The new girl in Gravity Falls; by Joona Irene

Nightmares indeed

By Joona Irene

~~still Lilac POV~~

        "Maybe you should wash that." Mabel said, looking at it. "It looks like maybe it was eaten once."
        "It's just a ribbon." I said, chuckling. I pulled it out my hair and held it in my hand. "Besides, it's not like I can get sick from it or anything."
        "So you guys are like, best friends now or something?" Dipper asked me. I nodded.
        "Something." I said. "His aura is good, he makes me laugh, and I know he would never hurt me like Bill did because, well, he's a little off his rocker." I twisted the ribbon into a little circle. "He's safe."
        "Are...are we safe?" Dipper asked, his hands twisting nervioisly. I looked at him for a moment.
        "Absolutely not." I said quietly. "You two are my friends, and I trust you. That would make any betrayal even worse. If you ever did anything to hurt me, or compromise me, forgiveness might be out of the question." I looked up from the ribbon and smiled. "So if anything, you have the potential to destroy my faith in humanity! Pretty neat huh?" I asked them. They didn't seem to think so. They stared at me, frightened.
        "What?" I asked. Suddenly movement out the window caught my eye. Was that Bill I saw? I growled, opening the window.
        "STAY AWAY FROM ME YOU DEMON!" I shouted at his fleeing aura. I closed the window and jumped down, sighing angrily. I hope he didn't hear all of that.
       "Bill again?" Mabel asked me. "It's okay, let's go do something!" She suggested cheerfully. Dipper and I nodded in agreement.
       "Weren't you going to make me a sweater?" I asked, eager to see it. I would never wear it, but I still wanted to have something that would remind me of her.
       "Patience little Lilac," Mabel chastised me. I rolled my eyes.
       "What would you like to do?" I asked them. They shrugged.
       "We could play hide and seek." I suggested.
       "Sounds good! But no camouflage this time, promise?" Dipper asked me. I sighed.
       "Fine!" I huffed. You two are no fun, I thought to myself, even though I knew it wasn't true, they were loads of fun. "Could it be town-wide?" I asked.
        "What else?" Mabel cheered.
        "Great! No-nose counts!" I said quickly, touching my nose. Mabel quickly touched her nose, leaving Dipper to count. He groaned.
         "But counting is no fun!" He pouted. Mabel flicked his nose.
         "Sorry bro-bro, but that's the rules!" She said. "Oh, and count to a hundred and five." She added.
         "Whatever." Dipper grumbled. He faced the wall and closed his eyes.
         "One, two, three..." Mabel and I bolted. We split up once we were downstairs and I headed straight for the junkyard while Mabel darted out of sight. Quickly I leaped the fence and burrowed underneath a car. I made certain to choose one closer to the main path so that Dipper could actually find me, if he decided to look for me in this place. Then I stopped pretending to breath and waited. And waited. I began counting seconds myself, until I lost track and forgot why I was counting in the first place.
         Time passed and the sun was starting to set. I could tell because the shadows of the car tires got longer. Just when I thought I couldn't become more bored, I heard footsteps. I looked to my left and saw McGucket. I wanted to wave and say hello but I didn't want to give myself away, so I remained silent.
         "...Tarnation. Why they gotta be so difficult?" He mumbled. I could barely catch his words. I looked and saw he was trying to pull something out of a car trunk, but the car trunk was partly closed by the other five cars stacked on top of it. No, no, stop, what are you doing? I hoped he would notice the teetering car on top. With each tug McGucket made the top car wobbel. What was he trying to get out of that trunk anyways? A shoe? A cucumber? With one final jolt he caused the top car to tumble off and head right for him.
        "McGucket!" I cried, leaping out from underneath the car. I barreled into him, pushing him out of the way, and almost making it out of the way myself. My leg was trapped underneath a crumpled grill.
        "Wha...wh....what...?" McGucket stared at me wit big, fearful eyes. I looked up at him.
       "Hey-"
       "It's you!" He shreiked. I blinked.
       "Yeah it's-"
       "Stay back! Git away from me! You evil, murdering, soul-splitting corn-burning life-stopper from beyond! Git back an leave me alone!" I realized that I was in my natural black form. I paid so much attention to my speed that, for a moment, I'd forgotten to look human. I quickly changed back to a human look and pulled my leg from the car.
      "Look, I-"
      "Naw! Stay away!" McGucket scrambled away from me, tripping over his own feet and falling into the dust.
      "McGucket wait! It's me, Lilac!" I pleaded. "Lilac...see? We're good friends. I'm not going to hurt you-"
      "Back!" He screeched. "Stay away! I'ma too young to die! Git gone ya child-eating skin changing death-cheating blood spilling murderer! I'ma not dying today!" He grabbed a nearby broken baseball and started to hit me. It didn't hurt at all.
      "I'm not any of those things!" I protested. Well, not all of them at least. "McGucket, I'm Lilac. You know, girly?" I gave him a warm smile as he hit me over the head. He didn't seem to hear me and he finally gave up, flashed me a horrified look, and bolted.
       "Stay away!" He cried as he ran. "You stole her and I'ma not gonna let ya steal me too!"
       "I'm sorry." I said, long after he left. "I wasn't going to tell you..." I looked at the ground, feeling crummy. Now our friendship was ruined because I was careless. A certain aura came into view, silent and geometric. I glared at it.
        "I don't want you here," I growled. "What, are you going to comfort me? Promise me that you'll be my friend? Well, you blew your chance. Blew it up like a gunpowder candle." Bill persisted, floating around like he was trying to say something. I stared at him, feeling lonely, angry, annoyed.
         "Save it." I hissed. "I can't hear you anyways. Just leave me be." I walked off, my head hung low. Maybe I could be somebody else, disguise myself as another girl and start over. That could work, but would it be the same? Bill followed me despite my request, and I found my two other friends.
        "Hey guys." I said, approaching them. "Can we talk?"
        "Hey Lilac what's up?" Dipper said, setting down a can of silly string. Mabel sprayed hers onto me, making me smile a little.
        "It's about McGucket," I said, sitting down on the ground. Bill hovered annoyingly over my head. "He's afraid of me now. I don't think he and I are friends."
        "Oh Lilac, sure you are still friends!" Mabel exclaimed. "Just because he's scared of you doesn't mean that he hates you."
        "You didn't see it though." I argued.
        "Well, what did you do?" Dipper asked.
        "There was a car that was about to fall on top of him. I-" I stopped, realizing something. "Wait a minute, weren't we playing hide and seek? What have you been doing all this time?" I asked. Dipper looked at the ground.
        "Oops." He shrugged. I sighed.
        "Well anyways, the car was going to kill him so I had to save him. But I forgot to keep my camouflage because I was running so fast. And he...well, once he saw..." I hid my face in my hands, ashamed of my mistake.
        "Lilac..." Mabel came over to me and embraced me in a hug. I hugged her back, feeling sad.
      
~~Dipper POV~~
          
        Poor Lilac. Her bright blue eyes looked so sad. She really, really liked McGucket. I remembered seeing her in her natural black form. It was the stuff of nightmares, ten times more frightening than the drawing. It was no wonder McGucket was scared of her, I would be too. Black, shiny, thin and menacing. Like wires of obsidian were covered with black diamonds, and two glowing souls were placed on the face for eyes. Blue holes that could see right through you. I shivered at the memory.
       "Lilac, it'll be okay." I said. "Maybe we can explain it to him." I looked over at Mabel, and she nodded at me.
      "Explain what?" Lilac chuckled. "That I'm a creature who has murdered and destroyed planets and is alone and deserves friends? Good luck. No, let him be. It's better I guess. I don't know why I thought this could work. I mean, you guys are even scared of me." She looked directly at me, and I remembered the glowing blue eyes. I looked away.
       "Even if that  was true, and it isn't,  but if it was doesn't that make us all the more your friends? Because we stick with you, no mafter what. That's why we are your very best friends, because we care about you." Mabel said. She grabbed Lilac's face and pulled her cheeks upwards in a forced smile. "We'll talk with him and see if we can't make things better."
       "Yeah, maybe if he hears it from us you won't seem so, uh, scary." I said awkwardly. Lilac smiled, and I felt funny. Like, overjoyed that she appreciated us doing her a favor.
       "Thanks guys." She said standing. "Well, come get me when you're done. You know where I'll be." She pulled us up and walked into the forest.
       "Well, let's go bro!" Mabel punched my arm. "Race ya!" She yelled, shooting off.
       "Hey, no fair!" I called back, running after her. I was so out of breath by the time we reached the town dump that we had to wait a few minutes before going in.
       "McGucket!" I shouted.
       "Here hillybilly-billy!" Mabel called. We eventually approached his little house.
       "Oh, visitors!" McGucket cried, comming out from his shack. "Heya Dipper! Heya Mabel!" He said, hobbling over.
       "Hey McGucket! " we said at the same time. I coughed.
       "Can we talk?" I asked him.
       "Sure we can! Come on-a in!" He said, holding back the animal skin for us."What kin I do fer ya?" He asked. I took a deep breath.
       "You know Lilac Whites?" I asked him.
       "The girl with long white hair that goes down to her ankles, and has the biggest blue eyes?" Mabel added.
       "Oh sure! Lilac-a-Whites!"McGucket exclaimed.
       "She did something strange, didn't she?" I asked him gently. "Did she maybe look different?"
        "Course she did!" McGucket cried, arms in the air. "She morphified inta mah nightmare! Turned black like barbeque, and glowing alien like eyes!" He stretched his own eyes to demonstrate. "An I got such a cause to go wiley that mah own mouth began to flabbityflop like fish, speaking gershmfitz and such from the fear! A living nightmare, who da thought?" He finished, shaking a little.
       "Wait, nightmare?" I asked. "You dreamt about that? You had a dream about Lilac?" I glanced at Mabel, who seemed to be thinking the same thing I was.
       "That's what a happens when ya sleep ain't it?" He asked. "I saw her, dark as a demon, slaying people right and left, ripping up the very earth itself and doing other unspeakable things. Then it would always come at me, and slit mah throat! I'd awake, gasping fer air, and I kin never go back to sleep after somethin like that. So to see mah nightmare come at me with a smile on her face, kin ya blame me for skedaddling? I'ma coward, but I'ma live, and I'ma not ashamed to run away from a skin-stealing, salt-licking-"
        "MGucket, we know Lilac." Mabel said. "We know she's...sort of a monster, but we are still her friend. She would never hurt us, and she wouldn't hurt you either! I know she can look scary sometimes, but we can't leave her alone. She needs friends." Mabel put a hand on McGuckets shoulder. "Dipper and I, we love Lilac! We would do anything for her. And she really likes you, she wants to be your friend. What do you say you fight those nightmares, and be friends?"
        "How do I know youra telling the truth?" He asked. "I can't just forget what I'va seen. I'ma too scared!"
        "Trust me, Lilac would never kill you. Those nightmares are just in your head! Didn't you and her hang out, like, a lot? What about all that time you spent together? That's who she really is, McGucket. And she won't hurt you."
         McGucket held his hands nervously and was quiet for a long time. he stared into empty space, thinking about something.
         "I do miss that little girly." He said softly. "Shes-a been kind to me, and I don't want to think of her as a murdering knife licker. Alright!" He turned and faced us. "I'ma going to see mah girly!"
         "That's the spirit!" Mabel cheered.
         "Okay, lets get going!" I said. We three left the junkyard and headed for Lilac's tree.

While we were walking I thought about what McGucket told us. Nightmares about a side of Lilac that none of us have seen before. No one, except maybe a certain omnipresent triangle. Could Bill have given him those nightmares? And if so, why?