Author's Note: Again I'll be posting a rewrite of episode 2 the first of October and I promise it will be way better than the current one! Anyway with that said here's Part 3. Thanks for reading and please review.
-Yours Truly, RoxieDivine
Things Aren't Always What They Seem (Part 3)
(Back at the Mystery Shack…)
Nothing…
That's what the eager trio found.
NOTHING!
Not a speck of evidence to prove that Fiddleford's father wasn't a crazy loon!
No monsters, no treasure, and no adventure anywhere!
After a few days of this grueling routine, Ford figured that they were probably going to be doing this for the rest of the summer. Heck yesterday, he even went so far as to mourn the fantasy he thought was going to be their summer, and poured out a bit of every soda he would drink out on the ground and say. "To the summer we never had."
Ford sighed, shaking away the negative thoughts as he rearranged the objects on one of the shelves so that they were neat, in the front, and very easily seen by anyone passing by.
Stan, as usual, had found a way to slack off. Although the ring of Mystery Shack logo t-shirts needed fluffing up, Stan had somehow found himself hiding in the clothes, knees bent, muscles tense, and eyes straight ahead.
Ford sighed. "I know you're bored, but we have to finish our chores! …if you break anything, she'll have our heads."
Stan waved his hand. "I won't break anything!"
Ford glanced to his brother questioningly. "What are you staring at anyways?"
"Look!" Stan pointed.
Ford looked in the direction of his finger, and his heart seized up.
There in front of him stood the most beautifulness girl he had ever seen.
Her hair was as black as the midnight sky, and when the light bounced off of it just right he noticed waves of blue highlights. She wore matching blue eyeshadow, dark black eyeliner, and mascara, along with some tight black jeans, and a black jacket with a blue stitched heart that she had zipped all the way up.
She was a Goddess!
Stan rolled his eyes knowingly "Seriously do you always have to fall for the bad girls?" He asked.
"What I'm not-" Ford stuttered. "You're the one staring at her."
"I was pointing at the sign above her!" Stan said "Ever notice how the A's got a slit for one eye like that monster Crazy Chiu was talking about."
Ford frowned. He could tell his brother didn't really believe in that monster, he was simply grasping at straws for some kind of proof.
They all were.
"Grauntie Mabel probably added that the moment she heard the story." He said.
"Yeah you're probably right." Stan said with a sigh. "Oh no!"
"What?" Ford asked.
"She's coming over here!" Stan warned hiding in the clothes.
Ford tensed as the gothic looking girl comes his way.
"So are you going to keep staring at me like a weirdo, or are you going to talk to me?" She asked.
"I…I…I." Ford was lost for words that is until Stan's footstuck out from his hiding spot and kicked him in the rear. "I'm Ford." He finally managed to get out, thanks to Stan's help of course. "Stanford, Stanford Pines."
"You're blowing it man!" Stan whispered harshly.
"Shut up." Ford warned to him before offering the girl a wave. "It's nice to meet you uh…"
"Heather." She said. "Heather Valentino, and the guy in the clothes?"
"Oh that's my brother." Ford says. "He's avoiding work."
"No that sign is watching me man!" Stan shouted from the clothes.
Heather smiled. "It's cool I have a brother too." She says. "So I know all about the stunts they pull to get out of chores."
"Tell me about it." Ford mused.
"Hey I am right here you know!" Stan shouted, poking his head out of the clothes.
"Dude you're twins." Heather said. "Wicked cool."
"Yeah well I'm the cool one." Stan said.
Heather erupted into laughter. "Is he always like this?" He asked.
"Yeah." Ford admitted. "He thinks he's a chick magnet."
"I am a chick magnet!" Stan argued, stunned that his charms had no effect on this girl.
"Whoa no way!" Heather suddenly grabbed Ford's hand. "You've got six figures!"
Ford blushed.
"Six is like my favorite number." She exclaimed.
"You know you're very cherry for a Goth." Stan said.
"OMG I am not Goth you jerk!" Heather yelled, dropping Ford's hand. "I just like the colors black and blue."
"Oh." Now it was Stan's turn to blush. "Sorry."
"Heather!" A teenage boy wearing baggy jeans and a rock and roll t-shirt suddenly ran over to her. "How many times have I told you not to run off?"
"I was just meeting the new kids." Heather said, pointing to Stan, and Ford. ""You're always telling me to stop pestering you and your friends, and now I don't have to."
Her brother scoffed. "You're going to hang out with these losers?" Her brother asked.
Ford's eyes fell, and Stan turned red with fury.
"Yes, because if you think their losers then they must be cool!" Heather spat at him.
"Fine whatever hang out with your dumb new friends." Her brother says. "It just means I can leave."
Ford, and Stan watched him go stunned.
"Sorry about him." Heather said. "Robert's a jerk."
"You think we're cool?" Stan asked.
"Well your brother is." Heather said. "But so far you're acting like a paranoid stalker hiding in the clothes like that."
Ford laughed as Stan's face fell into a scowl.
"Very funny." Stan retorted.
"Anyway when's your shift over?" Heather asked.
"You want to know when I get off." Ford asked dumbly.
"How else are we going to hang out?" Heather asked. "Besides the other kids in this town are either stuck up or really, really annoying snot nose brats." She told them.
"We get off in an hour." Stan answered for his helpless brother. "Please excuse Point Dexter's behavior, a girl has never talked to him for this long before."
Ford punched his brother in the arm.
Heather laughed. "Then I'll be back then."
"But." Ford began.
"What?" Heather asked.
"We kind of made plans with a friend of ours." Stan said. "You can tag along though if you want."
"Cool where are we going?" Heather asked.
"Monster hunting." Ford said blushing violently.
Heather's eyes widen.
"Oh great you think we're crazy don't you." Stan asked.
"No, I…I believe you." Heather said.
"You do? Why?" Ford asked.
"I've met one." Heather whispered.
"You met a monster?" Stan asked. "Does he have one eye!" he exclaimed
"No, he has two and he's not a monster!" Heather yelled, but forced herself to calm down. "He's very nice."
"Can we meet him?" Ford asked hopefully. "It would mean a lot to my friend if he had some kind of proof that the monsters are real."
Heather thought for a moment, then said. "Promise you won't hurt him?" She asked.
"Promise." The twins said.
"Then I'll be back in an hour." She said, before racing off.
"Who was that?" Fiddleford asked as she walked off.
"That's Heather." Stan said. "And she's going to show us a real monster."
"Really?" Fiddleford looks almost hopeful. "She has real proof."
"It sounded real to me." Ford said as he looked at the newly organize shelf, and then the ruffled shirts Stan was still hiding in. Suddenly he noticed a slight shadow falling over the ground behind Stan. Grauntie Mabel, wears an amused face, a playful glint is in her eyes, and a few signs were in her arms. "Whatcha doin' kid?"
Stan screamed and spun around. Upon seeing who it was, however, he sighed. "Oh. Hey! I was, uh, organizing these shirts."
Their great aunt looked up in the direction Stan had been facing to see Heather making her leave. "Sure you were. Now! I need someone to hang up these signs along the road!"
"Not it!" Stan and Ford piped up at the same time.
Grauntie Mabel looked over at the cashier. Danny is currently sitting at the register, dealing with a customer.
Grauntie Mabel sighed. "Alright. Well… it looks like I'll have to choose between you three. So…" She looked at the twins and Fiddleford. "How about… you! Ford, please put up these signs in the spooky part of the forest."
Ford yelped and stumbled back as he barely managed to catch the pointed signs given to him. He looked down at the colorful advertisements and then back up at Grauntie Mabel with round eyes. "But every time I go out there, I feel like something's watching me. Plus, it's really hard to see out there."
Grauntie Mabel crossed her arms, though a smirk now played on her features. "Those things called excuses don't work on me. Besides, there's nothing weird going on in those woods. It's just part of the lore, made to sell things like this to people like them!" She waved her hand to a cluster of tourists who were looking through some of the items in the gift shop. "Now, quit being so paranoid! Stan! Organize those shirts for me, will you? And Fiddleford I got something for you to fix."
Ford sighed, but made no other motion to disagree and made his leave as everyone else got back to work.
Outside in the woods mist, still unable to evaporate under the broken light of the sun, swirled around the feet of trees. Ford walked up to the nearest of those trees, and knocked a screw into it before hanging up a sign. "Ugh. Why doesn't she ever believe me?" he muttered as he continued making a trail of signs. "There's definitely something going on-" he cut himself off as, when he attempted to pin up another sign, the tree clanged like an empty tube. Ford's eyebrows furrowed. He set his ear to the dusty tree and knocked his hammer against it again. Again, a clang came in response. He put his hammer down and ran his fingers over the tree trunk, leaving trails through the dust. Eventually, he fingers caught under something and he pulled back. A portion of the tree opened.
Ford's eyes grew round as orbs as he looked upon a metal cubby with a machine inside. The machine was covered with switches and buttons. Out of sheer curiosity, he played with a few of the switches. Some switches and buttons did nothing at all. One switch, however, caused the ground behind him to shutter. Ford yelped and spun around. A section of the ground shuttered and retracted into the ground beside it.
When Ford approached the indention, he found that it was covered in cobwebs, millipedes, and a singular, leather-bound book. The boy plucked the book out of the ground and dusted it off. A large blue pine tree silhouette was pasted to the front. A black letter '3' was written on the tree. After a bit of work, he dusted off the cover completely. Despite its age and wear, a slight glint reflected off the silver paper.
He set it on the ground and knelt beside it. When he opened it, a page that had been stuck to the cover was ripped out. The only part that was left were the words "Property Of" in blue, neat letters. A string with an eyeglass had been curled up and was between the cover and the first page. The first page read "Vol. 3". When he lifted it, he found the string to be glued to the inside of the book and not the paper.
Once he flipped the first paper over, he found it filled with words. "June 18" was at the top. Written in curly blue letters that were a mix of cursive and print was the first entry. "It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began researching the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon." Ford stopped reading and contented himself in gently flipping through the old pages. Floating Eyeballs, Vampire Bats, Gnomes, Cursed Doors, pages filled with symbols… "What is this?" he muttered to himself. He paused as he came across a particularly frightening page.
"TRUST NO ONE" was written in bold, heavy letters and underlined multiple times under what looked like a plain entry. "Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before HE finds it. Remember: in Gravity Falls, there is no one you can trust." He shut the book. "No one you can trust…"
"Hello!" Stan called as he and Fiddleford appeared out of nowhere.
Ford screamed and whipped around, the book held tight to his chest.
Stan asked. "Whatcha reading? Some nerd thing?" He asked, he and Fiddleford had finished their task for the day and had come out to find Ford.
Ford glanced down at the book and then up at Stan. "I… let's go somewhere more private."
Stan raised an eyebrow. "We're in the middle of the forest, bro. Besides what could be so important."
"I think I found it." Ford whispered.
"Found what?" Fiddleford asked.
"Yeah and why are we whispering?" Stan added.
"Guys I found the proof!" Ford said holding up the book. "At least I think it is."
"Let me see." Stan took the journal and went through it. "It's some kind of diary." He said. "With research about weird things."
"Let me see!" Fiddleford exclaimed, and gasped as he looked over Stan's shoulder. "This is it! My Dad told me about these cursed doors, and the eyeball bats! This is it!"
"The weird thing is that the entries just stop almost like the writer suddenly disappeared or something." Ford said thoughtfully.
"Cool." Stan said in awe.
"You think whatever Heather gonna show us is in this book?" Fiddleford asked.
"Oh my gosh, Heather?" Ford looked down at his watch. "It's been an hour already? She'll be waiting for us!"
The boy's raced back to the Mystery Shack, but when they got there Heather was nowhere in sight.
Ford kicked Grauntie Mabel's car tier in frustration. "Ah man she probably thinks we blew her off!"
"That could have been our big break!" Stan stomped his foot in anger.
"One of us should have stayed." Fiddleford realized.
"No I shouldn't have taken so long." Ford admitted. "Sorry Fiddleford." He said, bowing his head.
"It's okay, maybe the journal can show us how to find things on our own." Fiddleford said hopefully.
"Yeah." Stan says as the boys began to walk away from the car.
Suddenly the ground rumbled beneath them.
"Whoa." Ford said, trying to regain his balance.
"Was that an Earthquake?" Stan asked.
Another one erupted around them, and then another, and another, almost like…
"Footsteps." Ford said. "Its footsteps, and it's coming from-" The boys turned around just in time to see a giant tree like mushroom covered hand reach out and take Grauntie Mabel's car!
"Oh my-" Ford's glasses nearly fell off his face in shock. The trio look up just in time to see a giant tree man appearing above the tree tops.
The giant goes to take a bite out of the car when.
"Steve put it down!" Heather zoomed up into the drive way on her bike.
"Heather?" Ford looks baffled.
"Sorry I'm late guys." Heather said. "For a giant tree person Steve is hard to find."
"Wait this is the guy you wanted to show us?" Stan asked.
Heather nodded.
"And you thought we were going to be able to hurt him?" Stan scoffed.
Heather ignored him. "Steve we've talked about this." She said to the giant tree man. "Eating peoples cars is not nice, we are a nice tree person remember?"
Steve frowns almost like a five year old who isn't getting a lolly pop, but he obeys. And soon the car is placed back down where it was, undamaged, surprisingly.
"Sorry he's still a baby." Heather said.
"He's a baby?" Ford asked, stunned.
"Yeah just a year ago he was a little sprout that could fit in the palm of my hand." Heather said. "I found him all alone in the woods, and I've been trying to take care of him, but he got so big the only place I could hide him is the woods."
Fiddleford was shaking in disbelief. "My dad's not crazy." He said realizing the truth. "My Dad's not crazy!"
"No he isn't." Ford said. "And he's living proof."
"Thank you!" Fiddleford hugged Heather out of nowhere. He didn't mean to invade her personal space, but he finally had proof. After so many years of people calling his dad crazy, he was starting to believe it was true.
But it wasn't.
"So?" Ford said. "Seen any other out of the ordinary things?"
"Are you kidding I've lived here all my life." Heather said. "With all the stuff I've seen, it would take all summer to show you half of it. And I'd need to have some sort of manual to explain what they are, and how to find them on their own turf."
"You mean like this?" Ford asked holding up the journal.
Heather took the book and flipped through it. "I've seen some of these things." She said. "Oh my gosh, this is real." She opened a page that revealed a segment about tree people. "Where did you find this?" She asked.
"It was hidden in the ground." Ford said.
"This is amazing." Heather said tears in her eyes. "I can finally help Steve get home."
"Home?" Stan asked.
"I love Steve." Heather said, "But now that he's so big I can't be the mom he needs me to be. If this book is right, then we can help him get home to his real family!"
"We?" Stan asked.
"You will help won't you guys?" Heather asked hopefully.
Ford and Fiddleford smiled.
"Well that sounds like an adventure." Fiddleford said. "And who knows what we'll run into on the way there."
"Maybe monsters!" Ford said.
"Or treasure!" Stan exclaimed, perking up.
"So you're in?" Heather asked.
"Definitely!" The trio said in unison.
"Yes!" Heather exclaimed. "You hear that Steve?" She asked turning to the giant. "You're finally going home!"
The oversized Steve jumps for joy at her words.
"We'll have to wait until this weekend." Stan shouted over his happy jumps.
"Yeah the location here in the journal looks like it will take at least three hours to get there." Ford said studying the map to the supposed location of the tree people's territory.
"Ok then we'll go this Saturday, deal?" Heather asked.
"Deal!" The boys promised as one.
"Great, now I got to go make sure Steve goes back to his hiding spot." Heather says. "It's a patch of woods behind my house. I have a treehouse there where I keep food for him." She zooms off into the trees on her bike, and Steve walks behind her.
"We'll see you tomorrow." Ford called off after her. "So we can make plans for the trip."
He wasn't sure if she could hear him over Steve's loud stomping, but he hoped so.
"Wow did that just happen?" Stan asked still in disbelief. "I can't believe I just saw that."
"Me either." Fiddleford agreed.
"Well we did." Ford said, his eyes falling back to the journal in his hands.
"And we're about to see a lot more…"