Sniffling, Wendy noticed the smell in the air. It was cool and tangy with a faint touch of woodsmoke. Someone had lit a fire in a fireplace somewhere down the street, and for Wendy it had a special significance: It marked, in her own mind, the official start of winter. Of course, winter didn't truly begin until the third week in December, a little less than two months away, and you couldn't ask for a more autumnal event than Halloween, which took place tonight. Nevertheless, Wendy thought about winter, and felt that same mixture of eagerness and dread that most midwesterners feel about the season.

She was slightly surprised to note several younger children already dressed in Halloween costumes. Then she realized they were not trick-or-treating at eight in the morning, but merely dressed up for Halloween parties at school. Her striking green eyes warmed ever so slightly as two little six-year-old girls with eminently solemn faces glided by in satin gowns and rhinestone tiaras, turning occasionally to bark warnings to the gruff little pirates and cowboys who teased them ten paces behind.

The gas station was down two blocks and around the corner and although a part of him wished that Dipper and Mabel had pulled up to her house to get her she was more grateful that she had an opportunity for an early escape, for a chance to calm down. At least this way she had a chance to walk off her anger and frustration.

She managed to get her tears under control in a few minutes and by that point she'd become aware of the throbbing in her face. She prayed to God that she hadn't developed a bruise. The last thing she needed or wanted was for her friends to see more evidence of her brother's abusive behaviour.

The thing that pissed her off most was that whether it was shouting her down or hitting her, Wendy's brother always had to act so damn surprised by his own actions, as if he hadn't known what had gotten into him. The first several times it had happened Wendy had completely believed that his older brother hadn't meant to lash out with such violence but she knew better. Her brother used the ignorance as a defence mechanism against himself. In his mind if he played the man who honestly hadn't meant too then he could somehow excuse his behaviour.

It only served to anger Wendy further. The sheer gall that her brother had in acting the victim was enough to make Wendy wish she'd used that knife on the bastard when she'd had the chance. Perhaps that was why her brother was always so abusive. He'd seen the dark look in his sister's eyes that morning when she'd made that little jibe. Maybe he was afraid that one day he would finally push her too far and wanted to keep her as downtrodden as possible in hopes that she could extinguish any fight that Wendy had.

Fat fucking chance, Wendy thought bitterly, keeping her head bowed as she continued to walk down the sidewalk. Her brother was just making it worse every time he chose to lash out. The fact that Wendy would have probably stabbed the man if Dipper's text hadn't broken through his wrath proved that. And it was this growing, twisted hatred in her that made things worse.

No. I'm not that kind of person, Wendy told herself. She didn't want to hurt anybody, least of all the way she thought of hurting her brother but day by day she could almost feel something in her growing, something malevolent...something evil. Wendy shook her head and scoffed at the idea. She wasn't a monster and as far as she was concerned that present darkness was more of an enemy than her brother was. She was almost eighteen. Once she reached that age she could find somewhere else to go or at least she would if she weren't so afraid about what would happen to Dexter once she was out of the family home.

She stopped suddenly and frowned. A strange, creeping sensation was working it's way up her spine. She felt the unpleasant feeling of somebody watching her and she glanced behind, expecting to see some punk little kid in a costume trying to pull a Halloween prank or even her brother come to offer up a pathetic apology. But upon looking around she saw nothing but the empty, decorated street.

At the end of the street Wendy took the left turn and walked across the intersection to the gas station. He could see Dipper's dark green convertible parked at one of the vacant lanes. Mabel was sitting in the passenger seat, her arm dangling over the edge of the window, banging her head in time to metal music blaring on the radio.

Before she approached the car, Wendy threw the hood of his hoodie up and tightened the pine tree cap she had on her head. She didn't know the extent of her bruising and took the chance that the shadow cast by the hood and hat would be enough to hide it. Then she strode forward and gave a gentle tug on Mabel's dangling hand. She looked around and smiled. Usually she wore her brown hair down but today she'd tied it up into two long pigtails.

15 year old Mabel grew was a knockout, with a supermodel face and a body from a magazine. She never wore makeup though which was why Wendy was slightly surprised to find that her face had been powdered starch white, her eyes heavily shadowed and dark blue veins lined onto her face and neck.

"Well, don't you look alive," she said with a grin as she slid into the seat behind her.

Mabel giggled and gave Wendy a quick one armed hug. "I'm a zombie cheerleader." She tugged on the front of the tank top she wore which had been slashed at various parts and caked with fake blood.

Dipper came out of the station a second later. Wendy's eyebrow's raised in amusment when she saw the costume her friend wore. It was simple black outfit, tight black pants and boots atoning his lower body. A tight long sleeved UnderArmor shirt showed of the light muscles on his torso, and a long black trenchcoat was draped over his left shoulder and his normlly brown hair was now dyed black and was long, messy and unkempt. His face was painted stark white, and black eyeliner surrounded his eyes with a vertical line crossing through them. Black lipstick covered his lips, reaching well past his lips and ending on his cheeks. His wide, black grin widened when he saw Wendy in the back seat and Wendy grinned right back, looking right into his big brown eyes.

"Nice makeup job, dude," she said.

Dipper glowered at her, blushing. "It's not makeup, it's facepaint."

"Looks like makeup to me."

"Mabel will you please tell her it's not makeup!" Dipper said as he slid into the driver's seat.

"Oh, it's totally makeup! I should because I helped you put it on your face!" Mabel said laughing.

Wendy chuckled as she asked Dipper, "What are you even supposed to be dude? You look like an Alice Cooper clown reject."

Dipper answered while keeping his focus on the road. "You ever see an old movie called "The Black Bird"?"

"I've heard of it. Is it the one where that artist dude dies and is brought back to life some magic bird?"

"That's the one!" Dipper said with a smile.

Wendy chuckled softly and looked out the side of the car, watching the town pass by and relishing in the feeling of the crisp morning air blowing through her hair.

As they drove down the street, Wendy listened comfortably as Dipper and Mabel told her about how hard it had been to go costume shopping on such short notice. She decided not to mention the fact that he had 't purchased a costume. She had a pass period after lunch. Maybe she could ask them to go to the party store then.

"By the way," Mabel said, digging around in her purse, "I checked over the physics thing you sent me and you could not have been more wrong if you tried."

Wendy groaned, taking her papers back from her.

"I don't understand it," she went on, "you're totally great at English but you choke on the easy stuff."

"Easy for you maybe," Wendy said glumly, glancing down at the numerous corrections Mabel had pointed out in red pen.

"Physics is so easy!" She insisted.

"You're a lateral thinker," Wendy told her. "I'm not. I can't help it if shit like this," she shook the papers for emphasis, "is about as much fun as watching cheese age."

"Don't take it so hard," Dipper said with a reassuring smile. "Miss Lollipop Chainsaw here failed the English essay."

"You weren't supposed to tell!" Mabel said with a pout.

Dipper shook his head in disbelief. "Mabel, I spent like four hours helping you with that thing!"

"I don't have the imagination for English," Mabel insisted.

"But you've got enough to put that uniform through a meat grinder," Dipper shot back with a smile.

They had just pulled up to the intersection that lead to the main road the students used to go to the high school. The light turned green and Dipper had started to pull into the middle of the street when out of nowhere a rusty old pick up truck passed by them at high speed, cutting in front of the car and barely avoiding clipping the front end. Dipper slammed on the breaks and blared on the horn, glaring at the driver as Mabel swore angrily.

"What the fuck?!" Dipper yelled as the car continued down the street. "Watch where the hell you're going psycho!" He roared at the driver. The truck screeched to a halt down the road, staying perfectly still for a lingering moment.

Wendy stared furtively at the truck, wondering and also fearing what the driver would do next. The truck was old but powerfully built, rusting at the edges and caked with dirt. The license plate was from out of state and as Wendy looked closer she saw that it was out of country, from Canada. Obviously the son of a bitch didn't know how to drive south of the border.

Sh couldn't see the driver this far away but got the sense that he was watching them just as intently as they were watching him.

A horn behind them sounded.

"Come on," Mabel said. "We're holding up traffic."

Dipper moved on, glaring at the road ahead of him. Wendy turned around in her seat. The truck had also moved on, heading down the other street and out of sight.

"I thought Canadians were supposed to be nice," Mabel remarked, turning back around.

"They are," Dipper grumbled. "But they're shit drivers when they come down here apparently. We're probably too aggressive for them."

"Well I didn't get his plates. Did you guys bother?"

Mabel shook her head. "I was too busy trying to not die of a heart attack."

They drove on, all three showering abuse on the reckless driver of the pick up truck. As they pulled into Gravity High School's spacious student parking lot Mabel turned in her seat.

"Holy stuffing!" She gasped and Dipper, looking around, suddenly looked furious.

"What is it?" Wendy asked, looking around in panic, expecting to see the pick up come careening into the parking lot behind them. "Is that guy back?"

Mabel just stared at her blankly while in the driver's seat Dipper was holding the wheel in a white knuckle grip.

"What is it?!" Wendy hissed, losing her patience now.

"Wendy," Mabel said softly, "your face..."

The blood froze in Wendy's veins. Automatically she touched the top of her head only to find that the hood had flopped off, most likely when Dipper had braked back at the intersection. She looked balefully at Mabel, not knowing quite what to say. Then without warning Dipper, who had sat in stony silence since seeing the bruises on Wendy's face, turned the key in the ignition, gunning the engine and backing up without warning.

"Dipper!" Wendy yelped, flung back into her seat from the force.

"I'll kill him," Dipper said through gritted teeth as he spun the car around, ignoring Mabel who was gripping her seat to avoid tumbling out of the car. "I don't care how much bigger or how much stronger he thinks he is, I am going to fucking kill him!"

"No!" Wendy said in a voice just under a shout. She flung herself forward and put a hand on Dipper's shoulder. "Dip, please just don't make it worse than it already is!" Dipper stopped, took a deep, steadying breath and silently drove the car back into the lot. He climbed out of the front seat and Wendy was prepared to open her door but before she could Dipper put his hands on the outside and pinned her with such an intense stare that it made Wendy shrink back into the vinyl seats, the makeup giving his features an intense, almost scary, edge.

"Next time I see him," he said in a dangerously low voice, "I'm knocking his fucking teeth down his throat."

"Don't," Wendy said in a small, defeated voice.

"I wasn't asking your permission," said Dipper.

"Please," Wendy pleaded, "I can take care of myself and if you guys got involved and he did something to you..." she swallowed as a lump came to her throat but she felt no sorrow, only rage. Her friends, especially Dipper, were in the same category of things his brother would not hurt unless he wanted a knife in his throat.

Dipper didn't move for a moment, his eyes still blazing. Then he spun on his heel and stormed away in the direction of a nearby bench.

Wendy sat there feeling miserable. Out of everything that had happened that morning upsetting Dipper was the one thing that she couldn't handle. She knew that they were all right, and that her brother needed to finally be punished for his actions, but still the idea of something happening to Dipper was too much for her.

Mabel turned around in the passenger seat and gave him an encouraging smile.

"He's just worried about you Wen-Wen," she said gently.

"I know," Wendy replied with a sigh, staring at Dippers sitting form. "I guess that just makes it worse. I don't mean to piss him off-"

"You didn't, trust me. He really cares a lot about you," Mabel cut in. "You've got no idea Wendy how much he cares about you. He'd fight God and The Devil for you. He just doesn't like your brother. And honestly if I see your brother after this too, I'm not so sure I'll be able to stop myself from ripping his nuts off."

"And you'd do it too wouldn't you?"

"Totally," Mabel said with a wicked grin. "Want some concealer for that thing?"

Wendy chuckled. "Yes Mabel I would love some concealer."

From the sidewalk, He watched the girl shuffle forward in the seat of the car to help the redhead.

The trip from Canada had been easy, almost a complete flashback to the day He'd killed the man for his car and mechanic's clothes after escaping Smith's Grove. He'd overpowered a grizzled driver in Niagara Falls and from there had taken every backroad and forest path possible through the border. Instinct had told Him the way to Gravity Falls and He'd been pleasantly surprised to find that even after all the advancement of the past twelve years the town was small and quite and He hadn't known who it was that He was looking for.

They'd forgotten Him. In the twelve short years that He'd been gone the world completely forgotten about Him.

When the sun had risen, He'd decided to set out on foot in hoping to find someone that would pique The Evil's interest. That early in the morning there had only been adults setting out for work and although He had watched them in hopes that one of them would prove of interest none of them had. He'd walked through half of the town before He'd felt something, like a tremor through the air, something dark, something simultaneously strong and faint and...familiar.

Like a long lost family member.

He'd waited outside of the house, curious to see who it was that eluded such a feeling, expecting some pretty young girl to come outside.

He'd been hadn't been shocked to see the girl, tall but thin as a whip with long, shaggy red hair and green eyes, eyes that had been filled with tears and something else, something He could recognize. Standing behind a tall shrub in a neighbouring yard He'd watched the girl walk down the street, still as a statue, intrigued by the underlying darkness He could feel. He'd never in His life had any kind of extrasensory powers but even now as He watched the girl alight from the car with her friend He could still feel it like a pulse, like a beacon that thrummed just underneath the surface, a contrast to the child in Him buried underneath all The Evil.

He cocked His head to the side.

Yes...this was the one, the one that The Evil had driven Him here for. The only question was whether or not It wanted her dead or alive. He wasn't sure yet.