so important that he couldn't hang out with her, well, he was hanging out with Grunkle Ford. Mabel usually had no qualms about this. Sure, it was all a bunch of nerd stuff that she didn't understand but she was really happy that Dipper finally got to meet his idol!
Even if now it feels like he had stopped spending time with her in favour of the mysterious author.
That's exactly what led her to her current situation, actually. The two dorks were off investigating a strange anomaly, and even though she wanted to tag along, she didn't. Neither of the two seemed particularly joyous when she had even implied it. They didn't hate her (or at least she hoped that was the case). It was just that compared to her twin, she was more inept in regard to oddity investigations.
So now Mabel was bored and she didn't have anything to do. Wendy was off somewhere, and Stan was shoplifting, leaving the girl alone. She also wanted to take Waddles on a walk, but the IRS had just kicked down the door and taken him away. Something about fraud, or whatever. Not her forte, but alright.
That gave her only two options. Take a walk by herself or mope. Being the cheery child that she was, she chose the former. She ran out of the shack, grappling hook in hand, and narrowly avoided a flying Soos. She stopped. "Are you okay?" She called out, turning in the direction of the bottomless pit where Soos was currently hauling himself over the ledge.
"Yeah Hambone, I'm alright! I think I just need one more shot!"
"I believe in you, Soos!" She smiled and waved, turning back around and walking to town by herself.
... Did she believe in him?
Maybe...
As she had learned to believe over the summer, everything was possible in this town. Although if she had to hear Soos get flung one more time, she may finally start to doubt that belief.
Quickly speed-walking away at the resounding crash that conveniently followed that thought process, the young girl found herself feeling rather dejected. Her posture drooped, her hair comically lost all bounciness and wilted like a deceased flower. Nobody had time to hang out with her today, and it hurt even more that her brother just didn't want her there. She tried to cheer herself up with the idea that maybe it was just today. Maybe if she had asked yesterday or even tomorrow, it would have been more up her alley and she would have been able to join.
Having her mood brightened, she straightened up and took note of her surroundings. She was on a street, one not unfamiliar to her based on the many walks she had taken with her pet pig.
There was one thing out of the ordinary, however.
... There was a time tape on the opposite sidewalk. Feeling even more energy be absorbed into her like a wet sponge, she skipped over to take a closer look. Sure enough, it was a time travel tape. She vividly recalled the time she and Dipper had stolen one of these from Blendin Blandin and got into huge trouble with the time police over it. But why was this one so obviously out in the open?
Was it a sting operation by the time police? But your average person wouldn't even know what it was, never mind the fact that using it without a proper permit would be strictly prohibited...
Maybe they were using it to try to catch her? She doubted it, though. Mabel was for certain a law-abiding citizen who did not commit any crimes whatsoever.
She looked around, checking the surrounding area to see if she could catch a glimpse of a time cop watching her, waiting to strike. Once she determined the coast was clear, she dropped her grappling hook on the pavement and picked up the tape to take a closer look. It certainly looked similar enough to the one she and Dipper had illegally borrowed without permission what felt like a lifetime ago, but it was different.
She couldn't place her finger on why until she lifted it up to her eye level and squinted. The markings were slightly different, she realised. Instead of just traveling through time, she could travel through different locations as well. That was awesome. No way was she going to give this back yet. She had a lot of messing around to do.
Doing a final once-over to make sure the coast was clear, she picked out a random time and location. June 23rd, 1973. Why not? A normal person would have chosen a time 10, 20, 30, or 40 years ago, but Mabel wasn't normal. She decided to go 39 years in the past. But not exactly 39 years. Go a little over one month prior to the one she was currently in, why not?
As for location, she would usually have some fun with it and choose somewhere halfway across the planet, but she started off simple for now. Somewhere in... Nevada. That was where the aliens were in Area 51. But there was no option for there, what a shame. She chose Reno for convenience's sake and hoped it was close enough to the military base that she could walk there with minimal breaks.
Satisfied with her decision, she picked up her grappling hook, pulled on the tape, and in a flash of blue light, was somewhere else entirely.
Mabel looked around. By the looks of it, she was in a building. That was strange, but she didn't question it all that much. She was in a long, eerie corridor. She got bad vibes from this entire place. Behind her, at the end of the corridor, she saw a door. Maybe that could be her way out. She walked towards it, careful to be quiet so her shoes didn't squeak against the tiled floor.
However, when she opened the door, she didn't see the outside world. Instead, she came face to face with a man in an office. He was from the looks of it... pink? She would have typically lit up and verbally tackled him with a barrage of questions 'oh my god how did you become pink I want to be pink too it looks so cool'- She didn't do any of this, though.
No. That was because he was walking towards her with a knife.
Oh, hell no.
Alarmed, she pointed her grappling hook at the man and fired. It hit him straight in the head. It clearly caught him off guard, as his eyes widened. He didn't have the chance to evade and slammed his head against his desk with a resounding crack. Mabel winced. Oh.
Okay, yeah.
He was probably going to kill her anyway, but still. Yikes.
It's fine, he was probably still alive. She just needed to call an ambulance.
After a long pause, she leaned over and prodded him. She noticed blood gushing from where he had hit his head on the corner of his desk, which she hadn't seen before due to the dark colour of the rug soaking it all up.
Okay, maybe he wasn't alive.
It took a moment to fully sink in, but when it did, she panicked.
Oh god. She was bored, and she decided to cause chaos, now look what she did. Someone's dead. It occurred to her that she could use the tape to time travel to before she killed him, but after quickly rummaging around she realised her time tape wasn't anywhere to be seen. That means she was stuck with a dead body. But that's fine.
She wasn't from the 1970s. She could dispose of the body and she wouldn't even be a registered human being to be considered a suspect.
It would all be fine.
But this was an office, meaning there were probably cameras in here somewhere. Even if she wasn't technically supposed to be here, she seemed stuck for the time being and didn't want to be seen on camera killing someone. She just had to destroy security camera footage, and only then could everything be okay.
Cautiously stepping over the corpse, she looked around on his desk. Oddly, there were no camera setups here or anywhere in the room, not even footage filming it. What she did find, though, was three cassette tapes. One of them was unlabelled, but two of them were labelled as JOY_1 and JOY_2.
Even though it was likely morbid to listen to your murder victim's cassette tapes, she was curious. Maybe under the attempted stabbing, he was a very nice person? Possibly very joyous to be around. Maybe this was a podcast of him giving candy to babies?
Strangely excited, she put the unlabelled cassette tape in the player first.
"The trust that William has placed in me is ill-founded. Now, my work can truly begin."
Yeesh. Mabel had just finished listening to the final cassette tape, and everything she had possibly considered was wrong. In her defense, you wouldn't necessarily expect a tape labelled 'JOY' to be about human experimentation and abolishing death. Perhaps she should keep that in mind next time she finds something seemingly harmless.
She turned around, facing the corpse once more. She didn't regret a single thing, actually.
She grabbed the office chair and swung it over the dead man's, presumably Henry's, head. It made a satisfying crunch as it collided with his teeth and (maybe already broken) nose. Blood gushed, and yet Mabel simply raised the chair over her head again and struck it full force on the dead body. She heard his teeth crack and break, and his ribs as well after the chair hit his chest. She kept hitting him. He deserved it.
...
When she had stopped beating the dead man's body, blood had flown everywhere and she was panting for air. Turns out she actually had a lot of pent-up rage. Huh. Who knew?
That thought track was swiftly interrupted by the sound of the door opening and a shocked gasp. She snapped her head around and saw a tall purple figure in the doorway.
When she said he was purple, she meant that literally. Not only was his long hair that reached his mid-back the colour but his skin and clothing as well. His eyes appeared to be inverted, having black sclera and white irises. His neck seemed elongated. Mabel assumed that this was the aforementioned William.
William's eyes surveyed the scene before him, face contorting into a mix of different emotions. Shock, rage, horror, grief, and finally, confusion. He looked at her, mouthing a simple question, 'What the fuck happened?'
Mabel didn't know what to do. This was probably William, so that meant... oh god. She opened her mouth, not knowing what she was about to say. An excuse? An apology? A lie? The truth? Whatever it was, she didn't get to say it. Another voice interrupted her. One much younger.
"Hey? What's going on? What about the candy?" In the doorway behind William, a young girl was visible. Her hair was auburn and shoulder length. She almost looked like Mabel, at first glance. She didn't get to see her eyes, she hadn't yet peered into the room. Her view was likely blocked.
She shouldn't see this.
William had the same idea, it seemed. The man panicked and shoved the child aside with his hand, blocking her eyesight as she tried to look. "Oh, sheesh! Bad news kid, this girl just... mutilated all the gummy bears...?" It came out more like a question. Obviously, he didn't know what he was doing.
"What?!" She cried.
"Y-yeah!" William stumbled over his own words, clearly concealing a lump in his throat. "Oh god, there's gummy bear guts everywhere! Sorry kid. May-Maybe you should go back to your party." From what Mabel could see, she looked absolutely crestfallen.
Yes, she had just murdered someone and further mutilated their corpse, but how could she watch as a disappointed child left without the candy they had been promised? (Even if there was almost certainly no candy. She felt bad for William, but he had a lot to answer for.)
"Wait!" She said. "I saved some!" She rushed out of the room so the girl wouldn't be able to see the desecrated child murderer if she looked back. Sure enough, she did. Mabel rummaged through her sweater, looking for the bag of gummy koalas she always had on hand. She grabbed it and handed it to the girl. Now she got a closer look, she could see that she was significantly shorter than her. The girl only reached up to her shoulders. If Mabel had to guess, she was around 5 or 6.
Her eyes lit up as she took the gummy koalas. "Thank you!" Mabel grinned and held her hand up for a high five, which the child gladly took. She ran down the corridor, presumably back to her party. Maybe it was her birthday?
Now the kid was gone, Mabel and William were left with the elephant in the room. Mabel visibly deflated, she had no idea what she was going to do. She and the man looked at each other, not knowing what to do or say. He was clearly holding himself together, and Mabel didn't know how to go forward, so she said the only thing she could think to say lest William cleared his head and threw her into a sinkhole for what she did.
"He stole your organs, by the way."
"He did fucking what."
William hadn't ever wanted to kill the little girl.
He had known it was a bad idea, but voicing his concerns to Henry only had him hushed, saying it was for the better. William had trusted Henry. The man had told him that the murders would be brushed under the rug after his plan. He hadn't told it to him yet, and would never be able to. But everything on this stupid cassette tape proved that Henry was no more than a liar.
"My original intention was to give William a nudge, later down the line, and have a then freshly deceased William take the blame for the kids he abducted."
Henry's voice droned on. His ears rang, but not with the mercy of clouding his hearing.
"He will do anything that I tell him to do. He will act with complete obedience."
He felt ill.
"What if I were to damage his brain, or remove his organs whilst he slept?"
Subconsciously, William's trembling hands touched his stomach. A stitched-up scar faintly tangible under his clothing. That bastard.
He had been lied to. He trusted this man like a father, and he stole his organs.
He shook, and his vision blurred. He could vaguely hear the sound of the cassette player being turned off. He felt arms being wrapped around him and his first instinct would be to pry them off but he didn't.
...
William couldn't remember the last time someone had hugged him, if it ever happened at all.
And yet here this child was, she didn't know him. She only knew his name, and the fact that he helped a murderer, and the fact that he was dead and his organs were gone thanks to a sick fuck who from the looks of it tried to kill her too and he was so upset but he wasn't at her not anymore she had just been defending herself and he couldn't fault her for that even before he figured out that he was lied to and he was tricked-
"It's okay." She said. "Just breathe."
He was trying. He inhaled, but it felt like a rasp. He felt as though he were a fish out of water, and he just wanted to sink below the depths and never resurface.
"Uh..." She tried again, sounding unsure. "Name 5 things you can see."
There was a pause.
After a moment, William lifted a shaky hand and wiped his eyes clear of any tears. 'Men don't cry, William,' He recalled a voice saying that to him, a conversation that felt like a lifetime ago. But that person was now dead. It kills him to say it, but he feels waves of relief wash over him that weigh out the tsunami of grief he felt at that thought.
Looking around, he can see... "Hen- His office... uh, papers, the desk, blood," he looked down at her, she gave a toothy grin back, "you."
"Awesome! Four things you can... touch, I think...? Four things you can touch!"
"You, again, the floor, the wall, the desk." He said those last two things while moving his arms out to touch them.
"Now three things you can hear!"
"You, music, my own... heartbeat." William hadn't noticed his heart practically pounding in his ears, despite not being alive anymore. Or his lungs restricting his breathing. Was it the placebo effect, or whatever? Regardless, it seemed he still had both of those organs. Thankfully.
"You're doing great! Now give me two things you can smell." The girl beamed up at him. He still didn't know what she was doing, but he was feeling calmer.
"Blood and..." he hesitated, "birthday cake?"
"It's my scented shampoo! Now give me one thing you can taste."
One thing he can taste. William hasn't been able to taste anything for a while, not since he ate an ashtray full of lit cigarette butts, which hadn't really been his smartest move. He had a feeling that if he didn't say anything, he would never be freed of his fuzzy sweater prison. He swished his tongue around his mouth, trying to imagine what he'd taste before he felt a stinging from his cheek. "...More blood, probably." He said. He couldn't taste it, but it occurred to him that he'd likely bitten his own cheek during his panic attack.
The girl released his hug, but her reassuring smile was replaced with concern. "That is not a good sign! Do you want me to get you some water?" She asked.
No one had shown concern for him like that. "No. I'm fine." A question lay on the tip of his tongue, but he stopped himself before he could ask it. Then he decided, fuck it. The kid already knew his name anyway. "What's your name?"
"Mabel! The name is Mabel Pines!" She said, all too cheery, holding her hand out for him to shake. William hesitated, but took it after a short second. "Now, I think we should deal with the decaying corpse in the office!"
Henry wasn't decaying, not yet. It couldn't have been more than 45 minutes, give or take. This means his body couldn't have begun rigor mortis. This was a relief for William and Mabel. Dragging around a stiff body was not ideal.
"You're going to help me?" Mabel asked quizzically. Sure, Henry had been a bad person, but she didn't think that William, who had been seemingly so close to the man despite everything, would be so willing to help cover up a murder (or manslaughter, as William had put it. Tomayto, tomahto).
"Mabel, this guy stole my organs. He's a serial killer and roped me into it as well. This place was designed to cover up murders. I think I'm more experienced than you, of course I'd help." He had said.
Mabel would be lying if she said she was all that surprised at the news that this place was built for murdering kids. She hadn't seen beyond the corridor that led to this office, but it reeked of something sketchy at the very least. She had just hoped that sketchy feeling was pointing to it being a front for money laundering and not child murdering and that the fact Henry was a serial killer was a strange coincidence.
The plan was to steal Henry's car, shove him in the trunk, take him to the desert, and burn his body. Mabel had suggested the idea to roast s'mores over the fire as an alibi, which had been received surprisingly well by William. If anyone questioned the stench of burning flesh, it was a unicorn. Not a human, what are you talking about? (Mabel had to run it by William that yes, unicorns exist. Unfortunately, they suck. Apparently, William was also a cryptid. She should have guessed based on the elongated neck and purple skin, but she had a lot more on her mind at the time.)
After an absolutely grueling 20 minutes dragging Henry to the car undetected, they hauled him into the trunk. It's fine, it would need to be deep-cleaned anyway. Sadly, they weren't as undetected as they had first assumed.
"What on earth are you doing?"
Today was supposed to be his little sister's birthday, but it seemed like everything was going to shit.
It had started off so normal. Jack had taken Dee to Fredbear's Family Diner for her 6th birthday. She had a few friends as well, and everything had been going well.
Up until Jack had to use the bathroom and by the time he got back, his little sister had conspicuously disappeared. He all but tore the place apart looking for her, with the very real realisation of this place's track record hitting him like a typhoon until she showed up behind him, tugging on his shirt while offering him a gummy koala.
When he asked her where she went, she recounted the story of an employee leading her into one of the back rooms for candy. But then the gummy bears died so a nice girl gave her gummy koalas instead.
Jack wasn't buying that at all. He didn't think Dee was a liar, more so that fucking employee. Who the fuck leads a child alone into a back room of a sketchy establishment for candy? Especially after other disappearances!
(God, he was an awful brother. He should have taken her to Freddy Fazbender's.)
But at least his sister was okay. That other kid might not be. That's why as soon as he could guarantee that his little sister was safe and neither she nor her few fellow party-goers would leave the designated party room unless there was an emergency (being lured away with false promises of candy was not an emergency), he went into the hallway Dee said she had been led into and knocked on the door at the end of it.
No response.
But a horrific rusty smell emanated from the shut door.
With a sinking feeling in his gut, he gently opened the door.
It was a fucking crime scene.
His eyes widened in shock. Blood was strewn everywhere. The rug, the walls, even the misplaced fucking chair was covered in gore and ... fucking teeth?
His first thought was to look in the room for a phone he could use to contact 911, but he quickly realised it would be risky to step a foot inside or even touch the door frame. Jack frantically looked around the rest of the hallway, seeing drops of blood like whatever the source of it was had been picked up and taken somewhere while still dripping blood.
He followed the trail, scared of what he'll find and not even knowing why. If he had any sense, he'd go back to the party room, get the kids the fuck out of there, and call the police. But for some reason, he didn't. He followed the trail until it led to a door behind the diner. He saw... not what he was expecting.
A grown man and a child were lifting an old man's corpse into the trunk of a car.
He stood in shock. He didn't know what was going on, but a tiny part of him felt relieved that it wasn't two grown men lifting the child's corpse into the car.
Jack was pretty confident he could take on the man and the little girl if necessary.
Opening the door, he watched as the two people caught his eye, clearly startled from being caught. "What on earth are you doing?"
"Holy heck!" Mabel shouted, they had been busted!
William turned to look at her, peeved. "I know this is a tense moment, but watch the fucking language, kid."
"I asked a question." The man said. He had ginger hair, reaching his chin. He appeared defensive, looking like he was ready to strike at a moment's notice, but his clenched jaw and the way his green eyes flicked between them and the surrounding area gave way to his nervousness.
Mabel and William shared a glance. Eventually, Mabel spoke first. "Look, uh... this guy," she pointed to Henry's body, "is a serial child murderer, and we're just making sure he doesn't do that again. The little girl, was she your daughter?"
"My sister."
"Yeah! He maybe possibly probably was going to hurt her and me as well, so I hit him with my grappling hook and he- oh shoot! I left the grappling hook in there! But anyway, yeah... please don't call the police?" Mabel put on her best pleading face, and he took a step back.
"Oh my fucking god..." he muttered under his breath. "Fine, whatever, dispose of him or whatever you plan to do with it, just clean it up, don't get caught and don't ruin my sister's birthday. Got it?"
"Got it!"
With that, the man left in the direction that he came from. "That went better than I was expecting." Mabel said. She looked over at William and noticed he looked miles away, staring in the direction he left from. "Hey, Aubergine!" Mabel poked his cheek, and he returned to their reality. "I can't exactly drive, y'know?"
"And that should be enough gasoline! Mabel, there should be a box of matches in the glove box, can you go get it?" William asked, having just poured a good gallon over Henry's lifeless body.
"Roger that, boss!" Mabel opened the car door and rummaged through the glove box until she felt the box of matches, which she was quick to hand to William. He set the match aflame, and threw it onto Henry.
"Time for s'mores!" The fire had barely been set for 5 seconds, and yet Mabel was already taking graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows out of her sweater.
William stared. "Do you have everything in there?" He questioned.
Mabel merely shrugged. "I put my pet pig in there sometimes. He got taken away for fraud, though, so he's not here."
"I meant that as a joke..."
"I know!"
Mabel beamed at William, and as she was about to give him a s'more, something strange happened. The world around her seemed to turn purple. William noticed it too, based on his puzzled expression. A figure appeared before them. It appeared to be a yellow grizzly bear with a purple bowtie and top hat.
"Woah! Is this God?" Mabel blurted.
"GREETINGS."
"Okay, maybe. Uh, Hi! Mr..."
"I GO BY MANY NAMES, BUT YOU MAY CALL ME 'THE REAL FREDBEAR.'"
It seemed as though it was William's turn to butt in, "Aren't you a fuckin' animatronic?"
"NOT EXACTLY. I AM MORE SIMILAR TO CHILDHOOD ITSELF. BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT I AM HERE TO DISCUSS WITH YOU. RATHER, I AM HERE TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION WITH MABEL PINES."
Mabel gulped. Oh shoot, she was done for. She time-traveled and killed someone, and now she was going to-
"WORRY NOT. WHILE YOU DID KILL SOMEONE, AND THAT SHOULD NOT GO IGNORED, YOU ALSO KILLED A VERY EVIL PERSON AND PREVENTED LOTS OF TRAGEDY BEFORE IT COULD COME TO FRUITION. DESPITE THIS, YOU ALSO PREVENTED HIS EARLIER VICTIMS FROM GETTING JUSTICE."
"Oh, am I going to hell then? Please, I have a family!" She cried, fully prepared to get on her hands and knees to not see that damned highway.
"IT MORE CLOSELY RESEMBLES A COMMUNITY SERVICE ACT. TYPICALLY, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN JACK KENNEDY TO TAKE THIS ROLE, BUT AS HE NEVER DIED, I WILL PASS IT ON TO YOU. YOUR JOB IS TO LOCATE THE PEOPLE HE HAS ALREADY KILLED IN THIS TIME, WHICH THANKFULLY ISN'T MANY. YOU WILL GIVE THEM THEIR HAPPIEST DAY AND HELP THEM TO MOVE ON. AFTER THIS, YOU WILL RETURN TO YOUR OWN TIME AND CONTINUE YOUR LIFE AS IT WAS. UNDERSTOOD?"
Mabel paused, before saying, "Beats going to hell. Understood."
"VERY WELL." With that, The Real Fredbear faded just as soon as he had come into existence.
"... What the fuck just happened. And what did that guy mean by 'your own time'? What's going on? I feel like I'm missing something, here."
"Don't worry about it." Mabel brushed him off. "Yeesh, that was confusing. Hey, did I ever tell you about my invention called Mabel juice?"