"Remember and you might be welcomed amongst the heartless monsters you surround yourself with, feeding off the pain and misfortune of others. A maniacal unit of subhuman parasites warped into a feeding frenzy at the smell of fresh blood. Open your eyes and see the creatures for what they are; a swirling mass of hatred and envy. Don't be naive to think you're unaffected. The convergence has already begun."~ "Haunted", Disturbed
After an amazing dinner and dessert, the Pines bid farewell to the Tennysons and agreed to meet up the next day. The Pines drove through the backroads from the Tennyson house, which was on the way from Cannon Beach to the town of Astoria. Lilly, tired from the events of the day, fell asleep in the backseat. Dipper could help but smile at the sight of his sleeping daughter as he looked in the rearview mirror. He looked at Mabel and motioned her to look in the back. Mabel looked in the back and smiled at her daughter. Dipper looked forward then slammed on the breaks, shouting, "What the fuck!"
Mabel shot forward and Lilly woke with a started.
"What?! What is it?!" Mabel paniced. Dipper only shot out of the car and looked around in the sky. How he could see anything is a mystery because the sun was almost set and the skies were cloudy. He scanned the area quickly, as if he were looking for something to quickly jump out at him. He then swiftly got back in the car and asked everyone if the were okay. Mabel asked him, "For God sake Dipper, what the hell happened?"
"I thought I…" he said, hesitance in his voice. "I thought I saw an owl."
"An owl? That's not funny, Dipper!"
"Not a regular owl! This sucker was huge! Like buzzard huge! And its eyes were glowing yellow and it had these long ass legs!"
Mabel looked at him with concern. She knew Dipper could just see things like that and there couldn't be any mistaking it. He was a paranormal investigator, an unabashed one at that. She knew he was telling the truth.
Dipper looked in the back seat of the car and asked, "Honey, you okay?" Lilly said, "I'm okay, daddy. What about you?" Dipper sighed and said, "Lets just get to the hotel."
After finally getting into town, the Pines felt a little bit safer leaving the woods far behind them. Dipper was almost certain that whatever that thing was could very well have been following them. He was constantly looking in his mirrors for it. But when they left the forest behind them, he was less edgy. That night, after checking in, Dipper, Mabel, and Lilly didn't even bother to unpack their bags, they just went right to bed, all of them sleeping in the same bed with Lilly being the only one in her sleep clothes.
However, while Lilly and Mabel slept, Dipper swore he heard a low, screeching whistle.
The next morning, the Pines met up with the Tennysons on the docks. The children ran ahead while their mothers tried to catch up with them. Dipper, however, looked very haggard. He had dark circles under his eyes and he didn't even bother to shave this morning. This didn't go unnoticed by Ben.
"Dude, what the hell happened to you?" he asked Dipper. Dipper rubbed his eyes and asked Ben, "Ben, can I ask you something rather dumb?"
"When do you not?"
"Ha ha, very funny. This is serious."
"Shot."
"Have there been any reports of any strange creatures around here? Like say, a large owl?"
Ben thought for a moment and said, "Not that I'm aware of. Grandpa didn't say anything about any creatures escaping from their facilities either."
"No, not alien." Dipper said. "I don't know. All I know is that I saw something fly at us as we drove to the hotel last night."
Ben stopped him and asked him, "Whoa, and you didn't call me?" Dipper responded, "It didn't cross my mind."
"Dipper," a hint of frustration in Ben's voice. "what if you got hurt? What if it cam after us?"
"Because I think it followed us to the hotel last night."
Ben stood back a bit and asked him, "How do you know?"
"Because I heard a whistling last night outside the window. It was the most eerie thing I ever heard."
Ben only stood in shock. The very idea that a large owl might be flying around Astoria is one thing, but it being after the Pines frightened him. And with no containment breaches, there was only one thing else to consider; it was probably metaphysical.
VWRODV
