Disclaimer: Gravity Falls belongs to the genius Alex Hirsh. I own nothing.

Author's note: Hallo again chaps. I'm sorry that this chapter took such a long time to write and post. Unfortunately it is due to a lot of stress in my life.

Well, the rules are as follows: What happens next is up to you! Review this chapter and write, where you want the story to go. I'll take up that challenge :)

~InLoveWithMysteries

Chapter 3: Nightmare

EENIE.

The light. That horrible red light.

MEENIE.

No. No! It shifted. The symbol in Bill's eye shifted!

MINEY.

Another shift. NO!

Mabel looked at her brother in despair. There was nothing they could do.

It was out of their hands.

… out of hers.

YOU!

"NO!" She screamed into the darkness. The only light in the room came from the glittering stars outside her window. The room itself was minimalistic – like everything else in the house, except for Dipper's office, of course, which was always full of documents and books.

She sat up straight and took a series of deep breaths. It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare. It was her brain plying tricks on her by bringing a traumatic event from her childhood back to the surface. Mabel told herself that it was an illusion. She knew that Bill was gone and that he could no longer harm them. But she had to remind herself of this fact every night when she woke up screaming.

She had tried everything. Hypnotherapy, cognitive therapy, meditation, mindfulness… if it had a name, Mabel had tried it. She had tried to get rid of those nightmares for over ten years now, but still they came. Bill haunted her. The yellow dream demon might have been vanquished when Grunkle Stan's memory was deleted back then, but he still found a way to torment Mabel in her sleep.

Bill had meant to kill her when she was twelve years old.

Mabel wasn't afraid to die.

She was afraid to lose.

In the nightmare, she always lost one of two: Sometimes she lost Dipper. Sometimes she lost someone else…

Someone far more important to her.

She put on her dressing gown and pink, sparkly slippers. Her throat felt sore and dry. She might as well have inhaled desert sand, as had been the case last year when she visited Marcus' family. It had been a disaster and she would rather forget about it.

Mabel went across the floor to the other side of the guest room in Dipper's house, careful not to make a noise. She went to the kitchen without waking anybody. A small figure sat at the dinner table and made chewy sounds in the dark.

Against her better judgment, Mabel turned on the light and looked straight at her nephew.