Winged Falls

//Chapter Six//

The room behind the curtain was much dimmer than the gift shop. Walls and tables proudly displayed evidence of the supernatural found by Stan and Ford, and Mabel cocked her head as she inspected a mermaid— although it didn't look like any of the mermaids she and Dipper had learned about in Avem school. In fact, it looked suspiciously like a monkey attached to a fish tail, but Mabel was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

"So were you finding stuff to go in here when I ran into you the other day?" she asked, trying to make conversation with Dipper.

He hesitated. "Well... not really? Most of the things we find in the forest aren't actually displayed here. Stan and Ford realized that people liked the fake stuff—" Dipper clapped a hand over his mouth. "Oh shoot, I'm not supposed to tell you that they're fake." He sighed. "First time giving the tour and I already messed up. Please don't tell Stan?"

Mabel laughed, some of the tension in her body releasing. Maybe he didn't remember her, but her brother was still the same person. "Don't worry, Dip, your secret is safe with me."

Dipper gave her strange look. "What did you just call me?"

Oh drat. "Uh— nothing! Nothing at all." Mabel pretended to be very interested in the nearest exhibit, a half-rotted squash that claimed to have a human face and emotions. "Wow, this is pretty cool!" she said with forced enthusiasm.

Dipper frowned at it and wrinkled his nose. "I think it's rotting. Anyways, it sounded like you called me 'Dip.'"

"Um, well, yeah. I called you that because of—" c'mon, think, Mabel, think! "—'cuz of your birthmark."

Dipper's hand flew up to his forehead, smoothing down his hair. "My birthmark? How do you know about that?"

Mabel wanted to smack herself for being such an idiot. To him, she was basically a stranger. There was no way she would know about the secret birthmark on his forehead. "I, uh, saw it. In the woods. It's really cool, though!" she added anxiously.

"T—thanks." Dipper fidgeted with his hair. "But why 'Dip,' though?"

"Because it looks like the Big Dipper constellation. I won't call you that if you don't want me too, though!" Mabel said, her gaze sliding away from him. "Sorry. Just— just forget about it."

The irony of her words struck home a beat after she said them. Forget about it. That was exactly what he had done— about everything.

Mabel decided a quick topic change was in order. "So, uh, have you visited Stan and Ford before this?" Of course he hadn't really been in Gravity Falls before, but maybe Lilith had given him false memories.

Fortunately, Dipper seemed willing to let her slip of the tongue pass. "No, this is my first time. My parents thought it would be good for me to meet them." Dipper shrugged. "I'm just here for the summer."

Mabel felt like she was falling down a long, long cliff. My parents. In this world, Dipper thought he had parents, when in reality... they had been gone for years. Dipper and Mabel's parents had been killed in the war against Bill when the twins were only eight, and the loss of them was one of the main factors in Dipper deciding to become a spy for the Avem and pretend to be Bill's apprentice.

And now— Lilith had given him false memories that his parents were still alive. What, Mabel wondered, had Lilith planned to happen after summer ended? Dipper would leave Gravity Falls to go to— where? He had no home here; his home was with Mabel, in the Avem dimension.

That was definitely something Bill's hench-demon would have done— and found it hilarious all the while. Mabel took a deep breath, relaxing her fists that had clenched up in anger.