Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.
Chapter One: The Haunting
It was raining outside. The darkness of the outside world was in sharp contrast to the warm, dry and bright ambiance of the luxurious Northwest manor. The main room was headed with lights as well as a healthy fire. Some would likely call this excessive or superfluous, but the family that lorded the manor wouldn't hear of such things. Besides, light was a necessity tonight – her parents were getting everything ready for the annual party tomorrow night.
Pacifica walked silently and properly into the main room where her mother was looking over the guest list and her father was chiding the help. Even though she knew nothing was directed at her, there was a small hollowness in her stomach at her father's aggravation. Still, she stood straight and dignified in the room, waiting for her parents to acknowledge her. Surely her plan had to work!
"Now where the devil is –" her mother asked herself before looking up from the list and finally noticing her. "Pacifica!" Having missed the tone of her mother's voice, Pacifica smiled as she lifted the ends of her dress, pinkies up, and gave a small, lady-like bow. "What did I tell you about that dress? The theme is sea-foam green, not lake-foam green! Go change!"
Pacifica's smile fell and she took a moment to look down at her dress, wondering what was really wrong with it. It was very comfortable and in her own opinion, lake-foam looked better on her anyway. Her mother had already yelled at her over this dress, but for some reason she couldn't remember now, she had thought if she presented herself just right they might allow it this one time.
"But I – I kinda like it!" she tried to say before she completely lost her nerve. Again. As far as discipline went, she preferred her mother to her father; Mom was the easy one. Not that that really meant much, but still.
"Mind your mother, Pacifica." her father said, walking up to them, making her nervous already.
"Bu–" she started, but than her father pulled the bell out. That eerie, haunting ring flooded her ears, and she immediately closed her mouth in obedience. Honestly, she had forgotten years ago why she was meant to fear a silly little bell, and she knew it was ridiculous, but there was one way to make it stop: submission. She sighed in defeat, now wondering what in the world had made her think she could stand up to her parents. "Yes, father." Dejected, Pacifica turned around, meaning to go back to her room and change into that cold, pale dress.
She didn't take a step before she felt a trembling in the floor and peered back in confusion. Did this mean she didn't need to change her dress? The dinnerware on the table began to topple, and she gasped when they lifted themselves and began to flout. Plates seemed to pare off as they launched themselves at servants and she tried to shield herself when a couple flew to her and busted on the floor inches from her feet.
As she ducked under the table with her mother, Pacifica heard her father yell something about being his possessions and obeying him before he joined them under the table. In fact, she thought she heard something from him before about something happening before? Did he know what was going on? Pacifica found herself strangely fixated on this whole thing and vaguely registered her parents' words or the fact that a newspaper had landed right in front of her father.
Pacifica couldn't believe she was being made to do this; it was servants' work! After forcing herself through some unusually sticky mud, she tried to scrape it off on the old wood of the porch. She wasn't sure what that would really do, but it was better than nothing. That and this place smelled like animal droppings. The question on her mind was why her? She knew neither of her parents who set foot here, but why not get a servant to go or pay someone to send the message? Well, at least she was in disguise, so nobody would see her.
So she and Mabel had reached an agreement the last time they spoke – or they seemed to, if the other girls overly friendly behavior on the ride home had been any indication – that their rivalry was off. That didn't change the fact that Mabel Pines and her were not friends. Personally, Pacifica had hoped to avoid the Pines's entirely for the remainder of the summer, after which she heard they'd be going home back to wherever they were from. Mabel wasn't the one Pacifica was here for, though. It was her luck that her business was with the one person in the world she had even less to talk about with; her brother.
Dipper Pines seemed to be the quiet one, at least in comparison to that motormouth sister of his. She had heard that that's how it sometimes worked with twins; they would often be each others' opposites. But Dipper was also a nosy little creep. He had given her a document once; one claiming the Northwest legacy to be a shame, saying they never founded the town. This had upset her until her father assured her that the documents were fake; likely forged by those jealous little urchins, and he warned her to not humor their sick little games. From than on, Pacifica and Dipper's interactions had been limited to trading barbed, snarky comments, but little more. Still, apparently the boy now had a reputation as some kind of mystery solver, which is what her father had found in the paper last night.
She knocked on the door three times and was greeted by Dipper. Good, this would be over quickly. "I need your help." she said.
Dipper stared at her blankly for a couple of seconds before answering in a rather deadpan voice: "You're the worst." And with that, he slammed the door in her face. Jerk. She knocked again, and this time he gave her a bored look.
"Look, you think it's easy for me to come here?" Pacifica asked, shooing the mosquitoes away from her. "I don't wanna be seen in this hovel! But there's something haunting Northwest Manor. If you don't help me, the party could he ruined!" Pacifica was sure to give him an act of a scared little girl as she removed her sunglasses to increase the effect. From his unimpressed face, it seemed that either this act only worked on adults, or else she was getting too old for it. Perhaps both.
"And why should I trust you?" Dipper asked, looking unjustly smug. "All you've ever done is try to humiliate me and Mabel."
"Just name you're price, okay? I'll give you anything!" Pacifica said, knowing that she'd get the bell for that if her father were here. Not only had she resorted to begging, but it wasn't her call to offer up more money then they had allowed her. In her purse was five-hundred dollars and five invites to the party, both up for offer should it be asked.
"Hi Pacifica!" Mabel said, running to stand beside Dipper, as always in some odd little sweater and currently looking...rather devious. "Excuse us."
Dipper gave a yelp as she yanked in out of Pacifica's sight and she could hear a hushed argument between them. After only moments, Dipper returned with an exasperated look on his face and gave her an irritated groan. "Fine, all bust your ghost." he said, leaning on the door-frame and extending his hand for their deal. When she moved to take it, he yanked it away with a smirk that instantly made her want to smack him. "But in exchange, I'll need three tickets to the party."
Pacifica growled as she grabbed her purse and took out three golden envelopes with tickets in them. "You're lucky I'm desperate!"
"Woo-hoo!" She could hear Mabel and her friends cheering and chanting: "Desperate! Desperate! Desperate!" Oh, the humiliation. At least there was no one else around to see this. "Grenda, get the glue-gun. We're making dresses!" Pardon?
It looked like it would be another wet night that night. Pacifica couldn't believe this: inviting those creepy twins and their friends into her home. At least she'd managed to squeeze a personal victory out of this; her wardrobe. Far from the water-based green theme she'd been yelled at for last night, she was wearing a dark purple and black gown and dark red gloves. Perhaps all this commotion would distract her parents from it, or at least not see it as a big deal by comparison.
"Welcome to Northwest Manor, dorks." Pacifica said as she opened the door with a scowl on her face. "Try not to touch anything." Not two seconds after these words left her mouth did Mabel start gushing over everything – touching everything from the floor to the help in the process. Ordinarily, she would have upset Pacifica, but time was of the essence.
Pacifica's parents took a moment to send hostile glares to the tree girls who raced passed them, gleefully chasing the quails around and paying them no mind. This had Pacifica wondering, not for the first time, if Mabel ever had to answer to a bell when she was disobedient. Did Mabel's parents allow her to wear what she wanted to? Had Dipper been forbidden to play with other kids when he'd been small? Did they ever have to resort to spending their time at some smelly old shack just to get a few hours away from their parents?
Okay, okay, focus girl, she told herself. She tailed Dipper as he approached her parents, who in turn sent him clearly fake smiles. "Ah, if it isn't the man of the hour! Hopefully you can help us with our little...situation before the guests arrive in an hour?"
"I'll do my best!" Dipper declared, both looking and sounding quite bold. Pacifica was loathe to admit it, even if only to herself, but she supposed he deserved merit for his professionalism. That or surprisingly good acting. It was plain to see that he detested the Northwests, but he hid it well and it really seemed like he'd put his all into whatever he was planning.
"Splended." her father said. "Pacifica take our guest to the problem room and, eh...he's not wearing that is he?"
"I'm on it." Pacifica assured him.
Around five minutes later, Dipper emerged from the changing room looking quite unhappy. "Gah, it's like this collar is strangling me." he said as he pulled and fussed at his collar. His necktie was also undone. "Who do you guys think you're impressing with this stuff?"
"Um, everyone?" Pacifica said in an obvious tone as she made him a proper bow-tie. At the very least, the guy outta look presentable. "You wouldn't understand." She said and escorted him down the corridor. "High standards are what make the Northwest family great." To prove her point, she gestured to the pictures on the wall, each a noble ancestor of their family.
"Funny, I thought it was lying about founding the town." Dipper said She looked back at him when she didn't hear his footsteps following her, only to find him amusing himself with the tassels on the paintings. Perhaps that idiot was more like his sister than she'd originally thought.
"Don't touch that!" she yelled back at him. It didn't take long to arrive in the main room, which was only lite by a fire. "This is the main room, where it's been happening."
"Yep, this looks like the kind of room that would he haunted alright." Dipper said, and Pacifica got the strangest impression he was simply imitating something he'd heard from some old cheesy ghost movie. "I wouldn't be worried, though." he said, showing her some weird book he was carrying around, the pages with pictures of ghosts on them, notes scribbled here and there. "Ghosts fall on a ten category scale; flouting plates sound like a category one."
"So what?" Pacifica asked. "Are you gonna bore him back into the afterlife by reading from this book?" she joked, giving him a look at faded to disappointment when it didn't seem to phase him. Stupid boy!
Just gotta splash this sucker with some anointed water and he should be out of your...probably fake blond hair." Dipper said, sloshing around a jar of water and hurrying the last part of the sentence.
"What was that about my hair?" Pacifica demanded, no longer amused by their little back-and-forth. At the same moment, one of the contraptions in his backpack lite up and he took it out, hushing her.
"Shh! I'm picking something up!" he whispered, holding the thing that looked like a modified metal detector.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
What was that dripping sound? Was there a leak in here? Had the rain even started yet? As if on cue, Pacifica saw a drop of something fall in front of her, and she realized there was a puddle of it inches from her feet. Too thick-looking and red to be water.
"Ah!" she yelped, looking up at the dozens of hunting trophies. The bear just above of her was...bleeding from the mouth. Pacifica's heartbeat picked up as she backed up closer to Dipper in front of the fireplace. This wasn't the best of moves, though, considering that flames flared out of the fireplace. Pacifica just barely noticed that the animals, now all bleeding from the eyes and mouths, were now speaking in a single, ominous chant: "Ancient sins. Ancient sins. Ancient sins. Ancient sins."
There was an odd, chilly wind in the room as objects flew around again and circled them. She was only vaguely aware of the storm clouds swirling around the ceiling decoration. "Dipper, what is this?" she asked.
"It's a category ten." he sounded small and as scared as she was, and she knew at once that he was no longer quoting movies. She flinched when the jar of special water burst in his hand. With their only line of defense gone, the two did the only thing they could. They screamed.
Yes, Northwest Mansion Mystery is my favorite episode. Why else would I have more than three separate fics centering around the thing? It's a pretty great episode. Review.