Smiley Hollow Farm P2


"Dude, didn't you say this building was so old it should be fallin' apart?" Wendy watched as Dipper numbly nodded his head. He was still in shock. "Well, the barn doesn't look old and decrepitate to me… Hell, it almost looks brand new."

"It's also locked all to hell too," Takura added, standing in front of the barn doors admiring a huge iron padlock dangling from a chain that was keeping the doors shut. The others came around for their own peek.

"Man, whatever's in there, somebody really doesn't want anybody to know," Mabel joked, though was seriously curious over what might be hiding inside.

"Weird thing is, I can't even pick up a scent from inside… Unless it's completely empty, that's strange in itself."

"We'll worry about getting into the barn latter. For now, let's focus on figuring out if the rest of Hailey's description is accurate."

It was. After navigating their way through some lite fog, to their right they found an old, dilapidated farmhouse… While the outside appeared much more properly withered by time than the barn, it was still remarkably intact for a structure presumably abandoned for over half a century. To the left, was the equally odd and highly improbable cornfield, stretching as far as the eye could see. A scarecrow nailed to a cross stood patrol near the center.

"Well Bro-Bro, you still think corn can't grow by itself in the wild?"

"No, it can't… This isn't natural…"

"Nothing about this place is natural…" Takura nearly growled, eyeing the scarecrow suspiciously. To the others, it looked like your average crow tormenter wearing a brown flannel shirt, a straw-hat, and a burlap sack for a head. To Takura's keener vision, another gift of his wolf-blood, the body appeared oddly defined for something supposedly stuffed with straw. The Scarecrow had no discernable facial features drawn onto the face, yet the burlap sack over the head seemed to sink inward at certain spots, giving the Scarecrow the illusion of a face… Almost like the sack had been thrown over and melded with a human skull…

"Let me guess, there's evil all around us right?" Wendy snickered, poking at him a bit, still annoyed by the way he'd spoken to her earlier.

Takura looked down at her, dead serious expression. "Everywhere… You'd all be wise to keep your eyes peeled and watch your backs…" Takura looked towards his left. "The dark aura feels strongest in this direction… We should check it out and make sure it's safe to proceed before we investigate any further."

"Not a bad Idea Takura… Okay guys, let's go!"

Mabel admired the view of the field through the lens of her camera. She hadn't stopped shooting since they discovered the barn, and she had no intention to cease filming until every last second of the DVR was used up. "And there it is folks! The spooky field of vegetables that isn't supposed to exist…"

"Well, technically Mabel, corn isn't a vegetable… Not entirely anyways. Corn is actually part vegetable, part whole grain, and part fruit…" Dipper blushed at the heat from the annoyed glares the girls were giving him. "Um, never mind…"

One brisk walk later, the crew found themselves at the mouth of a small cave in the hillside. Takura's agitated demeanor was enough to clue Dipper in that they were in the right spot. Mabel in particular didn't seem all that eager to venture inside.

"Umm… Is it just me, or does wandering into a dark cramped cave in the middle of a haunted farm not seem like the greatest idea?" She purposely left out the part that was really bothering her. The fact that the last time she followed her brother into a dark cave, he trapped himself in another dimension for two years.

"I'm afraid we don't have much choice in the matter Mabel… The answers we're looking for might be inside… Can't leave any stone unturned you know?"

The cave wasn't deep at all. Maybe twenty feet at most, and at the end of it was a very strange looking alter. There was a statue of a woman in a dark cloak carved out of wood, down on her knees and holding arms out wide in a pose reminiscent of many religious relics. Only this idol was of no religious figure Dipper was aware of. In front of the statue was a dried out mound a dirt. At the top were three lines of stones which seemed to make out some form of primitive runic symbols… Just below those was the skull from some type of bird, a crow maybe, along with some other junk like feathers, a coin, and other small bones surrounding it. Some kind of offering perhaps? Below that, in the center of the mound of dirt, appeared to be a handcrafted windchime shaped like a heart.

"That's… Creepy as hell…" Mabel shivered as Dipper's flashlight danced over the alter.

"Just don't anybody touch anything!" Takura warned. "This shrine is the conduit for the dark magic casting it's shadow over this place…"

"Dude, do you have to keep sayin' dark magic?! Isn't all magic dark?"

"Technically, no Wendy. You see, in Wiccan cultures…"

"Rhetorical question Dipper! I don't need a history lesson on the origins of witchcraft, and whether it's all good or bad! Not exactly what we need to be worried about at the moment!"

"Oh, sorry…" Dipper blushed. "You're right though. We need to find out exactly what happened on this farm, and we're not going to find anymore answers in here. Just more question apparently…"

Nobody complained as they filed out of the cave, headed towards the only other structure on the property that might yield them some clues. On the way to the farmhouse, Takura caught a glimpse of the Scarecrow through the corner of his eye, drawing his full attention to it. Mabel noticed him stop and asked, "Something wrong Takura?"

"I don't think so… It just could've sworn that scarecrow was a few feet more to the right the last time we saw it."

"How would you even be able to tell? Looks like he stayed put to me." Mabel zoomed in for a closeup on the Scarecrow with her camcorder. "You hanging in there Mr. Scarecrow?!"

Takura didn't feel shouting at an inanimate object was necessary, but he got the gist of it. "You're right… I just can't shake this feeling that something is watching us…"

With their backs now turned to the corns guardian as they headed for the farmhouse, nobody noticed the head of the Scarecrow lift ever so slightly.

"Alright… So the big question now is, how do we get inside?" Dipper pondered as he stood in front of the main entrance to the farmhouse. He reached for the knob to try the door… Only for the door to slowly creek open by itself. Dipper and Wendy looked at one another in disbelief, only for Dipper to shrug his shoulders. "Well… We're not going to get a more direct invitation to come inside then that."

And so they did, Dipper leading the way as they walked through the creaky old house. Even with the sun shining somewhat brightly through the fog outside, they still needed their torches to see properly. Dust, cobwebs and grime dominated the interior. A couch, a single rocking chair, and a dusty coffee table were all the living room had to offer, centered seemingly around the fireplace. The kitchen was a bit more fully stocked… A refrigerator, canned goods in the pantry, and even a few dishes left in the sink that had seen better days. The most shocking image though was the kitchen table, still set with empty plates and mildewed glasses, the contents of which seemed to have dried up ages ago.

"It looks like the people who lived here just got up and walked out of the house in the middle of a meal…" Dipper theorized as he examined the table more closely. "Or they were forced out, one or the other…"

"There's a lot of these big orange splotches on the floor…" Wendy noticed. "Rust maybe?"

Takura dropped to a knee and took a good sniff of one of the splotches. The scent was faint but undeniable. Very nonchalantly he announced, "No, that's blood. Probably been here for decades, but it's definitely blood."

"Well, this mystery just keeps gettin' better doesn't it?" Wendy bemused.

"So… Is this the part where we split up and search for clues fearless leader?" Mabel teased, for a moment wishing she'd brought Waddles along. He could've played the role of Scooby Doo during their little adventure.

"I think it's probably safe to do that… Hey Wendy, Takura… Can you guys keep searching down here, while Mabel and I take the upstairs?"

"I can handle that… If tough guy here can trust me to handle a flashlight that is!"

"If you want me to learn to trust you, that attitude isn't going to win me over," Takura deadpanned as he left the kitchen, headed down the hall towards another room at the end of it. Wendy frowned sourly at his retreating form.

The second floor of the farmhouse was nothing to write home about. Just a pair of bedrooms, and the twins agreed to search one apiece. The room Dipper was tasked with searching proved to be the more fruitful of the two. There wasn't much of interest to speak of at first. A dust covered bed, an equally maligned dresser, and what appeared to be a 1950's style writing desk. It was in one of the drawers of this desk where Dipper hit the jackpot. It appeared this room once belonged to a teenaged boy, who left a gift in the form a journal behind, in which he scribbled down his thoughts. There wasn't anything of note in the beginning, mostly family and school stuff, but towards the middle portion of the book, the overall mood and content began to shift drastically. Certain passages in the journal particularly stood out to him.

June 12, 1952

Old Lady Bell caused more of a ruckus today… Or actually her damn goat did! It's the third time this week dad's caught that goat grazing on our land. Dad tried to talk to the old woman about it, but apparently the old crow didn't want to hear it, and even accused our family of encroaching on her land with our crops… I don't understand what her problem is! Dad says we won the land fair and square in court, but the old lady, Hilda, just won't accept the ruling. Even when dad was nice enough to let her keep her shack and a couple acres of land surrounding it, that's technically still on our property. I have a feeling the situation is going to get worse before it gets better…

June 15, 1952

Well, it happened again. Dad caught old lady Bell's goat on our property again… Honestly, I don't think he'd even care that much, except that the beast keeps getting into mother's garden, destroying her vegetables. It's not exactly a hop, skip, and a jump to town from our farm, so we rely on that produce to feed the family. Dad swears the next time he catches the beast on our land, he's going to shoot that goat dead. I heard one of our neighbor friends warn him not to push things too far with Hilda… Said there's rumors she practices witchcraft! Dad thinks it's baloney, and I do too! This is 1952, not 1752! There's no such thing as witches and magic.

Jun 30, 1952

I don't know what to think anymore… Something's wrong with the corn. It's turning black, and almost looks burnt… The weirdest thing is that the stalks themselves look fine… They haven't withered and died like what usually happens when the corn crop goes sour… It looks like a perfectly healthy cornfield from a distance, but if you even try and shuck it… There's no way dad can sell the corn in the condition it's in, and the infection seems to spread every day. Nobody wants to say it, but I can't help thinking it… The first row of corn went sour nine days ago… It's been ten days since dad shot that damn goat.

So engrossed was he in the journal, Dipper didn't even register his sister peering over his shoulder. "Whatcha reading?"

Dipper nearly left his feet as he fumbled with the book in his hands. He tried to shoot his sister an angry glare, but it came across as more of an anxious pout much to Mabel's amusement. "Christ Mabel, you can't just sneak up on a guy like that! Especially in a house that's allegedly cursed, haunted, or whatever…"

"Those might also be good reasons why you should pay more attention to what's going on around you… If I were a monster, you would've been my lunch! Seriously though, is that book really all that interesting? You seemed pretty engrossed."

"It's a journal, written by one of the McAdams children I think… So far, I've gotten some good firsthand insight into how the family viewed the property dispute with Hilda Bell at least… And something weird going on with that cornfield out there, but nothing that might help us solve this mystery just yet…"

"Well, I've finished checking out that other bedroom… Looks like the room might've belonged to a girl, but there doesn't seem to be much else special about it. No dead bodies, satanic symbols, or ghosts floating around."

"Pretty much like the rest of the house then… Alright, why don't you go downstairs and see if Wendy and Takura have had any better luck… I want to comb through some more of this journal. I have a felling, if we're going to find any clues to what happened on this farm, this kid's words are our best shot."

Mabel nodded her head in acknowledgement. Dipper's nose was buried in the journal again before she was even out the door.

July 2nd, 1952

I hate that damn scarecrow. The thing never used to bother me, but now I can't stand to look at it! I feel like it's staring at me through my bedroom window… Stupid worthless pile of straw. It can scare away birds just fine, but it's completely helpless against some old hag's curse.

July 5th, 1952

The animals are starting to get sick now… We've already lost one heifer, and two more are ill and refuse the eat. A few of the chickens don't seem to be walking right either… First the crops and now the livestock… If she is responsible for this, damn that Hilda Bell! Damn her straight to hell!

July 10th, 1952

Mom and Dad are fighting again… It's getting bad… Really bad… At a time when the family needs to be pulling together, and all they can seem to do is argue and blame each other for our misfortunes. The shouting was so bad, Clara snuck into my room and slept in the bed with me last night… She hasn't done that since we were little, and that was only when there was a thunderstorm.

July 12th, 1952

Another fight tonight… I could've sworn Dad was about to strike Mom but stopped himself at the last second. What's happening to us? We used to be such a happy family.

July 14th, 1952

Have I mentioned how much I hate that fucking scarecrow?! I swear it's staring at me! If I didn't know any better I could swear I saw the thing move once. I think this mess with that witch Hilda is starting to mess with my mind.

Dipper took a quick peek out the window, where he had a nice view of the cornfield, and the infamous Scarecrow. It really did appear like that creepy ass thing was staring directly into the room from where it was positioned. He shuddered slightly before returning to the journal.

July 18th, 1952

The last of the cows died today… The chickens are gone… Almost half the corn crop is useless… Dad thinks there's only one person to blame, and he thinks he knows what we have to do…

What scares me is that I think I agree with him.

July 19, 1952

We did it… The unthinkable. My Dad, My Uncle, and I all armed ourselves with our shotguns and we marched over to the witches shack… She was standing outside her door, smirking at us like she expected us to come. It didn't matter in the end… We opened fire, and kept firing until she stopped moving… Just to be sure the deed was done, Uncle Jack tossed her body in the shack, and we burnt it and everything she owned to the ground… We watched it burn for hours until there was nothing, but ashes left… We had to make sure… We had to make sure our tormentor was dead and break the curse she put upon us.

The scariest thing of all… I don't feel bad about it at all. Needless to say, I believe in witches now.

"I don't like where this is headed…" Dipper mouthed to himself. An alleged witch who supposedly cursed an entire family over land and a goat, murdered by the very people who believed she had hexed them. If this wasn't fuel for a malicious haunting, Dipper wasn't sure he knew what qualified.

Before he could continue reading, there was a knock against the doorframe. He looked up to see his sister and friends standing in the doorway looking in at him. "Hey Bro! Making any discovery's in that book of yours?"

"Yes actually… And the contents are getting progressively more disturbing… Would you mind telling me why Takura's holding a sledgehammer?"

"Found it in the cellar dude," Wendy replied for the group. "Other than those blood splatters on the floor, we're not findin' much in the house, so we figured we could use this to get inside that barn and see what they're hidin' in there. Care to join us?"

"You guys go ahead… I only have a few pages left, but I feel they might be important… I'll join you as soon as I finish…"

"Suit yourself dude. Well, you know where to find us once you catch up on your readin'."

"I'll be down soon… And be careful guys. The more I read from this journal, the more I think Takura is dead on about the dark aura enveloping this place… Witches, curses, you name it… Watch each other's backs okay?"

The three all looked at each other, and then back to Dipper, all nodding in affirmation. Everyone involved felt slightly more tense than they had just a minute ago.

Well then, back to the journal.

July 24,1952

I don't understand! The witch is DEAD, so why is this pox still upon our house! Almost the entire crop of corn has fallen to the darkness… Our entire livelihood is gone… Our meager savings have already dried up and we have no meat, milk, or produce to sell. We have just enough to pay next month's mortgage but after that… If our fortunes don't turn around soon, we'll all be homeless paupers before the fall.

July 27, 1952

It's been two days since Clara went missing… We've scoured the farm and the surrounding area in search for her, but there's no sign of her. I don't know what to do… She's not just my sister, she's my best friend. We're all each other has anymore. Our parents barely speak, and they're way too absorbed in their own problems to pay us a lick of attention anymore. Dad refuses to ask any of our neighbors or the townsfolk to help form a search party. He's too worried people will start asking questions about Hilda… If your daughter disappearing isn't enough to make a man stop worrying about covering you own ass, what is?

July 28, 1952

We found Clara's body in the barn this morning… I've never cried so hard in my life… Her throat was cut, and she looked like she'd been gutted as if she were some sort of animal destined for the butcher's block! No one has any clue what happened… Well actually, we do, just no way to prove it. Dad refused to call the authorities because he's afraid we'll get accused of her murder. After all, why wouldn't the police look at us like we're all crazy if we claimed a dead witch murdered my sister? We know she's responsible somehow… That old hag Hilda Bell. She's still tormenting us from beyond the grave.

July 29th, 1952

We buried Clara behind the house this morning… No funeral service. Just Dad doing the basic bare minimum to lay his daughter to rest. I still love the man, but I see the person that was my father die a little more inside every day. How can he expect me and Mom to be happy with this? Reverend Wilson always told us that the soul couldn't pass on to heaven without a proper Christian burial. This was disposing of a body, and there was nothing proper about it. A heaven that would deny entry to my beloved sister is a heaven I don't think I want anything to do with.

Aug 1st, 1952

There's a small cave on the other side of the farm… Someone's set up some kind of weird shrine that just screams of demons and black magic! The weird thing is, Dad swore he searched that cave when we were looking for Clara and found nothing. I'm pretty sure that shrine wasn't there before we murdered Hilda Bell either… So who the hell put it there?! It has to be the source of our troubles, and I know this to be true! The damn goat skull I wanted to destroy was right there, but the moment I got too close, I got ill and vomited on the spot. That shrine is an alter to pure evil, and just being around it was enough to make me feel like my very soul was being tainted.

Aug 10th, 1952

I think I've finally found a way to undo all of this! I've read up more on the occult and witchcraft than any Christian eyes should dare, but I think I know how to break the curse. I crafted a dagger from crow feathers, and a sharpened bone from the same goat my father shot all those weeks ago. All I need to do now is stab at the heart of the representation of the curse incarnate, and the curse should be lifted… I'm pretty sure I understand what that means. I'm going to finish this tonight… Right after supper. I don't want to rouse my parents suspicions. Knowing them, they'd be more worried I'll anger Hilda's spirt and cause them more grief. I'll have to do this on my own.

Well, mother's call me down for supper… I pray tomorrow is the beginning of better days.

That was the last entry in the journal. Dipper was beginning to put the pieces together. Whatever had happened to this family, it likely occurred during this meal… Their final meal, which would explain the dining table being fully set, and the kitchen in slight disarray. The blood on the kitchen floor was another giveaway something horrible had happened. Dipper just didn't know what that horror was just yet.

Dipper closed the journal and decided to take it with him for the time being. Something bugged him… The boy had mentioned a dagger he'd fashioned from sharpened goat bone. Dipper searched the same desk where he'd found the journal, and sure enough, there it was… It was difficult to tell it was even supposed to be a knife, but with the knowledge gathered from the journal, Dipper could force himself to see the shape of a crude dagger. Whatever it was, it was definitely coming with him.

Dipper pocketed the dagger before racing out of the room to join his team at the barn. What he failed to notice through the window was that the creepy Scarecrow was nowhere to be seen, yet something was clearly moving through the cornfield moving swiftly towards the farmhouse.

Back at the barn, the blunt end of a sledgehammer connected hard with the padlocked barndoor, but it remained ever defiant.

"Gettin' tired their tough guy?" Wendy goaded, while Takura caught his breath. "Need me to take over? Maybe we'll get inside that barn sometime before next Tuesday."

Takura's only response was a grunt and brief glare before he went back to trying to break open the padlock. For Wendy, that reaction kind of hurt worse than it would've if he'd just fired back with a defensive insult. While she still felt he deserved to be given a hard time for writing her off as a liability that morning, the way he reacted was so dismissive… Like anything she said didn't mean a thing to him. Perhaps she should try to change her approach with the young Andorran? If she wanted his respect, antagonizing him probably wasn't the best way to go about it.

"Ah, breaking and entering, accompanied by casual vandalism," Mabel reminisced. "It's like I'm sixteen all over again."

"You got busted for that once Mabel… Doesn't make you a hardened criminal."

"Yeah, but just because we only nearly got arrested for it once doesn't mean we never done so before without getting caught," Mabel bragged to Wendy's mild amusement. Right at the moment, Takura landed the swing that finally broke the pad lock. Takura sighed with relief as he tossed the sledgehammer to the side.

"Wendy, do you want to help me get these doors open?"

Surprised he'd ask her, Wendy jumped to accept, and even did so without a snarky remark. "Sure thing dude!"

Together, Wendy and Takura managed to pull the barn doors open, and almost immediately regretted it. Their noses were assaulted by some of the foulest stenches any of them had ever smelt. Takura nearly fell to his knees it was so overwhelming for him.

"Awe, barf!" Mabel whined. "What reeks?!"

"Death Mabel… That's the smell of a corpse that's been left to rot… Or in this case many corpses…" Mabel turned white at what Takura had just told her and started to backpedal away from the barn. Takura steeled himself and walked inside, Wendy following close behind him. Other than some hay bales and a few farm tools, there was only one other type of object dominating the barn's interior. Human bones… Scattered all over the place, so many that it was hard to determine just how many bodies there actually were.

"Dude, this is heavy… All these remains look like they've been here a long time though… Should the place still smell this bad?

"No, but nothing about this place is normal… Like how I didn't pick up this smell from the outside… It's like the scent of death has attached itself to the inside of the building itself…" Takura explained, while his overwhelmed sniffer finally picked up a unique sent amongst the overwhelming stench of human rot and decay. He walked to his left towards the barn wall where he found a skeleton that appeared to be more recently deceased than some of its crypt mates. Tattered clothes were still draped over the bones.

"What did you find Takura?" Wendy asked hesitantly.

Takura looked back at Wendy, a disappointed sheen in his eyes. "Hat-girl…"

It was about this moment Dipper caught up with the rest of the crew, racing into the barn. "Hey guys, you'll never guess…" Dipper mouth was forced closed as a disgusting odor filled his nostrils and caused him to gag. Before he could inquire on what the hell that smell was, he looked around and bore witness to what his team already had. A virtual tomb of victims of the curse of Smiley Hollow Farm, the bones of the dead scattered everywhere. "Oh, this is so much worse than I thought…"

"You might want to take a look at this Dipper… At least it's one mystery solved." Takura handed Dipper a beaten-up looking wallet. Dipper opened it up, and his heart sank when he saw the name and photo on the driver's license. "Hailey Montgomery… You may never know it, but without your help we may have never found this place… Or found out what happened to you in order to bring closure to your mother."

"Yeah, but what killed her though dude? What killed all these people?! I'm guessin' it's safe to rule out natural causes!"

"I'll explain my theory as soon as we get out of this barn," Dipper said, trailing off a bit as his eyes scanned the structure, taking in the full scope of the carnage. "As of right now though, our investigation is officially done."

Takura frowned at this. "We just discovered a bunch of people were killed, so you decide to quit now?" For him, this atrocity meant they should be ramping up their efforts to make sure who or whatever perpetrated this act was held accountable.

"I understand how you feel Takura, but we don't have a choice. It's the law… As soon as human remains are discovered that area is immediately classified a potential crime scene, and we could potentially be breaking the law if we mess with anything that might impede a future police investigation. Our best bet is to get as far away from this farm as possible and alert the proper authorities to what's happened here."

"And how are you going to explain this to them without the cops hanging up on you?" Mabel asked, crossing her arms. "As far as most people are concerned, this place isn't supposed to exist!"

"Video evidence of course… Mabel, you're not going to like this, but I need to ask you a favor."

He was right, Mabel didn't like his request at all. She was the only person who really knew how to work her camera, and it was technically in her job description, so she couldn't even use that as an excuse to complain. Mabel struggled to keep the camera steady, trembling as she tried to make sure she got every square inch of the barn on film. She had expected ghosts and the occasional monster when she agreed to work with her brother… Filming long dead bodies wasn't something she expected to have to deal with so soon, if ever… Skeletal form or not, it was getting to her.

"Remember, we need two copies of the footage," Dipper said solemnly. "The police are going to confiscate the film, but that doesn't mean we can't hide a copy for ourselves."

"Don't worry, you'll have your damn footage!" Mabel spat, not happy at all with her brother at the moment. "Now, can I please get the hell out…" Mabel gagged, and without waiting for permission, raced out of the barn before expelling the contents of her stomach. She didn't want to vomit inside the barn… Something about that just felt like it would be another insult to the poor departed souls inside.

Mabel couldn't hear him from inside the barn, but Dipper apologized anyway. "I'm sorry Mabel… I wasn't expecting anything like this either."

As Mabel wiped the previous night's dinner off her mouth, Wendy was pacing, staring angrily at her phone. She turned sharply on Dipper as he emerged from the barn. "We're too deep into the woods Dip! We're just not going to get a signal out here, so callin' the cops is a no go!"

"I figured as much, but it was worth a try… Like Mabel said, it's going to take some convincing to get the police to even listen to us in the first place. Our best bet would be to pay the nearest police station a visit and show them that film, so they know we're serious."

"You mind sharing your theory with us now?" Takura asked, unaware of how close his own suspicions were to being the actual truth.

"Well… According to the journal I found, a lot of the rumors floating around about the feud between the McAdams family and Hilda Bell were frighteningly accurate. Over a disagreement about a goat of all things. Apparently, all of the family's livestock and crops started to die… To a degree that they were really beginning to believe Hilda was a witch that put a curse of them. So seriously in fact that the family basically formed a posse, shot Hilda dead, and burned down her home."

"You can't be serious?!" Wendy yelped in horror. "Are you sure they didn't just use the 'Witch' excuse to justify doin' away with her because she was causin' them problems?"

"I originally dismissed the 'Witch' scenario as nonsense myself. I mean, people have been scapegoating failing crops and sick animals on Witches since the middle-ages. The details of this case made me second guess that assumption though. I mean look around us… Nothing about this farm makes sense! After seventy years, this place should not exist as we see it right now… The cornfield, the old fully intact barn that happened to be locked and doubled as a giant crypt, the weird shrine in that cave, or just the fact of how hard this place was to find in the first place! I can't say with one hundred percent certainty if Hilda was a witch, a vengeful spirt, or what else but I am sure of this… Whether in life or in spirit, after her death, Hilda Bell put some sort of curse on this place and took her revenge on the McAdams family… And apparently anyone else unfortunate enough to wander onto this property… I have a feeling that shrine is the key to what's going on here…"

Wendy looked incredulously, but Takura was much more ready to agree. This type of thing wasn't exactly unheard on Andorra, so the thought of a vengeful curse fueled by black magic made perfect sense to him. "If you're right about that… Isn't that all the more reason for us to handle this situation ourselves instead of getting your 'police' involved? We're much more qualified to handle a situation like this don't you think?"

"If I'm right maybe, but we have no way of knowing that for sure… Not that I'd know how to break the curse even if there was one… Other than that cryptic 'stab at the heart of the curse incarnate' business, whatever that means."

"Well… What do you want to do then Dip?"

As Wendy asked this, Dipper could see the sun beginning to set on the horizon. "Well, it's going to be dark soon, and I think we can all agree that we don't want to be spending the night in this place… Would should head back to camp and decide what to do in the morning… Where the heck did Mabel get off too anyway?"

Mabel was about 50 yards away, as far away as she could get from that damn barn without losing sight of her friends. Her back facing and up against the cornfield, she exhaled deeply, trying to drive the grotesque images from her mind. She just needed a minute to compose herself… That was all, then she'd rejoin the others and hopefully they could escape this awful, awful place as quickly as possible.

Amidst her musings, Mabel heard a crackling sound coming from the rows of corn directly at her back. Dismissing the sound as the wind whistling through the stalks, she stood there completely oblivious to what was sneaking up on her from the rear. A hand reached out from beyond the rows, snatching her by her brown locks and pulling her within the wall of corn.

"Mabel!" Dipper shouted at the sound of his sister's screams. Nobody saw exactly where she disappeared too, but the cries of terror coming from the cornfield and the rustling within were dead giveaways. "Hold on, we're coming!"

"Let me go you son of a bitch!" Mabel squealed as her unseen assailant continued to drag her caveman style through the field. Reaching towards her belt, Mabel was able to find and arm herself with her trusty grappling hook, which she reclaimed from Dipper upon returning to Earth. At first, she wasn't crazy about what Dipper had done to 'Hooky', but they grew on her after Ford had made some modifications that were more to her tastes. Hooky basically served the same function as part grappling hook, part taser, only it looked cooler and was powered by Ford's new long-lasting battery rather than by alien crystal. While she struggled to aim as she lacked the benefit of eyes on her target, she aimed her grappling hook at what she hoped was his legs and fired. "Take this asshole!"

The hook stuck in the would-be kidnappers leg and seemed to stun him enough to put a temporary halt to the attempted abduction as well as release his death drip on Mabel's mane of hair. Mabel retracted her weapon and whirled around to re-aim it at her assailant, only to be completely floored by what was staring back at her. It wasn't a man, but the very Scarecrow that had seemingly been watching them since the moment they arrived on the farm. The creature had a thin, but tall lanky frame that made it no less intimidating. While the monster appeared to possess no face, the sack-like material where his mouth should be slowly opened, revealing a stich-together menacing sneer. The Scarecrow snarled like a beast, stunning Mabel in place out of pure fear, her knees glued to the ground as the monster raised a giant scythe-like weapon in its hand. Knowing she'd been frozen too long to move out of the way, Mabel could only brace herself as the scythe bared down on her…

Instead of rusty steel removing her head from her body, she felt something crash into her, and that something went rolling with her several feet, the scythe's only victims proving to be several stalks of corn. Mabel looked up, surprised to find Takura huddled over her like he was trying to protect her from falling debris.

"You okay?" he asked with a wince that didn't go unnoticed by Mabel.

"Yeah… I…" That's when her eyes were drawn to his shoulder, or more accurately, the blood dripping from the fresh wound he'd just received. "Oh my god! That thing cut you!"

"It's just a scratch," he assured her, though the blood soaking the entire upper left portion of his shirt made that assertion seem disingenuous. The wound wasn't serious, but possibly enough to be problematic for him if he didn't get it treated soon.

"Mabel!" Her brother panted as he appeared on the scene, dropping down to his knees next to his sister. His relief was short-lived when he noticed the nasty gash on his friend's shoulder.

There wasn't time to worry about that at the moment. The Scarecrow demon snarled, as it stalked towards the trio. Takura stood up and took a defensive stance as the demon raised his scythe to attack… Only to get interrupted again, this time by an axe directly to the face. Wendy appeared out of nowhere, dropkicking the creature to the ground. It howled in anger as it writhed in the dirt. Once it picked itself up, Wendy was ready. She first sliced off the arm holding the scythe, then sliced off the other for good measure. Then, with one swift swing of her axe, she lobbed the monster's head right off of its shoulders. Nothing more now than a torso with legs, what was left of the monster fell lifelessly to the ground. Wendy holstered her axe, and with a smile, turned to face her stunned looking crew.

"Holy shit Wendy!" Dipper gaped, sounding a lot like that lovestruck twelve-year-old boy again.

"Impressive," Takura stated simply. She didn't know him very well yet, but enough to know any form of compliment from him was sincere.

"I know right?" Wendy bragged, though her brow furrowed when she noticed her friends expressions morph into shock. "What's wrong guys?"

What was wrong, was that the lower half of the Scarecrow had stood back up. Wendy turned back to the monster just in time to watch its severed arms levitate off the ground before speeding towards the creature's torso. As if my magic, because of course it was fucking magic, the arms had almost instantly sown themselves back to the Scarecrow's body. The creature then picked up his head, and placed it back atop his shoulders, and just as with his arms, mended back into the proper position. The creature seemed to crack its neck before glaring at Wendy and snarling.

"Oh crud…" Wendy drew her axe just in time to stop the Scarecrow's scythe from slicing her face off. The redhead tried to fight back but wound up mainly staying on the defensive as the monster's scythe rapidly slammed against her axe. The creature switch tactics and tried to overpower her, and almost succeeded… Lucky for Wendy though, she wasn't alone.

The Scarecrow barely reacted as a fist punched all the way through its chest. It tried to look behind him, only for the person assaulting him to grab him by the arm holding the scythe and yanking on that arm hard, once again removing if from the monsters torso. With a grunt, Takura flipped the Scarecrow over his head and onto the ground before pulling his arm out of the creature's chest. As the strawman writhed on the ground franticly, Takura raised his leg and brought his foot down hard on the monsters skull. As the body still wiggled, Takura stomped upon its head repeatedly until it stopped moving. The brutality stunned the Pines Twins, or Mabel at least, just a bit though she understood why it had to be done.

"You okay?" he asked Wendy, who was still catching her breath.

"Yeah, I'm good…" She smiled wryly. "Guess we're even now."

Takura smirked back, though his attention was quickly diverted directly behind him. As he half expected, the monster was again picking itself back up. The Scarecrows head remolded itself into its original shape right as his arm sowed itself back to his torso. It stretched and cracked it's joints as if making sure it's parts were in working order before advancing on the Gravity Falls crew.

"Alright… I'm making it official now!" Dipper announced. "Witchcraft and curses are officially confirmed! Now let's get the hell out of here!"

Dipper and Mabel took off immediately, Wendy and Takura reluctantly following behind. They'd rather fight, but both understood there wasn't much point in fighting an opponent that could seemingly regenerate at will, not at least without a clear plan on how to go about it. Sprinting aimlessly through a maze of corn proved not to be the brightest idea, however. They had all gotten separate somewhere amongst the chaos.

"Mabel! Takura! Wendy! Can anybody here me?!"

"I'm right here dude," answered Wendy, as she appeared next to him. "I didn't see where Mabel or Takura ran off too though…."

Then they heard the noise of a now familiar snarl approaching rapidly from behind them. "Well, he's after us at least… At least Mabel is safe for now."

Little did Dipper know, his sister wasn't as safe as he would've hoped. She was also panicking slightly once she realized she'd lost track of the others. "Dipper! Where are you?! Where the hell did everybody go?!"

"I'm right in front of you," spoke a deep stoic voice that brought some level of comfort to the frightened girl. Takura slowed down enough so that he was running in step with her. "I'm not sure where Dipper and Wendy are, but the Scarecrow demon seems to have chosen to pursue them."

"Great… Now I can feel relieved and scared for my brother at the same time!" Mabel wanted to whine some more, when she felt a hard tug at her ankle, enough force behind the pull to make her fall face first into the dirt. She tried to pick herself up only to realize something definitely had wrapped itself around her ankle.

"Mabel, are you alri…" Takura got his answer when Mabel shrieked as she was hoisted up in the air and held upside down by… The local vegetation?

"What the frig?! Even the corn is alive?! I hate this place!"

"Hold on Mabel, I'll get you down…" Takura was going to have to help himself first. A vine from the animated cornfield wrapped itself around his arm and tried to pull him upward just as it had with Mabel. Using his strength, Takura anchored himself to the ground and pulled his arm free, taring some of the vine-like material in the process, the vegetation almost appearing to cry out in pain after he did so. He moved swiftly to try and help Mabel, but the cornfield seized him again, this time gaining control of both arms, lifting him up off the ground so he was parallel with Mabel. The poor girl was now being held upside down by both legs.

As hard as he struggled, Takura just couldn't break free this time. "I know I'm new to this dimension but… This isn't a normal thing here right?!"

"No Takura… Our starchy vegetables don't normally try to kill us!" Mabel tried again to shake herself free. "Let me go you stupid…" The cornfield's only response was to slap her across the face. "Ouch!"

Meanwhile, back with Dipper and Wendy, they too were starting to realize the very field they were attempting to escape from was just as much a danger to them as the being that guarded it. Both used their axes to chop away vines and stalks of corn as they tried to grab at them.

"Any bright ideas Dipper? The entire field has turned on us now, and Mr. Creepy Scarecrow dude is catching up fast!"

"I… Don't know…" Dipper tried putting this critical thinking cap on, but it was hard to focus under this much duress. He thought back to what he'd read in that journal, and one passage jumped out at him. "To break the curse I have to stab at the heart of it…"

Now believing those words might be more literal than he originally believed, Dipper removed the goat-bone dagger from his vest. Wendy watched with deep concern as her suddenly determined looking friend stomped towards the rapidly approaching creature with purpose. "Dipper, what the hell are you doing?!"

He might've answered if he actually knew. As soon as the Scarecrow walked within spitting distance, Dipper readied the dagger and plunged it straight into the monster's heart. The Scarecrow seemed surprised more than anything, looking down at the object now imbedded in its chest. It casually removed the dagger and tossed it aside before growling ferociously into Dipper's face.

Too rattled to even move now, the Scarecrow lifted Dipper off of his feet with one hand and glared directly into the boy's face. It's half-stitched mouth opened as wide as it could, and to Dipper's revulsion, bugs began to crawl out from inside. Locust to be exact, spreading their wings before flying directly into Dipper's face, up his nose, and one even gliding directly into his mouth. The Scarecrow dropped Dipper right on his ass, the boy frantically trying to shoo away the swarming insects and cough up the one that tried to force feed itself to him. It's scythe poised to claim it's next victim, Wendy picked that moment to rush in and start chopping off body parts again, eventually decapitating the creature in the end. She helped Dipper to his feet and urged him to get moving.

Wendy frowned as she noticed Dipper backtrack to pick up that stupid dagger before rejoining her. "What's the point of hangin' on to that thing? A lot of good it did you back there! Did you really think that just stabbin' it in the chest was gona work?"

"It was worth a try…. And I might need this thing later."

"Well, we may not live to see later, so let's figure out a strategy now! And we need to hurry, that thing has almost finished putting himself back together!"

Dipper could see that it definitely was as it finished reattaching his head back to his shoulders. There was only one other thing he could think to try. "Well… Dismembering him doesn't work… But the last time I checked, straw wasn't fireproof…"

"Dipper, whaddya mean?" she asked, as Dipper produced a box of matches and lit one. "Dude, you can't be serious! You could turn this entire field into a giant bonfire!"

"Well, I'm open to other ideas…" Wendy stayed silent, making it clear as day that she didn't have any. Dipper took the only other option available to them and flicked the match at the Scarecrows feet. His straw-based lower body easily caught fire spreading quickly up its legs. The creature showed little concern, advancing on the pair slowly, creating separate smaller fires throughout the field with each step it took. Dipper and Wendy backpedaled at it approached, but did not flee, at least not yet. The Scarecrow was completely consumed by flames before it finally stopped it's advanced, leaving Dipper to wonder if they'd finally managed to put a stop to the creature.

Then, like some cruel vindictive joke, an unnatural wind assaulted the cornfield, the gusts strong enough that they nearly knocked the two friends off their feet. The wind died down almost as quicky as it struck, but rather than fanning the flames, the wind seemed to have put every fire out… As if by magic…. That fucking magic again. The blackened and charred visage of the Scarecrow flaked and peeled away, revealing the creature had reverted back to his originally hideous but otherwise unfazed form, appearing quite indifferent as it continued to advance on its intended victims.

"I probably shouldn't be surprised at this point, but damn… Safe to say our best option is to start running now?"

Wendy replied with a simple, "Yup."

Wendy and Dipper sprinted deeper into the maze of corn, forced to chop away at the occasional vine or stalk that tried to impede their progress. The demonic Scarecrow renewed its aggressive pursuit of the humans, quickly gaining ground as it chased them.

"What else can we even try Dip?! We can't cut it, we can't stab it, we can't burn it, we can't even chop it's head off!"

"I… Don't know!" Dipper howled in frustration at his complete lack of any clue how to deal with their situation. He was supposed to be the paranormal expert damn it! How could he be caught so completely unprepared for a situation like this?! And yes, he was far too panicked to recognize the irony in expecting himself to immediately be able to come up with an explanation for all things, that by their very nature, are unexplainable. He tried to recall what he read in that journal… Was there some detail he might've missed?

An image of the shrine from the cave popped into his mind… And Dipper's eyes shot open wide as the answer potentially slapped him right across the face. "The shrine!"

"That weird statue in the cave? What about it?"

"I think I might've been on the right track with what I need to do to break the curse put on this farm, I just misinterpreted the author's words… Wendy, I really hate to ask this of you, but do you think you can keep that thing distracted for a few minutes while I try to find my way back to that cave with the shrine in it? I have a feeling it's the key to breaking the hex on this place."

"We can go to the cave together!" Wendy frowned. "Sorry, but you haven't quite earned my trust back from trickin' me into leavin' Andorra without you!"

"I know… Which is why I'm trusting you to handle the hard part this time, while I make a last-ditch attempt to save our assess! Please give me a chance to earn some of that trust back!"

Wendy eyed Dipper skeptically as they ran, before sighing in defeat. It's not like she had any better options. "Fine! But none of that self-sacrificial crap this time Dipper!"

"I promise…" Dipper hesitated before looking at Wendy with a deadly serious expression, and slightly out of breath. "Please don't get hurt Wendy…"

Wendy's mouth made an o shape, before smirking at Dipper reassuringly. "Hey don't sweat it! Like I'd let some brainless creep made of straw lay a finger on me! Now go break that curse or whatever the hell this is!"

"That's the plan!" Dipper continued to run as Wendy came to stop, readying herself to stall their pursuer. "Please be careful!"

"Don't worry about me…" Wendy whispered to herself as the demonic Scarecrow advanced on her. "We've got too much unfinished business left between us for me to die here tonight…"

Somewhere deeper into the field, Mabel and Takura were still struggling with the living rows of corn holding them captive. As hard as Takura struggled, he just couldn't break free of the vines impossibly tight grip.

"Um, Takura…" Mabel muttered, her face red from the blood rushing to it. "Not trying to put any extra pressure on you, but my heads starting to get really fuzzy."

"Losing a fight with a damn field of vegetables… This is absurd!" Takura sighed, resigning himself to what he had to do. "I guess I have no choice… I'm going to have to transform, and then I might have to strength to break free."

Mabel stayed quiet, knowing what a sensitive subject this was for the boy. Takura relaxed his body, and like he'd done so many times before, summoned the power of his Lycan form. As he willed the transformation forward, he opened his eyes which briefly flashed yellow… Before reverting back to his familiar silver-grey color. There was also a noticeable lack of extra body hair.

"Takura!... Is there a problem?"

"Yeah… I can't transform!" Takura looked up towards the sky, specifically at Earth's lone moon, which was a little less than half-visible. That could only mean one thing. "I guess my transformation does have something to do with the moonlight… Son of a…"

The Cornfield apparently did not approve of Takura's attempt at profanity. A stalk or vine or whatever you wanted to call it, snuck up his backside and tightly wrapped itself around his throat. Takura gasped as he felt the breath being squeezed out of him. Fueled by adrenaline, he managed to force his arms upward so he could grasp at the vine attempting to strangle him, but just like with his struggle to free his arms, he just couldn't get the vine to budge, not even an inch to spare him some oxygen.

"Takura!" Mabel cried in a panic as she watched his face slowly turn blue. In desperation, she used all the strength she could muster from her core so she could reach the grappling hook attached to her belt. Grasping at the handle, she managed to reach and detach it from her belt. Dangling in the breeze again, she tried to aim her gun at the vine wrapped around Takura's neck, but the dizzy feeling she was experiencing was making proper aim problematic. She closed one eye in hopes she could steady her vision, and it seemed to work. Grappling hook pointed towards the vine, she fired, praying she didn't accidently tase her friend in the process. The hook pierced a section of the vine wrapped around Takura's neck, causing the plant to seemingly shriek in pain and immediately let go of Takura's throat. The field maintained its grip on his arms, but at least he could now breathe. As if sensing this new danger, another vine snuck in and robbed Mabel of her precious Hooky. "Hey, give that back!" Deciding the grappling hook wasn't important at the moment, she turned her attention to Takura. "Are you okay?!"

"Yeah… I can breathe now… Thank you."

Those words would've made Mabel's heart soar if not for their precarious situation. "You're most welcome!... But what do we do now?"

"Wait I'm afraid… And hope Dipper figures out a way to counteract the black magic infecting this place."

"You really trust my brother don't you?" Mabel marveled, admittedly slightly envious at the amount of faith Takura had in Dipper. Other than Tracey Corduroy, the boy seemed to treat everyone else with a wary eye if not complete detachment.

"He's proved himself to me more than enough times, so yes… That cave where we battled the Argonians the day we first met… I'd be dead today if he hadn't hauled my broken ass out of there… And believe it or not, he's saved us from situations even more bizarre than this."

"Do you… Think you'll ever be able to trust me like that?"

"Can't say for sure yet," he responded with this trademark blunt honesty. "Saving my ass from getting strangled to death is a good start… One question though… Why didn't you use that thing earlier to try and get my hands free?"

Mabel went completely silent. It was the blood rushing to her head… It just had to be. "Oh phooey…"

With Mabel and Takura still indisposed, Wendy was left to go one-on-one with the seemingly unstoppable strawman of pure evil. No matter how many times she cut off a hand, an arm, a leg, they'd sow themselves right back to his body… And he seemed to regenerate faster each time.

Breathing hard from the fight, Wendy was getting extremely frustrated. "Would you just die already you sack headed freak!"

Wendy lunged to attack with her axe, but the frustration was making her sloppy. The Scarecrow easily deflected the blow, this time managing to knock the axe from Wendy's hand. It immediately grabbed Wendy by the throat and forced her down to the ground. His sacked face hovering mere inches above hers, he half opened his mouth, and a now familiar swarm of locusts flew from inside and into Wendy's face. Wendy actually screamed and tried to crawl away, for the first time during the course of this fight, feeling both afraid and hopeless.

"Dipper, whatever you're planning please hurry!" She cried as she rolled out of the way, the Scarecrows scythe sticking out of the ground where she'd just been laying.

Meanwhile, a frantic Dipper was kicking away at a stalk of corn that tried to grab at his feet. He stumbled forward, and finally escaped the corn prison. Judging where he was by the distance of the barn and farmhouse, he knew the cave had to be nearby. A couple minutes later, and he found himself at the mouth of the cave. With a tiny bit of trepidation, he walked inside. While he encountered no resistance, the air inside felt far more oppressive than it did when they first explored that cave. Finally, he came face to face with the alter… The statue… No, the face of the witch responsible for all this madness.

Dipper's eyes fell to the heart-shaped windchime… The true heart keeping this curse alive. It was time to save his friends and avenge every person who'd met an untimely end at the Witches hands. "Sorry Hilda… You've taken things much farther than just petty revenge."

Lifting the dagger high above his head, Dipper drove the knife through the center of the heart and into the harden dirt. He could've sworn he heard the statue scream.

Back in the cornfield, a near exhausted Wendy was barely fending off the demonic Scarecrow when it suddenly halted its attack. Wendy watched in stunned awe as the creature seized up before abruptly crumbling into dust. Not only sack-head, but the field of corn surrounding her began to wither away and quickly die.

"Alright Dip! I knew you'd figure out something!"

Elsewhere in the quickly dying cornfield, the other two members of the team were still struggling to get free. "Please set me free ole merciful master of the corn! I promise if you release me I'll never eat another corn-based product again as long as I live! Not even Captain Crunch, and if you knew me you'd know what a sacrifice that really is!" No sooner was Mabel's pleading complete, the once aggressive rows of corn quickly dried up and withered away, finally releasing them. Takura dropped to his knees, while Mabel landed unceremoniously on her face. That didn't stop her from immediately jumping up to her knees and doing a 180. "Hah! I totally lied! I'm going eat soooooooo much corn when I get home! Popcorn, corndogs, corn on the cob, corn flakes, Fritos, even the cream kind! If it's corn, it's going in this girl's mouth!"

Takura crawled over to check on Mabel. "Feel better now? You doing okay?"

"Oh, no problems here, my face broke my fall!" Mabel cracked groggily as she turned to face him, dirt covering her face. She smiled and joked. "I'm still beautiful right?"

Takura smiled in response, as wide as he was capable at the time. "We should try to find the others…"

"Not so fast!" Mabel disagreed, staring intently at the nasty wound on the young man's shoulder. Not only was that part of his body covered with dried blood, but the wound was also now filled with dirt and God knows what else. "I need to get this wound cleaned up first before it gets infected…"

"But what about Dipper and Wendy?"

"They're fine… Just like you, I trust my brother, and Wendy too…" Mabel assured him as she produced a med-kit from her backpack. She opened it up and immediately went about the task of cleaning the wound. "

"You know first aid?"

"Took a class on it my Senior year of High School… You probably don't know what that is… But yes, I know basic first aid. I've gotta make myself useful to you guys somehow right?"

Takura diverted his eyes, feeling a slight tinge of guilt. Sucking up his pride, he looked back at the girl and spoke earnestly. "I wanted to apologize to you… For considering your presence here a liability before."

"Awe, don't worry about it! I know you didn't really mean any of that..."

"No, I meant it," he said in his typical blunt manner stunning Mabel just a bit. "But I was wrong…"

"Well, not totally…" Mabel hung her head briefly. "If I'd been paying more attention, you wouldn't have had to save me and get this nasty wound in the process."

"I also would've been strangled to death by an angry plant if it wasn't for you… And now this. I'd say you've more than proven yourself useful."

Blushing, Mabel couldn't hide her smile as she finished up her work by placing a large square bandage over his wound. "That means a lot coming from you Takura… I'm not so good with stitches so you might have to see an actual doctor to get that wound closed up."

"It won't be necessary… I heal relatively fast due to my wolf blood… That wound should seal itself in a day or two."

"Well it better, or I'm hauling you to the hospital myself!"

When Dipper exited the cave, he was surprised to see the cornfield rapidly dying. Well, maybe not that surprised. After he stabbed the heart of the Witches shrine, the statue of Hilda almost immediately turned to ash. A sign that the curse had been undone. In the distance, he could see Wendy standing tall and apparently unharmed, no sign of the demonic Scarecrow anywhere. Elated, he rushed over to her.

"Dipper dude! Whatever you did it worked! Everything's meltin' away like…" Wendy had noticed Dipper running towards her, she just hadn't counted on him slamming into and wrapping her in a hug born from pure relief. Wendy got over being stunned, and happily returned the embrace. She'd being trying to coax some physical contact like this with him for weeks, so she sure wasn't going to complain now.

Realizing how he was coming across, Dipper pulled away from her, blushing profusely. "Uh, sorry about that… Got carried away I guess."

Smirking, Wendy raised an eyebrow. "Did you hear me complainin'? What happened exactly? I take it you found a way to break the curse?"

''Well, I knew that extreme cases of Witchcraft often use shrines or totems, like the one we saw in the cave, to spread their curses. That's why that Scarecrow seemed to be indestructible, because he was as long as the shrine that create it was still intact. When I stabbed the shrine through it's 'heart', it broke the curse!"

"Nice! We should probably go find Mabes and Takura, and then get the hell out of this place! I'm not sure how, but the farm looks even more creepy uncursed!"

Wendy wasn't wrong either. Not only had the corn withered away and died, but the structures still present finally aged to match their advanced years. The old farmhouse had been particularly ravaged, the wood badly decayed and rotted especially in the center, kind of giving the house a look of a face that just swallowed something sour. Needless to say, the Gravity Falls crew wouldn't be able to enter the building now even if they wanted too. If for no other reason than to completely prove his theory, Dipper removed the old journal from his backpack, and found the book was now little more than a leather covering with a handful of badly waterlogged pages intact with nearly illegible writing scribbled on it. A couple of the pages that did remain crumbled into the dust the moment he opened the book.

"Well… With this journal dies the last recorded memories of Smiley Hollow Farm…"

"Not quite Dip," Wendy reminded him. "Don't forgot about those people in the barn."

Dipper gasped, having nearly forgotten after all the chaos. Now he was concerned if they'd even be able to get to the bodies at all. "Let's hope the barn is in better shape than the house!"

It was, but not by much. The barn was still standing, but the wood was grey and brittle, basically a strong breeze away from becoming firewood. Somehow, someway though, you could still make out the faint outline of the smiley face on the side of the barn. Dipper took a peek inside, and sadly the bones of the deceased were still present… The one thing on that farm that wasn't an illusion brought on by the curse it would seem. Dipper quickly backed out of the barn and addressed the rest of his team, including Takura and Mabel who'd they'd bumped into along the way.

"Well… As much as I'd like to feel good that we just solved a decades old Urban Legend and broke a Witch's curse in the process, but… All we have to show for it is a lot of bruises, and the skeletal remains of missing campers… It's hard to consider that a win…"

"At least Mrs. Montgomery will finally know what happened to her daughter."

"Yeah," Wendy agreed with Takura. "And so will a lot of other people who lost loved ones to these woods Dip… And that creeped out Scarecrow isn't gona be able to hurt anybody else ever again! I don't know about you, but I'd consider that a big win!"

Dipper thought about that for a second… And smiled broadly. "You know what? You're absolutely right! We likely saved lives her tonight, and not just our own…" Dipper's eyes shifted towards Takura and Mabel, concern forming in them. "Are you guys sure you're okay? You look like you've been through it… Especially you Takura."

"Please… You saw me after the fight with the emperor when I was half-dead… This is barely a scratch… And your sister did a fine job of patching it up."

Mabel waggled her eyebrows, a bit proud of herself, and a little giddy at hearing Takura praise her. "I'm good too, but corn will now officially be one of my mortal enemies for the rest of my days."

Dipper rolled his eyes but smiled anyway. "Great, just what you need… Another vegetable on your shit-list."

"Hey, cauliflower knows what it did!"

"I'm sure it does… We should get back to camp and try to get some sleep.. It's going to be a long day with the local authorities tomorrow…"


When Dipper first fretted over how difficult it was going to be to get the local police to take them seriously about Smiley Hollow Farm, he didn't realize how badly he was underselling their potential lack of interest. It took running through a ridiculous amount of red tape, indifferent police officers, and ghost hunting jokes galore after Dipper made the mistake of describing themselves as Paranormal Investigators. Once he finally convinced one of the more accommodating officers to at least take a look at their video footage, it didn't long after that to get the wheels of law enforcement moving.

Within a few hours, police and every emergency service imaginable were swarming the now suddenly very real location of Smiley Hollow Farm… Now not so difficult to find with the curse lifted. During some intense questioning on what they knew, Dipper was bluntly honest and told them the truth… As he expected, the detectives didn't believe him, and the case would officially remain an unsolved cold case.

The story was all over the local news that night, and Helen Montgomery was glued to her television. The reporter on the screen summed up the situation up perfectly.

"A popular Urban Legend with local teenagers proved horrifyingly true this evening as a group of campers stumbled upon an old barn deep in the woods of the Oak Grove area. Inside was a horrific scene of mass murder that appears to have spanned decades. So far, portions of 24 different bodies have been removed from the barn. There's no word at this time whether any of the bodies could be positively identified as members of the long missing McAdams family, or any of the dozen or so hikers that have disappeared, some ironically while searching for the infamous farm. The campers who discovered the crime scene have been questioned by police but are not considered suspects as of this time. We'll continued to report details of this breaking news story as soon as they become available."

Hands covering her mouth, Helen was unable to shake the suffocating sense of dread she was feeling. There's an old saying that a mother always knows, and this was no exception. Somehow, she knew her daughter was one of the bodies being pulled from that barn. It made too much sense.

Her heart nearly stopped when she heard the knock upon her door, which would've been odd on any evening considering the time of night. She was terrified she was going to open that door and find the police standing outside on her porch to deliver the news that her daughter was indeed deceased. If she hadn't been quite so emotional, she may have rationalized that there was no possible way the authorities could've positively identified skeletal remains so quickly… Which meant finding Dipper Pines standing outside her door was probably a far worse option considering the circumstances.

"Hello Mrs. Montgomery… May I come in?"

"Please do Mr. Pines," Hellen agreed with a sad smile. She'd been prepared for this for the longest time, but that didn't make the information she knew was coming any easier to receive. "Why don't you… Take seat in the living room."

Holding his hat in his hand, Dipper nodded in appreciation and walked inside. He entered the living room, and his eyes were immediately drawn to the television. "I see you've been watching the news…"

"Haven't been able to turn it off… Who would've thought it… That crazy old Urban Legend about some creepy old farm that we used to tell when we were kids, and it turns out to be true… I'm assuming you and your team had something to do with that?"

Dipper nodded his head solemnly. "I had a lot of help though, from someone very close to this case." Dipper handed Helen a folded-up wad of paper. Looking confused, she unfolded the document. Tears brimmed in her eyes when she recognized she was gazing at her daughter's creation.

"Hailey's map… How did you find this?"

"We located your daughter's backpack deep in the woods. The map was still inside and in great shape as you can see. I have her hat and the rest of her affects that we found if you want them back…"

"I only want one thing Mr. Pines… Just to know for sure… My daughter's… She gone isn't she."

Dipper hesitated ever so briefly. "Yes, I'm afraid she is deceased… We found her ID on one of the skeletons in that barn, but we had to turn it over to the police for evidence. Of course they'll likely have to run tests on the remains to confirm her identity for certain but… I'm sure you'll be hearing from them as soon as they're capable. I'm not a cop though, buried under paperwork and red tape, and thought you deserved to know… I did kind of consider myself working for you while investigating this case after all…"

"Thank you…" Helen sobbed, staring somewhat blankly at the map before refocusing her attention to the young investigator. "Do you… Happen to know how she died?"

Dipper paled a bit, hesitant to share the full details of the story for obvious reasons. Mrs. Montgomery had the right to know if that was her wish. "It's a… Very bizarre story. I can almost guarantee you're not going to believe it."

"You may be surprised at what I'm willing to believe right now… Nothing is worse than the feeling of not knowing…"

Dipper respected her request, and went into great detail explaining to Helen everything they experienced during their investigation… And yes, he told her the complete unvarnished truth, and her wide-eyed stare told Dipper the tale of just how difficult it was for Mrs. Montgomery to process what she was hearing. He was expecting her to cut him off at any moment, call him a liar, throw him out of her house, accuse him of trying to play a cruel prank on a grieving mother. None of that happened, however. Instead, Helen lowered her head and asked in a soft tone, "I'm assuming you didn't tell the police any of this?"

"Actually I did, but of course they didn't believe us. If I didn't have as much experience as I do with this kind of thing, I wouldn't have believed us. Besides, you can't arrest demonic Scarecrows or a Witch that's been dead for decades for murder. It didn't help either that a good chunk of the crime scene disappeared once the curse was lifted. We'll just have to let the police do their investigation and come to their own conclusions…. They'll never know the true scope of what happened on the farm yesterday, but we will… Maybe that's for the best…"

"She went on and on about that Scarecrow," Helen said absently. Dipper couldn't even be sure she was talking to him and not herself. "She swore it followed her from that farm… I blamed it all on nightmares or overloading her brain with all that paranormal nonsense. If I'd just listened to her then maybe…"

"The Scarecrow demon appeared tied to the farm itself. I don't believe it was possible for whatever presence that was haunting that farm to have pursued her outside it," Dipper said, in an attempt to console the woman, but in all honestly he couldn't be positive about that. Considering they'd discovered Hailey's backpack so far outside the property, with really no other explanation as to how it got there… He actually couldn't rule out the possibility that the entity could travel outside of the cursed grounds to claim it's victims. It would've been highly strange considering the curse appeared to have been placed on the land itself, but the entirety of this situation was anything but normal. "Perhaps Hailey became a bit paranoid at the time, but I don't believe the evil entity actually followed her."

"It's still a mother's job to protect her child, and I failed miserably," Helen sobbed, using a tissue from the coffee table to dry her eyes. "Thank you… For everything Mr. Pines… But I think I need to be alone for a while. If you could leave Hailey's stuff on the porch I would greatly appreciate it."

Dipper nodded and placed his hat back atop his head. Delivering the heartbreaking news to Mrs. Montgomery was by far the most difficult part of the investigation, and this was a man who had a locust up his nose at one point during this case, and nearly made a snack of several others. He was beginning to develop a begrudging respect for those police officers and doctors who had to deliver this type of news all the time.


The crew was forced to lay over in the Piedmont area for one more night as the investigation into the bodies found at Smiley Hollow Farm raged on. Once the police had bled all the information out of the group as they possibly could get and ruled them out relatively quickly as suspects, they were finally allowed to head back to Gravity Falls. This was a relief in particular to Mabel, who got a bit restless at the idea of spending another night so close to their hometown. She was terrified she'd run into somebody else she knew and be forced to confront them. Mabel hadn't quite come to terms with the nasty divorce she had with her parents and most of her friends just yet. Being forced to talk to Sandy at the restaurant was more than enough for one trip.

It was late that evening when the gang arrived home. Well, at the Pines residence anyway, seeing as Wendy had stashed her car there during the trip. Mabel offered for Wendy to stay the night, but the redhead was tired and kind of anxious to get home to her own bed, which Mabel completely understood.

What Wendy hadn't expected, was for Takura to ask to ride with her to the Corduroy house. This was a surprise in particular seeing as Takura would spend most of his nights camping out due to his desire not to feel like he was imposing on anyone, and because he hated riding in cars in general. If he was asking for a ride, Wendy knew his reasoning must've been important to him if he was willing to endure even more time inside what he deemed a metal death-box, so she agreed to give him a ride despite still being upset with him. The ride passed wordlessly, creating a very awkward atmosphere between them. Particularly weird wince Takura actually sat up front on the passenger's side, and through the corner of her eye, she could see his obvious discomfort. Whether or not it was from the drive or if he had other reasons she did not know, but the image was amusing and irritating at the same time. They were almost to her parents place, and Wendy was tiring of the deafening silence. Just as she was ready to demand Takura tell her what was one his mind, he kind of beat her too it.

"You fought well against the Scarecrow demon. I don't know too many warriors that would've maintained their composure against a foe you essentially couldn't harm."

Not having expected a compliment, Wendy tried to brush it off. "Ah, it was no biggie. Believe it or not, that Scarecrow wasn't anywhere close to the weirdest thing I've had to fight! That honor might have to go to fightin' against a shape-shiftin' alien posing as myself!"

Wendy nearly laughed at the befuddled look on the boy's face. "I'll have to tell you that story in more detail sometime… So, was that complement your roundabout way of apologizin' for doubtin' me?"

"I never doubted your aptitude in a fight… And it's not an apology because I don't find it in good faith to apologize for things you're not sorry for. I meant what I said at the time. I had no reason to trust you or Mabel yet, and I believed Dipper and I by ourselves had the best chance of investigating the property without suffering casualties." Wendy frowned, and was ready to give Takura a piece of her mind… Before she got completely derailed by what he said next. "But I was wrong… You held your own against that demon long enough for Dipper to break the curse, while in the meantime, I was getting my ass strangled by a vegetable. Then Mabel helped me with…"

Takura glanced over at his shoulder. The bandage job was now covered by one of the t-shirts Mabel had bought for him. He then continued, "Dipper was correct, on two points… We're a team, and I need to learn to trust you guys… And as long as you do nothing to break it, that should no longer be a problem. Dipper trusts you, so that should've been good enough for me. I also need to remember I'm not at war anymore… It's no longer my job to put the weight of the world on my shoulders and try to protect everyone…"

Stunned by the confession, Wendy struggled to muster up a response. "Don't worry about it man… I know it can't be easy for you… Mom told us so many stories about what you guys went through on Andorra… You don't deal out trust easily, you've gotta earn it, and I can respect that. But yeah, we're gona be workin' together for the foreseeable future. I know I don't plan on goin' anywhere anytime soon. I've got your back, so I'd like to be sure that you've got mine too! And I don't mean by shieldin' me from trouble by keepin' me out of the action!"

"I'll work on that…" If Wendy didn't know any better she could've sworn she saw a slight smile tug at the young man's lips.

It was a good thing the conversation was basically over at that point. Wendy pulled into her driveway a couple of minutes later. To her surprise, Takura wished her farewell and started walking away from the house. "Dude, where ya going?"

"Back towards the Pines house… That's where my gear is, and if I want to set up camp before…"

"Oh forgot about that! Just crash at our place for the night! We've got plenty of room."

"I… Don't like to impose…"

"Oh come on dude!" Wendy laughed, as she placed a hand on Takura's shoulder…. Uh, the good one. "You're not imposin' your family! You know if Mom finds out you're out here, she's just gona track you down and haul your ass back to the house anyway!"

"That's… A fair point…" Takura submitted nervously, Wendy getting a great deal of pleasure out of how her mother was the one person who could completely intimidate mister tough-as-nails Werewolf.

"Mom! We're home!" Wendy announced as they walked inside, one eagerly and one reluctant.

"Well, it's about time girl!" Tracey Corduroy replied as she walked into the kitchen to greet her daughter. "I was expectin' you back an hour ago…" She paused when she noticed Takura accompanying Wendy. A smile found her lips. "Well, look who finally decided to pay us a visit! To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Well, it's a little late for him to head back to the Pines place, so I talked him into crashin' here for the night."

"Well now, and here I was worried the room we set up for you in the basement would go to waste…" Tracey suddenly went quiet, eyeing Takura suspiciously as a frown spread across her features, clearly unnerving the young man. Wendy just looked confused as she watched her mother stomp over to Takura, Wendy's eyes widening as she watched her mother pull back Takura's shirt to expose the bandage covering his shoulder. How the heck did she?... Tracey stepped back and glared at Takura disapprovingly. "You got yourself hurt."

"It's just a scratch…" Takura muttered defensively, blushing faintly as he turned his head away.

"Don't care about that, or how fast you heal! You were reckless, and I know I taught you better than that!"

"In his defense, he got wounded savin' Mabel from gettin' gutted by this Scarecrow monster!"

"Nearly getting strangled by the cursed cornfield was far more threatening than this little flesh wound…" Takura added, despite his trademark deadpan bluntness likely not doing him any favors in this situation.

Fortunately for him, Tracey was caught off guard enough that she practically forgot all about his injury. "Killer Scarecrow… Cursed cornfield!" Completely exasperated, Tracey rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "Sometimes I wish I lived in a town where this type of craziness didn't sound perfectly plausible to me… Oh well, you two hungry? You can explain in greater detail while we eat. I've got some stew keepin' warm on the stove, and the boys are out bowlin' tonight so it'll be just the three of us!"

Wendy pumped her arms. "Yeah! I haven't eaten since lunch, so I'm starved!"

Lured by the promise of food, Takura followed after the nearly identical women into the kitchen. While they ate, mostly Wendy went into great detail about the case they'd just undertook. While reliving that tragedy did add the occasional somber note to the story, Wendy chose to focus on the more exciting and fun aspects of their trip. Takura remained mostly quiet but found himself quite… Comfortable with the situation.

Yeah, maybe this 'family' notion might not be all that burdensome after all.


Two weeks had passed since the trip to Smiley Hollow. Amazingly, most of the construction on the Museum had already been completed. There were still a few technical touches that had to be added here and there, but for the most part, the rest of the work consisted primarily of getting the interior looking the way Dipper wanted it too. His office was the first room he setup, moderately sized with a desk at the center and two large bookshelves behind that desk that would soon be filled with tomes focused on paranormal research and folklore. In the left-hand corner was a row of four file cabinets to keep the physical files for the various cases they'd be working on or wished to work in the future. While Dipper did have all the same information stored away on his hard drive, as well as four flash drives for backup, he still preferred to have that physical copy he could hold in his hand when need be, which would come in handy on any occasion when pulling out your laptop wasn't a reasonable option. It was a trait most likely picked up from his Grunkle Ford who certainly believed in utilizing technology as tools for this research but didn't believe in being completely reliant on it. A much easier stance for the older gentlemen to take, since he didn't grow up in an environment of smart phones, the internet, and streaming entertainment instantly accessible with a touch of your fingertips like Dipper had.

Aside from the office, what he was most excited for, was setting up the first handful of exhibits for the Museum. At the start, he had four in mine, most all of them centered around local Gravity Falls lore. There was one exhibit dedicated to the local Gnome population, and another for the locally exclusive Manotaurs… Well, exclusive in the sense that nobody outside of town had probably ever heard the term before. Pretty much every other garden across the United State had a Gnome or two watching over it. A third exhibit was dedicated to the ghost story of Archibald Corduroy and his 'alleged' haunting of Northwest Manor. The exhibit was created with the blessing of Pacifica who was more than happy with its inclusion as she viewed that event as a positive experience and a key moment for her own personal growth. The fact that Preston Northwest would be royally pissed off once he found about it was simply a bonus for the both of them.

The fourth was your simple standard Sasquatch exhibit, just like you'd probably see in any museum that dabbled in Cryptozoology. Future guests had no need to know the exhibit was inspired by and dedicated to a living breathing Bigfoot named Bruce that happened to be friends with the proprietors of the establishment.

The final exhibit was his newest concept, so putting the finishing touches on it was the main purpose for Dipper to remain inside the Museum this late into the night. He had to admit, the remarkably crafted replica of a certain Scarecrow that he was currently staring at sent a chill up his spine. It's lower half was obscured by a couple rows of plastic corn, small mockups of a farmhouse and a barn with a smiley face on the side, sat at the back of the exhibit, one on each side simulating the perception of distance between the buildings and the principal piece of the exhibit. Nailed to the wall next to the exhibit, was a somewhat brief but detailed explanation of the legend of Smiley Hollow Farm, highlighting the feud between the McAdams family and the alleged Witch Hilda Bell. Details of the bodies found inside the barn were omitted out of respect to the victims and their families.

At the base of the exhibit where two additional plaque. One with the name of the exhibit, 'The Legend of Smiley Hollow Farm', and the second dedicating the exhibit to Hailey Montgomery, who Dipper made certain to credit with the discovery of the farm. While it was true that many other victims wandered onto that farm before Hailey's untimely death, it was her map, her story that led Gravity Falls Inc. to unravel the mystery behind that cursed farm. It only felt right to give credit where it was due. Without her map and her dedication, who knows how many unlucky souls may have stumbled into that cursed deathtrap.

Dipper closed the glass door and locked the exhibit, taking one last long look at it, a smile on his face. This exhibit would hold a special place in his heart for the rest of his days. It would stand always as a visual reminder of his first real case as a Paranormal Investigator.

Dipper left the Museum soon after, imagining what other exhibits might fill those halls one day.

CF003: Smiley Hollow Farm

Status: Case Closed


-As I mentioned previously, this case was loosely based on two local Urban Legends. One you may have heard of, especially if you're from the Middle Tennessee SC Kentucky area, and that's the story of the Bell Witch. (Which is actually a ghost story and not a witch… It's complicated) Hilda Bell was named in honor of the alleged ghost-witch, and the McAdams family after Adams Tennessee, where the story was born. The other Legend was well… Smiley Hollow Farm, the very definition of a local legend. A very real place I used to live within a mile of, that is supposedly haunted. (You could actually buy produce from the farm. We used to buy pumpkins from their stand every Halloween for that exact reason) I actually had to drive down the road that takes you right passed that farm and well… A very narrow country backroad with steep drop-offs on each side and very thick vegetation… Extremely creepy drive at night. Then, off to my left there's an old barn with a smiley face on the side. The road was actually built right through the barn, so you actually have to drive through the barn to get to the area where the farm is actually located.

It felt like a fitting setting for this part of the story, and a nice tribute to a place that's become a local landmark. Versions of this story have been percolating in my head for years now, and I love that Gravity Falls have given me a chance to share it with you. This case was also a bit of a commentary on Urban Legends, how they form, and how they mutate and grow into tales that hardly resemble the original story. They say there's a small seed of truth in every Urban Legend that it takes root and grows from, and there's some truth to that. Smiley Hollow most likely isn't haunted, there's certainly no killer scarecrows roaming the fields, and I highly doubt the Bell Witch-Ghost summers there. Maybe if I spread the rumor enough though, maybe I can get a few cooky kids to believe it's true.

Killer scarecrows are awesome. Just felt like saying it, love me some creepy-ass scarecrows.

The next chapter will be a one-shot… Though a one-shot to me can turn out forty pages long so we'll see. It's called 'Children of Fire'. The Northwest family has more skeletons in their closet than most cemetery's.