He can still taste the Faceless' blood on his tongue. Instead of being metallic and gross, it tastes sweet. It tastes better than his favorite candy.

He stumbles as he walks on bare feet, his boots lost to the ocean of blood he'd fallen into. He's still soaked, his uniform stained, his normally-fluffy hair matted down.

Dipper is getting more and more dizzy.

Maybe it's the blood loss. The eye that's been sewn shut by the Faceless isn't bleeding much anymore, but the socket of his left eye, which had been taken entirely, is still bleeding. The little yellow light inside it burns but not enough to cauterize anything.

He likes the burn. He's not really sure why but things that would normally be painful feel the opposite now.

And then he sees Gwen and totters on towards her.

"Heeey," he says. She looks ugly to him, through that filter of yellow light. Ugly and wrong. She'd look a lot better if she was bleeding too, he decides. "Gweeeen. Gwen."

He leans heavily against a nearby tree, with bark that bleeds like so many things in this realm bleed.

"You're one of the people I wanted to talk to. Have you ever considered staying here forever? If not, you really, really should."