Gravity Falls, OR
December 04, 1979
Stanford Pines glances out the window and freezes in his tracks before suddenly breaking into a flurry of motion, performing an abrupt about face and scrambling out the door.
"Ford?" Carla calls after the man.
"I'll be back soon!" he promises as he runs toward the woods.
"At least put on a real coat!" she yells after him.
Ford looks back with an excited grin - the one Carla has quietly dubbed 'Nerd Smile Number Three: New Discovery' - and the woman realizes her request is a lost cause before he even opens his mouth to reply. "No time!" And then he's gone, form swallowed by the surrounding trees.
"Ugh," Carla groans and closes the door, "Stanford."
"Uncle For' trouble?" Jason questions from his seat at the kitchen table, looking between her and the door the scientist had bolted through just seconds ago.
"Only if he doesn't come back before he turns into a popsicle out there," Carla mutters under her breath as she rubs her temples. With a sigh, she drops her hands and tells her son, "Not yet, Baby. Eat your snack."
"Yes, Mama."
The sun sets early this time of year and the temperature plummets shortly thereafter. These two facts would not bother Carla overly much if it weren't for another two facts. Stanford had not been properly dressed for the weather when he left the house, and that event had happened over an hour ago - nearly two, by this point - and the man in question still hasn't returned.
She'd moved Jason's bedtime up a few hours tonight, which means she'll likely be dealing with a cranky toddler come tomorrow, but it's better than the alternative of taking her not-quite-one-year-old out into the Gravity Falls woods after dark. If she's really lucky, she won't need to enter the woods, either. (Ideally, she'd be able to call the local police department to organize a search for the missing scientist, but with the recent snowfall they've been effectively cut off from the town. By the time help could reach them, the search party would more realistically be looking for a body than a person. She calls the police anyway, just in case.)
"- No, I understand, but I'm going out to look for him myself. ... Thank you, Henry. Susan would be willing to take him, short-term at least. ... No, don't call her yet. There's still every chance things will work themselves out. I don't want to worry her for nothing. ... I know my limits, Sheriff. I don't plan to go out too far, but I can't take the chance that something happens to me and it leaves Jason without anyone here to care for him. I'll call again once I come back from my search. If I don't, well, I guess you'll have two missing persons to look for. ... No, I'm sure. ... Thank you, Sheriff Michaels. Good bye."
The woman returns the phone to its cradle with a sigh. That's one worry taken care of.
Carla zips up her winter coat, pulls her knit cap on over her head, and straightens her spine in determination. Armed with a large metal flashlight in her left hand and her father's old pistol in her coat pocket, the woman opens the door and prays she won't run into anything that will try to eat her.
Carla takes a breath in an attempt to steady her nerves before she slips through the doorway and leaves the warmth, light, and relative safety of the house behind her. "You better still be alive, Stanford, because I am going to throttle you for this one."
This is the ONLY CHAPTER of the TEASER!
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