From Sweethearts to Soulmates [A Stanford Pines x Reader]

Chapter 17

Stan found us playing cards out there a few hours later and yelled at us, saying that "we were gonna get a chill" and "we should stay inside to bond". I laughed and even Ford chuckled as we walked inside to see the kids sleepy and groggy at the table waiting for pancakes. I took a seat next to Ford, holding his six-fingered hand under the table like a schoolgirl, until Stan set plates of pancakes in front of everyone.

The kids perked up and began wolfing down their food, like they hadn't been fed in weeks. I smiled, cutting up my own pancakes and taking a small bite, trying to forget last night's horrors. I made eye contact with Stan across the table and forced light into my eyes, smiling at him.

Ford was the first to finish his meal, excusing himself to get ready for the day. He had mentioned to me that he was going to offer Dipper an apprenticeship today when they went hunting for the alien adhesive. I wondered how Mabel was going to react.

It won't be the end of the world, right?

And so, Dipper and Ford left the house to go save the world while Soos and Mabel left to put up flyers for the twin's birthday party. I went to the kitchen and began brewing up a pot of coffee, ready to settle in for an afternoon of reading and nothing else. Stan walked up next to me, placing a cautious hand on my shoulder. I jumped almost a foot in the air, I didn't even hear him come in. "Hey Y/n, you ok?" I turned to face him.

"I'm fine, just a few sleepless nights lately, s'all." He nodded.

"Bill?" I nodded back. "Figures. Sixer won't tell me anything." He leaned on the counter. "Listen, Y/n. I'm here if you need to talk, you know that right?" I smiled, genuinely this time.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks Stan." I pulled him into a hug.

"No problem. We gotta stick together."

"Yeah." I broke the hug, going over to the fridge. I pushed aside the jug of Mabel Juice and the leftover pancakes, grabbing a bottle from the back. My last bottle of whiskey. "Don't suppose you want some?" I asked Stan, grabbing two glasses from the cupboard.

"The kids are out of the house so, why not?"

"That's the spirit!" I poured us both some before hiding the bottle in the back of the fridge again. I held out my glass to him. "To friends?" He smiled, clinking his glass with mine.

"To best friends." After our drink, Stan left to go hammer up some more signs in the woods, as if we didn't have enough, and I went to sit on the couch.

I didn't notice when Mabel got home but I noticed when she sprinted out, tears streaming down her face. I immediately put down my book to go after her but by the time I had made it out she was gone, disappeared into the trees. I ran into the woods, calling out her name.

I found her around 15 minutes later, she was talking to strange bald man with goggles. She took the rift out of her bag, handing it over to him. He seemed to inspect it before letting it crash to the ground and stomping on it. He began to laugh as he removed his goggles. I recognised that laugh, it haunted my nightmares. "Oh no! Wait, wait, wait!" Bill clicked his fingers and Mabel passed out. I sprinted as fast as I could, falling to my knees and scooping Mabel into my arms.

"What did you do to my great-niece?" I demanded as Bill left the man's body.

"At last! At long, long last! The gateway between worlds has opened! The event one billion years prophesized has finally come to pass! The day has come! The world is finally mine!" I held Mabel closer to my chest as he rose into the air, while the rift began to spew madness into the world. "Oh, it's happening. It's finally, finally happening!" He began his transformation, first muscle then metal. "Physical form? Don't mind if I DO!" He vanished.

The man got up from the ground. "Huh?! What just happened?" I began to desperately grasp at Mabel's unconscious form as it was lifted into the sky and encased by a bubble with a chain around it. Tears pooled in my eyes as a scream erupted from my mouth. The man seemed panicked as well. "Oh. Oh man. This is bad! This is real bad! Guys, we've got a situation!" I leapt from where I was kneeling, aiming to tackle the man, but with a press of button he disappeared without a trace.

"No..." I whispered, knees and elbows bleeding onto the dirt as I sat back on my heels. I can't have lost her; this was just another cruel nightmare. Right? I tried pinching myself, injuring myself in any way I could. It soon became painfully aware that I wasn't going to wake up. I had lost Mabel. I only prayed that she and the others were safe.

I got up from the floor, wiping the leftover tears from my eyes. Head for the giant pyramid, that was my first instinct, so I followed it. I pulled up my hood and began to dart through the forest, avoiding Bill's creations left and right. I could shelter if I could make it to the bunker, but I couldn't, it wouldn't be safe, not with that wretched shapeshifter still loose down there.

I stayed just outside the towns boundaries as I travelled, but that was before the top of the bell tower exploded. Ford. I changed my course, sprinting toward the tower. My hood flew off my face as I vaulted over a low fence. I hadn't been as rigorous with my workouts in recent years, but I definitely wasn't slow. Just because Ford failed gym in high school doesn't mean I did.

I made it to see nothing except the burnt remnants of... the journals. Bill was here. I could hear Dipper's screams getting distant and disappearing before I could tell which way he went. My heart dropped.

I sat on the steps of the now melted statue in the square, placing my head in my hands. I didn't care that I was in open space, I had lost. My family, my home, everything was gone. At least if I was frozen... I wouldn't have to think about any of it.

In my state I didn't look up in time to see an eye bat flying overhead. It spotted my curled-up form, and a single tear left my eye before my vision went black.