L Ø S T

“Mabel! Did you eat all of the ice cream?” Dipper groaned. Despite being in college, he still enjoyed his ice cream. No one could take that from him.
“MAYBE!~” shouted Mabel in a sing-song voice. Ever since she and Pacifica hooked up, Mabel seemed to be happier than normal, and Dipper didn’t even think that was possible. It was finally Friday, and the Stan twins would be there at any minute.
“Come on, Mabes, we’ve gotta clean up a little. You know Ford likes the house as clean as possible.” the younger twin whined. Mabel bounced down the stairs and started picking up several scattered items. Make-up littered the floor, powders of every shade of the rainbow on the floor, couch, and even the ceiling.
“Is that...lipstick?” Dipper asked curiously as he noticed something red written on the wall. In bold letters, ‘MABEL + PAZ 4-EVR’ was written in neat cursive. Must’ve been Pacifica’s doing, he knew Mabel wrote in neat, slanted letters in print. Never cursive.
“Why yes, it is, idiot. Way to go for figuring out what the mystery was.” Pacifica rolled her eyes and smirked. While she could be a pain, Dipper and pacifica actually got along fairly well, even when they had their playful banters and badinages. Dipper smiled softly.
“You really like her, don’t you?” he teased. Paz blushed and shoved him lightly, causing the young man to laugh lightly.
“Yes, I do. I really, really love her...I never thought I was a lesbian but here I am, as straight as a ring.”
“Good analogy.” He mused. Paz laughed and went into the kitchen to help her girlfriend clean the dished. Dipper turned and went to pick up some of the various items spilled out all over the carpet in the family room.
“I sure could use a slice of PUMPERNICKEL!” A raspy voice called out. Several loud knocks were heard, as well as a few yells, and Dipper was finally fed up.
“OKAY, OKAY! I’LL GET THE FUCKING DOOR!” he yelled angrily. When he opened the door, he saw two rather beat up looking men.
“That’s my boy!” Stan praised. “Swearin’ like yours truly!”
“Stanley, you shouldn’t praise that behavior, it could lead to-”
“Shut up, Sixer, this is Dipper we’re talkin’ about. He swears only when he gets pissed off, right?”
Dipper was too confused to respond, so he just nodded.
“See? The kid’s too soft to cuss a lot, anyways.”
He finally snapped out of his trance.
“Woah, what? I am not soft! I’m manly!” Dipper growled. Stan laughed and ruffled the boy’s hair.
“Haha, good to see you too, slick. I like what you’ve done with the place.” he joked. Ford rolled his eyes.
“Anyways, we have important business to discuss or whatever. Get Mabel and that Northwest chick and meet us down in Ford’s lab.” The two old men walked into the gift shop and dialed the appropriate numbers in the vending machine. It opened with a large cloud of dust coming with it. Several coughs were heard, but ignored by the young adult. Many footsteps soon followed, and Dipper decided it was time to get the girls.
∆∆∆
“Ford? Stan?! OH MY GOSH YOU’RE HERE!” Mabel squealed. She threw herself at the two and pulled them into a bear hug. Stan hugged her back and smiled.
“We missed you too, sweetheart.” he said. Ford cleared his throat and excused himself from the warm embrace.
“We need to discuss the matter at hand. Children, I think that our old nemesis, Bill Cipher, is returning.” Ford said quietly.
“WHAT!?”
“But...HOW!?”
“Mabel, Dipper, listen to me. I think that he is regaining his strength while being locked away in whatever prison your…’Grunkle’...put him in. Stanley, what exactly did you DO to get rid of Cipher?” Ford inquired.
“Well, I punched ‘im in the eye and you used the memory ray-gun-thing. That was all there was to it.” he explained.
“But you got your memories back, so where’s Bill?” Mabel asked.
“That’s the problem, sweetie. Nobody knows. There’s no way to tell where he went off to.” Ford answered.
“But...Bill’s statue is still in the woods! Mabel and I check every three months! We just checked two weeks ago!” Dipper cried, voice faltering slightly.
“Dipper, I’m afraid that, despite the statue still being there, Bill isn’t in there.” the older man croaked.
“How do you know for sure?” Pacifica interjected. She scanned the room, observing how each person reacted.
“I almost forgot she was there…” Stan mumbled.
“I’m still here, Mr. Pines. But, you said you were afraid that he wasn’t there. But how do you know for sure? Have you performed any tests or tried entering the Mindscape or whatever? Mabel’s told me a lot about some weird dreams she’s had, and I think that it might have something to do with that Cipher guy.” she whispered.
“What! Mabel! You had weird dreams!? What happened in them!?” Dipper roared. Mabel flinched.
“U-uh...all it was…it was grayscale. There was no color. I was walking in the woods and suddenly I was falling. Then I saw strings attached to my arms and legs. I was a marionette puppet! And I saw you guys as finger puppets on someone’s hand, but I couldn’t identify who the hand belonged to. You were saying something, but I couldn’t tell what it was…then Dipper...Dipper’s heart got t-torn out...and h-he was bleeding and screaming...the agony o-on his face w-was...and suddenly someone, a shadowy figure, brought him back t-to life and made him walk towards me and D-Dipper…you k-killed me...” she sobbed. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys sooner...I-I thought it was just a nightmare…an awful, awful nightmare...”
Dipper hugged the older twin, tightening the embrace slightly as he stroked her hair.
“Don’t be sorry, I’m the one who should be sorry for yelling at you. It’s okay, you’re okay. We’re okay, all of us.” he cooed, ”It helps that you told us that dream, no matter how horrific it might’ve been. Ford, what do you think?”
Ford spun around and started writing some things down in a journal.
“What part of the forest were you walking around in?” he asked.
“The area nearby where Grunkle Stan’s memories got erased...why?”
“Kids, I think either we have a necromancer on the loose, or Bill Cipher sent you a message.”