Dipper stumbled, at loss of his balance for a moment before he crouched beside the tree nearest him, a hand on the trunk for support. He glanced uneasily around the forest he stood in, the sky dark and cloudy, casting shadows sprawling in all directions on the ground. A sudden pain shot through his spine and he sunk to his feet, letting out a small groan from the harsh throbbing in his skull.

He had been sleeping fine all night, but not even ten minutes ago; he'd woken up and felt incredibly naseous, so he stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. Well, he was fine, standing on the porch and cooling down, until he had heard something in the bushes, which led him to go investigate. Of course, then when he heard the wind blowing at the brush behind him, he thought he was being chased.

And leads us to now, where Dipper's hopelessly lost in the middle of the woods, feeling almost ten times worse than he had earlier. He kept trying to figure out what had caused this sudden sickness to wash over him, but he couldn't quite place it.

He flinched as a cool breeze ruffled his hair, sending goosebumps up and down his skin and his pupils dilated in the darkness. He glanced up to the moon before squeezing his eyes shut tightly, the pain kicking in again.

Dipper's complexion was a ghastly pale and he gripped his hair tightly, his head pounding. It felt as though his forehead was about to burst open as he took jagged breaths.

"Just a dream," he panted softly to himself. "Just a dream, just a dream..." He repeated, shifting to sit uncomfortably with his back against the tree trunk, his legs pulled up to his chest, his elbows rested on his knees.

A searing pain erupted out of nowhere on both sides of his torso and he grit his teeth tightly to keep from shouting out. He glanced precariously down to his side, his shirt becoming suddenly bloodied for some reason.

He fumbled for a moment as he yanked off his shirt and he saw his skin start to rip apart vertically from near his ribs on the sides of his torso as though it was being pulled by an invisible force, blood dripping out of it slowly. His eyes widened and he leaned his head back against the tree, squeezing his eyes shut again, utterly confused on what was all going on. All he knew, was that it hurt like heck and he felt nauseous again.

"Ow, ow, ow," he whined quietly as the tear spread up to a few inches beneath his armpit. Then it stopped spreading an he gave a small, relieved exhale of breath. Except, he had blood dripping down both sides of his body, the scarlet substance coloring the grass and undergrowth near him.

Dipper had relaxed too early, though, because the bloodied wounds began to throb roughly as small flesh-colored worm looking objects started emerging from the openings on his sides. He gasped sharply, letting out a shout now as he had accidentally peeked down and saw them. They grew longer, becoming sturdy as bones formed breezily inside them.

Tear trails were etched on his face as the pain had become too much for him to handle. Dipper panted hard, gaining control, somehow, of both the new "arms" now on each side of his body. He stretched the fingers on his extra set of limbs, looking curious and horrified.

They looked perfectly normal, but anyone could easily tell you that growing another set of arms not even halfway through your lifespan, is anything but normal.

Firstly, Dipper did what any ordinary person would do, and he freaked out.

He jumped to his feet, grabbing the new arms with his original set, seeing if they were loose somehow as he tried tugging them out. Once he realized they were stuck there, he yelped and screamed multiple times.

When his voice was hoarse and his throat was dry, Dipper melted back down to the ground, sitting there silently as the gears in his brain were spinning. He picked at grass with all four of his hands and he gave a bitter laugh, knowing he could now count to twenty on his fingers.

Then, he seem to he reminded of the pounding in the front of his skull. He felt acid rising up in his throat and he swallowed it quickly, his eyesight blurring as he squinted at the trees.

"Make it stop," he whimpered pathetically, closing his eyes, his head throbbing. All of a sudden, his forehead felt warm and he reached up to touch it lightly and pulled his hand back, looking at his fingers, his gaze unfocused, though he could spot a glimpse of red and he moaned softly, resting his head gently in his hands.

The warm, sticky sensation traveled down his face, until he tasted the faint, metallic tang through his lips. He closed his mouth, trying to put his unsettled stomach at ease. His eyes watered behind his eyelids, tears dripping down his cheeks at the strong sense of discomfort.

Dipper felt the feeling of the throbbing disappear a moment later and he opened his eyes. He gasped in surprise at how easily his eyesight adjusted to the dark now, how he could pick out every tree from the rest. He even spotted a small puddle a bit to the left of him and he crawled over to it (now with the assistance of an extra set of hands) and crouched before it.

He bent over the small patch of rainwater from earlier in the day and he splashed water up onto his face, wincing at the discomfort he felt in his forehead. He blinked, running a wet hand down his face to wipe off the blood from his head and peered into the rippling water.

Dipper gaped at the third, oval-ish sized eye staring back to him from its new place on the center of his forehead. It was definitely pretty noticeable, what with the cat eye slitted pupil, but it was small enough he could hide it behind his brunette bangs.

The poor boy looked up to the starry sky and gave an agonizing yell, trembling as he looked down again with wide eyes. He ran a hand through his hair, gripping onto it, taking ragged breaths.

As he heard a faint, familiar m, definitely evil and chaotic cackle, he turned from the puddle, two arms around his stomach and two on the ground to balance him, and he retched onto the ground.

"Only thirty more days..." Dipper whispered to himself as he straightened up again, staring at the top of the trees with no signs of relief whatsoever.

-:-

kinda broke the fourth wall at the end there; sue me. come on, i was dying (haha) to do that the whole day.

and hey, I knew he always needed help, but I guess Dipper finally

got an extra hand.

alright that was really bad, I'm so sorry. my excuse is that I'm exhausted, but heeeyyyyy, I'm posting this at like 11:30 so it still counts for me posting this on Oct. 1. suckers.

plus, I've been wanting to use that GIF forever.

word count: 1,222