Mabel's footfalls fell softly on the underbrush of the woods. The path was scattered with moss and grass and even flowers, but Mabel was far from comforted. The forest was now deathly silent, and Mabel saw, with every step, that the colours were changing. The blues had turned icy cold and steely, the greens sickly, the yellows toxic. The light dappling through the trees cast mottled shadows that made everything look diseased. The stranger and more disconcerting it got, the more Mabel forged ahead. She knew she was getting close, and it wasn't just the scenery. The sound she had heard was a full on voice. It was speaking a language Mabel didn't recognize, and it was surrounded by hushed whispers.

Keep going, Mabel told herself.

Keep going.

A snap resounded behind her, and Mabel let out an involuntary shriek and jolted around. She clamped her hand over her mouth to keep in any more high pitched screams. There was nothing behind her, and Mabel panted, her chest heaving. She cursesd herself for getting spooked over nothing. She took a deep breath and turned around.

She jumped, but managed not to squeal again. Mabel suddenly stood in the shadow of a large cracked wooden arch, covered with slimy tendrils of rotting vegetation, which had appeared out of nowhere. Mabel squinted to make out the writing, distorted by the heavy shadows.

Grunkle Stan, Wendy, and Soos watched as Mabel's brow furrowed. She didn't open her eyes, but her pupils scanned below her lids, and she spoke as she read aloud.

"Enter here...all...who dare...the Mystery Shack hungers...for another victim?"

Wendy's eyes widened. Grunkle Stan didn't take his eyes off the two children.

"Soos," he said flatly, "go and take that arch down right now."

"Sir, yes sir!" Soos bolted from the room, and soon the sound of grunting and creaking wood echoed up to the attic.

"C'mon, kid." Grunkle Stan muttered under his breath. "Don't let 'em get ya..."

Mabel shuddered and quickly dashed beneath the arch. Her sweater was doing nothing to break up the chill crawling up her spine. The whispers were surrounding her now, and things were rustling in the bushes just out of her reach. She ran forward, the sound of her pounding heart thudding in her ears. The sky was turning from blue to a violent, burnt scarlet, lined with bruised purple and black clouds. It wasn't night, but strange white stars pierced the glowing sky. The trees turned black and their shadows seemed to take form, long branches reaching out to catch Mabel's hair and scratch up her bare knees. The voices and whispers turned to English, and no matter where Mabel ran they followed her.

"Mabel...Maaabel..." they sing-songed.

"Leave me alone!" Mabel cried, in a full-on panic, "I'm not scared!" But she was lying. She was petrified. No thoughts of her brother could be found in her terrified mind. Where was she going? Why was this happening? She just kept running. The forest glowed like it was on fire.

No...they're trying to scare you...don't listen...don't listen...

"I seeeee youuuuuu, Shooting Staaaaar!" came the voice again. Mabel was running so blindly, she didn't see a shadowy branch snap in front of her feet, and she tripped face first into the dust. She winced at the stinging in her palms and knee caps. She looked at her hands, and saw black ooze leaking from the wounds.

"You're disgustiiiiing, Shooting Staaaaar!" the voice and its accompanying whispers sang in unison. "You're full of feeeeeaaaar!"

"No!" Mabel rubbed her hands on the skirt, only smearing the gooey substance around. She looked around. She was completely lost, and it seemed the sky was shade of purple and crimson so dark it looked like blood. The white stars swirled dizzyingly overhead. The tops of the pine trees seemed to fold down and close in on her, all the while the voice getting louder and louder.

"He's ours noooooow," it teased coldly, "and we're never giving him baaaaaa-aaaack..."

Huge tears splashed down Mabel's cheeks as she trembled head to toe. "I wanna go home, I wanna go home!" she whimpered as she beat her bloodied palms on the ground. The shadows turned to triangles, and Mabel felt the gaze of several unblinking eyes staring at her from the forest. She stared down at her dirty hands, pressing into the forest floor, vision obscured with brimming tears. I wanna go home.

Suddenly, a hand shot out and covered one of hers. Mabel gasped. Was it her tears blurring her vision, or did the hand have a sixth finger? She looked up, but the hand, and whomever it belonged to, was gone. She looked around quickly, ignoring the black triangles as they closed in on her from all sides, staring with red and gold eyes. It was a human hand...and it had...well, it hadn't exactly comforted her, but she felt she knew it, somehow. She turned her eyes to the sky and saw the stars glinting. In the little space between the shadows and the trees, she spotted a familiar constellation, caught up in the swirl of the nightmarish heaven above.

The Big Dipper.

Dipper!

"DIPPEEEERRR!" Mabel screamed for all she was worth. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the shadows to consume her, but nothing came. She opened her eyes slowly. Her sweater, the one emblazened with the shooting star, was glowing a fierce white that drove the shadows back to the abyss of the forest, hissing. Mabel heard the voice cursing, disembodied somewhere in the sky, but it was choked into silence. The glow of the star faded, and Mabel found herself alone once again, the woods returned to the dank green colour of night. The sky stormed overheard, but no rain fell. Mabel looked down. Her knees and palms were clean. It was as if she had never fallen. Mabel clenched her fist. The forest was engulfed in an eerie dark night now, glowing with distant, noxious greens and blues.

"I am NOT afraid. And I'm coming for Dipper. Dipper! Watch for the star! The shooting star! I'll find you!" Her voice bounced back to her from the darkness, and then all was silent. Mabel slowed her breathing and listened.

Dipper...I'll find you...

"..abel...M-a...bel..." The voice that found Mabel's ears was so faint it almost escaped her, but Mabel was sure she had heard it. Dipper's voice, calling for her weakly. It was him! She looked up, and saw the handle of the Big Dipper in the inky sky, between the turbulent clouds. It pointed directly ahead of her.

Mabel ran on ahead, not with fear but with determination. They won't get me again, I swear it! she thought as she leapt through the darkness towards the unknown.

They'd better not, Mabel...I won't be able to help you again.