Sorry in advance for what happens here, trying not to spoil by saying this :)

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Characters. Not. Mine.

3rd person

Cherie had a plan in mind: she was going to solve the little riddle and nobody, not even Grunkle Stan, could stop her.

She looked through the pages again, trying to find any clues, but coming up empty after realizing that they were just unintelligible sciency stuff. After hiding the printed pages back in her and her cousin's room, she raced down the stairs anxiously.

Cherie had hidden them under the cover of her mattress, so the only thing that would tip people off about what was there would be a slight bulge otherwise mistaken as one of the cover's various wrinkles.

Nobody was in the gift shop, ergo she had succeeded in being somewhat stealthy when it came to sneaking up and down the stairs. The sun hadn't started to rise yet, so Cherie used that to her advantage, creeping out before anyone would notice she was gone.

Freedom, answers, and adventure was waiting behind the screen door. There were a couple of bugs stuck in the grains, seeming to cry out in help. The door swung open as Cherie rushed through it. She had forgotten about the bell on the front door, and when it rang without warning, she sprinted off towards town so as to prevent being followed if she had woken anyone up.

She didn't have any clues whatsoever, except for the fact that Mabel had introduced her to everyone in town. Then she could pick off the suspects one by one, like in a detective movie. Lights were still on in a few of the buildings, so sometime during the night, Gravity Falls had regained power.

Cherie started with Lazy Susan, who had still confirmed that she was in her restaurant all day, sweeping. The real test was asking her about Weirdmageddon, because so far, the only thing anyone ever told Cherie was 'never mind all that'. The answer held true as well.

Defeated, she went to the next resident, then the next. Cherie had gotten through nearly half the town's residents, but nothing seemed to be out of place. Besides the nasty-dispositioned townsfolk like Gideon, there was nobody left to talk to except McGucket, who lived through the forest she could never navigate past.

On the edge of the forest, Cherie stood, patrolling almost, looking for the spot she had entered before. Still no closer to finding the crazy old man, she was about to give up, then realized something. There was an odd scent in the air, like rotting meat. It was faint, but there all the same.

Old-fashioned tracking wouldn't be pretty for her; she had no experience whatsoever with this ancient art of actually trying. As she walked up and down the forest's edge once more, the smell grew weaker. Cherie realized that the weird odor was coming from inside the woods rather than its perimeter.

Her only option was to go through the woods to find it, but now they didn't look so friendly and lush. She was afraid, not of the dark, but of what lie in it. Cherie created an option previously not on the numbered list by going back to the Shack for a flashlight.

As she slowly crept through the door, muffling the bell with her hand, the light flicked on above her.

"Well, well, well," murmured Dipper, who had been staking out since he heard Cherie leave. "Sorry, just wanted to add drama. Why were you out at this time?" he inquired.

"I was," she paused, debating about whether she should tell the truth or not, "trying to find the missing piece. Someone may or may not have tipped me off that something about this darn town was...weird," she said.

It was a partial truth, someone had tipped me off, but it was also a something, and someone wasn't human, so it wasn't weird, just impossible.

"Who told you? Was it the gnomes? I knew they wouldn't leave us alone after, wait, how much do you actually know?"

1st POV

I knew it! He spilled it, that must be the answer then. Gnomes weren't people, so Dipper had given me the missing piece. I asked him a question I hoped he would answer, "Why do they want the journals?" I was bluffing about my knowledge with the journals, hoping that he would give up more information.

"How did you know about the journals?! Last time I checked, they didn't want anything bu-wait, who told you this information?" Dipper was suddenly much more careful with letting out his secrets. He did not speak, and probably would not, until I answered.

"Oh, y'know, if you can have secrets, then so can I. I have my ways." I left the conversation like that.

Dipper was stunned with how much I knew, and left me to get the flashlight before saying, "I'm coming with. Whatever mess you've gotten yourself into, you're going to need me to solve this."

I didn't argue, and before I knew it, I had left the Shack, Dipper trailing on my heels. I went to how him where I first discovered the scent. It was slightly stronger even though it had only been about thirty minutes.

"What am I supposed to be seeing?" he asked, confused.

"Do you smell that? Like someone left out ham, or something else," I replied.

"Well, that's semi-normal. Why do you think this is of any importance?" I turned on the flashlight, not sure what I would be seeing. Ahead were two sets of footprints, one that looked like from suede shoes, the other from hiking boots.

Dipper's face turned to the color of plastic. "It's okay, I bet tons of people have those boots…" He said that not to me, but whispered it to himself as reassurance. I took his hand, and we began into the dark, cold forest.

The flashlight only let us see a few feet ahead, but the disturbing thing was that the two sets of prints abruptly turned to one set. The remaining set slowly morphed to what the other one was.

I could hear the buzzing of flies up ahead, the only sign that we were close to what had happened. Dipper was trembling as I shone the flashlight ahead to where the flies were.

I screamed, clenching on to Dipper's hand, his mouth screaming as well. We ran as far away from that place as possible, our footsteps the only sound now, for they were all I could possibly take in after that horrific scene.

I shut the Shack door, ran up to my room, and to my surprise, I started to cry. I wasn't the kind of person to display emotion, but tonight deserved it. The sight of it, even the mere thought of what had happened was traumatizing.

It was a carcass, half devoured by the looks of it, flesh peeling off in some places. Its mouth was gaping as if trying to call help perpetually. The corpse was fresh enough, the beginning of maggots starting to wriggle through its skin.

The worst part was not the scene itself, but two things. One; the victim was a child. Two; I knew him, for he was the town's very own Gideon Gleeful.

I couldn't fall back asleep after that, but eventually, my mind succumbed to the darkness and I was back in the Grayscale. Despite its actual name, I insisted to calling it that still.

"Bill, what did you do? Why is Gideon dead!" Nobody responded save for the echoes of my own voice. I was completely alone in this one, and that's how it was going to stay until the puzzle was solved.

Somebody had to have murdered him, and that somebody was the missing piece, unless the answer was Gideon all along, which was doubtful.

In the Grayscale, time passed faster than normal sleep periods, and within a minute or two of sitting in the Grayscale, I woke up sweating and gasping at the foot of my bed. Dipper had again heard me wake up, but I realized that he was already awake and just hadn't been able to fall back asleep after Gideon.

"Should we tell Mabel?" I asked him.

"I think she deserves to know, after all, she's seen as much as I have." Dipper was careful not to reveal any more information after earlier. I nodded in agreement, and we waited for the sun to rise.

Whew! Not sure how much I'm going to be hated for killing off a character, but at least it's over with (?)!

If you want a spoiler then here

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