Story inspired by my drawing (above).
Chapter 1
Mabel and Dipper snapped twigs beneath their feet as they walked the overgrown path to the gnomes' burrow. Usually the sounds of crows and chattering squirrels
would hush their footsteps, and usually they wouldn't willingly walk to the gnome burrow, but the town of Gravity Falls had been unusually quiet, and they were going to find out why.
The twins knew something was wrong when they'd gone over a week without a sign of supernatural mischief. They'd checked The Gravity Falls Gossiper every day to see if they might have overlooked something. No giant man-eating bats. No random sinkholes. Nothing.
After many failed attempts to convince Stan to help them, and many afternoons spent laying on the carpet of the living room floor, they decided to head out on their own.
The air was heavy and pressed thickly on Mabel and Dippers ears as they reached the opening of the burrow. Dipper narrowed his eyes and looked to his sister, who nodded back. He slid down the mossy opening, Mabel close behind him.
...
"Nothing! I can't believe- They're just, gone!" Dipper said pacing back and forth in their room. "I mean, I understand the multibear leaving, but the hand witch? She loved what we did to her cave, why would she just leave?" Dipper sat on the edge of his bed and pressed his palms into his eyes. "Something has to be wrong."
"Dipper, I know it's kinda weird that nothing weird has happened this week, but that doesn't mean anything weirder than usual is going on," Mabel said, grabbing the glitter and nail polish off her nightstand. "What if they all just went on a vacation together? I wonder what a monster vacation would be like."
"Mabel this is serious. We need to find out what made them disappear like this," Dipper pulled out the journal and his pocket black light, and started to slowly scan each page while Mabel sat on her bed, kicking her feet and arranging her nail polishes.
The sun had set when Dipper flipped to the two pages in the journal concerning some cryptic blueprints. He sat on his bed with the journal splayed open in front of him, pen in mouth, toying with the idea that these were blueprints for a super weapon, and that it had something to do with the disappearance of the supernatural residents of the town.
"I don't get it," he said around the pen. "Think this super weapon thing might have anything to do with it?" Mabel shrugged her shoulders. She wanted to give off her usual air of nonchalance, but even she couldn't shake off the feeling that something was very wrong. She threw extra glitter in her fingernail polish and swirled it with the brush.
"Do you think they know something about this super weapon - or whatever it is - that we don't? What if they can sense when it's been turned on?" Dipper searched the pages with the journal's magnifying glass to see if there were any miniscule clues he was missing.
"I dunno Dipper. Maybe. But it seems like it'd be hard for someone to figure out how to use it. They'd have to have more than one journal at a time. You're only looking at a third of the plans there," said Mabel.
"Which means that the whole blueprint could be spread across all three journals," Dipper chewed on his pen, not tasting the ink starting to ooze into his mouth.
"Yeah! Whoever wants to use that thing would have to have all three journals at once. They'd have to have the first journal, Gideon's journal, and ours. Besides, you haven't let that thing out of your sight, there's nothing to worry about," Mabel said, waving a hand and smiling. She turned away from her nail polish to look at Dipper, expecting to see him look relieved, but saw him staring at her with wide eyes.
"Mabel… I have left it out of my sight."
Mabel furrowed her brow. "Dipper, who-"
Dipper shot up from his chair and bolted out the door. Mabel ran after him, spilling pink glittery nail polish all over her bed and the floor.
"Think about it Mabel. Who's the only person who's read our journal besides us?" Dipper said as they ran down the stairs. "Who took our journal for a whole day?"
"Grunkle Stan but-," Mabel hopped over the broken step at the bottom of the stair case. "Dipper, you can't really think Grunkle Stan would keep something like that from us. Besides! How do we know he has the first journal or even seen Gideon's journal? How do we know it is this super weapon that's scaring them away?"
"Mabel, it all adds up!" Dipper stopped in the living room and turned to face his sister. "He was there when Gideon was arrested. He took our journal that same day. And now it gets real quiet only after we let him see it! Whatever those blueprints are for is the only thing that could scare away all the monsters of Gravity Falls!" He turned to start running again, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"Dipper! Wait. Having nothing happen in this town is weird, but this is our grunkle," said Mabel, both hands on her brother's shoulders. "You're restless, and you've been so obsessed with that journal that you'll follow the tiniest clue it gives you. What if Grunkle Stan doesn't know anything about that super weapon thingy? Think how hurt he would be if you accused him."
Dipper breathed heavily through his nose, studying Mabel's face; her pleading expression, the calming touch of her hands on his shoulders. He inhaled deeply once more, then closed his eyes.
"He's lied to us before but…you're right. I'm sorry," he looked at the journal firmly grasped in his hand. He didn't even remember taking it from the table. He chewed his lip. "Let's go back upstairs. I'll think about it some more."
"Think about what?" Stan said as he entered the living room. Dipper and Mabel turned to see him holding a Pitt soda in one hand and scratching his back with the other.
"Er, nothing. Just thinking about whether or not I should… take care of my dirty laundry?" Dipper said. The owl clock ticked loudly.
"Look kid. If you let that pile go unwashed any longer it's gonna develop its own ecosystem. Stop being lazy and just do it," said Stan. He chugged his soda as he went back into the kitchen. "By the way, you have ink on your lips!"
Mabel relaxed and laughed at Dipper's sudden realization of the horrible taste in his mouth.
...
Dipper looked out of the triangular bedroom window to see the inky black sky and feebly twinkling stars. Frogs croaked and chirped and the pine trees rustled from the cool night breeze. And Dipper couldn't stop his mind from racing.
