Forest of Riddles (Reverse Falls, S1)

MI: Part Nine

Just ten minutes before, Robbie and Pacifica had successfully managed to snatch six candles from the storage room of the Shack. When they headed outside, Ford held a handful of mint leaves and Mabel was sitting on the edge of the porch, studying her fingernails.

"We have the candles!" Robbie announced, hopping off of the porch while Pacifica stayed behind.

"Bet you enjoyed that," Mabel said under her breath, glancing at the Pines girl.

Pacifica scowled.

Ford glanced up and his face broke into a smile. "Excellent! Come over here - all of you - and we'll get started."

Once Pacifica and a reluctant Mabel joined Robbie and Ford, the mirror was opened and placed on the grass. The candles went around the mirror, and the mint leaves were sprinkled in the circle of candles and also around the mirror.

Ford lit the candles with a match, took a step back, and then opened his journal. After he cleared his throat, he started to chant indistinguishable phrases.

The candles' flames grew higher. The mint leaves seemed to get more vibrant in color. The mirror rattled and shook.

Pacifica squinted, and then her eyes widened.

Was the mirror glass cracking?

Suddenly a bright flash of candle light emitted from the mirror - so bright that everyone except Ford shut their eyes. Ford kept chanting the nonsensical-like words and phrases; Pacifica kept her eyes closed, but she could only think of how the glass was cracking - why was the mirror breaking even more?

Suddenly bright light flashed throughout the forest, and something fell on the grass.

When the light died down, Pacifica slowly opened her eyes.

She almost laughed from joy. They had done it, they had really done it - Dipper, Wendy, and Gideon lay on top of each other, right on top of where the mirror and mint leaves had been, and the candles lay on their sides with their flames extinguished.

"Gideon!" Pacifica cried.

"Get off," Wendy muttered from the bottom of the pile. She shoved Dipper and Gideon off; then, as soon as she had stood up, she quickly pulled Dipper to his feet.

Pacifica ran over to Gideon and pulled him into a hug.

"Good to see you, too, Paz," Gideon said, hugging her back.

Pacifica pushed him back and gave her cousin a huge smile. "We were so worried - what happened to you in there?"

Gideon opened his mouth, but before he could answer, Ford interrupted him, shouting, "Pacifica! Gideon! Get out of the way!"

Pacifica glanced behind Gideon and saw a swirling mass of hazy lights. Immediately she bolted forward, déjà vu suddenly hitting her.

She felt Gideon dragging her to the side, and then another set of hands grabbed her and pulled her away from the lights. Pacifica glanced up; Robbie was pulling her to the porch.

She quickly stared at her feet, the tips of her ears beginning to blaze.

Robbie released Pacifica and helped her sit on the porch's edge. "You okay?" he said gently.

"Y-yeah." Pacifica closed her eyes and rubbed her head. "Headache."

When she opened her eyes, the look on Gideon's face told her that he knew it wasn't just a headache.

Then she noticed the swirling balls of lights form something.

Her eyes widened.

Ghost.

"Well, look who it is!" a childish voice rang. "I didn't think you'd free me from that miserable mirror. Took you long enough."

"Robbie, where's the mirror?" Ford called.

"It's broken!" Robbie called back.

Pacifica's eyes widened again; the mirror that the light was floating above had been shattered into what seemed like a million pieces.

"Of course it is," Ford muttered. "Where can I get another silver mirror?"

"You won't be able to go anywhere," the childish voice interrupted. "It's a miracle you can even see me."

"I - I can't," Ford admitted.

Dipper's hand went to his amulet.

"I can," he said suddenly.

"You can?" everyone echoed in surprise.

"You can't even see me?!" The balls of light floated a few feet away, and then the voice muttered something to itself.

"He has no power." Ford exhaled. "Ghosts only have power inside mirrors, and even then it'd be very limited to anyone outside of it."

Well, that was certainly a relief for Pacifica. She gripped the sides of the porch - something still felt wrong, though.

Ghost.

"If you can't see me," the voice said slowly, "then . . ."

Silence.

Then suddenly Pacifica knew what to do; she jumped up and rushed inside the Shack.

"Pacifica!" she heard Gideon cry, but she ignored him and ran into the gift shop.

"Pacifica?" Melody was at the cash register, looking confused at Pacifica's frantic entrance. "What -"

"Do you have mirrors in here?" Pacifica interrupted. "Silver mirrors or anything? Do you sell that?"

Melody paused. "Silver mirrors?" she repeated. "I mean, we have tiny mirrors over there that look like silver -" She pointed to a basket full of tiny, square mirrors.

"That'll have to do." Pacifica snatched a small hand mirror from the basket before Melody could finish. "I'll pay you back!"

Then she raced back outside, where everyone turned to look at her. The floating balls of lights that hovered above the ground even turned slowly.

Pacifica held the mirror above her head. "Mirror!" she said breathlessly.

Ford's eyes brightened.

"NO!" the childish voice shrieked.

Pacifica ran down the stairs to the porch and started running towards Ford.

She didn't see the light zooming towards her.

She only realized what was going on when she heard Gideon and Robbie simultaneously cry "PACIFICA!"

Pacifica skidded to a stop. "Wh -"

Suddenly the balls of light rammed into her, but quite literally - the light had gone inside of her. She stared at herself in horror before realizing her vision had suddenly started to blur.

Then everything went black.