I wasn't sure if the pain in my arm had woken me up, or if it was the result of my waking up, but it the first thing that hit me. I tried to scream, but I couldn't move my mouth. I couldn't move anything. I could, however, hear a faint voice over the ringing in my ears. I caught a glimpse of an arm as someone grabbed me and shook me. My muscle functions returned all at once, and I attempted to sit up, but it was holding me down. I squirmed, trying to break free of its grasp. "Pacifica! Pacifica!" The voice became louder. After a minute of struggling, I gave up. I waited, terrified, for the person to do something. "Okay, I'm going to sit you up now. Slowly." I recognized the voice. "Don't make any sudden movements."

"Dipper?" I whispered. A wave of pain hit me like a train, and my hand instinctively tried to travel to the pain's point of origin. The boy noticed this and grabbed my arm.

"I said no sudden moves. And no touching your wound. Grunkle's orders." I recognized their attic and realized I was in Dipper's bed. Every sensation and memory of the operation returned all at once.

"THE TRACKER!" I screamed, trying again to move my hand.

A grunt emerged as he struggled to resist my movements. "Calm down. It's out." The stitched up incision caught my eye. Last time I had seen that arm, it was in a pool of my own blood. I was surprised it wasn't permanently stained red. "Stan told me he smashed it. You should be safe from your parents now."

"My parents!" I quickly glanced around the room, searching for a clock. 9:23. "Oh no. I have to leave. Now." Believing I had calmed down, Dipper had let go of me. I rushed out of the bed and ran down the stairs. He gave chase, and I arrived in the living room. Their great uncle was in there watching TV, and I had grabbed his attention. Pain shot through me as a hand grabbed my stitched arm.

"Hey. Where do you think you're going?" He said. "You shouldn't be up."

"Where's my bag? Where's the backpack? I have to leave now."

At this point, Dipper had caught up with me. "You can't leave. Not yet. Not until you're wound heals."

"And how long will that take? Look, my parents are already up. They probably already know I'm gone. They're gonna come looking for me. Or at least send servants to. They're gonna send one here. If he finds me-" Before I could finish, a knock came from the from door. "That's probably one now."

Mabel, who had been eating in the kitchen, gleefully skipped towards the door. I noticed her and dove behind the chair. "Hi there!" Mabel greeted the butler.

"Hello miss. Have you at all seen Miss Pacifica Northwest this morning?"

"Pacifica? Oh yeah. She's-" Dipper rushed to the door and silenced his twin with a hand over her mouth.

"Not here. We haven't seen her. At all. So bye-bye." I heard the door slam shut.

I stood up. "Are you stupid?"

"What? I told him you weren't here."

"Yeah, but you stopped your sister and slammed the door in his face. He's gonna think that's suspicious. Now they're probably gonna send the police. Look, I have to go. Now where's my stuff?"

Realizing I was "In here." He led me to the kitchen. Near the table, I saw my bag and the backpack he'd packed for me, as well as a third bag.

"You packed another bag? Dipper, I can only carry so much."

"That's not for you. It's for me. I'm coming with you."

"You're what?!" He couldn't be serious. "You can't be serious."

"Look, you have no idea how to survive out there. You can't even move your arm! And if that wound opens again, you're not gonna be able to stitch it back together."

"And you can?"

"I'd at least be able to use both hands." He was determined to go. But I was determined to make him stay. The irony of this role reversal was not lost on me.

I found a pen and pad on the counter and started writing. "Look, you have a family here. A family that loves you. You have a sister that looks up to you. You have a place in this town. What do I have here? Nothing good."

"You have me." This made me grin.

"That's not enough. They need you. More than I ever could." I grabbed his wrist and put the paper in his hand. "You wanted to stay in touch, right?" I picked up the backpack and my bag and headed towards the back door, checking through the window to make sure my path was clear of any servants.

I opened the door and took one last look at him. "Fine," He said. "But do me a favor."

I didn't have any time to react to the kiss. It was quick but still amazing. "Just... don't die or anything, okay?" At that moment, I honestly considered staying. But I knew that this journey was more important. I nodded, still slightly in shock over the kiss. I shook out of it and gave him one last message.

"I'll come back. Someday." I didn't know if that was a lie or not, but it felt like the truth. I closed the door and ran off into the woods, a smile on my lips.

–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–

The walk through the woods was much easier this time. I was still on alert, looking out for my parent's servants. But I could, at least, see more than a few feet in front of me. Once I was out, I made sure to take back alleys through the small town. I avoided everyone I spotted. I knew every idiot in this town would do anything for money. I wondered how big the reward for my capture was. My parents could offer one dollar and the entire town would become a search party, so I had to be careful.

I had donned my hat and hood, my bright blonde hair being a dead giveaway. I hadn't gotten a chance to wash it, so dried blood still covered most of the follicles on my left side. I saw a couple of my parent's hired helpers around town, but I stayed out of sight. The small town made my trip short, and eventually, I arrived at my destination.

Well, technically I arrived in the alley next to my destination. The bus stop. Being the tourist trap that it is, Gravity Falls had it's own inter-town bus lines. They wouldn't be able to take me straight to my destination, but they'd be able to get me to a station that would. Unfortunately, my parents knew this would be my only way out of town, short of walking. So of course, they posted the police out front. Those two were idiots, but even they would recognize me, or at least stop me to see who I was. The front entrance was out of the question. There were side windows, but the lady at the desk might find it suspicious if I suddenly crawled through the windows.

The backside was more promising. Two small windows, about seven feet off the ground, leading to the bathrooms. I moved the dumpster under one and climbed up. It opened easily, and I tossed my backpack and bag through, hoping the clothes would be enough padding for my laptop. The window was still pretty small and was still seven feet off the bathroom floor. I hoped the clothes would be enough padding for me as well. Once I squeezed about halfway through, my weight brought me down, and I went crashing onto my bag. I aimed to land on my right side, as landing on my left would open my stitches for sure. It still hurt a lot, but the bag did a good job of protecting me.

I didn't get up right away. I let the pain die down first. Once the pain became bearable, I peeled myself off the bag and opened it up. The laptop was fine. Good. I exited the stall I had landed in but stopped when I saw something I had never really seen before in real life. Urinals. I landed in the boys bathroom. And the door is right next to the desk lady. This was gonna be awkward. Luckily, the bathroom was empty. My clothes did a good job of hiding my identity, but they weren't too great at hiding my gender.

One thing I had going for me was my height. Or rather, lack thereof. I was small enough to sneak out and crawl along the outside of the desk. Hopefully, the desk lady wouldn't investigate the bathroom door opening on its own. I opened it up and pushed my bag through. Then I crawled through. The desk was immediately to my right. I attached my bag to my backpack and the door handle, making the worst rope, for lack of a better word, ever, and once I got close to the front of the desk, I slammed the door. That got the desk lady's attention. As soon as I heard the chair turn, I popped up, making sure to cover my face with the bill of my cap. She turned back to face the front and jumped when she saw me.

"Where did you come from?"

I lowered my voice in an attempt to mask it. "I just walked in." Please believe me. Please believe me.

"Oh, I guess I didn't hear you come in." Yes! "How can I help you?"

"I need a ticket to whatever station can get me a ticket to L.A."

"Okay... The nearest one wold be in Caster. The ticket is ten dollars. But you need to be 18 to buy it." Crap. Another thing my clothes failed to hide was my age.

I grabbed a fifty out of my pocket and showed it to her. "I'm sure we could work something out."

"Who the hell are you, kid?" Crap. This wasn't working.

"Uhmmm..." Before I could come up with a good lie, she got up and flicked my hat off. My cover was blown.

"Pacifica Northwest? HEY!" She called towards the front doors. "HEY! SHE'S IN HERE!" I turned to run, but she grabbed my hood. I fell back as the collar of my jacket tugged on my throat. "Sorry kid, but there's a thousand dollar reward on your head." I figured there would be. I was able to grab my backpack, pulling it free from the bag it was attached to.

"Let me go!" I yelled as I swung the backpack around, smashing it into her torso. It wasn't enough to knock her down, but it was enough to loosen her grip. I tugged free from her grasp. The yelling had attracted the attention of the sheriff and his deputy, and they ran in.

"Hey, it's her!" I ran for my bag.

"I got her." The deputy ran straight at me. I ran toward the window on the right, opening it and crawling through. The deputy continued his pursuit, diving through the open window. The alley was narrow. I heard his head smash into the side of the building on the opposite side of the alley. I winced at the sound but didn't look back. I ran towards the main street. But once I heard the siren in their car turn on, I returned to the back alley. Outrunning them would be easy. Outrunning their car would be a bit harder. But there was no way they could drive it through these alleys.

Unfortunately, the town didn't last forever. I ran out of buildings once I reached the road out of town. I ran away from the road but they had managed to follow me with their car and caught up with me. I was so close to getting out of that town. I just needed a way to lose these two. I had run almost half a mile. I couldn't run anymore. I figured my best bet would be to lose them in the woods. I ducked into the forest beside the road. These woods were much thicker than the one I had gone through to get to and from the shack. They also lacked paths. I hadn't had a chance to put on my hat, so my hair was flowing free. With all the brush and branches in my path, I only got about ten feet in before my long hair got stuck. The dried blood at caused my hair to stick together and that caused my hair to get caught on a branch. From there it got tangled. I started tugging, trying to ignore the pain that came from pulling at hair.

"There she is!" I guess my purple jacket stood out in the forest. They were coming. I had to do something. There was no way I could untangle it in time. I only had one choice.

I stopped tugging and untangling and got my opened the survival backpack. I grabbed the pocketknife and folded out the small scissors. I hesitated for a second, then started cutting. It was hard with tiny scissors, but they were sharp. I cut off the tangled mess, leaving my hair short. Cutting through the hair stuck together with dried blood hurt, but I got through it. By the time I finished, the two officers were mere feet away. I turned tail and ran deeper into the forest. Leaving the mess of hair behind.

I ran. And ran. And ran some more. Even when I was sure I lost them, I ran more just in case. I had no idea how I was gonna get out, but that wasn't important at the time. I ran until I couldn't run anymore. By the time I stopped, it was after noon. I knew that I had entered the forest by running west, so after a half hour break to catch my breath, I use the compass on the pocketknife to guide me northeast. By the time I made it out, the town was long gone.

The only man-made objects I could see were the railroad bridge and water tower. Knowing that sleeping on the ground was out of the question, I headed towards the tower. I climbed up and watched the sun set. I hadn't eaten all day, but with no real meals around, I ate a snack. I was used to eating small meals. Sleeping high up would be scary, but sleeping on the ground would be scarier. I'd be risking being eaten by some animal, or worse, being found. I set up my sleeping bag and used my bag as a wall to prevent me falling off the tower. It was my first real day on the run. And all the running made sleeping easy. But I knew the next town was miles away, and the bus was obviously out of the question.

Looks like I'm walking.