"Are you sure you know which way you're going?" Mabel asked her brother as they trudged deeper through the winding paths between the trees, her eyes noting the lengthening shadows around them as evening was giving away to night.
"Mabel, I've been exploring these woods for four years and we have a good map and compass with us – I am positive I know which way I'm going." Dipper replied somewhat defensively. Deeper into the woods, that's where we're going, he thought and felt slightly guilty about the half truth he'd told her.
"Well all right then Ranger Pines, lead on I guess." Mabel said cheerfully as she adjusted her pack and increased her pace till they were walking side by side, her eyes looking over and noticing that that it was already too dark out for Dipper's high-and-mighty compass to be of much use right now anyway.
Okay, so maybe Dipper didn't know exactly which part of the woods they were in, but the area looked sort of familiar and he was guessing by the glimpses of the mountains around them that he could see whenever they encountered a gap in the tree line that they were getting closer to the site of the anomaly that they'd come out to investigate. Well, that he'd come out to investigate anyway… Dipper was pretty sure that Mabel had just wanted to tag along because she thought that a camping trip would be fun. In the years since Dipper had first started coming to Gravity Falls for the summer with his sister the two of them had seen far more than their share of strangeness in these woods, but the rumors and stories that he'd been hearing about the forest ever since the night of that freak meteor shower were very different from any gnome encounter or random maraca owl attack. The forest itself had become the mystery, with even the most reliable of Gravity Falls colorful residents mentioning things like strange lights, patches of extreme heat or cold & whole stretches of woods where they later found that they had spent hours when they felt like only minutes or even seconds had passed. In spite of all the magic and weirdness that the teenage boy had seen, Dipper still considered himself to be a rational person at heart and was certain that there had to be something here, some identifiable source for all the recent weirdness in the forest and he'd taken it upon himself to discover exactly what it was… and to test his theory that it might have had something to do with the meteor shower that had come without warning across the night sky almost a week ago. Those strange meteors that seemed to flicker through the air in green and gold and violet, unlike any fallen star that Dipper had ever seen before.
Really hoping for a UFO this time, Dipper thought as he stopped walking in order to get his bearings, glancing around for familiar landmarks or the marks that he'd taken it upon himself to carve into certain trees a few years back in case he ever found himself truly lost. Finding nothing familiar, and growing apprehensive at the speed at which the darkness was overtaking them, Dipper decided that it would probably best to start setting up camp now and continue the search tomorrow.
"Ok, this looks like a good place for the campsite," Dipper declared once they had come upon a small clearing in the forest and was relieved when Mabel hadn't offered any objections to the idea.
The both of them were too tired from the evenings hike as it was, and they were mostly silent as they started setting up the two-person tent that Dipper had been lugging along on his back during the afternoon. As they worked Dipper could feel himself just grow slightly tense whenever he and his sister had to move in close to one another to get the frame together or stretch the sheeting across it but he squashed it down as he'd been doing for the past few weeks.
We're just out on a camping trip, the fact that we're sharing a tent isn't a big deal. We used to share a room, so its pretty much the same thing, Dipper told himself as he left Mabel to finish setting up the tent so he could get the fire started. Any weirdness that I might be feeling is just… hormones or something. It's going to pass. Hanging out with her more like this will be more useful in the long run for getting over it than avoiding her, he told himself but in the back of his mind he knew that it wasn't really a convincing argument.
The real reason was that he couldn't bring himself to stay away from her anymore, and not just because of how wounded she looked when he had tried to shuffle past her silently in the shack when they were working or avoid her by spending most of his free time at the town library or alone in the woods. She wasn't just his sister… she was his friend, his companion on most of the weird (and occasionally dangerous) adventures that he'd had. More than that though, she was the only person who REALLY got him, the person that he knew would always have his back no matter how bad it got.
I don't know many girls… maybe its natural that I started to feel this way since she's the one I'm closest to, he thought while he set a careful circle of stones and dirt around the pile of tinder that he'd collected to get the fire going. He rejected the hopeful thought with a shake of his head. As if there's anything natural in what I'm feeling, he thought fiercely. As if she'd forgive me if she knew some of the things I'd thought… of some of the dreams that I'd had.
Dipper shook the harsh thoughts from his mind and focused on getting the fire going with the flint and steel that he'd packed. They had taken plenty of matches with them, but something about getting the fire going the old fashioned way always gave Dipper some comfort – made him feel confident and capable. It took a few minutes and he swore slightly under his breath when he nicked his thumb on the edge of the steel file that he was using to generate the sparks but when he saw the first faint curls of smoke spiraling up from the dry leaves and slim twigs he felt a wide grin settle on his face.
Hard part's over, Dipper thought as he fed the tiny flame with small branches and handfuls of dry grass, enjoying the scent of woodsmoke and the sound of it crackling gently along with the soft breeze blowing through the trees, now I just have to keep it going.
"Sweet! Fires almost primed up for marshmallows!" Mabel said with a bright smile as she emerged from inside of the now fully completed tent, a package of the sweet treats in one hand and some bamboo skewers in the other.
Dipper glanced up from the fire and caught sight of her face outlined in the flickering orange and gold light, still feeling a bit of surprise at seeing the white and even smile since her braces had only been removed a few months ago. Most people, if asked, would call Mabel 'cute' rather than 'beautiful' – her round face, rosy cheeks, large eyes, button nose and her wide mouth with its easy grin didn't really fit into the ideal of the supermodel with the high cheekbones and proud but delicate features. Dipper wasn't one of those people, and he found himself trying not to stare at the way the gentle light of the fire seemed to add a glow to the silky lengths of chestnut hair framing her face. To him she was beautiful- the word gorgeous sprang to his mind, though he quickly squashed the thought without a flicker on his face to reveal the emotions he felt welling up when he saw her there.
Mabel made her way over to him and handed him a skewer with a marshmallow already pre-impaled on it and then sat down beside him before she held out her own stick over the fire, turning it slowly. The night was getting to the chilly stage, even though it was the middle of summer and while the fire was providing a bit of heat Dipper still heard Mabel shiver slightly when a gust of wind blew down from over the trees. Before Dipper could raise any sort of objection Mabel had scooted in closer to him and slipped an arm under his jacket and around his torso and slid her other one alongside his down a sleeve.
"What the heck Mabel?" Dipper asked as his voice, to his annoyance, cracked slightly in surprise.
"It's freezing out here and you have the jacket – don't be so greedy, share the wealth." she said in a playful tone as she poked him gently in the ribs with her free hand.
"You can take the whole jacket if its that cold to you." Dipper said, the hairs on the back of his hands raising slightly in the chill air. It probably won't be too comfortable for me… though maybe more comfortable than this situation.
"Nah, this is better. This way we both get the heat." Mabel said as she wriggled and managed to get half her torso into the jacket while Dipper squirmed uncomfortably next to her before she nonchalantly turned her attention back to her marshmallow as if nothing was odd about the situation.
Maybe this isn't weird for Mabel, Dipper thought, I mean, not even I can figure out what she's thinking sometimes. Maybe trying to become siamese twins in my jacket is a totally natural idea for her?
Dipper turned to look off at the stars that were starting to peek out above the trees and tried to get his head clear and back on the purpose of the trip. Hopefully in the light of day he'd have a better chance to find the spots where the unusual activity had been taking place but directions had been sketchy at best. When he'd started his investigation he had made a rough map of the woods and gotten the townsfolk that he'd questioned to point out their best guess of the spot where they had thought their experiences had taken place was, and he had one or two clusters that looked like the most promising places to search. When Mabel had come upon him hunched over the dinner table in the Mystery Shack messing with the map it had taken him a half an hour to convince her that he hadn't stumbled on a secret pirate treasure, but to his surprise she'd seemed just as interested in the stories he'd told her about the mysterious events in the forest. She had declared that she would be coming along on the expedition and Dipper had been so surprised by her enthusiasm that he'd temporarily forgotten the uncomfortable situation that his feelings had put him in and agreed to the idea. She'd even dusted off the old camcorder left in the attic that they had stayed in as kids and decided that it was time to restart his old video series (though she wanted to rename it to "Mabel and Dippers Guide to the Unexplained", which he hadn't objected to).
"Bro, your marshmallow is pretty much charcoal." Mabel said as she nudged him out of his thoughts and he turned to see that the sugary treat had dissolved into a mess of ash and scalding hot goop.
"That's okay, I didn't really feel like one right now anyway." Dipper said with a chuckle as he tossed the charred skewer into the heart of the fire.
"You sure about that? I brought all the fixings for smores – c'mon, I know you can't resist them!" Mabel said as she produced the packets of somewhat crumbled graham crackers and slightly melted chocolate bars from somewhere on her person.
How does she always manage to hide stuff like that? Dipper wondered. Its not like she even has a sweater on right now to stuff them into.
"I don't know if I'm in a smores kind of mood." Dipper replied, though he felt his stomach grumble at the thought of the treat that she was messily assembling, heedless of the smears of chocolate that she was leaving on his/their jacket.
"Suit yourself," she said in a somewhat muffled voice with her mouth full.
"Actually, I think I'm going to turn in already… the hike really took it out of me." Dipper said as he awkwardly struggled his way out of his jacket and left it draped around Mabel's slim shoulders.
"Boo! We haven't even gotten to tell ghost stories yet." Mabel said with a pout.
"Mabel, we've seen actual ghosts. Real live, in a sense, ghosts. Whats the point?" Dipper asked in a dry voice.
"Fun is the point you dork. C'mon, when was the last time that we went camping? Or that we got to really hang out like this? You've been acting all moody and awkward for a while now." Mabel said.
"Not sure what you're talking about," Dipper said more quickly than he should have, "I've been normal."
"If you say so bro bro. You sure nothings up though? C'mon, this is Mabel here – you know you've got my ears anytime you need to talk."
"I've just been focused on this whole weird forest mystery thing. It's gotten me kind of distracted," Dipper lied with a small smile and he felt a small stab of guilt at the small smile she offered in return.
"Sometimes I think you're way too into this stuff," Mabel joked, "but at least it gets you out of the house. I guess if you aren't going to keep me company out here then I'll turn in too."
The twins doused the fire and took turns getting into their sleeping wear in the tent while the other waited outside impatiently in the rapidly chilling air, and then they both slipped into their heavy sleeping bags under the cover of the tent, hearing its thin fiberglass poles creak in the growing wind.
Though it was almost pitch black Dipper could still see the faint outline of Mabel snuggled into her sleeping bag, her chest rising and falling easily in time with her surprisingly loud snores. They hadn't really slept this close to one another in a few years and Dipper felt a pang of nostalgia for their nights spent up in the attic of the Mystery Shack when they had first come up to the Falls. The hours they spent playing attic mini-golf or other games with one another long into the small hours of the night. He turned away from her and lay flat on his back, his eyes tracing the faint outline of the moon against the slick fabric of the tent roof and counted slowly backwards from a hundred to try and will himself to sleep.
I hope I don't dream of her again tonight, Dipper thought fuzzily as he began to drift off around the count of 50. I want to be a good brother again… not a freak.
–
Dipper had woken long before Mabel had managed to crawl out of her sleeping bag and was already eager to get a move on to continue the search for the anomalies that had lately taken hold over the forest but he knew from experience that it would be at least an hour before Mabel was feeling up for any sort of movement. Of course once she got going she was pretty much an endless fountain of energy and could out-pace him in no time, but when it came to mornings she was pretty much dead to the world.
It hadn't taken long for the two of them to strike their camp, working almost silently as they re-packed the tent and gathered up their supplies in sync with one another. Maybe there is something to that whole twin-thought-sharing thing, Dipper thought idly as they went about the complex business of disassembling the tent without a word and he briefly felt a chill run through him at the idea if it meant that Mabel could glimpse some of his more shameful thoughts. No worries though, psychic powers are fake as far as I know – Gideon couldn't manage anything unless he had that amulet or his creepy spy-camera network. We just work well together is all… plus its only a tent, not rocket science.
They made good speed as they trudged deeper into the forest through the morning and into the early afternoon, and now that the daylight was at full strength Dipper felt his confidence in his map return when he was more easily able to match up his surroundings with it. He felt his heart pound with excitement when he took a few quick readings from the compass and realized that last nights wandering path had actually brought them far closer to one of the clusters of sightings than he'd first thought.
Okay, now to see whether this is an actual mystery, or just the people in town being crazier than usual.
The twins moved at a slower pace now at Dippers urging, his eyes peeled for anything strange in the claustrophobic maze of the trees around them. Maybe it was just his imagination, but the atmosphere here seemed subtly different from where the they had been hiking earlier in the day. He couldn't really say why though – the birds were singing just as loudly, the sun was no less bright in the sky & the leaves under his feet still crunched and kicked up puffs of healthy earthy-smelling dust with each step. To all of his senses there wasn't anything out of the ordinary here, but he couldn't shake the feeling niggling away in the back of his mind that something here was out of place and it was making him nervous. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a tugging at his sleeve, but when he turned he saw that it was only Mabel. She'd moved up beside him and taken his arm in her hand and he could see her forehead creased slightly in apprehension and her wide brown eyes moving slowly through the trees.
She feels it too. Its not just me being crazy, Dipper thought and he didn't know whether to be relieved or even more worried at the idea.
"You doing okay Mabes?" Dipper asked her gently, and he felt her tight grip on his arm slacken slightly.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just got a kind of… I dunno, spooky feeling here for some reason." Mabel replied, her voice shaking slightly but growing stronger with each word.
"Maybe its haunted by ghost squirrels or something?" Dipper joked lamely, trying to put her at ease and he was rewarded by the way she snorted and rolled her eyes at him.
"Or maybe its the vengeful spirits of all those trees that Manly Dan cut down?" Mabel speculated, her face losing its expression of worry and her back straightening with confidence once again. Dipper noticed though that she hadn't completely let go of his arm, and when he moved it to take her hand in his reassuringly she gave it an affectionate squeeze in return.
"Do you think trees can leave ghosts?" Dipper asked, and he found himself having a few private half serious thoughts about the question. I mean, ghosts are real… so what are the requirements for ghost… ness? Ghostdom? Whats the right word for it?
"Oh definitely," Mabel said breezily as if she were the authority on these matters, "and they are incredibly dangerous. You know the old saying 'when a tree falls in the forest there's no one around to hear you scream'."
"I'm pretty sure no one has said that ever, and not just because it doesn't make any sense at all grammatically." Dipper replied.
He was about to crack a small joke of his own in response when he took his next step and felt a wave of bone chilling cold sweep through him from head to toe, as if his blood had been replaced with ice-water. Dipper let out a small yelp of surprise but the feeling had passed in an instant and when he turned he saw Mabel turning to him with concern in her face.
"Are you okay? Did you step on a thorn or something?" she asked, glancing around at their feet for any dangerous plants.
"What? No… I just felt REALLY cold there for a second. You didn't feel that?" he asked in surprise.
"No, not a thing. Your hand still feels the same too." Mabel replied, giving it a reassuring squeeze of her own.
"Weird. Might be nothing then." Dipper said skeptically.
"Brain tumor for sure," Mabel said darkly, "totally explains the recent crazy pants behavior of yours."
"Shut up," Dipper said with a too-loud laugh and gave his sister a gentle shove that sent her stumbling a step.
"Oh, you wanna go bro? Think you got what it takes to go toe to toe with the Alpha Twin?" Mabel said in her ridiculous pro-wrestler impersonation, her arms thrown wide in an exaggerated fighting pose.
"Mabel, I've got like 4 inches and 30 pounds on you – you wouldn't win this one." Dipper said wryly as he crossed his arms nonchalantly just to get under her skin a bit.
"Your moms got 30 pounds on you- boom!" Mabel said with a triumphant laugh.
"We have the same… you know what, I'll just let that one stand." Dipper replied with a roll of his eyes. "C'mon, we gotta keep searching… I have a feeling we're getting pretty close to where we need to be."
"Alright, but I get a free shove first – gotta keep the score nice and even." Mabel said, her arms crossed but her expression playful.
"Sure sure… sorry for shoving you in the first place though." Dipper said.
"I forgive you Dipper," Mabel said with sincerity as she began to take a few steps back, "Now stand perfectly still – I'm going to get a bit of windup on this one."
Oh this is going to sting a bit, Dipper thought as he saw Mabel walking backward through woods with her eyes on him, occasionally scuffing the earth with one shoe like a cartoon bull getting ready to charge.
"Sure you haven't gone far enough?" Dipper had to practically yell across the small clearing when Mabel had retreated quite a distance from him.
"Just one more ste-" Mabel began before she suddenly ceased to exist.
Dipper blinked. The clearing looked just like it had before, but where his sister had been just a second ago there was nothing. Panic suddenly overtook him and without a second thought Dipper charged at full speed toward the patch of ground that he'd last seen her before she had vanished.
Please be okay please be okay please be okay, Dippers thoughts pounded in his head, his heart slamming in his chest violently and his breath short in his lungs from the fear that had him in its grip. As he drew closer he saw something subtle, a shimmer in the air like heat coming off a road on a boiling summer day and with his next step everything around him changed.
Dipper felt his body in a way that he never had before – the expansion and contraction of the heart in his chest, the way the muscles in his legs stretched and pulled across his bones… he was aware of it all. The wind and birdsong were gone, replaced by a roaring in his ears that Dipper knew, knew was the sound of his own pulse. Time had slowed and his movements were so terribly heavy, as if he were walking through deep water with steel shoes on his feet. Despite the hyper-awareness that had come over him, allowing him to even feel the individual hairs on his skin, his normally keen vision was blurry… murky… no, that wasn't right. It was more like all the colors around him were wrong somehow… alternating between too bright or too dark without any sort of pattern. He noticed, with growing alarm, that the branches in the trees seemed to grow, shrink, disappear seemingly at random before his eyes. With each step he took through the shifting kaleidescope that the forest had transformed into he felt his thoughts sparking wildly in his mind as it tried to take in everything, and it was too much. Much too much. The deeper he pushed himself through the hellish blur he felt himself grow dizzy- weaker, but he forced on. He had to find her. His head turned, so slowly that he thought it took an age but his eye caught sight of something solid – a patch of color that didn't blur or distort like the trees around him and with a surge of relief like he had never experienced in his life he saw Mabel. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to move through the heaviness, and though the weight of the air around him was like molten lead he drew closer to her step by torturous step. As he felt his vision flicker and dim and his breathing grow short he forced himself to make a dive and felt his body swim clumsily through the THICK air and felt her in his arms as he grabbed her tight, warm and real against his chest before he sent them crashing to the ground and he lost consciousness.
–
"Dipper? Hey… wake up! C'mon bro… get up!" a slightly panicked voice said, cutting like a knife through the silence.
Mabel? Dipper thought fuzzily as he felt the darkness slide slowly out of his head.
With a groan the teen opened his eyes and winced at the feel of the light stabbing into them. He saw Mabel bending low over him, her hand on his forehead as if he had a fever or something and a look of extreme concern on her face.
"What the heck man? One second I'm here ready to give you the pounce of a lifetime and then you suddenly charge at me like a crazy man and tackle me before you black out?" Mabel asked.
"What? You disappeared!" Dipper said as he propped himself up and shook the ringing pain from his head.
"Um, no – I'm right here… You okay Dipper? Been acting a little cray-cray there for a bit." Mabel said with growing concern in her voice as she helped him struggle to his feet and brushed a few leaves off the back of his jacket.
What is she talking about? Did I just… was that real? Is THIS the anomaly that everyone was talking about? Or am I just… hell.
"Maybe we should cut the expedition short," Dipper said shakily as he took a few calming breaths to stifle the panic that he felt growing in the pit of his stomach, "I'm just not feeling great right now."
"That might be a good idea." Mabel said, her face lined with worry at seeing the expression on her brothers face and she impulsively pulled him in tight for a hug, her face pressed against his chest.
"Sorry for… tackling you." Dipper said as he slowly raised his own arms and wrapped them around her in return, his mind racing with the vivid sensations that he had just experienced… and the way that feeling her pressed this close against him was making his heart race against his will.
"Sorry for the brain tumor crack." Mabel said. "That wasn't cool."
"Forget about it, I wasn't mad." Dipper replied. Could that be the explanation? The reason that I'm seeing these things… feeling this way… acting like this? Is there something physically wrong with me?
"Lets get out of of here. You remember how to get back to the car?" Mabel asked.
"Sure, but its going to be a long walk." Dipper replied.
"Lead on then oh compass master, I want out of these creepy woods already." Mabel said with a shiver and a glance around the glade. Her brow quirked up slightly as she took a second glance around.
"What is it?" Dipper said, noticing her confusion.
"I dunno. Something seems off I guess." Mabel said slowly.
"Probably just stressed out. C'mon, lets get moving." Dipper said with a brisk confidence that he didn't feel at all, hefting his pack high on his shoulders and putting a friendly arm around his sisters neck. Mabel shook her head and nodded, following along beside him as he backtracked his way through the trail that he had marked down on the map.
–
It took longer than Dipper had expected.
Hours had passed as they trudged through the woods, with the early afternoon giving away to dusk as they trudged on through the winding forest trail. Dipper had to stop frequently and take readings from the compass and he just felt his confusion grow when things just didn't match up right. The trees themselves even seemed strange, which was odd because Dipper had never really paid much attention to them before – but they just seemed off somehow when he looked at them. They had stopped for a quick lunch of trail mix and bottled water, but neither of them wanted to settle in and build a fire for a hot meal – they had silently agreed with looks that they wanted out of the forest before night fell again.
Even more time passed and when Dipper had just about given up and resigned himself to another night in the woods, panic setting in at the thought of being really lost, he saw the fence that marked the entrance to the parking lot of the campgrounds in the distance and with a whoop of joy the twins took the last leg of the trip in a run. Their joy quickly turned sour when they reached the rough dirt parking area and found that Grunkle Stan's beat up old car which they had borrowed was nowhere in sight.
"What the heck!" Mabel shouted furiously to no-one in particular as she kicked the dirt in the empty space where they had left the car the afternoon before.
"Who would steal the Stanmobile? It's worth, like $900 dollars if he could find someone dumb enough to buy it in the first place." Dipper said in surprise.
"Oh when I find who did this they are going to pay!" Mabel said with a glint in her eye and she drew her old grappling hook out from her backpack and hefted it menacingly.
"You're going to take them rock climbing?" Dipper asked jokingly, though his smile froze when she turned to glare at him and he gave a nervous cough.
"What do we do now?" Mabel asked with a slump to her shoulders, the gun drooping limply at her side as she scuffed her shoes in the dirt.
"I guess we'll have to walk the rest of the way back to town till we can get to a pay phone. Or at least till we get somewhere that we get good cell reception anyway." Dipper said as he drew a battered old cell phone from his pocket and saw that it had the "Out of Service Area" icon blinking in red in the corner.
"Ugh this sucks." Mabel groaned.
"Yeah, not the best situation we've been in, I'll agree… but not even close to the worst we've been in before." Dipper said, trying to be as reassuring as possible though he also felt a crushing disappointment at the thought of an even longer hike ahead of them.
"Dipper, just bury me right here where the car was – then my ghost can haunt the thief for all eternity." Mabel said as she slumped to the ground and lay down with a pout on her face.
"I'm really not sure thats how hauntings work. C'mon, its not that bad – we have the road to follow now so we won't be lost anymore… and um… I'll buy you pancakes when we get into town." Dipper said as a last ditch effort to try and bring some cheer back to his despairing sibling.
"With butter and syrup?" Mabel asked from the floor, raising her head slightly to look him in the eye.
"As much as you can handle." Dipper replied, holding out his hand to help her to her feet. She took it without a moments hesitation and popped up to her feet as quick as a rabbit.
"Well what are we waiting for then, Christmas? To pancakes!" Mabel shouted, squeezing his hand in hers firmly and dragging him down the road after her.
She's really not going to be happy when she finds out that I didn't bring my wallet on a camping trip. Dipper thought to himself.
–
They arrived at Greasy's Diner about a half hour later, footsore from the hike but in much greater spirits than they had been in ever since the incident in the glade that afternoon. The crowd was thin inside and while Mabel went to go get them a booth Dipper made his way over to the counter and rang the small bell that the cook kept there to let the waitresses know that a customer had arrived and the familiar form of Lazy Susan came out from behind the back with a small frown on her normally cheerful face.
"Kitchens already off for the night, we're going to be closing in a half hour." she said in a somewhat grumpy tone.
"C'mon Susan, give us a break here – someone took the car and we've been stuck hiking all day and we'd kill for some food right now." Dipper pleaded, and he noticed the look on her face shifted when her good eye swiveled over and caught sight of his face.
"Mr. Pines! I didn't recognize you with that hat on." she stammered, her odd staccato laugh bubbling out nervously from her lips.
"What?" Dipper asked, confused. She's only ever seen me in a hat… but this is Susan, she's always been a bit screwy.
"Not that I don't think that you're distinctive looking… um… handsome even!" she said with a wide grin, and Dipper was puzzled by the nervousness that seemed etched in the lines of her round face.
"Um… thank you?" Dipper began and then twitched his finger to ask her to lean in closer, which she did slowly with a wary look on her face as he whispered quietly, "Look, I don't have any money on me right now but I promised Mabel pancakes… I know you guys don't really do tabs here but I'd really appreciate it if we could just get the food right now and I could pay you back first thing tomorrow morning. Would that be okay?"
"That would be just fine Mr. Pines… heck, don't worry about paying at all! We're always happy to help you guys out." Lazy Susan said with another burst of laughter, and Dippers eyes widened slightly at seeing the sweat beading on her makeup caked forehead.
"C'mon, you don't need to do that. We can pay, no need for handouts." Dipper said with what he hoped was a reassuring smile.
"Of course! I'd never imply… I mean… Sure… I guess you can pay us tomorrow then." Susan said, that wide grin returning once again.
"Are you feeling okay Susan? Not feeling sick or anything?" he asked.
"Not at all – just go take your seat and we'll bring your food out to you two lickety split!" she replied quickly, backing up through the swinging doors and into the kitchen.
That was bizarre, Dipper thought as he made his way back to the table and saw Mabel sitting in the booth kicking her legs cheerfully and using her teeth to tear into a small plastic package of candies. Must of got those from the vending machine – we finished off her last candy reserves this afternoon.
"What you got there sis?" Dipper asked, his stomach growling loudly enough to add the unnecessary 'and can I have some of it?' that he was silently thinking to the question.
"Some weird knockoff candy – check it out." she replied, tossing the package over to him underhanded so that he caught it easily.
He glanced at the package thinking it was the same blue packaging as her favorite Gummy Koalas, but when he turned it over he saw the label said Gummy Bears. Who ever heard of Gummy Bears?
"Weird." Dipper agreed, and he was suddenly aware of the fact that the atmosphere in the restaurant had changed since they had first walked in through the door. The occupied tables had quieted down from their usual boisterous conversations to whispers and when he turned his head to look around the diner he found people avoided his gaze, glancing away quickly.
"You think they got if from the same place that Grunkle Stan always gets that loser candy for Summerween? The whole machine is full of junk like that. Gummy Bears, some cookie called an Oreo instead of a Yummy-O. No Pitt Cola either, just some dumb looking knockoff called Dr. Pepper. Who wants to drink pepper flavored soda?" Mabel asked idly as she leaned back against the padded booth chair and propped her legs up on his side to stretch.
"Not me, thats for sure." Dipper agreed, tossing the package of candies lightly on the table and taking a similar pose, happy at least for the chance to relieve his aching feet. "Food should be here in a few minutes though, so no point in ruining our appetite now."
"C'mon Dip, you know I got a whole separate stomach for candy." Mabel said as she snatched up the candy package and tore it open with a triumphant noise. Someone dropped a fork and it echoed loudly in the restaurant in the sudden silence that had fallen over the restaurant in the wake of Mabel's exclamation, and after a moment of eerie quiet Dipper felt his spine tingle when he heard someone else's false, too-loud laughter.
What the hell is going on here? Dipper thought.
Before he could devote much more thought to the question he was distracted by the sudden arrival of Lazy Susan bearing a plate heaped high with pancakes and a dish of butter balanced precariously on the edge of the tray.
"Enjoy you two!" Susan said, beaming with exaggerated cheer before she dashed back to the kitchen before Dipper could thank her.
The rumbling of Dippers stomach was a more powerful motivator than questions about the current oddness and he and Mabel dived messily into the stack, dividing it quickly between them before they started greedily stuffing the hot food into their mouths, barely pausing to chew.
It only hit him after his fourth pancake, something that had been bugging him in the back of his mind which only now came to his attention.
Susan's good eye… its the left one, not the right. What… what's going on?
–
Though they were well within the city limits now Dippers cell phone still had no reception, and neither did Mabel's. When they had tried to call the shack on the diners phone they got an error message – the wrong number signal rather than no one picking up. Dipper was feeling increasingly unsettled as they made their way deeper into town, deciding that they would just have to go the rest of the way on foot. Mabel had absorbed some of her brothers mood and was unusually silent while Dipper found himself taking in the sight of the town in confusion.
Something was deeply wrong here. The main street of the town was still familiar looking, but it was the details that just didn't fit. Shops that Dipper had never really paid any attention to looked wrong to him in ways that he couldn't quite put his finger one. The lettering on the windows, the colors of the signs. Wasn't it Richards Hardware and not Richardsons Hardware? I've never been inside… maybe I'm just remembering it wrong… but I know for sure the grocery store had a green and white awning, not a blue and white… but its just an awning, they could change that. What is going ON here?
The twins turned a corner and Dipper caught sight of something, a sign, and he froze in his tracks taking Mabel's hand in his and squeezing it tight. She jerked to a halt and turned to him with worry on her face.
"Whats wrong bro?" she asked, concern deep in her voice.
"Mabel… have things been feeling off to you today?" he asked slowly.
"Well yeah, but its been kind of a sucky day with the stolen car and the getting lost." she replied.
"More than that though… I mean, doesn't the town look weird to you?" he said, an almost pleading note in his voice.
"Kind of… maybe. What's it matter? I'm just tired, thats all." she said.
"I think… I think earlier in the glade when I blacked out… I don't think this is Gravity Falls." Dipper said slowly.
"O…kay. You got an explanation for that bucket of crazy? Cause I'm pretty sure we're walking down Northwest Drive right now with a bunch of Lazy Susans famous pancakes in our tums, so it sure feels like Gravity Falls to me." Mabel said skeptically.
"I think it is a Gravity Falls, but I don't think its our Gravity Falls." Dipper began, his jittering mind racing to get his thoughts in order as he tried to put them into words, "I think earlier before I blacked out… when you disappeared… I think we might be in some other place. Like an alternate universe, or another dimension or something."
"Oh, well that sounds a lot less crazy." Mabel said jokingly.
"It's the only thing that fits… the way that everything is just sort of different around town… Susan's eye… the way we got lost, as though we couldn't find our old trail." Dipper said quickly.
"Okay you can't blame the last one on your parallel universe theory, you'd get lost all the time even with a map and compass." Mabel teased.
"I'm being serious here!" Dipper practically shouted, and Mabel cringed slightly at the sudden intensity of it.
"Why? What makes it all fit? So everyone's being weird – it's Lazy Susan, she's always weird. Where's the evidence?" she shouted back, her own repressed nervousness bursting out.
Dipper pointed silently down the dimly lit street and Mabel followed his gesture to the end of the street and she took in the sight in a stunned silence of her own.
It was a familiar looking building, but the unfamiliar sign over the white marble arch over the doorway said "Stanford Pines Memorial Library", and nearby was a large lighted billboard and on that billboard was her… but not her.
The sign was advertising shows at the Mystery Manor – magic, the secrets of the future and more: all for the low price of admission… and plastered across its surface was a picture of Mabel and Dipper in costumes that seemed a strange cross between Las Vegas magician and flamboyant country singer. "Home of the world famous Mystery Twins!" the sign proclaimed in bold letters of teal and gold beneath the smirking faces of the Pines twins who were not the Pines twins.
"Where the hell are we?" Mabel whispered as she squeezed Dippers hand tightly in her own, her grip almost painful on his fingers.
"I don't know." Dipper whispered back.
"How do we get back?" Mabel asked quietly.
"I don't know." Dipper said, just as quietly. "but I want to figure it out fast."
–
Elsewhere
The fire that burned in the imposing fireplace of the manors library flared suddenly and set off green and teal sparks that began to flitter through the drafts of hot air, briefly seeming to take on the forms of small butterflies. Dipper glanced up from his place at the mahogany table and frowned in minor annoyance when one of the animated cinders wound its way lazily toward him and perched on the edge of the map that he was surveying, causing it to smoke and curl before he licked his thumb and crushed it flat with a small hiss.
"I take it by the exuberant display that you were successful, dear sister?" he called out into the darkness of the hallway and his straining ears noted the click of heels walking down the wide hardwood floors leading from the foyer to his private study.
"Of course," Mabel replied with a note of archness in her voice, as if she were annoyed at the possibility that she could fail at any task. "He didn't put up much of a fight, and sadly most of his work went up in the 'accidental electrical fire' that also claimed his life."
Dipper smiled at the sight of his sister in the firelight, knowing full well that she had kept the colors of the flame altered to her signature aquamarine shades to show her at her best advantage. She knew how good she looked, and whats more she knew that he knew, but it was all part of the game that they had kept up between one another for the past few years and he found it charming.
"The job might have gone faster if you'd come along to help of course. He tried to run, and its so tiresome to try and chase them down in these shoes." she said as she idly picked at her flawless nails in a practiced casual gesture.
"I knew you could handle it," Dipper replied smoothly, knowing that she could switch gears from calm to enraged with very little warning and he wanted to stay on her good side for the night… he still had work to do after all, "besides, you know you've always been better at the more physical aspects of using our little baubles than I."
"True." she said with a grin, and he noticed with minor surprise that there seemed to be genuine pleasure in it at having received the compliment… and he felt pleased at seeing it there.
Though the two of them wore many masks, even around one another, Dipper knew that at his core there was still something warm there… something that he felt for no one else. A sympathy, an understanding… a love that he knew he was incapable of feeling for anyone else around him. When they had first received their matching amulets and had started using them they had found their minds linked and the feelings that he had been burying inside… feelings that had given even his normally callous self shame… were all laid bare, and to his wonder and delight he had found similar stirrings inside her own mind. From that moment on they had become even more inseparable than ever… this secret added to the secret of the amulets, and to their harrowing experiences mastering the powers they held which had driven them closer together while pushing the rest of the world further from their minds.
"What are you studying there brother dear? Some nerd thing?" Mabel teased, walking up behind him and leaning against his back and Dipper tensed up slightly at the feel of her small breasts pressed up against him through the thin fabric of his shirt. He could smell smoke on the sleeves of her tight blue jacket as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and it was also evident in the tresses of silky hair that tumbled down against his face when she leaned over him mingling with the scent of her floral shampoo.
She does love to use flames… they match her personality so well. Dipper thought to himself, glad that his own amulet was tucked up in a box in his room so that she couldn't glimpse the idle thought and use it as provocation for one of her minor rages.
"Its actually quite fascinating," Dipper said as he tried to bring his mind back to the matter of the map and off the feel of her warmth pressing against him, "I've been tracking a few odd events that have cropped up since the night of the meteor shower that occurred last week."
"Odd in what way?" she asked, running her hands idly across his chest and nuzzling his neck slightly, and he felt a small shudder pass through him. He'd learned from experience that she tended to get… excited… by the use of her powers- particularly when she'd used them as aggressively as she must have tonight. He didn't begrudge her her fun, though he probably would have tried to be more discreet when it came to the matter dealing with that fussy little journalist… what was his name again? Tobey something? Not that it mattered now anyway, the man had ceased to be an issue and his snooping around them would no longer disturb their free time.
"Just disturbances. Anomalies with time and perception. I've been reading up on some of the more esoteric books in the library and think that the lights in the sky may indicate some sort of weakening in the fabric of space and time, a rent in the aether perhaps?" Dipper said, bringing his own hand up from the desk to idly stroke the back of her hand as it ran over his chest. She'd worked a few of the buttons loose while he was distracted, or perhaps used her amulet to part them – though such subtle manipulations were more his forte, since she preferred to use her power more like a hammer than a scalpel.
"Anything worth taking a closer look at?" she asked as she gave up on subtlety entirely and brought her mouth down to his ear, her hot breath causing him to shudder as she nibbled against his earlobe gently and slipped her hands lower down his torso, toying with the buckle on his belt.
"Nothing that can't wait till morning." he said firmly before turning to cup her face in his hands and bring her lips to his in a hard kiss.