Chapter 2 – Too many voices

A/N: I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a while, I didn't mean to take so long, but school work kept me away and I never got to work on this chapter until now. I haven't abandoned this story.

Anyway, thanks for reviewing!

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"Are you sure you okay? You look shaken," Dipper said warily. "And like you've just seen a ghost.."

Stan blinked. Dipper's lips didn't move at the last one, he knew they didn't move so how could he…?

"Grunkle Stan? Grunkle Stan!" Mabel's voice snapped from his thoughts again. "Gee, what's with him?"

"I'm fine, kids. I'm just a little tired." He replied, forcing a smile. "You two should go back to work now." he said inching away from them.

Dipper and Mabel exchanged glances and watched him retreating towards the door.

"What was that about?"

Meanwhile, after a cup of coffee Stanford felt a lot better. He let a sigh of relief and rubbed the back of his head trying to make sense of what just happened.

The voices, where did they come from? It sounded like the twins, but they never moved their mouths though, how could they do that?

Stan never believed in psychic powers or mind reading especially after the Gideon incident.

"I'm probably hearing things," he finally concluded and decided that was probably it, a half-dazed dream or maybe the kids were playing another prank on him.

Just then, Soos rushed inside the kitchen panting for breath. "Mr. Pines, we've got tourists at ten o'clock! A whole bus of them!" he exclaimed.

A grin crept its way on his face at the thought of customers and the thoughts of what happened this morning were pushed away.

"Alright, I'm coming," Making his way outside the gift shop, he fixed his tie and put on his eye patch ready to greet the tourist and scam them.

Unfortunately, as soon as the group got near him, the pain in his head returned along with the voices. Stan winced slightly. It seems the more people were thinking at the same time the louder they got.

"Ugh, I need a mirror, my hair looks horrible!" A girl in the crowd thought.

"Why isn't she answering my texts!?"

One of them groaned. "I'm feeling car sick…"

"This is gonna be a long day…" thought Stan.

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Dipper was in deep thought as he and Mabel made their way down stairs. Something was wrong with Stan, he just knew it. The conman wasn't acting like himself and he seemed pretty nervous when they met him today and Dipper needed to know why.

He turned to his sister. "Hey, have you noticed how jumpy Grunkle Stan was this morning? What do you think was wrong with him?" he asked as the they reached the gift Shop.

Mabel shrugged. "I dunno, maybe he really was just tired. I mean he's been spending a lot time working in the shack lately."

"Maybe, but still, did you see the way he was staring at us? Something's going on Mabel and I'm going to find out!"

"Hey, dorks!"

Dipper paused and his eyes lit up at the sight of his secret crush sitting behind the counter. He grinned, waving his hand furiously at her.

"Oh, h-hey Wendy! What are you doing here?" he asked excitedly.

Wendy snorted. "Dude, I work here."

"Oh right, I knew that!" Dipper blushed red, ignoring the teasing looks coming from his sister.

"A-Anyway, we're planning on exploring the woods today and I was wondering if you….would like to join me-I mean us on this adventure," he said hopefully.

"Sorry guys, but I can't," she replied. Dipper looked a bit hurt and she quickly added. "It's not that I don't want to hang out with you guys. I would love to, but with all those tourists and Stan hovering over me I'm pretty much stuck here, especially after yesterday's incident." She chuckled at the last part.

"Oh okay." Dipper sighed, disappointed that his crush won't be joining them.

"Hey, is it just me or is it getting really hot in here?" Mabel chimed in suddenly.

"Huh?" Dipper blinked and realized his sister was right. The room was getting warmer by the second much to everyone's discomfort. Even Soos who was changing a light bulb seemed to notice the sudden change.

"Phew, actually it is. I wonder why they haven't mentioned this in the news today." Soos stated.

"That's weird. The temperature was fine moments ago, how is this happening...?" Dipper thought as he whipped beads of sweat on his forehead.

Overwhelmed by the heat, Wendy removed her lumberjack hat and placed it on the table while Mabel took off her orange sweater and tied it around her waist.

"Let's go, Mabel." he said.

"Right behind you, Dipping sauce!" Mabel grinned.

Dipper rolled his eyes at this. "I told you not call me that!" he whined. Mabel laughed, but said nothing as they made their outside the shack.

"Hey! Where are you two going?"

Both twins froze in their tracks and turned to see their grunkle looking at them sternly.

"What is Grunkle Stan doing here!?" Panicking, Dipper turned to his sister for help, but she looked as nervous as he was! Neither of them expected Stan to be back so soon.

"H-Hey Grunkle Stan, we were just going to town to….meet some friends!" He said nervously.

"Yeah, and were definitely not sneaking into the woods even though you told us not to!" Mabel added.

Dipper groaned mentally. If anyone was a terrible liar, it was his sister Mabel.

Stan looked between them and seem to consider what they said. "Fine, but make sure you come back before lunch, okay?" he asked and they both nodded. With that said, he turned around and went inside.

The two sighed in relief glad they weren't caught. As soon as they left, a low growl came from within the forest where a large figure stood, it's eyes glowing in the dark.

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A/N: I've decided to add a monster in this story to make things more interesting.

I hope you liked this chapter. I'll have the next one in a few days.

Please review!