Dipper and Wendy chatted quietly as movies played on the TV—they had no reason not to, since they had to be alert at all times. Also, the movies were awful.
"What do you think Stan's up to?" Wendy asked towards the middle of the second movie. Like, he always seems like he's hiding something, but... in all the years I've been here, I've never seen him get involved."
"Except when he fought those zombies and admitted he'd been lying to me and Mabel, yeah," Dipper added. He shook his head, grabbing some popcorn out of the bowl to the right of him. "If we're right about him and the portal, I won't know what to think... I mean, lying to us all this time. And he promised that he didn't have anything else he was hiding."
"Says the person who promised Stan he wasn't going to investigate the paranormal anymore," Wendy told him.
"Look," Dipper said, "I only told him that so he'd get off my back. I can't believe he actually believed me. Like, don't you ever have to tell your dad stuff just so he'll lay off?"
Wendy stared at the TV. "Uh... actually, yeah." She took a breath in and pushed her long hair out of her face. "Sometimes it feels like all he does is complain, and my siblings always leave me to do everything that's difficult. They're always just chopping down trees while I'm inside cleaning up some mess my dad made, and then my dad calls me out to help them, too. It's..." She glanced over at Dipper, who, from the light of the television on his face, looked like he felt sympathetic for her. Wendy's chest tightened. "It doesn't really matter. Pass me the popcorn."
Dipper passed Wendy the bowl. "Wendy, it does matter."
"I-I don't wanna talk about it. Sorry, just..."
"Hey, hey... it's cool." Dipper hesitated for a few seconds before placing his hand on Wendy's shoulder. "I just want you to be okay."
Wendy nodded a few times. "Yeah, thanks, man. Really. I just don't want to talk about it... right now..." She paused for a few seconds before asking, "Did you hear that?"
"What?" Dipper turned towards the door to the gift shop.
"If you didn't hear it, then never mind," Wendy said. "Let's just enjoy watch this sucky movie."
Dipper laughed. "Let's."
A few minutes later, the Mystery Shack began to rumble loudly. Blue light erupted from the gift shop.
"DIPPER," Wendy yelled. "WHAT IS THAT?"
"I DON'T KNOW. LET'S GO SEE." Dipper grabbed Wendy by her hand off the couch and pulled her towards the door.
"WAIT, WE SHOULD SEE IF ANYONE IS IN THE ROOM?"
"YEAH. I'LL LOOK." Dipper cracked the door open just slightly, peering through. Seconds after, he turned back to Wendy. "IT'S CLEAR."
They slowly walked through the door. Blue light was streaming from the vending machine, through all the windows and cracks in the walls. The sound was even louder, but just as Dipper and Wendy took a few steps, it was gone. The gift shop was dark, except for the light from the lamps outdoors.
"What the heck was that?" Wendy whispered, now that it was quiet enough for the two to hear each other breathing.
"I dunno. Did you see where the light was coming from?" Dipper asked.
"Yeah," Wendy replied, "from the vending machine."
Dipper mumbled, "What the heck..." then blinked a couple times and said, "Get the security camera footage."
Once the two were standing in front of the TV, Wendy began to fast-forward from the beginning of the day. "What time is it?"
Dipper checked his watch. "About 11:15 P.M."
Wendy kept going until she got to 11:00 P.M, where she saw a figure appear in the gift shop, holding a lamp. "There!" she said, pausing it.
"I can't tell who it is," Dipper said.
"Me either. I think it's Stan though," Wendy said.
"Keep going."
Wendy played the footage back slowly. Stan approached the vending machine, typed in a code on the number pad, and the vending machine opened like a door. He went inside, down a hall, and shut the door behind them. Five minutes later in the film, the light began coming out from behind the vending machine door. Nothing else happened until Dipper and Wendy ran inside in their pajamas and went to check the film.
"Are we gonna go in there?" Dipper asked.
"You up for it?" Wendy raised her eyebrows. "Go get a flashlight."
Dipper ran out of the room and returned with what she asked. "Okay, Wendy, go back to when the code was typed in," Dipper ordered. He had a flashlight in one hand and was ready to type with the other.
Wendy put the video on rewind, stopped right before the vending machine was being opened, and played it back in slow motion. "Okay, hit the buttons in the order I say... Top left, the second from the top left, the one on the top right, the third from the top left, and third from the top right."
Wendy heard Dipper punching in the numbers as he spoke, and then the door cracking open. She turned off the TV they watched the footage on and walked over to Dipper's side. "You ready?" she asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Dipper said. He clicked on the flashlight, and with that, they descended down the stairs together.