Chapter Seventeen

Mabel pounded on the ghostly fist with both here hands. "Let me go!" Around her there was only darkness. She had long ago lost sight of Charlie.

She suddenly emerged into a large cavern, lit only by the green aura of the figure attached to the large hand. It was a giant, with a grotesque face, his crooked teeth worked into a hideous smile. A luminescent grizzly beard hung down from his chin down to his quite disgusting navel.

"Ewww!" Mabel said. "What happened to you, did you get hit by a car or something before you died? I mean seriously, ew."

The giant let out a deep booming laugh. "I am no spirit of a mortal man. I am Gargantuar, and I feed upon the souls who think they can hold out from the depths of the Pit for a little while, upon the poor pitiful spirits who think their 'lives' are worth anything now that they are dead."

"Yeah, but I'm not dead! Well, not really. I got sent here by this triangle guy named Bill to fulfill some sort of prophecy or something. Now let me go!"

`"Let you go?" Gargantuar replied. "Ha! I'm not going to do that. I'm going to eat you."

"Eating people is overrated! Plus I'm wearing a sweater. I'd taste like wool! And sweat! Do you know what it's like wearing a sweater all summer? Is sweaty sheep really something you want to, uh, digest or whatever?!"

Gargantuar shrugged. "No matter. I eat people with their clothes on. I've grown to like cotton quite a lot. Anyways, trust me; your fate is amazing compared to others that come down here."

"I'd rather fall down to the bottom of the pit than be eaten by you!"

The giant stopped his arm hallway to his mouth. His smile evaporated, and his eyes went blank. "No," he whispered. "No, you wouldn't."

"Wha-why? What's down there?"

The giant was silent for a second. Then he whispered very quietly "Darkness."

"Oh thanks that really clears things up. Now let. Go. Of. Me!" Mabel began to thrash her legs around kicking at the giant's hand.

The giant seemed to snap out of whatever dream-like state he was in, and turned his attention back to Mabel. He lifted her up higher and higher, and Mabel could see his enormous uvula dangling. She thought it looked about her size. She closed her eyes tightly, the stink of the giant's breath enveloping her. She wondered one last thing: does dying hurt?

And then, the stink evaporated, and she found herself still alive, at least for soul disconnected from its body. It seemed someone else had entered the room.

"Take me instead. You can eat me, as long as you let her go." Said a deeper, masculine voice. It took a few seconds before Mabel recognized it. The voice belonged to Charlie.

"No, don't!" Mabel cried.

"Mabel, please. I'm an old man. I have nothing left to…live for, for lack of a better phrase. Besides, you still have to play a part to play in all of this. I, on the other hand, do not." He turned to the giant. "So, do we have a deal?"

Gargantuar considered him for a moment. "Well, you do have a lot more meat on you. I accept your offer, mortal."

"No!" Mabel cried.

Gargantuar gently placed her on the ground, and scooped up the grown man. Charlie looked down at Mabel and mouthed one word.

Run.

Mabel continued to stand there until he mouthed more frantically. RUN. It was then she started down the tunnel, first at a jog, then at an all-out sprint.

As she ran away she heard the last conversation Charlie would ever have.

"So, what is that suit? Cotton?"

"I've been told it's a cotton polyester blend."

XXXXXXXX

Dipper gulped as he looked down at the desert ground far below. He could see the dangerous terrain now, no longer obscured by whatever mind-altering magic surrounded the place. He shuddered at the magma rising up from the cracks in the ground. He turned his attention to the giant green portal he was heading towards. He had to admit, it looked a lot more…intimidating up close. The thing wasn't just big; it looked like it was larger than Mount Everest.

Within only five minutes he had arrived. It was time. Dipper struggled to wriggle himself out of the bird's grasp, and then…

He was falling. He was falling faster than he had ever fallen in his life. His heart raced as the large portal came closer and closer and closer.

Then he hit the surface.

Dipper thought it felt sort of like a pool, where you could feel the water around you, but it was normal since you were submerged in it, like some sort of ether.

Except he was falling way too fast for this to be water.

His arms flailed as he tried to find something to hold on to, but there was nothing. He grasped desperately onto the rocky sides, but all that came of it was scraped hands.

His screams grew louder and he n=began to fall faster. He could hear something, something in the back of his mind. It sounded like a cold, terrifying voice cackling, cackling ever so maniacally. The laughing grew louder in volume and Dipper couldn't take it anymore, he just…

And then the twins collided in midair.

The two tumbled down the sides of the Pit, tumbling down, until finally Mabel got a hold of a small ledge on the side. She struggled to pull herself up, and helped Dipper up after she was safely on the ledge.

"Mabel! I found you!" Dipper yelled the sound echoing through the chasm.

"Dipper!"

The twins embraced for a brief second, before coming apart. "Great. Now that I found you, we have to find a way out of here."

"What do you mean found me? I found you."

"Oh come on Mabel! I found you!"

"Nuh-uh! If I hadn't fallen out of that tunnel thingy, you never would've been able to save me. So I found you!"

"Mabel! This is no time for…wait did you hear that?"

Throughout the endless void, the sound of falling rocks was mixed with something else, the muttering sound of something, some dark and terrible thing.

And it was coming up towards them.