Burning Bridges

Chapter One - Prophetic Nightmare

(A/N: all my favourite flavours of Stan are in this one. Well, most of them. I don't know if I'm missing any of my favourite flavours of Stan, but I'm gonna say I only have most of them just in case.)

(Jupiter's PoV)

[November 21, 2020]

"This better be important, kid."

I breathe a sigh of relief as Stan picks up the phone. "Sorry for calling you at such a late hour. I didn't know who else to call."

"Meh, don't worry about it," he yawns. "I'm almost as much of an insomniac as my brother, y'know. What's on your mind, kid?"

I chew my lip anxiously, trying to decide how to explain the situation. "Well... you remember that one time during my first summer in Gravity Falls where I had that nightmare I couldn't recall? The one that was triggered by that prophecy?"

"Of course I remember. Did you have another one or something?"

"Sort of," I reveal. "Except this one I can recall, and it's a recurring dream."

"Those are never fun," Stan grunts. "How long have you been dealing with this one for? A week?"

"Um... actually, it's been happening every night since my birthday... so, you know, about six months."

"And you're just coming to me with it now? Why'd ya let it bug ya for so long?"

"Because I'm an adult!" I sigh. "I shouldn't have to come running to someone every time my brain comes up with something unsettling! It didn't seem like a big deal."

"Until now," he specifies.

"Exactly," I confirm. "Tonight something different happened, and I'm afraid of what's to come."

I explain the routine occurrence of my dream, with the darkness, Arlyn, the door, the room, the scroll, the writing, the blood, the voices, and the ball and chain. I describe the thoughts and impressions I received throughout the dream, especially towards the end. Stan listens with calm patience, showing dedication to what I'm saying.

"Yeesh, kid, I could understand going maybe a week or two with that nightmare, but six months?" Stan comments as I finish. "How much worse can it possibly get to make you finally decide to call me?"

"The dream is always most vivid on the twenty first day of each month, but this is the only instance in which I've had any revelation of the finer details," I tell him. "Instead of merely feeling as though I should understand the characters written on the scroll, I was actually able to read them. And the chanting voices... I heard them as though they were speaking English. They were reading the words on the scroll aloud."

"What did it say?"

"Saturn and Jupiter align once more ~ Within the darkest night ~ Recall the ones we lost before ~ The ones who gave us light ~ Avoid the birch trees in the dark ~ With eyes from down below ~ The mental wounds have left their mark ~ But rarely do they show ~ The Bridge still mourns the stolen Key ~ Her mind caught in the past ~ She thought her heart and soul were free ~ But sorrow holds her fast ~ You can regain what you have lost ~ Don't lead yourself astray ~ But nothing comes without a cost ~ Or a price to pay ~ Should the Bridge make her demand ~ The lost Key she will find ~ But the Bridge must understand ~ She'll have to lose her mind."

Stan is silent for a moment before letting out a long sigh. "Kid... this sounds like it has something to do with your aunt. If that's the case, I'm really the wrong person to talk to about this. Sixer knew her better than I ever did, probably better than anyone still living and breathing on this planet."

"I don't want him to know about this," I whisper, despite the fact that no one else is around to hear us. "I don't want anyone else to know about this, understood?"

"Why?"

"If Dipper finds out, he'll start overthinking everything and worrying needlessly," I begin. "If Mabel finds out, she'll be concerned and tell Dipper. If Ford finds out, he'll panic at the mere mention of his dead girlfriend and come up with some crazy conspiracy or theorize about the end of the world."

"I can practically hear him screeching about how 'it wasn't like that' and that they were 'just friends'," Stan chuckles.

"We all know that's a big fat lie," I snicker. "Then again, maybe it's just his coping mechanism. He doesn't feel like he's strong enough to face the truth, so he just ignores it."

"It ain't a healthy way of dealing with it, but it's one way, that's for sure," Stan mutters. "You're just as guilty of denial when it comes to relationships as he is, though."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I reply too quickly.

"Yeah, ya do. I'd know more details if Sixer hadn't stopped me from asking questions when Mabel mentioned it."

"Oh, trust me, he wasn't much better than you were," I laugh. "As soon as we were out studying stuff in the woods, he tried to make casual conversation about it. I'm sure you know this, considering you're his brother, but he's quite lacking in the social skills department, so his idea of 'casual conversation' is my definition of bluntly asking if what Mabel said was true."

"That must have been awkward for both of you," Stan muses. "If it had been me asking questions, it would have just been you feeling awkward."

"Thanks, that's so comforting," I drawl. "Well, I better let you get some rest while it's still dark out. See you soon."

"Anytime, kid. Don't do anything stupid. See ya."

I run a hand through my hair as I hang up, letting out a long sigh. Strange things are happening, but that's not exactly unusual for Gravity Falls. I've had multiple traumatic experiences in the few years that I've lived here, but nothing has shaken me to my core as drastically as this dream has. I know that it's trying to tell me something, but I'm too afraid to admit it. I don't want to confront the situation just yet.

What I really want to do is talk to Arlyn, but there's only one way to do that; a seance. Something tells me that summoning Arlyn in the midst of all these weird dreams is not a good idea. Not to mention that from what I've read in my late aunt's notes, seances are dangerous enough even if the ghost you're summoning isn't a witch. No, it's too much of a risk to make contact with her. I'm not even sure if it would work. It takes some very complex magic and I'm nowhere near that level yet. 

(A/N: well, now you just have to wait until December 18 for the next chapter. I hope you're enjoying the story so far and I'm excited to let you guys inside Ford's head next time. Hopefully I've written him well, it's so much harder to write from a canon character's perspective and make sure they're not OOC)