I don't own any of this Paranorman belongs to Laika, all other characters belong to their respectful companies. And The Stand belongs to Stephen King.
August 30
The month is drawing to a close, along with the summer that seemed to have went on for a long time for all that has happened. Soon it will be fall, the leaves will change color, the air will grow cold, and then as soon as the Boulder Free Zone residents will know, it'll be winter and the passages in and out of the Free Zone will be blocked by fresh snow.
Of course they still have a couple of months for that to happen, so at the moment the residents are living in peace. This is what Mabel felt like today when she woke up.
Letting out a yawn, Mabel turned to Waddles who is stretching on the floor after waking up himself. "Good morning Waddles, did you have a nice dream?"
Waddles looked up to her and oinked. "So did I, it was the best dream I ever had, though it's too bad that I haven't stopped the waffle-man invasion." Mabel's stomach then growled loudly making her look down at it. "Speaking of Waffles."
Mabel jumped out of bed and went out to the kitchen with Waddles by her side. "Hey Dipper! I'm making some waffles!" She doesn't get a reply. "Dipper?" Going up to his room, Mabel found a note attached to the door, curious on what it said Mabel took it off the door and read it.
Dear Mabel,
Went out to check a possible haunted house. I'll be back by sundown.
From Dipper.
PS. Don't fill the house with glitter.
Mabel sets the note back on the door, then looked down at Waddles with a smile. "Looks like we have the house to ourselves Waddles." Waddles cocked his head. "You know what that means right?" She said with a bigger grin and a squint of her eye, Waddles can only oink in response.
Rock music from a record player played loudly. Mabel wearing a white shirt and sunglasses came sliding into the kitchen, Waddles in a matching outfit sat ideally near the table.
The song; "I love that old time rock and roll" played, Mabel danced into the kitchen and up to the counters, she bobs her head as she opened up the cabinet and took out some blueberry waffles, setting the box on the counter top Mabel took out three waffles and placed them in the toaster. After setting the toaster, Mabel started to spin around, before hoping left and right, she turns towards the table to point at Waddles, but she jumped as instead of Waddles, Aggie floated above the floor looking at her strangely.
Mabel let out a little yep, then quickly stopped dancing and stood there with a smile as if she wasn't just dancing a second ago. "Oh, uh, hey Aggie. What a surprise to see you."
Aggie just continued to look at her strangely after witnessing the unexpected show, eventually she spoke up. "I came to see if you want to spend time together. Um, what in the world were you doing?"
"I, uh, was, uh, dancing because I had the house to myself." Mabel replied sheepishly.
"Right" Aggie said.
The two are awkwardly silent, Mabel petted the back of her hair, while Aggie rubbed her arm. Just then a knock came from the front door, which thankfully broke the awkward silence. "Oh hey, we have company!" Mabel said before quickly racing to the front door, leaving Aggie to look down at Waddles. "You think I should forget about what I saw?"
Waddles replied to her with a oink.
Mabel opened up the door to reveal Coraline leaning against the door frame. "Hey Mabel."
"Oh hi Coraline! What brings you here?" Mabel happily asked.
"I was in the neighborhood and wanted to see if you wanted to hang out?"
Mabel smiled brightly. "Of course! Come on in!" Mabel leads Coraline into the kitchen where she caught sight of Aggie who had sat herself at the table. "Oh, hey Aggie."
"Good morning Coraline." Aggie politely replied.
Coraline's nose then picked up the scent of cooked waffles. "Do I smell waffles?"
"Oh yes, I was making some waffles before you guys showed up."
"Well then." Coraline started as her stomach began to growl. "Mind if I have some?"
"Of course! Waffle away!" Mabel happily replied, Coraline didn't need be told twice, she quickly took out two waffles of her own and placed them on the other side of the toaster, as she does so Mabel turned to Aggie. "Would you like some?"
"I can't eat, remember Mabel."
Mabel gasped in self shock for how could she forget about that? It was so insensitive. "Oh gosh! I'm so sorry!"
"It's alright Mabel, you just forgot that I'm a ghost." Aggie said in reassurance. Before Mabel could say anything else in a form of an apology, her waffles popped up from the toaster. "Yo Mabel! Your waffles are ready." Coraline called to her.
Mabel gave Aggie another apologetic look, then went to get her waffles. After gathering their waffles, Coraline and Mabel sat down on opposite sides of the table, Coraline immediately digs in while Mabel took the time to fill her waffles with maple syrup to the point where it covered all of her waffles. "Don't you think that's enough?" Aggie asked.
"Nope" Mabel fill it in some more, until at last she placed the maple syrup down. Licking her lips, Mabel started to dig into her waffles, after finishing up her first waffle Coraline thought up of something. "You know with all three of us here with no boys around, do you guys know what this means?"
"Not really." Aggie admitted.
Mabel however gasped out loud. "GIRLS DAY OUT!"
"You got that right." Coraline confirmed as they gave each other a high five, leaving Aggie to look at them in question. "Girls day out?"
Coraline nodded happily. "Yeah! A day out with just us girls and no smelly boys interrupting."
"And what do we do on this day out?" Aggie asked quizzitely.
"I'm glad you ask Aggie." Coraline replied as she came on over and wrapped her arm around the young ghost, this made Aggie visibly nervous as she sensed trouble.
"We're going on a little adventure and we're going to have fun on doing it."
"Didn't you get into trouble the last time you went on a adventure? Norman told me about what had happened at that house." She informed her with a raised eyebrow.
"That was a minor setback, but this time it'll be different, trust me." Coraline encouraged, Aggie however did not look convinced, that statement couldn't be said the same for Mabel who is bouncing in excitement. "When can we go?"
"After our waffle time." Coraline answered with that smirk on her face, for at least she got someone excited.
Mabel then proceeds to wolf down her waffles, which dropped the smirk on Coraline's face as she and Aggie looked at her strangely. "I didn't know she can eat that fast." Aggie commented.
"I don't think she's even chewing." Coraline added.
"Well here we are!" Coraline happily announced as the three of them stood in the middle of the woods. Mabel and Aggie looked around at the tall trees with questionable looks. "So why are we here?" Aggie asked.
"It's the thrill of adventure Aggie, going off into an unknown part of the wilderness and encounter something."
"Like what?" Aggie innocently asked.
"That's the fun of it, you just don't know." Coraline explained in excitement.
"You think we'll encounter leprechauns?" Mabel happily asked.
"I don't know about that, but let's go shall we." Without another word Coraline lead the two girls through the forest. As Coraline looked around for anything interesting Mabel decided to start a conversation with Aggie. "So" She began, getting the young ghost's attention. "What did you think of my dance moves?"
"They were" Aggie hesitated to answer the question, but she didn't want to hurt her feelings, so she decided to say the first thing that came into her mind. "They were interesting."
"Yeah, I learned them from Sev'ral Timez."
"Who's that?"
"Only the greatest cloned, boy band in the universe!" Mabel happily exclaimed with sparkles in her eyes. Aggie raised her eyebrows in question. "Boy band?"
Mabel nodded. "Yeah you know? Cute boys who sing pop songs, that you totally want to marry."
"Do they sing in the middle of town?"
"No, on big stages with flashing lights, smoke, and music."
"That sounds fun." Aggie had no idea what Mabel is even talking about, but she didn't want to be rude.
Mabel meanwhile decided to suddenly switch the subject. "So anyway is it true that there are ghosts who look like white sheets and say boo all the time."
"No, that's just a stereotype." Aggie replied.
"Guys!" Coraline suddenly spoke up causing the two to stop in their tracks. Coraline is crouched down on her knees behind a log, looking at something. "Check this out." She whispered.
Mabel and Aggie joined her and saw Lili crouched down in a clearing of the forest, talking gently to a yellow flower. "Yes, this is a nice place to grow, plenty of sunshine. Plus your getting a good amount of water."
"What's she doing?" Aggie asked.
"Talking to a flower." Coraline replied, it wasn't unusual as she has seen Wybie's grandma talking to her flowers several times.
Mabel meanwhile smiled brightly as here is another person to join in on their girls day out. Before Aggie or Coraline could stop her, she jumped over the log and happily approached Lili. "Hey Lili!"
Lili jumped and turned to her in surprise. "Mabel! What are you doing out here?"
"We are having a girls day out!" Mabel answered with her arms stretched out towards the sky. Lili looked passed Mabel where she saw Aggie and Coraline now approaching. "That sounds fun." She said.
Mabel happily nodded. "It is! We're traveling through the woods for adventure and I was wondering if you would like to join us?"
"I don't know about that Mabel, she seems pretty busy at the moment." Coraline remarked.
"Now hold on a minute." Lili gets herself up to her feet. "A girls day out sounds like something we all need. Luckily for you girls, I came across something that may interest you."
Coraline perked up in interest over that. "What do you mean?"
Lili smirked, at least she got one of their attention. "I'll show you." Lili walked off towards the west fallowed closely by Coraline, while Aggie and Mabel stood there for a second looking at each other, before going off to catch up with the two girls.
Lili leads them through the thickest part of the forest, Coraline could hardly keep her curiosity as she wondered what Lili is going to show them. Finally Lili pushes aside a bush and comes to stop on top of a ridge that had a fallen tree bridge going across some rapids and on the other side of the ridge is a cave.
Coraline felt borderline excited as this was an adventure. "Please tell me this is the place?"
"It's the place alright. I came across this place last week during a walk." Lili explained.
"Have you explored it?"
"No, I didn't think I had to. But it looks like I have reason now."
"Great then let's go!" Coraline heads for the tree, fallowed by Mabel who looked equally excited. Aggie however floated nervously to the edge of the ridge, she felt very uneasy upon looking at the raging water along with the bridge above it, the bridge looked very slippery, not to mention that it might fall any second.
"Are you sure that is wise?" Aggie asked Coraline.
Turning to face her, Coraline smiled at her. "Relax Aggie, the tree looks stable."
Aggie looked to the tree again. "I don't know about that."
"Don't worry Aggie, we'll be perfectly safe." Coraline climbed on to the tree, raising her arms up for balance, Coraline slowly went across the tree and upon getting to the other side she jumped off it and raised her arms up in a ta-da gesture.
Since she made it across the tree, Mabel and Lili started to go across as well, Aggie watched in worry as any second now they would either slip or the tree could fall and then they will fall into that raging water. To her relief, the two manage to make it across the ridge as well, once Mabel jumped onto the ground, she turned to face her with a smile. "Come on Aggie!"
Aggie sighed, then floated her way across, once she made it the girls went over to the cave, looking into it they couldn't see anything due to how dark it was. "Boy we should've brought a flashlight." Mabel commented.
"Don't worry I got this." The area suddenly got lighter, turning to Lili the three are surprised to see Lili holding a stick that has a fire burning on top.
"Where did you get that?" Coraline questioned.
"I'm good at making fires." Lili simply replied, she goes into the cave with the three girls fallowing her. Unaware that the black crow watched them from a branch of a tree, the crow looked up above the cave with a devious plan in mind.
The girls looked around near the cave's entrance, they looked at the carved walls along with the hanging stalactites. "Whoa, look at that!" Mabel exclaimed.
"You should probably keep your voice down." Lili warned.
"Why?"
"You could cause a cave in. And I don't feel like having a stalactite impale me."
"Come on, what are the chances of that ever happening?"
A sudden rubble from the entrance gets everyone's attention, small rocks first appeared as well as dust, then a series of large rocks came down all at once kicking up a great amount of dust. Coraline, Mabel, and Lili coughed from the amount of dust, when it eventually cleared the girls saw to their dismay that the entrance is blocked my an assortment of rocks.
Lili immediately glared over to Mabel, who looked to her defensively. "Hey I didn't cause this."
Coraline approached the entrance, looking over the blockage. It was very clear that she wouldn't be able to move the rocks, which unfortunately means that they were trapped in here, Aggie drifted next to her visibly scared. "What are we going to do?"
"You can go through this." Coraline commented.
"I know, but you guys can't." She cried out in worry.
"Relax there might be another way out." Coraline said in order to calm her down, although it did the contrary to Aggie who began to spark. "But we don't know what's in this cave!" Coraline stepped back as Aggie's eyes began to glow as electricity sparked around her hair. "What if you fall down a hole! Or what if something lives in here!" By now Aggie's voice echoed getting Mabel and Lili's attention.
Concerned over the fear on her, Mabel went up to Aggie and hugged her, although all that did was have Mabel go through her, it was a nice gesture though. "Don't worry Aggie, we'll get out of this."
"But what are we going to do?" She cried with her eyes still glowing.
"Simple, you go out and get help."
"That's actually a good idea." Lili commented.
"Yeah, you just need to find one of the guys and get them over here to free us." Mabel explained to her.
Aggie looked to everyone in worry. "But what about you guys?"
"We'll be fine, just go and get help." Mabel replied gently.
Aggie slowly nodded, after looking at them hesitantly a bit. Aggie phases through the rocks and quickly began to make her way back towards town.
With Aggie gone and seeing how they weren't going anywhere, the girls sat down in a circle and decided that this is a greater chance than ever to start up a chat. "So how's the week been doing for you guys?"
"Well other than this very moment Mabel, it's been going mostly good." Coraline replied.
"My garden is blooming very nicely." Lili piped in.
"Do you got any pumpkins growing?" Mabel asked.
"No, it's too late to plant any pumpkins. Why do you ask?"
"Because Halloween is coming up soon." Mabel gleefully replied.
"Oh yeah, I wonder if it's still going to happen?" Coraline exclaimed.
"Why wouldn't it happen?"
"Well Mabel, after everything I'm pretty sure that everyone is finished with scares or any mention of death." Coraline explained.
Hearing this news of not celebrating Halloween, Mabel frowned in disappointment. "Aw! I guess it's good that Dipper and I celebrated Summerween earlier this year."
Coraline and Lili raised their eyebrows on the mention of Summerween as they never heard of that holiday before. "Uh, Summerween?" Lili question.
"Yeah in Gravity Falls they celebrate Halloween twice a year."
"Getting free candy twice a year? That sounds awesome." Coraline admitted.
"It is, unless you fall under the wrath of the Summerween Trickster."
"Wait who?" Lili question.
"A monster made out of rejected candy, who eats anyone who doesn't collect enough candy on Summerween." Mabel explained.
"That's intense."
Coraline chuckled however. "You kidding, I could've taken that thing on with no problem." Lili looked to her with doubt. "You sound sure of yourself."
"You kidding? I faced way more horrible things than this Summerween Trickster."
"Oh, like what?" Mabel asked as she leaned forward along with Lili as what did Coraline mean by facing something worse?
Now on the spotlight, Coraline had to think up a lie quick, she just couldn't say anything about the Beldam as their might be a risk of them wanting to investigate that monster and she couldn't allow any way for the Beldam to get free from the other world. The door to it may be miles away from them, but who says that there was only one door? What if there were multiple doors? There could be one right in town somewhere for all she knew. Thankfully Coraline manges to come up with the perfect lie.
"You know dealing with Scarface and what not."
"You kidding? the Summerween Trickster could've ate Scarface in one gulp." Mabel stated.
"Well he seemed worse." Coraline meekly replied as she rubbed the back of her head.
"So Lili, did you and Raz go on any dates recently?"
Lili felt her cheeks burn from that sudden question Mabel asked, but maintain a professional stance, although that didn't stop Coraline and Mabel from noticing her blush which made them both smirk. "No we haven't Mabel. We are kinda busy at the moment."
"Doing what?"
"That's classified Mabel."
"Classified?" Coraline mused. "What are you doing? Playing secret agents?"
"Y-yes, that's exactly what we are doing." Lili lied, she could kick herself for almost revealing on what she and Raz once were, she definitely needed to change the subject, looking to Coraline's hair, (which by now only has a few blue left by the strands) Lili found the perfect subject. "So I see you haven't found any dye."
Coraline slowly felt the top of her hair. "Yeah, one negative thing I can say about this town is the lack of blue dye or any dye for that matter. My blue hair is basically going to be gone by the end of next month."
"Your original hair color looks great though." Mabel said in hopes of making her feel better.
"I rather have my blue color hair." Coraline pouted, after sighing a bit Coraline then suddenly got up. "Well I'm going to explore."
"Shouldn't we stay put?" Mabel question.
"Why? It's not like Aggie doesn't know where we are. Besides I don't want to just sit here till my butt falls asleep." Without saying anything else, Coraline went off, leaving Lili and Mabel to sit there by the blocked off entrance, looking at each other the two girls get up and fallowed her down the dark corridor of the cave.
Aggie flew as fast as she can back to town, her worry for her friends grew larger as she began to look for Norman or the other guys.
She searched high and low, until at last she found Dipper sitting on a bench, working on his journal in the park. Rushing on over to him, Dipper got very surprise to have a ghost nearly crash into his face. "Dipper it's awful! Cave blocked! Coraline, Mabel, and Lili! Get others quickly!"
Dipper placed his hands on her shoulders as Aggie breathed heavily. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Calm down Aggie!"
Aggie didn't feel like calming down, but she did what Dipper told her to do by breathing in and out. Seeing that Aggie is calm down a bit, Dipper spoke up gently. "Now what's going on?"
"Coraline, Mabel, and Lili are trapped inside a cave! We need to get the others for help." She cried.
Brotherly instincts kicked into Dipper immediately after hearing that Mabel is in trouble. He along with Aggie by his side went off to get the others as fast as they can. They eventually found everyone else and upon explaining the situation, they all went off to the rescue.
Coraline and the others are still walking through the corridor of the cave. "See isn't this great! Exploring a cave where you don't know where you might end up."
"It would be great, if this cave didn't look the same." Lili quipped.
"Oh, I'm sure there's something wonderful coming up." Mabel chimed in.
"Glad to know that someone has a sense of adventure." Coraline playfully remarked.
The girls continued onwards; making turns, going down or up. They soon turn another corner and spotted a opening ahead. Reaching the opening the girls now find themselves in a large cavern with large crystals hanging from the ceiling, lightning up the place in a blue glow.
The girls felt mesmerized as they looked around the cavern from where they stood, it was the most beautiful thing they have ever seen. Lili slowly places her hands on her hips as she turned her head around feeling very impressed. "Now this is more like it."
The girls slowly walked into the cavern, there was just so many places to explore due to how large it is, they could hide in many places from how large it was, if they had a need to hide that is. The crystals however were the main thing that kept their attention, they were just so beautiful to look at, especially when they stood underneath them and saw rainbows at the bottom. Besides getting trapped in the cave, this adventure was worth it.
The crystals had a special connection to Lili, who saw something that Mabel and Coraline couldn't thanks to her psychic powers. Through her eyes; shapes appear in the crystals that seemed to be telling a story through images. One of these shapes is a triangular figure with what looks to be a top hat, then it switched to what look like zombies roaming a town, the shape of a girl, a giant hand that's clamped on a bomb, and finally and most alarming of all a mushroom cloud over a city.
Lili had no idea what these images in the crystals mean, especially with the triangle shape. Was it a vision of what was coming in the future? Or is it just a very strange vision? Regardless of what it means, Lili doesn't say anything to Mabel and Coraline in order not to ruin the beautiful moment, plus it might not mean anything at the end.
"It's right here." Aggie pointed to the rock pile that blocked the cave's entrance. The guys approached the pile with Neil being the last one, due to going across the tree bridge very slowly out of fear.
Now that they were here, they wonder on how they were going to free the girls from the cave. "It's obvious, we have to use a leverage on the bottom rocks and then the other rocks will fall." Wybie explained.
"How are we going to make a leverage?" Neil question.
"Easy Neil, we'll just have to get a strong, sturdy stick. Since we're in the middle of the forest, it shouldn't be that hard to find."
"We better start looking then, Coraline and the others are depending on us." Norman stated. The guys nodded and went off to find a perfect stick to use as leverage, all except Raz who decided to use a much more quicker way of getting rid of this pile up.
Looking back to make sure that none of the guys or Aggie were watching, seeing that they weren't he turns his full attention to the cave and concentrated hard, a fist appears in front of him and with full force with the P-S-I punch, Raz smashed in the pile up, reopening the cave.
The sound of the rocks crashing made the others come back in puzzlement, when they saw the reopened cave they stopped in their tracks in full surprise while Raz stood next to the entrance with his arms crossed and a smirk. "Cave's open."
Wybie slowly raised his finger at him for awhile, being completely bewildered. "How did you?"
"I found a loose rock, I took it out and the rocks simply came down." Raz shrugged.
"But it looked tight solid." Wybie argued.
"Look it doesn't matter." Raz quipped in. "The cave is opened, we can now get the girls."
"Raz is right, let's informed them that they're safe." Neil happily said. He then rushed into the cave with Norman, Aggie, and Raz, leaving behind a very much bamboozled Wybie who eventually went in as well.
They traveled down all the way to the cavern, where the hanging crystals catch them by complete surprise. "Whoa!" Norman exclaimed.
Hearing him Coraline turned her attention to them. "Oh hey you guys are here."
"Yeah, Aggie told us about what happened and we came here right away." Wybie replied, he and the others slowly approached where the girls are while keeping their eyes on the crystals. "What amazing crystals, must've taken a thousand years to form."
"They're so beautiful." Aggie silently said.
"Check out this cavern though! It could be a modern Batcave." Neil stated.
The kids stood there looking at both the crystals and the cavern in great fascination, finally Dipper spoke up. "I know that we just unblocked the cave to save you, but does anyone have a problem on staying in here for a few hours?"
The others said no and that's what they did for the rest of the day. Exploring every inch of the cavern where they found some more crystals and neat rock formations, by the time they did finally leave, it was past midnight.
It was funny how something terrible, lead into an incredible day of adventure.
September 8
The first week of September has come and passed with no significant events. Most of the dead bodies around town have been cleaned up, talks of a small police force is being discussed, and many are getting ready for the departure of summer and the coming of autumn by staying outside more with the still warm temperatures.
Tonight the committee of the Boulder Free Zone were going to have a meeting at Nick's house. The discussion of this meeting is unknown, but many had a good idea that it was about Mother Abigail who is still missing and various other things that could be good for the Free Zone.
Anyway today was very nice, nice enough to be spending a day at the park for a picnic, which the kids are planning for today. They all have different tasks on what to bring for the picnic: Coraline and Wybie were bringing potato salad, Mabel and Dipper were making sandwiches, Raz and Lili are in charge of bringing drinks, and finally Norman and Neil were going to bring dessert by baking cupcakes which is going as well as you can expect.
This picnic is going to be so sweet, just them hanging together all the way to the evening. Although not all of them were going to be there as Aggie wanted to be by herself to read a book that had taken her interest. Norman asked her if she was sure that she didn't want to come? Aggie told him yes, as she just wanted to spend the evening alone which Norman understood as he liked to have some time for himself from time to time again.
Raz counted the water bottles carefully, he had to make sure that there is enough water bottles for everyone. "I'm sure you got enough Raz." Lili told him as she came into the kitchen.
"Just wanted to make sure." Raz said, Lili gets up to the counter and to Raz's amazement she places down a can of Pepsi. "Check out what I found."
"Whoa!" Raz picked up the can. "I haven't seen these in a while, how did you get this?"
"I was at the bank to find anything that was good, I went into the employee break room, went to the fridge and found this unopened can of Pepsi." Lili explained with proudness in her voice.
Raz moved the can around slowly. "Oh man, this is going to be something at the picnic."
"Which is why I came up with a competition."
Raz turned to her with question. "Competition?"
Lili nodded with a smirk. "Yeah, a series of competitions that when whoever gets the most points wins the Pepsi."
"That's probably going to cause all sorts of shenanigans." Raz admitted.
"You bet." Lili laughed. "So anyway, I noticed that Nadine person going into Nick's house with a shoebox earlier today."
"Shoebox?" Raz question.
"Yeah a shoebox."
"I guess she was giving Nick a gift."
Lili shrugged. "I guess."
"So anyway have you noticed anything suspicious that may be a cause for an alarm?" Raz asked.
Lili shook her head. "Not really, but we can't let our guard down."
"I agree, you think that man will target the power station?"
"Possibility, that would be a good target to blow up." Lili replied. A plan now formed in Raz's head. "Alright after the picnic we'll go on over to the station and see if anything seems a tad suspicious."
Lili nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a plan."
The two now proceeded to pack up the drinks and the Pepsi into a nice cooler with lots of ice. They are soon ready for the picnic and now have some time to themselves.
The sun began to set later that day, and at that time a good majority of people have gathered at the park for this nice sunset: kids are playing, an elderly group of women are knitting, bikers are tinkering on their motorcycles, and most had the same idea as the kids by having a picnic themselves.
Speaking of them, the kids are sitting on a white and red blanket in the middle of the park. Eating their sandwiches and drinking the bottles of water, Neil had just finished his sandwich and happily patted his belly. "Boy, you guys sure can make some good sandwiches."
"Thanks Neil. Dipper and I can make some mean sandwiches." Mabel proudly said.
"Well our potato salad is good to." Wybie chimed in.
"It was Wybie." Norman said, he now looks at the blanket that has crumbs on it. "This was a good picnic."
"And it's about to get even better." Lili said.
"What do you mean by that?" Coraline asked.
"I'll show you." Opening up the cooler, Lili took out the can of Pepsi and placed it down on the middle of the blanket. "Behold a can of Pepsi."
The reaction of the others is immediate, they haven't had a Pepsi or any soda in a long time, they all wanted it, but there is only one can. "I call dips on the Pepsi." Coraline announced.
"Why do you get dips?" Dipper asked with a narrow of his eyes.
"Because I said so." Coraline smugly replied.
"Now that's not fair."
"Life's not fair Dip."
"Now hold on guys." Lili called out, getting theirs and everyone else's attention. "You'll each might have a chance on getting the Pepsi."
"We can?" Mabel asked.
Lili nodded. "Yes, in a series of competitions."
"Competitions?" Wybie remarked.
"Yep, the first one to get the most points will get the soda." Lili explained.
"So we're doing a competition? Just to get a can of soda?" Norman thought that it was a rather silly thing to do, just for a can of soda.
"Come on Norman, it sounds pretty fun." Neil exclaimed.
"Yeah, especially since I'm going to beat all of you." Coraline smugly remarked.
"We'll see about that." Dipper challenge.
Lili gets up from her spot with excitement. "Then let's begin this competition shall we!"
Aggie must've fallen asleep sometime early while reading her book, for when she opened up her eyes the last remnant of daylight is fading away. "Oh dear, I must've dozed off."
Aggie looked down to the book that she had brought with her, it was closed and close to falling off the side of the roof. Yes, Aggie had decided to spend her book reading on the roof because she figured that no one would bug her up here. Slowly she gets herself up straight and stretched a bit, after her stretch, she bent down and picked up her book.
She wondered if the picnic is still going on? Perhaps she could slip in and spend some time with her friends after all. However before she could move the wind began to blow, this normally wouldn't catch her attention, but the breeze is strong and blew the leafs around like crazily. The wind grew stronger and a strange hum came through the air, Aggie looked around feeling a little scared as that hum sounded very strange.
Her ears then picked up a zapping sound behind her, turning around Aggie saw electricity zap everywhere in the sky. A ball of electricity now appears where a single line goes down in the middle to make a eye, Aggie flinched from the eye that looked down at her. With a bright flash, Aggie looked away as laughing filled her ears.
Looking back slowly, Aggie saw the weirdest thing she has ever seen in her life. It was a yellow triangle with one eye, black top hat and bowtie. The yellow triangle is holding a yellow cane as it floated above her. "Hiya ghosty."
Aggie doesn't say anything, she didn't even get a chance as this thing just spoke again. "Speechless aren't you? Well I can't blame you, since I am so devilishly handsome. Names Bill Cipher and I taken your on your way to some Thanksgiving event." Bill let's out a laugh. "Just kidding! I know who you are Agatha Prenderghast."
Aggie gasped, while floating back a bit. "How did you know my name?"
"Oh, I know lots of things sparky." Bill's body flashes into a series of images as his voice went deep. "Lot's of things."
Fear started to come over Aggie, she didn't like the feeling of this thing, not one bit. She had a feeling that she should be fleeing from this thing. Bill meanwhile let's out another laugh. "There's no need to be afraid of me. I'm just a magical fairy."
"Fairy?" Aggie question, she looked up and down at him in doubt. "You don't look like a fairy."
"I'm a supreme fairy." Bill answered.
Aggie turned to float away as she didn't trust this creature. "What do you want from me?"
"Well kid, you're in luck today as I have chosen you to grant a special prize. Something that I do for the past one hundred years." Bill snapped his fingers and some colorful fireworks exploded above him. "Congratulations!"
This got Aggie a bit interested, she was still fearful of him, but she couldn't help but be curious on what exactly could this prize could be. "What's the prize?"
Bill points at her. "Glad you ask." He floats a bit closer to her, leaning forward on his cane. "I noticed how chummy you have become with your friends, so I'm going to make you human, so that they can touch you and do all that other stuff human flesh puppets do."
"Me having human flesh again?" Aggie couldn't believe her ears, could she really have living flesh once again? Aggie looked down to her ghostly hands silently. "I can really become alive again?"
"Of course kid." Bill answered in glee.
Aggie didn't know what to think, on one hand becoming alive again will be heavenly, but being a ghost has its advantages, plus it's how she can see her mommy in the afterlife. Bill could see that she is thinking this over, so he decided to add in some more bait to really wheel in the fish. "My offer is short kid. All you need to do is shake my hand and then will have a deal. Who knows? I could bring your mother back to live as well."
Aggie looked up at him instantly. "You can?"
"Sure can kid! Just shake my hand and then you and your mother could live together in peace."
Aggie hesitant, but the thought of being alive with her mother overwhelmed her rational thought, slowly she raised her right hand up to him. "It's a deal then." Aggie grabbed Bill's hand which both got engulfed by blue flames.
"So when can I leave my ghostly body? If I may ask?" Aggie question, as she couldn't wait to be alive with her mother once again.
"Oh, right about" Bill's eye turned red and his voice went deep. "NOW!" Bill suddenly pulled hard, then everything went white in Aggie's view.
The competition for the Pepsi was fierce, everyone got equal points on each game they did. While Aggie made the deal with Bill, they were on another game which may be the decider, it was a race to the bandstand.
They all stood together near a tree, all looking forward to race with a bit of competitiveness. "You guys prepared to eat my dust?" Coraline remarked.
"Well you better be prepared to be eating dinner as I am fast." Mabel exclaimed.
"I'm more faster than you." Dipper told his sister.
They got ready while looking at each other, finally they started to run down with most of them being neck and neck with each other, Coraline went ahead a bit, but Norman surprisingly takes the lead. Their race however got suddenly interrupted as when they got halfway to the finish line, everyone at the park began to talk all at once as they stopped on what they were doing and ran in one direction.
This sudden action made them forget about their competition as they wondered what was going on? Coraline stepped forward a bit to see where everyone is going and went wide eyed as right at the sidewalk is Mother Abigail with a boy who is helping her walk, the others looked and they to went wide eyed.
"Mother Abigail! She's back!" Wybie shouted.
The Pepsi and competition is more forgotten instantly, Mother Abigail has finally returned from her trip in the wilderness! They needed to go see if she was alright.
The kids rushed on over towards her, they are about to exit the park when a loud bang filled the air making them jump. Turning in the direction on where that bang came from, they along with everyone else saw smoke and the light of a fire.
They didn't know it, but that box that Nadine had left at Nick's house was actually a bomb made by Harold and once it went off, the time to make a stand against evil is upon the remaining members of the committee and to them as well.
