He was currently dreaming. Tossing and turning and even beginning to sweat. He winced and crunched up his face and let out a small whimper as he harshly thrashed to the right side of the bed, facing the wall. The kid gripped onto his pillow tight and his breathing rate increased. The sweat started to press itself into the sheets of the bed, making it visible.

Dipper yet again let out another whine, inhaling and exhaling fast. The air made it feel like he couldn't breathe for some reason, whether that was made-up or in a dream. The air became more suffocating, causing the kid to start to cough.

The preteen jerked up from his bed, sitting up and looking around wildly, his hair messed up with knots and tangles, his heart racing off the charts with sweat drizzling down his face. The room was really hot and gray smoke was floating in the air.

The 12-year-old made a face, rubbing his arm against his forehead to get some sweat off before getting out of bed quickly. His socks hit the wood floor and he coughed, breathing in more of the smoke. Dipper looked around once more as he began to head down the stairs to find out where the source was coming from. He found the shack lit up with a red tint due to the fire somewhere.

He couldn't see his family anywhere. Mabel, Soos, Stan, Ford, Wendy...nobody. The boy kept looking around as fast as he could, not running so the smoke wouldn't get to his lungs faster. Either they abandoned him or they couldn't get him for whatever reason. He shook his head at the thought and headed into the gift-shop.

Crackling of the fire was heard above as it spread to the roof, causing a beam above him to start to creak and tilt. The roof started to cave in. Dipper yelped and barely dodged the falling piece of building falling, but luckily made it. He coughed yet again as his lungs began to clutter up with the smoke.

The boy rubbed his eyes and fast-walked out of the gift-shop to down the hall where Grunkle Stan's room was. Dipper banged on the door and nobody answered. The knob was jammed, so he had to bang his side into the door for it to open. The door smashed to the ground with a 'THUD' and sparks flew.

The kid yelped and fell with the door, looking up to see the room aflame but no Stan. The fire grew closer and closer. Dipper backed up and stood up on his legs before running out of the hall, shouting names.

"MABEL!!!" He screamed loudly then coughed.

"GRUNKLE STAN?! FORD!!!" He shouted loudly, only getting the response of falling parts of the shack.

He had to get out of there.

Smoke kept growing and growing as flames were everywhere. On the wall, in the rooms, on furniture, everywhere. Dipper's eyes watered as it just got worse and worse with every moment. He was bolting now, seeing how likely of a chance that something could block the doors now.

The 12-year-old skidded to the door, accidentally almost falling from his slippery socks, but caught himself on the doorknob with a shaky sigh of relief. He yanked the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge. His eyes widened and it wouldn't budge even after he tried a second time.

It really was stuck.

His breathing rate picked up again as he started banging wildly on the door, yanking the doorknob as hard as he could, screaming for help. Crackling was heard from above as the roof bent slightly right in front of the door, about ready to cave in on his exit.

Dipper's eyes widened and watered as he viciously yanked on the knob again. The roof crumbled and the boy tumbled out of the way, his head hitting the floor as he hissed in pain, wincing and letting a couple tears slide from the pain and smoke that was getting to his eyes.

He got up and stood on his shaking legs, his breathing shaking as well. He started to run and look for any open windows or any doors left, but he found nothing. All the windows wouldn't budge and the doors had massive amounts of debri in front of them.

Something banged on the window.

Dipper flinched and ran over to a window, seeing it was Mabel. She was screaming with watery eyes, telling him to get out.

"I CAN'T!!!" He screamed back with tears running down his face, coughing again. "EVERYTHING IS SLAMMED SHUT, IT-" he got interrupted by a coughing fit. "-WON'T BUDGE!"

She looked like she was mouthing "we'll think of something", but he was starting to give up hope that they actually would.

The fire grew larger behind him and the smoke was nearly the only thing that was in the air. Dipper began to slump down against the wall, coughing and coughing non-stop, yelping when a beam fell beside him and burned his arm a little. His breathing staggered as he gripped his shirt right, trying to breathe.

He looked up above to see the roof caving in above him. He swore he saw a giant eyeball staring at him with a smug feeling reflecting off of it. The kid shook and slammed his eyes shut as he heard the wood break down and start to fall.

The last thing he heard was his sister's terrified screams and the invisible maniac cackling coming from somewhere.

~

October 16: 933 words