Cold wind brushed against Kagan's skin, giving her goosebumps as a shiver went down her spine. Today was her first day in Gravity Falls for the summer, and despite the warm climate previously at home, only chills greeted her as she stepped out of the car and walked inside her new summer house.
Her uncle, who had driven her to his house, helped carry her belongings inside the house, dumping them on the bed in her new room upstairs. She muttered a quiet thank you as he departed to the kitchen.
Cold, Kagan unpacked her bags, putting her clothes neatly in the empty wardrobe inside her room and making her bed with the blankets that had been folded neatly on the edge of her bed. The room was empty apart from her wardrobe and bed, and there was only a single window, the curtains neatly pulled back to allow a warm ray of sun to pass inside the room. The room was pristine, plain white wallpaper without a speck of dirt on it, and shiny brown floorboards that strangely complimented the bed, which was black with yellow bed sheets. Kagan put on a jacket and put on some thick socks, walking downstairs to her uncle and aunty. Her uncle didn't say anything as he sat on the couch, watching something on TV, while her aunty yelled out a greeting as she ate something in the dining room. Kagan sat down on the couch next to her uncle, watching his dark brown eyes turn away from the television and onto her.
"Thanks for driving me here Uncle Joel," Kagan said softly, watching intently as his eyes darted from the TV and her rapidly. He grunted something that sounded like a 'you're welcome', clearly wishing to be alone with TV once again.
"Um. So when's Reuben coming home?" She asked. Her cousin Reuben had needed to go to school today for the full day much to his disappointment, but Kagan had been able to get out of class just after lunch so she could be driven to her new summer home on time. The distracted man muttered something she could not hear, waving her away with his hand. Kagan resisted the urge to growl at him as she walked away back up the stairs, the opening door catching her attention.
"Kay!" The voice of a teenage boy surprised her as she was grabbed by her cousin and hugged to death furiously. The last time she had seen him he had been only ten years old, she almost didn't recognize him by how much he had grown.
"R-Reuben!" Kagan stuttered, giving him an awkward pat on the back as they hugged. Reuben pulled away, his green eyes sparkling like jewels.
"Wow! I haven't seen you for- what? Four years? You look so different!" He said, smiling wildly. "And I can't believe you're staying with us all summer! I can't wait to show you the pool, and the diner- maybe before you leave I could even show you the mystery shack!"
Kagan couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm. The Reuben she once knew had been a shy child too timid to even look at her in the eyes, now he was going around knocking her down the stairs. Kagan wondered when the change had occurred and how, if for any reason. Kagan followed Reuben as he went up to his room and dropped off his school stuff, she waited patiently outside the door as he changed clothes, and was surprised as he came out in orange shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt despite the cold weather. His smile drooped slightly as he looked at her attire.
"Kay... What on Earth are you wearing?"
Kagan's cheeks burned red, looking down at her jacket and jeans. She felt a sudden wave of embarrassment rush over her when she saw a faintly visible dot of sweat under her armpits. She was amazed he had noticed it.
"You planning on leaving us to go to Antarctica or something? Go get changed into some REAL summer clothes and we'll go out to the woods." He snorted. Kagan's chest loosened as she realized he had not noticed the sweat.
"It's freezing though. Surely we're not going to go around in shorts and singlets are we?" She asked, making sure not to put an edge in the way she said it.
Reuben rolled his eyes. "Trust me, spend a few hours outside and you'll be calling yourself delusional for wearing that." He said, pushing her off into the direction of her room. Kagan hesitated for a second, but got changed anyway and walked outside to the doorway where Reuben was waiting. Reuben called out to his parents to tell them where they were going, and then two made their way off to the woods, chatting about school and their current interests as they walked. Both Reuben and Kagan were surprised to find that they shared quite a few hobbies, and they slowly become oblivious to their surroundings as they conversed.
After half an hour or so of talking, they eventually reached the borders to the clearing of the woods. The ominous pine trees swirled around them, and there was nothing but an endless stream of shadows surrounding them. The noise of the gentle swaying of the branches and insects buzzing slowly faded into the background, and only a faint clicking noise heading towards them snapped them from their talking trance.
"So-erm. What were you telling me about your friend again?" Kagan asked her cousin after a few minutes of silence.
"Oh- yeah! Well, Clyde was talking to this girl from his class the other day, when suddenly Kylie came up from, like, literally nowhere and-" Whatever he had said then was drowned out by a strange clicking noise coming from around the clearing. Reuben kept talking, oblivious to the noises, but was forced to shut up when Kagan made a dash for the clearing.
"H-hey! My stories aren't that bad are they!" He spluttered, thrown off-guard as he chased after Kagan.
Kagan stopped abruptly, eyes widened in horror as she saw some sort of monster gnawing on a rock in the center of the clearing. Wild grey and white fur sprouting from it at all angles, multiple limbs carrying trinkets and other items on it's body, it's face was just a massive mix of eyes and teeth with a long dark green tongue dangling from it's mouth. Reuben's jaw dangled down to scream, but he could only stand still, paralyzed by fear as the feral creature scraped it's teeth along the jagged edges of a large rock. A disgusting slurping sound coming from it's mouth as it chewed.
The two teens stood there for a moment in pure shock as they watched the creature stop it's gnawing every few seconds and click it's fangs along the smooth side of the rock, making a ticking noise as it's eyes twirled madly as it did so.
Eventually, Reuben let out a gasp, and the monster turned it's head, dropping the rock in surprise and making it fall on it's foot. The creature let out a shriek of pain and dashed off into the forest, an abundance of items falling out of it's many arm's grip and onto the dirt as it fled. The two cousins shared a mystified look as they slowly approached the place where it once sat, being careful not to touch the footprints left in the ground out of fear. Reuben inspected the rock, a small symbol of some sort engraved in the surface while Kagan had a look at the items it dropped. A toothbrush with green hairs, a broken guitar handle, the whole pile looked like absolute junk.
Kagan reached out a hand to touch the junk, fascination and fear bubbling so rapidly inside her she began trembling. Not able to bring herself to touch one of the objects, she closed her eyes and slowly pulled out...
A bag full of rat droppings, yuck!
Kagan flung it aside in disgust, accidentally throwing it at Reuben's head. The boy, engrossed in the mysterious words written in the stone, screamed in fear as the bag burst upon contact and the feces pelted down on the back of his neck. Horrified, he whipped around, placing a hand on the back of his neck and flinching upon feeling the smudge around the back of his neck. He glared at Kagan after connecting the dots, and began throwing it back of her, at this point a smile had been forming on her face as she desperately attempted to dodge the flying pellets.
"I didn't mean to! I swear!" She said, bursting out laughing at the peeved off look on her cousin's face. He scowled.
"I don't care!" He yelled, this time a small smile forming at the tip of his mouth as he gathered up the muck and threw it at her once again. Shoving her hand into the pile, she pulled out a multitude of things to shield herself from the junk being thrown at her way. Her plan worked for about five seconds, but eventually he began aiming at her unguarded legs. After a minute or two Reuben calmed down, laughing too hard at the mess on her to continue, Kagan growled at him. The objects still cradled in her arms in case once he was finished laughing he attempted another attack.
"S-sorry about that." He giggled. A goofy look spread on his face.
Kagan let out a bemused snort and released some of the items, looking at the mysterious items she had grabbed to make sure they were not bags of excrement like the previous random dip. She slowly took a careful look at each item before putting it down, eventually a single title-less red book sitting in her hands, a plain golden six-fingered hand print engraved in the front cover, Kagan looked at it in fascination, an unexplainable anxiety rising to her chest as she gazed at it. Reuben, flicked the mush off the back of him, peering over to look at the book in front of his sibling. A strange feeling making the hairs on the back of his neck raise as he looked at it.
The two cousins looked at the book for a minute in pure wonder, glancing behind her to make sure the creature hadn't returned, Kagan flipped to the first page and began reading it out loud.
"These notes belong to S-Ahh-uh, I can't read that properly. If found please return in person to the something-shack, do NOT read at any costs." Kagan read, giving Reuben a mystified look as she read on. "Highly dangerous. The Gatherer is a furry, many limbed creature that steals and collect various objects from both unobtainable sources and places purposely hidden away from certain people. Easily frightened off the first time he sees a new face but violent around people he recognizes, has outstanding strength and a lifelong grudge, I suspect he is weakened by inability to walk properly on sand and snow due to his misshaped feet. Will write more soon." Kagan skipped through the pages for the continuation of the notes, though was sorely disappointed to find nothing.
"So. It looks like we found a monster guide or something then?" Reuben muttered, confused.
"You mean I found." Kagan mocked, sticking out her tongue and scrunching up her nose, Reuben huffed.
"Whatever," He snorted. "At least we know something about that thing now, right?" He asked. Kagan nodded.
"You know. Speaking about it and all, uh. Maybe we should, you know, get out of here before it comes back and 'gets violent with the familiar people'." Kagan shivered, suddenly serious.
Reuben nodded and the two rushed home quickly. The sun beginning to lower further towards dusk by the minute. By the time they had gotten home they could hear Reuben's dad beginning to prepare dinner in the kitchen. Aunty Bella was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey Dad," Reuben greeted, strolling into the kitchen like nothing out of ordinary had happened that afternoon. "What's for dinner?"
Kagan listened in for a few minutes at her uncle's murmuring before heading up stairs again, clearing out a small space for the book in her wardrobe for later storage and tapping her foot impatiently against the wood as she waited for Reuben to come up. The cold air from house making her slowly get chattering teeth once more, she put on a jacket as Reuben strolled into the room, sitting down on the edge of the bed and glancing at the journal. Kagan sighed and sat next to him.
"So... where do you think it came from?" She asked, a concentrated expression on her face.
"Probably the mystery shack. I mean, it said SOMETHING shack at least, and all the stuff there this is pretty similar to some of it, I mean, the shop's a tourist trap filled with overpriced tacky gimmicky stuff and a bunch of the 'attraction' stuff." Reuben said, an oddly uncertain expression on his face despite his confident tone. Kagan tilted her head to a side.
"Wait, so it's a tourist shop with overpriced souvenirs and a bunch of props that lull visitors in or something? Why would it come from there?" Kagan asked, slightly confused.
Reuben shrugged. "Well, the shack's supposed to lure people in with urban legends about Gravity Falls and sell them tacky related items for a quick nickel. I mean, it looks like something that would be sold there to hype up news reporters or attract vacationers to stay longer or something." Reuben said, his voice wavering with more uncertainty.
"Right... but, obviously some parts of the book are true though? I mean, unless that thing we saw was a robot or something?" Kagan said, biting her tongue as she tried remembering any part about the horribly vivid creature that was off.
Reuben shook his head and gave a forced laugh."No way- at least, I doubt it. The owner of the store is a real crook. Even if he was trying to use the book to get any old people to his shop, I doubt he'd put in such the effort to obtain such a realistic robo-beast like that, have it drop in a book with the hopes the new owners will return it and then-" He gasped.
"What?" Kagan asked, wondering whether he had a heart attack or was in a state of realization.
Reuben gritted his teeth. "That's it! That creature was supposed to come back for revenge or something. The owner's trying to scare us into taking the book back and buying protection or some fake charms or something!" He snarled, suddenly standing up and appearing to withhold the need to kick the wall. Kagan looked surprised.
"Are you sure? I mean, like you said, he probably wouldn't go through the effort of-" Reuben interrupted loudly.
"This is different. Big money's on the table now, not just the purchase of some mere merchandise. That evil man thought he could fool us! But he can't-" Reuben's speech broke off into quiet angry murmuring. Kagan was shocked at his sudden outburst, and was even more surprised at his steadily fueling rage. What had happened to him over those four years since she last saw him?
"I don't know about this Reuben. I mean, it's possible... I guess. But something about this doesn't sound right to me." Kagan said quietly. Watching at Reuben turned around and glared at her with the look of an enraged demon. Kagan could barely hear the complaints he rapidly snarled at her with medium volume, still trying not to alert his parents. Eventually after about five minutes of muttering and then silence, his parents called out for dinner and the two cousins were forced to go back downstairs.
Reuben turned to look at Kagan as they walked however, his eyebrows dipping downwards angrily and a frown on his face. He whispered something to Kagan quietly.
"Kay. Tonight around ten when Mum and Dad are asleep, I'm going to break into Mystery Shack and do something to the place- steal, vandalize, I might even give the owner a piece of my mind myself. I want you to join me." He growled.
Kagan could not believe her ears. It was already her first day of Summer and she had witnessed a monster consume a giant rock, had dung thrown at her, read a magic journal and seen her own cousin turn from an angry teen into an angry criminal in a heartbeat.
She mind was ringing in disbelief that the shy child she once knew was about to break into a tourist shop and harm the place or owner simply because he suspected he may of been going to indirectly blackmail them. It was now apparent to her that there was something odd about him that he had not mentioned before, and Kagan was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Guilt and curiosity gnawed at her for a second, and though she severely hoped Reuben was just spouting angry nonsense he would fall asleep and forget about. She nodded slightly and took a breathe of air, "If you promise you won't regret this later I guess I'll do this for you just this once."
A/N: First chapter of my first Gravity Falls fanfic! This is my first story on this site, and I know the plot is a bit rushed along in this chapter, but hopefully in the next I'll be able to to get in some canon characters and capture the two cousin's personalities properly. I got some big ideas for later (and sooner) chapters, please tell me what you think so far! :)