Come Wayward Souls

Into the Unknown

Dipper sat up with a groan.

The first thing he realised- once checking that he was unhurt, which he was- was that his bum was wet. He looked around and saw he was sat in the middle of a forest, and the grass he sat on had a thick layer of sweet smelling dew.

Dipper got to his feet and looked around him. It was almost dark and the rolling clouds which he could only just see through the canopy of skeletal black branches of trees above him created scapes he had never seen before. The sun was setting fast, the air was cold- a harsh, biting wind moaned through the trees and Dipper shivered, holding onto his hat so it didn't blow away. The trees around him were thick and rough, growing close together. Their sap looked oddly dark: almost like treacle, Dipper observed, carefully prodding a bead of tree sap with his finger. It stained his fingertip with an ebony which didn't come off when Dipper rubbed at it. He tentatively gave it a sniff; it smelt of metal and damp grass. The ground beneath his feet was covered with foliage, as though no one walked through these trees regularly, or ever.

Dipper was astonished... He couldn't remember how he had got here. The last thing he remembered was pure fury, and then blind terror, but nothing more.
And then suddenly- Mabel! Where was she? Was she here with him? Dipper tried not to panick. Had something happened to them and now they were separated? Where was she? Was she here too? Lost and potentially hurt?

"Mabel!" Shouted Dipper desperately through the darkness. "Mabel, it's me! Mabel!" He stumbled through the tall, black, dark grass, with the howling wind bringing tiny flecks of snow swirling through the air, until all of a sudden he heard running water.

He ran towards the sound and found himself tripping into a cleared space that looked like a bare earth path. Trees lined the edges of the space, and nearby a fast flowing river chopped at the bank.

Dipper walked further into the clearing and then suddenly stopped in horror: he stumbled back and gaped at what he saw.

There was a face buried in the tree bark of one of the huge black trees.