First off, to those of you who celebrate it, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope you all enjoyed the Thanksgiving Day meals; I know I did. I also hope you all were able to get your Black Friday shopping done; I know things can get crazy that day. Anyway, we are now starting the second season of this story! And in related news; we are halfway done with this story! I don't know if that is good or bad, but who cares! It's the holidays! But before we get into the chapter, you know the drill…
Gamelover41592- Dude, you have NO IDEA! I don't know your history with the show, but imagine watching a marathon of all the episodes, having NEVER seen them before, and then watching that scene! It is definitely in my top five for best scenes. Thanks for the review!
Draco Mercer- Thanks for your review! I have debated doing that, but the problem is that I can never figure out the OC. There wouldn't really be anything for them to do, so they would get in the way. Not saying it's a bad idea, but I'm not going to use it.
Fantasy Female Freak- Thanks for all of your reviews! Talk about a holiday present! I'm glad you liked the story so far, and I can't wait to give you more. GFF stand for Gravity Falls Forever, but you were close. I'm sorry you don't like Alex; if you could pinpoint what you don't like about him, I'll try to work on it a bit. The senior triplets idea; look at the response to Draco Mercer. As for Billow; It's a good idea, so I might use it in the future, but I'm not going to promise anything in this story.
Miss Tri- One of the other reviewers, Cinnabon68, suggested a few chapters ago that I tell the whole story from Willow's POV, so that's what I've been trying to do. There still are times where other perspectives need to be shown, but I've been trying to limit them. I'm glad you think I am doing better with character development; it's something I'm trying to work on, so I'm glad it's coming out right. Thanks for all of your advice; the improvements are a result of you and the other advice I've been given.
Disclaimer: I only own Willow and anything you don't recognize from the show. Everything else came from Alex Hirsch.
Stan's POV (July 16th)
"Here we go." I smiled to myself and put my hands on my hips, barely believing that this moment had FINALLY come. "Thirty long years and it's all led up to this: My greatest achievement!" I looked down and realized that I probably should have put on pants.
The portal surged and sparked, hitting my head and lighting my fez on fire. I reached up and patted it out. "Feisty. I like it," I said, walking back into the control room. I glanced down at the Journals I had open to the blueprints page and adjusted some of the settings. A screen in the ceiling slid open, showing scan data. I didn't understand half of it, but that didn't matter. "If I finally pull this off it'll all have been worth it. I just have to keep playing it cool. If anyone finds out about this…"
I trailed off, noticing the picture I had on the shelf of me and the kids fishing a month ago. They had had Journal 3 since the beginning of summer and had just shown it to me a few hours ago. I was mostly worried about American officials, but… "Yeah right. I've come this far. Who could catch me now?"
I grabbed a glove and slid it on my hand, the far finger hole empty. I grabbed a lever and set it at MAX POWER. Now that this thing was up and running, things were going to get interesting. But as long as no one found out, things would work out how I had planned.
Powers' POV
"Sir!" Agent Trigger called me over to the screen he was monitoring. I walked over and looked at the screen. It was showing a red line that would occasionally spike like a heart monitor in a hospital. But if my assumptions were correct, this was something FAR more dangerous and destructive.
"I haven't seen ratings like that in over 30 years," I muttered to Trigger. I grabbed another agent, Agent Gunner, as he walked by. "Have the men get ready to move out," I told him. He nodded and walked off as I turned back to the screen. Trigger had traced the signal and the screen was showing a map of the Pacific Northwest, a red dot in the area near Malheur National Forest. I knew of only one place in that general area that would be causing power surges like the ones we were seeing.
"Just as I suspected," I said, bringing a Google Earth image of the town onto the big screen and turning to the other agents. "Gentlemen; Move out! We're going to Gravity Falls!"
Willow's POV
"Welcome to the grand re-opening of the Mystery Shack!" The best words I have ever heard. Things were finally getting back to normal. Mabel, Dipper, Grunkle Stan and I were standing on the counter, a bunch of tourists crammed into the gift shop for the celebration. The Shack itself was exactly how it had been before Gideon took over, smell and all. Leaving the doors open last night had helped air it out; the familiar forest smell was back.
But things weren't 100% the same. I mean, the Shack itself was, but the people living here weren't. It wasn't just my head and Dipper's nose that were different. The past three days had taken its toll mentally; paranoia had set in. Grunkle Stan's guns, usually kept locked up in his room, were now scattered around the house, one in each room. Mabel usually slept with Waddles in her bed, but she had decided to leave him downstairs at night as a guard-pig. Dipper had started watching karate videos online to help with his fighting. I had plans going for a new security system so no one else could sneak in without us knowing. It was weird doing this, but we all felt it necessary.
"We're here to celebrate the defeat of that skunk Gideon," Grunkle Stan continued, holding a picture of him up. The tourists all booed. Stan reached into his pocket and took out a lighter, setting fire to the photo, making the tourists boo harder. "But I didn't catch that pork-chop all alone. These kids deserve SOME of the glory!" Mabel elbowed him in the ribs. "Okay, okay. MOST of the glory!"
"Smile for the camera!" Toby Determined said, holding up a cinder block.
"Your camera's a cinder block Toby," Grunkle Stan told him.
"Smile for a REAL camera," Shandra Jimenez told us, giving Toby a look. We all smiled and posed for the camera, doing a few real photos and a few goofy ones. Grunkle Stan reached under the counter and pulled out some flyers.
"And don't forget to come to the After-Party tonight at eight!" He called, passing the flyers around. Mabel reached down and pulled a karaoke machine up onto the counter with us.
"We're doing a karaoke bonanza people! Lights, music, enchantment! And an amazing karaoke performance by our family band; Love Patrol Alpha!"
"No way that is happening." "I didn't know about this." "I never would have agreed to that," the boys and I told her. I mean, we weren't BAD singers, but Mabel would pick the worst song in the book for us to perform.
"Too late! I wrote our names on the list! It's happening!" Mabel said as Wendy came in, blowing an air-horn to sell tickets. The tourists all followed her out, leaving the four of us alone. Grunkle Stan sighed happily and leaned against the counter.
"The town loves us, we got that Gideon smell out of the carpet, things are finally going our way," he said, mostly to himself. Dipper and I looked at each other, Dipper holding up three fingers. I nodded, understanding what he meant.
"Hey, Grunkle Stan. Now that we have a minute, do you mind if we got our Journal back?" Dipper asked him.
"Journal?" Grunkle Stan repeated, patting himself down. A light went off in his brain and he reached behind the counter, pulling the Journal out and handing it to Dipper. "Old thing was so boring I couldn't even finish it!" Call it intuition, or I was just getting better at reading people, but something about that didn't seem right.
"Thanks Grunkle Stan," I told him, and, thinking quickly, added, "We're gonna go start getting ready for the party tonight!" Before anyone could say anything, I grabbed Dipper and Mabel's hand and pulled them upstairs.
"What's this about this time?" Mabel asked me as I closed the window. I looked at Dipper, seeing in his eyes that he was on the same page as me.
"We're a month into the summer and still not any closer to solving the big mysteries of this place," Dipper started out.
"We've never really searched yet, but Gideon almost destroyed the whole town trying to find these, and we don't know why," I added, the two of us pacing around each other.
"Who wrote them? Where are the other two?"
"What did Bill mean when he said 'everything was going to change?'"
"There's something huge going on right under our noses and it's time we stop goofing around and get to the bottom of it."
"You guys have read that thing like a bazillion times each. There's nothing left! Half the pages are blank anyway!" Mabel told us. That was the weirdest part: The writing stopped around mid-winter 30 years ago, and we had no idea why.
"We know. But I have a feeling that we're just one, or two, more puzzle pieces away from figuring out everything."
"Don't worry about it! Lord Mystery Ham is on the case!" Mabel announced, holding up Waddles. In a British accent, she said, "I play by my own rules! Wot Wot?"
"Why do we tell you things?" Dipper asked her.
"Because I-" Car doors slammed shut from outside. We went to the window and pulled the curtains back. In the parking lot, there were a BUNCH of Government agents walking around outside, most of them focused on the building.
"What did Grunkle Stan do this time?" I said jokingly.
"THE MYSTERY SHACK IS NOW CLOSED! EVERYBODY OUT! I WILL NOT HESITATE TO USE THE HOSE ON THE ELDERLY!" Grunkle Stan voice came from downstairs. The three of us glanced at each other and ran down the steps, getting to the gift shop as the last tourists were leaving. Grunkle Stan was pacing around, rubbing his hands together nervously, both things that he only did when he was being interrogated.
"Grunkle Stan, what going on? You never shut down the gift shop?" Before he could answer, the doorbell rang, and someone knocked a few times. Grunkle Stan walked over and opened the door.
"Welcome to the Mystery Shack gentlemen! What can I get you? Key chains? Snow globes? These rare photos of American presidents?" This couldn't be good. The FEDS had showed up, and Grunkle Stan was trying to BRIBE them. He must have done something major.
"My name is Agent Powers; this is Agent Trigger," one of the agents said. "We're here to investigate reports of mysterious activity in this town."
"Mysterious activity? In the Mystery Shack? You gotta be joking!"
"I assure you I am not. I was born with a rare disorder that makes me physically incapable of experiencing humor."
"Ten bucks says these guys are robots," I whispered to the others as Grunkle Stan started laughing nervously.
"I don't understand that sound you're making with your mouth," Agent Powers said, walking into the gift shop. He had thinning black hair, bushy eyebrows, and a thick mustache. "Now if you'll excuse us we are conducting an investigation."
"Investigation!" Agent Trigger emphasized, poking Stan in the chest and following Agent Powers in. He had light brown hair and his chin and cheekbones were very accentuated. Both men were wearing all black suits with American flag pins on the lapel, an earpiece in their right ears.
"Did you guys say you were investigating the mysteries of this town?" Dipper asked them, the two of us stepping forward to meet the agents.
"That information is classified," Agent Powers said, kneeling down next to us. "But yes. Between us, I believe there is a conspiracy of paranormal origin all connected to this town. We're just one small lead away from blowing the lid off this entire mystery."
"Are you kidding? We're investigating the same thing! We found a journal in the woods that has almost all the answers! If we work together, we could crack the case!" Agent Powers glanced back at Agent Trigger and reached into his jacket.
"If you kids have evidence of these claims, we should talk," he stated, handing us a card with his number on it.
"We could talk right now! Please, please, come in! We have so much to show you!" Before we could get anywhere, Grunkle Stan grabbed our shoulders and stopped us.
"I'm sorry agents! These kids have an overactive imagination, and you can see that they aren't in the best shape right now." Subconsciously, Dipper touched his nose and I rubbed my temple. "The medicine is messing with their brains. Paranormal town stuff is just part of gift shop lore. Sells more tickets ya know?" He snapped and Soos walked up, putting alien headbands and Mystery Shack bumper stickers on the agents.
"We have other spots to investigate. We'll be on our way," Agent Powers said, walking towards the door. Agent Trigger reached up to one of the shelves and grabbed like ten bobbleheads.
"I'm confiscating these for evidence," he stated, turning on his heel and marching out after Powers. Dipper and I each turned to Grunkle Stan, glaring at him.
"I'm sorry kids, but trust me. The last thing you want around during a party are cops," he told us, reaching up onto the vending machine. It moved a bit, but that was probably because he took a box labeled CONTRABAND off it. He took the card and put it in the box. "I'm confiscating that card. Now why don't you start acting like normal kids for once. Go get ready for the party tonight. And don't go talking to those agents." He walked into the living room, taking the box and card with him.
"That could have been our big break," Dipper whispered. Why would no one tell us the truth? But I guess it was good that the agents were investigating the whole town, not just here. That meant Grunkle Stan was in the clear.
"Guys, maybe Grunkle Stan is right. We're having a party tonight! Can't you go one day without searching for aliens or raising the dead or whatever?" Mabel told us.
"When have we ever done either or those things?" I asked, although something felt weird. It was like déjà vu, but I didn't know what was causing it; this had never happened before. I shrugged it off; this town was messed up. "We're not gonna raise the dead or anything. We just need to show the agents the Journal."
"Trust me guys. The only thing you need tonight is right here!" She held up a karaoke book and handed it to us. "I say kara-, you say -oke! Kara-… Kara-… Kara-… I could do this all day!" She finished when we didn't respond. "So what song do you guys wanna do tonight?"
Mabel started flipping through the book, saying different song names. Dipper and I agreed blindly; our heads were still on the agents.
GFF
"Well the confetti cannon works!" Mabel said excitedly that night, blasting Grunkle Stan with it. Not to pat myself on the back, but we did a great job decorating. A sign reading AFTER PARTY was hung from the Shack above the karaoke equipment. A bunch of snack/drink tables were scattered around outside, different foods and punches on them. A storm was moving in from the ocean, so the clouds were blocking out the moon and stars. But we had put a disco ball and a bunch of lights up in the trees, which made it look really cool. People were going to start showing up any minute, so we were all running around finishing up some stuff. For me and Dipper, that meant putting up posters and black-lights.
"Guys! I figured out the song! T8king Over Midnight!" Mabel called over to us. I shrugged; depending on what part each of us sang, it wouldn't be too bad. I turned back to the wires I was messing with; the black-lights were very old, so I had had to adjust the wiring a bit.
"Back up," I told Dipper, turning the lights on. The posters lit up, revealing the designs that had been hidden. I gotta give Mabel credit; for not being able to see what she was doing, she did pretty good drawings.
"I still can't believe Stan took the card. We finally met someone who could help us, and now we can't even contact them," Dipper said, half to himself. We had tried looking them up online, but we didn't know their first names. You would think it would be easy to find them (Powers and Trigger weren't common surnames), but there was NOTHING about them online, not even on the Government's website. It was as if they didn't exist. We had shrugged it off; they were probably PI's or something.
"Stan must have put it somewhere. His office, maybe?"
"Too easy. He probably put it in his room. But if we go in there and we get caught…"
"We do have the security system I've been working on," I offered. The Shack, being as old as it is, meant that the floorboards were coming loose and were flexible. Especially on the steps. I had (hopefully) made some of them pressure-sensitive, with little bells that would ring in Stan's room and the attic, letting us know when one of them went off.
"You think it'll work?" Dipper asked me.
"No idea, but if it doesn't, what's the worse Stan could do?"
"Okay, yeah. You're right. Let's do it." We snuck into the Shack just as a few cars started pulling into the driveway and ran upstairs to Stan's room. A sign hanging on the door read NO MINORS ALLOWED, pictures of us hanging underneath, a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the doorknob.
"Paranoid, much?" I whispered, grabbing the doorknob. It was locked. I sighed and pulled a bobby pin out of my hair. 20 seconds later, the door was open. We snuck in and closed the door behind us. We split up and started opening random drawers and looking under things for the box. I won't go into too much detail, but let's just say, there are some things you can NEVER forget.
"Where could it be?" I muttered, standing up from under the bed. The bed post I had my hand on moved a bit, causing a portrait of Stan to come away from the wall. "Jackpot! Grab the phone!" I reached into the compartment and pulled out the box, taking the card from it. Dipper took it from me and dialed the number, putting it on speaker.
"Agent Powers," he answered.
"Hi, um; it's the Pines kids. The ones from the Mystery Shack this morning. We have the Journal we wanted to show you."
"And you kids are certain this 'journal' will help our case?"
"Definitely." "One hundred percent."
"Very well. We're on our way. Agent Trigger and I will meet you outside in-" The line went dead. We turned around and saw Grunkle Stan standing behind us, his hand on the housing unit. In hind sight, we probably should have tested the steps first. But it was too late now. Although I was surprised we hadn't heard the floor creaking. Grunkle Stan could be really quiet when he wanted to.
"Why did you kids call those agents? I've told ya a hundred times; there's nothing 'supernatural' going on in Gravity Falls!"
"Yes, there is! After everything that's happened, you have to know that by now!"
"Oh really? I've been living here 30 years! You kids have barley been here 30 days! Don't you think I would know if there was something weird going on in this town? Go enjoy the rest of the party, cause when it's over, you're grounded." He grabbed us by the shoulders and pushed us out of his room and down the steps. We looked at each other, then I went back upstairs to the attic to grab the Journal. While I was in there, the bell I had set up started going off. I ran back downstairs to where Dipper was waiting for me.
"Did you hear the bell?' He asked. I nodded. "I guess Stan must have just skipped over those steps on his way up."
"Probably, yeah. But hey; at least we know it works now. Let's go wait for the agents to show up." We ran outside and up the driveway. They were waiting for us at the end of it. They must have set up close by to have been able to get here so fast.
"Guys, we are so glad to see you. Trust us; this book is what you've been looking for. If we work together, we can solve the mysteries of this place." I handed the Journal to them and they started flipping through it. The weird feeling I had from earlier today came back, but I shrugged it off again, although it was harder this time.
"So what are we thinking? A full-scale investigation, maybe? Forensics, research, helicopters?" The agents glanced at each other before handing the Journal back to me.
"Kids, we'd love to believe you, but this just looks like more junk from your uncle's gift shop." COME ON?! WHY DID NO ONE BELIEVE US ABOUT ANYTHING?! What does it take to get the truth?
"I SWEAR it's all real! You guys should 'send it to the lab' or something like that," I told them. These terms were really confusing sometimes.
"Sorry, but it looks to me like your uncle was right about that overactive imagination. I hope you get better, but there's not enough evidence for that thing to be credible. If you find something else, you can call us back, but until then, I'm sorry."
"Guys, wait! This book is real!" I yelled to their backs, flipping through the pages. I got to the section of spells. That would show them! "Listen! Corpus levitus! Diablo Dominium! Mondo Vicium!" I knew diablo was Latin for Devil, but I didn't know what the rest of it meant. The wind picked up and the air got at least ten degrees colder in a matter of seconds. The ground started shaking again. After a month of living here, I could now tell that it wasn't a natural earthquake; that spell had done something.
"LOOK OUT!" Agent Trigger yelled to us. The ground beneath our feet split open, a radioactive green light coming out of it. We jumped away and ran over to the agents, watching as the crack got bigger. A cloud of green dirt flew up, causing us to choke and cough. After a few seconds, we looked back at the crack in the ground.
Something grabbed the edge of the crack. It was a hand. But it was far from normal. There was a huge chunk missing in the palm, and what was left was a weird greenish color. The thing the hand was attached to appeared. The whole thing was a sickly green color, all skin and bones, and the top layer of skin on the head missing, revealing the brain. One eye was a radioactive yellow, the other dangling from the socket. This was perfect!
"See, Zombie! Journal 100% real! Now can we work together?" Dipper asked them. They started freaking out, Agent Powers grabbing a huge rock. They seriously didn't have any weapons on them? I thought all government guy had weapons on them at all times.
"Guys, chill. We see stuff like this every day. Let's see… how to-" FYI: ZOMBIES MOVE FAST! The one had crawled all the way over to us and got right in front of us. Also; it's breath STANK! We both screamed, but before the zombie could do anything, Agent Powers brought the rock down on its head, knocking it out.
"Good thing it was just the one." I (mentally) face-palmed. The ground shook again, more cracks appearing in the ground. More dust got kicked up, blinding us for the longest ten seconds of my life. When we were able to see again, a good twenty zombies had shown up, more coming each second.
"You guys can help, right?!" We asked the agents. Believe it or not, they looked more panicked than we did.
"Kids, we've been chasing the paranormal for years, but we've never seen anything like this before!" Agent Powers, yelled, lifting his rock up above his head as Agent Trigger pulled us behind him. What happened next will stay with me forever.
Two of the zombies jumped, tackling the agents to the ground. After a few second of wrestling, two zombies dragged Agent Trigger away by the arms, while two others dragged Agent Powers away, one by the legs, the other at his head.
"What have we done?" I whispered, staring at the Journal, knowing full well what had just happened; we, no, I, sent two men to their graves. The zombies, now up to maybe 50 total, all turned to look at us. What else we you do besides run? Dipper and I took off, running back to the Shack. Everyone at the party was running around, jumping into vehicles and flying down the driveway. Soos, Mabel, and Waddles were the only ones left. As soon as they saw us being chased by the zombies, Mabel marched over.
"What's the one thing I asked you guys NOT to do tonight?"
"Raise the dead," we responded.
"And WHAT did you do?"
"Raise the dead," we responded again as the horde started closing in on us. We all backed up against the wall, Soos in front to protect us.
"Stay back dudes; this is about to get intense." One of the zombies flipped over a table, splashing all of us in punch. We all screamed, but Soos pulled out his phone and took a picture. "You gotta admit this is pretty cool!"
"DUCK!" One of the zombies had grabbed a piece of wood and had swung it sideways at us, barley missing the tops of our heads.
"Stay calm dudes. I've been training for this moment my whole life," Soos told us, turning around, away from the zombies. "With all the horror movies I've watched, I literally know everything there is to know about avoiding zombies." Just as he finished speaking, a zombie bit down on his shoulder. In five seconds, he looked just like the others, although he could still talk. "Second thought, gonna flip the script. Can I, eat your brains? Yea or nay? Seeing some yea faces over here…" We all screamed again and ran around the side of the building, noticing the golf cart, the keys dangling from the ignition.
"We can use the golf cart to-" A few zombies flipped it over and started biting into it. "COME ON!"
"That's a bummer. Good news for me though," Soos said from behind us. On instinct, I grabbed the closest thing I could and threw it at the horde. It was a light-up disco ball, and one of the zombies swallowed it, sending weird light patters around.
"Where's Grunkle Stan?" Mabel asked, looking around for him. Like he could help anything! He didn't even believe in this stuff! More zombies started closing in, so we turned around and ran towards the door of the gift shop. We dove in and slammed the door, then started grabbing anything and everything we could to board it up. The door kept bulging, but it held.
"That should hold them for-" The window crashed open, glass going everywhere. Soos poked his head in.
"Hey dudes! I showed the zombies how to open the fuse box!" Great! The lights went out, the only thing letting us see was the little light that was coming from the window, which zombies were now crawling through. I ran over to the door to the main part of the house, but a zombie hand burst through, making me fall back, causing the Journal to fall out of my jacket. Dipper and I tore it open, flipping through the pages a mile a minute, but nothing showed up.
"DAMNIT!" I yelled, slamming the Journal shut, "I wanted the truth so bad I put everyone in danger and now we're here and it's all my fault!"
"It's my fault too! I wanted answers just as badly as you did! This can't be happening! I can't believe we don't have a way to-" A zombie grabbed his arm and lifted him up, just as two others grabbed me and Mabel. We all screamed. My life flashed, 90% of the memories being about this summer. We had tried so hard to get the Shack back from Gideon, and now, because of one stupid mistake I made, we were all gonna die. The zombie opened its mouth and leaned in to bite me and-
I dropped like a sack of potatoes. A few thuds later, we looked up from the ground to see Grunkle Stan standing over us, his knuckles glittering, a baseball bat in his hand, panting and torn up, but alive and fighting. Maybe it was the light coming from the vending machine or outside, but Grunkle Stan's eyes, normally a light brown, looked like the color of flames.
"KIDS! ATTIC! NOW!" He didn't have to tell us twice. We took off, running up the steps, not glancing back. We could still hear Grunkle Stan yelling and the sound of something hitting the zombies. We ran up to the attic and slammed the door. The only light was coming from a black-light that was on the floor. The bell from my security system was ringing like crazy. Something crashed from outside, the grandfather clock making noise. Everything went silent for a few seconds. Then something started banging on the door. It flew open, revealing Grunkle Stan, grabbing his side, the 'fire' in his eyes reduced to hot coals.
"Everything hurts," he muttered, slamming the door and putting a chair under the handle. We all started talking over each other at once, checking to make sure everyone was okay. After ten seconds, we calmed down, but there was still something.
"At least you can't deny magic exists anymore, right?" I said to him. A beat of pin-drop silence passed, in that time at least twenty different emotions played out on his face. He squared his should and looked directing at us, saying four words so quietly that it was hard to hear, even with the room dead silent.
"Kids; I've always known." WHAT?! I mean, I guess it makes sense; he would have to actually be blind to have not noticed anything. But the fact that he had kept this a secret from us all this time… Trust was gonna be hard from now on.
"I'm not an idiot kids. Of course this town is weird! And if I know one thing about that weirdness is that it's dangerous!" A zombie hand punched through the door. We all backed up to the far side of the room. "I've been lying about it to try to keep you away from it. To try to protect you from it!" The glass in the window behind us shattered, a zombie poking its head in. Stan punched it, knocking it down, then looked out the window. "It looks like I didn't lie well enough."
"We can come back to this later. Right now, we have to figure out a way to defeat these zombie guys! Any ideas?" Mabel asked. Dipper started flipping through the Journal again, pacing and muttering to himself.
"Normally the Journal would help us, but there's nothing in here on defeating zombies! It's hopeless!" At the last sentence, he got angry and threw the Journal onto the ground. It was open to the page on zombies, but it was different. White letters and diagrams now covered the black text. It also had a faint purple-ish glow, like the black-light that was shining on it. We all crowded around the Journal, Dipper reading the newly revealed writing.
"'Zombies have a weakness! Previously thought to be invincible, their skulls can be shattered by a perfect four-part harmony.' Four-part harmony? How can we create that?"
"I think I have an idea!" Mabel said excitedly, holding up her karaoke machine. It looked like she was gonna get her family song after all.
We climbed out the window and onto the roof, looking down at the zombies who were milling around below. Mabel turned on her microphone, tapping it a few times. "Testing, testing… everyone hearing me?" All of the zombies looked up at us, the rest filing out of the Shack. I would have said there were probably 100 of them out there. "Attention, zombies and gentlemen! I'm Mabel, they're Dipper, Willow and Stan, and together we're Love Patrol Alpha!"
"I never agreed to that name!" Dipper told her as I turned the machine on, the song coming out of it.
"Mabel, our lives might not be worth this," Grunkle Stan muttered to Mabel as Dipper started singing awkwardly. I mean, it sounded okay; he had a good tenor voice, but you could tell that he was uncomfortable with the words.
"'Friday night, we're gonna party 'til dawn. Don't worry Daddy… I've got my favorite DRESS on?' Mabel, this is stupid!" He yelled to Mabel, covering the mic with his hand. Mabel shrugged and started singing.
"'We roll into the party the boys are lookin' our way. We just keep dancing; We don't care what they say!" Mabel did better than Dipper, probably because she was actually into the song.
"'The girls and I are loving this place, but all the boys are getting up in our face.'" I think I did pretty good, but it wasn't working. The zombies had even started climbing up the side of the Shack. "Guys, we have to sing together or it won't work!"
"Boys are a bore, let's show 'em the door…" Grunkle Stan sang that part. For all his reluctance, his bass voice was actually pretty good. We all looked at each other and sang the chorus together.
"We're takin' over the dance floor!" It worked like a charm. A sound wave went out, the heads of the zombies on the Shack all exploding as one, the bodies plummeting to the ground. It was kind of gross, but it encouraged us to keep going with it. "'Oh-oh! Girls do what we like! Oh-oh! We're takin' over tonight!" Another sound wave went out, exploding at least a third of the remaining zombies. "We're queens of the disco! Oh-oh! Girls do what we like! Oh-oh! We're taking over tonight!" A final sound wave went out, reducing the number down to ten or fifteen.
"Takin' over toniiiight!" Dipper sang that part as the instrumental end of the song started playing. A zombie crawled onto the roof and swung at Dipper.
"DUCK!" Mabel yelled, aiming her confetti cannon. We hit the deck and she fired, knocking the head off the zombie and into the punch bowl as the body fell to the ground. "Thank you! We'll be here all night!"
"Deal with it zombie idiots!" Grunkle Stan yelled, picking us up in a hug. He set us back down and we all started chanting. "PINES! PINES! PINES!"
GFF (July 17th)
"Grunkle Stan, I found your fez," Mabel called from behind his chair. We were in the living room, examining the damage. It was actually better than it looked. There were a few things that had gotten destroyed, but most of that was either party decorations or cheap knick-knacks that were scattered around. Most of the mess was zombie limbs or guts or brains. I have to admit; it was kind of gross. Then I remembered that I was the one who had so badly wanted the truth that I used the spell to summon them.
"Guys, I'm sorry about this. I wanted the truth so bad, so I used the spell. It's all my fault," I whispered. Dipper patted me on the shoulder.
"Wills, if you hadn't done that, I would have done the same thing. It's not your fault."
"He's right. It's mine." We all turned to look at Grunkle Stan. He came over and bent down next to us, looking each of us in the eye, especially me and Dipper. "If I had told you the truth, none of that would have happened. I'm sorry I lied, but I honestly thought it would keep you kids safe. I don't know what I'd do with myself if you got hurt on my watch. I'll let you hold on to your Journal, but you need to be careful. You have to promise me that you will only use it for self-defense and not go looking for trouble."
"And you promise us that you don't have anymore bombshell secrets about this town."
"Promise." All of us said that at the same time, although Dipper and I crossed our fingers. Now that we knew about the hidden writing, we could really start investigating this place. Grunkle Stan pulled us in for a quick hug, then we separated and started looking around again.
"We have got a lot of zombie damage to clean up. Where's my handyman anyway?" I face-palmed; in all the chaos, we had forgotten about Soos. As if his name had called him, he stumbled into the room, arms out and saying brains like in all the zombie movie clichés. "HOLY MOSES!" Grunkle Stan grabbed a chair and lifted it above his head. I stepped in front of him as Dipper flipped through the Journal.
"There's a page in here about curing zombification. It's gonna take a lot of formaldehyde,"
"And cinnamon!" Mabel added, looking at the page over Dipper's shoulder. She started pushing Soos out of the room, him still muttering about brains. Dipper and I walked into the hallway after them and stopped halfway down, near an electrical outlet with a black-light still plugged in. I reached down and pulled it out of the wall.
"Give me a few hours. I'll modify it to be portable," I told him. He nodded, flipping through the pages.
"I can't believe the authors secrets were hiding in plain sight all this time. A whole new chapter of mysteries to explore…" We split up, him going to help Mabel de-zombie-fy Soos, me heading towards my workshop. I sat down at the bench and put the black-light down, staring at it, a million things going through my head.
What else are we going to find? The Author stopped writing for an unknown reason. Would we get answers with this? Was it worth the risk? What was so important that the Author felt the need to hide something using invisible ink?
Are the agents okay? I had only known them for a day, but… watching somebody get dragged away by zombies, knowing that you were the one to cause it… I grabbed a razor blade and carved their names into the table, along with today's date, then started staring at it.
What is going to happen with the rest of summer? So much has happened this past month, and that was just natural. We hadn't planned on any of it. Now that we had this new information, and we started looking for the Author, chances were high that we would run into something dangerous.
That made me remember the 'deal' we had made with Grunkle Stan. He had 'promised' that he didn't have any other bombshell secrets. But he had lied to us once, and we bought it. I was worried about him lying again and us not being able to tell. It had happened before. I glanced back to the black-light, the image of a Journal page popping into my head. Three words stood out, bigger than all the others.
Trust no one!