It's been a week since the Pines twins had returned to Gravity Falls for the summer. After a year of school, their parents had sent them off to the small town for another holiday. The twins were happy above everything, the familiar sights of the weirdly-shaped cliff, the town and the Mystery Shack welcoming them like old friends. The best thing about returning, however, was seeing their family and friends again.
The two Stans were delighted above everything to see their niece and nephew again. They too had returned to their beloved Gravity Falls for a little break in their travels, visiting the Mystery Shack again. It still belonged to Stanford Pines, after all.
Mabel Pines yawned as she sat down at the breakfast table, to which she was lured to by the promising sweet smell of the pancakes. Dipper was already sitting there, talking with Stanford about something she didn't care for. To her, sunbeams and rainbows were more interesting than whatever supernatural business Dipper and Stanford were nerding out over.
"More pancakes coming right up!" Stan announced, flipping two pancakes for the nerds. The two thanked him briefly before resuming their conversation about eyebats. "Good morning sweetie," Stan greeted Mabel as she joined the table.
"Morning," she replied quickly, giving a loud yawn. She glanced outside, where the dark clouds swirled in preparation for a thunderstorm. Gompers and Waddles were out in the lawn, grazing lazily on the grass. America's top power-couple. She yawned again and grasped a few words in Dipper and Ford's conversation.
"Eyebats... attacked us... fought to the death..."
"Can you two get any more ridiculous?" Mabel asked them, still half asleep and unaware that she was the ridiculous one in the house.
"You're the one to speak," Dipper retorted instantly. "You're like the queen of being ridiculous."
"At least I didn't get detention for telling the teacher he's wrong and trying to get all the other students on your side to challenge the teaching curriculum," Mabel snapped back, no hint of aggression in her tired voice.
Dipper latched onto the pattern. "At least I didn't get detention for drinking paint."
"Enough you two," Ford stopped them before the harmless argument could escalate any further. He turned to Mabel and noticed the bags under her eyes. "When did you go to sleep?"
Mabel yawned again, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Fact was, she stayed up late to finish watching her High School Musical marathon, which ended way past her bedtime. She desperately tried to wake up on the inside as she explained this to the others.
"Yeesh, and you say I stay up late," Dipper shivered, finishing his first pancake and waited for Stan to be done with the second round.
"Here you go Mabel," Stan served her his signature pancake, with syrup and whipped cream, special for his favourite niece. "Besides, you better pull your hot belgian waffles together, you look dead inside."
Mabel gave a quiet chuckle and started to eat, the warmth spreading through her and waking her up from the inside.
"Finally awake!" Mabel cheered, punching the air with her fists once she finished her portion. "So Dip, what're we gonna do today?"
Dipper shrugged his shoulders. "We haven't been to the forest in a while," he mentioned, hinting to Mabel that he wanted to take a walk in the forest. Fortunately his twin caught onto his hint instantly.
"Oh my! We haven't seen Jeff and the other gnomes for over a year!" Mabel squealed in excitement, shaking her fists in a girly habit. "And the other funny creatures!"
"And you say supernaturals are nerdy!" Dipper stuck out his tongue out at her.
"Be careful out there you two," Ford warned them, reaching out for a newspaper that lay around nearby. "You know how dangerous that forest is."
"Oh tone it down Poindexter," Stan snapped at him. "We've dealt with far worse that anything that old forest has to offer."
"We'll be fine Great Uncle Ford," Mabel reassured the old man as Dipper stood up to get his vest and hat. Wendy had swapped her and Dipper's hats again, so now the hats were back on the heads of their original owners. "Dipper! Can you get me my pink sweater!?"
"Sure," came back the reply.
Mabel waved her two great uncles goodbye as she went out into the corridor where Dipper had began to put on his deep blue vest. He threw her the clump of rich pink wool, which Mabel pulled over her head and admired the shooting star symbol that was stitched onto it.
Despite ageing a year, neither Mabel nor Dipper had changed much. Fact, Mabel had outgrew her love for unicorns and Dipper had got over his love for Wendy, but apart from those minor details, they were still the same Pines twins.
Dipper lead the way out into the forest while Mabel followed him with a spring in her step. The shaded forest groaned and creaked their welcome, willing to reveal their many secrets to them. Mabel took a deep sniff, inhaling the fresh forest scent. She didn't know why, but whenever she was in that forest, a strange calmness and a sense of security washed over her, as if the forest was her birth mother. She was sure Dipper felt the same way, for he also began to walk slightly faster to hear the undergrowth crinkle beneath his feet.
"So, where to?" Mabel asked him, her eyes following a woodpecker that streaked through the canopy.
Dipper shrugged comically. "You decide," he replied, though he was clearly suggesting they visit their old path again.
Mabel stuck out her tongue at him, crossing her arms in mock offended-ness. "Let's spy on Jeff while he takes a bath in his squirrels!" she suggested in a hushed voice.
"Ew! No!" Dipper objected hastily, pulling a face of disgust. "What is wrong with you?"
Mabel threw her arms wide with a massive smile. "Everything!"
The two twins chuckled together as their feet turned to their old, familiar haunts automatically. Now the old path had overgrown over the year where nobody had walked down it, but the twins had walked down it enough last year to have it engraved into their minds, over and over. They had walked down this pathway so much, it became theirs. Their path, their patch of pretty blue flowers, their small brook and their trees. Unofficially theirs.
"I've missed this," Dipper piped up after a long silence. "I'm really glad we're back here."
"You could say that again, Sir Dipping-Sauce!" Mabel curled her fingers into handguns and pointed them at her brother.
Dipper crossed his arms and gave her a warning glare. "Don't call me that."
They passed the ridiculously thick-trunked pine tree and headed to the brook which ended their pathway.
The little brook was more of a fast torrent than a small stream, but Mabel had taken a liking to the word 'brook' ever since Dipper mentioned it and it has been known as 'The Brook' ever since. She liked the way it was said. Brrrooooooook. What a funny word.
"Anyways, have you seen Candy or Grenda recently?" Dipper asked her casually, following Mabel as they clambered over a fallen tree. "I hadn't seen you hang out with them."
Mabel swatted her hand as if it was nothing, landing on the ground with a thud, Dipper landing beside her. "They're gone to summer camp for the first half of the summer," Mabel explained as if it was nothing. "But don't worry, I've got Pacifica to keep me company."
Dipper pretended to be offended. "What about me?" His voice cracked so bad that a bird flew off its branch to look for a quieter place to sleep. "You dear twin brother? Oh it's like I'm invisible!" He put the back of his hand to his forehead in a sarcastic lament. "My sister loves me no more!"
"Dipper!" Mabel grabbed his shoulders and began to rock him back and forth. "Don't worry! We've got a whole summer to drive each other crazy!"
Dipper wriggled free of her grasp, both of them chuckling quietly.
"You're a drama queen," Mabel told him.
Dipper put his hands on his hips and pretended to be a drag queen. "Oh my god Kiiiiiiiim!"
"Yes bitch?" Mabel played along, pulling a duck face and batted her eyelashes.
"I can't take the massive dump! I think I'm constipated!"
"Just push!"
"Oh it's okay, I was pregnant!"
Both twins laughed as if they've heard the funniest joke in the world. Mabel had to hold herself up on her brother to avoid falling to the ground.
"We're idiots," Dipper managed to choke out after they've both calmed down slightly.
"We are the intelligence of the world!" Mabel sang, setting them both off laughing again.
"No seriously," Dipper coughed, managing to stand up straight. "We should be getting back. Grunkle Stan and Great Uncle Ford would be worried."
"C'mon Dip, let's get to The Brook first," Mabel prodded him forward, beginning to walk again. Dipper had no choice but to follow along.
The dim light of the clouds seeped through the pine needles, the cold breeze picking up into a stronger whistle, blowing forward and beckoning the twins to move forward.
"Mabel, there's a thunderstorm coming," Dipper whimpered, jumping at the distant sound of thunder. "Maybe we should start heading back?"
Mabel gave a snort of laughter and poked him in the stomach. "Where's you sense of adventure bro bro?" She purposely ran faster so Dipper had to pick up his pace to follow her. She strained her ears, and smiled wider when she heard the fast rush of the fast little torrent.
The brunette slowed down so she stopped at the bank of her little brook. The grey light bounced off the shimmering, rushing water and sparkled in the dark light cast by the thunderstorm clouds. She knelt down and dunked her hands into the water up to the wrists, causing her to shiver. Dipper had mentioned that this brook had somehow managed to accomplish the impossible feat of being in a liquid state at a minus degree temperature.
"Mabel! Don't run off like that!" Dipper scolded her, catching up to her. "Look, Weirdmaggedon's over but there are dangerous creatures round the forest!"
Mabel sighed and took her soaking hands out of the brook and made a starburst motion with them, splattering Dipper with tiny droplets of ice-cold water.
"C'mon Mabel," Dipper gestured the way back. "Being in the forest during a thunderstorm isn't a good idea."
"Paranoid!" Mabel taunted, poking him in the cheek with a soaking finger. "You're so paranoid!"
"I'm not paranoid!" Dipper snapped, a darker tone to his voice as he stared his sister down. "I just got a really bad feeling about being here."
Mabel rolled her eyes. "Is this your fake sixth-sense again?" she sighed. "Look, nothing's gonna kill us, you're just being paranoid."
"Mabel I'm serious!" Dipper whined, his voice beginning to break, just as it always did when he was scared or angry. "We need to head back because a) a thunderstorm is coming and b) there's something familiar here. Not a good familiar, the really bad familiar."
Mabel shook her head in disbelief, rubbing her hands on her sweater to dry them off. Suddenly she caught something in the corner of her eye. It was a sort of grey thing, something that looked incredibly out of place in that forest.
"Hey, what's that?" Mabel pointed to it, turning to run to it before Dipper could stop her.
"Mabel didn't you hear what I just said?" Dipper snapped, following her reluctantly as Mabel pushed through the bushes and into an empty patch of grass. Mabel froze, her eyes setting upon the small stone statue.
The statue was as still as stone, moss and grass beginning to grow over it through the time. It's one arm outstretched with a four-fingered hand while its single eye stared blankly forward, looking but not seeing. The top hat and bow-tie were still there, but gone was all the colour, replaced only by cold stone.
"Dipper look at that!" Mabel gasped, tugging at her brother's sleeve. "It's him! It's Bill!"
Dipper had frozen, his muddy brown eyes staring silently at the statue in what was either fear or shock. Mabel could swear that she could hear his heartbeat aiming to beat right out of his chest like a runaway train.
"Mabel we need to go," Dipper told her, taking a step back from the statue. "We need to get as far away from here as we can."
"Dipper please," Mabel rolled her eyes. "Bill's dead, here's his corpse!" She pointed to the statue, which looked as emotionless as ever. "What's he gonna do to us now? Turn you into a deer and turn me into a mermaid? Though on second thought, I like that idea."
Dipper gave her a look of disbelief, his shoulders dropping in disappointment. "Mabel are you even listening to what I'm saying? He's dangerous! Have you forgotten everything that happened last year?"
"Have you forgotten everything that happened last year?" Mabel mocked his panicked voice, flipping her hair back and out of her eyes. "Chill out Dipstick, there's nothing to be scared of. Look."
She padded forward towards her enemy, ignoring the panicked gasps and squeaks of her brother, and poked the stone eye. "Who's the weak one now?" she said, the wind blowing her hair back and making her look grand and powerful. She rested her elbow on the tall hat and leaned on him as if he was nothing more than a piece of furniture. "See?" she called to the panicked boy. "He's harmless. Completely harmless. Don't know why you're scared of him."
"I'd leave him alone if I were you," Dipper shivered, biting his bottom lip. He was clearly hovering on the boundary of dragging Mabel away from the statue and back to the Mystery Shack. "We have to get going."
"Paranoid!" Mabel taunted loudly, propping herself up to sit on the tall hat and flapped her arms in her sweater sleeves to look like even more of an idiot. "You're so paranoid Dip! What's the point in fearing someone that's dead?"
Dipper shook his head. "Has last year's zombie apocalypse not taught you anything?"
"That was your fault," Mabel pointed out.
"That's beside the point!" Dipper was getting more irritated by the second. "If Bill doesn't kill us then the thunderstorm will."
"Whaa?" Mabel blew a loud raspberry, jumping down and landing in front of the statue. Her mind suddenly drifted off to a very weird idea. "What do you think will happen if I shake his hand?"
Her idea made Dipper's heart stop.
"MABEL ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" he yelped, not knowing if she was serious. "He'll possess you and break free!"
"Bullcrap!" Mabel shrugged. Her mind was set.
Before Dipper could even process what Mabel was doing, the girl reached out her hand and fitted it into the shape of the statue's hand, the four fingers on each hand fitting together perfectly. Mabel was about to call back to Dipper, taunting him that it was completely harmless, when she felt heat radiating from the statue's hand.
Suddenly the two hands burst into an explosion of bright blue fire, just like it did when Gideon made a deal with him. Mabel screamed in fear and leapt back, taring her hand away from the demon's, making the blue flames die down, but it was already too late.
Mabel fell back onto her behind and shuffled away from the statue, which had began to crack loudly, yellow light emitting from the depths of the cracks. A familiar demonic laughter tore through the pleasant silence, still haunting and still insane.
Suddenly yellow light consumed the entire statue in an explosion, stone being flung in all directions away from the statue all at once, causing both Mabel and Dipper to throw their hands up to shield their eyes from the suddenly bright light.
"MABEL WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?"
