Tambry's POV
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It was a hot and humid day in Gravity Falls, and it was making my skin feel sticky. The keypad on my phone made a little smacking noise every time I lifted a finger from the keys, since my fingers were sticking. My hair was sticking to my forehead, and I brushed at bit out of my face in an effort to cool down.
My brother, Nate, was at my side. He was fanning himself with his hat and tugging at the collar of his shirt. His short hair was nearly flat with sweat. "Are we almost to the Mystery Shack? They have AIR CONDITIONING!" Nate asked, panting his words.
"About a minute more." I answered.
"UGH! WHY IS IT SO HOT?" he whined, running a hand through his sweaty hair.
"Oh quit your whining! We're almost there!"
We walked down the dusty road, feeling beaten down by the grueling heat. The land in front of us appeared to wave. After what seemed like hours, we finally arrived at the shack. "YES! FINALLY!" Nate exclaimed and ran toward the door. Thank god. I needed some AC.
We burst in the door of Wendy's crappy workplace, sighing with sweet relief as the cold air surrounded us. Nate removed his shirt, tossing it to the floor. Robbie was already there, sitting on the counter with his shirt off. He was in a pair of loose shorts, rather than his usual super tight jeans.
Wendy was in her whit tank top, having removed her flannel shirt. Her hat sat on the counter, and she was in a pair of short shorts. Her long red hair was tied into a ponytail, and the released frizz was sticking messily to her forehead.
Thompson was there, in a green tank top and his usual baggy shorts. His hair was wet with sweat and he looked sticky.
"Hey, dorks." Wendy said.
"Hey." I sighed, sitting in front of the fan.
"Is Lee here yet?" Nate asked.
"Yeah, he's in the bathroom." Robbie said. Nate smiled excitedly.
"Awesome! I haven't seen him in person for like a week!"
Robbie rubbed in between his eyes then picked up Wendy's magazine to fan himself. Wendy used her hand to brush some shaggy black hair out of his eyes. His eyes looked zoned out on her, and he obediently handed her the magazine. She fanned herself and planted a kiss on his extremely chapped lips.
I rolled my eyes. I hated when people got all gushy and romantic. Unless it was me and Thompson together. Then it was THEIR turn to roll their eyes while I got agitated at them for doing so.
Finally, Lee appeared. A broad smile spread across my brother's tan face as he ran to his boyfriend and nearly knocked him over with a hug. Lee simply laughed and hugged back. I quickly snapped a picture with my phone. I posted the pic to my Tumblr page and captioned it "OMG you guys! My bro and his boyfriend are just SO CUTE! #so cute #romantic #boyfriends #adorable"
I smiled and struggled not to snap more pictures as Nate planted about 3 quick kisses on Lee's lips. We all gathered and sat on the floor. Wendy smiled. "Wow, Lee. This is the first time I've seen you without a shirt." she said, her eyebrows raised.
Robbie nodded. "Yeah. You're usually all 'Oh, I'm just really insecure about my body'." he said in a deep mocking voice, causing Wendy and I to laugh.
Lee frowned. "Well I am! It's just so hot today, I didn't really have an option…" he said.
Nate put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't need to be insecure." he said reassuringly. Lee smiled. Robbie scowled and snapped "OK, OK. That's enough. We don't need you two gaying up the place."
Nate and Lee both frowned, causing me and Wendy to laugh again. Robbie laughed along with us.
Suddenly, that little weirdo girl form the convenience store ran down the stairs in a short skirt and tank top, looking very excited. "Wendy! Guess what! Guess what! Guess what!"
"What?"
"Grunkle Stan is taking all of us camping tonight, and he said your friends could come if they promised no rap music!" she exclaimed happily.
"Oh, awesome! You guys wanna go camping?" Wendy asked us.
"Yeah, sure!" Nate said.
"Yeah, I'm down!" Lee agreed.
"Sure. Whatever." Robbie said.
"OK, yeah!" Thompson said.
They all looked at me expectantly. "Tambry?" Wendy asked.
The truth was_ I was horrified of the woods. I knew how many dangerous secrets and treasures and creatures they held. It was scary. Every time we drive through them in Thompson's van, Nate has to hold my hand and pet my hair to keep me calm.
"Uh…I don't know, guys…" I said.
Robbie rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. It's not THAT scary, Tam. The worst that could possibly happen is we get mauled viciously by a bear. No biggie." he said, smiling evily. I bit my lip and curled up, clutching my knees. Wendy socked Robbie in the arm, HARD. "OW! Wendy!" he yelped.
"You're supposed to help her feel better! Can you do that?" she snapped.
Robbie gave the same evil smirk. "I can," he glanced at me "but I choose not to."
Uh oh. Something tells me that if I go, Robbie will be ruining my ego. ALL NIGHT. Nate squeezed my hand and smiled at me. "Please, Tam? It'll be SO much fun!" he pleaded.
"Please, Tambry?" Lee and Thompson added.
"Yeah, please Tambry?" Robbie said sarcastically, still smirking.
I sighed. "Oh fine."
Everyone cheered and ran off to their houses to grab their camping gear, leaving me and my brother alone. He pushed some hair out of my face and kissed my sweaty forehead. "It'll be OK. Trust me. And you have 4 strong, prepared men along with you! Me, Lee, Robbie, and Mr. Pines! Everything will be alright." he assured.
I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "What about Dipper? Or Thompson?" I asked. I mean, yes, Dipper Pines wasn't the strongest guy in the whole world. But still, he was a reasonable young man.
"OK, 5. Counting Dipper."
"Thompson?"
"I said strong, prepared men." Nate said, smiling smartly. I laughed and shoved him playfully. "Shut up, ya hole." I said. We laughed and darted to the house to grab our stuff.
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We all met up back at the shack, surrounding Mr. Pines's red station wagon. Everyone was blabbering about how excited they were and what they should do first and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Finally, we spotted Mr. Pines walking towards the car, the twins at his heels. "Alright everyone, listen up. Before we head out, we gotta lay down some ground rules." he proclaimed in his gruff voice.
All of us kids groaned. "Oh, quit your whining. OK, rule #1: No running off all alone. At least one person has to be with you at all times."
Lee raised his hand and tried not to laugh. "What about the bathroom?" he asked sarcastically.
"You know the answer to that, ya twerp. Rule #2: Nothing above kissing until you're in your own tent. Rule #3: No setting anything on fire. And the most important rule of them all_ rule #4: NO RAP MUSIC. PERIOD."
"We don't even listen to rap, Stan." Wendy said.
"Well good. Now I have 1 personal rule for each of you. Soos, no chewing on the roasting sticks. Even for leftover marshmallow fluff. Dipper, keep your face out of that creepy book. Mabel, no being creepy until we tell scary stories. Wendy, no tonsil hockey with your boyfriend until you're in your own tent. Nate, no being gay until you aren't visible to any of us. Lee, same thing. Thompson, no throwing rocks at people to see if they're sleeping. Tambry, no cell phone. This is quality time for your friends. And Robbie_ absolutely, positively, NO ACTING GUSHY AND SWEET FOR WENDY." Stan finished, emphasizing those final words.
"What?! Why?!" Robbie snapped.
"Because I said so. It annoys me seeing such a wonderful jerk like yourself be gushy and sweet. By the way, everyone_ my personal rule is no scamming other campers. Alright, now let's get going."
"Yay!" Mabel squealed, pulling Dipper into the seat next to her. I was REALLY aggravated with Mr. Pines. NO CELL PHONE?! How was I going to make it?! Oh well. I could just turn the flash off and he would never know that I was taking pics for Tumblr.
The car gave a roar as it started, and off we drove, straight toward my biggest nightmare.
As we drove through the entrance of trees, my heart was racing. I felt myself start to sweat and I was trembling like mad. My vision started to become unfocused as I continued to panic. Nate must have noticed, because he reached over and grabbed my hand, giving it a little squeeze. He scooted close to me and ruffled my hair softly. "Hey, it's OK. It's OK. Calm down." he whispered. It didn't relax me completely, but it did help quite a bit.
We continued on the bumpy path for about 10 minutes until we finally arrived to the area Mr. Pines had reserved. "Ah, beautiful! Don't you kids just love this? A great spot in the middle of the woods!" Stan said, looking very proud of himself.
I gulped. "The very m-middle?" I stuttered.
Robbie regained the same evil smirk he had at the shack. "Wow, the very middle? I heard that's where the bears like to hang out." he said mischievously. My heart and stomach both gave a big jolt. Nate gave Robbie a punch in the stomach, causing the raven-haired boy to double over and wheeze. "Quit it, ya hole. You're scaring her." he snapped.
We set up our tents and unpacked the supplies. By the time we were finished, it was pretty dark out. "Well_ I guess we should start the fire, huh?" Stan said. "Mabel! Dipper! Go get some firewood and logs to sit on!"
"Yes Grunkle Stan!" Mabel said obediently. Her and Dipper ran off to the wood pile, coming back every minute or so with arms full of firewood.
"Alright, alright. That's enough wood. Now go get the logs to sit on while I start up the fire."
"Yes Grunkle Stan!" Mabel again said, running off with her sibling to get some sitting logs.
Stan lit the fire and rapidly started adding logs and twigs to make it flame. After a while, there was a gigantic flame, floating around like a ghost. Mabel and Dipper had arrived back and set up the logs for us to sit on. "Good job, Grunkle Stan!" Mabel cheered, making the old man smile.
I reluctantly sat on the log, next to my brother. Chills were running down my spine, and my eyes were watering from the intense heat. Mr. Pines grunted as he sat on a log slowly. "OK, who's up for some story telling?" he asked. "Anyone?"
"OOH! OOH! Robbie should tell one! He looks like he's GREAT at scary stories!" Mabel suggested excitedly.
"Yeah, baby! Tell a story, you're good at that!" Wendy said.
Robbie rolled his eyes. "No."
"Come on, babe! Please? For me?"
He looked at her for a moment and smiled. "OK, just for you." He kissed her nose and she giggled.
"Hey! What did I say, Robbie?" Stan said, raising an eyebrow.
"I'll do as I please, old man." Robbie snapped. Stan growled and gritted his teeth. I could tell that he didn't prefer any of us. Or even LIKE any of us, for that matter.
I missed my phone. The only reason I agreed to this is because I thought I would have my phone to help me through it. But then Stan took it away, so I again was panicking. I had nothing to distract me from the shadows of the trees and the little animal sounds and rustles of leaves that gave me mini heart attacks.
"OK. So_" Robbie began "there used to be a crappy house in these woods, about where this campfire is, actually. A little girl lived here with her mom and dad who never paid any attention to her, just ignored her all the time. And it really upset her, so she would usually just take a walk in the woods when she was sad or being ignored.
"Her favorite place to walk was on the outer edge, looking at the town and watching all the happy families just kinda cheered her up. Made her forget about all her problems, ya know? So she would aimlessly wander around, thinking things over, lulling her thoughts."
Wendy squealed. "OH MY GOD I HATE THIS STORY!"
"Why? Seems pretty good so far." Lee asked.
"No! It's really good, that's why I hate it! It's SO scary! Last time he told it, I made him walk me to the bathroom for a week! SCARY!" she said.
Oh no. I'm screwed.
"Anyway_ the girl was walking around one day, and she started hearing this little whispering behind her. It sounded like it was saying 'come here now' but she wasn't sure. She turned and looked around, but didn't see anyone. So she just turned back around and kept walking.
"This time, she heard it louder. Now she was starting to get scared, so she ran back to her house to TRY and get her mother's attention. She explained it, but her mom just kept saying 'you're insane, you're insane'. So in rage, the girl ran off into the evening."
Oh no. This must be where it gets bad.
"So this girl_ she's walking through the woods, and she hears this raspy voice again, and it's saying 'come here', but A LOT louder this time. She was freaking out now and she started walking a little faster. 'COME HERE COME HERE COME HERE'! It just kept screaming at her, and she was wondering why no one was hearing it.
"She finds a hollow tree and she ducks inside and tries to hide in there. There's silence for a minute, and she starts to relax…but then screams in horror at the realization that there's A PAIR OF FEET RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER!" Robbie says those last few words loudly, and they all jump and let out little yelps.
Robbie smiles and continues the story. "So there's this pair of feet in front of her, attached to the tallest man she'd ever seen. And the scariest part was_" he added a dramatic pause for effect "_the man had no face. No face at all. Just a flat, white surface where the face belonged.
"She screamed and tried to crawl back into the tree, but was pulled back by one of the creatures long, black tentacles. She howled in pain as the creature squeezed her tighter and tighter. She couldn't breathe. She felt herself slowly slipping away from reality…"
I was literally shaking. Badly. I felt like there was someone behind me every time a ghastly word came out of Robbie's mouth. The worst part was that his story took place in the woods. I felt like I was having a heart attack.
"And then!" he suddenly blurted, causing me to jump. "The creature started slowly draining the girl, depriving her of her soul. He lay her lifeless body on the ground and used his long, sharp, 8 inch fingers to rip open her little chest and slowly pulled each and every organ in her body out, devouring those as well.
"The police_ why, we know them! A then 47 year old Sheriff Blubbs and a 35 year old Deputy Durland! What a coincidence! Anyway, the police found the little girl's empty body 3 days later, but there was no evidence on who could have done it. So they gave up the case and went to fetch the body and bury it. But when they went back_ it was gone. The murderer must've taken it.
"They never found out for sure who killed that little girl. But only a select few know the truth. That little girl_ that sweet, loving, kindhearted little girl_ was killed by none other than_" he paused for dramatic effect "_the Slenderman."
He leaned back and crossed his arms, looking at our horrified faces. I was probably the most horrified, but Wendy pulled in close. Nate and Lee were holding to each other for dear life, Dipper was cradling an almost crying Mabel (looking near tears himself), Thompson was shaking and twiddling his thumbs_ heck, even Mr. Pines looked scared out of his wits.
"Well, uh_ that was certainly a vivid tale, Robbie…" Stan stuttered.
"That's cool, bro. I didn't wanna sleep tonight anyway." Nate said, shuddering.
"Why_ Why would you tell such a scary story, Robbie? Grunkle Stan's are NEVER that scary!" Mabel said, her voice quivering.
"That was even scarier the second time, baby." Wendy said. He was busy laughing at everyone else, but stopped when he noticed that Wendy was tearing up, shaking.
"Hey, you OK?" he asked.
"That just_ really scares me_ because it seems so true! And you just_ you tell it so well!" She let out a tiny sob, but didn't cry. She just kept shaking.
"Aww, baby…" He scooted to her and wrapped his arms around her in a comforting way. She let him cradle her and he whispered "It's OK. It's just a story."
Lee frowned. "Oh, so we get scared and almost cry and you laugh hysterically, but when WENDY cries, she gets love and comfort? Really dude? That's low."
"Well she's my girlfriend. What, you want me to come cuddle you losers?" We were silent. "Didn't think so." He shot us one last nasty glare then went back to cuddling Wendy.
Nate looked over at me. "You OK, Tam?" he asked. I just gave him a look that said 'nope' because I was at a heavy loss for words. I let out a little sob, and Nate immediately wrapped an arm around me. "Hey, hey, hey_ it's OK. Don't cry. I realize that story probably didn't help, but it'll be fine." He suddenly got his 'I have an idea' look. "Come here."
He grabbed my hand and pulled me over to Mr. Pines. "Uh…sir?" he said uneasily.
"What? What do you want?" the old man snapped.
"You wouldn't let anything brutally slaughter us would you? You know, like bears, or bucks, or_ angry Slendermans…"
"Of course not. Can you imagine how many parents would be suing me? I'd be broke! And hey_ I've punched a Pterodactyl in the face! I ain't afraid of no Slenderguy!" he said proudly.
"See, Tam? Mr. Pines won't let anything hurt you. It's OK."
I smiled at my brother. "OK. I feel like 25% better now."
"Close enough."
I laughed and gave him a goodnight kiss. "Goodnight, Nate."
"Goodnight, Tambry."
As we all crawled into our tents, I felt much better. Having Mr. Pines around actually made me feel kinda sorta safe. Not to mention Nate, Lee, Robbie, Dipper, and Thompson. I lay down next to my boyfriend and looked into his eyes.
"You feeling any better?" Thompson asked.
"Oh yeah. As long as you promise to hold me so I don't get scared." I said, winking.
"No problem."
I laid with my back to him and he wrapped an arm around me. I immediately felt safer, and I slowly drifted off into sleep.
I'll post my unknowingly taken pictures on Tumblr tomorrow.