Chapter 19: The Hike

It was so nice to finally be free.

Wybie never realized what a privilege it was to be able to move his arms and legs. He made a mental note to never participate in one of Mabel's arts and crafts projects ever again.

However, as much as he complained, he had to admit, Mabel's execution of the art project had been flawless. Thanks to the plastic bags they used to protect him, he didn't have a speck of glue on him, and they had been able to get the cast off of him without much difficulty.

Wybie sat and watched as the other kids stuffed the cast with more newspaper so it would retain its shape. Afterwards, the kids split up into two groups. Coraline, Mabel, Raz and Lili started covering the cast with paper mache while Dipper, Norman and Neil used the black tea to stain the bandages and hang them over the living room table and chairs to dry. No one seemed to have a problem with Wybie taking a break and he had never been much good with art projects anyway. Machines were more his thing.

Wybie was surprised to find that, next to Mabel, Lili was the second best at arts and crafts. Like Mabel, she had precise control over her paintbrush and the paper mache spread evenly without resistance. Lili sat hunched over her work, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. When she wasn't defensive or glaring at everyone, Lili looked almost approachable. Almost. He still remembered how she had snapped at Mabel, Coraline and even Raz yesterday.

Wybie looked over at Raz who might as well have been using his fingers to paint, because his brush seemed to be working against him. With each layer he painted, the paper mache clumped together and become more and more uneven. Raz, however, didn't seem bothered by this, and the consistency of the paper mache layer wouldn't matter once they placed the bandages around the outside of the cast.

Raz was pretty cool and Wybie couldn't help but like him. He seemed to be the antithesis of his girlfriend. He was personable, energetic, outgoing… everything she wasn't. Wybie didn't really know much about relationships and dating, but usually the people in a couple had at least some things in common, right?

Maybe Raz and Lili were like magnets, where their opposite poles attract each other. That made… some sort of sense, he supposed. Science had always come easier to Wybie than people.

It wasn't long before the kids started to get hungry and they took a break for lunch. Luckily, It was time to stop the project anyway, since they had finished all they could do for the day. They couldn't finish the mummy until both the paper mache and wet bandages were completely dry, and that would probably take all night.

"What should we do now?" Neil asked as he put his sandwich down on his plate. Their 'camp counselor' had been busy giving tours to the Mystery Shack, but the twins has found ingredients to make sandwiches for everyone.

"I was thinking about that," Coraline said. Her elbows were on the table, propping up a sandwich in her hands. "I wanted to stop by Luis's mansion. That Gideon kid said that he might have moved on, but if he's still there, I want to see if he's okay."

"I was thinking about doing the same thing," Dipper said as he glanced over his shoulder at the other kids. Dipper was still putting together his own sandwich at the counter by the stove. "I wouldn't trust anything Gideon says until we check it out for ourselves."

"And if Luis is still there, then he's all alone," Mabel added. She was sitting on the other side of Coraline. There was an empty chair next to her that was left for Dipper to claim when he finished making his sandwich. "Even if we can't help him talk to his parents anymore, we can still be his friend, right?"

Dipper frowned thoughtfully. "I'm not sure if we will be able to see Luis, even if he's there." He closed up the plastic bread bag and made his way over to the empty chair. He placed a plate with a diagonally cut turkey and lettuce sandwich on the table before taking a seat. "Gideon mentioned we wouldn't be able to see him if he's not a poltergeist anymore, and I'm thinking he might be right."

"Yeah...what does that mean?" Wybie asked.

"I'm not sure," Dipper admitted. "But I don't think Luis was an ordinary ghost with the way he was able to attack us. I think he was a poltergeist, which means he's somehow stronger than most ghosts. Maybe now that he's not angry with his parents anymore, he's gotten weaker. He might not have the strength to make himself visible to us anymore."

"Well, we won't know until we check it out." Coraline said, and then she looked over at her cousin, whose eyes were focused down on his untouched sandwich. "You don't have to go if you don't want to, Norman," Coraline said in a softer voice than usual. "He did possess you. I would understand if you wanted to take a break from all this ghost stuff for a while. Even I would be freaked out if that happened to me."

Norman shook his head. "No, I'm okay. I want to go."

Coraine frowned, disbelievingly. "Norman-"

"I'm not afraid of Luis." Norman cut her off abruptly with sudden boldness that surprised Wybie. "I just want to see Luis if… if he's still there."

"If you're not scared, then why do you seem so worried?" Raz asked, his voice genuinely curious instead of accusatory.

Norman let out a breath. "I'm worried... about him." His eyes fell returned back to his uneaten sandwich. "When he left my body he seemed so weak. I'm scared that holding on so long during the seance hurt him."

"But he's already dead, right? How could he get any worse than that?" Wybie asked, and Coraline shot him a look. It was something she often did when she felt like he was accidentally being 'insensitive.' Which was a bit hypocritical, since it wasn't like she was the most sensitive person either.

Norman shrugged. "I know he's dead, but… I'm worried that if the seance took too much of his energy, he won't be able to reform. He might just... fade away." Norman swallowed as he figisted with his hands in his lap.

"Don't worry Norman, I'm sure he's okay," Mabel said empathetically from across the table.

From beside him, Neil put his hand on Norman's shoulder. "Yeah buddy, I bet he's doing fine."

Norman nodded numbly before giving them all a faint smile. "I hope you're right."

"We won't know if we sit around here all day," Coraline said. "Let's go find out for ourselves."

"Where do you think he is?" Mabel asked as they headed down the driveway of the Cardinal's old mansion, their latest discovery weighing heavily on their minds. They had searched the mansion, but Luis Cardinal had been nowhere to be seen.

"There are many possibilities," Dipper said. "He has either crossed over, he's in the mansion but we just can't see him anymore, like Gideon said, or he's… somewhere else."

"Somewhere else?" Lili asked skeptically.

Dipper shrugged. His pace slowed as he and the rest of the kids came to a stop near the street corner. They stood facing each other in a lopsided circle. "Maybe he's with his parents? I don't see why he would stay in the old mansion now that he knows they're alive."

"I could probably make some ghost hunting equipment," Wybie suggested, his mind already running through multiple different blueprints he could draft up. "An EMF meter shouldn't be too hard to make. Then we can come back and it would tell us if he's in the mansion or not."

Raz looked up at him in surprise. "You can make stuff like that?"

"Wybie is pretty handy," Coraline said with a smirk, elbowing Wybie in the ribs. Wybie tried not to wince at the pain, and failed miserably. "He can make pretty much anything."

"I don't know about anything," Wybie corrected, while trying not to feel flustered by Coraline's unexpected praise. "If I have the right parts I can make most things. The problem is getting the parts, since I get most of my parts from scrap piles and old equipment that no one is using, I'm usually missing a lot of stuff I need. But I've gotten pretty good at figuring out shortcuts or improvising. I can't make everything, but I can usually make most things if I have enough time and parts."

Wybie paused to take a breath and noticed the other kids staring at him. Coraline raised an eyebrow.

"So long-winded explanation aside," Coraline continued. "He can make anything."

"If an EMF meter says that Luis is still in the mansion, we can probably find a ouija board and see if Luis can communicate with us that way." Dipper suggested.

Norman fidgeted uncomfortably next to Dipper. Wybie realized Norman had been even more quiet than usual after leaving the mansion.

"Well, what should we do now?" Mabel asked.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm not ready to go back to the Shack," Coraline said. "Maybe Mabel can do art projects all day, but I can't."

"Did you have something in mind, Jonesy?" Wybie asked.

"Yeah." Coraline nodded towards the treeline. "I was thinking of exploring the forest."

"The forest?" Dipper repeated, his voice breaking slightly as he glanced at his twin in concern. "I don't know guys, I don't think that's a good idea. Wouldn't you guys rather head back to the Shack and see if we have what Wybie needs for the EMF meter?"

"Wait, why isn't it a good idea?" Raz asked, his eyes gleamed with sudden interest.

"Are there dangerous animals in there?" Neil asked.

"There are some black bears and mountain lions in Oregon," Wybie said. "Those can be dangerous if we get too close to their territory."

Mabel giggled. "Aw, don't worry about that. In this forest, the bears and mountain lions are the least of our worries!"

Dipper sent his sister a meaningful glare.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lili asked, her eyes narrowing.

"She's just referring to all the rumors the townsfolk make up about the forest," Dipper supplied quickly. "Small towns, right? You know what they're like..." Dipper laughed nervously.

"What kind of rumors?" Raz prompted.

Raz and Lili were reminding Wybie a lot of Coraline. The more dangerous and mysterious something was, the more they wanted to know about it.

However, Wybie couldn't blame them for their interest with how suspicious Dipper was acting. He seemed determined to keep them away from the forest, which was guaranteed to make Coraline and the others (at least, Lili and Raz) want to go more.

Dipper shrugged. "You know, seeing creepy things in the forest at night, legends about Bigfoot, the Hide Behind, other made-up monsters. The townspeople usually don't go too far in the forest because of the stories, but most of them are made up by our Grunkle Stan to get business for the Shack, so there's nothing to them."

"Are you sure there is nothing do them? Like how the mansion wasn't haunted and Gideon is a fraud?" Coraline asked sarcastically.

"Hey, Gideon is still a fraud," Dipper protested and Mabel nodded emphatically.

"Well, for a fraud he did a pretty good job with a seance," Coraline pointed out.

"Doesn't mean he's psychic," Lili said, "But he certainly knew how to summon a ghost… which is strange for a nine-year-old to say the least."

"Okay guys, let's focus," Coraline said authoritatively. "Raise your hand if want to go back to the shack and be board all day."

Only one person raised their hand.

"Mabel!" Dipper chidded, his hand the only one in the air.

"What? The forest will be fun! Besides, we've already done this plenty of times," Mabel assured him. "If we stick together and don't go too far in, we'll be fine, right?"

Dipper looked around and sighed. "Okay fine." He lowered his hand reluctantly. "But you guys can't wander off. If you get lost in the woods, you might not find your way back."

Lilli rolled her eyes. "Dramatic much?"

"I'm serious," Dipper warned, but Coraline just patted him patronizingly on the top of his head as she walk past him.

"Sure, sure, we get it. You really need to loosen up, Pines," Coraline said.

Dipper crossed his arms sulkily and mumbled something under his breath that Wybie couldn't catch.

Wybie wondered what the big deal was. He and Coraline explored the forest back home plenty of times. He wondered if the twins had ever gotten themselves lost in the woods before and if that's why Dipper was so hesitant.

Wybie was looking forward to their little excursion. There would be plenty of interesting bugs and plants to look at. He was sure there would be many of the same species that lived in Ashland, but the forest back home wasn't as dense as it was here in Gravity Falls, so there would be new things to see as well.

As the kids entered the forest, the smell of fresh pine and the feel of the soft forest floor cushioning each step reminded Wybie of home. However, unlike home, the redwoods in this forest were even more impressively giant, and Wybie noted how the trees only seemed to get bigger the further they walked.

Wybie kept his eyes on the forest floor as he kept a lookout for banana slugs and trip hazards. Redwood tree's roots usually grow outward instead of down, meaning the shallow roots were often exposed and made navigating the forest without a path difficult. Neil had already tripped a few times, so Norman had hung back to walk beside him.

Dipper lead the group with his sister at his side. Mabel locked arms with her brother and pointed ahead of them. She seemed to ask him a question, which Wybie couldn't hear. Dipper shook his head and pointed in another direction. Mabel nodded approvingly.

The interaction made Wybie wonder… why hadn't they taken a trail? Sure, Coraline often insisted that they explore off the trails back at home, so he was used to it, but didn't most people hike on forest trails? Wybie was especially surprised that Dipper didn't insist on taking a trail, since he had been so worried about getting lost.

"You two do know where we're going, right?" Wybie asked. "You're not going to get us lost?"

"Please!" Mabel scoffed while glancing back at him. "Dipper and I know these woods better than the back of our identical hands!"

"But… you're not identical twins…" Wybie pointed out.

"Eh, semantics!" Mabel waved away his correction.

"As long as you follow us, you won't get lost," Dipper added. "So just… stick together."

That was the fourth time Dipper uttered that same warning since they entered the forest.

Coraline sighed loudly and Wybie couldn't help but smirk. Dipper's overly cautious nature was starting to wear on her nerves again.

Wybie would give her no more than five more minutes before Coraline decided to explore on her own. And by on her own, that usually meant dragging him reluctantly with her.

"Lili? Where are you going?" Raz called and everyone turned in confusion.

Lili was no longer walking beside Raz. Instead, she had turned to the right and was walking in a totally different direction.

"Wait! Don't got that way!" Dipper called after her. "That's going deeper into the forest! It's not safe!"

Wybie expected Lili to turn and scoff at him. He expected her to say that Dipper couldn't tell her what to do. Instead, Lili didn't say anything. She just kept walking.

"Lili!" Raz called after her. He ran up next to her, but she didn't stop or acknowledge him. He frowned in confusion.

"Lili?" He tried again and grabbed her wrist.

Lili only halted when Raz's grip prevented her from taking another step forward. Lili's body turned toward them as she attempted to pull out of Raz's grip wordlessly, and that's when Wybie saw her eyes. They were the same dark brown color they had always been, but they were unfocused and distant. When Lili looked at Raz, she wasn't really seeing him, but through him.

"What's… what's wrong with her?" Neil asked fearfully.

Lili frowned and gave another strong pull at her wrist. Raz let her go, most likely out of fear of hurting her, and Lili turned back in the same direction that she had been walking.

"It's like she's in a trance…" Dipper said, and Wybie saw him reach for something in his vest, before he froze and dropped his hand. "This isn't good," Dipper said biting his lip. "We need to stop her."

Raz was already on it as he planted himself directly in front of Lili and grabbed her shoulders. Lili struggled and tried to push against him, but Raz was stronger than her. Wybie was surprised on how much stronger Raz was, because despite his short stature, Raz wasn't moved even an inch by his struggling girlfriend.

"Lili, it's me," Raz pleaded. "What's going on?"

"This is really bad," Dipper said. "We need to get her out of the forest."

Coraline took a few steps closer to Lili to examine her. She waved a hand in front of Lili's face, but the girl didn't respond. "What is going on?" she wondered allowed.

"Maybe she's been hypnotized?" Neil suggested.

"That doesn't make sense," Wybie said. "Hypnotism doesn't take away free will. And besides, we would have seen if someone hypnotized her."

"Would... you…" Lili began slowly, still in the trance.

"Lili? Can you hear me?" Raz said eagerly. "Are you okay?"

"Raz...?" Lili's voice trailed off slowly.

Raz smiled in relief. "Yes, it's me! Are you okay?"

Lili blinked, the the dull look in her eyes began to brighten as she started to focus on her boyfriend.

"Raz…" she said slowly, like she was waking up from a long nap. "Would you… shut up?"

Raz blinked. "What?"

Then there was a shift, and Lili's eyes hardened as glared tirely at Raz. Wybie could tell she still wasn't all there from the slight glaze still left in her eyes, but at least she was responsive and could recognize other people.

"I can't hear... with all your yelling," she accused. Her voice still had a dream-like quality to it, which took the edge off her usually harsh tone. She struggled again against his grip, but Raz didn't let go. "Let me go, Raz," Lili demanded. "I need to go… I need to be there…"

"Be where?" Raz demanded, and to everyone's surprise, Raz leaned forward and placed his forehead onto Lili's. He briefly closed his eyes for a moment, but then opened them again, and pulled away with a frown.

"You won't understand it anyway…" Lili told him, her eyes were started to cloud over again. "Let me go… I'm being called there… let me go…"

"Was I like this two weeks ago?" Mabel asked her brother in a low voice.

Dipper shook his head. "No, you were totally asleep and unresponsive, this seems different… It looks like something is calling her somewhere." Dipper took a step forward. "Raz, whatever you do, don't let her go. There are bad things in the forest… things that would want to hurt us. I don't know what she's being called towards, but it can't be good."

"I thought all this monsters in the forest business was just local legend?" Coraline said pointedly.

"I lied," Dipper said simply without any remorse, his eyes never leaving the entranced girl. "I had a feeling that if I told you the truth about this forest, you would go looking for trouble."

Wybie had to admit that was a fair point. If Coraline had known that there were weird things in the forest she would have gone looking for adventure, just like she had gone looking for the ghost in the haunted mansion.

Coraline scowled. "Well, obviously your plan to play dumb backfired! If you did it to keep us safe or whatever, look how well that turned out!"

"Guys…" Raz said hesitantly. "I think I'm going to let go of Lili."

"What!?" Dipper and Coraline said at the same time as they swung back to face Raz in horror.

"Are you out of you mind?" Dipper yelled. "We need to get her out of here, not let her go further into the forest!"

"Let… go…" Lili insisted.

"I know, I know," Raz said with a tired sigh as his grip on his struggling girlfriend tightened. "But Lili's not in a complete trance. I know she's still in there and she's not even trying to fight this thing. Maybe it's okay that she's getting pulled to… wherever she's going."

"But she's not in her right mind," Wybie argued. "Maybe she's being tricked into thinking she's going somewhere good."

"Maybe," Raz agreed. "But Lili has a strong mind and it takes a lot to trick her. Besides, if we just leave now, we'll never know what put her in this trance."

"That's true but…" Dipper said, his eyes moving side to side and he seemed to be weighing the options. "Even though I want to know what's doing this to her, if we let her go Lili will be in more danger-"

"No she won't," Raz countered, his voice firm. "I'm not going to let anything happen to her."

Wybie wanted to argue. He wanted to point out that there was no way Raz could promise that, and if there really was something trying to hurt Lili, then how would a kid be able to stop it?

"Besides," Raz added. "Lili will kill me if she hears I ran away without figuring out what's going on.

Coraline ran a hand through her hair and straightened her shoulders. "Well, if this turns out bad, at least you will have back up." She looked at the other kids hesitantly. "I'm not sure what's going to happen, but it could get dangerous," she warned.

"Like angry poltergeist dangerous?" Neil asked. "Because I think if we can handle that, we can handle anything."

Norman smiled and nodded. "If something is trying to bring Lili somewhere, then we should figure out what it wants. That's usually the best way of dealing with stuff we don't understand yet."

"And if it really is evil, I'll use my trusty grappling hook on it!" Mabel said, brandishing the weapon that she seemingly pulled out of thin air.

"Did you have that under your sweater the whole time?" Wybie asked, perplexed.

Dipper adjusted his hat. "Okay... okay… I still feel like this is a bad idea, but this is the only way to figure out what is going on. If we are going to do this, Raz, you need to make sure you keep a hold of her. If we lose her we won't be able to help her."

"Right!" Raz agreed.

"We met a ghost and now whatever this is…" Coraline said with an excited grin. "And I thought I was going to be bored this summer."

Raz let go of Lili's shoulders, but grabbed her hand with one of his owns and entwined their fingers. Lili started walking forward again.

They followed Lili at a steady pace. She headed deeper into the forest in a straight line, only veering off of her course when there was a tree in her way.

No one spoke as they followed the girl. Dipper had a permanent frown on his face as he glanced around the forest nervously. Dipper's sister was at the front of the group next to Lili watching her closely.

Unexpectedly, Lili broke out into a run.

"Whoa, Lili!" Raz shouted as he was pulled along behind her.

"Shoot! Don't lose her!" Dipper yelled as they all started to run after the girl.

Lili was fast, but Raz was able to keep up with her easily. Coraline and Mabel were on their heels and Dipper and Wybie were behind the two girls.

The trees were growing closer together and it was hard to run without stumbling over the branches. Wybie heard Norman and Neil crashing through the forest behind him, but he didn't dare look back in case he tripped over something.

"Do you know where we are?" Coraline yelled back over her shoulder at Dipper.

"No, we've never been this way before!" Dipper shouted back.

They kept running and Wybie felt a stitch in his side. He hoped they would stop soon. He wasn't sure how long he could keep this up.

Suddenly, the forest opened up into a large clearing and Lili came to a halt.

"Lili are you okay?" Raz asked urgently. "What's going on? What... Oh. Oh wow."

Wybie was staring too, because before them was the largest, most incredible tree he had ever seen. It wasn't a pine tree like the rest of the forest, but a giant, great oak tree. It was impossibly tall, with branches that reached up higher than the redwoods surrounding the clearing.

The trunk of the tree was at least three times as thick as any redwood he had seen in the forest. However, what really made Wybie's jaw drop was the two-story wooden cabin placed high up on the tree's largest branch. The cabin looked quite a few decades old. Foliage clung to the roof and the chimney was crumbling brick by brick. The railing along the patio looked unstable and would come apart the moment someone touched it.

"This is..." Dipper breathed.

"Beautiful," Lili finished for him as she unentwined her hands from Raz and started forward again towards the giant tree.

"Lili!" Raz called out worriedly as he followed along beside her.

Lili didn't seem to hear him as she approached the immense tree. She reached a hand out and placed it on the bark of the tree, her eyes slowly closing.

"Is she okay?" Coraline asked while biting her lip.

"Lili?" Raz tried again, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Huh? What?" Lili removed her hand from the tree and turned around, blinking in confusion. "What's going on?" She asked and every sign of the half-trace she had been in had vanished.

"Are you okay?" Raz asked in concern. "Do you remember what happened?"

Lili pursed her lips in thought and turned back to the tree, placing a hand on it's bark once again.

"Sort of..." Lili answered slowly. "It's like something was calling me but it wasn't an actual voice. More like a feeling pulling me here." Lili looked back up at the tree in wonder.

"That's not a good thing," Dipper said nervously. "Someone or... something lured you here." Dipper glanced up at the creepy treehouse. "This is a bad place."

Lili shook her head and turned to face Dipper. "No, you're wrong. This is a good place," Lili said with such fierce confidence that Wybie couldn't help but believe her even though there was no way for her to know this was true.

"How do you know?" Dipper asked.

Lili paused. "I'm not sure… I just…" her cheeks took on a red tint. "I just feel like this is a good place, is all."

"You shouldn't trust a 'feeling' like that," Dipper advised in a know-it-all tone. "You have no idea where it came from. It could all be a trick."

"Mr. Paranoid is right," Coraline agreed, earning a scowl from Dipper. "It's not a good idea to trust so easily without doing a little investigating." Coraline backed away from the tree so she could get a good look up at the cabin. "For all we know, whatever dragged you here could have been some sort of spell."

"A spell?" Lili scoffed. "You can't be serious."

"We just met a ghost," Mabel reminded them. "Why can't magic be real?"

"Because ghosts are the energy people leave behind. Ghosts make sense," Lili shot back. "Magic doesn't."

"Not everything that is real makes sense," Mabel offered. "And if it wasn't a spell, then what brought you here?"

Lili pursed her lips stubbornly, refusing to answer. Raz glanced curiously back at the tree.

Wybie looked around the rest of the clearing. White flowers that had yet to bloom covered ground around the base of the tree. Surrounding the clearing around them in a perfect circle was the rest of the treeline. Wybie had heard of tree circles before, but this circle was so perfect it looked man made. It was then that Wybie realized what was missing.

"Hey… Where are Norman and Neil?"

Sorry these chapters always take so long, and this one was especially difficult because it was on the longer side and I ended up changing quite a few things. Next few chapters will end this act and they are a lot easier to edit and will be out sooner! Let me know what you think! I hope you guys liked this chapter!