General Announcement. There is a new Mystery Kids project in the works on Tumblr and they are looking for writers, voice actors, artist, and video editor. If you are interested check out themysterykidsreturn on tumblr for more info.

Now on with the story

Lili yawned from her place on the floor. Around her the other kids were still snuggled up in their sleeping bags.

Last night the kids had entered the front door of the house part of the shack, only to find the TV room with eight sleeping bags scattered around the room. In front of the TV were a few movies, some of which Lili recognized as some of her favorite cheesy horror movies. If they weren't so tired Lili would have asked if anyone wanted to watch one of them, but after choosing a sleeping bag they all fell asleep.

Standing up, Lili navigated around the other sleeping kids, noting that Mabel was missing from the bunch.

Hungry, Lili walked to the Kitchen only to find Mabel cooking up omelets for everyone.

"Good morning." The girl chimed. "Hope you like omelets."

"That actually sounds pretty good right now." Lili said, sitting down at the table.

"Here you go." Mabel put down a plate with an omelet shaped flower on it. Running back to the stove, Mabel put the rest of the omelets on their own plates. She then returned with her own plate.

While Lili dug into the omelet, Mabel just poked the food.

"What's up?" Lili asked, sensing her new friend's nervousness.

"I just wonder how my brother is doing. We used to do everything together but now he's not here. Lili, what if something happened to him? I'm his big sister, I should be protecting him." Mabel cried, tears welling in her eyes.

"Okay, first, calm down. We are all worried about what might have happened during the last year, but your brother will be fine."

Lili frowned upon seeing that her talk did nothing to calm the girl.

"Why don't we explore a little? We could look up stairs while everyone is sleeping. You might even find something interesting." Lili tried again.

Mabel smiled, "You think we could find some clothes? I don't like wearing the same sweater for more than a day."

Lili nodded. Taking the girl's hand, the two left their discarded breakfast.

The two boys stopped just short of being pushed in the river, much to the hooded figure's dismay, but the damage was already done.

Without time to even act, a hand rose out of the water and grabbed Raz by the ankle, pulling the two boys into the water. Dipper, free of the hand's grip, came up to the surface. Dipper looked around for his companion in the water and started to panic when Raz didn't come back up.

"Over here," the voice of a little girl called from the deepest part of the river.

Dipper dove towards the voice. He glanced around in the water, looking for the younger boy. Thankfully, the voice was correct, and directly below him Raz lay tangled up in some hands trying desperately to get free.

As Dipper attempted to get closer, a hand swiped at his face and scratched his cheek.

"You cannot have him. He is ours now" A new voice spoke from the depths of the water.

Dipper shook his head and once again reached to try to get Raz free from the hands.

The hands felt a moment of happiness. For so long they had been trying to drown the boy and at last it seemed like they would succeed. They could feel the last of his air escaping from his soon-to-be-still body. Before they could enjoy the final moments of the boy's fading life, however, a bolt of electricity shot through them.

The hands screeched and let go of the poor boy. Dipper, seeing his chance, grabbed Raz and swam as quickly as he could to the surface. An unseen young girl floated in the water a little ways behind, staring down into the river, tracking the movements of the hands.

Breaking the surface, Dipper lead Raz to the closest bank. Dragging them both onto the sandy shore, Dipper took a minute to catch his breath before seeing how Raz was doing.

Raz lay on the beach hacking up as much water as he could trying to clear his lungs. How he hated water. Ever since the curse took his mother he hated going anywhere near any body of water that was deeper than a bath tub.

When Raz calmed down, Dipper spoke. "What in the hell was that!?"

Raz moaned, looking up at Dipper "That is the reason me and water do not mix"

"Yeah but what was that?"

A sloshing sound interrupted the two boys. No longer being held back by the invisible ghost girl, the creepy hand was now beckoning Raz back into the water.

Dipper, who was done with the crazy hand business, grabbed a nearby rock and threw it at the hand. The hand retaliated by throwing the nearest object it could grab. A glass cylinder hit Dipper square in the head. Seeing that the hand had done all it could, it turned back into water.

"Feel better" Raz chuckled.

Dipper groaned, shaking his head to get rid of the oncoming headache.

Raz sighed "That was the Galochio curse" said Raz, answering Dipper's question from earlier.

"Galochio curse?"

"Yeah, a rival group of gypsies cursed my entire family to die in water. Whenever we get close to the water … well you saw for yourself."

Dipper started at the boy. He could not remember hearing of anything like a family curse. Sure, back home he would have conspiracies about aliens or supernatural things, but he never could prove that they were real. Yet here was someone who was apparently cursed, and not just him – his whole family.

"What do you think this is?" Raz asked, cutting of Dippers train of thought.

"Huh?" Dipper looked up to see the glass cylinder that he had been hit in the head with earlier.

"Well it looks cool, so I'm keeping it," Raz said, storing the thing in his backpack. "So what now?"

Dipper didn't respond.

"I'm still not crossing the river," Raz said, noticing Dipper smiling.

"You're in luck, you already did." Dipper responded.

Raz looked around seeing that what Dipper said was true. Through everything that happened the two of them had somehow crossed the river and were now on the opposite bank.

"Come on, it's this way to town!" Dipper said, taking the lead once again.

Posting a little earlier than normal due to the cliff hanger.

I do not own anything but the story.

This fic is Beta read by Ensignily.