The town of Gravity Falls might be relatively small and not really located on most maps (seriously it took Mike forever to even figure out its general location in Organ), but it had a surprising amount of tourists come through, meaning there were several hotel options. Mike was able to book a cheap room at an Average 7 for a few days with little issue and he went straight for his bed, tossing the duffle bag lazily into a chair. Sinking into the pillows, Mike grabbed the tv remote, and began flipping through the channels to see what the local stations offered, eventually settling on some period drama show called "The Duchess Approves".
Ever since Mike "died" (really an oversimplification of becoming a puppet for a mesh of different animatronics then somehow still living in his own corpse but Mike didn't really like dwelling on the details too much), he didn't need a lot of things that "normal" people needed to survive. Sleep was one of those things that Mike could go for far longer than would be physically possible for anyone else, though he couldn't forgo it completely. He still got tired out emotionally and mentally enough to need time to rest and recover, but that was rarely the reason Mike actually slept. Usually, he ended up falling asleep out of sheer boredom. He didn't dare venture too often out in broad daylight, lest he causes panic, and unless he had a job, there wasn't much for him to do at night either. So it happened fairly regularly that Mike would be watching mindless television and he'd drift off, including this night.
The problem was that Mike was almost always plagued by vivid nightmares and tonight was no different.
Mike opened his eyes to find himself trapped in a circler room, one that he has visited many times in nightmares and flashbacks, but that knowledge does nothing to stop the terror from feeling as vivid as when it actually happened. Multiple pieces of robotic shells lay scattered about the floor and tight wires kept Mike in place before the giant clawed machine that rested in its center.
"There is nowhere for us to hide here. There is nowhere to go when we look like this. But if we looked like you, then we could hide. If we looked like you, then we would have somewhere to go."
Anger and Hurt warred within Mike as the thing that had once been his sister could betray him so easily and lead him to his doom. He had only wanted to help, wanted to save his sister from whatever fate she had been trapped in and now he was going to pay for it with his life. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Mike wonders if this is his punishment for the blood that has stained his hands. That it was justice to be killed by one sibling for killing another.
Was this what his father had planned along when he sent Mike here?
"The Scooper only hurts for a moment."
Terror and dead fill Mike's being before horrible agony spreads through his body as the scooper tears him open. Burning pain is all Mike can feel as the abomination known as Ennard comes over and crawls into the space the scooper had opened up. Horror flooding Mike's mind as his broken body began to move without his consent, awkwardly getting to its feet and stumbling towards a mirror.
The dream suddenly takes an unexpected turn as instead of the glowing purple eyes he was expecting to see, Mike was greeted by bright yellow eyes with cat-like slits. His lips spread into a manic grin that Mike had never once seen on his face before as a strange otherworldly voice echoed from everywhere.
YOU REALLY TAKE MEAT-SUIT TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL DON'T YOU EGGS?
Mike jerked awake, his breath coming fast and hard like he still had lungs and if he had a functioning heart it'd be pounding. What in the world was that? Sure his dreams could and have changed before, becoming twisted horrors of what actually happened, but nothing like that. Mike wracked his memory for anything that could cause such strange details but came up blank.
Just shrugging it off as weirdness that comes with nightmares, Mike shoved the nightmare completely from his mind (something Mike has become very good at over the years) and checked to see how early it was. The sky was beginning to lighten, showing morning was approaching though it would still be a bit before the sun would be truly up. Deciding that he wasn't going to get any more sleep, Mike got up to take advantage of these quiet hours before the town would come to life. Making sure he had as much skin covered as possible, Mike headed out to go for a walk around the area.
Mike followed a road that acted as a border between the woods and the rest of the town and enjoyed the pine scent in the crisp morning air. While most people would be wary of walking so close to the woods as it was likely wild animals would still be roaming nearby, Mike didn't care. In his experience, monsters were far more likely to come from the heart of civilization rather than anywhere else.
As he was passing behind a local diner, one that was already cooking in preparation for the morning rush, Mike noticed something moving by one of the windows. Pulling out his taser just to be safe, Mike took a cautious step forward to get a better look. He was stunned to see little men, dressed like they had escaped from some old lady's yard, and were in the process of stealing a pie. The group noticed Mike pretty quickly but didn't seem too bothered by his presence. A few hissed in warning, clutching the pie tighter to themselves, while one just waved in a friendly greeting. The leader of the group soon directed the others towards the woods and they scampered off with their prize before Mike could even really process what he has seen.
Mike stared at the spot where the little men, gnomes really if he were to give them a name, and wondered what it was that he just witnessed. They weren't animatronics, as even the most advanced ones didn't look that realistic and they weren't any traditional monster or creature Mike had heard of in his limited knowledge. Mike hadn't really come across a wide variety of supernatural creatures but considering his life he was pretty open to their existence. He had just never considered what he would do if he ever came across something that wasn't a possessed animatronic.
After a moment, Mike shrugged the encounter off and went back to his walk, deciding that those gnomes things were pretty much harmless. Creatures going around stealing pie were very low on Mike's list of things to be concerned about and since they weren't really harming anyone they weren't his problem.
Still… Mike couldn't help but wonder what else was hiding in those woods…
