Chapter 1

Tourist Trapped

Summer break, a time for leisure, recreation, and taking it easy... Unless you're me. We speed off down the forest trail – driving as fast as this golf cart can take us. But it's not fast enough. A creature so humongous that it sways the trees above us follows close behind. It's giant shadow falls on our small cart as it catches up to us. It reaches for us – we are just barely able to avoid being captured. Next time we may not be so lucky. I take a heavy breath and swerve the car to the side.

My name is Peeta Mellark, the girl holding in her puke next to me is my sister Delly. You may be wondering what we're doing in a golf cart, fleeing from a creature of unimaginable horror... Rest assured, there's a perfectly logical explanation.

It all began when our parents decided we could use some fresh air. They shipped us up north to a sleepy town called Panem Falls, Oregon, to stay at our great Uncle's place in the woods. My sister tended to look on the bright side of things; but I was having a hard time getting used to my new surroundings. And then there was our Great Uncle Mitchell. Our uncle had transformed his house into a tourist trap he called the Mystery Shack. The real mystery was why anyone came. And guess who had to work there. Me. It looked like it was gonna be the same boring routine all summer. Until one fateful day;

"Kids," Our great uncle – or Grunkle as he insisted we call him – bursts into the gift shop of the Mystery Shack. "I need one of you to go hand up some signs for the shack out in the woods."

"Not it!" Delly calls.

"Not it!" I call back.

Grunkle Mitch looks at his other two employees – Finnick Odair and Katniss Everdeen. Finnick is a tall man in his early twenties, he has bronze hair and green eyes. He is funny and the friendliest guy you could ever meet. Katniss is a fifteen year old girl with black hair and silver eyes. She is very pretty – and I'll admit I might have a small crush on her – I know, it's crazy to like an older woman – but I'm only three years younger than her, and anyway it's just a small crush.

Finnick frowns at Grunkle Mitch. "I'm gonna have to say not it as well."

Grunkle Mitch looks at Katniss. "Sweetheart, will you hang these signs up?"

Katniss looks up from her magazine. "I would... But it's too far," She grumbles. "Can't reach."

"I wish I could fire all of you," Grunkle Mitch looks back at me. "Peeta, looks like you're hanging the signs,"

"That's not fair," I protest. "And I always feel like I'm being watched out in the woods."

"Oh brother," He rolls his eyes.

"I'm serious! And look – last time I was out there I got mosquito bites that spell out 'BEWARE'!" I hold up my arm pointing out the bites.

"Kid that says 'BEWARB'."

I sigh and take the signs from Grunkle Mitch, and head into the woods. As I nail the signs to various trees, I complain to myself. It's not any fair! Grunkle Mitch always picks on me. I go to nail the last sign into a tree but when I hit the nail against the tree with my hammer, it makes a metallic clanking sound. I tap the tree again and it makes the same sound. My eyebrows furrow and I pull at the bark, revealing a hollow part of the tree where a small machine sits. I frown and pull one of the switches. Immediately, I hear a sound behind me. I spin around and find a trap door has opened up in the ground. I run to the opening, sit down next to it, and find a dusty old book inside. I pull the book out of the hole and close the trap door. When I brush the dust off I can see the cover – a piece of gold paper has been cut into the shape of a six fingered hand and glued onto the book. In the center of the hand is the number '3'.

I pull open the first page where a piece of paper is glued on. It says, 'Property of M-'. That's all I can read because the rest of the paper has been torn off. I turn to the next page and read aloud. "It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began to study the strange and wondrous secrets of Panem Falls, Oregon." Strange and wondrous secrets?"

I flip to the last page the has writing on it. "Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I have to hide the book before he finds it. Remember- in Panem Falls there is no one you can trust." And at the bottom of the page in bold print it reads, 'TRUST NO ONE!' I begin to wonder who the author is, and why the pages cut off.

"What are you reading?" Delly says suddenly, interrupting my thoughts. I didn't know she was there. I look back down at the page then close the book.

"Ahh, nothing."

Delly laughs. "Are you actually not gonna tell me?"

I stare at her for a moment. We have the same blue eyes. She's my twin sister! We tell each other everything. I think I can trust her with this secret. "Fine," I say. "But let's go somewhere private."

Back at the Mystery Shack – Delly and I sit in the living room while I tell her about the journal. "It's like Panem Falls has a secret dark side," I say. "And get this, after a certain point – the pages stop... like they guy who was writing it mysteriously disappeared."

"Wow!" Delly exclaims. "So there are all these weird creatures in the woods?"

"Yeah! And-" The doorbell rings.

Delly sighs. "Time to spill the beans, I have a date."

I blink at her. "You already got yourself a boyfriend?"

"What can I say," Delly shrugs. "I'm irresistible."

I laugh. "Just go get the door."

"Right." She stands up and runs to the door.

The guy standing at the door waves awkwardly at me. "I'm normal – man."

"He means Norman." Delly says.

I look at him; he has red stuff dripping down his chin and a stick stuck to his hoodie.

"Is that blood?" I ask pointing to his chin.

Norman pauses for a moment. "It's jelly."

"Okay..." I say.

"Well, we better go," Delly says and they leave the shack. I don't trust him. I decide.

I go to the room I share with Delly in the attic and look through the journal. Norman can't be normal. He has to be some kind of paranormal creature. I stop when I reach a page about zombies, I skim over the page. "Usually mistaken for teenagers." I read aloud. Norman could be a zombie. I need to investigate this.

I run out of the Mystery Shack and follow Delly and Norman around town. I notice that he has a limp, and he is very clumsy, I finally get paranoid enough to pull Delly aside.

"What is it?" Delly snaps.

"There's something about Norman I think you should know." I explain.

"Do you think Norman is a vampire?" Delly asks.

"No, I think Norman is a..." I flip the journal open and show Delly the page. She gasps and I look at the journal to find a page about gnomes. "Oh, sorry wrong page." I flip to the correct page and Delly scoffs.

"You think Norman is a zombie! You've got to be kidding me."

"It would explain his limp," I says. "And... have you noticed he never blinks!"

"Maybe he just blinks at the same time as you,"

"Delly, I-"

"You're just being paranoid, Peeta." With that Delly walks back over to Norman and they go into the woods together."

Maybe Delly's right. I go back into the attic and sit down facing the window. I stare at the woods my sister disappeared into. But why would they go into the woods together? Norman is totally a zombie, and he wants to eat Delly's brain. If I don't get there fast Delly could be dead. I stand up and run outside. I spot Katniss standing next to the Mystery Shack's golf cart, Grunkle Mitch likes to call it 'The Mystery Cart' – anyway I run over to Katniss, when I reach her, I'm panting.

"Katniss, I need to use the mystery cart. Delly's new boyfriend is a zombie and he's gonna eat her brains unless I can get there in time!" I say.

Katniss blinks at me, and for a second I think she won't let me use the cart, then she smirks and tosses me the keys. "Don't hit any pedestrians."

I grin, jump into the cart and speed off into the forest the same way Delly and Norman went. As I get closer, I hear Delly's cries for help and hit the gas. When I finally get there I find Delly tied up, surrounded by a bunch of gnomes. I look down and find a shovel in the passenger seat. I pick it up and jump out of the cart. "What's going on?" I ask and the gnomes look at me.

"You were right... sort of," Delly says. "Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes,"

"Gnomes," I say. "I was way off."

One gnome jumps up onto a rock. "I know this might look... strange but we aren't trying to hurt your sister." He says in Norman's voice.

I look back to my tied up sister. "You're... not?"

"Of course not, we're just trying to kidnap her so she can be our bride."

"I'll never marry you," Delly says and struggles to free herself.

I roll my eyes and use the shovel to cut the ropes, and pull Delly back to the cart.

"Hey!" The main gnome shouts. "You shouldn't have messed with us, the gnomes are a great and powerful race."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," I say and start up the cart, speeding off back towards the Mystery Shack.

That's when we realized the gnomes could morph into one humongous gnome. So here we are speeding down the forest in a golf cart fleeing from a gigantic gnome, meanwhile fighting off smaller gnomes, and trying not to crash the cart into a tree. One gnome took my hat! And I needed it to cover up an embarrassing birthmark on my forehead!

We make it back to the Mystery Shack, but unfortunately, the giant gnome made it back here as well. "You might as well give up now," The gnome leader calls down.

"Fine," Delly says. "I'll marry you,"

"What?" I turn to Delly as the leader jumps down from the giant gnome and puts a ring on Delly's finger.

"You may now kiss the bride," Delly says.

"Oh, don't mind if I do," The gnome leader says, then leans down in for a kiss, closing his eyes. Delly smirks then grabs a leaf blower, sucking the gnome into it. She puts it on reverse and the machine shoots the gnome into the gigantic one, scattering them into hundreds of little gnomes. I laugh as Delly scares the gnomes away with the leaf blower.

"Thanks for looking out for me today, Peeta." Delly says when all the gnomes are gone.

I shrug. "What kind of a twin brother would I be if I didn't have your back?" Delly laughs. "I wonder what else is out there in those woods."

"Who knows?" Delly shrugs. "Although I'm sure your journal could tell you all about it,"

"Yeah,"

We go back into the shack and find Grunkle Mitch at the cash register. "What happened to you?" He laughs, and I roll my eyes and walk out of the room. "Wait!" He stops me and I go back into the gift shop. "It turns out... I overstocked on some items. Why don't you kids each pick something out, on the house."

"What's the catch?"

"The catch is you do it before I change my mind." I smile and find the hat section. I pick a baseball hat with a pine tree on it and place it on my head – hiding my stupid birthmark. I look at Delly who has picked out a grappling hook. We laugh and go upstairs to the attic. Delly plays with her grappling hook, and I decide to add to the journal.

'This journal told me there was no one I could trust. But when you battle a hundred gnomes side by side with someone you realize that they've probably always got your back. Our uncle told us there was nothing strange about this town but who knows what other secrets are waiting to be unlocked?'

Grunkle Mitch's POV

I close up shop after another long day. With every passing day, time goes slower. At least I've got the kids here to brighten my life. Having them here has only fueled my motivation to pull this off. When I finally finish what I set out to do all those years ago – everything will change.

I move to the vending machine, enter the combination and the secret door opens. Moving into the doorway, I look around one last time – if those kids ever found out what I'm doing... everything I've worked for could be jeopardized. Sighing, I pull the door closed behind me. Time to get to work.

When I watched Gravity Falls for the first time back in 2012, I imagined the characters as Hunger Games characters instead. (Does anyone else do that with shows?) I never really planned on making this Fanfiction until early this year when the show ended, that's when I realized how bad I needed to write this. It's going to be about thirty chapters long, this is my first fanfic that I've ever posted before I've finished writing it. I don't know how often I'm going to update. Anyway, I hope you guys like this story, tell me your thoughts in the reviews.