"Now you know why I left." He finished his story quietly, his shoes making small 'thumps' against the pavement of the road. It was 11pm and they were up and walking, having left their hometown an hour ago.

"I'm sorry, Dipper..." Mabel said quietly as she walked beside her friend.

"It's fine...not your fault." He slowly responded back, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. "I just...I tried to put up with it, Mabel, but I couldn't. If I stayed...she...might've hurt me."

She nodded fast, not wanting that to have happened. "Y-yeah, yeah! I get it. I wouldn't want you getting hurt either."

The boy looked over and gave a small smile. "Thanks for coming along...I...I know it means leaving your family behind...a-and...I feel...I-I feel like it was selfish of me." He spoke now quietly, small hesitation in his voice as he talked. "L-like I took you away from your h-happy family and-and-"

She shushed him with a small frown, seeing him getting carried away. He was stuttering for god's sake. "Dipper, it's okay. I promise. You're my best friend and I wouldn't let you take on this alone."

The 12-year-old looked at her and gave a small smile in return, glad that he had some of that guilt lifted off his shoulders with a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Mabel."

She gave a small smile back. "Hey, it's what friends are for, am I right?"

"You're right, that's for sure."

They continued walking, occasionally seeing car headlights pass by. It took a couple hours before their feet started to ache, as well as their legs. Mabel hadn't eaten since dessert and Dipper...hadn't eaten since school lunch. He refused to tell anyone otherwise even if his stomach was killing him. The pain twisted and turned, making him wince. Who knows what time it was...because he hadn't bothered to look. Mabel was yawning and rubbing her eyes beside him, and even her head tilted towards his shoulders a couple times. Of course, a couple seconds later her head would jerk up and she would mumble an apology, but she still was tired. And not lying, Dipper was tired himself. He'd succeeded in staying up for over 24 hours unintentionally. He rarely got a good night's sleep over 5 or 6 hours. The preteen boy rubbed his eyes and it seemed like his legs were moving themselves like a robot that had nobody controlling them. He groggily blinked his aching, tired eyes and squinted, looking at his watch. It read: '3:03AM'. God, had they been walking on for that long?

Dipper looked around at his surroundings. It was all road and the forest was a bit more longer. He didn't even see a sign for the next town. Then, there was a flash of headlights. Maybe, possibly, this guy could help them out. The boy stood up straight, his back aching like no tomorrow, and he gave a thumbs-up then turned his wrist so it signaled they needed a ride. As the headlights came closer, he expected it to go right past the duo...and it did. He let out a sigh. There went their only chance for-oh wait. The car started to back up and soon a man in his early twenties rolled the window down. Mabel had her eyes shut and her head was on her friend's shoulders by now.

"Gosh, what're you kids doing out this late? And might I add, walking to somewhere. Do you know what time it is?" The man asked, looking concerned as he furrowed his eyebrows.

The preteen boy gave a small nod back. "Yeah...yeah we do know what time it is.." He responded back, fighting back a yawn that wanted to escape his mouth. "Sir, it'd be great if we could get-"

"Get a ride? Not a problem at all, my boy." He read his mind, finishing his sentence for him.

Dipper gave a small, tired sigh of relief, rubbing his eyes. "Thanks, man." Then he let out a yawn.

"Don't mention it." He spoke as he leaned over and pushed open the truck's other door, allowing enough room for the kids to get in. The boy tapped his friend awake as he hopped into the truck. She let out a small yawn and sleepily followed behind. The 12-year-old boy reached over her and slammed the car door shut, leaning back in his spot in the middle of the two people. The truck started to take off and Mabel was already asleep with her head laying on the car door, her hair all frizzed up amongst the window. "So if you don't mind me asking, where are you two headed?"

He let another yawn escape his mouth. "I-We don't really know...how about the next closest town you find?" He suggested.

"Mmm..alright. That'll take a bit since i'm headed up North but will do, kid." He spoke as the 12-year-old nodded, his head bobbing, but it quickly shot back up. He looked like he was planning to stay up. "You gonna sleep? You have bags under your eyes."

"Hm...I guess so..." He gave a slow nod and rubbed his eyes.

"I'll wake you at the next pitstop I make."

The kid gave a small, slow nod. "Thanks...man..." He blinked slowly and then slumped down in the middle seat and closed his aching eyelids.

Dipper sat in the living room on the couch, reading a book while his mother was on the other end of the couch. They both were waiting for the man to return home. The boy stared at the clock, seeing it was 5pm. That was usually the time where he leaves his work, and it only took 10 minutes to get back to the residence of their home. He couldn't wait until he got home so he could talk to him and say how good his day was. His dad to him was his best friend. So they waited.

10 minutes passed.

Then 15.

Then 20.

Then 30.

The preteen looked up from his book to see his mom rushing to the phone after it started to ring. The sound of the phone ringing went through his skull. He saw her nodding..then saying no...then crying. What was going on? He slowly got up and walked over to her after she let the phone go back on it's holder. "Mom..?" He asked quietly, his eyes the slightest worried. "Mom, is everything...okay?"

She looked at him as if it was a joke. Was she okay? No. Was he okay? Who cared. "No." She replied, her throat hurting like she had something stuck in it. "N-no, i'm NOT okay."

"M-mom...please..what happened? I-is dad okay?"

"No...n-no he's NOT!" She shouted back at him, getting him to wince. What had he done wrong?

"M-momma...d-did...did I do something wrong?"

"You did EVERYTHING wrong!" She shouted back. He couldn't understand what he did or if she really meant it, but it still hurt anyhow. He went to open his quivering mouth to speak, but she interrupted him. "You. Get in your room." The boy stared and gave a weird, sad, confused look with wide eyes, like a scared puppy. "NOW!"

With tears about to fall from his eyes, he forced himself to move his shaking legs. He ran to his room down the hall and shut his door, tight and locked. He had a feeling he wasn't going to come out for a long time. He looked at the wooden door and slumped down against it, bringing his knees up to his chest with watery eyes. He closed them and begged for his dad to come home. She hadn't said what was wrong with him...but...h-he had to come home. It took a while of head in the knees, but something, or rather-someone banged on the door, getting him to jerk up with wide eyes. He turned around to see his door shaking.

"DIPPER. OPEN THIS DOOR THIS INSTANT!" She shouted, her voice...sounding a bit off.

But by her command, he slowly did so. What he found was his mom standing there, her eyes having this crazed, weird, not-herself look. The 12-year-old stared up at her with wide eyes. "M-mom? You okay..?" He peeked at his watch to find it late at night. 4am.

She hiccuped. "Y'know this is your fault, right?"

"W-what?" He frowned a bit but mostly looked concerned..and frightened.

"I said it's YOUR fault he's gone." She hiccuped again and gave a mix of a pity laugh and a frustrated one. " ."

"M-mom what're you t-talking about?" He questioned, his eyes stinging.

"HE'S DEAD, KID. DEAD."

He let a lump slide down his throat. "M-mom-"

"DON'T TALK TO ME ANYMORE AND YOU CAN FIX YOURSELF DINNER WHILE YOU'RE AT IT."

It was way too late for dinner. She was way too late. What was her problem? He didn't do anything. "M-momma...w-what did I do w-wrong?! I-I can fix it!"

Something inside her snapped. She snarled and lifted up her right hand, and it was headed toward his cheek. A loud slap echoed through the house and so did a scream and cry as his cheek burned.

"Kid! Kid! Wake up!" The man shouted, shaking the sweaty kid awake. Mabel was looking over at him with a worried expression on her face too. He let out a yelp as he jerked up, his eyes shifting around frantically. "You were talking and sweating in your sleep."

"Dipper...you okay?" She asked, eyebrows furrowed.

The boy gulped and slowly nodded. "I-i'm fine..." He rubbed his cheek.

"Alright...well...we're at a pitstop. Want anything to eat or drink?" The man questioned, getting out of his truck.

Dipper went to say it was okay, but his friend interrupted him. "That would be great !"

The preteen opened his mouth again but the man interrupted him once more, just like Mabel had done a couple seconds ago. "Well then, what're we waiting for?" He gestured for the small ones to follow him, and that's what they did. Well, more like the boy had to run after his friend.

When they entered the little mini-market, shelves were full of chips and candy all different varieties and sizes. Different colors and flavors all to be seen. The 12-year-old girl let out a gasp and grin as she ran to the whole isle of candies that showed many colors and letters on the wrappers. "Dipper! Dipper! Look at all these candies!" She said with a gasp and grin as she picked up chocolates and sours.

"Mabel, you see these in the store like...all the time." He pointed out while looking at some of the sweet treats himself.

"I KNOW! But not this many! All in the same isle-" She gasped. "GUMMY KOALAS!" She shouted and ran over to the package that was hanging on the rack. She immediately snatched up a bag and hugged it tight, then started to talk dramatically. "Oh, my sweet koalas!" She put a hand over her forehead. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

Her friend rolled his eyes at her behavior and grabbed himself a Pitt Cola from the drinks section. After that he almost had to drag her to the counter at the front where the man was waiting because she kept acting like those Gummy Koalas were her friends and that she said she would buy them all, which, he knew was inaccurate. When the guy put his own snacks on the counter, he gestured for the kids to put their food and drink up, which Mabel did with no hesitation. "Well, uh, actually I was planning on paying with my own money...because it seems pretty inconsiderate for me just to let you pay for our things." The boy tried reasoning with him.

"No, no, I insist." He replied back.

He looked at him and gave a slow nod. "I...guess." He slowly said as he put his item on the counter. The cashier took the items and checked them out as the man paid, handing over the cash from his wallet and then handing over the food and drink to the kids, who took it thankfully. After getting gas, they got back on the road. Mabel munched on her Gummy Koalas while Dipper just held his drink in his lap, not really even drinking it. It looked like he was thinking.

He snapped out of his trance when the girl had put a Gummy Koala on his nose when he wasn't looking, and her hand was holding it up. She changed her voice as she made it speak. "Dippperrrr, what're you thinking aboutttt?" The gummy asked as she let out a small giggle.

He let out a small frown as he moved the sweet koala out of the way. "Not now, Mabel." He replied back as he opened up his bottle and took a small sip of his drink.

She looked at him as she ate the Gummy Koala herself then frowned. "Come on, Dippingsauce, what's wrong?"

"Who said anything was wrong?"

"I...I dunno but I know something is wrong...I just can tell. Like how twins have the special sense y'know?"

"But we're not twins."

"I know...and funny you should mention that, because the other day I had a dream we were twins and we had this pig and we were out in the forest with this book or something. We were laughing together...it looked fun. But something happened and I can't remember the rest."

He looked over at her. "That...sounds nice." He concluded as he looked back ahead just in time to see a sign saying the next town was entering sight. Well, the sign at least. "You can let us out here." The boy announced as the truck skidded to a stop on the side of the road.

"You sure you kids'll be okay?" He asked as the preteen boy nodded.

"We'll be fine." He said as he grabbed his bottle and slung his backpack over his shoulders again as he hopped out with his friend.

"Alright...well you two be safe!" He exclaimed with a small smile, honestly hoping the best for these guys as he slammed the door shut and drove off, leaving a puff of smoke.

The kids coughed as some got in their face. Dipper let out a sigh as he fixed his shoulder straps that belonged to his backpack. "Let's go." He said almost right away as they got dropped off. His friend looked at him as he started to walk off.

She let out a small sigh and put on her backpack, keeping her Gummy Koalas out as she followed behind, munching on more as if she had no idea what savoring meant. The clouds above were dark and gray and it was only 6 in the morning. She ran up to him from behind and tugged on his arm. "Hey, Dip?" She looked up at the sky again. "I think it might rain."

He looked up at the sky himself too. "I think you're right..." He concluded as he kept walking.

She got wide-eyed and ran up again. "Doesn't that mean we should stop somewhere?"

"Look, we might be able to beat the rain if we go fast enough, but we can't keep stopping. What if the police and our parent..s are looking for us?"

"I..." She paused and had no idea how to respond to that. "I dunno..."

"Exactly." He said as he kept walking.

The kids kept on walking, looking around as the sign 'Welcome To Gravity Falls' came into sight as well as a waterfall and bridge and then after that, more forest. Mabel swore she thought she felt a small drop of water hit her nose as they walked. She looked up and saw trickles of rain falling down. Soon she wasn't she only one feeling that because it started to outright pour down. The girl ran ahead, insisting that if they ran they wouldn't get as wet, but Dipper knew that wasn't true. That was the total opposite. She kept running so he had no choice but to run after her, getting even more soaked.

"MABEL! MABEL, STOP RUNNING!" He hissed after her as she kept running. Their shoes splished and splashed and squished and squashed as they ran through puddles of water. She grinned and looked like she was having fun as he ran behind her at full speed. She realized this was the only way she was getting him to go fast. "GOSH DANG IT, MABEL!"

"CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, DORK!" She shouted, turning her head back at him.

He growled at her, speeding up, getting himself more wet. "YOU'RE SO GOING TO GET IT!"

"YOU SOUND LIKE MY PARENTS WHEN I'M IN TROUBLE! MOMMA DIP!"

"SHUT UP!" He shouted at her, annoyed.

She let out a laugh as they kept running through the rain, getting themselves wet. Then they reached town, and everyone watched the kids run in the rain, having no idea where they came from or where they were going. But they speeded right past people and stores, sometimes bumping into people. Like Dipper, who bumped into a blonde-haired prissy looking girl, who almost fell to the floor with her sparkly pink umbrella. "HEY!" She shouted as she stumbled. "WATCH IT!"

He didn't bother to apologize, but Mabel watched the whole thing. She laughed again. "OOOH! DIPPER'S GOT A CRUSH!" She shouted, and everyone could hear.

They faced their attention to the boy who was running with a bright red face. He pulled down his drenched hat even more as he kept running with the 'I am going to kill you' face on to his best friend. She gulped and kept running until they got to a dirt path...that had a huge puddle of mud in front of them. She let out a gasp and tried to skid to a stop, but he ran right into her, shoving themselves both into the mud by accident. They let out a small scream of surprise...and both face planted into the smelly, brown substance with a squash.

Dipper jerked up, making a face as he sat up with the brown mud all over him. He took off his hat that was covered in it from head to toe. That hat was definitely ruined for good. Mabel sat up as well, making a face as she rubbed some of the stuff off with her arm, that was muddy to begin with. He groaned and pulled out his shirt with his hand so it was visible that it was clearly dirty. "Great." He muttered to himself as he stood up, but then slipped and fell once more. Mabel giggled. "I doubt any hotel or restaurant would let two muddy hobos into their establishment now." He huffed angrily.

"Oh, come on, Dipper! We're not muddy hobos! Just the muddy part." She replied as she stood up, trying to wipe some of the mud off.

"And this makes me feel better because...?"

She looked at him. "Okay, so what we're a little muddy?"

"A little?" He gestured to himself. "Does this look a little muddy to you?"

"...Okay, so what if we're a lot muddy?" She rephrased that as she looked around at their surroundings, spotting a shack right in front of them. "Hey!" She exclaimed, pointing a finger to the place. "Why don't we just ask the guy who lives here for help?"

"Oh, sure, let's ask the man or woman who lives in a shabby shack that looks about ready to fall down. It sounds like a completely safe plan!" He replied back with full sarcasm.

"Dipper, come on!" She frowned as her muddy hand grabbed his muddy hand. "What's the worst that can happen?"

"The person yanks us inside, kills us and we go about unknown."

"Don't be such a worrywart!" She rolled her eyes and dragged him along to the front door, knocking on the door with a grin.

A small grumble was heard as well as a groan before some rather loud footsteps started to approach the door. 'This is it.' He thought to himself. 'This is the part where Bigfoot steps out of that door and we get killed. Goodbye world.' He thought to himself again as several locks were heard clicking and the doorknob rattled.

The doorknob turned and twisted before the wooden door opened to reveal a old man in blue striped boxers with a white undershirt on and some sort of strange fez that was half on his head. He had his glasses half on as well, showing he probably just got out from bed. He looked around ahead then looked down to see the muddy kids with water dripping off their hair as well. One was grinning while one looked rather annoyed.

"Look kids, the Mystery Shack isn't open for another couple hours." The man said as he squinted to look at the owl clock that was inside his house on the wall.

Mabel looked like she was resisting the urge to screech at his old man body that was rather disgusting, but she shook it off and showed off her brace-filled grin. "HI! I'm Mabel and this is my grumpy best friend Dipper!" She gave her friend a muddy hug, making the sound of 'squish' sound out. "We were wondering if you could possibly...LET US LIVE WITH YOU!" She shouted out unexpectedly. That wasn't the plan at all.

"WHAT?!" Dipper hissed out at her. "THAT WASN'T THE PLAN!"

"Plan, eh?" The old man said as he scratched his chin. "What is this, some sort of prank? Go home to your parents kids." He said as he was about to shut the door on their faces.

"WAIT!" Mabel shouted loudly, getting his attention again. "DIPPER WILL CLEAN THIS HOUSE FOR FREE!"

"Free?" He stood in front of them again.

"WHAT?!" Dipper shouted at his friend again. "MABEL I-"

"IT'S A DEAL!" It was too late. They shook hands on it. The preteen's mouth dropped. How did he get sucked into this? "Name's Stanford Pines by the way." He announced as he let go of Mabel's hand that he shook.

"You already know ours." The girl grinned.

"Alright look, here's the deal. I won't let you stay longer than one day. I don't need a bunch of kids running around my house."

"OH, THANK YOU !" The girl grinned again and hugged the old man.

"Yeah, don't mention it." He replied as he patted the girl's head. "Seriously, don't." Stan then shoved the girl off him, which took quite the effort. "Alright so tell me this, why are you kids muddy and out and about at what, 7am? Aren't you supposed to be in bed?"

"Should be." The boy corrected him with a small frown.

"We um, sorta ran away from home, ." Mabel replied.

"Ran away from home?" He repeated back the last part with a seemingly understanding smirk. It was after that, that he let inside the muddy kids. "Wipe your feet off before you go runnin' around the whole place, and preferably, you won't run around anywhere but the attic, cuz I have customers here." Both kids gave a slow nod and did as told since he was letting them stay for even a day, which Dipper didn't mind because he would rather keep going then stop here. The old man observed their outfits. "Do you kids have anything else to wear?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine-" The preteen boy said as he took off his sopping wet backpack. Perfect. All his sets of clothes were probably wet by now.

Stan let out a laugh. "Plan didn't go the way you wanted it to?" Dipper frowned and went to open his mouth to say something but the man just gestured to a bin inside what looked like a giftshop. "There's a lost and found bin in there. Just find something that fits you two and you should be fine for now. Then go rinse yourselves off...I don't care with what, a hose, shower, whatever, just don't leave tracks everywhere."

The boy rolled his eyes and trudged into the giftshop with his friend, observing the place that has overpriced knick-knacks and made-up glued creatures and t-shirts with sloppily painted question marks on them. Then, he saw the bin with big letters titled 'LOST AND FOUND'. Dipper stuck his hand into the bin and pulled out some gray shorts, orange shirt, socks and a navy blue vest that looked like it was maybe a little too big but would fit for now. Mabel found a purple skirt and socks. She claimed that she could knit herself a sweater, despite that the wool being wet.

After grabbing their outfits, they headed upstairs and switched off taking showers with Mabel going first since showers were a dreaded thing that shouldn't even be invented according to Dipper. He literally hissed and hung onto the wall as Mabel dragged him into the bathroom. After his quick 10-minute shower(it would have been 5, but he had to get all that mud off of him) he got changed into the "new" outfit he had grabbed from the bin. He looked at himself in the mirror. "Huh...not bad. All i'm missing is a hat." He said to himself quietly as he opened the door and walked out. Mabel was in the attic waiting for him, looking through some old boxes he had lying around.

"Hey, Dipper! Look what I found." She took out a old faded picture that had a young looking picture of Stan..and the other half was unable to tell since it was ripped in half.

"Huh...wonder who was in the other half." He muttered as he heard the old man himself yelling from downstairs.

"WELCOME TO A WORLD OF MYSTERY!" His voice boomed through the whole shack. Dipper looked at Mabel before slowly sneaking down the stairs and coming closer to see what he was doing.