MindEscape

Chapter 2

Behind the vending machine, down the stairs, a ride in the elevator, Dipper was on the third floor of the secret basement of the shack. No one knew about the floor except for himself, his sister, Stan, and...Ford. He'd already check floor two- well what he could move around, but had no luck finding any notes at all. What was he thinking? Destroying the three journals. He should have just burnt the pages that talked about Bill, Not the entire thing! Who was that person that entered the room? Dipper paused and suddenly remembered he left Mabel in the room with whoever that was. What if she was hurt?

The boy made a frustrated growl and slammed himself in the head, reaching for the journal that should have been under his arm. He paused as a worried frown cast over his face. "I-i lost it!" he panicked. His eyes darted around. Maybe it was somewhere and he'd just put it down? Searching for it would be like finding a needle in a haystack. The place was such a mess he would have no way even knowing where to start looking. If it was on floor two, the hunt wasn't even worth it. Finding a book in a dim lighted area was one thing, but finding a book in a mess of more books was worse.

His first instinct was to start digging for the book right at that second, but Mabel was more important than the journal so instead he made way for the elevator and punched in the code allowing him to go up and out. He waited impatiently as the elevator slowly made it's way up to almost ground level. Finally the doors opened and he ran up the stairs. Without thinking, he pushed the vending machine and it began to automatically open for him. He stepped out of the passage too see his sister and Danny standing right in front of the machine.

"Mabel!" He hugged her. "You're ok!" He let go and looked at his sister, looking at her too make sure there were no scratches or bruises, he then saw the journal. "And you have the journal!"

"Well yeah silly! You dropped it when you ran away screaming like a girl." She held out the book to her twin and he took it back. "We were just coming to get you!" Now with free hands, Mabel spread them out, creating a jazzy motion.

Dipper peered behind his sister too Danny. "I thought we agreed on not showing people the vending machine!" He stressed in a low whisper. Now some random person that neither of the twins knew very well knew one of their biggest secrets, "Trust no one!"

"Bro-bro, stop living by that! You sound like Grunkle Ford." She whispered a reply, "Plus, Danny won't hurt us! He wanted to ask you something." Mabel smiled. She slid out of the way so her brother and crush could talk.

"But what about that...I don't even know what he was! I didn't get a chance to look!" Dipper leaned over to the doorway, expecting the ghost from before to be there.

"Calm down Dip Dop. He's gone now. Talk to Danny!" She pulled Dipper back over and pushed him up to the teen.

Dipper paused. "Fine..." he reluctantly replied. Maybe Danny had something to say, but the earlier events really had his thoughts in a knot. "What do you need?" He asked, backing up a little. Mabel pushed him up real close. The boy took off his turquoise pine tree baseball cap and scratched the back of his head.

Danny looked from Mabel to Dipper, slightly confused. I thought she wasn't going to keep a secret? So...why is she acting like Danny Phantom and I aren't the same person? He wondered. Perhaps she wanted him to tell Dipper himself... However, Daniel wasn't sure he wanted to risk not getting help by telling Dipper what he was, so he decided to ask his original question.

"Do you know of any way I can contact a friend of mine without using, I don't know, worldly objects? Like, instead of calling on a phone, I could contact them via dream, or telepathy or something?" He asked, repeating what he had said to Mabel.

"Hmm..." Dipper thought, "Using a dream is out of the question, way too unpredictable." He looked deep into his mind, looking for something that could help. The original journals would have probably worked! Maybe a unicorn? He could go ask the gnomes if they knew something. Maybe McGucket would know something? Maybe not McGucket...he didn't like talking to the old man, half of the time he was using crazy person slang that no one understood. Then it him. Gideon's amulet had psychic properties! Dipper shook his head. No that's broken. I guess I could try turning it into something that allows telepathic communication, but how do you do that?