Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

Welcome Home, It Doesn't Want You Back

By the time they'd finally arrived at the house, it felt like it'd been hours. It probably had been hours, but there was no way to tell time through the thick cloud coverage above them, with the ran beating down upon them harder by the second. It was straight up miserable, and the creepy house that looked like it was going to fall on them at any second looked like a safe haven.

"Hey..." Norman spoke up, and his voice was thick with exhaustion. "Where'd they go?"

Wirt blinked (it took a long time, but he didn't dwell on that). Norman was right. At this point, they had finally reached the house (it loomed over them, was it bigger than Wirt remembered? Maybe it was just the rain making it seem creepier...), and Dipper had seemingly disappeared, along with Ash, who had run on ahead, intending to relay the message that they were all on their way. Adam frowned.

"They probably went inside the house," Adam said, rolling his eyes. Wirt and Norman relaxed, both a little guilty about letting their imaginations run away with them.

"Oh," Wirt said. "Y-Yeah, that sounds right."

"Sounds like a pretty good idea to me," Norman muttered, and Wirt was just barely able to hear him against the pouring rain. "We should probably get in there, too."

"Probably," Adam agreed as they paused by the front door. But he didn't reach for it, so, eventually, Wirt grasped the doorknob, and tried to turn it.

His hand slipped off, and Wirt frowned. As Norman and Adam gave him odd looks, Wirt grasped the doorknob with both hands to try and turn it again, but the knob didn't move, and once again, Wirt's hands slipped off. Okay, now he was starting to panic. He backed away from the door, wondering what was going on. Hadn't the door been open a couple hours ago?

"What the-?" Wirt stepped back, looking over Adam and Wirt with a worried expression. "It's stuck!"

"Stuck?" Adam's eyebrows furrowed. "Do you mean locked? Why would it be locked?"

"I don't know, it just is!" Wirt cried, and now Norman was starting to look concerned.

"Did Dipper do it?" he asked, but Adam shook his head.

"Why would he?" Adam shot back, but, even though he tried not to show it, Wirt detected a nervous tone in his voice, too. "Maybe it locked accidently. But that shouldn't be a problem for Ash, since, well..."

Adam trailed off, and then shook his head. "You know," he finished lamely, and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hey, Ash! What's going on?!"

For a minute, nothing happened, and Adam looked ready to try again when suddenly something poked through the door, startling all three of them.

"Gah!" Adam cried, and then he got a good look at the thing, and he groaned, embarrassed. "Hey, Ash."

"Oh, you guys are here now?" Ash asked him. He seemed to be bobbing in midair through the door, and maybe he was.

Wirt had to squint to see him, he was nearly transparent now, and he didn't have any colour in him anymore. Nevertheless, he still looked peppy and full of life despite being... well...

As a thought occurred to him, Wirt glanced sideways at Adam. Was it just his imagination, or was he becoming more and more transparent, just like Ash was? The way Adam looked right now reminded Wirt of how Ash looked in the cave.

That was probably worth worrying about, but for now, Wirt pushed it to the back of his mind as the conversation continued.

"Yeah, we are here now," Adam told him, sounding irritated. "Why is the door locked? Where's Dipper?"