Dipper was confused. That was the greatest understatement of the year.
When he had regained his consciousness, he found himself sprawled on the ground, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. Behind him was the broken cement, which now he realized was the remains of the Gravity Falls Prison.
How did he even end up there?
He couldn't.
He couldn't think.
He couldn't remember.
The last thing he could easily recall was going through the woods to put up advertisements of the Mystery Shack. He was ordered by ... someone that he ought to know.
Their faces were blurry. Their voices were muffled. Rummaging through his memories, he realized that everyone he had known in his life were lost to him, as in he did not know a single thing about them. As if they never existed at all, but small memories in his mind. Was his life a lie? Did his parents even exist?
Hypothetically, someone had tampered his mind forcefully, to insure he would never found out about them. However, he couldn't think of any evidences that could support his hypothesis. And truth be told, this hypothesis was ridiculous. If suppose there was a man with super mind powers, then yes, it was a great possibility. But rationally, it was ridiculous.
There was another logical possibility that he had somehow hit his head hard when he bumped into a tree, damaging his brain and causing slight amnesia. A curious case of amnesia.
His mind pondered a few more theories, then decided to solve this conundrum later. He had to go back to the Mystery Shack. Then, he would proceed with the thinking.
Suddenly, he became aware of the screams around him. It made him aware of the scarlet sky and the humongous pyramid above him. It also made him aware of the situation he was in currently.
Dipper was doomed. And he still did not understand what was happening.
Why were there gigantic eyeballs with wings floating around, zapping citizens into stones? How did they even exist? Was he still dreaming? Or was this all just some psychological madness occurring in his brain, while the real him was locked down in a mental hospital?
Why was he even questioning the existence of everything? This called for drastic measures. Suppose the latter was true, he was only trapped in the illusions his supposedly insane mind had provided. If he called out that he was aware of the truth behind the illusions, would his mind eventually cure himself and go back to the real world? He would try.
From faraway, Dipper could see few creatures huddling to themselves, their hands carrying the human statues. The demons, Dipper assumed, seemed to be having a chat.
He started walking towards them.
"I'm not afraid of you!" He shouted, pointing his finger at the demons.
The demons, having heard this, turned their head abruptly to stare at the tiny boy. Dipper began to reconsider his actions when the pink demon laughed out loud. He was embarrassed at the sheer stupidity he just portrayed. He should've thought through. He was in a vulnerable state right now, and yelling that to the demons straightforward would only provoke them and end his life.
The pink demon bent down to Dipper's height and laughed. Tears were falling down from her one eye, her wide mouth widening that showed her buck teeth and fangs.
"Ah, human." A laugh. "Please go on and show us the truth. Are you really afraid of us?"
The remains demons joined the Pink and laughed with her.
"I have no need to be afraid of my inner demons," said Dipper calmly. "You are simply projections, illusions, tricks in my mind, trying to trap me from the real world. I know you are testing me by using my fears, my weaknesses, and other negative emotions. Ergo, you are not real."
He stared back at the pink demon, who was taken aback at the last sentence, as well as he other.
"Now that I confirmed the whole truth behind this, please step aside and disappear."
The demons glanced at each other, seemingly confused. For a moment, silence fell. No one dared to speak out. It went on until a sudden realization dawned upon the Pink Demon and made her gasp.
"It's him."
Two words had broken the ice and immediately, the demons jumped to grab Dipper. Two grabbing his arms and one covering his mouth.
"How foolish of me," murmured the Pink Demon. "
Dipper was confused as hell.
He defeated his inner demons! They should disappear! The screams of the innocent citizens should have stopped! He should be back to the real world! To his family! Why didn't --- gah!
When he was thinking furiously, he didn't notice until now that he, along with the demons, were transported to a dark place. The walls were all black with neon, rainbow cracks around the bricks. He could see stairs and corridors leading to nowhere, and a large, red stained-glass window resembling an eye with a slit pupil. There was also a huge throne made out of human statues in front of him. It was horrifying.
Was this the nightmare section in his brain?
"Bill," called out the Pink Demon. "I found him."
A yellow triangle suddenly appeared right in front of him, startling the confused boy. It's right arm clutched his chin and lifted it up.
"Hm, it appears a weirdness bubble had passed through you," the triangle commented, tapping his chin in a thoughtful manner.
Dipper squirmed under his gaze.
"Want to play chess?"
"I --- okay," Dipper managed to say out loud, still utterly confused at the whole deal. Was this another test, perhaps the boss battle with the inner demons?
A chess board popped out in the air, and Dipper found himself sitting on a small human-statue-made throne. If Bill, the demon, had a mouth, Dipper could imagine it flashing a wide grin at him. The music in the room dimmed, as the surroundings gradually disappeared as well, leaving only two with the chess. Surrounded by darkness.
Dipper's side was black and Bill's was white. Bill claimed that he was a demon of innocence and purity, thus choosing the color white. Dipper scoffed, and they then started the game.
The game continued quietly. Sometimes, they exchanged few snarky remarks, but otherwise they both kept their mouth shut, each focusing on their movement.
After few more moves, Dipper couldn't contain his curiosity anymore and asked what the weirdness bubble Bill had mentioned was.
"It contains unimaginable things, so it's very hard to predict what would happen if one go through it. It's all random. No one knows, really."
Dipper deflated at that. Even the nearly omnipotent demon did not know what effect the bubbles had on him. Sighing, he moved his bishop.
"However," the demon spoke. "it seems like the bubbles caused you some memory loss."
Bill moved his rook.
This was unexpected. Memory loss? Specifically, what part of his memory was missing? Everything was blurry to him.
Dipper moved his tower to the side.
"Are there any ways to bring back my memories?"
"Perhaps," the demon said absentmindedly, as it picked a pawn and made a move. It was getting closer to Dipper's Queen.
Bill noticed the frown on Dipper's face and grinned. "Ah yes, perhaps a deal would suffice."
"A deal?"
"I will bring your memories back, if you win this round of chess."
Dipper tilted his head in confusion. "What if I lose?"
"Do you really intend to find out?" Bill asked in a dubious manner.
If looks could kill, Bill would be a fried egg right now.
"I accept the deal," grumbled Dipper.
Bill grinned, before stretching out his hand that had tiny twirls of flames dancing around his fingers. Dipper looked at his outstretched hand warily and raised out his own to shake the demon's.
Curious. Nothing had happened when they both shook hands.
Dipper waved it off and feeling more determined than ever, he began to plot. Creating various paths his pieces could take and traps he could ensnare Bill's with, his mind was searching for ways that could lead them to victory.
He had to win. He had to win to get his memories back and wipe that smug smirk off that yellow triangle shaped demon. The demon had no mouth, but he could just feel the demon smirking at him. He just knows it.
* It took longer than he thought it would, but eventually he got the chance to say "Checkmate" as he moved his Pawn next to Bill's Queen. Dipper was satisfied because he knew there was no way getting out from his carefully planned trap for the Queen.
When Bill realized this, he couldn't help but clap his hands at the cunning thinking his opponent had displayed.
"Well played, kid. You impressed me!"
Dipper grinned. It was not everyday you receive a compliment from your inner demon boss that lives in your mind. He finally won the chess game and he couldn't wait to pass this level and go back to the real world. If this was all just a dream that is.
"And what an excellent move that was!" exclaimed Bill in awe. It seemed he was still not done with his compliments. "A Pawn to end the Queen."
"Thanks?" He didn't think his Pawn move was that impressing.
"Now for my end of the deal ..." the demon's voice trailed off, as it stretched out his hand once again to press on Dipper's head.
Suddenly, Dipper felt a jolt of electricity in his body. He writhed in agony, falling down on the ground from the human-statues-made throne. His head felt like being sliced in half and tossed away. He couldn't believe he had to go through this much pain just to have his memories.
When it seemed like all the pain wasn't worth it, he did feel his memories resurfacing and rearranging themselves. Some faces were gradually becoming clearer. The memories felt as if they were peeling their dirty old skin away, revealing a brand new clearer one.
He started remembering.
Remembering.
Remember. Recall. Recollect. Remember.
Grunkle Stan. Fake. Great Uncle Ford. Lies. Soos. Ignorance. Wendy. Unknown. Pacifica. The journals. The mysteries. The portal incident. The burning mansion. Jail.
And Mabel.
Time to use the Pawn to end the Queen.
* * *
Hello.
Dipper regains his memories and finally remembers all the blurry faces and their encounters ... but does he really remember everything? One must always look for loopholes when they make a deal, for you never know if they speak the truth. Dipper will learn this the hard way.
Thanks again for your patience and the amazing views and comments that I had received over the month! We got 61k views! Although it's the only part that achieved the goal I set on the previous chapter, it's still pretty amazing!
*The checkpoint "mistake" is deliberate. More will be explained in the next chapter.
Posted: 2017. 7. 26