Author's note: Well, here's chapter 2. Not much to say but things start to get intense in this chapter and I'll have better grammar as well (hopefully) along with some more bonding with our favorite characters. Enjoy.
Chapter 2: Realization
Throughout the whole day the Mystery Shack was not plagued by a single problem. No monsters, no ghosts, and most notably, no tourists. In a way it was unsettling to not have anything out of the ordinary happen. To the Mystery Shack crew however, it was more like a vacation from anything strange to happen. And they were thankful for it since it provided them a rare opportunity to actually interact with each other normally for a long period of time.
Stan decided to feel generous for once by bringing everyone in the kitchen to make everyone in the shack one of his special meatloaf dishes to celebrate a peaceful day at the shack, although everyone insisted that they would skip out homemade dinner and to order a pizza instead. Stan still cooked his meatloaf much to everyone's demise but oddly enough, it was actually not only edible but also tasted good too.
"Wow Grunkle Stan, this stuff tastes pretty good." Said Dipper
"Yeah your right it does. What's in it?" Asked Wendy. But before Stan could reply, Wendy quickly interrupted him from what he was about to say. "Actually forget I asked. I don't think I want to know."
"Suit yourself." Said Stan
After the crew was done with their dinner, Stan told Soos to help him with the dishes and let Dipper and Mabel the rest of the night off from any work. The twins and Waddles then went to the living room and sat down on the floor across the T.V. while Wendy went by the counter to call her dad.
"Ugh. I'm so stuffed from that meatloaf we had." Said Mabel
"I'm surprised that Grunkle Stan actually made his meatloaf edible AND tasty." Said Dipper.
"Sounds mysterious huh Dip? Oooooooo." Mabel said in a spooky voice as she wiggled her fingers in the air.
"Very funny." Said Dipper with a grin but then quickly changed his expression to a concerned frown with a hand on his chin." Speaking of mysterious, this whole day felt…strange. At least by Gravity Fall's standards." Said Dipper.
"Oh relax Dipper, everything's fine." Said Mabel.
"Seriously Mabel think about it. Grunkle Stan cooking good food, no customers or supernatural events bothering us-"
"You having a normal conversation with Wendy for once." Said Mabel with a sly grin which made Dipper blush red with embarrassment.
"Hey I can have normal conversations with Wendy all the time!" Retorted Dipper.
"If you can stop stuttering or acting awkward around her first." Replied Mabel.
"Oh shut up about that already. My point is…" But before Dipper could finish his sentence, Mabel interrupted him yet again.
"Your point is that you're ackin' cray cray right now. Just relax and enjoy the rest of the day." Said Mabel.
"I've been relaxing all day Mabel, its' just that… I have a bad feeling about today that's all." Said Dipper.
Mabel scooted next to Dipper and put her hand on his shoulder and gave looked at him directly in his eyes with a serious look on her face.
"I know how paranoid you can be dipping sauce, but you have to learn to just relax and not think about bad things happening all the time. Even if anything bad does happen just remember that you'll always have me by your side, no matter what happens." Said Mabel as Dipper slowly formed a smile across his face
"You promise?" asked Dipper.
"Promise." Said Mabel as she held out her arms at Dipper. "Awkward sibling hug?" Asked Mabel.
"Awkward sibling hug." Replied Dipper as he too held his arms out and accepted the warm embrace while the twins simultaneously said 'pat pat' to each other while patting each other's backs. After their hug the twins pulled away from their embrace to see Wendy walking in the living room.
"Hi Wendy, you're done talking to your dad?" Asked Mabel.
"Yeah I called my dad like three times but he's not picking up his phone. I had to leave a message telling him that I'm coming home late. He's probably working late himself at work again." Said Wendy as she frowned at the thought.
"It's okay Wendy. I'm sure he'll be back home before you know it. Right Dipper?" Said Mabel
"Mabel's right. He'll be fine." Said Dipper.
"Thanks." Said Wendy.
Wendy then looked at the time on the clock on the wall and saw that it said 9:00 p.m.
"Well, looks like my shift is over now. I'll see you two tomorrow." Said Wendy as she started to walk away.
Dipper was about to say good night to Wendy when Mabel nudged Dipper towards Wendy's direction mouthing out the words "Walk her home tonight" while giving Dipper a wink for encouragement. Dipper then ran up to Wendy before she could open the front door and called out for her.
"Hey uh Wendy? Can I ask you something before you go?" Dipper asked nervously.
"Sure little man. What's up?" Asked Wendy.
Dipper stood in place nervously out of fear of being rejected by his crush for a couple seconds until he glanced back at Mabel giving him two thumbs ups mouthing "You got this." Dipper then turned back to Wendy with some confidence to help him remember what he'll say to Wendy.
"I-I was wondering if you uh wanted me to, you know, walk you home today. N-not that it's like I'm asking you out on a date or anything, w-which I'm not so uh, Is that cool with you?." Asked Dipper as he prepared for the dreaded 'no' he's expecting.
"Sure, why not?" Replied Wendy.
"Yes! I mean, cool, cool." Said Dipper as he glanced back at Mabel giving her a thumbs up. Mabel just smiled and winked at Dipper again as he blushed red yet again as he turned around to walk with Wendy when she opened the front door.
"Mister Pines! Just wanted to let you know my shift's over and that Dipper is going to walk me home!" Shouted Wendy to Stan as he finished washing the dishes with Soos.
"Okay then, don't get mugged out there!" Replied Stan as Soos gave Stan a look while Wendy just rolled her eyes in response to Stan's snide remark. "Don't worry you two, I might be kidding!" Said Stan as Wendy just ignored the last comment.
"See you tomorrow Soos!" Shouted Wendy.
"You too dude. Stay safe!" Replied Soos.
Wendy and Dipper then left outside and shut the door behind them while Stan and Soos walked in the living room as Stan plopped down on the chair.
"What's up with your brother? He finally had the courage to ask out his crush?" Asked Stan to Mabel.
"How do you know Dipper likes Wendy?" Replied Mabel.
"Let's just say that I was quite the charmer for the ladies back in my day and I know a few things that makes it obvious that a guy or girl likes someone." Replied Stan.
"But I thought you needed Mabel's help to ask out lazy Susan?" Asked Soos.
"I just got rusty. Besides, I still can't believe she keeps leaving me messages with her cats. Can't that lady ever take a hint?" said Stan.
"Love doesn't need hints." Said Mabel
"Ah whatever, love is overrated." Said Stan as he turned on the T.V. and widened his eyes in shock at the sight he saw on the screen.
Dipper and Wendy proceed to walk with each other on the forest path in the beautiful, starry night as Dipper thinks about the fact that Wendy actually agreed to let him walk her home. 'Maybe I do have a chance with her after all' thought Dipper as he looked at Wendy, admiring her long, red hair and her beautiful green eyes.
"You okay Dipper?" Asked Wendy as Dipper looked away from Wendy trying to hide his blushing.
"Y-yeah I'm fine." Said Dipper as he turned his head towards Wendy again to start a conversation to break the awkward silence between them.
"Don't you usually ride your bike to work?" Asked Dipper.
"I would have but one of my brothers decided to take it out for a joy ride the day before and broke it." Said Wendy.
"Darn that sucks." Said Dipper.
"Yep, it did suck. I had to walk all the way to work but hey, at least I got some exercise out of it." Said Wendy as she laughed at her ordeal with Dipper. "Hey Dipper?" said Wendy.
"Yeah?" replied Dipper.
"I just wanna say thanks for, you know, walking me home today. No one has ever done that for me before." Said Wendy smiling in Dipper's direction.
"No problem Wendy. Anything for you." Said Dipper as he smiled back at her.
Before Wendy could open her mouth to speak, a large rustling sound came from some bushes from their left startling Dipper and Wendy as they stopped in place to turn their attention towards the bushes. All of a sudden, a man came running out of the bushes as he tripped and fell down in front of Dipper and Wendy slowly trying to get up.
"Sir? Are you okay? Do you need any help?" asked Wendy as she and Dipper started walking towards him but quickly stopped as they took a good look at the man as he was getting up.
The man looked sickly and had pale skin and wore clothes that were ragged and dirty with a large blood stain on his shirt along with a few cuts on his face and a long streak of blood running down from his nose along with what looked like strange growths scattered all over his face. As the stranger got up making jagged movements in the process, he immediately turned to face Dipper and Wendy who both stood in place and stared at him out of fear of his frightening appearance as he stared back at them with his red glowing eyes and began letting out bloodcurdling screams at them as the stranger began to run towards them flailing his arms at them in the process.
"RUN DIPPER!" Shouted Wendy as she and Dipper started running the opposite direction of the stranger chasing after them.
As they kept going Wendy turned her head around to see how far the stranger was from them and saw that he was getting closer by the second. Wendy then tripped and fell and the stranger went on top of her and tried getting a grip on her but failed as she kicked him twice in the face knocking him back for a second. As Wendy tried to get up and run again she was grappled again by the stranger and rolled on her back trying to kick the stranger away but he managed to get closer to her and grabbed her by the shoulders trying to bite at her throat with his rotten, jagged teeth. While Wendy was struggling to get the stranger off of her she let out a cry of help for Dipper as he immediately turned around to see Wendy being attacked by the stranger.
"WENDY!" Screamed Dipper as he franticly ran towards Wendy and tried to pull off the stranger from Wendy.
Enraged by Dipper's attempt to save Wendy, the stranger began to run after Dipper as they both went off the path into some bushes on the left side of the forest. Dipper then suddenly stopped as he almost fell down a small gorge hidden behind the bushes. The stranger then ran right through the bushes and Dipper narrowly dodged the stranger by his left at the last second as the stranger fell from the gorge and landed headfirst on the ground, breaking his neck instantly with a sickening crunch as he fell. Wendy then appeared out from the bushes to see Dipper on the ground besides her panting out of fear and helped up Dipper.
"You okay Dipper? Are you hurt?" Asked Wendy breathing heavily.
"No. I'm fine. You?" Dipper replied breathing heavily as well with fear in his voice.
"I'm fine. What about the guy?" Asked Wendy as she caught her breath.
Dipper then pointed at the direction where the stranger landed and Wendy took a look to see what happened. The stranger's body lied still in the gorge not moving a muscle and saw that his head was twisted further then it should be.
"Oh man." Said Wendy with a shocked expression on her face.
"What? What happened?" Dipper asked as he was about to look at where the stranger was at when Wendy grabbed Dipper's hand and led him out gently back on the forest path.
"Trust me dude. You don't want to know." Said Wendy as she took out her cellphone with her other hand and dialed 911. "I'm calling the cops." Said Wendy as Dipper waited in silence while keeping a firm grip on Wendy's hand for comfort.
Wendy waited for the 911 service to pick up but to her surprise her phone told her that 911 services are not available right now and to call later. Wendy dialed 911 three more times and ended up with the same message every time.
"Darn it. I keep getting messages saying 911 isn't available at this time." Said Wendy as Dipper let go of her hand.
"I knew it! I knew something bad was going to happen! But did I listen to myself? Noooooo. Why would I? If I only listened to myself this wouldn't have happened." Said Dipper.
"Dipper don't worry, it wasn't your fault this happened. No one would have known that a crazy guy would just jump out of the bushes and attack us." said Wendy as she sighed and began to kneel down to Dipper's height and put a hand on his shoulder.
"You don't have to be so hard on yourself when bad things happen so suddenly Dipper. You just need to stay calm and focus okay?" said Wendy
"Okay." Dipper said softly.
"Good." Said Wendy smiling at Dipper as she stood up looking around them to see if there are any more crazies around and sighed out of relief to find no trace of anyone else around.
"So what now Dipper? You're the smart one here. Should we just keep walking to my place and hope we don't attacked by a crazy beaver next time?" Said Wendy making Dipper chuckle at Wendy's joke before turning back into his serious expression again.
"No. it's too dangerous to keep walking home at this point. We should head back to the Shack and get Grunkle Stan to drive you home. I don't want to risk another attack like that again." Said Dipper.
"Lead the way little man." Said Wendy.
It didn't take long for Dipper and Wendy to get back to the shack since when they were being chased by the stranger they were only 5 minutes away from the Mystery Shack. Before they opened the front door though, Dipper stopped Wendy from entering the Shack.
"Wait a minute. What are we going tell Stan? It's not like he'll believe a crazy guy from the woods attacked us. He'll probably think that I chickened out and call me a wimp." Said Dipper.
"Relax Dipper, I'll tell him that I got scared of the woods and that you decided to take me back here for my safety." Said Wendy which made Dipper smile.
"Thanks for backing me up Wendy." Said Dipper.
"Thanks for saving my life again." Said Wendy.
They continued to stare at each other for a few seconds until they realized that they were staring at each other for quite a while and both looked away with Dipper blushing and even Wendy blushed as well from their little moment.
"Ahem uh l-let's just go inside." Said Wendy nervously.
"Y-yeah yeah sure. Let's go" Replied Dipper Nervously.
Dipper opened the door to let Wendy go in first and Dipper followed suit and closed the door behind them.
"Grunkle Stan? You There?" Called out Dipper.
When he got no response he called out again.
"Grunkle Stan?" asked Dipper again.
Still no reply. Annoyed, Dipper went to the living room with Wendy right behind him to see Stan, Soos and Mabel, with Waddles in her arms, focused on the T.V. with their eyes wider than dinner plates. Dipper and Wendy turned to the T.V. screen themselves and gasped in shock at a horrible sight they never thought would happen.
Gravity Falls was burning down.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls or The Last of Us.