Gravity Rises (S2)

BB: Part Seven

"Gr-Grunkle Ford?"

He shook his head. "I-I'm fine." Even though he obviously wasn't. He met Mabel's eyes, then glanced to the Lee imposter. Mabel caught the message: Keep him talking.

Mabel forced herself to turn away. Ford's labored breaths still filled the space behind her.

"So, um, Lee, what kind of monsters are down here, anyway?"

Lee blinked before his eyes focused on her. "Oh. I don't really know their fancy science names. Again, that was Ford's job."

"What about that one you just fought? What did it look like?"

Lee squirmed a little. His hand went up to his grey hair. "It was, well, this big brown thing. I wouldn't want to scare you with too many of the details, not a cute little kid like you. Who are you, anyway?"

Should she tell the truth? "I'm, um, I'm Stanford's great niece. Yours too, I guess."

"You do look like a Pines."

"Thanks? Um, will you show me around your — cave?"

She was bad at this game. Luckily, the Lee imposter was too.

"Sure." He spread his hands out. "My cave."

Dang it. She was hoping she could get him to turn his back. Maybe he was better at this game than she thought.

"I'm sorry," Ford said, leaving the wall he'd been leaning on. "I had, ah, a brief asthma attack."

"It's no problem," Stanley replied.

Mabel and Ford glanced at each other. Now they definitely knew Lee was an imposter: Ford didn't have asthma.

"Say, Ford," Stanley said. "Do you still have those Journals of yours?"

"No. We're actually down here looking for them. Do you know where any of them are?"

"Can't say that I do."

They fell into awkward silence.

Ford opened his mouth. "Well—"

Something clattered in the distance.

"What was that?" Mabel asked. "Is something out there?"

"Oh," Lee said, "the rocks shift all the time." His face looked nervous.

"It might be another monster," Ford said. Mabel was surprised to see fear on his face. "Lee, I haven't been in the game for a long time. Maybe you should go out and check?"

"I don't think there's anything out there."

"Just in case?" Ford pleaded.

Something flickered across Lee's expression. "All right, fine. I'll be right back."

He stepped out of the cave.

As soon as the curtain fluttered down after him, Ford turned to Mabel and dropped to a knee to get at her level. The fear in his eyes was completely gone, and only then did Mabel realize he'd been faking it.

"Mabel, I remember. I remember everything."

"Everything?" Mabel whispered.

"Everything about the bunker," he conceded. "But I know who that man is. And it definitely isn't my brother. It isn't even a man."

"Who? What is it?"

"He was one of the experiments we brought down here. We found him as an egg. Lee affectionately named him Shifty."